Patent GB-854719-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to article-orienting means for use in conveyor apparatushaving a rotary spacer screw
IPC: B65G47/244
Filed: 1959-02-25
Abstract: 854,719. Endless conveyers. MEYER MANUFACTURING CO., G. J. Feb. 25, 1959 [May 28, 1958], No. 6515/59. Class 78 (1). In apparatus for maintaining articles B provided with a spotting element S in accurately spaced relation by a rotating screw 23 while travelling on an endless conveyer 22, means are provided on the side of the conveyer opposite to the side occupied by the screw to orient each article while it is in engagement with the screw. The top plate 32 of the spotting unit is supported by and adjustably secured to one or more brackets 29, Fig. 1, bolted to a table 20. A shaft 39, Fig. 3, mounted in vertical members of the unit is driven by chain-and-sprocket gearing from the main shaft of the apparatus and drives a shaft 44 through bevel gearing. The sprocket 40 may be rotatably adjusted about the axis of the shaft in order to set it in timed relationship with the screw. A driving pulley 45 for a toothed belt is fast on the shaft 44 and above it is mounted a plain idler pulley 46. Spur gearing connects the shaft 44 to a shaft 50 on the upper end of which are mounted pulleys 51, 52 corresponding to the pulleys 45, 46. The shaft 50 is mounted in arms 53, 54 which can swing about the axis of the shaft 44 and are spring-biased to turn in a clockwise direction to tension the belts. Guide pulleys 57, 58 and 59, 60, Fig. 4, for the belt are mounted on stub shafts 55, 56 at the ends of the plate 32. Stub shafts 61, 62 and 63 are fixed in the plate 32. Sleeves 64, 65 are mounted rotatably on the shaft 61 and are formed with radial arms 66, 67 carrying stub shafts 69, 68 on which are mounted beltguiding pulleys 72, 73 and 70, 71. Arms 74, 75 fixed to sleeves 64, 65 are urged to swing in opposite directions by springs to force the belt towards the conveyer. Similar devices are mounted on the stub shafts 62, 63. The pulleys 45, 51 drive belts 82, 80, one face of each of which is smooth and the other formed with lugs to engage recesses in the pulleys. The smooth face of the belt 80 engages the bottles and turns each bottle about is vertical axis. The lugs on the belt 82 are in position to engage the spotting elements on the bottles. The relative speeds of the screw and conveyer are such that the screw tends to retard the bottle and the speed of the belt is substantially less than these speeds. A bottle is carried forward at the speed of the screw until its periphery contacts the belt 80. It then rotates in a counterclockwise direction until the projection S is engaged by a tooth on the belt 82. Since this belt is moving faster than the screw, the tooth will move ahead of the projection, but a succeeding tooth will come into action and keep the bottle from turning. This action may occur several times before the bottle reaches the point where the bottle, belt 82 and conveyer 22 all travel at the same speed. In a modification which can be used with bottles having projections or depressions 90, Fig. 11, the belt 82 is replaced by an endless chain in which elements P having divergent arms 96, 97 are pivotally mounted.