GB2139591A - Transferring articles between two apparatuses - Google Patents

Abstract

A conveyor (17) for positioning between first (10) and second (14) apparatus, comprises a member (18) rotatable about an axis (B) transverse to the direction in which articles are to be conveyed from the first apparatus (10) to the second apparatus (14) and the member (18) having a non-rigid conveying surface (19). The non-rigid surface (19) may be formed by a plurality of elements extending radially outwards from a hub e.g. a brush surface, or by a resilient material. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to conveyors This invention relates to a conveyor or positioning between first and second apparatus for assisting conveying of articles from the first apparatus to the second apparatus, and is particularly useful (although not exclusively so) for assisting in conveying fruit and vegetable produce or other delicate articles from a first apparatus to a second apparatus.

It is a common probiem in conveying fruit and vegetable produce to transfer the produce from one apparatus such as a bulk feeder conveyor, which is at a first height, to another different apparatus such as a soil extractor or cleaner or a grading machine, at a second lower height, without bruising the Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new or improved conveyor.

According to a first aspect of the invention we provide a conveyor for positioning between first and second apparatus, the conveyor comprising a member rotatable about an axis transverse to the direction in which articles are to be conveyed from the first apparatus to the second apparatus and the member having a non-rigid (as herein defined) conveying surface.

By "non-rigid" we mean that the surface exhibits sufficient resilience to minimise damage to the articles. Of course, the degree of resilience may be selected depending on the nature of the articles to be conveyed.

For example, where the articles to be conveyed are delicate, such as fruit and vegetable produce which is easily bruised, a large degree of resilience is required to cushion the articles as they pass from the first apparatus onto the conveyer, whereas for other less, delicate articles, a lesser degree of resilience may be adequate. In each case, the conveying surface may be constructed to give a degree of resilience selected to reduce the risk of damage to the articles when being conveyed from the first apparatus to the second apparatus.

The conveying surface may be non-rigid either due to its configuration and/or due to the material from which it is made.

For example, in a preferred arrangement where fruit and vegetable produce is conveyed, the conveying surface may be provided by the free ends of a plurality of elements which extend radially outwardly from the axis of rotation of the member. The elements may be made of natural or synthetic rubber or other material having an inherent resilience, and may be sufficiently long to produce the required degree of resilience. However, other configurations of rotatable member are possible to achieve the required resilience.

In the preferred embodiment, the opposite ends of the elements may be secured to a hub which is driven by a drive means to impart rotation to the member.

The radially extending elements may comprise strips of material in which case the free ends of the elements may comprise edges thereof, or the radially extending elements may be tooth like in configuration in which cases, the thickness of the elements may increase as the radial distance from the axis of rotation increases, or may be of constant cross section.

In another embodiment, the surface of the intermediate member is made of, or covered with a layer of, a natural or synthetic rubber or other soft material, or is a combination of outwardly radially extending elements having a covering layer of soft material.

The conveying surface (defined by the free ends of the radially extending elements, or otherwise), may be of cylindrical form whereby the rotatable member may comprise a roller rotatable about the cylindrical axis.

The axis of rotation may be generally horizontal, or may be inclined to the horizontal as required.

The hub, where provided, may be cylindrical and may be rotatable with a shaft driven from a drive means either directly, or through a transmission such as a belt drive or pinion drive.

According to a second aspect of the invention, we provide a combination of first and second apparatus, and a conveyor according to the first aspect of the invention positioned therebetween.

The first apparatus may be at a first height, and the second apparatus at a second, lower, height, the conveyor being positioned so that at least part of its conveying surface is at a height intermediate the first and second heights.

Thus the articles are cushioned as they drop from the first height on to the conveyor, by the non-rigid conveying surface thereof. Preferably, said at least part of the conveying surface is positioned closer in height to the second apparatus than the first apparatus so that the drop from the conveyor surface to the second apparatus is minimal.

The invention provides a ready means for transferring articles from a first height to a second height within any continuous conveying line whilst minimising the risk of damage to the articles being conveyed.

It will be appreciated that there is a wide variety of apparatus used in various industries and very seldom are the apparatus standardised so that the height of one apparatus corresponds to the height of the next apparatus in the line and in such situations, the invention is particularly useful.

