US1454507A - Feeding mechanism - Google Patents

Description

May 8, 1923. 1,454,507

J. CONTE FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 21, 1921 @heets-Sheei 1 May 8, 1923.

J. CONTE FEEDING MECHANISM- 4 Sheeis-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 21 1921 W fl w m M Q Fl @Qmmm. \Q h WM .Q [I 7 6 Q m w M May 8, 1923.

J. CONTE FEEDING MEGHANI SM Filed Feb, 214. 4 Sheets-Shet s May 8, 1923. 1,4541-507 J.CONTE FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 21, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 j Tar/ 67W".

Patented May 8, 1923.

UNITED. STATS JAMES comma, or nnsrnernns, ILLINOIS.

' FEEDING MECHANISM.

Application filed February 21, 1921. Serial No. 446,663

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES CONTE, a citizen'of the United States, residing at Desplaines, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Feeding Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to mechanism of the class shown in my prior Patent No. 1,377,399 dated May 10, 1921, and has for its principal object the organization of the various instrumentalities for initially discharging the articles, their proper disposition and delivery to the grading elements, their receipt from the grading elements, and their delivery to the row-forming mechanism so that-the machine as a whole will operate more nearly automatically and will cause much less waste through breakage incident to a congestion of the articles in the row-forming mechanism than has heretofore been possible.

More particularly this invention relates to the handling of nut meats that arereceived from a sorter and grader so that they may be delivered to a coating machine at the desired speed and in substantially uniform and regular order or alinement. In my prior application for Letters Patent of the United States for an improved sorting and grading apparatus, which was filed June 9, 1920, Serial No. 387,550 and issued as Patent No. 1,377,399, I have disclosed an apparatus wherein the articles to be graded and sorted are received from a hopper upon a slowly moving conveyor or apron and from which the articles are discharged upon a plurality of shaker bars (or a Grisley screen), so that only-the desired articles remainupon the bars to be later discharged from their outer ends. At this point, my present apparatus is adapted to receive the articles discharged from the shaker-bars and distribute them uniformly over a timing conveyor or apron from which they are received upon a second or feed conveyor where the articles are arranged by spaced guide strips to aline them in rows for their delivery to a machine for coating the articles. With my improved mechanism the articles, which may be nuts or the like, are delivered to the coating machine in longitudinal rows through: the action of the strips before mentioned, and the two conveyors or aprons regulate the speed of travel of the nut meats so that the feed and delivery of the nut meats will be properly controlled so as to. deliver, just the proper quantity to the coater withoutliability of the nut meats coating machine. Among the divers objects of thetpresent mvention are the provision of a feeding mechanism that is capable of controlling the speed at which the articles are fed from the machine; that will handle the articles so that it will not cause injury to them; that will alin the articles in uniform rowsprior to delivery; that is comparatively economical to manufacture, and which is novel, compact and durable in construction and dependable in its operation. I prefer to accomplish the divers objects of my invention in substanpiling up at the tially the manner hereinafter set forth, andas more particularly pointed out in the claims, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings forming aportion of this specification, in Which Figure-1 is a top plan of the sorting and gradingportion of my improved apparatus.

Figure 2 is a similar view of the regulat ing, alining and feeding portion of said apparatus, and continuing from the left-hand end of Figure 1.

Figure 3is a longitudinal side elevation of the structure illustrated in Figure 2.;

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail. in side ele vation of the regulatingior timingapron and table.

Figure 5 is a transverse vertical section taken on line 5-5, Figure 3, lookingin the direction indicated by the arrows.

F'gure 6 is a fragmentaltop plan, en 'larged, of the delivery portion of the structure shown in F igure2. I

v Figure 7 is a transverse vertical section taken on line 77, Figure 2, and slightly enlarged. I I Figure 8 is a longitudinal vertical section taken on line 88, Figure 6f Figure 9 is a diagrammatic side elevation of'th driving mechanism shown at the top of Figure 1 Figure 10 is a fragmentary plan: of the. structure shown in the central portion of 'tical section of the brush structure-ordrag employed in connection with the regulating or timing apron. v

The structure illustrated in plan in Figure 1 of the drawings is substantially the same as that disclosed in my co-pending application for Letters Patent of the United States filed June 9,1920, Serial Number 387,- 550, and issued as Patent No. 1,377,399, for improvements in a grading and sorting machine with the exception that the second or lower set of grading bars is omitted for the obvious reason that after the first or top grader has sorted the nut meats so as to retain only the full-size meats, the culls, halves, hulls, etc., that fall through this first grader need no further grading as they are of no use in the present type of machine.

