Patent GB-599845-A (GB)
Title: Improved method and device for arranging and packing disordered articles
IPC: B65B35/56
Filed: 1945-08-30
Abstract: 599,845. Packing. ABBEY, A. (Jonkopings och Vulcans Tandsticksfabriksaktiebolag). Aug. 30, 1945, No. 22362. [Class 94 (i)] A method of arranging and packing disordered articles of uniform shape, such as cartridges, rifle balls and the like, consists in placing the articles on an arranging frame having one compartment for each article adapted to be opened downwards, in which frame the articles are placed horizontally over the inlets of downwardly converging channels and thereafter allowed to fall one into each channel by opening retaining means and being simultaneously turned with their smaller or heavier end downwards by turning means, and guided into a holder or box. In one form, Figs. 1 and 2, for packing cartridges, the arrang-' ing frame comprises a grid 1 having compartments 2 and separated from a grate 4 having corresponding openings 5 beneath each compartment by one flange of angle irons 3. Beneath the grate and the grid is a slide 6 with two slots 7 co-operating with abutments 8 to limit its movement. The arranging device described rests removably on a collecting device comprising upper and lower parts, the upper part being detachably mounted on a table 12 by means of a holder 13, by rods 15 resting in notches 17. The upper part comprises downwardly converging channels disposed each below an opening 5, and separated in one direction by parallel plates 14 spaced apart on the rods 15 by strips 16, and in the other direction by the strips 16 which are curved so that the channel cross-section varies from a shape equivalent to the length and breadth of a cartridge to a square section at the lower end. The lower part comprises a boxlike housing 23 with slightly downwardly converging walls, fixed to the table 12 by a flange 21, and contains a number of downwardly converging tubes 26, each situated below the outlet of a channel in the upper part. The tubes 26 extend below the housing 23, the extensions being formed by corner pieces 27, so that the distance between the axes of adjacent tubes at the bottom is less than the diameters of the tubes. Each second tube in each lengthwise or transverse row extends downwardly only to where the distance between the axes equals the diameter, but the outer corner pieces of all the outermost tubes extend the full length. A box or holder is placed below the collecting device with the outlets of the tubes 26 extending into it, supported by an extension 30 of the housing, by the outer corner pieces of the outer tubes, and by other supports not shown. In operation, cartridges are poured into the compartments 2 and the slide 6 is first moved a small distance back and forth so as to roll the cartridges for inspection, and then moved back its full range, when the cartridges fall through the bottoms of the compartments into the openings 5, which are shaped so as to delay the larger end of the cartridges, and thence with their smaller ends downwards through the converging channels and the tubes 26 into the box, where they are tightly packed owing to the converging of the tubes. In a second form, Figs. 8 and 9, for packing rifle balls, which are of more elongated shape, there are fewer compartments in the lengthwise rows than there are to be balls in a row in the box, and the apparatus is adapted to lead the balls from two adjacent rows of compartments into one row in the box, as shown in Fig. 9. The slide 35 is guided between the grid 33 having compartments 34 and the upper part 36 of the collecting device, and has openings corresponding to the compartments, being moved only a short distance to bring them into alignment therewith. The turning means comprises knife-edges 38 under the centre of each compartment which cause the balls to fall with their heavier ends downwards into channels 41 separated in one direction by parallel plates and in the other by pointed distance pieces 40, and thence through oblique openings 43 and openings 45 into the box.