Shuffle Feed Mechanism

Abstract

A shuffle feed mechanism for elongated articles such as bread sticks wherein a conventional shuffle feed mechanism is provided with a series of lanes defined by elements projecting from the article advancing faces of the shuffle feed members and is mounted in inclined relation one side to the other. A fluid operated realigning mechanism is provided for aligning articles which are being fed with their length disposed parallel to the length of the shuffle feed mechanism to pivot these articles around until they are arranged at right angles to the direction of feed.

Description

The present invention has to do with the feeding of elongated articles such as bread sticks, sausages, meat sticks and the like, and is concerned more particularly with the provision of a shuffle feed mechanism for supplying a fixed number of articles at the discharge end of the mechanism on each stroke of the shuffle members.

It is a general object of the invention to provide for the feeding of elongated articles such as bread sticks to arrange each article transversely with respect to the direction of travel during feeding and to feed and discharge a given number of articles upon each reciprocating stroke of the shuffle feed mechanism.

A further object of the invention is to provide a shuffle feed mechanism wherein a series of air jets rearrange any longitudinally arranged article into a transverse position, these air jets being timed with respect to the operation of the shuffle feed mechanism so as to provide the repositioning at a desirable time.

The above and other objects of the invention are attained as described in the accompanying specification, made with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a shuffle feed mechanism embodying the instant invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the shuffle feed mechanism shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the operation of the lane dividing means provided at the feed end of the shuffle feed mechanism;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are respective views illustrating the operation of the air jet realigning means;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary detail view taken in the plane indicated by the line 6--6 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken as illustrated by the line 7--7 in FIG. 1.

The shuffle feeding mechanism comprises two similar movable sets of alternating shuffle members 15 and 16 (FIGS. 2 and 3) which are mounted in inclined position and have a long upwardly facing article supporting portion and a short upwardly facing article advancing and supporting portion. The set of shuffle feed members 15 extends between and is secured to opposite frame members 17, and the set of shuffle members 16 is secured on upwardly projecting angles or members 18 from opposite frame members 19. The frame members 17 (FIGS. 1 and 2) are supported by four upwardly extending pivoted links 21, one pair on each side, which are each secured to a plate 22 on a frame 10, and the frame members 19 and their corresponding shuffle members 16 are supported by respective pairs of parallel links 23 which are similarly connected in a pivoted fashion to the plates 22. It will be understood that in the usual fashion the shuffle members 15 and 16 of the respective sets of shuffle members are disposed alternately in the series of shuffle members shown, and as one set of shuffle members advances in feeding movement, the other shuffle member is being retracted.

The reciprocating drive for the respective shuffle feed members is obtained by drive links 26 and 27 (FIGS. 1 and 2), there being one pair on each side. The drive links 26 and 27 are pivotally connected to respective frames 17 and 19 at their upper ends and at their lower end to respective eccentric straps 31 and 32 engaging respective eccentric cams 35 on a shaft 33 which is suitably driven from a motor 34.

This type of shuffle feed mechanism is disclosed in the patent to Magnuson U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,929 issued May 21, 1957. It will be understood, however, that the invention is equally applicable to a shuffle feed in which one set of shuffle feed members is stationary and the other set reciprocates with respect thereto.

Means is provided for feeding elongated articles in an advantageous manner to facilitate their turning transverse to the path of travel and this means comprises a feed ramp 41 (FIGS. 1 and 2) which at its upper end carries a corrugated section 42 having its corrugations 42a disposed at an angle of 45.degree. with respect to longitudinal center line of the shuffle feed. Articles fed to the corrugations 42 will be aligned at this angle and will tend to arrive advantageously positioned at the feed end of the shuffle feed mechanism where means is provided for insuring the falling articles being separated into respective paths or lanes. This means takes the form of stationary partition and guide members 47 which are secured and project outwardly from the ramp portion 41, and movable partition members 46 carried by one of the shuffle feed members which reciprocates underneath the ramp 41 and moves with this shuffle feed member.

