DE2058713A1 - Device for group-wise arrangement of largely flat objects - Google Patents

Description

. 20 / H '

PATENT LAWYERS

Dr, DIETER LOUfS

Dipl.-lng.FRA r- .: Z LOHRENTZ

8500 NBERQ ONLY

KESSLERPLATZ 1

Jacob S a 1 ο mo η, Holon / Iereal.

Device for group-wise arrangement of largely flat objects

The invention relates to a device for the group-wise arrangement of largely flat objects, in particular of tea bags, with a counter.

The object of the present invention is to design a device of the type described above in such a way that flat objects can be combined in groups in a simple manner and then packaged. To achieve this object, the invention proposes a device which is characterized by a guide, a conveyor mechanism for conveying a number of the flat articles along the guide, furthermore by a number of separating fingers movable along the guide and by a control device for generating a Relative movement of the separating fingers to one another in order to create individual groups of articles. '''

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Preferably at least one pair of at a distance of-, mutually arranged separating fingers provided and the control device comprises means for mutual displacement of the separating fingers of the pair or pairs. With this arrangement the individual articles are in a uniform flow of conveyors delivered for guidance and the separating fingers move along the guide plate at a time interval relative to the Feeding the articles so that article groups of regular size are separated from one another. There are those Separating fingers arranged so that the separated groups of articles during the conveyance along the guide plate to Bundles are combined.

The separating fingers can advantageously be arranged in pairs with one finger of each pair being driven at a predetermined speed during the other fingers is movable relative to the first-mentioned finger by means of a separating mechanism. Uer separation mechanism expediently consists of at least one rod movable in the direction of the guide and moves at a speed which is less than that of the associated driven separating finger or fingers, and it is on each of the fingers movable relative to one another is provided with a stop surface which comes into contact with the rod and by which the separating finger decelerates and separating movement between the movable and driven fingers each pair is generated. A number of rods and separating finger pairs are advantageously provided, with each of the driven fingers is driven by a first conveyor, while the cross bars are driven by a second Conveyors are moved at a speed lower than that of the first conveyor.

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Appropriately, each driven separating finger is connected to the first conveyor in such a way that it is fastened between a pair of pivot arms, which in turn are pivotable about a pin which extends between two spaced-apart chains forming the first conveyor A guide device is provided to control the angular position of the pivoting arms during their movement along the upper and lower run of the conveyor. Conveniently, the guide means consists of a to a 'separating fingers of each pair are arranged, and a driver ^r network of guide rails which are mounted on the main frame of the entire device and interact with the driver. *

In a further development of the inventive concept it is provided that the separating fingers of the or each pair have the shape of L-shaped plates so that they are in contact with each other standing legs of the L-shaped plates slidable relative to each other bind to the separation of the rest to effect thighs of the plates. The sliding with each other connected fingers of each pair can be bent between friction pins that bridge the gap between the swivel arms, so that the sliding movement between the individual pieces is opposed by a frictional resistance.

The two conveyors advantageously run an intermittent one Movement with regularly occurring delays and become the I-shaped separating finger on the insertion side the guide introduced by means of a pivoting movement which coincides with a delay of the two conveyors. In a particularly expedient embodiment are the two conveyors are even driven so that a slight backward movement occurs during each deceleration, a reciprocating mechanism

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touching thighs of the L-shaped pinger and putting them in pivoted in one direction so that the remaining legs of the racing fingers are raised behind the lead-in of the guide are, so that with the subsequent acceleration of the conveyor these other legs above the guide to come lying down. Suitably, these other legs of the fingers each have wider tops that are narrow Skip the lower parts. The guide itself expediently consists of a guide channel with a base and at least a side wall, the bottom having a longitudinally extending slot the width of which is between the Width of the wider and narrower finger areas, the conveyors themselves can be driven by an intermittent drive mechanism be driven, in which coaxially running drive and driven elements are provided and the a stationary cam with a largely circular edge, interrupted by a sudden sharp rise, having. The drive element can carry a pivotable arm with a pin, which is fed into an elongated hole of the driven Element engages, while a roller is still provided on the arm, the along the peripheral edge of the stationary Cam unrolls. As a result, there is a sudden pivoting movement during the rolling process of the armB in a direction that slows down the driven Element and thus an irregular movement despite continuous movement of the drive element to Consequence.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the reciprocating mechanism has a rotating one Cam disc with a cam surface arranged on the circumferential edge, on which also a role of a two-armed Lever unrolls. The lever is pivotably attached to a point fixed to the frame and has a pin that

