Device for adjusting tracks on a conveyor

• US 7,607,531 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Issued: 10/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sidel Participations (Tetra Laval Holdings BV)
• Original Assignee: Sidel Participations (Tetra Laval Holdings BV)
• Inventors: Bonhomme, Eric, Rodot, Vincent
• Primary Examiner(s): Bidwell; James R
• Application Number:
  US12/159,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20090000914A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: 198/442, 198/452, 198/445, 198/836.3, 198/456, 198/426, 534/97, 532/47, 532/48, 532/60, 532/55
• US Class Current: 198/452
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 21/2072 Laterial guidance means
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 2201/0244 Bottles

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for adjustment of tracks, comprising a mechanism for moving the walls in order to simultaneously adjust the width of different tracks. The device also comprises a system for transverse displacement of the tracks with relation to the medial longitudinal axis of said conveyor. The system comprise a carriage arranged between the support structure for the walls and the mechanism for moving the walls, the carriage being transversely movable and guided by a system of slides arranged at the level of each support structure in order to carry out said transverse displacement of the set of tracks without altering the width thereof. The above arrangement permits the guiding as necessary of lines of bottles or other things, the number of which can vary going from an even number to an odd number.

Claims

1. A device for adjusting lanes for guiding objects of the bottle type on a conveyor comprising a station, which device comprises a mechanism for moving walls which delimit said various lanes, which mechanism consists of a coordinated drive system which acts on said walls to adjust the width of said lanes simultaneously, which walls are guided on transverse slides which are secured to bearing structures positioned over said conveyor, the device comprising means for shifting said lanes transversely with respect to a median longitudinal axis of the conveyor, which shifting means consist, at each bearing structure, of a carriage-like support which is inserted between said bearing structure and said coordinated drive system for driving said walls, which carriage can move transversely under the effect of moving means and is guided by a slide system formed at said bearing structures in order to shift all of said lanes transversely without modifying the width of said lanes.

2. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 1, comprising a movement mechanism for moving said various carriages which are positioned in said bearing structures, which movement mechanism comprises connecting means, in the form of shafts, connecting said carriages together so that a transverse position of all said lanes can be adjusted in a centralized manner with respect to the longitudinal median axis of the conveyor.

3. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 2, wherein said movement mechanism for moving each said carriage consists of a rack positioned on said carriage and of a pinion driven by a control member, which control member acts on each said carriage via a system of shafts which shafts are positioned in such a way that said shafts do not impede access to said lanes (1).

4. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 1, wherein said drive system comprises an endless belt or chain stretched between two wrap-around wheels, which are mounted on said carriage, which belt or chain is driven by driving means positioned directly on said carriage and the two strands of said belt or chain are parallel to said slide system that guides said walls, which strands of said belt or chain are each secured to one of said walls, which walls, which are driven by said belt or chain and termed master walls, drive all other walls by means of a system for coordinating the separation between said other walls.

5. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 4, wherein said system for coordinating the separation of said various walls comprises:

a lever articulated to a first one of said walls, and

mutually parallel link rods inserted between said lever and each of said walls but said first wall, said link rods forming, with said lever, two of the sides of homothetic triangular shapes and are positioned in one plane which is vertical and perpendicular to the longitudinal median axis of the conveyor.

6. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 1, wherein each said bearing structure comprises a box structure to house all mechanisms for guiding and moving said walls, which box structure is associated with uprights positioned laterally on the conveyor and forming, with said uprights, a portal frame situated over the conveyor, a first and a second portal frames being positioned on each side of the station and a third portal frame is positioned upstream of said second portal frame at an entrance to said lanes.

7. Device for adjusting lanes according to claim 6, wherein each said carriage is guided along a rim of said box structure of said corresponding bearing structure, the guidance of said carriage being by way of horizontal slots formed in said rim and of sliders secured to said carriage.

8. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 6, including an adjusting mechanism comprising a first and a second systems of shafts:

said first system of shafts consisting of shafts (for moving said carriages, and

said second of shafts for moving said walls,

which systems of shafts each respectively comprises a master shaft (which extends between said second and third portal frames and a driven shaft, connected to said corresponding master shaft by a respective chain of the endless type, a first driven shaft extending from said second portal frame to said first and downstream portal frame and a first chain, which is arranged between a first master shaft and said first driven shaft running in a casing which is guided by a second driven shaft, which second driven shaft extends from said third and upstream portal frame as far as said first and downstream portal frame, said master and driven shafts being in a position that does not impede operator access to said lanes.

9. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 1, wherein each wall consists of two portions hinged together;

and of which one is

a downstream portion positioned level with said station, and the other is an upstream portion (hinged to said downstream portion about a vertical axis so as to form, with at least one adjacent portion, a mouth or funnel, the upstream portions being handled, at their upstream end, by a drive system for driving upstream portions which is out of phase with other drive systems for driving said downstream portions through having been set up differently from the outset so that a wider spacing is applied to an entrance to said upstream portions.

10. The device for adjusting lanes according to claim 5, comprising means for quickly altering the position of one side wall and retracting it, which means are positioned level with an end of the corresponding link rod and, on said lever, which lever comprises a push-button which engages with notches formed on said corresponding link rod, which further comprises an end stop that makes it possible easily to revert to the initial set-up.