Patent GB-1464099-A (GB)
Title: Collecting and feeding of groups of articles
IPC: B65B35/44
Filed: 1974-09-20
Abstract: 1464099 Collecting and feeding groups of articles BAKER PERKINS HOLDINGS Ltd 20 Sept 1974 [27 Sept 1973] 45309/73 Heading B8C In a method of collecting uniform batches of articles, such as cans 12, of uniform shape and feeding the batches to a delivery station the articles are fed, by a friction conveyer 11, in a substantially contiguous succession, on to a stationary receiving platform 22 adapted to receive a batch consisting of a predetermined number of articles, continued forward movement of the succeeding articles on the conveyer 11 then being arrested by the interposition of a stop member 23, 24 behind the last article delivered on to said platform 22, the batch thus formed is then mechanically transferred from said platform to a delivery station for further manipulation during the arrest of succeeding articles, and the stop member 23, 24 is then withdrawn to its inoperative position to allow the conveyer 11 to forward a further batch on the receiving platform 22. As shown, the endless band friction conveyer is arranged to feed four rows of cans 12, in contiguous succession, between guides 14, the rows of cans leaving the conveyer 11 being pushed by succeeding cans across an intermediate support 21 and on to a bifurcated platform 22. A gate member 23, with a base 25 mounted in a slideway 26 in the machine framework 18 for lateral displacement, has five downwardly-depending stop-prongs 24, a transfer gate member 31, with pusher prongs 32, aligned with the stop prongs 24, being slidably mounted on a pair of longitudinally-extending shafts 29 each of which is fixedly supported in a boss 28 at a corresponding side of the gate member 23. The transfer gate 31, 28 is provided with bearings 33 which slidably mount the gate 31 upon the shafts 29, and which are also connected, by bars 36, to a further pair of bearings 34 slidably mounted on the shafts 29, a toothed rack 37 being formed on each of the bars 36 to mesh with pinions 38, driven by an arcuate rack 41. A timed cyclical operation of the gates 23, and 31 is provided by an electromagnetic one-revolution clutch and brake unit, not shown, which is controlled by a sensing device comprising a series of microswitches 43 which are moved into, and out of, the paths of the cans 12 on the platform 22. When the leading can in each row contacts the corresponding switch 43 the slide member 25, the gate members 23, 31, and the cans between the prongs 24, 32 of the latter, move transversely in unison by a distance equal to a can radius, Fig. 5, the prongs 24 of the gate member 23 arresting the advance of the cans 12 on the conveyer 11 and the prongs 32 of the transfer member 31 being displaced longitudinally by the rack-and-pinion mechanism 37, 38, 41 to advance the batch of cans collated on the receiving platform 22 along the latter to a receiving station, Fig. 6, where a pusher 46, Fig. 1, delivers the batch to a packaging machine, not shown. The transfer gate member 31 is then retracted and the latter and the gate member 23 are then simultaneously returned to their former positions as the switches 43 are again lowered to their can-obstructing positions.