BACKGROUND ART In almost all manufacture of various types of products, it is desirable to move the product to a site for packaging or for further processing. The commonest method of moving products is to employ conveyors or systems of conveyors. These conveyors normally feature support railings along both sides and throughout their entire length, in order to give effective support to the product which is being carried on the conveyor, so that the product does not topple over during transport. Curved sections of the conveyor are also surrounded on both sides by support railings.

Conveyors are employed in such a manner also for packages of the single-use disposable type for liquid foods, and these packages, after filling and sealing in a filling machine, are on occasion to be transported to different ancillary machines, which, for example, provide them with a drinking straw or combine them into transport units. The packages often are parallelepipedic in shape and they may be relatively tall in relation to their bottom surface area, for which reason they must be supported throughout their entire journey along a conveyor. Packages which topple over can cause operational down-time, and may also involve damage to the packages.

Above all at the curved sections of a conveyor (which may vary from 45" to 1800) it is necessary to provide efficient support.

The conveyors are normally designed to correspond to a filling machine as a fixed installation, where the support railings are welded in place and no adjustment or regulation of them is possible. With growing interest in the market for filling machines which are switchable for the manufacture of packages of different volumes, a need has also arisen in the art to be able to regulate or adjust the width between two support railings along the conveyors which are employed in connection with such a filling

machine, so that the railings constitute an efficient support, irrespective of the volume of the package. It must be possible to adjust or regulate the width between two support railings relatively rapidly and the time consumed should not exceed the time it takes to switch the filling machine from one desired volume to another.

It is described in the patent literature how to regulate the width of a straight conveyor, but these solutions entail that tools must be used and these methods are relatively circumstantial. Regulating the width between the support railings of a curved section of a conveyor presents further problems since there are then differences in the distance covered, for both the outer support railing and the inner support railing in a curve.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION One object of the present invention is to realise a method of regulating the width between two support railings along a curved conveyor path, which may be put into effect rapidly and without the need for tools. The method according to the present invention must also be capable of compensating for the differences in distance which occur in both the outer and the inner support railing, when the width between the support railings is changed.

SOLUTION These and other objects have been attained according to the present invention in that the method of the type described by way of introduction has been given the characterizing features that the outer support railing is flexible and that, on adjustment or regulation of the width, it is removed from adjacent connected straight railings by a locking device and is pulled outwards or alternatively pushed inwards to the desired position, where it is once again locked, and that the inner support railing consists of a plate curved along the conveyor path, the plate being capable, by means of a locking screw, of being released and displaced forwards or backwards, and that the support railing plate may be regulated to the desired width by means of wings which are secured to the plate and which are released by means of at least one locking screw.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention have further been given the characterizing features as set forth in the appended subclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in greater detail hereinbelow, with reference to the accompanying Drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a plan view of the apparatus for a 1800 curve in its widest position between the support railings; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is another side elevation of the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the apparatus for a 1800 curve in its narrowest position between the support railings; Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the apparatus of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is another side elevation of the apparatus of Fig. 4; Fig. 7 is a plan view of the apparatus for a 90" curve in its widest position between the support railings; Fig. 8 is a plan view of the apparatus for a 90" curve in its narrowest position between the support railings; Fig. 9 is a plan view of the apparatus for a 45" curve in its widest position between the support railings; Fig. 10 is a plan view of the apparatus for a 45" curve in its narrowest position between the support railings; and Fig. 11 is a side elevation of a part of a locking device.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Figs. 1-6 show an apparatus according to the present invention for a 1800 curve. The apparatus comprises an outer support railing 1 which is flexible so that it may be bent along the curved section of a conveyor path.

The outer support railing 1 is a direct continuation of the support railings 3 which are disposed along the straight sections 4 of the conveyor path. These support railings 3 along the straight sections 4 of the conveyor are often manufactured from some plastic material with cast profiles in aluminium to give more permanent stability. The outer, flexible support railing 1 has no such aluminium profiles and is, therefore, flexible.

