Feed Wheel for a Sorting Apparatus

Ser. No. 687,949, filed on the same day as the present application, entitled: CONTROL FOR A SORTING APPARATUS, William F. Marshall and Tor Arild, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Ser. No. 687,950, filed on the same day as the present application, entitled: LIGHT DETECTING HEAD FOR SORTING APPARATUS, Tor Arild and Russell R. Ames, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.

Each of said related applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Heretofore various feed wheels have been constructed for feeding beans and other articles into sorting machines designed to perform sorting operations. However, the various prior feed wheel designs with which we are familiar are either difficult or expensive to manufacture or they do not lend themselves to be readily adjusted or converted for feeding articles of different sizes to be sorted.

Therefore an object of this invention is to provide an improved feed wheel construction which may be economically manufactured and which is adapted to be readily disassembled for servicing or for changing the article-receiving scoops provided thereto.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved feed wheel for use in feeding beans or other articles to be sorted single file through a sorting apparatus, said feed wheel being provided with two disc members which are held in spaced relation by a hub that may be readily disassembled so that the disc members may be taken apart, said disc members being provided with additional locking devices located adjacent to a series of article-receiving scoops that are held by the disc members projecting from the circumference thereof, said scoops being clamped between said disc members by said locking devices.

An article feed wheel for use in feeding beans or other articles in single file in a sorting machine. The construction of the feed wheel is such that it may be readily removed from its support and provided with article-receiving scoops of different shapes or configurations so that the feed wheel may be used for feeding beans or other articles of different sizes. Also the feed wheel may be readily taken apart so that any of the scoops that are worn out or broken in use may be readily replaced without it being necessary to discard the entire wheel.

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing the feed wheel mounted in a bin receiving beans or other articles to be sorted in which the feed wheel picks up the articles to be sorted and projects these in a single file through the viewing head of the sorting apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a view showing one side of the feed wheel of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view of one of the scoops provided to the feed wheel shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the scoop shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view showing the inside of one of the disc members of the feed wheel;

FIG. 6 is a view showing the inside of the other of the disc members of the feed wheel; and

FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the feed wheel shown in FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawings in detail, reference numeral 10 designates a housing or bin into which a supply of beans or similar particle material 11 is fed through a feed tube 12. A feed wheel 13 which is mounted on the shaft 14 is rotated by said shaft so that this wheel dips into the quantity of beans or other similar material 11 and feeds the beans out of the housing or bin 10 in an airborne single file stream as indicated at 11a, past viewing head 16. A plurality of feed wheels such as indicated at 13 may be attached to the shaft 14, positioned in parallel relationship and rotated by said shaft so that a plurality of streams of beans are projected from the bin past different viewing heads.

The shaft 14 is driven by a suitable motor (not shown) which is coupled to the shaft by a suitable driving arrangement so that the feed wheels are driven at a selected speed such as 78 rpm which may be adjustable as desired so that the stream of airborne beans 11a is substantially horizontal and is projected into a photoelectric cell viewing head 16. The cells in the viewing head 16 are connected to an electronic circuit such as disclosed in the previously described application Ser. No. 687,949. This circuit functions to detect the undesired beans of poor quality or foreign particles that may be in the stream 11a preferably by detection of reflected light from the beans. The circuit then generates an electrical signal which is supplied to the solenoid valve 17 so that compressed air from a reservoir 18 is supplied to a nozzle 19 to deflect the rejected particle 20 down into a channel member 23. The desired particles in the stream of selected particles 21 proceed down a funnel shaped tube 22.

The rejected beans or particles 20 fall down the channel member 23 to which a suction tube 24 is connected. The suction tube 24 is connected to a source of suction of conventional construction (not shown) and is used for drawing dust and similar particles out of the housing 10 through the screen 10a which is positioned in the bottom of the bin. Also the suction tube 24 draws dust out of the upper part of the channel members 23 and 22, however, this suction is not strong enough to deflect the beans in the streams 11a and 21 from their projected courses.

In FIGS. 2 through 7 is shown one of the feed wheels 13. This feed wheel is constructed of two disc members 25 and 26 which are illustrated primarily in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7. The front side of member 25 is shown in FIG. 2 and the outside of rear disc member 26 is shown in FIG. 7. The hub 27 is attached to the rear side member 26 by welding or the like, as shown in FIG. 7. The hub 27 is provided with a ring 28 and an O-ring 28a is positioned between this ring 28 and the disc member 25 which is held on the hub 27 by the spring retaining member 39 that is snapped into the groove 30 formed on the outside surface of the hub.