The first apparatus may comprise a conveyor, such as a bulk feeder which conveys fruit or vegetable produce from a loading station onto which the freshly picked fruit or vegetable produce are placed, for further processing, and the second apparatus may comprise another conveyor, or a further processing apparatus such as a soil extractor, produce cleaner, or other conveying apparatus although the invention is not limited to apparatus ta another.

The invention will now be described with the aid of the accompanying drawing which is a diagramatic side view of a conveyor in accordance with the invention positioned between two apparatus.

Referring to the drawing, a first apparatus 10 comprises a bulk conveyor for conveying articles i.e. fruit or vegetable produce, from a loading station (not shown) at which freshly gathered produce is placed on the conveyor 10, to a second apparatus which is shown at 14.

The conveyor 10 comprises, in the present example, a continuous belt 11 which passes around a pair of sprocket drive wheels 1 2 (only one of which is shown) which wheels 1 2 rotate clockwise as seen in the drawings. One wheel 1 2 may be driven whilst the other wheel 1 2 is an idler wheel, or both wheels 1 2 may be driven, or both wheels may be idler wheels and drive imparted by some other means, such as a special drive sprocket intermediate the wheels 12, to the belt 11.

As seen in the drawings, the top 1 3 of belt 11 moves from left to right As the produce reaches the highest point H of the conveyor (the conveyor top 1 3 is inclined and the produce is lifted during conveying), the produce follows the curved movement of the belt 11 around wheel 12 for a time, but as the curve becomes steeper to the horizontal, produce will eventually become dislodged from the belt 11 of apparatus 10.

The second apparatus 14 in this example, comprises a soil extraction machine which conveys produce placed thereon, from left to right, whilst gently agitating the produce to loosen any soil that may be attached thereto.

In this respect, the conveyor 10 and machine 14 are particularly suitable for processing root crops.

It can be seen that the height of the upper surface 1 5 of the apparatus 14 is below the height at which the produce becomes disloged from belt 11 of apparatus 10, which dislogement may happen at any point within a region indicated at 16.

It is not common for two apparatus such as apparatus 10 and 14 to be at the same height because such apparatus may for example be made by different manufacturers, or have to be accommodated within a fixed space which requires them to be at different heights.

Moreover, if the highest part H of conveyor 10 was at the same height as upper surface 1 5 of apparatus 14, there would be a natural groove formed between the two, due to the curvature of each of the conveyor 10 and apparatus 14 at their adjacent ends, and because it would be necessary to provide a small gap between the two.

Such a groove is undesirable because delicate articles, such as fruit produce, would be damaged as they are conveyored across the groove. Thus two adjacent apparatus such as conveyor 10 and machine 14, are usually arranged at different heights so that the produce is not conveyed across the groove, but rather drop from the conveyor 1 0 onto the upper surface 1 5 of machine 14.

Hence, in the normal course of events, the produce would have to drop a substantial height from part H, onto the aggitated upper surface 1 5 of apparatus 14 and this could in itself damage the articles.

To reduce the risk of damage to the produce during the drop, the present invention provides a conveyor 1 7 which is positioned between apparatus 10 and 14, the conveyor 1 7 comprising a rotatable member 18 having a conveying surface 19, the part which conveys i.e. in arc A, being at a height intermediate the height of the apparatus 10 in region 16, and the height of the upper surface 1 5 of apparatus 14.

The member 1 8 is in this embodiment, a roller rotatable about an axis B transverse to the direction of movement of the produce from apparatus 10 to apparatus 1 4.

The roller 1 8 is mounted on a shaft S supported at one or both sides by a support member 22 or members, and comprises a hub 20 to which are secured a plurality of rubber radially extending tooth like elements some of which are indicated at 21, the free ends of the elements 21 providing the cylindrical conveying surface 1 9.

Thus the drop of the produce is cushioned by roller 19.

The roller 1 9 is rotated by a drive means such as a drive chain 23 which extends around a toothed wheel 24 driven from machine 14 and a toothed wheel 25 keyed to shaft S.

As shown, the thickness of the elements 21 increases from a minimum adjacent the hub 20 to a maximum at the free ends thereof although could comprise parallel sided teeth if required. The rubber may be natural or synthetic, or the elements 21 may be made of another material entirely which exhibits resilience.