The outer support railing 1 is secured in a locking device 5, in which locking device 5 the straight support railings 3 are also secured, but the two parts of the support railing 1, 3 are discrete and separate from one another. A locking device 5 is placed at each end of the curved conveyor section 2, i.e.

the curve proper, so that the curved portion of the outer railing 1 is wholly separate from the straight sections of the support railing 3 on both sides of the curve. The locking device 5 consists of a unifying plate 6 with a locking screw which is provided with a wheel 7. A locking member 8 is disposed at each end of the plate 6.

A locking member (which is shown in detail in Fig. 11) consists of a first locking portion 9 which, with a common shaft 10, is interconnected with a second locking portion 11. On the upper side of the first locking portion 9, there is provided a raised portion 12. The underside of the second locking portion 11 is formed as a curve so that, at two points, it has a lowest position 13 and, at two points, a highest position 14. In the left-hand section of Fig. 11, the second locking portion 11 is shown with its highest position 14 in register with the raised portion 12 on the first locking portion 9. This implies that the two locking portions 9, 11 are open in relation to uile another. In the right- hand section of Fig. 11, the second locking portion 11 is shown with its lowest position 13 in register with the raised portion 12 on the first locking portion 9, and it will be apparent that the two locking portions 9, 11 are thus locked to one another in this position.

The underside of the first locking portion 9 displays serrations, with crests 15 and troughs 16. The underside of the first locking portion 9 is turned to face towards a counter portion 17 which, on its upper side, displays corresponding serrations with crests 15 and troughs 16 as displayed by the underside of the first locking portion 9. The first locking portion 9 and the counter portion 17 are disposed to enter into engagement with one another so that one crest 15 of the serrations on a portion 9 or 17 is located in register with a trough 16 of the serrations on the other portion 9 or 17.

In the preferred embodiment, the first locking portion 9 is also designed such that it constitutes a part of a bracket 18 for the support railings 1, 3.

Figs. 1 and 2 show a further locking member 8 placed centrally on the curved surface of the outer support railing 1. The locking member 8 may be needed to bolster up the outer support railing 1 which is flexible and which, particularly in a 1800 curve, may give way if a queue pressure were to occur in the curve, because of the tail-back of a large number of packages in the curve. This situation may arise in the event of sudden stoppage further downstream on the conveyor path 2, 4.

The inner support railing of the apparatus consists of a support plate 19 which has a rounded end 20 facing towards the curve, such that the rounded end 20 follows the curved section 2 of the conveyor path. The support plate 19 consists, int. al. of an upper plate 21. Beneath the upper plate 21, there are disposed movable wings 22. The wings 22 are preferably two in number and may thus at most have a geometric extent which corresponds to half of the surface of the upper plate 21. The wings 22 are each journalled with a pin 23 in a groove 24. The wings 22 are released by means of at least one locking screw which is provided with a wheel 25. The wings 22 may be displaced steplessly along the groove 24 and may thereafter once again be locked in the desired position. In their inner region, the wings 22 are provided with a heel 26. The heel 26 has its counterpart in a similar heel 28 on the lower region 27 of the support plate 19. When the heels 26, 28 engage with one another, the wings 22 have reached their one end position.

In the other end position, the two wings 22 are wholly retracted under the upper plate 21 of the support plate 19.

The support plate 19 is also disposed to reciprocate back and forth towards the centre point of the curved conveyor section 2. In order to make this displacement possible, a slot 29 is provided right through the support plate 19. In the slot 29, the support plate 19 has a through-going surface 30 which is serrated such that the surface 30 has crests 31 and troughs 32. The serration is parallel with the direction of movement of the support plate 19.

The serrated surface 30 is turned to face towards a similarly serrated surface 33 on a bracket 34. The bracket 34 is secured in the frame 35 of the conveyor 2. Thus, the two surfaces 30 and 33 engage in form-locked fashion in one another and they are locked to one another by means of a screw 36. The screw 36 has a wheel 37 so as readily to be able to displace the surfaces towards one another. The support plate is displaced along a horizontal slot 38.

