High speed article unscrambler and aligner
First Claim
1. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner having a receiving portion to which articles are delivered in random order and alignment, and a discharge portion from which unscrambled aligned articles are discharged, said unscrambler and article aligner having an article transport surface that is adapted to transport articles longitudinally from said receiving portion to said discharge portion and to produce a linear speed increase laterally toward said discharge portion in order to cause articles laterally proximate said discharge portion to move ahead of laterally adjacent articles, wherein said linear speed increase is created by laterally tapered rollers creating a linearly increasing surface velocity laterally across the rollers.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An article unscrambler and aligner is disclosed which receives articles of different sizes in random order and position, and using plural side-by-side lanes each of which lanes has driven article transport rollers at different speeds, which speeds are uniform for the length of the lane, but are progressively higher in each lane toward one side of the unscrambler in order to provide a lateral linear speed increase. This speed increase causes separation and rotation of the articles and also causes them to arrange in single file along one side of the unscrambler'"'"'s surface and so discharge them onto a conveyor at the end of the unscrambler remote from that at which the articles were received. One or more lanes are composed of rollers of tapered diameter in order to make the lateral speed increase more uniform.
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Citations
35 Claims
- 1. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner having a receiving portion to which articles are delivered in random order and alignment, and a discharge portion from which unscrambled aligned articles are discharged, said unscrambler and article aligner having an article transport surface that is adapted to transport articles longitudinally from said receiving portion to said discharge portion and to produce a linear speed increase laterally toward said discharge portion in order to cause articles laterally proximate said discharge portion to move ahead of laterally adjacent articles, wherein said linear speed increase is created by laterally tapered rollers creating a linearly increasing surface velocity laterally across the rollers.
- 5. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner having a receiving portion to which articles are delivered in random order and alignment, and a discharge portion from which unscrambled aligned articles are discharged, said unscrambler and article aligner having an article transport surface that is adapted to transport articles longitudinally from said receiving portion to said discharge portion and to produce a linear speed increase laterally toward said discharge portion in order to cause articles laterally proximate said discharge portion to move ahead of laterally adjacent articles, wherein said linear speed increase is created by plural lanes of rollers, each lane driven at a different rotation speed from adjacent lanes.
- 8. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner to which articles are delivered in random order and alignment, said unscrambler having article receiving and supporting rollers arranged in plural side-by-side lanes which lanes are straight and extend the full length of the unscrambler, all rollers in each lane being driven at the same speed with the rollers in each lane being driven at a speed different from that of the rollers in each adjacent lane and the rollers in the article discharge lane being arranged along and adjacent one side of the unscrambler and driven at the highest speed with the rollers in the lane most remote from said discharge lane being driven at the slowest speed whereby, two laterally adjacent articles will be separated by the unscrambler by the article closest to the article discharge lane being caused to move ahead of the article in contact with it and the acceleration of the article closest to the article discharge lane will normally create a space behind it to receive the article of which it has just moved ahead.
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11. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner to which articles are delivered in random order and alignment, said unscrambler having article receiving and supporting rollers arranged in plural side-by-side lanes;
- means for causing the rollers in each lane to be rotated at a uniform rotational speed, which speed is different from that of rollers in any lane immediately adjacent thereto, the lane having rollers driven at the highest speed discharging articles at one end thereof onto a receiving conveyor, the rollers in all the lanes collectively forming an article conveying surface on which articles are caused to move both lengthwise of the unscrambler and transversely thereof toward the lane having the highest speed rollers, the rollers in the lane driven at the highest speed being tapered in diameter lengthwise thereof with the end thereof of least diameter being adjacent the rollers in the lane from which articles are received transversely of the unscrambler.
- View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
- 24. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner for articles or packages having flat top, bottom and sides, said unscrambler having elongated plural straight side-by-side article transporting lanes forming an article transport surface, each of said lanes having a plurality of rollers arranged in closely spaced order, the axes of which rollers in each lane being parallel and skewed at a minor angle transversely to the centerline of the lane for moving the articles both lengthwise and toward one side of said transport surface, the rollers in the lane adjacent said one side being of tapered diameter with the end thereof of greatest diameter being adjacent said one side for both accelerating the articles and arranging them along said one side, means for forcibly rotating each of said rollers, said means rotating said rollers in each lane at a different speed with the highest speed being applied to the rollers adjacent said one side and the slowest speed being applied to the rollers in the lane most remote therefrom.
- 26. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner having a plurality of side-by-side article transport lanes which lanes collectively form the article transport surface of said unscrambler, a plurality of rollers forming the article transport surface of each lane, means for driving the rollers in each lane at the same speed which speed is different from that of the rollers in each adjacent lane with the rollers of one of said lanes being driven at the highest speed and serving as the discharge lane, the rollers of said one lane and the next adjacent lane being tapered in diameter lengthwise thereof, means adjacent the ends of greatest diameter of the rollers in said discharge lane preventing discharge of articles therefrom lengthwise of said rollers, the ends of greatest diameter of said rollers in both, lanes in said discharge and the lane next adjacent thereto facing in the same direction.
- 31. A high volume unscrambler and article aligner having a receiving portion to which articles are delivered in random order and alignment, and a discharge portion from which unscrambled aligned articles are discharged, said unscrambler and article aligner having an article transport surface that is adapted to transport articles longitudinally from said receiving portion to said discharge portion and to produce a linear speed increase that is substantially continuously variable laterally toward said discharge portion in order to cause articles laterally proximate said discharge portion to move ahead of laterally adjacent articles.
Specification