Apparatus and method for discharging spouted containers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10315848-B2
Application number	US-201715473805-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2017
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a discharge apparatus for discharging a plurality of flexible spouted containers, the apparatus comprising: a container support comprising a support element with an elongated opening for carrying a row of spouts of a plurality of spouted containers from an inlet to an outlet, wherein the inlet of the support element is configured to receive successive batches of spouted containers in the elongated opening; a biasing unit configured to move at least a subset of the spouts received inside the elongated opening in the support element towards the outlet, wherein the biasing unit further is configured to continuously apply a biasing force to the subset of spouts to continuously discharge the containers from the outlet.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A discharge apparatus for discharging a plurality of flexible spouted containers from a tubular storage assembly, the discharge apparatus comprising:
a support element with an elongated opening for carrying a row of spouts of a plurality of spouted containers from an inlet to an outlet, wherein the support element is configured to receive successive batches of spouted containers in the elongated opening;
a biasing unit configured to move at least a subset of the spouts in the elongated opening in the support element towards the outlet, the biasing unit including:
a rotatable biasing element including a plurality of pusher elements and at least one of the pusher elements engages the spout and applies the biasing force to the subset of the spouts; and
a drive motor configured to rotate the biasing element; and

wherein the biasing unit configured to continuously apply a biasing force to the subset of spouts to continuously urge the containers towards the outlet,
wherein the storage assembly comprises a plurality of elongated guiding elements onto which a plurality of rows of dispensing spouts can be carried,
wherein the guiding elements are configured to be maintained in a substantially tubular arrangement while the containers extend in a generally helical trajectory in the interior formed by the tubular arrangement.

2. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the biasing unit is configured to continuously discharge containers from the outlet.

3. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a controller configured to control the drive motor to vary the electric motor torque applied to the rotatable biasing element, wherein the controller is further configured to apply an enough torque to move the spouts towards the outlet and to continuously apply the biasing force to the spouts but not to disturb the continuous discharge of the containers from the outlet in a controlled speed.

4. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a pusher element comprises:
a back plate fixedly connected to a drive shaft;
a pusher plate pivotably connected to the drive shaft or to the back plate;
a spring element arranged between the pusher plate and back plate so as to bias the pusher plate in the direction of rotation.

5. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the pusher plate is arranged so as to be pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the drive shaft, wherein the pusher plate extends at a position in front of the back plate relative to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft.

6. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the rotatable biasing element comprises at least two pusher elements arranged so that essentially at all times at least one pusher element is in contact with a spout in the row of spouts to continuously push the contacted spout towards the outlet.

7. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the elongated opening in the container support comprises a circular arch portion wherein the rotatable biasing element is arranged to be rotatable around an axis positioned at or near the center point of the circular arch portion.

8. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the back plate has a length (L) equal to or larger than the radius of the circular arch portion.

9. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a control unit to continuously discharge the containers from the outlet.

10. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the biasing unit is configured to continuously discharge the containers which are discontinuously transported into the opening of the discharge apparatus from the inlet.

11. The discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the biasing unit is configured to continuously apply a biasing force to the subset of spouts to continuously urge them towards the outlet, irrespective of whether the spouts kept stationary or allowed to move towards the outlet.

12. Discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the pusher elements is rotatable relative to at least one of the other pusher elements.

13. Discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the biasing unit comprises:
a first pusher element;
a second pusher element;
wherein the biasing unit is configured to rotate the second pusher element relative to the first pusher element.

14. Discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the biasing unit comprises a first drive motor configured to rotate the first pusher element, a second drive motor configured to rotate the second pusher element, and a controller configured to control the first and second drive motor to rotate the first pusher element independently from the second pusher element.

15. A discharge system for discharging a plurality of flexible, spouted containers from a tubular storage assembly, wherein each of the containers comprises a dispensing spout and wherein the storage assembly comprises a plurality of elongated guiding elements onto which a plurality of rows of dispensing spouts can be carried, wherein the guiding elements are configured to be maintained in a substantially tubular arrangement while the containers extend in a generally helical trajectory in the interior formed by the tubular arrangement, the discharge system comprising:
a storage assembly support configured to support the tubular storage assembly, the guiding elements extending in axial direction;
a discharge device configured to remove the containers from the tubular storage assembly and move the containers one by one from the second end of the tubular storage assembly towards a discharge region;
a discharge apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the elongated opening of the discharge apparatus is arranged to receive spouted containers from a discharge region of the discharge device;
wherein the discharge device comprises:
a gripper unit;
a drive configured to rotate the gripper unit relative to the storage assembly;

wherein the gripper unit is configured to grip dispensing spouts of containers successively passing by the gripper unit, to transport the gripped dispensing spouts and associated containers in essentially the axial direction and to accumulate the dispensing spouts and containers in the discharge region.

16. The discharge system as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the discharge device comprises a rotatable sweeper arm and a sweeper arm drive configured to rotate the sweeper arm for moving the accumulated spouts out of the gripper unit into the elongated opening of the discharge apparatus, and wherein the biasing unit comprises a rotatable biasing element configured to rotate at least partly synchronously with the sweeper arm.

17. A method of discharging a plurality of flexible spouted containers from a tubular storage assembly having guiding elements maintained in a substantially tubular arrangement while the spouted containers extend in a generally helical trajectory, the method comprising:
receiving successive batches of spouted containers in an elongated opening of a support element for carrying the spouted containers from an inlet to an outlet of the support element, the batches of spouted containers being provided to the inlet in a discontinuous manner;
causing the spouted containers to move through the elongated opening towards the outlet while continuously maintaining a biasing force to at least a subset of the spouted containers received inside the elongated opening to bias the spouted containers and associated containers towards the outlet, the biasing f

Assignees

• Fuji Seal Int Inc

Inventors

• Gebbink Jeroen Gerrit Anton
• Van Heck Marinus Antonius Leonarda

Classifications

• B65B43/50

  using rotary tables or turrets {(B65B43/46 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B65G47/61

  for articles · CPC title

• B65B43/16

  by grippers · CPC title

• B65B43/465

  for bags · CPC title

• B65G19/025 Primary

  for suspended articles · CPC title