Patent Application
20090301940
The present invention relates to weighing, batching, and packaging of articles for the food industry.
In various industries, articles are sold in batches satisfying various constraints. As an example, articles of non-uniform size, shape or weight, e.g. food articles such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, are typically handled and delivered to customers in batches having a substantially uniform characteristics such as size, shape and weight. Typically, a batch of articles must fulfill requirements defined by a contract between a delivering and a receiving party, and most often, minimum weight of the batch is a key issue. Normally, the part of the batch that exceeds the minimum weight is considered by the delivering part as a loss and is often referred to as “giveaway”, “overweight” or “over-pack”. The complexity of this task is further increased when there are multiple criteria such as weight and color, weight and size grouping, or weight, color and size grouping, for instance.
Typically, batches are formed by weighing the articles individually, e.g. as they are moved by a conveyer system across a dynamic scale. In a computer system, the weight of each item is compared with weights of a plurality of receptacles, e.g. bins wherein batches are formed. Often, the computer system uses statistical algorithms for assigning specific articles to specific bins under consideration of required minimum weight of the batch and a desire not to produce batches with more overweight, i.e. giveaway, than required under the present conditions, i.e. given the weights of the articles and the required minimum weight of the batches. When there is multiple criteria to meet, such as size grouping, batching and grading; processes are usually cascaded together requiring large facilities to house the batching lines.
Batching of “similar” articles often involves the pre-classification of the raw material into some “quality classes”. In the present invention “quality classification” and weight batching of multiple “quality classes” is provided in a single space saving apparatus.
Accordingly, the invention in a first aspect provides an apparatus for grading and batching of articles, said apparatus comprising:
The apparatus consists of an in-feed station for grading of the articles into multiple “quality classes”. The articles of each of the classes are weighted by one of multiple weighing means provided. After being weighted the articles are transported in transport buckets via vertically oriented carousel conveying means. The ability to attach multiple electronic tags or labels to each of the articles makes it possible to keep track of each of the articles and allocate them according to class and weight tags into the correct batching buffer.
A vertically oriented carousel conveyor for transferring the articles from the weighing means consists of a base member, with four sprockets, fastened to the base in a rectangular fashion forming two horizontal and two vertical segments. An endless supporting means is mounted on the four sprockets, and a drive means acting on one of the sprockets powers the carousel. Plurality of transport buckets are suspended from the support means using pivoting mechanism such that the transport buckets maintain substantially same position as they are transported by the carousel, through any of the vertical or horizontal segments.
The batching buffers are located in between the two horizontal segments and consists of one ore more batching buckets which collect the batch. In the case when three vertically stacked batching buckets are used, each capable of receiving ½ batch, the batching buffer can be used continuously. When the top most batching bucket has received the first ½ batch in a batch, the first ½ batch is dropped into the middle bucket where the ½ batch is stored. When the top most bucket has received the second ½ batch, the first ½ batch is dropped from the middle bucket to the bottom most bucket and the second ½ batch is dropped into the middle bucket, and the top most bucket can now start to receive the first ½ of the next batch.
When there is a complete batch in the batching buffer the batch is transported to a collection buffer via batch transport buffer formed by a group of adjacent transport buckets on the carousel conveyor as they travel the lower horizontal segment. Thus the transport buckets are used twice: First, to transport individual articles to the batching buffers and the second time, to transport an entire batch to the collecting buffer. A computer system is used to control: the conveying means, the transport buckets, the batching buffer, the batch transfer buffer, the collecting buffer, and to keep track of the different electronic tags. The computing system may consist of conventional hardware such as PC computer adapted to for use in the above described system. As well as custom made computing system composed of: central processing unit, random access memory, non-volatile memory storage, and other necessary components and interconnects. Regardless of what computing system is used, input modules and output modules, are needed as well as program code which encodes computer executable instructions which when loaded into memory and executed by the central processing unit controls the entire system via the output modules according to the input signals and the algorithms embedded in the program code.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a method for grading and batching of articles, said method comprising steps of:
Batching of “similar” articles often involves the pre-classification of the raw material into some “quality classes”. In the present invention “quality classification” and weight batching of multiple “quality classes” is provided in a single space saving apparatus.
An apparatus for grading and batching of articles is proposed. The apparatus consists of an in-feed station for grading of the articles into multiple “quality classes”. The articles of each of the classes are weighted by one of multiple weighing means provided. The ability to attach multiple electronic tags or labels to each of the articles makes it possible to keep track of each of the articles and allocate them according to class and weight tags into the correct batching buffer. After being weighted the articles are transported in transport buckets via vertically oriented carousel conveying means.
In one preferred embodiment (
In one preferred embodiment (
The batching buffers are located in between the Horizontal segments and consists of one ore more batching buckets which collect the batch. In the case when three vertically stacked batching buckets are used, each capable of receiving ½ batch, the batching buffer can be used continuously.
When the top most batching bucket has received the first ½ batch in a batch, the first ½ batch is dropped into the middle bucket where the ½ batch is stored. As soon as the bottom most bucket becomes available the ½ batch is released from the middle batching bucket into the bottom most batching bucket. When the top most bucket has received the second ½ batch the entire batch is released from the middle and bottom most batching bucket into the batch transfer buffer (7) which is composed of one or more transport buckets (4),
Thus the transport buckets are used twice: Firstly, to transport individual articles to the batching buffers and secondly, to transport entire batch to the collecting buffer. A computer system is used to control: the conveying means, the transport buckets, the batching buffer, the batch transfer buffer, the collecting buffer, and to keep track of the different electronic tags. The computing system may consist of conventional hardware such as PC computer adapted to for use in the above described system. As well as custom made computing system composed of: central processing unit, random access memory, non-volatile memory storage, and other necessary components and interconnects. Regardless of what computing system is used, input modules and output modules, are needed as well as program code which encodes computer executable instructions which when loaded into memory and executed by the central processing unit controls the entire system via the output modules according to the input signals and the algorithms embedded in the program code.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7786 | Apr 2005 | IS | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IS2006/000008 | 4/4/2006 | WO | 00 | 8/6/2009 |