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is in contact with the separating fingers. The lever can be loaded by a spring so that its sleeve always remains in contact with the cam disk mentioned. The cam surface of this cam disk can also be essentially circular, but have a discontinuity in the form of a notch into which the follower roller enters under the influence of the spring and thereby pivots the lever in a direction that allows upward movement of the one in contact with the associated fingers Corresponds to the pen. The pin is expediently in contact with one of a pair of stop rails which are carried by one of a pair of swivel arms. The two stop rails form a slot with parallel sides and have a funnel-shaped opening at one end. There are those

Jr

Conveyor and the pin arranged so that the swivel arm and the associated stop rails are moved in the direction of the pin in such a way that the pin is in the funnel-shaped beginning of the slot can occur, whereupon he is in the sense of raising the separating finger moved up.

A timely coordination of the operation of the delay mechanism for the conveyor and the lifting mechanism for the swing arm can be achieved by the rotatable cam of the lifting mechanism is firmly mounted on a sleeve, which is deü with a drive gear Delay mechanism for the conveyor connected, is expediently even designed as a unit with it.

Funds are also provided that require a provision the parting finger of the pair or pairs into one not from each other cause a separate situation. These include expedient a spring release, which moves the or each movable finger in the direction of the associated

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forced fingers back while the separating fingers move back to the introducer of the guide. On the other hand you can However, these means also consist of a further conveyor, one of which is moving at one speed Which is lower than that of the fingers. The pen moves along the same path as the Pinger, if these return in the direction of the introducer of the guide, ldeser further conveyors can in addition expediently be arranged so that one of its irume parallel to the path of movement of the conveyor that drives the driven separating fingers and essentially even with it this path of movement coincides. In continuation of this idea, this additional conveyor is driven by gears, of which at least one is driven by a sprocket of larger diameter and with the chain of the the fingers driving conveyor is engaged.

Finally, the invention proposes a packaging device for tea bags that consists of the above-described counting device, a star wheel for feeding tea bags to the guide of the counting device and means for depositing each group of counted tea bags in a container.

Further advantages and features of the present invention emerge from the following description of a preferred one Embodiment based on the accompanying drawings as well as from further subclaims.

Show it:

Figure 1 is a side sectional view, cut along the line I-I in Figure 2, from which the arrangement the teabag emerges in rows for packaging purposes;

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FIG. 2 shows a section along the line II-II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a section along the line III-III in FIG 2;

FIG. 4 shows a section along the line IV-IV in FIG and

FIG. 5 shows an arrangement similar to FIG. 1, but _with a modified version of a locking mechanism for the separating fingers.

Figure 1 shows a star wheel 1, which individual tea bags the left end of a guide channel s 3 brings. The guide channel 3 has a pair of extraction teeth 4, which protrude into the space between rockers 5, which Form pockets on the star wheel 1. As a result, a teabag is removed from the assigned pocket and deposited on the removal lugs 4 »consecutive Pairs of wings 5, which are calibrated at the left end of the guide channel 3 move past downwards, push the previously deposited tea bags along the guide channel in the direction to the right and form a stack that runs along the guide channel is advanced.

The movement of the tea bags along the channel in the direction of to the right is by pairs of ii-shaped separating fingers 6a, 7a, 6b, 7b, etc. supported in a manner to be explained in detail below, iiie 'i' racing finger pairs move clockwise along a closed conveyor track, which is separated by a pair of arranged conveyor chains 8 is defined. The movement takes place in such a way that the separating fingers 7 correspond to the separating fingers 6 lead along the upper run of the conveyor track and then the separating fingers 6 during the movement Follow the path along the lower span. The rear

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Separating fingers 6 have downwardly projecting pins 9a, 9b, etc. at their front ends, which come to rest behind cross bars 10 of a second conveyor chain 11. The second conveyor chain 11 runs over a pair of horizontally spaced sprockets 12 and 13 mounted on respective shafts 14 and 15, respectively. The front and rear finger 7 and 6 of each pair are arranged slidably against each other and each front pinger 7 is mounted on two pivot arms 16 which in turn are hinged to a rotating pivot pin 17, which carries the arrangement of the separation finger on the conveyor chain 8, is üb it is pointed out here that in the following description the front fingers 7 are always referred to as "driven" fingers and the rear fingers 6 as "relatively movable ¹¹ fingers.

