EP4056484A1 - Verfahren und maschine zum verpacken von blattgemüse - Google Patents

Verfahren und maschine zum verpacken von blattgemüse Download PDF

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Publication number
EP4056484A1
EP4056484A1 EP22160279.0A EP22160279A EP4056484A1 EP 4056484 A1 EP4056484 A1 EP 4056484A1 EP 22160279 A EP22160279 A EP 22160279A EP 4056484 A1 EP4056484 A1 EP 4056484A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
box
vegetables
deflector
filling
transport means
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP22160279.0A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Inventor
Emanuela Gallo
Nicola Gallo
Alberto Piva
Tiziano Piva
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Publication of EP4056484A1 publication Critical patent/EP4056484A1/de
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
    • B65B25/00—Packaging other articles presenting special problems
    • B65B25/02—Packaging agricultural or horticultural products
    • B65B25/04—Packaging fruit or vegetables
    • B65B25/046—Packaging fruit or vegetables in crates or boxes
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
    • B65B39/00—Nozzles, funnels or guides for introducing articles or materials into containers or wrappers
    • B65B39/12—Nozzles, funnels or guides for introducing articles or materials into containers or wrappers movable towards or away from container or wrapper during filling or depositing
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
    • B65B63/00—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on articles or materials to be packaged
    • B65B63/02—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on articles or materials to be packaged for compressing or compacting articles or materials prior to wrapping or insertion in containers or receptacles