The support plate 19 may also be displaced along a vertical slot 39.

This displacement makes for a displacement of the support plate 19 in the vertical plane. This displacement is used when the intention is to adapt the free height beneath the support plate 19 so that any packages which may have toppled over and are being advanced on the conveyor 2, 4 will be able to pass under the support plate 19, irrespective of the size of the package.

Figs. 7 and 8 show a corresponding support plate 19 for a curve of 90°,

and Figs. 9 and 10 for a curve of 45". The wings 22 of the support plate 19 here each have a locking screw with a wheel 25, since both of the wings 22 are placed relatively far from one another, for which reason a common locking screw would entail more complex mechanical linkages for a common locking screw.

Figs. 1-3 show the apparatus for a 1800 curve in its one outer position where the distance between the outer support railing 1 and the support plate 19 is at its greatest. These Drawings also show the outer position where the support plate 19 is located highest up in its displacement in the vertical plane and the distance between the lower region 27 of the support plate 19 and the conveyor 2 is at its greatest.

Figs. 4-6 show the apparatus for a 1800 curve in its other outer position, where the distance between the outer support railing 1 and the support plate 19 is at its least, the support plate 19 having its wings 22 protracted to their outer position. These Drawings also show the second outer position of displacement of the support plate 19 in the vertical direction and the distance between the lower region 27 of the support plate 19 and the conveyor 2 is at is least.

The adjustment or regulation of the distance between two support railings along a curved conveyor 2, i.e. between the outer support railing 1 and the support plate 19, may be put into effect rapidly and entirely without the need for tools. In order to obtain the correct width, an appropriate method is to use as dimensional gauge a package of the volume and size for which the curved conveyor section 2 is to be adapted.

The outer support railings 1 are regulated or adjusted to the desired position by the wheel 7 on the locking device 5 being turned so that the locking screw is backed-off and the locking members 8 involved are opened.

The locking members 8 are opened in that the second locking portion 11 is turned to its open position. In order to facilitate this turning operation, the second locking portion 11 may be provided with some form of gripping device 40, such as a lug or a lever. The gripping device 40 is turned through a quarter of a revolution and the first locking portion 9 is thereby released from the counter portion 17. The first locking portion 9 with its bracket for the support railing 1 can now be displaced along the counter portion 17. In order to facilitate obtaining uniform displacement on all locking members 8 in the installation, the counter portion 17 may be provided with suitable

calibration 41, as illustrated in Fig. 11. By the wheel 7 having been turned so that the locking screw is open, the flexible, outer support railing 1 can now be pulled outwards or alternatively pushed inwards in relation to the conveyor section 2.

Once the outer support railing 1 has been placed in the desired position, the wheel 7 is once again turned, locking the locking screw. All gripping devices 40 on the relevant locking members 8 are reversed through a quarter of a revolution and the outer support railing is now fixed in its new position.

In order to adjust or regulate the inner support plate 19, the wheel 37 is turned so that the locking screw 36 is opened and so that the support plate 19, on the one hand, may be moved horizontally along the slot 38 and, on the other hand, vertically along the slot 39. When the support plate 19 has assumed its desired position, it is locked in this position by means of the wheel 37. In order to give the support plate 19 the desired width, the wheel or wheels 25 which lock the wings 22 by means of locking screws are rotated.

The wings 22 are moved along their grooves 24 until the support plate 19 is of the desired width and are locked in their new position by means of the wheel 25.

As will have been apparent from the foregoing description, the present invention realises a method and an apparatus for regulating or adjusting the width between two support railings 1, 19 along a curved conveyor section 2 in a simple and rapid manner and without the need of tools.

The present invention also compensates for the differences in distance which are obtained when the width between the two support railings 1, 19 along curves and curved conveyor sections 2 is changed.

The present invention should not be considered as restricted to that described above and shown on the Drawings, many modifications being conceivable without departing from the scope of the appended Claims.