METHOD FOR FILLING RECEPTACLES WITH PRODUCTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH A PREDETERMINED PATTERN

Abstract: A method for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined pattern comprises the steps of: conveying the products in two or more separate files (4,6), transferring the products one by one to two supports (7,8), picking the individual products up by a suction effect (13) for transferring them to associated receptacles, positioning cros-barriers (22) in said receptacles in aid of the formation of rows of the products in each receptacle by transverse displacement of the latter, retaining the last completed row of the products as the receptacles are advanced, and repeating this cycle with transverse displacement in the opposite direction in successive cycles until completion of the layer or layers of the products.

Description: The present invention relates to a method for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined pattern, which method gives rise to several advantages to be pointed out as this description proceeds, apart from others inherent to the method itself and its execution. Receptacle filling machines, more specifically, machines for filling crates with various products, particularly fruit and certain vegetables (generally designated crating machines) are already known. Amongst these machines there are certain ones which pick up and convey the products by the action of vacuum-generated suction, to which purpose they are equipped with flexible suction cup devices, whose flexibility is selected in accordance with the greater or smaller resistance of the surface for the products to be handled, so as to ensure an optimum coupling effect between the suction cups and the products and thereby limit vacuum losses. Machines of the type defined above are operable to form layers of fruit or other more or less round products in crates or the like, in accordance with predetermined geometrical patterns normally devised so that the individual products in each layer and from one layer to another one are closely packed to thereby stabilize the contents of the crate for shipping and for achieving a pleasing appearance at the point of sale, when the product is to be displayed to the potential customers in the open crate. The method of operation of these known machines (US-A-3590551) is of the type consisting in transferring the products to be packed by the action of a vacuum from a feeding zone to a corresponding receptacle, distributing them therein in one or more stacked layers in accordance with previosly devised configurations, conveying the empty receptacles from an entry section to the filling location, and on to the exit section after having been filled, and lowering the receptacle by increments sufficient for the formation of each stacked layer, if such is the case. In this known method, however, the transfer of the products referred to above is carried out by complete layers or complete rows, rendering the execution of the method more difficult in view of the necessity of certain complementary operations for obtaining the pattern variations required in practice with regard to the distinct configuration of each layer, and from one layer to the next, for optimum packing and stabilization of the products in their crates, and for obtaining a pleasing appearance thereof at the point of sale. The method of transferring a complete layer at a time requires the provision of two transfer stations for a single crate, so as to enable successive layers of distinct and complementary patterns to be crated. This obviously complicates the filling process and requires adaptability of this part of the procedure as regards its operative phases, and in particular, necessitates various adjustments for adapting the two transfer operations per crate to the distinct distributions-in-space of the fruit in the receptacles, and to different dimensions and shapes of the latter, with the consequent interruptions for the required alterations, resulting in a reduction of the efficiency of the operation and additional manual labour investment for these adaptations to practical requirements. The method of transferring a complete row of fruit at a time is somewhat similar and suffers from the same inconveniences. The method according to the invention for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined pattern is of the type consisting in transferring the products to be packed by the action of suction from a feeding zone to the corresponding receptacle, distributing them therein in accordance with certain previously devised configurations in one or several stacked layers, and conveying the empty receptacles from an entry section to a filling station, and after having been filled on to an exit section. This method is characterized by conveying the products to be packed in a number N of separate files, transferring the products of each file one by one to a corresponding individual support, a number of at least N of said individual supports being provided at equal circumferential spacings, conveying, separately in space and simultaneously, each one of said N products from said supports by temporarily subjecting them to the action of suction, revolving them about a vertical axis by an amount equal to the result of dividing each circumferential angle in a number of parts equal to the quotient of 360° and 2N and multiplying the result with the number of circumferential spacings, and lowering them so as to place them at the precise location of the corresponding row in the layer of the products being composed in a respective one of a number of N receptacles, conveying said N receptacles for positioning them under the location whereat said N products are to be deposited after