The upper run of the conveyor chain 11 runs at one speed to the right, which is less than that of the upper run of the conveyor chain 8. This will be during the part the movement of the separating fingers, in which the pins 9 are behind and in contact with the cross bars 10, the rear fingers 6 is delayed, as is clear from 6b in FIG. As a further consequence, fingers 6b and 7b become apart separate and bundle together the group of tea bags 18a following the rear finger 6b. You can see that the next previous group of tea bags 18b tightly together between the front finger 7b of one pair and the rear Finger 7c of the previous pair of separating fingers is held. This bundling causes the individual bags of the group in an upright, evenly distributed position to each other.

The star wheel shown in FIG. 1 is explained in detail in Dutch patent application 6,813,491. This one

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Star wheel are the individual tea bags in the form of a contiguous one The ribbon of welded tea bags, suspended on a hanging wire, is fed with one end of the Hanging wire is attached to the feed point in the star wheel. During the revolution around the star wheel, the bags are separated from each other separated ', shifted radially outward and delayed in their circular movement before being deposited on the extraction teeth 4. It has been found that this particular arrangement provides a set of tea bags in which the contents Uniformly.over the extension of the teabag is distributed, since the influence of gravity on the contents of the bag is reversed as soon as it goes from the descending part of the hanging wire to the ascending part on the opposite one Switch page. The known manufacturing machines for tea bags have the disadvantage that the content the bag is very often pushed together along one edge of the bag and in this way a wedge-shaped structure is created instead of a flat bag. Hence is The star wheel shown is particularly advantageous for use together with the grouping system shown in FIG. 1 for the tea bags. Of course, however, can any other feeding device for the tea bags use it to set it down at the left end of the guide channel 3. It has even been shown that when used of other conventional feeding devices for the bags, the above-described collapse effect, which leads to leads to a wedge-shaped design of the tea bags, due to the bundling effect of the interacting separating fingers 7 and 6 is eliminated. Another such tea bag feeder is, for example, that disclosed in the British patent 1 097 842.

If the pins 9 move to the right over the right end of the upper run of the conveyor chain 11 out

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are long and in this way lie outside the area of influence of the cross bars 10 »becomes the distance between the fingers 6f, 7f of a pair are still maintained because the Slidable connection between the individual fingers contains a built-in heat resistance, that of the inclination the teabag counteracts tipping out behind the back finger and pushes this back finger forward.

The conveyor chains 8 become intermittent in a clockwise direction Driven by assigned chain wheels 19 and 20. The left chain wheel 19 is driven by means of the chain wheel 19 shown in more detail in FIG Mechanism powered. The rotation of the chain around the sprockets is made possible by the movement of the left sprocket 19, which is driven clockwise, as shown in FIG. 3, is driven to a central clockwise direction execute directed angular movement, which are intermittently interrupted by cyclic return movements, while which rapidly decelerates the sprocket and slightly reverses its direction of movement. Subsequently receives it again accelerates more gently up to its original mean, counterclockwise direction Speed. The mechanism for generating this type of movement is described below in connection with FIG explained in more detail.

when the pairs of fingers 6, 7 move to the left along the lower Trumes of conveyor chains 8 can move the right-angled bend of the L-shaped movable l''inger 6, which is now the driven fingers 7 precede, slide along a lower guide element 21, so that the orientation the pivot arm 16 is held at a small angle of inclination below the horizontal.

