Disk shaft for loading and / or unloading device for handling containers

Abstract

The invention relates to a disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device for handling containers. In order to provide a disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device, which can load and / or unload containers without errors, even with high container throughput, in which the forces and associated wear that are generated can be reduced to a maximum extent and accurate container transport that is low in noise can be achieved, the invention proposes that the disk shaft is provided with at least one disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device, according to the invention, the tray shaft has a plurality of loading and / or unloading trays which are arranged on a common tray shaft for moving the containers from a first position to a second position, each loading and / or unloading tray having three driving fingers distributed over the circumference for supporting the containers to be displaced in the region of the bottom of the container.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a spindle for a loading and / or unloading device for processing containers and to a loading and / or unloading device for the parallel loading and / or unloading of containers, in particular for a container washing machine. Background Art

[0002] Loading and / or unloading devices with a spindle are known in the prior art in various designs and are usually used to load containers to be processed (e.g. returnable bottles to be cleaned) into or unload them from a container processing device. To this end, such unloading devices have a spindle with a plurality of loading and / or unloading disks arranged on the spindle axis, each loading and / or unloading disk having one or two fingers for shifting the container from a first position to a second position.

[0003] DE 25 35 064 A1 already discloses an unloading device for removing containers from a cleaning machine, which has a rotating disk with two fingers for lowering and unloading the cleaned containers.

[0004] However, this device has the disadvantage that during the operation of the two-finger pan, strong acceleration and deceleration forces are generated, which lead to severe wear of the pan shaft and the components of the drive device driving the pan shaft. In addition, during operation with a large container throughput, the rapid rotation of the pan shaft can lead to suboptimal loading and unloading of the containers, which has the following consequences: inaccurate container transport, undesirable noise generation, and generally suboptimal operation of the loading and / or unloading device, errors and interruptions of operation. Summary of the invention

[0005] The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a mandrel for a loading and / or unloading device which enables error-free loading and / or unloading of containers even at high container throughputs, thereby minimizing the forces generated and the associated wear and enabling precise container transport with low noise.

[0006] This object is achieved according to the invention by a spindle for a loading and / or unloading device according to claim 1 and a loading and / or unloading device according to claim 13. Advantageous developments of the invention are given in the dependent claims.

[0007] The loading and / or unloading device of the present invention for handling containers, in particular a disk shaft for parallel loading and / or unloading of containers, has a plurality of loading and / or unloading disks arranged on a common disk shaft axis for shifting corresponding containers from a first position to a second position, wherein each loading and / or unloading disk has three carrying fingers distributed on the circumference for supporting the container to be shifted in the area of ​​the container bottom.

[0008] Furthermore, the invention relates to a loading and / or unloading device for the parallel loading and / or unloading of containers, in particular for a container washing machine, which comprises a spindle according to the invention.

[0009] The inventors have realized that by arranging three or more driving fingers along the circumference of the loading and / or unloading disk, the loading and / or unloading disk can be rotated more slowly, thereby achieving the same container throughput as a device with only one or two driving fingers. As a result, not only can the dimensions of the drive device of the disk shaft be designed to be smaller, but the kinematic characteristics of the driving element, in particular the acceleration and deceleration forces generated, can also be greatly reduced in an advantageous manner. As a result, the connection time between the disk movements is also greatly extended. In addition, wear is also reduced, thereby greatly extending the service life. Finally, due to the slow rotation speed of the disk shaft, the dynamic optimization of the movement process becomes quite easy, so that the operation is more precise and quieter. However, the inventors must fundamentally change the shape and design of the loading and / or unloading disk in order to be able to move containers that follow each other closely with a small distance between each other as before.

[0010] According to the invention, a loading and / or unloading device is a device for simultaneously moving a plurality of containers from one position to another position in order to load the containers into another device or to unload them from another device. The loading and / or unloading device for containers is preferably used in the field of industrial filling of containers, in particular in container washing machines. During the loading and / or unloading process, the displacement of each container from a first position to a second position can be a change in the orientation and / or spatial position of the container, wherein a pure rotation, a pure translation or a superposition of a rotation and a translation can be used for the movement from the first position to the second position.

