| 摘要 |
999, 749. Separating and sorting by weight. A. LAUGHLIN. Oct. 11, 1963, [Oct. 11, 1962], No. 40267/63. Heading G1W. An apparatus for grading articles e.g. eggs, according to weight comprises a dished disc member 10 (Fig. 1, 2) rotatable about an inclined shaft 11 fixed in a frame 13, a plurality of article carriers in the form of rocker arms 17 each pivotally mounted at 20 on the rim of the disc 10 and having cups 18, means including a star wheel 40 for feeding articles one at a time into the cup of the particular carrier which is at the uppermost position on the disc. Thereby to cause the disc to rotate by virtue of the gravitational force acting on the loaded carrier. The apparatus also includes a weigher, fixed to the frame, comprising a beam 28 (Fig. 2) pivoted at 27, with a spring resistant 29 and damper 33 and which is acted upon by a free end 19 of a loaded carrier, and a selector 60 which detects and maintains the degree of tilt of the carrier during further rotation and releases the carrier at a discharge position appropriate to the weight grade of the article. The eggs are fed down a gradient 14 and a cam 44 on the disc rim prevents rotation of the star wheel by an egg until the cup is in position to receive it, there being one cam per carrier. A spring biased toggle 47 engages successively notches 49 on the disc rim to hold the disc during loading of a cup. The loaded cup then depresses the toggle to release the disc which rotates. After loading and before weighting the carrier rocker arm 17 is prevented from tilting further by a quadrant shaped guide plate 56 which guides the free end 19 of the arm under a horizontal arm 57 of the weigher beam 28. The arrangement is that the weighing occurs when a notch is engaged by the toggle holding the disc stationary. The loaded rocker arm tilts and takes up a certain balance position according to the weight carried. The level of the free end 19 will coincide with one or other space between arcuate galleries 61a to 61e (one gallery for each grade) of the selector 60, so that after weighing, on further rotation of the disc 10 the loaded rocker arm rides on the gallery selected in effect by the spring balance. Each gallery is of a different arcuate length and as the rocker arm is free to tilt when it reaches a terminus (62a to 62e) of the gallery so as to discharge an egg therefrom, the length of a gallery determines into which compartment 16a to 16e the egg is deposited. In an alternative embodiment (Figs. 7 to 15 not shown) the eggs are weighed and the grade selected before transfer to a carrier also the star wheel is driven through gears from the disc shaft. The spring balance may include a flat spiral spring instead of a coiled tension spring. The shaft 11 may be rotated by a motor instead of gravitationally.
|