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In the embodiment of the invention shown, the separating fingers 6 and 7 are movable by means of a joint Pinger 6 closed against an upwardly directed leg 22 of an L-shaped leaf spring. The I-shaped Leaf spring is "attached to the machine frame at 23 and arranged in the path of the separating finger that they detected the respective movable pinger 6 and brought them back into contact with "the associated driven." Finger 7 pushes. The extent to which the spring legs 22 protrudes into the path of movement of the pingers 6 and 7, is with the angle of inclination of the associated swivel arm 16 at the point under consideration. This angle of inclination is such that the protruding separating finger 6 extends down under the end of the driven finger 7, however, after the closing movement of the relatively movable pinger 6, both pingers 6 and 7 over the bent end 22a of the pen and run behind the pen without any further Disability move on. An alternative embodiment of a locking mechanism is described in greater detail below explained in connection with FIG.

Along the upper run of the conveyor chains 8 are guide elements for the pivot arms 16 in the form of an upper, largely horizontal guide 24 is provided, the right end of which merges into a downwardly inclined part 25, on which in turn is followed by a very steeply inclined end 26, which allows the pivot arm to fall onto another Guide element 27 allowed. This supports the swivel arm at the beginning of its leftward movement, before it. its further dropping onto a floor guide 21 is allowed.

The guide effect of the individual guide elements 21, 24, 25, 26 and 27 is achieved by the arrangement of -

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transversely extending pins on the swivel arms. Each finger arrangement, for example the separating fingers 6g and 7g, is assigned to two swivel arms, of which, however, only one, namely the swivel arm 16g, is shown in FIG. In each case one of the pivot arms is arranged on each of the twin chains 8 and the aforementioned rotating pivot pins 17 are mounted between these chains. The bchwenkarme are articulated by means of two upper, transversely projecting pins 28g and 29g and two lower corresponding pins 30g and 31g, 7g uer separator finger is secured to the upper pin 29g which lies closest to the pivot pin 17g. It is fastened, for example, by welding. The further upper pin 28g is arranged to coincide with the apex of an isosceles triangle with the lower pins 30g and 31g at the opposite ends of its base. The assignment of the three pins 28g, 30g and 31g is chosen so that a slight bending effect is exerted on the two parallel finger areas in contact and extending between the pins. It is this bending effect that produces the aforementioned frictional resistance against relative displacement of the fingers 6 and 7.

The lower pin 30g, furthest from pivot 17g, extends sideways at 32g (Figure 2) to the outside and engages in the various guide elements 21, 24, 25} 26 and 27. To ensure, that the pin extension 32g of the correct, downwardly inclined trajectory at the right end of its movement follows, i.e. that the pin extension 32g is in contact with or at least in the vicinity of the inclined end guide 26. FIG runs even at a considerable speed, an upper, downward-acting hold-down device 33 is so above the inclined leading end 26 arranged that a tendency of

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Pen extension 32g is prevented from flapping aimlessly in a vertical direction.

As FIG. 1 shows, the lower run of the conveyor chains rises 8 to the left, while the lower guide element 21 remains horizontal and consequently moves away from the conveyor chains. For this reason, the swivel arms complete 16 a slight counterclockwise movement despite the presence of the guide 21 - with reference to FIG their approach to the left end of the guide 21 until the ends of the associated pivot pin 17m around the left Chain wheel 19 start to run upwards. During this upward movement, the pin extension moves 32m of the Pin 30m to the left along the lower guide 21 and reaches its leftmost point, whereupon it is pulled to the right along the guide 24 upon further upward movement of the pivot pin 17m. Like the figure 4 shows is one of the pivot arm pairs 16 shown here in FIG 16a position is considered, with a pair of guide rails provided, of which the upper rail 34a is straight and parallel to the axis of the associated Arm 16a extends. In contrast, the lower guide rail 25a points at its pivot pin 17a which is closer to it End of a downwardly curved end region 36a.

