EP0049224A1

EP0049224A1 - Stacking apparatus for textile articles

Info

Publication number: EP0049224A1
Application number: EP81830157A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Gianfranco Ferraro
Original assignee: Gadda Luigi & C
Current assignee: Gadda Luigi & C
Priority date: 1980-10-01
Filing date: 1981-09-14
Publication date: 1982-04-07
Also published as: ES8206357A1; IT8025045A0; GR75769B; ES506044A0; IT1133641B

Abstract

A stacking apparatus for textile articles (31) in general including catching means suitable to carry said articles from the catching position to the stacking one, in which said means comprises a horizontally slidable carriage (14) carrying a conveyor belt (25) on which the article is placed, said conveyor belt being wound round one or more cylinders (18-20) having their axes secured to the casing of the apparatus and round another cylinder (21) which moves to take up the conveyor belt, keeping said belt always tight during the displacements of said carriage.

Description

This invention relates to a stacking apparatus for textile articles in general and particularly for hosiery.
It is known that these articles are previously ironed by an ironing machine or, coming from ovens where the printing has been drying, are carried by means of feeding belts and cylinders close to the catching zone of the stacking apparatus, which is just used for stacking articles on one another so as to form packs which are then manually or automatically transferred to other stations for subsequent operations. Normally the stacking takes place manually, which involves a remarkable waste of time and persons or gripping means may be used which catches one edge of the article in its catching position and draws it along until it is laid down on a stacking plane; however in this way every article grazes against the article placed below, thus causing the article placed below to be crumpled; consequently the whole pack is damaged and the articles are not arranged in a suitable manner and therefore are not ready for subsequent operations.
The main object of the present invention is to improve the stacking technique for textile articles in general and particularly for hosiery.
The technical problem to be solved in order to attain the above object was the provision of a stacking apparatus in which articles had not to be drawn along for reachingtheir stacking position,but could move forward above the stacking plane and be laid down in the right position without any graze against the articles previously stacked.
The solution to such technical problem is obtained by a stacking apparatus for textile articles in general comprising catching means suitable to carry said articles from the catching position to the stacking one, said means including a horizontally slidable carriage carrying a conveyor belt on which the article is placed, said conveyor belt being wound round one or more cylinders which can rotate only in the carrying direction when the carriage is going towards the stacking position while when it is going in the opposite direction and the depositing of an article on the stacking plane is occurring, said cylinders do not move, said conveyor belt being also wound round another cylinder which moves to take up the conveyor belt, keeping said belt always tight during the displacements of said carriage.
Further features, objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the description which follows, given by way of example only and taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

- Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the apparatus of the present invention;
- Fig. 2 is a part cross-sectional view along line II-II of Fig. 1; and
- Fig. 3 is a part cross-sectional view along line III-III of Fig. 1.

