Quad Wicket Exchange System

Abstract

Two series of work products move along parallel paths into open bags mounted on wickets and carry the bags to shipping containers. When the bags on the wickets are depleted, the wickets are automatically removed and replaced by wickets loaded with a new supply of bags.

Claims

1. A process of bagging work products, comprising advancing two series of work products along parallel paths, in each of the parallel paths placing a stacked supply of flexible wicket bags on each of a pair of bag support wicket trays at a bagging position with the openings of the flexible wicket bags in the stacked supplies of flexible wicket bags facing the advancing series of work products, directing a stream of air toward the opening of the flexible wicket bag on the top of the stacked supply of wicket bags to induce the flexible bag on top of the stack of wicket bags to open, advancing the work products from the parallel paths into the inflated flexible wicket bags and against the closed ends of the wicket bags, separating the top wicket bag away from the other wicket bags in the stacked supply in response to the movement of the work product against the closed end of the wicket bag, in response to the last wicket bag being removed from a wicket tray, moving the wicket tray to a position to be reloaded with flexible wicket bags, and reloading the moved wicket trays with more wicket bags.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein each of the flexible wicket bags in the stacked bags has a pair of opposed side walls with one side wall having a longer edge portion, and aligned wicket openings formed in the longer edge portions of the stacked bags, and extending the legs of a U-shaped wicket rod through the aligned openings of the wicket bags and into the trays.

3. The process of claim 1, and moving the reloaded wicket tray toward a position facing the advancing series of work products at the loading station, terminating the movement of the reloaded tray in a standby position before it reaches the loading station.

4. The process of claim 3, and further including returning the reloaded tray from the standby position in response to removing a wicket tray from the bagging position.

5. A process of bagging work products comprising: advancing a series of work products along parallel paths, placing stacked supplies of flexible wicket bags on each of a pair of bag support wicket trays with the openings of the flexible wicket bags in the stacked supplies facing the advancing series of work products, directing streams of air toward the openings of the flexible wicket bags in directions to inflate the opening of the flexible wicket bag on the top of the stacked supplies to induce the flexible bags to open and simultaneously advancing work products from the parallel paths into the inflated flexible wicket bags.

6. A process of bagging work products comprising: advancing two series of work products along parallel paths into open bags on the top of two supplies of bags, each mounted on a wicket, carrying the bags with the advancing work products away from each wicket; in response to depleting the last bag on a wicket, removing the depleted wicket and replacing the depleted wicket with a wicket having a supply of bags.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the dual lane bagger that places the loaves of bread or buns in bags.

[0018] FIG. 2 is a top view of a bag support wicket, the U-shaped wicket bar displaced at an angle from the bag support tray.

[0019] FIG. 3 is a bottom perspective view of the bag support tray, with the front and bottom portions of stacked bags extending over the front and rear edges of the bag support tray.

[0020] FIG. 4 is a side perspective view of the bag support tray loaded with bread bags and with the wicket bar extending through the protruding long edges of the bread bags.

[0021] FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the movements of the four bag support wickets through the apparatus.

[0022] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a two lane bagger with the quad wicket exchange system mounted in alignment with the bread and buns bagger.

[0023] FIG. 7 is a side view of the quad wicket exchange system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] Referring now in more detail to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a top view of the multiple row bagger 10 that is positioned at the delivery end of a pair of surface conveyors 11 and 12 that deliver loaves of bread or buns 14, 15, 16 and 17, in pairs, in the direction as indicated by arrows 19 and 20. The bread or buns 14-17 are moved into bags 21 and 22, primarily by the motion of the surface conveyors, but as assisted by a pair of spreader bars 23 and 24, respectively. In addition, streams of air are moved from nozzles 25 and 26 toward the open ends of the bags so as to induce the top layer about the bag opening to lift away from the bottom surface of the bag, forming spaces in which the bread or buns 14-17 move. The pusher forks 28 and 29 also move in unison with the surface conveyors to urge the bread or buns 14-17 into the bags 21 and 22.

[0025] Once the bags 21 and 22 have been substantially filled with pairs of loaves of bread 14, 15, 16, 17, they move continuously with the motions of the surface conveyors 11 and 12 to a lateral surface conveyor 31 that moves at a right angle with respect to the motions of the surface conveyors 11 and 12. In order to avoid misplacement of the loaves on the lateral surface conveyor 31, positioning blocks 23 are located behind each anticipated space where the loaves of bread in their bags will be received. The surface conveyor moves the loaves of bread to a staging position where the loaves will be placed in containers for delivery to the customers, etc.