JSin pin 37 performs a reciprocating movement in a largely vertical direction as a result of an oscillating movement a lever 38 around its pivot point 39. When the swivel arm during the revolution of the pivot pin 17 to the left chain wheel 19 is pulled upwards, the guide rails 34a and 35a also lead this upward movement and enclose the pin 37 with the funnel-shaped Introductory, that through the curved end 36a of the rail 35a and the associated end of the upper guide rail

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34a is formed. As a result, the pin 37 enters the slot formed by the rails 34a and 35a, which is in the longitudinal direction of the associated pivot arm 16, such as the Figure 4 shows extends. The pin 37 is received in the associated slot of the pivot arm 16 while the pin 37 is in its lowest position at the jtfide one Long holes 40 located in the machine frame. The pin 37 then makes a very rapid upward movement while the pivot pin 17 rises and thereby the Schwenkarn 16a pulls up, and drags the pivot arm 16 on

"Reason for the contact between the upper guide rail 34a with. At approximately the same point in time, the main conveyor chains 8 complete their cyclical reversal of movement due to the in FIG 3 so that the pivot pin 17 momentarily a counterclockwise movement about the axis of the chain wheel 19 completes. The combination of the Upward impact, which is communicated to the rail 34a, with the essentially simultaneous stopping and the slight reversal of movement of the pivot pin 17 caused a very rapid upward movement of the closely spaced fingers 6 and 7 so that they move from the to the left protruding ends of the removal fingers 4 come free. These

fc Upward movement must be timed so that it coincides with the corresponding position of the star wheel 1 as shown in Figures 1 and 4, i.e. so, that the closed fingers 6 and 7 move to the right behind the tea bag that was last deposited can begin before the next, downwardly wandering point 41 of the continuously rotating star wheel 1 the Movement path of the separating finger crossed.

Although this is not shown in detail in Figures 1 and 4, it should be noted here that the lateral The extension of the separating fingers 6 and 7 is greatest at their upper one

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End area 42 and 43, but still smaller than that Distance between the juxtaposed rockers 5 of the outer wheel 1 is. This is how each of the downward wandering rockers 5, one of which is just depositing a teabag according to FIG. 4, from the wider areas

42 and 43 of the separating fingers 6a and 7a are free during their rise. Furthermore, the remaining area of the separating fingers is below the areas 42 and 43 just mentioned are even narrower, so that these narrow areas when moving to the right on the bottom of the guide channel 3 tightly in a the channel length extending longitudinal groove 44 can run. The dimension of the wider finger areas 42 and 43 in vertical Direction is carefully matched to the remaining dimensions and the movement path of the separating fingers 6 and 7, so that the bottom edges of the. wider finger areas 42 and

43 straight from the left ends of the removal fingers 4 during the circular movement of the separating fingers come free.

FIG. 3 shows the mechanism which is used to generate the intermittent movement of the conveyor chains 8. Of the Drive for this mechanism is together with the drive of the conveyor chain 11 and the rocker arm 38 via a drive chain 45 from the main shaft of the star wheel 1 derived. The chain drive between the star wheel 1 and the individual rotating parts of the grouping arrangement is important because this is the essential timing of the deceleration and the upward swing the separating fingers 6 and 7 with the presence of a distance between successive prongs 41 on the removal fingers 4 guaranteed. ·

The drive chain 45 engages with teeth of a sprocket 46 that rotates clockwise (see arrow). That Chain wheel 46 carries a pin 47 on which a curved '

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Arm 48 by means of a sleeve 49 which is mounted on the tip 47 is articulated. The arm 48 carries a stub axle 50 on which a cam follower roller by means of a roller bearing 51 is mounted. The roller 51 rolls on the outer edge of a cam disk 52 arranged in a stationary manner starting with a largely circular peripheral edge, interrupted by a single rise 53. The rise 53 has a steep plank · 54 and a gently sloping one rear plank 55, along which the roller 51 during the relative movement of the chain wheel 46 with respect to the cam disk unrolls.

The free .binde the curved arm 48 is flexible on Chain wheel attached by means of an eyelet tension spring 56, the between a hole 57 in the sprocket and a similar one Hole 58 in the free end of arm 48 extends. This causes the arm 48 to continuously move in a counterclockwise direction directed pivoting movement held. In the vicinity of its free end, the arm 48 carries a pin 59 which is parallel

and

to the pivot pin 47 extends into a short, radially extending elongated hole 60 engages in a driven cage 61. Since the sprocket 46 is disposed between the arm 48 and the driven cage 61, is in the sprocket a corresponding circular opening 62 is provided in which the pin 59 is during the pivoting movement of the arm 48 can move freely relative to the sprocket.