The respective feed lanes are formed by means of the projecting rod elements 48 (FIGS. 1 and 2) which are secured in the front face of each of the shuffle feed members. The rod elements 48 project parallel to the upper article-supporting surface thereof, i.e., parallel to their direction of movement and are disposed in overlapping relation with the adjacent and lower rod 48. The rounded surfaces of these rods are desirable in that it insures smooth feeding of articles such as bread sticks. Bread sticks have relatively rough ends and a round surface will handle these rough ends without interfering with progress of the articles and will facilitate alignment of the articles in the proper position.

For the purpose of the placing the articles on the proper side of a lane, the shuffle feed bed is inclined laterally from the horizontal (toward the near side in FIG. 1) as indicated by the divergence of the shuffle feed bed from a horizontal line 49. Thus round articles, such as bread sticks, sausages, or meat sticks will shift toward the lower side of a lane. The elevated height of the lane divider members 47 enables stacking of a few of these articles at the lower end of the shuffle feed mechanism so as to insure a constant supply to each lane for progression therealong in counted fashion, so that in most cases, six of the articles being fed will be delivered to the discharge end.

Means is provided at two locations for reorienting any article which continues to be fed lengthwise parallel to the longitudinal feed lanes and this means comprises a series of air pressure jets formed by means including a valve 51 (FIGS. 1 and 7) carried by the frame and leading from a source of air under pressure, a flexible connection 52 leading from the air valve 51 to a manifold pipe 53 which is carried by the upper movable side frames 17 for one set of shuffle members. From the manifold pipe 53 a series of pipes 54 extend forwardly toward the discharge end of the apparatus and have their ends bent downwardly and sideways (FIGS. 1, 4 and 5) to provide a discharge end 54a (FIG. 4) for each pipe. This end 54a is disposed immediately underneath one of the upper lane dividing rods 48 and immediately in front of a lower cut away rod 48a carried by the shuffle member on which the longitudinally positioned bread stick 56 is carried. Periodically, in time with the movement of the shuffle feed members, the valve 51 is opened to cause an air jet from the nozzle discharge end 54a to be directed generally transversely of the shuffle feed. Thus, any bread stick, or other object which extends longitudinally will have a force exerted against its outward end to cause it to rotate generally clockwise as viewed from above into parallel relation with the shuffle feed members. It will be noted that a bread stick or similar round object will roll toward the pipe end 54a so as to be in position to be influenced by the fluid pressure.

At the discharge end of the shuffle feed there is provided a belt conveyor 61 having a series of pocket forming flights 62 thereon, and the conveyor 61 is trained about suitable support drums including a driving drum 63 carried by a shaft 64. The shaft 64 is driven through a belt and pulley mechanism 66 from a gear box 67 which is driven by a belt and pulley mechanism 68 from the shaft 33. Above the belt 61 there is provided a discharge ramp 68, spaced from the adjacent endmost shuffle member 15 by a slot 69. In the effective discharge position of the flights, i.e., when the end flights 15 and 16 are aligned with each other, and projecting out to the slot 69 in its fully extended position. Any bread stick which is carried forward throughout the length of travel and still maintains an undesired longitudinal alignment will be fed onto the ramp 68 and thus onto a table 71 for subsequent collection and return to the shuffle feed mechanism. The bread sticks which are properly aligned in their transverse position are discharged into the pockets between the upright flights 62 on the belt 61 there being one of these pockets aligned with each of the six rows.

In operation bread sticks 56 are fed in random position to the feed ramp 41-42 and are aligned at an angle to the longitudinal line of the feed by the angularly disposed corrugations or feed troughs 42a. From the feed ramp the sticks are carried across onto and are separated by a partition forming member 47 each of which diverts the bread sticks to one or the other of its sides. Thus bread sticks collect on the lowermost shuffle feed members and they are fed one by one out from under the stack of sticks and on down the lanes formed by the rods 48. The depth of the shuffle feed members being substantially equal to the diameter of the bread sticks, there is little tendency for double feeding, and, if more than one is fed out, it will tend to roll back due to the upward inclination of the shuffle feed bed from its feed end to its discharge end.

