Search

EP-4222090-B1 - METHOD AND DEVICE FOR FEEDING ARTICLES

EP4222090B1EP 4222090 B1EP4222090 B1EP 4222090B1EP-4222090-B1

Inventors

  • CARLINO, FRANCESCO
  • POLIDORI, DOMENICO
  • GALVANETTO, Ivan
  • MELCHIONDA, Maria Livia

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20210930

Claims (14)

  1. A method for feeding articles (A) comprising the steps of: - feeding, using a first conveyor (2), a succession of parallel rows (F) of articles (A) to a transfer area (T), wherein said rows (F) of articles (A) are fed by said first conveyor (2) along a first path (P1) transversal, preferably perpendicular, to the rows (F) of articles (A); - moving away, using a second conveyor (3), a succession of rows (F) of articles (A) from the transfer area (T) along a second path (P2) parallel to the rows (F) of articles (A); - transferring, using a third conveyor (4), each row (F) of articles (A) from the first conveyor (2) to the second conveyor (3); - sending at least one row (F) of articles (A), coming from the first conveyor (2), to a storage unit (5) whilst the row (F) of articles (A) is fed transversely, preferably perpendicularly, to the row (F); - transferring the row (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5), positioning said row (F) of articles (A) aligned with the second path (P2) at an outfeed section of the storage unit (5); - extracting portions in sequence of said row (F), portions formed preferably by one or more articles (A), from the storage unit (5) feeding said portions of row (F) to the transfer area (T) along said second path (P2).
  2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each row (F) extracted from the storage unit (5) is added, entirely or partly with a relative portion, to an end of a respective row (F) entirely present in the transfer area (T) and directly fed by the first conveyor (2).
  3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said step of transferring the row (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5) is carried out by at least two conveyors (6a, 6b) positioned perpendicularly to each other.
  4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said steps of sending at least one row (F) of articles (A) to the storage unit (5) using the first conveyor (2), transferring the row (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5) and extracting the portions of row (F) in sequence from the storage unit (5) feeding the portions of the row (F) to the transfer area (T) are performed along a transfer path extending, in plan, along a closed line, preferably rectangular or square.
  5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said step of sending at least one row (F) of articles (A) to the storage unit (5) is carried out using a fourth conveyor (8) positioned between the first conveyor (2) and the storage unit (5) and configured to bypass said transfer area (T), said fourth conveyor (8) defining in particular a third feed path (P3) passing above or below the transfer area (T).
  6. The method according to claim 5, comprising a step of controlled diversion of the rows (F) of articles (A) coming from the first conveyor (2) towards the second conveyor (3) or the fourth conveyor (8) in such a way as to carry out, selectively, an operative feeding of the rows (F) of articles (A) or a temporary storage of the rows (F) of articles (A), preferably, said diversion step being actuated by an adjustable conveyor, in particular defined by an adjustable end portion of the first conveyor (2).
  7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said step of sending at least one row (F) of articles (A) to the storage unit (5) is carried out by sending to the storage unit (5) a plurality of parallel rows (F) of articles (A), and wherein between the step of sending the rows (F) of articles (A) to the storage unit (5) and the step of transferring said row (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5) placing said row (F) of articles (A) in alignment with the second path (P2) at an outfeed section of the storage unit (5) there is a sub-step of feeding a plurality of parallel rows (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5) on a storage conveyor (5a) parallel to a direction of insertion of the rows (F) in the storage unit (5); said step of transferring the row (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5) positioning said row (F) of articles (A) in alignment with the second path (P2) at an outfeed section of the storage unit (5) is performed by picking up from the storage conveyor (5a) the last row (F) of articles (A) added and moving said row (F) of articles (A) towards the outfeed section of the storage unit (5).
  8. A device for feeding articles, comprising - a first conveyor (2) configured for feeding a succession of parallel rows (F) of articles (A) to a transfer area (T) along a first path (P1) transversal, preferably perpendicular, to the rows (F) of articles (A); - a second conveyor (3), configured for moving away a succession of rows (F) of articles (A) from the transfer area (T) along a second path (P2) parallel to the rows (F) of articles (A); - a unit (5) for storing parallel rows (F) of articles (A) into which the rows (F) of articles (A) are introduced along an infeed direction which is transversal, preferably perpendicular, to the rows (F); characterized in that the device further comprises - a third conveyor (4) active in the transfer area (T) for transferring each row (F) of articles (A) from the first conveyor (2) to the second conveyor (3), - a fourth conveyor (8) positioned between the first conveyor (8) and the storage unit (5) and configured to feed transversely the rows (F) of articles (A) from the first conveyor (2) to the storage unit (5), and in that the storage unit comprises at least one transfer conveyor (6a, 6b), configured to transfer at least one row (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5), arranging said row (F) of articles (A) in alignment with the second path (P2) at an outfeed section of the storage unit (5), and at least one extraction conveyor (7) positioned at the outfeed section of the storage unit (5) to extract portions in sequence of said row (F) of articles (A), in particular, single articles, from the storage unit (5) feeding said portions of row (F) to the transfer area (T) along said second path (P2).
  9. The device according to claim 8, wherein said storage unit comprises at least two transfer conveyors (6a, 6b) positioned perpendicularly to each other, a first transfer conveyor (6a) being parallel to the second path (P2) and configured to move the rows (F) of articles (A) parallel to the rows (F) and a second transfer conveyor (6b) being perpendicular to the first transfer conveyor (6a).
  10. The device according to claim 9, wherein said extraction conveyor (7a) is parallel and aligned with the second path (P2) and preferably adjacent to the transfer area (T), said second transfer conveyor (6b) being configured for achieving a transversal transfer of the rows (F) of articles (A) from the first transfer conveyor (6a) to the extraction conveyor (7a); preferably, said second transfer conveyor (6b) being positioned above the rows (F) of articles (A) and equipped with one or more movement blades (6c) facing downwards to intercept the articles (A) of the row (F) and move said articles (A) of the row (F) onto a corresponding sliding plane (6d).
  11. The device according to any of the claims from 8 to 10, wherein said transfer area (T) is defined by at least one portion of said second conveyor (3); said third conveyor (4) being preferably located above the transfer area (T) and comprising at least one movement blade (4a) facing downwards to intercept the articles (A) of the rows (F) of articles (A) and move said rows (F) of articles (A) from the first conveyor to the second conveyor.
  12. The device according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein said fourth conveyor (8) defines a third path (P3) passing above or below the transfer area (T) for bypassing said transfer area (T), preferably said third path (P3) being parallel to the first path (P1); and wherein said first conveyor (2) has an end portion (2a) which can be oriented for controlled diversion of the rows (F) of articles (A) coming from the first conveyor (2) towards the second conveyor (3) or towards the fourth conveyor (8) in such a way as to carry out, selectively, an operational feeding of the rows (F) of articles (A) or a temporary storage of the rows (F) of articles (A) inside the storage unit (5).
  13. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the storage unit (5) comprises a storage conveyor (5a) parallel to a direction of insertion of the rows (F) of articles (A) in the storage unit (5) and in particular parallel to the first path (P1), said storage conveyor (5a) being adjacent to the first transfer conveyor (6a) for releasing in a controlled fashion on the first transfer conveyor (6a) the last row (F) of articles (A) received on the storage conveyor (5a).
  14. The device according to claim 13 when dependent on claim 12, wherein an end portion (5b) of the storage conveyor (5a) can be oriented to perform a controlled diversion between a storage configuration, wherein the end portion (5b) of the storage conveyor (5a) is positioned at the level of the fourth conveyor (8) for receiving and storing one or more rows (F) of articles (A), and a release configuration, wherein the end portion (5b) of the storage conveyor (5a) is positioned at the level of the first transfer conveyor (6a) to release one or more rows (F) of articles (A) on the first transfer conveyor (6a).