[0011] According to the invention, the hub is formed by a plurality of loading and / or unloading trays arranged on a hub axis. In this context, the hub is also referred to as a loading axis, a feed axis or an unloading axis. The loading and / or unloading trays are preferably arranged parallel to one another on the hub axis and / or have the same angular orientation, in particular relative to the hub axis. Furthermore, all loading and / or unloading trays are preferably arranged on the hub axis at the same distance from one another or from adjacent trays. This distance is preferably greater than the container diameter and / or less than twice the container diameter.

[0012] In principle, the disk shaft can be formed arbitrarily, in particular can have any cross section. The cross section of the disk shaft is preferably not circular. In addition, the disk shaft is preferably formed as a shaft and preferably as a hollow shaft. Although the disk shaft can also be an assembly assembled from multiple parts, it is preferably formed in one piece.

[0013] In order to keep the moving masses particularly low in an advantageous manner, the loading and / or unloading tray, in particular the tray base of the loading and / or unloading tray, is preferably designed as a lightweight structure and is provided with a plurality of recesses for this purpose. The loading and / or unloading tray, in particular the tray base, is particularly preferably designed as a truss or frame. Particularly preferably, material is removed in non-load-bearing areas and / or material is reduced in the form of struts in load-bearing areas.

[0014] The tray shaft, the loading and / or unloading tray and / or the tray base can in principle be made of any material, wherein the components of the tray shaft, in particular the loading and / or unloading tray, the tray base, the tray shaft, the frame and / or other components are preferably made of metal, in particular stainless steel. In addition, the loading and / or unloading tray can also be made entirely or at least partially of plastic, in particular in the area that comes into contact with the container.

[0015] The container can be essentially any container, wherein the container is preferably made of plastic or glass and / or is used to hold food, in particular beverages. Thus, the container is preferably a bottle. Furthermore, the container is preferably part of a reusable system and is therefore preferably a reusable bottle, in particular a bottle made of glass or plastic.

[0016] According to the invention, each loading and / or unloading tray has three entraining fingers which are evenly distributed over the circumference of the loading and / or unloading tray so that after each 120° rotation of the tray axis, a container to be displaced can be received. Accordingly, the even distribution of the entraining fingers over the circumference means that if there are three entraining fingers on the loading and / or unloading tray, one entraining finger is arranged every 120°; if there are four entraining fingers on the loading and / or unloading tray, one entraining finger is arranged every 90°.

[0017] In principle, the loading and / or unloading tray can be designed as a multi-finger tray with any number of entraining fingers, wherein the loading and / or unloading tray preferably has 3 to 5 entraining fingers, particularly preferably 3 to 4 entraining fingers. However, if the number of entraining fingers is too large, there is a risk of collisions between consecutive containers in the area of ​​the loading and / or unloading tray, in particular if the diameter of the loading and / or unloading tray is not increased in comparison with a loading and / or unloading tray with only one or two entraining fingers to achieve compatibility with the corresponding loading and / or unloading device.

[0018] The basic function of the entraining finger is to support the container to be displaced in the region of the container base, wherein this support is preferably provided during the entire displacement process and / or the entire contact process of the container with the loading and / or unloading tray. The surface of the entraining finger is preferably in continuous contact with the container base, and particularly preferably the entraining finger at least partially, in particular at least predominantly, supports the weight of the container to be displaced. In order for the entraining finger to be in particularly gentle contact with the container, the entraining finger is preferably made of plastic at least in the region in contact with the container, i.e., the contact region.

[0019] In an advantageous development of the disk shaft of the present invention, the loading and / or unloading disk consists of at least one disk base fixed to the disk shaft and a driving element detachably fixed to the disk base and having driving fingers, so that the driving fingers can be replaced particularly easily and the structure of the loading and / or unloading disk is also particularly simple.

[0020] Although the loading and / or unloading tray can in principle consist of only one tray base, in a preferred development of the disk shaft of the invention, the loading and / or unloading tray consists of two tray bases, which are arranged on each other and together surround the disk shaft axis, wherein particularly preferably one entraining element is arranged on one tray base and two entraining elements are arranged on the other tray base. By dividing the loading and / or unloading tray into at least two tray segments, each consisting of a tray base, the loading and / or unloading tray can be very easily fixed or mounted on the disk shaft. In this case, all the tray segments of the loading and / or unloading tray basically completely surround the disk shaft axis. The loading and / or unloading tray preferably has 2-4 tray segments, particularly preferably 2-3 tray segments. In addition, all the loading and / or unloading trays of the disk shaft preferably consist of the same number of tray segments and / or tray bases. Particularly preferably, all the loading and / or unloading trays of the disk shaft are identical to each other. When designing the loading and / or unloading trays, the two tray substrates are preferably not identical to one another, if one tray substrate has one entraining element and the other tray substrate has two entraining elements.

[0021] According to an advantageous technical solution of the disk shaft of the present invention, all the driving elements of the loading and / or unloading disk are identical in shape and / or are formed in one piece, so that replacement is particularly convenient and quick, and only one driving element is required. In addition, the driving element is preferably formed as a plate-shaped plastic part.

[0022] Although each carrying element can have any number of carrying fingers and / or for supporting the back of the container to be shifted, it is preferred that each carrying element has a carrying finger (preferably exactly one carrying finger) and a back (preferably exactly one back). Here, the carrying finger and / or the back are formed in such a way that the carrying finger contacts the container to be shifted only in the container bottom area and / or the back contacts the container to be shifted only in the container side wall area. In another design of the carrying element with carrying fingers and back, the carrying element can also have only one carrying finger or one back, in which case the carrying element with carrying fingers and the carrying element with back are particularly preferably arranged alternately along the circumference of the disk axis. It is particularly preferred that at least one carrying element with carrying fingers and one carrying element with back are arranged together on the disk base. Like the carrying fingers, the back plate is preferably formed of plastic, in particular of the same plastic as the carrying fingers.

[0023] In a preferred design of the disk shaft of the present invention, the driving finger is designed into such a shape that during the entire displacement process of the container, the driving finger has only one contact point with the container, which is located in the bottom area of ​​the container and preferably in the central area of ​​the bottom of the container, so as to achieve guidance with as little friction as possible. In the sense of the present invention, the contact point is a non-two-dimensionally extended contact surface, that is, a linear or point-shaped contact area, wherein the contact point on the surface of the driving finger can move with the movement of the container. However, even so, at any time during the movement, the contact between the container and the driving finger is only in one area, that is, the respective contact point. On the contrary, in this design of the present invention, surface contact is not desired, in particular, the container cannot be against the surface of the driving finger in a surface manner and / or at multiple points.

[0024] Furthermore, in a particularly preferred embodiment of the spindle according to the invention, the entraining finger has a strongly convexly curved surface in the region of the contact surface for producing a contact point with the container to be displaced, wherein the radius of the curvature is preferably at most 50%, particularly preferably at most 25%, very particularly preferably at most 10% of the bottle diameter. The contact point preferably lies on the contact surface during the entire displacement of the container, wherein the contact point on the contact surface can be displaced, particularly preferably continuously during the displacement process.

[0025] In order to achieve low-friction guidance of the container to be displaced also in the back region, the back preferably also has a strongly convex curved surface in the region of the contact surface with the displaced container, in particular in the region of the contact points, wherein the radius of the curvature is preferably 50%, particularly preferably 25%, very particularly preferably 15% of the bottle diameter. In order to achieve a dynamic guidance of the container to be displaced, in an advantageous embodiment of the spindle according to the invention, the entraining element is formed such that during the entire displacement of the container, the contact points of the entraining fingers with the container bottom and the contact points of the back with the container side wall are spaced apart from each other and / or the entraining fingers have no adjacent contact points and the back has no adjacent contact points with the container. Particularly preferably, the edge of the bottle bottom and / or the bottle side wall has no continuous contact with a part of the entraining element, in particular with the entraining fingers and / or with the back, so that skewed and / or discontinuous guidance is avoided.

[0026] In order to achieve an unimpeded, in particular collision-free displacement of successive containers by means of individual loading and / or unloading trays of a tray shaft, the individual entraining elements must be arranged along the circumference of the loading and / or unloading tray on the respective tray base body in such a way that the distance between two successive entraining elements, in particular in the region in which they are fastened to the tray base body, is at least as great as the length of the entraining elements in this region or in the circumferential direction. The gap or free distance between the individual entraining elements is therefore greater than the length of the entraining elements in the circumferential direction or the angular section of the entraining elements in the circumferential direction.

[0027] In order to make the installation of the loading and / or unloading disc on the disk shaft particularly simple and the positioning particularly precise, the disc substrates are arranged on the disk shaft and fixed to each other and in particular screwed to each other in such a way that fixing to the disk shaft by means of prismatic clamping is achieved and / or each disc substrate and the disk shaft are formed in such a way that all disc substrates are self-centering and / or forced to align relative to the disk shaft during the fixing process. In general, the disc substrate or the disc segment and the entire loading and / or unloading disc composed of them are preferably fixed to the disk shaft only by clamping. In this case, the disc substrate, in particular two disc substrates that are opposite to each other relative to the disk shaft, are arranged so that a force acts on a surface on both sides of the disk shaft on both sides, thereby achieving rotational fixing and / or translational fixing with the disk shaft. It is particularly preferred that the clamping is carried out in such a way that a force is applied to each surface section along the circumference of the disk shaft and / or on the surface between the disk shaft and the disc substrate.

[0028] Finally, in another preferred embodiment of the hub according to the invention, the loading and / or unloading tray is formed in one piece and has a shaft opening for positive locking on the hub shaft and a section formed as a driver finger and / or back plate, which makes production particularly economical and simple. In addition, the entire loading and / or unloading tray preferably has a constant material thickness. In addition, the loading and / or unloading tray is preferably also made of plastic. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] Several embodiments of the loading and / or unloading device and the disk shaft of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

[0030] Figure 1 A perspective view showing a loading and / or unloading device for handling containers;

[0031] Figure 2 Show Figure 1 A perspective view of the disk shaft of the loading and / or unloading device shown in;

[0032] Figure 3 Show Figure 2 A side view of the disc shaft shown in;

[0033] Figure 4 Show Figure 2 and Figure 3 A view of the installation position of the disk shaft in the loading and / or unloading device shown in ; and

[0034] Figure 5 A perspective view of a further embodiment of a disk hub with a one-piece loading and / or unloading disk is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] exist Figure 1In the illustrated embodiment of the loading and / or unloading device 2 , a hub 1 for parallel loading and / or unloading of containers 5 is arranged inside the housing.

[0036] Here, the disk hub 1 is formed by a plurality of loading and / or unloading disks 4 arranged parallel to one another on a disk hub axis 3. The loading and / or unloading disks 4 are composed here of two disk bases 8 made of stainless steel, which together substantially completely surround the disk hub axis 3 (see Figure 2 ). In this case, the loading and / or unloading tray 4 is fixed to the tray shaft 3 by means of a tray base 8 only in a clamping manner, so that due to the square cross section of the tray shaft 3, the loading and / or unloading tray 4 is self-centering.

[0037] On the tray base 8 of the loading and / or unloading tray 4, three entraining elements 9 are arranged evenly distributed on the circumference (see Figure 3 ), wherein the entraining elements 9 are each formed in one piece from plastic. In order to be able to replace the entraining elements 9 particularly easily, they are fixed on the disc base 8.

[0038] Each entraining element 9 has an entraining finger 6 for lifting or lowering the container 5 in the area of ​​the container bottom 7 and a back 10 for supporting the container 5 in the area of ​​the container side wall 11. The entraining finger 6 and the back 10 each have a strongly convex curved surface 13, 15, so that the container 5 moved by the loading and / or unloading tray 4 during the entire movement only contacts the linear contact surfaces 12, 14 of the entraining finger 6 and the back 10 (see Figure 4 ), so that the container 5 can slide on the driving element 9 particularly easily and with low friction.

[0039] Figure 5 Another loading and / or unloading tray 4 shown is formed from plastic in one piece and also has three entraining fingers 6 evenly distributed on the circumference and a back 10. Here, the loading and / or unloading tray 4 is fixed only by means of a positive fit with the aid of an axial opening 16 of the loading and / or unloading tray 4, which is adapted to the cross-sectional shape of the tray shaft 3. In this embodiment, the area of ​​the entraining fingers 6 and the back 10 is also formed so that the container 6 to be displaced is in contact with the loading and / or unloading tray 4 at only two contact points at any time.

[0040] Reference numerals list

[0041] 1 disc shaft

[0042] 2 Loading and / or unloading equipment

[0043] 3 disc shaft

[0044] 4 Loading and / or unloading disks

[0045] 5. Container

[0046] 6 Carrying finger

[0047] 7. Container bottom

[0048] 8 Plate base

[0049] 9 Carrying element

[0050] 10 Back

[0051] 11 Container side wall

[0052] 12 Contact surface of the driving finger

[0053] 13 Convex curved surface of the carrier finger

[0054] 14 Back contact surface

[0055] 15 Convex curved surface on the back

[0056] 16-axis opening.

Claims

1. A disk shaft (1) for a loading and / or unloading device (2) for handling containers, comprising: - a plurality of loading and / or unloading trays (4) arranged on a common tray axis (3) for shifting corresponding containers (5) from a first position to a second position, wherein Each loading and / or unloading tray (4) has three entraining fingers (6) distributed over the circumference for supporting the container (5) to be displaced in the region of the container base (7).

2. The disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to claim 1, characterized in that The loading and / or unloading disk (4) is formed by at least one disk base (8) which can be fixed on a disk shaft (3) and a driving element (9) which is releasably fixed on the disk base (8) and has the driving fingers (6).

3. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The loading and / or unloading disk (4) is formed by two disk bases (8) which are arranged on one another and which jointly surround the disk axis (3), wherein one driving element (9) is arranged on one disk base (8) and two driving elements (9) are arranged on the other disk base (8).

4. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that All driving elements (9) of a loading and / or unloading tray (4) are of identical shape and / or are each formed in one piece.

5. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that Each entraining element (9) has exactly one entraining finger (6) and exactly one back portion (10), wherein the entraining finger and the back portion are formed such that the entraining finger (6) contacts the container (5) to be displaced only in the region of the container bottom (7) and the back portion (10) contacts the container (5) to be displaced only in the region of the container side wall (11).

6. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The entraining finger (6) is shaped in such a way that during the entire displacement of the container (5), the entraining finger (6) has only one contact point with the container (5) in the region of the center of the container bottom.

7. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The entraining finger (6) has a convexly curved surface (13) in the region of the contact surface (12) for producing a contact point with the container (5) to be displaced, wherein the radius of the curvature is at most 10% of the diameter of the bottle.

8. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The back (10) has a convexly curved surface (15) in the region of the contact surface (14) for producing contact with the container (5) to be displaced, wherein the radius of the curvature is a maximum of 15% of the bottle diameter.

9. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The carrying element (9) is formed so that during the entire displacement of the container (5), the contact points of the carrying finger (6) with the container bottom (7) and the contact points of the back (10) with the container side wall (11) are spaced apart from each other, and / or the carrying finger (6) and the container (5) do not have adjacent contact with each other and at the same time the back (10) and the container (5) do not have adjacent contact with each other.

10. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The individual entraining elements (9) are arranged along the circumference of the loading and / or unloading tray (4) on the respective tray base (8) so that the distance between two following entraining elements (9) is at least the same as the length of the entraining elements (9).

11. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The disc base (8) is arranged on the disc shaft (3) and is screwed to each other, so as to be fixed on the disc shaft (3) by prism clamping.

12. A disk shaft for a loading and / or unloading device according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The loading and / or unloading disk (4) is formed in one piece and has a shaft opening (16) for positive-locking fastening to a disk shaft (3) and sections formed as driver fingers (6) and a back (10).

13. A loading and / or unloading device (2) for the parallel loading and / or unloading of containers (5), in particular for a container washing machine, comprising a hub (1) according to at least one of claims 1 to 12.

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