having been conveyed by suction, placing a cross barrier in each receptacle for delimiting the space for composing each row of said products, composing the first row of said products one by one simultaneously in each of said receptacles by displacing the latter transversely and step by step in the direction in which the formation of said row proceeds until completion of the row, retaining the completed first row for immobilizing it relative to the respective receptacle, advancing said N receptacles with their first rows of products in the longitudinal direction towards the exit section for again positioning said receptacles under the location whereat said products are deposited, repeating the above cycle for the formation of the second row by transversely displacing said receptacles in the direction opposite to that of the preceeding cycle, lifting the retention of said first row of products on completion of the second row of products and retaining said second row, repeating these operations until completion of the corresponding layer of the products, whereafter the described operations are repeated, if so required, for the formation of another or other stacked layers, to which effect the barriers and the means for retaining the rows of products are raised to the appropriate height, and controlling and regulating the distribution-in-space of the products as regards the configuration of the required layer or layers of the products as well as the relative arrangement of the layers in each receptacle. The method according to the invention for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined pattern eliminates the mentioned inconveniences of the already known methods by eliminating the complementary operations required thereby, and gives rise to the advantages, amongst others, deriving from its versatility in handling products and receptacles of different sizes and proportions, and its ability of varying the distribution-in-space of the products in the respective receptacle, that is, the configuration of each layer of the products and of the layers relative to one another, and all this readily, rapidly and in a reliable manner. The method according to the invention for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined pattern gives rise to the above described advantages and to others which will be readily deduced from the embodiment of the said method to be described in detail by way of example for facilitating the understanding of the characteristics disclosed closed above, giving to understand at the same time various details of its execution, and to this purpose enclosing with the present description a set of drawings representing, solely by way of example and without limiting the purview of the present invention, a practical case of the execution of the above-named method. Represented in the drawings is a machine for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined patern, which machine in operation executes the method according to the invention in a practical embodiment thereof. Fig. 1 shows a lateral elevation of the machine from the right side thereof, fig. 2 shows a front end view, fig. 3 shows a top plan view, figs. 4, 5 and 6 respectively represent a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in fig. 6, another sectional view taken along the line V-V in fig. 4, and a top plan view of a product feeding section, figs.7 and 8 respectively represent a front end view in the direction A in fig. 6 and a cross-sectional view taken along the line VIII-VIII in fig. 7, figs. 9 and 10 respectively show a lateral elevation from the left side and a top plan view of product components, figs. 11 and 12 respectively show a lateral elevation from the right side and a front end view of receptacle conveying components, and figs. 13, 14 and 15 respectively represent a lateral elevation from the right side, a front end view and a top plan view of a transverse barrier arrangement and means for retaining the rows of products. In accordance with the method of the invention, the products to be packed are conveyed by conveyor means (figs. 1, 2 and 4 to 8) comprising in the present example conveyor belts 1 and 2 and vibration troughs 3, 4, 5 and 6,in which troughs 4 and 6 the products are conveyed in separate single files, and discharged one by one onto respective individual supports 7 and 8 disposed on a diameter of an imaginary circumference at equal distances from the geometric center 9 thereof, and thus from a likewise imaginary vertical axis 10 pasing therethrough (figs. 2 and 7). The products carried by supports 7 and 8 are then picked up by a rotary carrier 11 (figs. 1, 2, 9 and 10) provided with means 12 for raising and lowering respective suction cups 13 operable to produce a suction effect for temporarily holding a respective product onto which the suction cup is lowered and which rests on the associated individual support. The carrier 11 then lifts the - in the present case two - products of their respective supports 7 and 8, is rotated about vertical axis 10, and then lowers the products to deposit them at a predetermined location of the corresponding row of a layer of the products being composed in a respective receptacle, two of these receptacles being thus filled at the same time in the present example. In figs. 9 and 10, the letter A designates the entry of compressed air supplied from a compressed-air source into raising and lowering means 12, and the letter V designates the vacuum applied to each suction cup 13 by an associated vacuum source 14 operable to generate the vacuum by the venturi effect and being connected to this purpose to the compressed-air supply circuit. The described raising and lowering means 12 and associated compressed-air and vacuum connections