Article transfer mechanism

• US 5,125,499 A
• Filed: 01/18/1991
• Issued: 06/30/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: VHC Ltd.
• Original Assignee: VHC Ltd.
• Inventors: Dempski, James L., Saathoff, David A., Mosak, Joel
• Primary Examiner(s): Valenza, Joseph E.
• Application Number:
  US07/643,149
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: 198/357, 198/468.01, 198/739, 198/740, 198/745, 65/160, 65/163, 65/260, 364/473, 364/476, 364/478
• US Class Current: 198/468.01
• CPC Class Codes: C03B 9/453 Means for pushing newly formed glass articles onto a conveyor, e.g. sweep-out mechanisms; Dead-plate mechanisms

Abstract

An article transfer mechanism for use with an I.S. glassware forming machine includes a pusher arm having fingers for engaging a number of glassware articles formed by the I.S. machine, the pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the glassware at the dead plate and a second position at which the glassware is transferred to a take-away conveyor. A stepping motor is provided for moving the pusher arm between the first and second positions according to a velocity profile. A microcontroller and electronic circuitry associated with each section of the I.S. machine determine a new current position of the pusher arm as the arm moves according to the velocity profile. The microcontroller performs calculations at each new current position of the pusher arm according to an equation contained in a memory to determine a new velocity for the pusher ar at the new current position of the arm as a function of the current position, such that each new velocity at each current position defines the velocity profile. The microcontroller performs the calculations "on-the-fly" as the pusher arm is moving through its 90° sweep between the dead plate to the conveyor. The stored equation operates on user-input variables which permit the I.S. machine operator to alter the velocity profile and performance characteristics of the article transfer mechanism from an associated data entry terminal while the I.S. machine is operating.

Claims

1. An article transfer mechanism for transferring a number of glassware articles from a dead plate of a glassware forming machine to a take-away conveyor, comprising:

a pusher arm having means for engaging the number of glassware articles, said pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the glassware at the dead plate and a second position at which the glassware is transferred to the take-away conveyor;

means for moving said pusher arm between said first and said second positions, including;

current position means for maintaining an indicator value indicative of a current position of said pusher arm as said arm moves between said first and second positions;

software means for performing realtime calculations at said current position of said pusher arm according to a velocity equation contained in a memory to determine a new velocity for said pusher arm as a function of said indicator value, said equation being a function of a number of variables and said software means including means for manually changing said variables in realtime to change said equation in memory; and

a motor, responsive to said software means, for moving said pusher arm from said current position of said pusher arm at said new velocity,

wherein each new velocity calculated at each current position defines a velocity profile between said first and second positions.

2. The article transfer mechanism of claim 1, wherein:

said motor is a motor capable of step-wise motion;

said indicator value corresponds to the current number of steps of motor step-wise motion from said first position to said current position; and

said current position means includes means for incrementing said indicator value after each motor step.

3. The article transfer mechanism of claim 1 in which the glassware forming machine operates through a cycle to produce glassware to be transferred to the take-away conveyor and wherein:

said meanss for moving includes means for determining the glassware forming machine cycle time;

said equation is a function of a second number of variables which are a function of the glassware forming machine cycle time; and

said software means includes means for calculating said second number of variables at the beginning of each new glassware forming machine cycle.

4. The article transfer mechanism of claim 1, wherein:

said software means includes a plurality of velocity equations corresponding to a plurality of transfer motion segments of said velocity profile between said first and second positions, each of said plurality of velocity equations being dependent upon said indicator value and each being a function of said number of variables to permit changes in said transfer motion segments.

11. The article transfer mechanism of claim 1, wherein:

said equation is an exponential equation and at least one of said number of variables is an exponent.

5. An article transfer mechanism for transferring a number of glassware articles from a dead plate of a glassware forming machine to a take-away conveyor, comprising:

a pusher arm having means for engaging the number of glassware articles, said pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the glassware at the dead plate and a second position at which the glassware is transferred to the take-away conveyor;

a motor coupled to said pusher arm for controlling the motion of said arm between said first position and said second position;

means for generating a periodic timing signal; and

motor control means for controlling the speed of said motor based upon a realtime calculation, according to a velocity equation contained in a memory, of a new speed of said motor, said calculation occurring at each of several discrete times determined by said timing signal while said pusher arm moves between said first and second positions, said equation being a function of a number of variables and said motor control means including means for manually changing said number of variables in realtime to vary said equation in memory,

wherein each new speed calculated at each current position defines a velocity profile between said first and second positions.

