Ice bag palletizer

Abstract

An automatic pallet stacking machine for loading bags of ice cubes onto a pallet has a first infeed conveyor with a pick and turn device for orienting the bags, and a collating conveyor adjacent a pallet holder or pallet elevator where the bags are accumulated until a row of bags is formed. Then a gantry picks up the bags and places transports the row to the pallet. The pick and turn device and the gantry employ vacuum heads that have closed cell foam side walls to accommodate the lumpy and shifting nature of the bag contents. A programmable controller ensures that the bags rows are formed in appropriate patterns so that the bags in each tier interlock with the bags in the tier beneath.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention concerns automated arrangements for stacking items onto a pallet, and is more particularly concerned with apparatus for palletizing bags or sacks of loose articles, such as ice cubes. In particular, the invention is concerned with machines that line up the bags of ice cubes or similar articles into rows of bags in predetermined patterns, and that move the rows of bags onto the pallet, and then after each layer or tier is completed, move the pallet down for stacking the next layer or tier.[0002]The invention is also concerned with technology for lining up and turning the bags as need be so that the bags will be placed in a row pattern onto an indexing conveyor or collation conveyor, and is concerned in particular with technology that employs vacuum systems capable of achieving a desired stacking pattern by control of the various vacuum pickups and conveyors. The invention concerns pallet stacking apparatus that employs a vacuum pickup d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021]The orienting mechanism or pick-and-turn device can be a rotary vacuum arrangement, in which a rotary arm or frame is positioned over the infeed conveyor, and has a pair of vacuum heads attached onto it. The rotary arm and vacuum heads can be raised and lowered for picking up the bags, and can be selectively rotated through either 90 degrees or 180 degrees for changing the orientation of the bags. A presence sensor can detect when a bag of ice is under the pick-and-turn device, and interrupts motion of the infeed conveyor belt while the device acts to change the orientation of the ice bag.

[0022]Favorably, the vacuum heads can be formed with a rigid cap portion and an annular skirt or side wall that is attached onto the cap portion and extends down from it. The skirt may be formed of a flexible resilient material, e.g., a closed-cell foam elastomer, so that the skirt deflects to conform with irregularities in the top surface of the bags. This enables the vacuum head to maintain vacuum despite the irregular and shifting nature of the ice cubes or other items in the plastic bags.

Problems solved by technology

This is difficult and strenuous work, and it is often difficult to find and keep reliable employees willing to do this.

However, because ice cubes are lumpy and create an irregular top surface of the bag, those previously proposed systems do not offer a palletizing solution for automatically stacking bags of ice cubes.

However, none of these prior proposals address the problem of lifting and turning bags of lumpy, shifting articles, nor of transporting such bags from a row forming position to a position on a pallet.

The current state of the art does not provide orienting, lifting, transporting, or stacking equipment that can accommodate the articles in the nature of bags of ice cubes.

The state of the art does not provide vacuum heads that are adapted for picking up and maintaining a vacuum on bags of lumpy shifting product.

The state of the art lacks a combination of a primary or infeed conveyor and a staging or collating conveyor, and lacks an effective pick-and-turn mechanism, i.e., lift mechanism for turning either 90 or 180 degrees, so as to orient the bags properly and in an appropriate pattern for stacking.

The state of the art lacks a torsion-spring-based counterbalance for the pallet elevator which increases in spring force with the increasing weight of the pallet as it is filled.

The state of the art does not suggest a convenient, small-footprint solution for an automated ice-bag pallet stacker, and does not suggest apparatus that is especially adapted for automatically stacking bags of ice cubes.

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