may of course also be substituted by other suitable devices and energy sources. The carrier 11 is rotated by a suitable mechanism comprising for instance a gear rim 15 camming with a pinion 16 of a step motor 17, the angle of rotation being equal to the result of dividing each circumference, in the present case a single one, into a number of parts equal to the quotient of 360° and twice the number of independent files, and multiplied with the number of circumferences, in the present case one, that is, in each step the carrier is rotated by an angle of 90° (90° = 360°/2 x 2 independent files x 1 circumference). The carrier is preferably rotated alternately in opposite directions, i.e. one step in one direction and the next in the opposite direction, whereby the electric and pneumatic connections are simplified. The stepwise rotation may also, however, be performed in one and the same direction, in which case the electric and pneumatic connections have to be designed so as to permit this unidirectional rotation. The receptacles, whose number equals that of the independent files, in the present case two, are conveyed by suitable conveyor means (figs. 1 to 3, 11 and 12), which in the present example comprise a carriage 18 mounted on transverse guide rails 19 for its displacement transversely of the longitudinal axis of the machine, the latter being considered as the direction of displacement of the receptacles from the entry section, in the empty state, to the exit section, after having been filled, this longitudinal direction being designated by the arrow G, while the arrow F in fig. 3 designates the transverse displacement direction. This transverse displacement is alternately directed from left to right and from right to left, as indicated in fig. 3, and is brought about for example by the action of a threaded spindle 20 adapted to be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise by a step motor 21, and engaged by a travelling nut on the associated carriage. These means for imparting the alternating transverse displacement to the carriage may of course be replaced by other suitable mechanisms. The described conveyor means are operable to position the respective receptacles with respect to the point whereat the products conveyed separately and simultaneously by vacuum action by the rotatable carrier 11 are discharged by lowering the two diametrally opposite suction cups of the total number of four such cups provided on the carrier, for depositing the fruit carried thereby in the respective one of the two receptacles.; to this purpose there is provided a cross barrier 22 (figs. 2 and 13 to 15) in each receptacle, this cross barrier being vertically displaceable up and down (figs. 13 and 14) by means of a mechanism 23 having its lower portion articulated to a barrier support, and its upper portion to a fixed plate member (not shown) of a frame 25, a cylinder, for instance a pneumatic cylinder 26 being provided for lowering and raising the barriers, which in their lowered operative position delimit the space required for composing each row of products, a first row being thus built up one by one simultaneously in each of the two receptacles, the latter being transversely displaced step by step in the direction in which the formation of the row proceeds, by a corresponding displacement of the associated carriage 18. The two cross barriers 22 (fig. 13) are connected to the frame 25 itself fixedly secured to the associated carriage 18 by means for example of four vertical columns 27 (figs. 2 and 14), so that the frame is disposed parallel to the carriage and at a certain height thereabove. After the first row of products has thus been completed, it ought to be retained and immobilized relative to the respective receptacle, this retention being accomplished in the present example with the aid of in this case two transverse retainer devices comprising respective retainer crossbars 28 (fig. 13) adapted to exert a certain pressure on the completed rows in each of the two juxtaposed receptacles, without thereby damaging the products in the row, and mounted in the same manner as described with respect to the cross barriers 22. The retainer bars 28 are additionally provided with means for their alternating longitudinal displacement relative to the frame 25, and thus relative to the carriage 18, to which purpose the two retainer devices are operatively interconnected and mounted in a manner permitting them to be longitudinally displaced relative to the frame 25 by the use of suitable guide means 29 (figs. 13 and 14). As far as the displacement of the receptacles towards the exit section is concerned, the alternating longitudinal displacement of the retainer crossbars 28 is coordinated with the intermittent advance displacement of the receptacles being filled and carried out in steps of a length equal to the distance between the axis of a completed row of products and that of the next row to be formed. To achieve this effect, a suitable mechanism 30 may be provided to establish a connection between the carriage 18 and the two retainer bars 28, this mechanism 30 being in the present example connected to only one of the transverse retainer devices - the one to the right in fig. 13 - itself connected to the other retainer device in a manner not shown in the drawings. The said mechanism is operatively connected to the carriage 18 by at least one endless chain 31 for synchronizing the displacement of the two transverse retainer devices with that of the receptacle conveying means in the direction of the arrow G (figs. 3 and 11); depicted in fig. 14 is the displaceable mounting of the plate 24 in the guide means 29 for each of the two retainer crossbars 28, and in addition the mounting of each of the two