6. The article transfer mechanism of claim 5, wherein said means for generating a periodic timing signal includes an oscillator providing said timing signals independent of the glassware forming machine cycle.

7. The article transfer mechanism of claim 6, wherein said oscillator is a variable oscillator to vary the rate of generation of said timing signals independent of the glassware forming machine cycle, whereby changes in the rate of generation of said timing signals result in corresponding changes in said new speed of said motor at each of said several discrete times.

12. The article transfer mechanism of claim 5, wherein:

said equation is an exponential equation and at least one of said number of variables is an exponent.

8. An article transfer mechanism for transferring a number of glassware articles from a dead plate of a glassware forming machine to a moving take-away conveyor, comprising:

a pusher arm having means for engaging the number of glassware articles, said pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the glassware at the dead plate and a second position at which the glassware is transferred to the take-away conveyor;

a motor coupled to said pusher arm for controlling the motion of said arm between said first position and said second position; and

means for controlling the speed of said motor so that said pusher arm moves between said first and second positions according to a velocity profile, said velocity profile having a pre-determined minimum velocity and a maximum velocity related to the speed of the moving take-away conveyor, said speed controlling means including non-scalar means for changing said maximum speed in realtime while said article transfer mechanism is operating to transfer glassware articles in relation to changes in the speed of the take-away conveyor while said minimum velocity remains unchanged.

9. The article transfer mechanism of claim 8, wherein said means for controlling the speed of said motor includes:

means for determining the speed of the moving take-away conveyor;

means for calculating a new velocity of said pusher arm between said minimum velocity and said maximum velocity according to an equation stored in electronic memory, said equation being a function of the conveyor speed and a position value corresponding to a current position of said pusher arm between said first and second positions, whereby said new velocity of said pusher arm when calculated with said pusher arm at said second position is approximately equal to the speed of the conveyor.

10. An article transfer mechanism for transferring a number of glassware articles from a dead plate of a glassware forming machine to a moving take-away conveyor, comprising:

a pusher arm having means for engaging the number of glassware articles, said pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the glassware at the dead plate and a second position at which the glassware is transferred to the take-away conveyor;

a motor coupled to said pusher arm for controlling the motion of said arm between said first position and said second position;

means, including a microcontroller, for controlling the speed of said motor so that said pusher arm moves between said first and second positions according to a velocity profile;

means for performing realtime calculations defined in a software algorithm stored in memory in said microcontroller, while said pusher arm is moving, to generate said velocity profile, said algorithm being a function of a number of variable data words stored in memory in the microcontroller; and

a data entry terminal having an output coupled to said microcontroller, whereby said data entry terminal includes means for manually changing said variable data words in said memory and for realtime use in said calculations while the article transfer mechanism is operating.

13. An article transfer mechanism for continuously transferring a number articles from a first location to a moving conveyor, comprising:

a pusher arm having means for engaging the number of articles, said pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the article as the first location and a second position at which the article is transferred to the conveyor;

a motor having means for moving said pusher arm between said first and second positions in response to a controller; and

software means for controlling velocities of said motor to move said pusher arm according to a velocity profile, said software means including non-scalar means for changing said velocity profile in realtime as said article transfer mechanism is operating to continuously transfer articles.

14. An article transfer mechanism for continuously transferring a number articles from a first location to a moving conveyor, comprising:

a pusher arm having means for engaging the number of articles, said pusher arm being movable between a first position to engage the article as the first location and a second position at which the article is transferred to the conveyor;

a motor having means for moving said pusher arm between said first and second positions in response to a controller; and

software means for controlling velocities of said motor to move said pusher arm according to a velocity profile, said software means including non-scalar means for changing said velocity profile in realtime in response to a number of manually changeable variables as said article transfer mechanism is operating to continuously transfer articles.