The grading structure shown herein comprises a suitable frame 20 consisting of standards and rails in which the mechanism is mounted and supported, and at the righthand end of Figure l is shown a hopper 21 into which the batch of nut-meats is deposited and which is provided in its bottom with an elongated discharge opening 22, while below this opening travels a slowly moving conveyor belt or apron 23. A brush 24 is mounted in the opening to act as a drag upon-the nut meats thereby acting as a distributor and gauge to regulate the quantity of meats deposited upon the apron 23. The apron is mounted upon a flat table 25 which, at its end farthest from the hopper, is provided with a cross-piece 26 that is adjustable longitudinally of the apron to tighten or slacken the same through the medium of set-screws 27 and L-shaped arm 28 that are secured to the ends of the crosspiece. The opposite portion of the apron .which is below hopper 21, passes over a driving drum 29, the spindle whereof is journaled in bearings in the side of the supporting frame 20, and is adjusted longitudinally of the machine through the medium of set-screws 30. A worm pinion 31 is mounted upon one end of the drum spindle that is driven by a worm upon a horizontally disposed shaft 32 having a miter gear 33 adjacent its opposite end that derives its motion froma miter gear 34 on a transverse shaft 35 extending across the frame; The shaft 35 is actuated through the medium of a chain and sprocket mechanism 36 that is actuated from the main drive-shaft 37 mounted transversely of the frame and below the end of the table opposite the hopper.

From apron 23 the nut meats are discharged slowly upon a vertical vibratory screen or grader 38 formed of a plurality of longitudinally disposed grading bars mounted in spaced relation upon transverse pieces 39. This grader screen has flared side walls 40 to prevent theshaking ofi' ofthe nut meats and is given a rapid vibratory movement through the instrumentalities of chute 41 has vertical side walls 42, and its upper edge is disposed in a plane slightly below the plane of the lower end of'the Grisle-y screen, so that none of the'perfect or sorted nut meats will belost. The chute 41'discharges the nut meats upon an apron 43 that slowly moves towards the coating machine. This apron is mounted upon a table 44, similar in construction to table 25 heretofore alluded to, and at its forward end is provided with an adjustable tensioning bar 45 that slackens or tightens the belt or apron through the instrumentality of the L-shaped brackets 46 that are engaged by the adjusting bolts 47. The opposite portion of the apron passes around a driving. drum 48 the spindle whereof is mounted in journal boxes or bearings in T-shaped brackets 49 arising from opposite sides of.

frame 20 and which are adjusted through the medium of adjusting bolts 50. Extending from chute 41 and forming substantially a continuance of side-walls 42'thereof are the guards 51' that are mounted upon supports 52 secured to the table so as to elevate the lower edge of the guards a slight distance above table 44 in order to permit apron 43 to pass under the same, but it will be understood the space between the apron and the lower edges of these guards is not sufiicient to permit any of' the nut meats becoming caught therebetween, or being discharged therethrough. This apron 43 is actuated through the medium of a 'worm pinion 53 upon the spindle of drum 48 that derives its motion from a worm 54 upon the adjacent end of a shaft 55 extending longitudinally of the frame. The opposite end of shaft 55 is connected by a sprocket 56.

and chain 57 to a sprocket 58 upon the extended end of shaft 32, as shown inFigures 1 and 9 of the drawings.

Connecting the rear portions of the side walls or guards 51 is a transverse'bar 59 that is provided with vertically elongated slots 60 through which bolts 61 pass; said bolts being passed through the block 62 which carries a. brush 63 along its lower edge. By moving the'brush vertically so that bolts 61 move longitudinally in the slots 60 the position of the brush with re- 7 spect to apron 43 may be adjusted and then secured by means of a wing-nut '64, as shown in detail in Figure 12. .Thepurpos'e ofthis brush .is to, act as a'drag above'apron. 43 to regulate the .quantit'yof nut meats passing under the brush, and to distribute; the same transversely and evenly upon the apron.

It may occur that apron 23 feeds the nuts too. rapidly to the sorting or Grisley screen 38, in which event thexnut meats would become piled uponthe mechanism for alining and conveyingthem to the coating speed and quantity of nut meats fed to ,the

alining mechanism so that the latter will not become congested and breakthe meats. I have shown no portion of the enrobing or coating apparatus for thereason that this structure forms no portion of myinvention, but such apparatus is well known and needs a no description here.

