Patent GB-776806-A (GB)
Title: Suction heads for handling articles and apparatus incorporating such heads
IPC: B65G61/00
Filed: 1955-07-11
Abstract: 776,806. Stacking; unpacking. BALLANTINE & SONS, P. July 11,1955, No. 20003/55. Class 94(1). [Also in Group XXX] A machine for stacking articles on pallets can be set to stack the articles in differing patterns. The machine illustrated also serves to remove stacked articles from pallets and includes a suction head 63 (see Group XXX), Fig. 5, raised and lowered relatively to a carriage moving on rails 152 to deliver tiers of cartons between a table 50 and a pallet 30. The head 63 is raised and lowered by cables 162, 163, Fig. 10, wound on drums 165 and controlling a slack-cable switch 210 employed in controlling the machine. The blower 67 providing suction for the head 63 may be mounted on or off the carriage and is connected to the head by an accordian-pleated tube 66. The head is moved on the rails 152 so as to serve alternately pallets 30 on opposite sides of the table 50 or, alternatively, to serve a greater number of positions. The pallets 30 may be raised and lowered instead of the head 63. When loading a pallet the cartons are fed to the table 50 by the conveyer system shown in Fig. 1, which serves to arrange the cartons in a predetermined pattern forming each tier. The cartons are first fed from a powered roller conveyer 32 to a slower belt conveyer 34 from which they pass to a faster running powered roller conveyer 38 which includes a guide 41 orienting the cartons and an arm 42 which may be swung into the path of a corner of a carton to turn it through 90 degrees. The arm 42, which carries rollers 46, may be controlled manually or by counters which automatically cause the proper cartons to be turned to provide a predetermined pattern indicated by a manually set switch and by a further counter which alters the pattern for each tier of the stack. The powered rollerway 38 then delivers the cartons to a cable 47 carrying powered rollers 48 by which the cartons are pushed against a stop 53 carrying rollers 54 until a complete row of cartons has been formed when a frame beneath the rollers 48 is tilted about an axis 55 to cause disc rollers 56 to raise the cartons from the rollers 48 and deliver them to the table 50. Further rows are then similarly delivered to the table 50 until a complete tier has been formed on that table when the tier is removed by the suction head and placed on whichever pallet 30 is being loaded. A reverse procedure is employed when a stack is being removed from a pallet to deliver rows of cartons under the control of a stop 140 from the table 50 to the table 47 and thence to the powered roller conveyers 75, 79 which turn the cartons so that they are all the same way round. The Specification illustrates a similar system to Fig. 1 in which the disc rollers 56 are replaced by driving chains disposed between the rollers 48 and adapted to raise the cartons from the rollers to deliver them to the table 50 or to receive them from the table 50. The Specification describes a circuit employing counters, photo-electric cells, and limit switches to control the machine. In such a system the machine may be set either to unload or to load pallets, it may serve two pallets 30 alternately, the number of tiers in each stack and the pattern of the cartons in each tier may be altered, and the machine may be adjusted to operate manually, automatically, or to require manual intervention at certain points in each cycle.