The way of puncturing the mechanism shown in Pigur 3 is the following:

The chain wheel 46 rotates continuously in a counterclockwise direction so that the follower roller 51 runs on the circular edge of the cam disk 52 until it reaches the steep plank 54. When you walk over this plank, it causes a very rapid pivoting movement supported by the peder

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clockwise relative to sprocket 46. The difference between the radii of the trajectories of the stub axle and pin 59 around pivot pin 47 "causes" significant arcuate movement of pin 59 in ^a clockwise direction relative to sprocket 46, causing driven wheel 61 to be clockwise is taken relative to the sprocket, which in turn rotates counterclockwise. This has the consequence that the follower roller 51 overflows the rise 53 and, rolling down on its rear flank 55, accelerates the driven wheel 61 again, so that it regains the mean rotational speed of the chain wheel 46.

The existence of the radially extending elongated hole 60 in the driven wheel 61 serves to compensate for the fact that the lever 48 pivots about the pivot pin 47, which is a considerable distance from the axis of the sprocket 46. This has the consequence that during the pivoting movement of the lever 48, the pin 59 is slightly first in the direction of the axis of the sprocket and then moved away from it.

As shown in FIG. 2, the driven wheel 61 is attached to a main conveyor shaft 63 by means of a pin 64. These The main drive shaft also carries the two drive sprockets 19 for the conveyor chains 8 and the drive sprocket 12 for the chain 11. Both sprockets 19 and 12 are each pinned to the shaft. It follows that the Chains 8 and 11 perform synchronized intermittent orbital movements around their associated sprockets, with the difference in speed between the upper strands of the conveyors 8 and 11 is achieved in that the chain wheels 19 have a larger diameter than the chain wheels 12. The sectional view in Figure 2 clearly shows that

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over one of the cross bars 10, which extend in the transverse direction to the chain 11.

The sprocket 46 is relative to the main drive shaft 63 Because of its storage by means of two bushings 65 freely rotatable. FIG. 2 shows that the cam 52 is relative to the machine frame 66 is fixed by means of a countersunk screw 67. Figure 3 shows two other similar screws. The two Bushings 65 are arranged in a sleeve 68 which forms a unit with the chain wheel 46. The free end of this The sleeve carries a rotatable cam disk 69 »which is pinned to it via a pin 70. The cam 69 forms part of the mechanism shown in Figure 4 and serves to operate the rocker arm 38 to produce the vertical reciprocating motion of the pin 37.

The functioning of the cam disc 69 and the rocker arm 38 is the following:

The rocking lever 38 has a curved shape and in this respect is similar to the above-described lever 48 of the drive for intermittent movement. Furthermore, the lever 39 also carries a follower roller 71, which by means of a roller bearing is mounted on a stub axle 72, which in turn forms a unit with the lever. The cam 69 has a largely circular border, with the exception of a rise 73, but in this jrall one very gentle flank 74 precedes, which is followed by a steeper flank 75.

In this mechanism, the rocker arm 38 is turned clockwise tensioned by means of a helical tension spring 76, which is located between a pin 77 on the machine frame and a similar Pin 78 extends on the lever.

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~ 19 -

When the counting device is in operation, the cam 69 continuously driven clockwise (cf. the arrow in Jj'igur 4). This is done via the one effected by the btift 70 Coupling between the cam 69 and the sleeve 68 on your sprocket. The scanning roller 71 rolls gently on the rising plank 74 and gradually lowers the to-and-fro pin 37 to its lowest position. But then, when the follower roller 71 overflows the rise 73 and gets onto the plank 75 falling off the actuator, the rocker arm can 38 swing freely clockwise under the action of the tension spring 76, so that the pin 37 is a very rapid Experiencing upward shift. In this he takes the swivel arm 16a after resting on the guide rails 34a, 35a, which, as already explained above, have already been set on both sides of the pin 37. Achieved the pin 37 is in its uppermost position, i.e. if the scanning roller 71 has reached the end point of the sloping plank 75, then begins a renewed rise of the follower roller on the very gently rising edge 74, which is practically around the the entire circumference of the cam 69 extends around.

