Drop Conveyor with Laterally Displaceable Sections for Accurate Item Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for delivering flat and floppy items, such as sliced meat, to a package tray are inefficient and prone to incorrect placement, as they require precise support and uniform dropping, which is difficult to achieve with conventional trap door mechanisms or suction systems.
Innovation Solution
A drop conveyor system with laterally displaceable conveyor sections and guide means that allow for precise positioning and control of items before dropping, using side guides to adjust the position and prevent sticking, and a buffer arrangement to build complete batches before dropping, ensuring items are delivered quickly and neatly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a trap door mechanism is used to drop items into trays, then items can be delivered to the tray, but the items may not always drop vertically and neatly due to uneven support or non-uniform door opening
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system is divided into multiple independently controllable conveyor sections that can be positioned at different longitudinal locations. This segmentation allows precise control over where items are dropped along the tray length, enabling accurate placement while maintaining high delivery speed through parallel processing of multiple sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor sections are made laterally displaceable and controllable, allowing dynamic adjustment of their position and movement. This dynamic capability enables the system to adapt to different tray configurations and item positions, ensuring accurate dropping locations while maintaining efficient throughput.
2Manufacturing precision
If suction units are used to hold items in place during dropping, then items can be kept positioned, but the complexity and requirements of the suction unit increase significantly for handling flat, floppy items
Solution Approach 1:
The suction unit is completely removed from the system. Instead of using complex suction mechanisms to hold items, the invention relies on the natural gravity-based dropping mechanism combined with simple lateral displacement of conveyor sections, eliminating the complexity of suction systems while maintaining positioning accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The complex pneumatic suction system is replaced with a simpler mechanical conveyor system that uses lateral displacement and gravity. This substitution eliminates the need for high-complexity suction units while achieving the same positioning function through mechanical means.
3Ease of operation
If vertical guide belts are used to position items, then items can be guided, but it is only able to handle relatively high, squeezable objects such as filled bags, not flat, floppy pieces of meat
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor sections are made laterally displaceable and controllable, allowing dynamic adjustment of their position and movement. This dynamic capability enables the system to adapt to different tray configurations and item positions, ensuring accurate dropping locations while maintaining efficient throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor system is designed to handle various types of items including flat, floppy items like meat slices, as well as other food items. The universal design allows the same system to accommodate different item geometries and weights without requiring type-specific mechanisms.
4Manufacturing precision
If a variable end point conveyor method is used to deliver items to tray, then items can be placed neatly in shingle fashion, but the method is relatively slow and may be useless if items are not placed correctly on the conveyor at the correct intervals
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system is divided into multiple independently controllable conveyor sections that can be positioned at different longitudinal locations. This segmentation allows precise control over where items are dropped along the tray length, enabling accurate placement while maintaining high delivery speed through parallel processing of multiple sections.
Solution Approach 2:
Items are pre-positioned on the conveyor at correct intervals before reaching the dropping point. The system ensures proper spacing and positioning is established in advance, allowing rapid dropping without requiring slow variable end point adjustment, thus maintaining both speed and precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables efficient and accurate delivery of items into trays or boxes, reducing the risk of incorrect placement and increasing the speed of the process, while allowing for flexible handling of complete or partial batches and discarding of end pieces.
Implementation Method 1
the guide means being laterally displaceable and controllable
Implementation Method 2
dropping the one or more items at a desired position along the length of the drop conveyor
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to an apparatus for delivering one or more items to a desired position on an item carrier, the apparatus comprising a drop conveyor comprising two conveyor sections that are laterally displaceable and controllable in order to enable dropping the one or more items at a desired position along the length of the drop conveyor, characterized in that the drop conveyor comprises guide means placed above the two conveyor sections, the guide means being laterally displaceable and controllable. The present invention further relates to a method of delivering one or more items to a desired position on an item carrier, the method comprising the steps of positioning the item carrier beneath a drop conveyor, transferring one or more items to the drop conveyor, positioning the items on the drop conveyor, adjusting side guides into contact with the items, and opening the drop conveyor so that the items are dropped.