Extending through the hub 27 is a slightly tapered hole 31 which receives a fitting 32. The hub 27 is also provided with three holes 33 which are threaded to receive the screws 34 that engage the shoulder 35 of the fitting 32 to draw this fitting into the tapered hole 31 and cause it to grip the shaft 14. The fitting 32 includes a slot 36 which permits the fitting to compress slightly as it is drawn into the tapered hole 31 and thereby grip the shaft 14 firmly to provide a frictional engagement so the feed wheel will rotate with the driven shaft.

The rear disc member 26 is provided with a plurality of foam rubber or foam plastic pads 40 that are glued or cemented by a suitable adhesive to the inner surface of this member. These pads on disc member 26 engage the inner surface of the member 25 when the disc members are assembled and are somewhat compressed. The disc members 25 and 26 are held in assembled relation by a plurality of locking members 41 of conventional construction. The locking members 41 are rotatably supported in holes formed in the disc member 25 and preferably can be turned one-quarter turn to grip the spring members 42 that are attached to the rear member 26. The disc members 25 and 26 are drawn toward each other by the locking members 41 and spring members 42 so that pads 40 are compressed slightly and at the same time the scoops 15 are clamped between the assembled disc members 25 and 26. Release of the locking members allows the disc members to move apart slighlty for removal and changing the scoop assembly as will be explained later.

The locking members 41 are held assembled with the member 25 by plastic washers 43 which are lodged in holes formed in the member 25 to frictionally grip the locking members. The locking members 41 are each provided with suitable recesses of arcuate shape which grip the spring members 42. Each locking member 41 is provided with a slot for receiving a suitable tool such as a screwdriver so that the locking member may be turned a partial turn and locked on the associated spring. Each of the spring members 42 is attached to the rear disc member 26 by a pair of rivets 46 so that these spring members are permanently fastened to the member 26.

Members 25 and 26 are provided with grooves 47 and 48, respectively, which are formed on the inside surfaces thereof adjacent to the peripheries of these members to receive the small shoulders 15a and 15b, respectively, on opposite sides of the scoops 15. The disc members 25 and 26 have small flanges extending inwardly and positioned radially outward from the grooves 47 and 48, respectively, and these small flanges clamp against the side portions 15c and 15d, respectively, of the scoops 15 when these scoops are assembled between the disc members 25 and 26. The scoops themselves each preferably include an inwardly facing groove 49 (FIG. 4) which receives a segmented ring member 50 (FIGS. 2 and 3). The ring member may be segmented, say into 120.degree. sections, such that three are used for a total 360.degree. scoop assembly. The scoops may be cemented onto the ring member segments for ease of handling. Thus, when the scoops 15 mounted on the ring segments are positioned around the inside periphery of the disc members 25 and 26 and these members are securely locked together by the locking members 41 engaging the spring members 42, the scoops 15 are held securely fastened to the disc members. With further reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the scoops 15 preferably are tilted forward approximately 5.degree. from a radial line 51 extending through the axis of the support shaft 14. Positioning of the scoop is achieved by the proper canting of the channel 49 relative to the scoop 15. The scoop itself comprises an arm 52 with the bowl 54 held at the outer end. This bowl includes the recess 15e.

Each scoop recess or hollow 15e in front thereof is sized for receiving one of the beans or other particles 11 as the scoops are rotated through the particle supply shown in FIG. 1. The beans or particles are carried by the scoops 15 upward and then thrown therefrom to form the airborne bean or particle stream 11a as shown in FIG. 1. For a proper grouping of the beans or particles, in the stream 11a, there must be a close control over certain parameters of the feed wheel. For a scoop having the bowl tilted forward approximately 5.degree., and with a recess formed as shown in the drawings, it has been found satisfactory to drive the feed wheel at a rotational velocity sufficient to give the bowl a velocity of approximately 254 feet per minute. Such a velocity has been found to throw the beans in a very small cross-sectioned stream past the viewing head 16. The forward tipping of the head has also been found to enhance the predictability of where the bean will leave the feed wheel thereby also making the path 11a much smaller in cross-section.

Scoops 15 are preferably molded from a polycarbonate, such as General Electric "Lexan" or its equivalent. Such materials provide economical fabrication and exhibit good wear characteristics in operation.