GB1473575A - Apparatus for bagging carrots - Google Patents

Abstract

1473575 Packaging machines; shoots FILPER CORP 8 May 1974 [7 June 1973] 20372/74 Headings B8C and B8S [Also in Division G1] Apparatus for bagging carrots or like objects comprises means for feeding carrots to an accumulation station and means, e.g. a weigh hopper 15, Fig. 1, at the station which receives carrots from the feeding means and which, when it has received a group of a predetermined weight discharges the carrots into an open-topped bag located therebelow. As described carrots 2 are fed on an endless conveyer 1, Fig. 1, and removed laterally therefrom by flexible vanes 5 of a rotary device 4. The carrots fall down an incline 7, Fig. 19, and are picked up by the flights 8 of a conveyer 9, there being in general one carrot on each flight. From the top of the conveyer 9 the carrots fall into an upwardly directed pocket of the weigh hopper 15, which is supported rotatably in arms 18 pivoted at 14. When a predetermined weight of carrots is present in the hopper the arms 18 rock to lower the hopper and release a peg thereon from a stop 26 so that the hopper rotates to deposit the weighed carrots into a shoot 31. When the arms 18 tip they break a pneumatic circuit which causes the conveyer 9 to stop while the hopper 15 is emptying. The carrots are re-aligned vertically in the shoot 31 before falling into an opentopped bag 69, which is supported by clamping jaws 106, 107, Fig. 3, at the end of one arm of a rotatable turret 56. Discharge of the carrots from the hopper is prevented if no bag is positioned below the shoot 31. As the turret 56 is rotated step-wise the filled bag is first carried over a vibrated support 154, Fig. 25, to a sizing station, where a slidable blade 165 removes portions of carrot which extend above it, and then to a station where the bag neck is gathered and tied, the bag then being removed from the turret arm. The emptied arm next passes to a station where it receives an opened bag, and then to the filling station. Open topped bags 69, Fig. 14, are supported on a wicket 81 and tubes 65 and the leading bag is opened pneumatically by air from a tube 78. A blower 79 keeps the bag open, and an arm 175 on the turret arm helps to open the bag mechanically. The shoot 31, Fig. 25, has a wall 44 which is spring-loaded to the position shown, but which is moved about a pivot 47 to the position shown in phantom by a turret arm engaging a projection 48 to release any carrots jammed in the shoot.