DE29713840U1 - Device for separating empty buckets - Google Patents

Description

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Company Langguth GmbH & Co., Im Südfeld 17, D-48308 Senden-Bösensell"

"Device for separating empty buckets" 5

The innovation relates to a device for separating empty buckets stacked with their open top facing downwards or upwards.

There is a particular difficulty in the paint industry

in that the buckets that hold the paint, usually also equipped with a handle and made of plastic, are fed in stacked form, then have to be unstacked and possibly turned over in order to then guide the buckets with their open side under a filling station.

Today, this work is largely carried out manually, with the handle attached to the bucket in particular making it difficult to unstack the buckets, as this handle repeatedly gets caught on the buckets underneath.

The innovation is based on the task of creating a device that makes it possible to unstack bucket stacks that are brought in on a conveyor belt and to feed them individually to the filling station with their open side facing upwards. Another task of the innovation must be seen in the fact that buckets of different

capacity can be processed with the same device without having to interrupt large destacking processes.

This task underlying the innovation is carried out by the

Doctrine of the main claim resolved.

Advantageous embodiments are explained in the subclaims.
35

In other words, the procedure is such that the bucket stack, which is supplied by any supply device, for example a conveyor belt or the like, and consists of buckets placed one inside the other with their open side facing downwards, for example, is fed to a lifting device

which guides this bucket stack upwards in cycles. When the bucket stack is transferred to the lifting device, centering devices ensure that not only this bucket stack is now correctly aligned vertically, i.e. that one or the other bucket does not protrude or that the entire stack has a

arched shape, but this centering device simultaneously causes an adjustment of the following lifting and working units to the size of the buckets, i.e. by moving the centering device closer to the bucket stack and thus placing the centering device on the buckets, the

Lifting claws and holding claws adjusted accordingly to the size of the bucket.

By raising the lifting plate in cycles, the buckets reach the holding area according to their size.

en that overlap the bulge of the penultimate bucket in the stack, so that when the last bucket in the stack is lifted, the penultimate bucket cannot be moved with it.

The lifting claws arranged in the area of the holding jaws move

then lift the upper bucket in the bucket stack upwards and thereby guide it into the area of a lifting and turning belt, which preferably consists of two rotating, oppositely driven knobbed belts, which now turn the gripped bucket by 180° and lift it with the of

Place it with the open side facing up.

In the case of bucket stacks where the buckets are facing upwards and do not need to be turned, the clamp conveyor is designed and arranged in such a way that it can be turned in the

Principle works as described above, but on the way the bucket

does not rotate, but the bucket is only moved sideways after being lifted out of the raised bucket stack and then transported back down and placed on the storage table.

If, as is almost always the case, the buckets are equipped with handles, it is

required that after the penultimate bucket has been secured by the corresponding holding claw, the holding claw only grips the bucket on one side, while the opposite holding claw is still removed and now a swivel finger is operated by a rotary motor, which

The handle of the bucket is lifted and placed against the outer wall of the top bucket. Then the opposite holding claw also moves over the bead of the second to last bucket, and now the lifting claws can lift the bucket and separate it from the stack.

Instead of the aforementioned rotary motor, a pneumatic and possibly hydraulic piston-cylinder arrangement can of course also be used. If the buckets are equipped with plastic handles, it can be useful to have

of the bucket stack, a turning device should be provided so that the handle can now be swivelled into its upper position from both sides of the bucket. It is then not possible for the plastic handle to become jammed.

All movements of the various servomotors are coordinated with one another and programmed so that this coordinated swivel movement occurs in the same rhythm for all different bucket sizes.

The adjustment for the different bucket sizes can be done manually or via adjusting spindle.

An embodiment of the innovation is described below with reference to the drawings. The drawings show

relatively schematic in

Fig. 1 is a side view of the new

direction, in

Fig. 2 in a larger view the allocation of the

Centering device for the holding and lifting claws

as well as the lifting and turning belt, in

Fig. 3 the position in which one holding claw holds the

last bucket and the handle of the top bucket is still hanging down,

Fig. 4 shows the handle of the

top bucket,

Fig. 5 shows that the second shark claw then

holds the penultimate bucket on the bead and

Fig. 6 shows the lifted by the lifting jacks

top bucket, which is in the area of the lifting and

turning belt.

The embodiment described below refers to plastic buckets with metal handles, so that only one swivel device is required, whereby the

The embodiment describes the case in which the buckets are delivered stacked with their open top facing downwards and must be delivered to the filling station with their open top facing upwards. The innovation is by no means limited to this embodiment.

In Fig. 1, 1 designates a lifting plate on which a stack of buckets is arranged, which is already partially raised so that some of the buckets are already turned over and placed on a storage table 12. In Fig. 1, the bucket is generally designated 6.

net, and the lifting or clamping and turning belt 11 can be seen.