cross barriers 22. As already mentioned, the receptacle conveying means comprise two endless chains 31 provided over part of their total length with a number of cross bars for supporting the receptacles, and a number of stops for retaining the receptacles of a length corresponding to the number of receptacles, in the present example two, to be filled simultaneously in each complete cycle of the present method, the endless chains being actuated by a step motor 32 (figs. 11 and 12) via a suitable transmission. After the first row of products has been completed and immobilized relative to its respective receptacle by means of the associated retainer bar 28, the pair of receptacles containing the first rows of products are longitudinally advanced towards the exit to reposition the receptacles with respect to the product discharge points of the carrier 11, 12, whereupon the described cycle is repeated for forming the second row of products, the carrier 18 representing the longitudinal conveying means for the receptacles being transversely displaced to this purpose in the direction opposite to that of the displacement during the preceeding cycle. After the second row of products has been thus completed, the retention of the first row by retainer bars 28 is terminated and transferred to the second row formed in the respective receptacle. These operations are then repeated until completion of the corresponding layer of products. After the first layer of products has thus been completed, and if so desired and required, the described operations are repeated for the formation of another layer of several stacked layers, to which purpose the cross barriers 22 and retainer crossbars 28 are incrementally raised to the proper height. After the two receptacles in consideration have been completely filled, they are conveyed to the exit of the machine in the direction of the arrow G in figs. 1, 3 and 11. The machine may be combined with a conveyor 33 for empty receptacles disposed upstream of the entry section of the machine,and another conveyor 34, in the present example of the gravity type, for the pairs of filled receptacles and disposed downstream of the exit section of the machine. The various operative phases described above, which permit the products to be arranged in the receptacles in various configurations-in-space to be selected by the user in accordance with the capacity of the receptacles, may be controlled and monitored by means of a program control unit 35, which permits the user to select a suitable pattern for each layer in accordance with the length and width of given receptacles, and for stacking successive layers in accordance with the height of the receptacle.

Claims: A method for filling receptacles with products in accordance with a predetermined pattern, wherein the products to be packed are transferred by suction transfer means from a feeding zone to an associated receptacle and arranged therein in accordance with certain previously devised patterns in a single layer or several stacked layers, and the empty receptacles are conveyed from an entrance section to a filling station, and after having been filled, on to an exit section, characterized by the steps of conveying the products to be packed in a number N of separate files, transferring the products of each file one by one to an associated individual support (78), said N supports being situated in at least one circumferential arrangement at equal spacings between them, conveying said N products - temporarily holding them by a suction effect - separately in space and simultaneously by lifting them off their respective individual supports (78), rotating them about a vertical axis (10) by an angle resulting from dividing each circumferential arrangement in a number of parts equalling the quotient of 360° by 2N multiplied with the number of circumferential arrangements, and lowering them so as to deposit them at an exact location of the corresponding row of a layer of products being formed in the respective receptacle of a number of N receptacles, conveying said N receptacles for positioning them with respect to the discharge location of the suction-conveyed products, placing inside each receptacle a cross barrier (22) for delimiting the space required for forming each row of products, composing a first row of products one by one in each of the receptacles by transversely conveying the latter step by step in the direction in which the respective rows are built up until completed, retaining the completed first row for immobilizing it relative to its associated receptacle, longitudinally advancing the N receptacles with their first rows of products towards the exit for repositioning the receptacles with respect to the product discharge locations, repeating the cycle for forming the second file, with transverse displacement of the receptacles in the direction opposite to the displacement of the first cycle, cancelling the retention of the first row after completion of the second row of products for subsequently retaining the second row, repeating the above steps until the respective layer of the products is completed, repeating, if so desired or required, the described operations for forming another layer or stacked layers, to which purpose the cross-barriers (22) and the devices for retaining the rows of the products are raised to the convenient height, and controlling and monitoring the distribution-in-space of the products as regards both the configuration of the or each layer of the products and the arrangement of the layers relative to one another in each receptacle.

Inventors: GUARDIOLA, AGUSTIN DAUDER
Applicants: TALLERES DAUMAR S.A.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: B65B25
IPC codes: B65B35, B65B1, B65B25, B65B5