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method and a machine for packing leafy vegetables.
  • Agricultural machines are known to be positioned on the ground or on board an agricultural wagon and configured to carry out the packing of leafy vegetables, meaning by packing both the filling of crates with previously harvested vegetables and their compacting in the crates, in order to reduce its volume.
  • the compaction of the vegetables placed in the boxes is carried out with suitable equipment after filling them and provides that a suitable pressure organ, generally consisting of a plate just smaller than the size of the individual boxes, is made to descend on each box, already positioned in the compaction station, so as to compact the vegetables stored in the box for a predetermined duration and with the predetermined pressure.
  • a suitable pressure organ generally consisting of a plate just smaller than the size of the individual boxes.
  • the compacting station can be the same filling station or a different station, in which the boxes coming from a filling station are sent.
  • this operation is carried out before transporting the filled boxes to the storage and/or marketing place, which can be located hundreds of kilometers away from the collection site.
  • the packed and compacted vegetables it is already known to subject the packed and compacted vegetables to cooling to a temperature of about 3-5°C in order to keep them in a suitable environment and avoid their deterioration, which is all the more frequent and rapid the more critical are the external environmental conditions.
  • this cooling can be done before transport begins or even during transport.
  • a drawback of these known packing equipment consists in the fact that the filling of each box takes place by dropping the vegetables from a dispensing or filling member, which is fixed with respect to the box, and this entails a non-uniform filling of the box following the creation of a sort of cone sloping down from the center of the box towards its side walls. It follows that the subsequent compacting of the vegetables within the box leads to the formation of a layer with a substantially uniform thickness but with a non-uniform density and more precisely with a higher density in the center and less high towards the vertical walls of the box; this results in inadequate storage conditions for dedicated products such as leafy vegetables.
  • US 2007/062159 describes a method and an apparatus for packing leafy vegetables and provides for the use of a support structure of one or two pressers articulated with one side to the structure itself and associated with corresponding actuators that control the movement of the presser between an upturned position, which leaves the upper opening of the box free for it to be filled by gravity with leafy vegetables in such quantity as to exceed the upper edge of the box itself, and a substantially horizontal crushing position vegetables until they are arranged flush with that edge.
  • this solution does not eliminate the drawback of a non-uniform compaction of the vegetables within the box and their consequent cooling in the packed condition; and moreover it does not ensure a complete compaction of the vegetables inside the box, since the extremely soft nature of these would require the presser not to stop at the upper edge of this but to go down inside it.
  • the object of the invention is to eliminate all the drawbacks which jointly or separately are recognizable in the state of the art.
  • the object of the invention is to propose a method and a machine which ensure uniform filling of the boxes in machines for packing leafy vegetables.
  • Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a machine which, in addition to ensuring correct and uniform filling of the boxes, ensure correct compaction of the leafy vegetables with which the boxes have been filled.
  • Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a machine which carry out the filling of the boxes with leafy vegetables in a simple and rapid manner and the subsequent compaction.
  • Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a machine which arrange the compacted vegetables inside the boxes so as to ensure their regular and effective vacuum cooling.
  • Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a machine which combine the advantages of a simplicity of construction with the advantages of a reliable operation.
  • the apparatus according to the invention is intended for packing various types of leafy vegetables, and in particular for collecting salad, radicchio, parsley, spinach, chicory, chard, etc. It can be placed in a warehouse, to which the leafy vegetables collected in the cultivation fields are sent or it can be mounted on a wagon advanced in the cultivation field together with a traditional machine for harvesting vegetables, so that the collection of the latter can take place in the field immediately after their collection.
  • the machine is advantageously provided with a conveyor belt 2 for the leafy vegetables 4 to be packed.
  • This conveyor belt 2 has the function of bringing the leafy vegetables 4 to a position above the individual boxes 6 to be filled, and then making them fall into the latter.
  • the conveyor belt 2 has a width suitable for operating simultaneously on three side-by-side boxes 6, which are fed by means of a transverse conveyor belt 8 or a roller conveyor in a waiting station, adjacent to the filling station, to then be transferred to the filling station itself with a second longitudinal conveyor belt 10 or with a roller conveyor, which also removes the filled and compacted boxes from the filling station to make way for new empty boxes.
  • the feeding of the empty boxes to the filling station and the removal of the filled and compacted boxes from the compacting station is preferably carried out automatically on the basis of an operating program which is not described as it is traditional in itself.
  • FIG. 1 schematically indicated an empty box 6 which protrudes laterally from the machine as it is about to enter the waiting station and three filled and compacted boxes, which have left the filling station and must be removed to be taken to the storage or shipping area.
  • the arrangement of the various parts of the machine and the operating parameters of the same are such that at the predicted working speed of the belt 2, which transports the vegetables 4, these are thrown with a certain horizontal component of speed into the boxes 6 waiting in the filling station.
  • containment baffles 12 are arranged above these which delimit laterally and frontally the space above each box 6 and ensure that the vegetables 4 fall precisely within these.
  • the machine according to the invention also comprises, in a position above each box 6, and more particularly in a position delimited laterally by two adjacent partitions 12, a motorized deflector element 14 better described below.
  • a motorized deflector element 14 better described below.
  • the machine according to the invention provides three deflectors 14 side by side.
  • Each deflector 14 is mounted together with the others on a single support structure 16, driven in its vertical movements along the frame 18 of the machine by traditional actuators, preferably constituted by motors and belts or by pneumatic jacks.
  • each deflector 14 which in practice can consist of a substantially rigid rectangular plate of plastic or metal material or also of an inflatable cushion filled with air and applied to a substantially rigid rectangular plate of plastic or metal material, has a shape similar to the plan form of the boxes 6 and slightly smaller dimensions than the latter and is articulated in a central position to support arms 20, in turn fixed to the structure 16, and, in a position shifted towards a smaller side, to movement arms 22, which cause the rotation of the deflectors 14 around the axes of articulation to the support arms 20.
  • the actuators which cause the vertical movements of the support structure 16 along the frame 18 of the machine, and the actuators, which move the arms 22 and therefore cause the rotations of the deflectors 14 are traditional in themselves, and are not further described here.
  • sensors preferably consisting of load cells which detect the weight of the individual boxes 6 during the filling phase and are connected to a control unit (not shown), which supervises the operation of the machine and that coordinates the interventions of the various components of the latter.
  • load cells can be advantageously provided which detect the weight of a single box 6, on the assumption that all the boxes are filled substantially in a manner not very different from each other.
  • the signal generated by those load cells is used to operate the movement arms 22 of the various deflectors 14 in synchronism.
  • load cells are provided for each box 6 and the possibility of operating in rotation of the various deflectors 14 independently, in accordance with the degree of filling of the individual boxes 6.
  • each deflector 14 is regulated by the control unit according to the signals coming from the load cells positioned in the filling station below the various boxes 6, so as to ensure the correct and uniform filling of each box.
  • the load cells detect the weight of the respective boxes and transmit corresponding signals to the control unit of the machine, which stops the conveyor belt 2 for prevent the throwing of further vegetables, and indeed reverses their movement for a short moment, to move the vegetables away from its front end and prevent their further unwanted fall from it, and at the same time continue the rotation of the deflectors 14 until these are arranged horizontally ( fig. 6 ).
  • the operating program of the machine can provide that the filling of each box 6 requires a single pass of the deflector 14, or, if in particular the leafy vegetables have small dimensions, several passes of the deflector 14 in either direction.
  • each deflector 14 can enter the respective box 6 and that is to say that it can descend beyond the upper edge of the latter up to a predetermined level.
  • the dimensions of each deflector are smaller than the dimensions of the boxes 6 sufficiently not only to ensure the descent of the deflector 14 into the relative box 6, but to prevent damage to the vegetables 4 which are located between the edge of the deflector and the walls of the box.
  • control unit commands the upward movement of the deflectors 14 ( fig. 8 ) and their rotation so as to make them resume their initial position ( fig. 3 ) before restarting the conveyor belt 2 for repeating the cycle in the manner already described.
  • the apparatus according to the invention provides for the use of the members, which in the equipment according to US 2007/062159 , are limited to partially compacting the vegetables 4, both to perform the same compaction in a more complete and effective way, and also to perform a new function, which consists in dynamically diverting the vegetables 4, which leave the conveyor belt 2, and in distributing them uniformly inside the boxes 6, before carrying out on them, thus distributed, the compaction function.
  • the various intervention phases of the deflectors are distinct from each other and take place in sequence, but in a different embodiment it is also possible that they occur in partial overlap, in the sense that for example the rotation and raising/lowering of the deflectors can be carried out simultaneously with an evident reduction in the execution time of the entire cycle.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Agronomy & Crop Science (AREA)
  • Packaging Of Special Articles (AREA)
EP22160279.0A 2021-03-12 2022-03-04 Verfahren und maschine zum verpacken von blattgemüse Withdrawn EP4056484A1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
IT202100005900 2021-03-12