In the illustration in Fig. 2, a centering rod 3 arranged on one side can be seen, which is connected to a

motor can be moved into the area of the bucket stack, whereby this

The movement depends on the size of the bucket in the stack. Opposite the centering rod 3, centering rods 4 and 5 are provided, which can also be moved towards the bucket stack by motor and now align the stack vertically. In the upper area of these centering rods

In the direction of the bucket, holding claws 7 and 8 are provided, which can be moved towards the bucket stack by means of motor drive devices. Furthermore, in Fig. 2, a pivoting finger 14 driven by a rotary motor 15 can be seen, which reaches into the area of the bucket stack and the

Handle 16 (Fig. 4) can be grasped and lifted. Furthermore, in Fig. 2, nubbed bands 17 and 18 arranged above the holding claws 7 and 8 can be seen, which are driven in a rotating manner, are located opposite one another and are able to

are able to grasp and transport the buckets without deforming or displacing them.

In the illustration in Fig. 3, the shark claw 7 is inserted between the uppermost bucket 6b and the penultimate bucket 6a and

has laid over the bead of the penultimate bucket 6a. The holding claw 8 has not moved from its initial position, so that there is a free space between the front edge of the holding claw and the edge of the bucket. Fig. 4 shows that the swivel finger 14 visible in Fig. 2 now holds the handle 16 of the

top bucket 6b has been pivoted into a high position, so that the holding claw 8 can now also be placed on the edge of the bucket 6a above the bead of this bucket. This position is clearly shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 5 shows that the top bucket 6b is designed for a lifting movement

is released, but the buckets underneath cannot be moved if, for example, the topmost bucket 6b is jammed with the bucket 6a underneath for some reason.

Fig. 6 then shows that the lifting claws 9 and 10 located above the holding claws 7 and 8 have extended in a vertical direction. In doing so, they have gripped the bead of the uppermost bucket 6b, thereby lifting it up with the raised handle 16, so that the uppermost bucket 6b has come into the effective range of the knobbed bands 17 and 18. The protruding knobs of these knobbed bands 17 and 18 have gripped the bucket relatively gently and now guide it upwards, as can be clearly seen from the illustration in Fig. 1, turn it by 180° and then place it with its

open side facing upwards onto the storage table 12.

The filling device for the material to be taken up by the buckets, which is connected to the storage table, which may be designed as a conveyor belt, is not shown for reasons of clarity.

shown.

The entire device operates in a pre-settable cycle, is adjustable to the size of the buckets and can also be set to the desired sequence of the

Bucket sequence can be set. This allows continuous removal of buckets from the storage table, whereby the speed of this continuous removal can be based on the filling speed of the filling machine.

Claims (9)

HABBEL & HABBEL PATENT ATTORNEYS PO Box 3429 ♦ 48019 Münster DIPL.-INQ. H.-Q. HABBEL DIPL.-INQ. LUTZ HABBEL EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEYS DIPL.-QEOQR. PETER HABBEL TELEPHONE (0£51) 535 780 * FAX (0251) 531 996 OUR FILE: (please artßcbenj L6/19991 X/SC Münster, 31 July 1997 Company Langguth GmbH & Co., Im Südfeld 17, D-48308 Senden-Bösensell" "Device for separating buckets" Protection claims : 1. Device for separating stacked empty buckets, characterized by , a) a vertically operating lifting plate (1) for the bucket stack (2), b) a centering device for the bucket stack (2) provided in the area of the lifting plate (1) and consisting of individual vertical centering rods (3, 4, 5), c) retaining claws (7, 8) securing the penultimate top bucket (6a) against upward movement, d) lifting claws (9, 10) which lift the uppermost bucket (6b) and grip the edge of the uppermost bucket (6b) and lift it up, -2- e) a clamping band (11) which secures the lifting jaws (9, 10) grasps the raised bucket (6b) on both sides, lifts it up and places it with the open side upwards on a storage table (12).
5 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that in the case of buckets which are stacked with their open top side downwards, the clamping and turning belt (11) turns the lifted bucket by 180° and places it with the open side upwards on a storage table (12). 3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by a pivoting finger (14) driven by one or two rotary motors (15) or pneumatic piston-cylinder arrangements in the region of the holding jaws (7, 8) and the lifting jaws (9, 10), which the handle (16) arranged on the bucket swings from its folded-down position into a raised position. 4. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lifting and turning belt (11) consists of two formed by rotating driven knob belts (17, 18) which are arranged on both sides of the bucket path and which grasp, lift, turn and set down the bucket raised by the claws (9, 10).
25 5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the holding claws (7, 8) on the one hand and the lifting claws (9, 10) on the other hand consist of flat plates which, lying on top of one another, can be moved by motor on both sides to the bucket above the bucket bead, whereby the Lifting claws (9, 10) can be moved from their lowered position into a lifting position and in doing so lift the bucket located above them by gripping under the bucket bulge. 6. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized characterized in that the centering rods (3, 4, 5) can be programmed to be preset to the respective bucket size to be processed and then center the bucket stack by pressure on the bucket stack. -3- trier. 7. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the rotating device (15) for the pivoting finger (14) carries out only a partial rotational movement and after lifting When the bucket is lifted by the lifting claws (9, 10) into the area of the lifting and turning belt (11), the handle (16) is released and returns to its starting position. 8. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized characterized in that the storage table is designed as a conveyor belt that leads the upright buckets to a filling station. 9. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lifting plate (1) is arranged at the end of one of the feed conveyor belt used to move the bucket stack, whereby the bucket stack is transferred from the conveyor belt to the lifting plate.