From apron 4L3 the nut meats are discharged upon a feed apron 65 which travelsover a table 66. toyconvey the nut meats to the enrobing or coating apparatus. The apron 65 is driven by a drum 67, the spindle whereof carries upon one end a worm pinion 68 in mesh with a worm 69 mounted upon the adjacent portion of a longitudinally disposed drive-shaft 70. This shaft 70 is synchronized with the drivingmechanism of the enrobing or coating apparatus, preferably with the mechanism that conveys the nut meats or articles through said apparatus. It is necessary in the feeding of the nut meats to the enrober or coating apparatus to discharge them onto the receiving structure in longitudinally disposed rows, each nut meat being spaced slightly from the preceding nut meat, and the rows separated a predetermined distance. This I accomplish by means of the structure illustrated in plan in Fig. 2, and the details whereof are shown in Figs. 5 to 11 of the drawings.

Mounted above table 66 and apron 65 is a shaker and row forming mechanism. This comprises a plurality of longitudinally disposed parallel bars 71 connected at their ends by cross pieces 72 so as to form a rectangular shaped frame. The bars 71 are suitably mounted by means of screws, or the like, upon similarly arranged metal straps 73, which, adjacent their ends, are secured by screws or the like to cross-pieces 72, and at the end nearest the enrobing apparatus extend under and beyond cross-piece 72,fas seen in Figs. 6 and 8 of the drawings. These metal straps afford a smooth surface to contact apron 65 in its travel over table 66 and prevent,=toa great extent, theunnecessary wear upon the apron. Theend of the struc- I ture, just described, adjacent the enrobing or coating apparatus, is preferably pivotally connected at onev of" its corners notable, 66

through themedium of a' pivot pin'74; This pin 74; is inserted in a recess or openi'ngin the table, and for the purpose of adjusting the structurewith respect to the enrober apparatus, a plurality .of openings 75 arema'de in cross-piece-I72'. In order that the nut meats may passreadily under bars; 72.

the. latter are formed; with notches or re.-

cesses 76 which arch over the spaces between the longitudinally disposed-bars- 71 which bars 71. The lower portion of'the tray or chute 78 is'provided with a plurality of recesses 79 in order that said chute will fit down between bars 71 so as to insure the nut 58.0 readily permits; of thepass age-of the nut meats being fed into the spaces between the same.

The cross-piece 72 which is disposed below inclined tray or chute 78 is: extended beyond the table a slight distance, as shown in detail in Figure 5, and has a depending extension 80 secured to its under portion. This extension is provided with an elongated slot v 81 in which operates an eccentric pin 82 carried upon a disk 83. This disk is mounted upon a short shaft 84: jou'rnaled in brackets 85-setation of disk 83, and the eccentric pin 82 thereon operating in slot 81 moves cross-piece 72 rapidly in aftransverse direction across 7 apron 65; the nut meats being slowly depositedupon the inclined tray or chute 78 from apron 43 are shaken transversely upon apron 65 between bars 71, and apron 65 moving toward the enrobing apparatus conveys these nut meats to the latter. in longitudinal rows and properly spaced for e-ifective delivery to the enrober.

What I claim is i 1 1. In a machine of the kind specified,

means for arranging articles handled in sub stantia-lly parallel-rows comprising a longitudinally movable apron, a frame superposed thereon consisting of a plurality of spaced bars arranged substantially parallel to each other, an inclined tray secured to said frame at the receiving end thereof and adapted to discharge the articles upon said apron in spaces between said bar-s, means fonvibrating the receiving end of said frame, a crosspiece secured to said bars adj acent'the dis charge ends thereof; said cross-piece pro- 'vided with a plurality of vertical apertures adjacent one end, and a pivotal pin entering one of said apertures to pivot said frame whereby the discharge end of said frame may be adjusted transversely of said apron to regulate the directionof said rows of articles discharging from said apron.

2. A feeding mechanism comprising an apron to receive articles to be fed and move them longitudinally to the'end thereof and discharge them therefrom, a drag co-acting with said apron to regulate the distribution of the articles thereon, a second apron in proximity to the discharge end of said first apron.

a plurality of spaced longitudinally disposed bars extending over said second apron and vibrated at one end transverse thereto, means for adjusting the opposite ends of said bars transverse to said apron to regulate the direction of discharge of articles from said sec ond apron, and a tray carried by and movof the articles thereon, alsecond apron in proximity .to the discharge end .o-f'said first apron, said aprons movable in the same direction at different speeds, means for moving said aprons, a plurality of spaced longitudina-lly disposed bars extending over said sec- 'ond apron and vibrated atone end transverse thereto, means' for adjusting .theopposite ends of said bars transverse to said apron to regulate thedirection of discharge c of'articles from said second apron, and a tray carried by and movable with the vibrated end of said bars toreceive the articles from said first apron and deposit them upon said second apron in the spaces between said bars. I Y

Signed at Chicago, county of Cook and State of Illinois, this 16th day of February,

JAMES oorrrn.v

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