An alternative construction of the cam 69 is such that its circumference is largely circular and is concentric to the axis of rotation of the main drive shaft 63. The sloping plank 75, however, extends over an extremely short part of the perimeter - and so does the gently sloping one Plank that moves the follower roller from the end point of the sloping plank 75 back to the circular i-part of the curve perimeter s leads, although it is still gently increasing, it is, however, considerably faster than the one explained above Construction.

As mentioned nicely above, there is the timing between the movement of the pin 37 and the delay

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and return movement of the driven wheel 61 and the main drive shaft 63 made so that the instant Break in the movement of the conveyor chains 8 coincides with the very rapid upward movement caused by the rising pin 37, which is supported on the guide rail 34a, is generated. It turns out that once the various dimensions of the individual parts of the device are chosen, the exact timing is defined by the angular position of the movable cam disc 69 relative to the sleeve 68 on the sprocket. It can therefore prove to be useful to attach the pin 70 by another suitable connecting mechanism replace the relative angular adjustment between the sleeve 68 and the cam 69 in the sense of a pin adjustment the timing of the machine.

As already mentioned above, FIG. 5 shows a further embodiment of a locking mechanism for the separating fingers. This mechanism includes a pair of conveyor chains 79 »those about sprockets on a pair of spaced apart arranged shafts rotate, jsin sprocket pair is freely rotatably mounted on one of the shafts, while the other pair of sprockets 81 is fixed on a shaft, the is driven by means of a further chain wheel 82 through its engagement with one of the main conveyor chains 8. Since the The diameter of the further chain wheel 82 is greater than that of the chain wheels 81, is the transformation speed a cross bar 83, which extends between the chains 79, always less than that of the pivot pin 17, which extend between the main conveyor chains 8. jjer cross bar 83 is provided for the purpose of holding the pins 9 to stop the separating fingers 6 moving past, with the result. that when the racing fingers 7 catch up with the cross tab 83, the relatively movable separating fingers 6 so long

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hesitates until they are fully closed with the separating fingers 7 Assume position in mutual contact.

The device explained and shown above is arranged Die-tea bags in groups of a predetermined number at. The number is controlled by the ratio of the distance between the pivot pins 17 to the average thickness the tea bag. A suitable packaging device can be used to keep each group of bags as they move along the guide channel 3 in the direction to the right to be packed in an appropriate cardboard box or similar packaging. For example, a cardboard box put over the groups of bags which, if necessary, have also been wrapped in envelope paper beforehand are. On the other hand, however, a heat-shrinkable film can also be slipped over the groups of bags, which then folded and sealed to create an attractive package.

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Claims (17)

