Bottom Loading Erected Cases With Fence Retraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing packaging systems face challenges in loading items into erected cases, particularly when items are narrow or tapered, leading to difficulties in automated loading and potential damage to items like glass or plastic bottles during top loading.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising an item delivery apparatus, a collation platform, a pedestal, and a transfer apparatus, which delivers and collates items, surrounds them with a fence, and uses a cartesian robot to move an erected case blank to sheath the items, allowing for bottom loading and efficient sealing of the case.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If top loading is used to load items into erected cases, then the loading process can be simplified, but items like glass or plastic bottles are susceptible to being damaged or broken
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional top-loading approach by implementing bottom-loading of items into erected cases. The case blank is positioned upright with the opening facing downward, and items are fed through the bottom opening using a feed mechanism. This inversion allows items to be loaded gently without risk of damage to fragile items like glass or plastic bottles, while maintaining automated loading capability.
2Productivity
If automated loading systems are used, then productivity increases, but narrow or tapered items present challenges for automated loading
Solution Approach 1:
By inverting the loading direction to bottom-loading with the case opening facing downward, the system enables automated feeding of narrow and tapered items through the bottom opening. The feed mechanism can effectively handle these difficult-to-load items without requiring complex manipulation, thus maintaining high productivity while improving ease of operation for challenging item geometries.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a feed mechanism as an intermediary device that facilitates the automated loading of narrow and tapered items into the upright case. This feed mechanism acts as a mediator between the item supply and the case interior, enabling smooth feeding of difficult items without direct mechanical manipulation, thus resolving the contradiction between automation and loading difficulty.
3Quantity of substance
If case blanks are provided in a flattened tubular configuration, then storage efficiency improves, but reconfiguration to erected state requires additional processing
Solution Approach 1:
The case blanks are pre-formed into a flattened tubular configuration with pre-scored crease lines and pre-applied adhesive strips. This preliminary preparation allows the case blank to be quickly and easily reconfigured into the upright erected state by simple expansion and folding actions, minimizing the complexity of the reconfiguration process while maintaining high storage density.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed for loading cases with items. An item delivery apparatus delivers a plurality of items to a location for collating the items on a collation platform. A transfer apparatus transfers a plurality of items from the collation platform to a pedestal, where the plurality of items are surrounded, on three sides, by a fence. A case movement apparatus, such as a cartesian robot moves an erected case blank in a path that sheaths, with the erected case blank, a group of items located on the pedestal. As the case blank is dropped vertically downward to sheath the group of items, the fence is moved vertically downward and out of the way of further processing of the, now loaded, case blank.