Apparatus for controlled transport of articles along a path

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10689202-B2
Application number	US-201815990853-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2018
Priority date	May 29, 2018
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

A system and an apparatus capable of independently driving movers are described herein. The system and apparatus includes: a track that forms a path for movers; a plurality of movers movably mounted on the track for moving along the path; and a plurality of drive elements fixedly arranged along the track. The drive elements each have a surface that is oriented to contact a driven member of the movers. The drive elements are configured to sequentially engage the driven member of a plurality of the movers to provide controlled independent motion of the movers along the track. The drive elements may be driven by rotary motors. A method of independently driving movers is also described herein.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for controlled transport of articles along a path comprising:
a plurality of articles;
a track that forms a closed loop path for movers;
a plurality of movers that are configured to transport articles, said movers being movably mounted on the track for moving along said closed loop path, said movers comprising a driven member that is oriented to be contacted by at least one drive element at any position along the path;
a plurality of drive elements arranged along the track, said drive elements each comprising a surface that is oriented to contact the driven member of said movers, wherein said drive elements are configured to sequentially engage the driven member of said movers to provide controlled motion of said movers independently around said track, wherein the drive elements are each driven by a rotary motor; and
a programmable computer control system in communication with the rotary motors for controlling the motion of the rotary motors,
wherein each mover comprises a vacuum head which uses vacuum to selectively hold an article securely to the mover.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of said closed loop path is linear.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each article is initially transferred to a mover from an upstream apparatus at matched tangential velocity.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each article is subsequently transferred from a mover to a downstream apparatus at matched tangential velocity.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the apparatus is configured to control the pitch of articles that are transferred to the movers at an initial tangential velocity and machine direction pitch and thereafter said movers transport said articles, wherein the articles are accelerated along at least a portion of the path resulting in controlled repitching of the articles.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein each mover comprises a head that is rotatably affixed to said mover wherein the head can rotate the article on an axis orthogonal to the direction of the path of said mover.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the rotation of the head is actuated as the mover is transported along the path, wherein the angular position of the article is rotated from when it is transferred to the movers to when it is transferred from the mover.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein multiple assembly zones are arranged along the path of the movers allowing for combining multiple components of an assembly.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one mover can follow an indexing motion for at least a portion of the path, wherein said indexing motion includes a period for dwell and a period for motion.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one mover can move at constant tangential velocity for at least a portion of the path.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein at least one article is transferred to a mover or transferred from a mover during the dwell cycle of the mover.

12. That apparatus of claim 9 wherein the article is manipulated or transformed during the dwell cycle of the mover.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the multiple assembly zones include at least one indexing motion and at least one constant motion portion along the path.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the dwell time period is increased by simultaneously dwelling the motion of more than one mover.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising an article position sensor located along said track, wherein the indexing motion of the mover can be synchronized with the article position sensor for coordination with randomly timed articles.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the indexing motion of one or more movers transporting articles can be adjusted to provide a variable count of articles to another downstream apparatus.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the plurality of drive elements comprise a combination of pinion gears and toothed timing belts wherein the pinion gears are arranged in regions along the path where controlled relative motion between the articles is desired and the toothed timing belts are arranged in regions where relative motion between articles is not needed during transport.

18. An apparatus for controlled motion of discrete tooling along a path, said apparatus comprising:
a web transporting mechanism that moves a web substrate along a first path at a first velocity in the machine direction, wherein at least a portion of said first path is linear;
a track that forms a second path for movers, wherein said second path is a closed loop path, wherein at least a portion of said second path for the movers is linear and parallel to the linear portion of the first path for the web substrate;
a plurality of movers that are configured to transport tooling, wherein said movers are movably mounted on the track for moving along said closed loop second path, said movers comprising a driven member that is oriented to be contacted by at least one drive element at any position along the path;
a plurality of drive elements arranged along the track, said drive elements each comprising a surface that is oriented to contact the driven member of said movers, wherein said drive elements are configured to sequentially engage the driven member of said movers to provide controlled motion of said movers independently around said track, wherein the drive elements are each driven by a rotary motor; and
a programmable computer control system in communication with the rotary motors for controlling the motion of the rotary motors,
wherein during a portion of the parallel linear portions of said first and second paths, the apparatus is configured so that the movers transporting tooling are driven at a matched tangential velocity with the web substrate resulting in a dwell time zone where the tooling and a localized region of the web substrate are in close proximity, and
wherein during the dwell time zone, the apparatus is configured so that the tooling can transform or interface with the web substrate.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the programmable computer control system is provided with software, and wherein the machine direction spacing between the tooling is adjustable by the programmable computer control system software during the dwell time zone, and wherein the machine direction pitch of the localized regions of the substrate web to be transformed or interfaced with the tooling can be adjusted by said software.

20. An apparatus for controlled transport of articles along a path comprising:
a plurality of articles;
a track that forms a closed loop path for movers;
a plurality of movers that are configured to transport articles, said movers being movably mounted on the track for moving along said closed loop path, said movers comprising a driven member that is oriented to be contacted by at least one drive element at any position along the path;
a plurality of drive elements arranged along the track, said drive elements each comprising a surface that is oriented to contact the driven member of said movers, wherein said drive elements are configured to sequentially engage the driven member of said movers to provide controlled motion of said movers independently around said track, wherein the drive elements are each driven by a rotary motor; and
a programmable computer control system in communication with the rotary motors for controlling the motion of the rotary motors,
wherein multiple assembly zones are arranged along the path of the movers allowing for combin

Assignees

• Procter & Gamble

Inventors

• Papsdorf Clifford Theodore
• Debruler Jason Lee

Classifications

• B65G23/14

  Endless driving elements extending parallel to belt or chain {(B65G23/18 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B65G35/02

  comprising an endless traction element, e.g. a belt, arranged to roll cylindrical articles over a supporting surface · CPC title

• F16H19/04

  comprising a rack · CPC title

• B65G43/10

  Sequence control of conveyors operating in combination · CPC title

• B65G35/00

  Mechanical conveyors not otherwise provided for · CPC title