MACHINES.

DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a system for the handling of hides in tanneries.

The system is particularly suitable for moving hides between tannery machines that perform pressing, splitting and shearing treatments on the hides themselves.

The system of the invention can in any case be used to move hides between tannery machines of any type at any processing stage, whether dry or wet, and also to move hides from treatment to stocking areas and vice versa.

In an even broader application, the system of the invention can be used in any production plant to move thin flexible elements of any kind.

It is well known that in tanneries the hides to be processed or already processed are stacked and are moved by manned carriages or by automatic systems.

These automatic systems in particular are installed based on the layout of the machines to be connected. They essentially comprise a plurality of input storage units upstream of the tannery machines and a plurality of output storage units downstream of the same machines, suitable to receive the processed hides, and an auxiliary carriage to selectively transfer the hides between the storage units.

In general the storage units are arranged parallel to each other along one or more alignment directions and said auxiliary carriage transits in front of the storage units along a longitudinal transit direction parallel to said alignment directions.

By way of example, Figure 1 shows a plan view of a known system designed for the handling of hides between a press P and three shearing machines R that comprises an auxiliary carriage C, moving on fixed rails B fastened to the floor, which picks up the processed hides L from the output storage units Pu of the press P and selectively places them on the input storage units Ri of each shearing machine R.

The storage units are located along two mutually parallel longitudinal alignment directions X1 and X2, between which there is the longitudinal transit direction X3 of the auxiliary carriage C, parallel to both X1 and X2.

Both the storage units and the auxiliary carriage are equipped with motorized conveyor belts supporting the hides which enable their transfer from each storage unit to the auxiliary carriage and vice versa, when both the storage unit and the auxiliary carriage are mutually aligned, as shown in Figure 1 , with respect to the shearing machine R on the left.

These systems offer the advantage of reducing the distances and therefore rationalizing the movements, automating the picking and depositing of hides and thus reducing the use of labour.

However, they pose the recognized drawback of not ensuring the safety of the personnel in the transit area of the auxiliary carriage.

In fact Figure 1 shows how the auxiliary carriage C transits very close to the storage units Pu and Ri with the serious danger of collisions or, worse, of shearing the lower limbs of persons who are accidentally or intentionally in the area.

As a result, there is the further drawback that during the operation of the system the operators cannot carry out maintenance or cleaning operations in the area affected by the transit of the auxiliary carriage C.

The present invention intends to overcome these drawbacks.

In particular, it is a first object of the invention to implement a hide handling system comprising an auxiliary carriage for the transport of hides between storage units located upstream and downstream of the machines, which is safer for personnel compared to the handling systems of the known art.

It is another object of system of the invention to enable maintenance or cleaning personnel to operate safely in the area involved by the handling of the auxiliary carriage transporting the hides even when the system is in full operation.

It is a further object of the system of the invention to make it possible to move the auxiliary carriage near each corresponding storage unit during the transport of the hides from the auxiliary carriage to the storage unit and vice versa.

It is another object of the system of the invention to also allow the hides to be rotated when they are arranged on the auxiliary carriage.

The objects described above are achieved by a hide handling system having the characteristics described in the main claim, to which reference will be made.

Further characteristics of the invention are described in the dependent claims. According to the embodiment described below, the auxiliary carriage is close to each respective storage unit only during the transfer of the hides.

In contrast, while moving the auxiliary carriage is always at a distance from the storage units in front of which it transits and said distance can be chosen by the designer.

The aforementioned objects will be better explained in the descriptions of preferred embodiments of the system of the invention which are provided below by way of non limiting examples with reference to the annexed drawings, wherein:

- Figure 1 shows a plan view of a handling system of the known type;

Figure 2 shows a plan view of the handling system that is the subject of the invention;

Figure 3 shows a side view of a detail of the system represented in Figure 2;

- Figure 4 shows a side view of another detail of the system represented in Figure 2;

Figure 5 shows a plan view of the detail represented in Figure 4;

Figures from 6 to 15 show different side views of the system represented in Figure 2 in different and consecutive operating stages;

- Figure 16 shows a variant embodiment of the system of the invention.

The system of the invention is represented in Figure 2, where it is indicated as a whole by 1.

It carries out the handling, loading and unloading of hides between tannery machines which in the specific case illustrated herein include a press P for pressing hides coming from the tanning treatments, a splitting machine S in which each pressed hide is split to separate the full grain from the flesh split and seven shearing machines R arranged side by side, each of which shaves the split hides.

It should be noted that this configuration of machines is purely indicative, since the system of the invention may also be applied to different machines and/or to a different number of units arranged in a different layout.