The apparatus of the invention contains its devices into a casing which can be considered as divided into three parts: an oblique support 1, a vertical support 2 and a horizontal support 3. Supports 1 and 2 are provided with feet 4 and 5 respectively. As viewed in Figs. 1 and 3, on one side of support 3 there are two gear wheels 6 and 7 connected by an endless chain thereon. On the other side of support 3, not shown in the figure, is the same pair of gear wheels connected by an endless chain too.
A motor reducer 9 is connected to the gear wheel 6 by an endless belt 10 in order to give motion to chain 8 while the shaft 11 on which the gear wheel 6 is fitted gives motion to the corresponding gear wheel, not shown in the figure, on the other side of support 3 as well as the shaft 11' on which the gear wheel 7 is fitted connects the second wheel on the other side, not shown in the figure, of support 3. Fastened to each chain is a roller 12 engaged in a guide 13 secured to carriage 14 which on both sides of support 3 slides by means of rollers on two horizontal guides 15 only one of which is shown in figure 1. The carriage 14 carries a declining plate 16, the slope of which is directed towards the plane 17 on which the stacking of textile articles takes place, as will be seen later.
Cylinders 18, 19 and 20 are provided on axes secured to the casing of the apparatus while a cylinder 21 is provided on an axis 22 carried by carriage 23 slidable on the guide 24 integral to the oblique support 1. The conveyor belt 25 is wound round the cylinders 18, 19, 20 and 21 and the declining plate 16. The cylinder 19 is integral to the shaft 26 connected to the worm-wheel motor reducer 27 and to the gear wheel 28 connected to a similar gear wheel 29 integral, in turn, to the cylinder 18. Adjacent the apparatus is a movable belt 30 which simultaneously and proportionately carries the textile articles 31 coming for example from the ironing station, to the catching zone where a photoelectric cell detector 32 starts the motor reducers 9 and 27. Therefore an article 31 moves forward by means of the conveyor belt 25 which moves forward in the direction of arrow A by means of carriage 14 connected to chains 8 which are rotated by said motor reducer 9. The forward motion of article 31 in the direction of arrow A could take place also without the rotation of cylinders 18 and 19 by means of the motor reducer 27; in fact the cylinder 18 rotates all the same as it is the conveyor belt 25 which is made to move forward in the direction of arrow A in proportion as carriage 14 moves. The motor reducer 27 allows the cylinder 18 to execute a further rotation and therefore allows the article 31 to move further forward which, as will be explained later, aids the stacking of articles having a considerable length.
Carriage 14 carries out its maximum displacement in the direction of arrow A when roller 12 goes to its position 12¹. From this position, owing to the connection of parts 12 and 13, it comes back, in the opposite direction with respect to arrow A, to the starting position, ready to catch a new article 31 carried by the movable belt 30 close to the detector 32.
During the carriage going motion in the direction of arrow A, the conveyor belt 25 moves forward driven by the declining plate 16 while the cylinder 21 slides along the guide 24 in the direction of arrow B as it is driven by belt 25 wound round it, either if cylinders 18 and 19 are simply rotated by belt 25 moving forward or if they are further rotated by the motor reducer 27. This second solution is adopted when long articles have to be stacked, as at the end of stroke of carriage 14 which corresponds to position 12' of roller 12, the article 31 appears more forward than in the case in which the further motion of motor reducer 27 had not occurred and therefore it can be laid down on plane 17 in proportion as the carriage comes back to its starting position. In this way long articles can be laid down on plane 17 without a part of them being left on the declining plate 16 when this one is in the starting position; for this reason a new article in a starting position does not overlap one portion of the preceding article. Thus, during the return stroke of carriage 14 the article can advantageously be laid down without grazing against plane 17 owing to the fact that cylinders 18 and 19 do not rotate, since they are locked; in fact at the end of stroke of carriage 14, when roller 12 is in the position 12', a means is provided which stops the motor reducer 27; being the latter a worm wheel type, it is locked during the return stroke of carriage 14, as it cannot reverse its motion. Therefore article 31 is not drawn along during said return motion of carriage 14, as the branch of belt 25 going from point 33 to cylinder 18 is stopped, the cylinders 18 and 19 being locked;on the contrary, the branch of belt 25 going from point 33 to cylinders 20 and 21 can slide, taken up by cylinder 21 which by gravity moves downwards along the guide 24; in this way the belt 25 in correspondence with the declining plate 16 unwinds under article 31 which can thus simultaneously and proportionately lay down on plane 17 without grazing against the plane itself. A wheel sensor is pivoted at 34 on carriage 14, this wheel sensor sliding on articles 31 laid down on plane 17 so that during the return stroke of carriage 14 the wheel sensor 35 senses the thickness of the last article laid down and so lifts and closes an electric circuit, not shown in the figures, which feeds the motor reducer 36; the latter is connected, by means of the driving belt 37, to a sprocket wheel 38 meshing with the rack 39 and rack 39 is secured to the support 40 carrying the plane 17. Said rack 39 is provided with rollers 41 and 42 slidable along the guide 43 fastened to the vertical support 2. As soon as sensor 35 lifts owing to the thickness of a newly stacked article, the sprocket wheel 38 carrying out a certain angle rotation causes the rank 39 to move downwards, according to arrow C; the length of the downward movement of rack 39 is equal to the thickness of the overlapped article, so that sensor 35 lowers thus stopping the downward movement of plane 17. The cycle is repeated each time a new article is stacked until the stacking plane 17 reaches its innermost position which gives rise to a signal of maximum stacking of articles; at this point the whole stack can be directed to another working station.
From what above it is clear that an article 31 can be laid down on plane 17 without any graze only if the cylinders 18 and 19 do not rotate during the return stroke of carriage 14. Therefore, should said cylinders not be connected with the motor reducer 27, a free-wheel clutch will be provided on the shafts of the cylinders 18 and 19 so that said cylinders are locked during the return stroke of carriage 14 while they can freely rotate during the going motion as they are driven by belt 25.

Claims

1) A stacking apparatus for textile articles in general comprising catching means to transfer articles from the catching position to the stacking one, characterized in that said means includes a horizontally slidable carriage carrying a conveyor belt on which the article is placed, said conveyor belt being wound roundone or more cylinders which can rotate in the carrying direction only, when the carriage is going towards the stacking position while when it is going in the opposite direction and the depositing of an article on the stacking plane is occurring, said cylinders do not move, said conveyor belt being also wound round another cylinder which moves to take up the conveyor belt, keeping said belt always tight during the displacements of said carriage.

2) A stacking apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said carriage is provided with a declining plate round which the conveyor belt is wound so that said plate can drive it during the carriage motion towards the stacking position, the inclination of the plate being directed towards the plane on which the stacking of textile articles takes place.

3) A stacking apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the cylinder fitted for talcing up the belt during the carriage displacements can move along a declining plane, driven during its up stroke by the belt wound round it when the carriage moves towards the stacking position and during its down stroke by gravity when said carriage comes back to the catching position.

4) A stacking apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that in the catching position the presence of an article is detected by a detector which causes the carriage to move from said position to the stacking position and vice versa and simultaneously during the first movement all the cylinders having their rotation axes integral to the casing of the apparatus rotate according to the sliding direction of the belt while during the return stroke of said carriage the above cylinders do not rotate.

5) A stacking apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that said detector simultaneously causes the rotation of a worm-wheel motor reducer connected to at least one of the cylinders hav ing their axes secured to the casing, in order to allow the conveyor belt to carry out a further movement in the direction of transport of the carriage and so that at the end of the stroke of the above carriage a means is provided which stops said motor reducer and consequently said cylinders.

6) A stacking apparatus, according to claim 4, characterized in that a free-wheel clutch is provided on at least one of said cylinders having their axes secured to the casing so that when the carriage moves towards the stacking position the cylinders can freely rotate as they are driven by the conveyor belt while they are locked during the carriage return stroke.

7) A stacking apparatus according to claims 1 and 4, characterized in that the carriage is horizontally driven to and fro by means of a chain connected to it and wound round two toothed pulleys, one of which, the driving one, receives its rotational motion from an electric motor energized by said article detector.

8) A stacking apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that a sensor mounted on said carriage closes the energizing circuit of the electric motor each time a new article is laid down on the stack ing plane so that, owing to the presence of means connected to said electric motor, the stacking plane is caused to lower of a quantity equal to the thickness of a newly laid down article.

9) A stacking apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that said means comprises a gear meshing with a rank integral to the stacking plane.

10) A stacking apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the reaching of the stacking plane innermost position gives rise to a signal of maximum stacking which causes the stacked articles to be discharged.