Patent GB-935642-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to conveyor apparatus
Inventor: MYLON ROYCE DANIEL PHILLIPS
IPC: B65G43/00
Filed: 1959-03-04
Abstract: 935,642. Dispensing articles. W. J. FRASER & CO. Ltd. Feb. 29, 1960 [March 4, 1959], No. 7574/59. Class 116. [Also in Group XXX] A system for processing articles to form processed articles of a number of different kinds and in an optimum order to fulfil a particular requirement, comprises means for feeding these articles to a number of processing machines, means for passing the processed articles to a store from which they are subsequently dispensed, and a computer adapted to control the order in which articles are fed to the different processing machines, the computer being fed with information regarding orders to be fulfilled and stock to be retained in store, also with information from counters at various points in the system. As shown, drums to be filled with different grades of oil enter the system at 1 and are first manually distributed to a plurality of feed channels 2 according to colour. Gates 9 at the discharge ends of channels 2 are controlled by the computer 5 to feed drums from the various channels in an optimum order on to conveyer 8. Ploughs 12 at spaced discharge points along conveyer 8 are also controlled by the computer to deliver each drum via one of conveyers 14 to the appropriate one of a number of filling machines 15, 16 of which machine 15 is fully automatic and operates at a speed faster than machines 16 which are semi-automatic. The computer also controls a valve chest 18 such that the type of oil with which the greatest proportion of drums are to be filled is supplied to machine 15 and the other types of oil are distributed to the machines 16 to correspond with the directing of drums of the appropriate colour to these machines by the ploughs 12. Indicators 21 controlled by the computer indicate the grade of oil in use at any particular time and these indicators incorporate counters showing the number of drums still to be filled . to complete a given order. Devices 22 controlled by the computer comprise a number of stencils, one of which is released for use by an operator applying lettering by a paint spray to the drums to indicate the grade. It is said that the paint spray itself may be controlled automatically by the computer. After filling, the drums pass via conveyers 24 to a conveyer 25 to which they are released in optimum sequence by gates 26 controlled by the computer. From conveyer 25 the drums are diverted by ploughs 32 to an appropriate tier 30 in a store 29 and thence by ploughs 33 to an appropriate rack 31 of that tier, the ploughs 32, 33 being controlled by the computer. Finally, gates 37 controlled by the computer dispense the filled drums from store in a desired sequence to an output conveyer for distribution or loading of lorries. The computer is fed with information regarding incoming orders at 41 and information regarding orders fulfilled and stock to be retained is fed in at 42. Information is also fed to the computer from counters 7, 28, 36 and 40. Information regarding the numbers of empty drums required is supplied to an indicator via line 6 and line 43 supplies a teleprinter with the number of empty drums in stock.