The system 1 comprises a plurality of input storage units located upstream of the machines on which the hides to be processed are stacked, a plurality of output storage units located downstream of the machines on which the processed hides are stacked and an auxiliary carriage for the transfer of hides from output to input storage units.

In particular:

- downstream of the press P there are output storage units 10u on which the pressed hides Lp leaving the press P are stacked;

- upstream of the splitting machine S there are input storage units 20i on which the pressed hides to be split Lp are stacked while downstream of the same splitting machine S there are output storage units 20u on which the split hides Ls leaving the splitting machine S are stacked;

- upstream of each shearing machine R there are input storage units 30i on which the split hides Ls to be sheared are stacked.

The output storage units 10u of the press P and the input storage units 20i of the splitting machine S are located along an alignment direction X1 which is parallel to the alignment direction X2 of the input storage units 30i of the shearing machines R.

An auxiliary carriage 40 transits between the storage units along a transit direction X3 parallel to and included between the alignment directions X1 and X2, to transfer the hides from any of the output storage units 10u, 20u to any of the input storage units 20i, 30i according to transfer directions Y that are orthogonal to the alignment directions X1 and X2 of the storage units and to the transit direction X3 of the auxiliary carriage 40.

Preferably but not necessarily, to increase the number of hides stacked near the machines, downstream of each input storage unit 20i, 30i and upstream of each output storage unit 10u, 20u there are respectively an auxiliary input storage unit 55i and a auxiliary output storage unit 55u.

With regard to both input and output storage units, they are structurally identical to each other and, as seen in detail in Figure 3, each of them essentially comprises a supporting structure 2 resting on a support surface, usually the ground, which supports a transport surface 3.

This transport surface 3 is preferably but not necessarily constituted by a conveyor belt 4 wound as a ring around two drums 5, 6 supported by the supporting structure 2, at least one of which is associated with drive means, indicated as a whole by 7, able to drive the conveyor belt 4 according to the transfer direction Y of the hides, orthogonal to the alignment directions X1 and X2 of the storage units.

These drive means 7 are preferably but not necessarily constituted by gear motors of the known type.

A side view of the auxiliary carriage 40 can be seen in Figure 4 and a plan view of the same can be seen in Figure 5 where it can be observed that it comprises a first frame 41 equipped with first rolling means 42 constituted by wheels 42a resting on rails 43 and associated with first drive means 44.

In particular, it is possible to observe the presence of an axle 44a that connects two of the aforementioned wheels 42a and is associated with the first drive means 44 of the known type comprising a gear motor.

In this way the auxiliary carriage 40 can transit along the front of the input and output storage units along the transit direction X3 to be selectively positioned in front of each storage unit according to a preset hide handling schedule or even randomly on command, depending on the user's requirements.

The auxiliary carriage 40 is equipped with a transport surface 45 which preferably but not necessarily comprises a conveyor belt 47 wound as a closed ring around drums 48, 49, at least one of which is coupled with second drive means 46.

Said second drive means 46 comprise a gear motor 46a equipped with a pinion 46b that engages with a chain 46c wound as a ring around the pinion 46b and a ring gear 46d coupled with the drum 48 which, together with the idle drum 49, supports the conveyor belt 47 which in turn is wound as a ring around both of them.

In this way the conveyor belt 47 is also set in motion according to the transfer direction Y of the hides, orthogonal to the transit direction X3 of the auxiliary carriage 40 and the alignment directions X1 and X2 of the storage units.

According to the invention, the auxiliary carriage 40 also comprises third drive means 50 suited to move the transport surface 45 back and forth between storage units and define, with respect to each storage unit, a close position during the transfer of the hides L and a distanced position when the auxiliary carriage 40 transits in front of each storage unit.

For this purpose it can be noted that the transport surface 45 is associated with a second frame 51 which rests on the first frame 41 by way of second rolling means 52 which are associated with said third drive means 50.

The second rolling means 52 comprise wheels 52a belonging to the second frame 51 which rest on guides 55 arranged on the first frame 41 which define the back and forth direction of the transport surface 45 with respect to the storage units that substantially coincides with the transfer direction Y when the auxiliary carriage 40 is aligned with a corresponding storage unit.

One or more of said wheels 52a is/are associated with the aforementioned third drive means 50 which preferably but not necessarily comprise a gear motor of the known type coupled with at least one wheel 52a.

On the auxiliary carriage 40 there are rotation means, indicated as a whole by 56 which comprise a gear motor 57 coupled with an annular gear 58 associated with the second frame 51.

The second frame 51 can then be set rotating around a vertical axis in order to change the orientation of the hides laying on the conveyor belt 47 of the transport surface 45.

Although not shown, the rotation means of the type just described are preferably but not necessarily also present on the auxiliary input 55i and output storage units 55u, respectively.