It will be appreciated that the conveying surface 1 9 is thus non-rigid i.e. the surface 1 9 resiliently deforms under the weight of the dropping produce, to cushion the fall, although this may be achieved using another construction. For example, the roller 1 9 could have a solid cylindrical surface covered with a layer of soft material such as rubber or synthetic rubber, although the construction described has been found particularly useful for conveying fruit and vegetable produce and other delicate articles.

However the invention has applications other than for produce in which case another construction of rotatable member may be adequate. For example, a rotatable member 1 9 having the construction shown in the drawings but in which the free ends of the element 21 would be covered with a layer of rubber could be provided, or any other construction.

The elements 21 need not be tooth-like as described, but may comprise strips of material secured to the hub, the edges of the strip comprising free ends which define the conveying surface.

The conveyor 1 7 need not have a hub 20 mounted on shaft S, but could be mounted for rotation in any other way. Where a shaft is provided on which the hub 20 of the member 1 8 rotates, the shaft or the hub 20 could be rotated by a drive means directly, or through a transmission such as a drive belt or pinion drive.

Although as described, the apparatus 10 is a bulk conveyor and the apparatus 14 is a soil extractor, of course in other applications different apparatus may be provided. For example, the apparatus 10 may comprise any other type of conveyor or indeed a soil extractor, a cleaner, grader or any other apparatus.

Similarly, the apparatus at 14 may merely comprise another conveyor, a cleaner, grader or any other apparatus.

Claims (22)

1. A conveyor for positioning between first and second apparatus, the conveyor comprising a member rotatable about an axis transverse to the direction in which articles are to be conveyed from the first apparatus to the second apparatus and the member having a non-rigid (as herein defined) conveying surface.

2. A conveyor according to Claim 1 wherein the conveying surface is non-rigid either due to its configuration and/or due to the material from which it is made.

3. A conveyor according to Claim 2 wherein the conveying surface is provided by the free ends of a plurality of elements which extend radially outwardly from the axis of rotation of the member.

4. A conveyor according to Claim 3 wherein the elements are made of a material having an inherent resilience.

5. A conveyor according to Claim 4 wherein the elements are sufficiently long to produce the required degree of resilience.

6. A conveyor according to any one of Claims 3 to 5 wherein the opposite ends of the elements are secured to a hub which is driven by a drive means to impart rotation to the member.

7. A conveyor according to any one of Claims 3 to 6 wherein the radially extending elements comprise strips of material, the free ends of the elements comprising edges thereof.

8. A conveyor according to any one of Claims 3 to 6 wherein the radially extending elements are tooth-like in configuration.

9. A conveyor according to Claim 8 wherein the thickness of the elements increases as the radial distance from the axis of rotation increases.

10. A conveyor according to Claim 8 wherein the elements are of constant cross section.

11. A conveyor according to Claim 2 wherein the surface of the intermediate member is made of, or covered with a layer of, soft material.

1 2. A conveyor according to Claim 2 wherein the surface of the intermediate member is a combination of outwardly radially extending elements and a covering layer of soft material.

1 3. A conveyor according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the conveying surface is of cylindrical form whereby the rotatable member comprises a roller rotatable about the cylindrical axis.

1 4. A conveyor according to Claim 1 3 wherein the axis of rotation is generally horizontal.

15. A conveyor according to Claim 14 where appendant to Claim 6 wherein the hub is cylindrical and is rotatable with a shaft driven from a drive means.

16. A conveyor substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

1 7. A combination of first and second apparatus, and a conveyor according to any one of the preceding ciaims positioned therebetween.

1 8. A combination according to Claim 1 7 wherein the first apparatus is at a first height, and the second apparatus at a second, lower, height, the conveyor being positioned so that at least part of its conveying surface is at a height intermediate the first and second heights.

1 9. A combination according to Claim 1 8 wherein at least part of the conveying surface is positioned closet in height to the second apparatus than the first apparatus.

20. A combination according to any one of Claims 1 7 to 1 9 wherein the first apparatus comprises a conveyor, and the second apparatus comprises another conveyor.

21. A combination of first and second apparatus and a conveyor substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawing.

22. Any novel feature or novel combination of features disclosed herein and/or shown in the accompanying drawing.