Also, a bread stick on each path of the shuffle feed mechanism tends to go to the rod 48 on the downhill side of its pocket, and these rods being rounded and smooth present no interference or disturbance to the bread sticks being handled.

About one-third of the length of the path upwardly of the shuffle feed members, the transverse array of air jet members 54 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is provided to reposition any of the bread sticks which are still extending longitudinally and parallel to the path of travel, and eventually substantially all of the bread sticks are arranged transversely, and substantially all of the pockets are filled, one stick to each pocket, so that at the discharge end of the shuffle feed six bread sticks are dispensed for each stroke. Any bread stick extending longitudinally at the discharge end is carried across the slot 69 and onto the inclined discharge plate 68 and onto the table 71 for collection.

The feed belt 61 and its pocket members 62 operate in timed relation to the operation of the shuffle feed mechanism so that they are properly aligned to feed one stick to each pocket at each reciprocation of the shuffle feed mechanism. The timing of the conveyor 61 is such that it moves three compartment or pocket lengths for each stroke of the shuffle feed unit, at the first delivery of six bread sticks it moves three lanes down and the next delivery is a second bread stick in the last three filled, so that each compartment will get two bread sticks thereafter assuming a continuous feed which is always substantially the case. Obviously, by adjustment of the timing other numbers of bread sticks can be made available for packaging.

While I have shown and described a preferred form of the invention, it will be apparent that the invention is capable of modification and variation from the form shown, so that the scope thereof should be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims

I claim:

1. In a shuffle feed mechanism for elongated articles such as bread sticks, meat sticks, sausages and the like, a first series of transversely disposed shuffle members, a second series of transversely disposed shuffle members in alternating relation with respect to said first series, each shuffle member including an upper article supporting surface and a front article advancing surface, said series together forming a bed having a feed end lower than its discharge end, means dividing said bed into a plurality of parallel longitudinally extending lanes comprising a transverse series of parallel elements projecting from the front faces of an adjacent series of said members and overlapping each other longitudinally, means feeding articles to the upper feed end of said bed comprising feed paths formed of corrugations forming an acute angle to said longitudinally extending lanes, and means for operating said shuffle members to effect relative reciprocation between said respective series of said shuffle members and thereby to effect progression of articles thereover.

2. In a shuffle feed mechanism for elongated articles such as bread sticks, meat sticks, sausages and the like, a first series of transversely disposed shuffle members, a second series of transversely disposed shuffle members in alternating relation with respect to said first series, each shuffle member including an upper article supporting surface and a front article advancing surface, said series together forming a bed having a feed end lower than its discharge end, means dividing said bed into a plurality of parallel longitudinally extending lanes comprising a transverse series of parallel elements projecting from the front faces of an adjacent series of said members and overlapping each other longitudinally, certain of said lane forming elements being cut away at their projecting ends, and fluid jet means is disposed to project a fluid jet transversely of said bed through the spaces provided by said cut away portions, and means for operating said shuffle members to effect relative reciprocation between said respective series of said shuffle members and thereby to effect progression of articles thereover.

3. In a shuffle feed mechanism as recited in claim 2, in which means is provided for cyclic operation of said fluid jets in time with the reciprocation of said shuffle members.

4. In a shuffle feed mechanism for elongated articles such as bread sticks, meat sticks, sausages and the like, a first series of transversely disposed shuffle members, a second series of transversely disposed shuffle members in alternating relation with respect to said first series, each shuffle member including an upper article supporting surface and a front article advancing surface, said series together forming a bed having a feed end lower than its discharge end, means dividing said bed into a plurality of parallel longitudinally extending lanes comprising a transverse series of parallel elements projecting from the front faces of an adjacent series of said members and overlapping each other longitudinally, means for operating said shuffle members to effect relative reciprocation between said respective series of said shuffle members and thereby to effect progression of articles thereover, a discharge element forming a slot with the endmost shuffle feed member, whereby a longitudinally positioned article will span said slot and be placed on said discharge member and whereby a transversely disposed member will fall through said slot, and a conveyor below said slot for articles falling therethrough.