From an operating point of view, the system's operation is illustrated making reference to Figures from 6 to 14 which show different positions of the auxiliary carriage 40 with respect to the input storage units 20i, 30i and output storage units 10u, 20u during different stages of the processing cycle.

Figure 6 shows the view of the system in Figure 2 according to the section plane VI-VI in which the auxiliary carriage 40 is located frontally and spaced from the output storage unit 20u of the splitting machine S.

On the storage unit 20u there are a plurality of stacked split hides Ls ready for transfer to the input storage unit 30i of the shearing machine R located at the head of the shearing machines of Figure 2.

When the third drive means 50 of the auxiliary carriage 40 are operated, the second frame 51 is moved to the left along the transfer direction Y, as indicated by the arrow in Figure 7, and the transport surface 45 approaches the transport surface 3 of the output storage unit 20u.

In this situation the movement towards the right along the transfer direction Y of the conveyor belts 4 and 47, respectively of the output storage unit 20u and of the auxiliary carriage 40, enables the transfer of the hides Ls from the output storage unit 20u to the auxiliary carriage 40, as can be seen in Figures 8 and 9.

Once the transfer has been carried out, the second frame 51 is moved to the right as indicated by the arrow in Figure 10 to move the transport surface 45 away from the output storage unit 20u and place it even further from the transport surface 3 of the output storage unit 20u of the splitting machine S. As noted, the back and forth movements of the auxiliary carriage 40 with respect to the storage unit 20u of the splitting machine S occur in mutually opposite senses along the transfer direction Y of the hides.

Then, to transfer the hides onto the input storage unit 30i of the shearing machine R located at the head of all the shearing machines in Figure 2, it is necessary to activate the first drive means 44 of the auxiliary carriage 40 so as to move it on the rails 43 along the transit direction X3 to position it in alignment with the input storage unit 30i of the shearing machine R, as is shown in Figure 1 1 which corresponds to the view of the system shown in Figure 2 according to the section plane XI-XI.

For the transfer of the hides it is necessary to move the transport surface 45 to the right to bring it closer to the transport surface 3 of the input storage unit 30i, moving the second frame 51 of the auxiliary carriage 40 to the right and along the transfer direction Y, until reaching the configuration shown in Figure 12.

At this point, the hides stacked on the auxiliary carriage 40 can be transferred to the input storage unit 30i, as shown in Figure 13, until reaching the final position shown in Figure 14, in which the hides Ls are placed on the input storage unit 30i of the shearing machine R.

Once the transfer has been completed, the second frame 51 with the corresponding transport surface 45 is moved to the left in the direction indicated by the arrow in Figure 15, so that the auxiliary carriage 40 is once again spaced from the storage units before starting a new handling cycle with other stacked hides.

Obviously, all the operations described can be carried out automatically according to a preset schedule or with manual commands, at the choice of the user.

The invention achieves the intended purpose of making the system safer than known systems equivalent to it.

In fact, Figure 2 shows that between the input storage units 20i, 30i and output storage units 10u, 20u and the auxiliary carriage 40, as the latter moves along the transit direction X3 between the storage units there are corridors 60 the width 61 of which is defined at the design stage depending on the specific requirements of the user.

Each corridor 60 is an escapeway for any person who should be accidentally transiting inside the hide handling area.

In this way, the danger of collision and shearing of the lower limbs of persons when the auxiliary carriage is in motion is avoided.

Moreover, the presence of these corridors 60 enables the presence of people in the hide handling area to carry out maintenance and cleaning operations even when the system is running.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a corridor 60 with a width of 30 cm has been shown to enable the easy passage of people and therefore to ensure a good degree of safety without excessive loss of useful space.

As already noted, the system of the invention can be used with any kind of layout.

One possible embodiment given by way of example is represented in Figure 15 and refers to a layout in which the system of the invention, indicated as a whole by 70, comprises a press P equipped with output storage units 80u to feed a splitting machine S positioned alongside the press P and equipped with input storage units 90i and output storage units 90u.

The latter, in turn, feed the input storage units 10Oi of five shearing machines R located on two opposing fronts.

The transfer of the hides is carried out by an auxiliary carriage 110.

It is evident that in the system, even though not shown in the figures, there is a control unit with programmable management means suited to operate the system according to the needs of the user.

Therefore, on the basis of the above, it is understood that the system of the invention achieves all the set objects.

During the construction stage the system of the invention may be subjected to modifications and variations useful to improve its operation or to make its production and/or installation more economical.

It is in any case clear that any such variations that are neither described herein nor shown in the drawings must all be considered protected by this patent, provided that they fall within the scope of the claims expressed below.

Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly such reference signs do not have any linniting effect on the protection of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.