[0026] FIGS. 2-4 illustrate one of the bag support wickets 35 that is to be positioned at the location where the bread or buns are to be introduced into the bags 21. FIG. 2 is a top view of the wicket tray that has a flat top surface 36, and a stack of bags 21 is placed on its side on the top surface 36 of the wicket tray.

[0027] The length of the bags may be greater than the length of the flat top surface 36 so that the open ends 38 of the bags are positioned at the front edge 39 of the top surface 36 and the bottoms of the bags may drape over the other edge.

[0028] The bottom sheet of each bag is longer than its top layer so that the edge of the bottom layer protrudes beyond the top layer. The protruding edge of the bottom layer has wicket openings 41 formed therein. An inverted U-shaped wicket bar 43 has its parallel legs 44 and 45 spaced apart distances equal to the spacing between wicket openings 41 so that the parallel legs 44 and 45 can be threaded through the wicket openings in the bread bags 21 and 22. Another pair of openings (not shown) is formed through the flat top surface 36 of the bag support wicket tray, so that the parallel legs of the wicket bar fit into the top surface of the bag support wicket tray. This anchors the longer edges of the stacked bags to the wicket tray and when each bag is uncovered, this allows the shorter edge to lift away from the longer edge in response to a stream of air to open the top bag in the stack of bags.

[0029] As shown in FIG. 1, the nozzles 25 and 26 direct a stream of air toward the edges of the open ends of the bags, lifting the shorter edge upwardly while passing over the rear edge that is anchored to the flat top surface of the bag support tray. This opens the top bag and makes the top bag available to receive the loaves of bread 14-17, as illustrated in FIG. 1.

[0030] As shown in FIG. 3, the bottom surface 47 of the bag support wicket 35 includes several locating pins 49 that extend at a right angle from the bottom surface of the bag support wicket and are spaced apart at distances appropriate for the locating pins 49 to be received in sockets (not shown) in the surface of the conveyor system. This maintains the bag support wicket 35 in a static position as the surface conveyors move the loaves toward the lateral surface conveyor 31.

[0031] As illustrated in FIG. 4, the ends of the bags 38 may be allowed to overlap the back edge of the flat top surface 36 of the bag support wicket 35.

[0032] When the supply of bread bags 21 and 22 has been depleted and a new supply of bags is required to continue the bagging process, the bag support trays can be automatically replaced when they are empty of bags.

Reloading the System

[0033] FIG. 5 illustrates a pattern of movements of the bag support wickets through a bag reloading process. The bag support wicket 35 is shown at the top left portion of FIG. 5 in position 1. The bread or buns will have entered the space inside the top bag, as shown by arrow 51, with the bread having been moved into the space 52. The bread will then have moved on beyond that position as shown at 53, with the bread being safely received in the bag and moved to the next conveyor.

[0034] As the bags become finally depleted from the bag support wicket 35, the now the empty wicket, will move downwardly, from position 1 as shown by arrow 61, through position 2 to corner position 3, then continuing laterally from position 3 through space 4 and to corner space 5, and immediately on upwardly to stop at retrieval space 6 where a person may retrieve the empty wicket tray at position 7 and reload it.

[0035] The person will have a second tray previously loaded with bags at position 8 and insert the previously loaded tray back into the system which immediately moves the reloaded tray to position 9 and the reloaded tray moves laterally to standby position 10 where its movement is terminated until another cycle of the reloading system starts.

[0036] When the reloading system begins another loading cycle, the empty tray moves as previously described on through the position 2 so the reloaded tray can move through position 11 and then upwardly to the operative position 12. Only two wicket trays are required for the replacement system for each of the lines of bread moving through the overall system.

[0037] The system shown in FIG. 5 is provided for each side of the machine so that the empty wickets of both sides of the process can be independently refilled as needed.

[0038] As shown in FIG. 6, the wicket tray removal and replacement positions for both sides of the system at the removal and supply locations 7 and 8 of FIG. 5 are shown and the footprints 58 and 59 of the attendant show where the trays can be refilled.

[0039] FIG. 7 also shows the system where the operator station 58 is located, and where the bag load station is located. The rails 72 and 73 and their respective chains guide the wickets from their operative positions to their reloading positions and the elevator rails 74 and 75 guide the wickets vertically. The operation of the device is controlled by photo sensors that detect the presence and absence of the bag support wickets at the several stations of the system.

[0040] While the invention is described herein as a bagger for loaves of bread, it should be understood that the invention may be used for packing other work products.

[0041] Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variations and modifications of the disclosed embodiment can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.