Transport system of cylindrical products to be labelled

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11447284-B2
Application number	US-201816769080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2018
Priority date	Dec 12, 2017
Publication date	Sep 20, 2022
Grant date	Sep 20, 2022

Abstract

A transport system for cylindrical products to be labelled includes a first conveyor and a second conveyor. The first conveyor has pairs of support members for supporting the cylindrical products, which are predisposed parallel to one another and mutually distanced so as to identify a free space between them. The second conveyor is a looped conveyor having an upper branch and arranged with the free space present between the pairs of support members and comprises pairs of idle rollers which, when moving along the upper branch, are interposed with each support member pair. The upper branch has an ascending portion so that the rollers can abut the products transported by the support member pairs and raise the products from the housings so that the products are supported only by idle rollers when they transit at an abutting means of a label applicator.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A transport system of cylindrical products to be labelled, for transporting the products and for causing the products to transit at a device for applying labels which comprises supply means for supplying and applying a label on the products and abutting means for abutting the products on which the label has been applied, characterised in that it comprises a first conveyor means and a second conveyor means, wherein:
the first conveyor means comprises pairs of support members for supporting the cylindrical products to be labelled and is predisposed and configured so as to have a conveyor portion along which the pairs of support members are moved according to an advancement direction so as to cause the pairs of support members to transit at the device for applying labels, the support members of each pair of support members being predisposed parallel to one another and mutually distanced so as to identify a free space between them, and which are conformed in such a way as to have respective V-shaped housings defining a seating for restingly receiving a corresponding cylindrical product to be labelled with the cylindrical product being arranged with the relative axis transversal with respect to the advancement direction so that the product transits with the cylindrical lateral surface thereof, or a portion of cylindrical lateral surface, below the device for applying the labels so that the supply means can supply and apply a label on a part of the cylindrical lateral surface or a portion of cylindrical lateral surface, the second conveyor means is a looped conveyor means having an upper branch and is arranged with respect to the first conveyor means in such a way that the upper branch is situated at the free space present between the pairs of support members and positioned below the abutting means of the device for applying the labels, the second conveyor means comprising pairs of idle rollers and being activatable in such a way that the pairs of idle rollers are movable along the upper branch according to a movement direction in the advancement direction of the pairs of support members and with the relative axis arranged transversally to the movement direction and so that each pair of idle rollers is interposed with each pair of the support members and advances in synchrony therewith, the upper branch of the second conveyor means having an ascending portion that is conformed with respect to the conveyor portion of the first conveyor means in such a way that the rollers of the pairs of rollers moving along the ascending portion can abut the products transported by the pairs of the support members, on which the label has been applied, and can raise the products from the housings of the support members so that the products are supported only by the rollers when they transit at the abutting means of the device for applying the labels so that the products, when abutting the abutting means, can rotate about the relative axes and the label can be folded and adhered to the cylindrical lateral surface, or portion of cylindrical lateral surface, of the products.

2. The transport system of claim 1 , wherein the upper branch of the second conveyor means further has a straight portion arranged consecutively to the ascending portion, which straight portion having an extension at most equal to the extension of the abutting means of the device for applying the labels, and a descending portion consecutive to the straight portion which is conformed with respect to the conveyor portion of the first conveyor means in such a way that the rollers of the pairs of rollers moving along the descending portion can return the products on which the label has been applied and folded to rest in the housings of the support members.

3. The transport system of claim 1 , wherein the second conveyor means comprises a belt movement member loop-wound on relative pulleys, of which at least one pulley is a drive pulley, the pairs of idle rollers being mounted on respective support frames and the second conveyor means comprising rapid engaging/disengaging members predisposed on the belt and configured for engaging and disengaging the support frames of the pairs of idle rollers so as to enable mounting pairs of rollers on the belt having different interaxes with respect to one another.

4. The transport system of claim 3 , wherein the rollers of the pairs of rollers which are mounted on the belt movement member comprise a lateral surface that is continuous or has one or more cavities.

5. The transport system of claim 1 , wherein the first conveyor means comprises a pair of loop-wound belt conveyor members which are arranged parallel to one another and are mutually spaced in such a way that the above-mentioned free space is defined between them, and which are activatable in synchrony, each of the belt conveyor members being predisposed for supporting and transporting the support members of each pair of support members.

6. The transport system of claim 5 , wherein the first conveyor means is configured so that the distance between the pair of belt conveyor members can be regulated and varied so as to regulate and vary the distance between the support members of each pair of support members so that the support members can restingly receive and support cylindrical products having different lengths.

Assignees

• Marchesini Group Spa

Inventors

• Monti Giuseppe

Classifications

• B65G15/58

  with means for holding or retaining the loads in fixed position, e.g. magnetic · CPC title

• B65G47/244

  by turning them about an axis substantially perpendicular to the conveying plane · CPC title

• B65C3/12 Primary

  by rolling the labels onto cylindrical containers, e.g. bottles · CPC title

• B65C9/045

  adapted for accommodating articles of different diameters, e.g. for adapting the program of rotation to the diameter of the articles · CPC title

• B65G17/12

  comprising a series of individual load-carriers fixed, or normally fixed, relative to traction element · CPC title