COMPACT ORIENTING AND SINGULATING SYSTEM FOR IRREGULAR ELONGATED OBJECTS SUCH AS POTATOES

• US 3,628,648 A
• Filed: 09/30/1969
• Issued: 12/21/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Stanley A. Mcclusky
• Original Assignee: Stanley A. Mcclusky
• Inventors: Mcclusky, Stanley A.
• Application Number:
  US04/862,260
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• US Class Current: 198/383
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/1492 the articles being fed from a feeding conveyor

Abstract

A machine and method in which irregular elongated objects, such as potatoes and other produce, are conveyed in limited numbers by a dribble elevator from a bin into a concave trough inclined downwardly towards an outlet and vibrating longitudinally to move the potatoes therealong while the potatoes are being oriented by the concavity of the trough into positions, one behind the other, with their major axes disposed longitudinally of the trough until each potato, singly, slides out of the outlet to be engaged by a faster moving V cross section belt and pulled from the outlet thereby, to advance thereon in spaced oriented tandem relationship for sizing.

Claims

1. A compact singulating and orienting system for elongated irregular objects comprising in combination:

supply means providing a supply of elongated irregular objects to the singulated and oriented;

means to separate the objects from the supply means and convey limited numbers of objects away from the supply means;

orienting means including a trough of concave cross section having one end thereof adjacent to said separating and conveying means for receiving objects therefrom;

means connected with said orienting means for imparting motion to said objects to move and to orient said objects along said trough, each of said objects with its major axis longitudinally disposed with respect to the trough;

said trough decreasing in width in a direction away from one end and having an outlet at the other end for passing one at a time, longitudinally disposed elongated objects; and

pull means at the outlet of the trough for engagement with each object discharged from said outlet and for advancing each object in an oriented position.

2. The system as in claim 1 wherein in the outlet of the trough has a stepped concave configuration to allow large elongated objects to pass therethrough while still maintaining orientation of smaller elongated objects.

3. The system as in claim 1 wherein the means imparting motion to the elongated objects includes downward inclination of the trough.

4. The system as in claim 3 wherein the means imparting motion to the elongated objects additionally comprises vibrator means imparting longitudinal vibrational components to the trough to aid in orienting the elongated objects.

5. The system as in claim 4 wherein the trough has rollers, and the system includes a frame with tracks for receiving the rollers, said rollers being guided on the tracks during the vibrations of the trough.

6. The system as in claim 1 wherein the pull means is a conveyor belt moving past the outlet of the trough at a rate of speed faster than the speed of the objects passing from the outlet, whereupon as the elongated objects move out of the outlet of the trough, the objects engage the belt to be pulled onto the belt from the outlet into spaced relationship with each other thereon.

7. The system as in claim 6 wherein the belt is provided with a V-cross-sectional shape at and forwardly of the outlet of the trough and the belt engages the elongated object at two points for pulling the object from the outlet and foR maintaining the orientation of the elongated object.

8. The system as in claim 3 wherein means are provided to selectively change the inclination of the trough to selectively change the speed at which the elongated objects move along the trough and out through the outlet thereof.

9. The system as in claim 6 additionally including control means for varying the speed of the conveyor belt past the outlet of the trough to accommodate different speeds of objects moving along the trough and out the outlet thereof, and to vary the spaced relationship between the objects on the belt.

10. In an orienting and singulating system for elongated irregular objects, the improvement comprising the provision of:

a trough of concave cross section with decreasing width from one end to an outlet at the other end thereof, the one end being configured to receive a plurality of elongated irregular objects, and the outlet being configured to pass one oriented elongated object at a time therethrough, said outlet of the trough having a stepped concave configuration with the steps thereof narrower than the width of the trough to maintain the orientation of the small elongated objects by engagement with the steps of the outlet, while permitting larger elongated objects to pass over the steps of the outlet while sliding therealong to maintain orientation of the larger elongated objects.

11. A compact singulating and orienting system for elongated irregular objects comprising in combination:

orienting means for receiving a plurality of objects to be oriented and including a trough of concave cross section having one end to receive more than one object at a time;

means connected with said orienting means for imparting motion to said objects to move and to orient said objects along said trough, each object with its major axis disposed longitudinally of the trough;

said trough decreasing in width in a direction away from said one end and having an outlet at the other end for passing longitudinally disposed elongated objects one at a time; and

pull means at the outlet of the trough engaging frontward and sideward surfaces of each object discharged from said outlet to maintain orientation of said object while pulling the object from said trough and for advancing each object in an oriented position.

12. In a system as stated in claim 11 wherein said pull means includes a belt means having a V section as it passes said outlet.

13. In a system as stated in claim 11 wherein said pull means includes spaced belt portions for engagement with said frontward sideward surfaces of each object and an intermediate belt portion to later engage bottom surfaces of each oriented object.

14. In a system as stated in claim 11 wherein said means for imparting motion to said objects includes means for imparting substantially horizontal vibratory force components to said objects.

15. In a system as stated in claim 14 wherein said means for imparting substantially horizontal vibratory components to each object includes vertically spaced horizontal tracks, and rollers on said trough guided on said tracks.