Description

Technical field This invention relates to a method and a device for feeding articles. In particular, the articles to which reference will be made below, without limiting the scope of the invention, are food products, for example confectionery products, each in the form of a substantially parallelepiped solid or in any case with a base which guarantees stability to the product. In particular, the method and the device for feeding articles according to the invention comprise transporting the articles onto conveyors, for example belts or chains. The term "articles", also referred to as "products", in particular food products, is used to mean confectionery products such as, for example, biscuits, chocolates, bars of chocolate, snacks or similar products, baked or modelled. However, the invention may also refer to non-foods articles, such as, for example, soaps or containers. Background art The devices for feeding articles present in the prior art are normally inserted in production lines in which production machines provide the articles positioned on a succession of parallel rows, which advance along a direction transversal to the rows of articles. The rows of articles are then transferred by 90 degrees, parallel to themselves, to allow the articles to be positioned one after the other, in a single continuous row. In this way, the articles advance in a row at right angles to the direction of the parallel rows. This orthogonal direction allows the articles to be fed one after another to a wrapping machine, located downstream, which receives them one at a time, or in groups of articles aligned one after the other. The production lines described above have a first drawback when there is a momentary interruption of the operation of the production machines. In fact, in this situation, a row or some parallel rows of articles are not fed to the machines downstream. This drawback therefore causes the wrapping machine located downstream to operate empty or be stopped. This increases the possibility of faults in the production line and a drop in its production capacity and efficiency. The production lines described above also have a second drawback, even more serious than the previous one. In particular, when there is a momentary interruption or slowing down of the operation of the wrapping machine. In that case, the feeding of a row or several parallel rows of articles must be stopped until the operation of the wrapping machine is restarted. That drawback would cause the production machines to be blocked upstream and therefore the entire line to be stopped. This would therefore require the stopping of all the machines of the production line and would cause lengthy restarting times with the difficulty of restarting the production cycle of the articles, which is normally a continuous flow of operations and complex steps for making the products. In order to make the production lines more efficient there are prior art intermediate storage units positioned between the production machines and the wrapping machines. The term "storage unit" means a device for temporary accumulation of the articles, devices also known by the term "buffer", which indicates the buffer capacity of these devices in order to absorb the variations in production speed of the various units or machines which are inside a production line and which are positioned upstream or downstream of the storage unit itself. These storage units allow the creation of accumulations of products, being able to increase or decrease their instantaneous storage capacity until it reaches its maximum capacity when the storage unit is full of products. The instantaneous capacity of the storage unit varies in particular when the productivity of at least one of the machines downstream or upstream of the storage unit itself is stopped or slowed down. However, these prior art storage units, although positioned between the production machines and the wrapping machines along the production line, are most used by the wrapping machine and accumulate individual articles already arranged in a single continuous row immediately upstream of the wrapping machine. However, these storage units have the drawback of having a poor maximum storage capacity since they must maintain the sequence of the articles, keeping them arranged in a single row to release them in the same arrangement in which they have been received. The low maximum capacity often does not allow management of the stoppage times, of the machines upstream or downstream, which are long enough to allow an operator to perform the necessary maintenance operations to be performed during the machine stoppage. These storage units are only therefore used for actions for quickly restoring machine stoppages or production slow-downs. There are also storage units which allow trays to be accumulated on which groups of articles are positioned, allowing a greater maximum capacity. However, in order to allow the emptying of these storage units t