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP4056484A1 true EP4056484A1 (de) 2022-09-14

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Family Applications (1)

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EP22160279.0A Withdrawn EP4056484A1 (de) 2021-03-12 2022-03-04 Verfahren und maschine zum verpacken von blattgemüse

Country Status (1)

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EP (1) EP4056484A1 (de)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN121425585A (zh) * 2026-01-04 2026-01-30 江西银桥菜业有限公司 一种全自动酱菜无损定量灌装装置

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1995003970A1 (de) * 1993-07-30 1995-02-09 Herbert Muschitz Anlage zum einfüllen von nahrungsmitteln (langwüchsige, faserige, stückige) in gläser oder dosen
US5916107A (en) * 1997-01-30 1999-06-29 Multipond Wagetechnik Gmbh Multicomponent filling apparatus
US20070062159A1 (en) 2005-09-22 2007-03-22 Medina Jose L Automated packing apparatus, system, and method
US20190364737A1 (en) * 2017-01-16 2019-12-05 Mbwj Beheer B.V. Device comprising a filling unit for filling containers with a product

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1995003970A1 (de) * 1993-07-30 1995-02-09 Herbert Muschitz Anlage zum einfüllen von nahrungsmitteln (langwüchsige, faserige, stückige) in gläser oder dosen
US5916107A (en) * 1997-01-30 1999-06-29 Multipond Wagetechnik Gmbh Multicomponent filling apparatus
US20070062159A1 (en) 2005-09-22 2007-03-22 Medina Jose L Automated packing apparatus, system, and method
US20190364737A1 (en) * 2017-01-16 2019-12-05 Mbwj Beheer B.V. Device comprising a filling unit for filling containers with a product

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN121425585A (zh) * 2026-01-04 2026-01-30 江西银桥菜业有限公司 一种全自动酱菜无损定量灌装装置

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