Method and apparatus for regulating the advancing movement of articles, for example in installations for the automatic packaging of food products
First Claim
1. In a device for regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction comprising:
- a plurality of phaser conveyers positioned in cascade, said phaser conveyors determining said given direction,control means associated with said phaser conveyors for selectively controlling the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors whereby correspondingly to vary the speed of advancing motion of said articles carried on said phaser conveyors, the improvement wherein;
at least some of said phaser conveyors are made of a different length from one another as measured in said given direction whereby to constitute a set;
said control means acts to control the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of the said articles in said given direction.
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Abstract
A device for regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction comprises a plurality of conveyors, such as for example belt conveyors, between an input supply conveyor and a positive drive output conveyor operating to supply, for example, a packaging machine. In order to adapt automatically to the handling of articles with different lengths, at least some of the aforesaid conveyors, intended to perform a phasing action of the advancing movement of the articles, are chosen with different lengths so as to form a set which is able to deal with the possible range of variation in the length of the articles dealt with, by coupling several conveyors in cascade. Preferably, the conveyor at the downstream end has a selectively controllable length varied in dependence on the length of the articles being handled.
55 Citations
20 Claims
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1. In a device for regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction comprising:
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a plurality of phaser conveyers positioned in cascade, said phaser conveyors determining said given direction, control means associated with said phaser conveyors for selectively controlling the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors whereby correspondingly to vary the speed of advancing motion of said articles carried on said phaser conveyors, the improvement wherein; at least some of said phaser conveyors are made of a different length from one another as measured in said given direction whereby to constitute a set; said control means acts to control the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of the said articles in said given direction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 5, 6)
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4. In a device for regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction comprising:
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a plurality of phaser conveyors positioned in cascade, said phaser conveyors determining said given direction; control means associated with said phaser conveyors for selectively controlling the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors whereby correspondingly to vary the speed of advancing motion of said articles carried on said phaser conveyors; the improvement wherein; at least some of said phaser conveyors are made of a different length from one another as measured in said given direction whereby to constitute a set; said control means acts to control the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of the said articles in said given direction; wherein the phaser conveyors of said set have gradually increasing lengths, such that the length of each said phaser conveyor of said set immediately downstream of a phaser conveyor of said set upstream thereof is equal to approximately 1.2 times the length of said upstream phaser conveyor.
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7. In a device for regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction comprising:
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a plurality of phaser conveyors positioned in cascade, said phaser conveyors determining said given direction; control means associated with said phaser conveyors for selectively controlling the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors whereby correspondingly to vary the speed of advancing motion of said articles carried on said phaser conveyors; the improvement wherein; at least some of said phaser conveyors are made of a different length from one another as measured in said given direction whereby to constitute a set; said control means acts to control the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of the said articles in said given direction, said control means being operable to couple a plurality of said phaser conveyors of said set together such that the coupled said phaser conveyors act as a single conveyor with a length equal to the sum of the lengths of the individual coupled said phaser conveyors; wherein when two or more phaser conveyors are coupled, said control means is selectively operable to control the speed of movement of said coupled phaser conveyors in dependence on the sensor signal generated by associated sensor means, at the end of a phaser conveyor, which occupies a position not downstream of said coupled phaser conveyors.
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8. In a device for regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction comprising:
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a plurality of phaser conveyors positioned in cascade, said phaser conveyors determining said given direction; control means associated with said phaser conveyors for selectively controlling the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors whereby correspondingly to vary the speed of advancing motion of said articles carried on said phaser conveyors; the improvement wherein; at least some of said phaser conveyors are made of a different length from one another as measured in said given direction whereby to constitute a set; said control means acts to control the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of the said articles in said given direction; wherein said phaser conveyors include a downstream end phase conveyor, situated at the furthest downstream position of said set of phaser conveyors, and wherein the active length of said downstream end phaser conveyor is selectively variable in dependence on the length of said articles in said given direction. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction by means of a plurality of phaser conveyors positioned in cascade, by selectively varying the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors and, consequently, the speed of advancing movement of said articles on said phaser conveyors comprising the operations of:
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making at least some of said phaser conveyors with various lengths, measured in the direction of advancing movement of said articles so as to constitute a set; and selectively varying the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of said articles in said given direction. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 16, 17, 18)
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15. A method of regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction by means of a plurality of phaser conveyors positioned in cascade, by selectively varying the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors and, consequently, the speed of advancing movement of said articles on said phaser conveyors comprising the operations of:
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making at least some of said phaser conveyors with various lengths, measured in the direction of advancing movement of said articles so as to constitute a set; selecting gradually increasing lengths of said phaser conveyors of said set where the length of each said phaser conveyor in said set downstream of another phaser conveyor in said set immediately upstream thereof is equal to approximately 1.2 times the length of said upstream phaser conveyor; and selectively varying the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of said articles in said given direction.
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19. A method of regulating the advancing movement of articles in a given direction by means of a plurality of phaser conveyors positioned in cascade, by selectively varying the speed of movement of said phaser conveyors and, consequently, the speed of advancing movement of said articles on said phaser conveyors comprising the operations of:
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making at least some of said phaser conveyors with various lengths, measured in the direction of advancing movement of said articles so as to constitute a set; and providing a downstream end phaser conveyor situated at the downstream end of the set of said phaser conveyors; selectively varying the active length of said downstream end phaser conveyor in dependence on the length of said articles in said given direction; and selectively varying the speed of movement of selectively determined combinations of said phaser conveyors of said set in dependence on the length of said articles in said given direction. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification