Transfer and orienting mechanism for articles

Claim 2

A transfer and orienting means for parallelepiped articles, comprising a transfer conveyor having a plurality of parallelextending rotatable means defining a support and conveyance surface for the articles, and means for feeding articles onto one end of the transfer conveyor in a direction generally 90* to the longitudinal axis of said conveyor, said means including a power driven feed drum disposed in parallelism with the longitudinal axis of the conveyor, means for driving said drum at one of two predetermined speeds, one of said predetermined speeds causing the articles in moving over said feed drum and onto said transfer conveyor to turn 90* to the original axial orientation of said article during infeed and the other and higher of said speeds causing the articles in moving onto said transfer conveyor from said feed drum to retain its original axial orientation, and means for operating said feed drum at a selected one of said two predetermined speeds for each successive article moving relatively towards said drum to provide a desired axial orientation to said articles on said transfer conveyor.

Claim 3

A transfer and orienting means for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a transfer conveyor having a plurAlity of tandemly arranged, positively driven roller means defining a support and conveyance surface for the articles, and means operating normally to said conveyor for delivering an article at a time to said conveyor, said means including a rotatable drum mounted for rotation on an axis paralleling the longitudinal axis of conveyance surface defined by said roller means, drive means for said roller means and operable to rotate said roller means at one of two predetermined speeds, one of said speeds resulting in a 90* turning motion of the articles about the vertical center axis thereof in the course of the article moving onto said transfer conveyor and a second and higher of said predetermined speeds resulting in the article moving onto said transfer conveyor without rotational movement, and means for operating said feed drum at a selected one of said two predetermined speeds for each successive article passing relatively towards said transfer conveyor to effect a desired axial orientation of the articles on said transfer conveyor.

Claim 4

A transfer and orienting means for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a transfer conveyor having a plurAlity of tandemly arranged, positively driven roller means defining a support and conveyance surface for the articles, and means operating normally to said conveyor for delivering an article at a time to said conveyor, said means including a rotatable drum mounted for rotation on an axis paralleling the longitudinal axis of conveyance surface defined by said roller means, drive means for said roller means and operable to rotate said roller means at one of two predetermined speeds, one of said speeds resulting in a 90* turning motion of the articles about the vertical center axis thereof in the course of the article moving onto said transfer conveyor and a second and higher of said predetermined speeds resulting in the article moving onto said transfer conveyor without rotational movement, and means for operating said feed drum at a selected one of said two predetermined speeds for each successive article passing relatively towards said transfer conveyor to effect a desired axial orientation of the articles on said transfer conveyor.

Claim 5

The construction of claim 2 wherein said feed drum is mounted in contiguous relation with a portion of said transfer conveyor.

Claim 6

The construction of claim 3 including an upright pivot post mounted on the inside corner defined by the juncture of said conveyor means and said feed drum for engaging those articles undergoing turning action in moving onto said transfer conveyor and for assisting in such turning action.

Claim 7

A combination conveying and orienting means for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a powered transfer conveyor defining a support and conveyance surface for the articles, and infeed means operating 90* to said transfer conveyor and directly opposite an upstream portion thereof, in direction of article movement, for delivering articles to said conveyor, said articles being uniformly axially oriented on said infeed means and prior to passing said conveyor, said infeed means including a feed drum disposed normally to and adjacent said transfer conveyor, and drive means for powering said feed drum at one of two predetermined rates of speed, one of said speeds resulting in an article turning 90* on its vertical axis in moving from said feed drum onto said transfer conveyor and the other of said speeds resulting in the articles moving onto said transfer conveyor from said feed drum without change in axial orientation.

Claim 8

A combination conveying and orienting means for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a powered transfer conveyor defining a support and conveyance surface for the articles, and infeed means operating 90* to said transfer conveyor and directly opposite an upstream portion thereof, in direction of article movement, for delivering articles to said conveyor, said articles being uniformly axially oriented on said infeed means and prior to passing said conveyor, said infeed means including a feed drum disposed normally to and adjacent said transfer conveyor, and drive means for powering said feed drum at one of two predetermined rates of speed, one of said speeds resulting in an article turning 90* on its vertical axis in moving from said feed drum onto said transfer conveyor and the other of said speeds resulting in the articles moving onto said transfer conveyor from said feed drum without change in axial orientation.

Claim 9

The construction of claim 4 wherein the feed drum has a relatively smooth, low friction outer surface to facilitate a selective turning action of the articles in moving onto said transfer conveyor from said feed drum.

Claim 10

An orienting mechanism for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a conveyor having a plurality of tandemly arranged, power-driven roller means defining a longitudinally extending support surface for the articles, a feed drum for delivering articles onto said conveyor, said drum located in substantially contiguous relation with a portion of said conveyor and mounted for rotation on an axis paralleling the longitudinal axis of the support surface defined for the articles by said roller means, means for driving said feed drum at different predetermined rates of speed including at lest a first rate of speed designed to cause the articles in moving onto said conveyor from said feed drum to turn 90* about a vertical axis through the center of the articles and a second rate of speed designed to cause the articles to move from said feed drum onto said conveyor without rotational movement and means for driving said feed drum at a selected one of said first and second predetermined speeds for each successive article moving onto said feed drum and relatively towards said conveyor whereby to cause the articles in proceeding along the transfer conveyor to have a predetermined axial orientation.

Claim 11

An orienting mechanism for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a conveyor having a plurality of tandemly arranged, power-driven roller means defining a longitudinally extending support surface for the articles, a feed drum for delivering articles onto said conveyor, said drum located in substantially contiguous relation with a portion of said conveyor and mounted for rotation on an axis paralleling the longitudinal axis of the support surface defined for the articles by said roller means, means for driving said feed drum at different predetermined rates of speed including at lest a first rate of speed designed to cause the articles in moving onto said conveyor from said feed drum to turn 90* about a vertical axis through the center of the articles and a second rate of speed designed to cause the articles to move from said feed drum onto said conveyor without rotational movement and means for driving said feed drum at a selected one of said first and second predetermined speeds for each successive article moving onto said feed drum and relatively towards said conveyor whereby to cause the articles in proceeding along the transfer conveyor to have a predetermined axial orientation.

Claim 12

A combination transfer and orienting mechanism for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a transfer conveyor having a plurality of pArallel-arranged roller means defining a substantially planar support and conveyance surface for the articles, and a two-speed, power-driven drum means arranged in contiguous relation to and normally of the roller means of said transfer conveyor, said drum means serving to deliver successive articles onto said transfer conveyor and coacting with said transfer conveyor when driven at a first rate of speed to cause a 90* turning action in the articles during transfer from said drum means to said roller means and at the same time coacting with said transfer conveyor when driven at a second higher rate of speed to prevent rotation of the articles in being transferred from said drum means to said transfer conveyor.

Claim 13

A combination transfer and orienting mechanism for generally parallelepiped articles, comprising a transfer conveyor having a plurality of pArallel-arranged roller means defining a substantially planar support and conveyance surface for the articles, and a two-speed, power-driven drum means arranged in contiguous relation to and normally of the roller means of said transfer conveyor, said drum means serving to deliver successive articles onto said transfer conveyor and coacting with said transfer conveyor when driven at a first rate of speed to cause a 90* turning action in the articles during transfer from said drum means to said roller means and at the same time coacting with said transfer conveyor when driven at a second higher rate of speed to prevent rotation of the articles in being transferred from said drum means to said transfer conveyor.