Patent (protection) claims M,] Device for group-wise arrangement of largely flat objects, in particular tea bags, with a counting device, characterized by a guide (3), a conveying mechanism (.1, 5) for conveying a number of the flat articles along the guide, furthermore by a Number of separating fingers (6, 7) movable along the guide (3) and by a control device (8, 11) for generating a relative movement
the separating fingers (6, 7) with one another in order to create individual groups (18a to 18c) of the articles, 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that
that at least one pair of separating fingers (6a, 7a) is provided, that one of the separating fingers (7aj of the pair is driven at a predetermined speed, while the other separating finger (6a) is movable relative thereto, and that the control mechanism is designed such that the movable separating finger (6a) can be decelerated relative to the driven separating finger (7a). 3 »Device according to claim 2, characterized in that
that at least one cross bar (10) in the longitudinal direction of the
Guide (3) at a speed below the speed of the
associated driven separating finger (7a) lying speed is movable and that stop surfaces
(9) on the relatively movable separating finger (6a) of the
A pair are provided, on which the cross bar (10) comes to rest and the movable separating finger (6a) decelerates relative to the driven separating finger (7a). 109824/1224 4. Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that that a number of cross bars (10) and separating finger pairs (6, 7) are provided, the driven fingers (7) being carried by a first conveyor (8) and the cross bars (10) are driven by a second conveyor (11), 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that that each driven finger (7) is attached to the first conveyor (8) via a pair of pivot arms (16), which are hinged to a pivot pin (17), which bridges the distance between two conveyor chains (8) of the first conveyor. 6. Apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that guide rails (21, 24, 25, 26 and 27; are provided on the machine frame, along which a pin (32) attached to a separating finger (7) of each pair slides, whereby the angular position of the Separating fingers (6, 7) are controlled during their movement on the upper and lower run of the first conveyor (8), 7. Device according to one or more of claims 2 to 6, characterized in that the separating finger pairs (6, 7) are designed in the form of L-shaped plates, the adjacent legs of the ir-shaped Plates are displaceable relative to one another in order to separate the other legs of the plates, and that the plates, which can be displaced relative to one another, are clamped between iteibstifte (28, 30, 31), which extend into the gap between the pivot arms (16) and a relative movement between the separating fingers oppose a heating resistance. 1 0 9.8 24/1224 8 »Device according to claim 7 _f, characterized in that the conveyors (8, 11) are driven by a common drive mechanism (45 to 61) and perform an intermittent movement with regularly occurring delays, the I-shaped separating fingers at the insertion end of the guide (3) be introduced by engaging a reciprocating member (37) at a time when the conveyors (8, 11) decelerate. 9. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the separating fingers (6, Ί) have upper .Areas (42, 43; with a larger ureite, adjoining the lower areas with a small .width, and that the guide (3) as Channel is formed with a bottom and at least one side wall, the bottom having a longitudinal groove (44), the width of which is greater than that of the narrow, but smaller than that of the wide finger areas (42, 43). 10. The device according to claim 8 or 9 »characterized in that the drive for the conveyor coaxially arranged drive elements (46) and driven elements (61) and a stationary cam { 52), wherein the cam (52) has a largely circular edge »Which is interrupted by a sharp rise (53), that a swivel arm (48) is also attached to the drive element (46) which carries a pin (59 J which engages in a long hole (60) in the driven element (61; that finally the swivel arm (48) has a follower roller (51) which rolls along the circumference of the stationary cam disk (52j) so that during the rolling movement of the follower roll (51) the swivel arm (48) has a sudden swivel movement in the 109824/1224 Meaning of a deceleration of the driven element (61) experiences and an irregular movement with continuous movement of the drive element (46) performs * 11. Device according to one or more of the claims 8-10, characterized in that the reciprocating element (37) is one of a mechanism driven pin, the mechanism being a rotating cam (69) with a circumferential cam surface and an articulated rocker arm (38) which is fixed to the frame and which has the pin (37) and a follower roller (71), which on the circumferential curve surface of the Cam (69) rolls, 12. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that that the rocker arm (38) holds the follower roller (71) in contact with the cam surface under the action of a spring and that the cam surface is largely circular with the exception of a rise (73) which is defined by a notch (73, 74) is formed in the curved surface, in which the follower roller (71) under the spring action sinks in and a swinging movement of the rocker arm (38) in the sense of an upward movement of the pin (37) generated. . 13 · Device according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that that on one of the separating fingers (6, 7) a pair of guide or stop rails (34a, 35a) is provided, which one with parallel side edges provided slot which has a funnel-shaped inlet end (36a), and that the conveyor (O, TO 9.8 24/1224 11) and the pin (37) are arranged so that the associated rails (34a, 35a) are moved in the direction of the pin (37) and thereby with the funnel-shaped Entry end (36a) the ütift (37) in its record the lowest position. 14. The device according to one or more of claims 11 to 13 »characterized in that the rotating cam (69) is attached to a sleeve (68), which • in turn with the drive sprocket (46) of the conveyor drive (45j to 61) is connected. 15 «Device according to one or more of claims 2 to 14, characterized in that a spring stop (22) is provided in order to move the separating fingers (6), which can be moved relative to one another, backwards in the direction on the associated driven separating fingers (7j during the return movement of the separating fingers (6, 7) in To move direction to the lead-in of the guide (3). 16, device according to one or more of claims 2 to 15, characterized in that a further conveyor (79) is provided with a transverse rod (83), the moves at a speed below the speed of the separating fingers (6, 7) along their trajectory when they are in the direction of the insertion end return to the guide (3), 17. The device according to claim 16, characterized in that that the further conveyor (79) runs parallel to the path of movement of the first conveyor (8) 109824/1224 and largely coincident with this trajectory Has strand and runs over sprockets (80, 81), of which at least one (81) by a further sprocket (82) is driven, which has a larger diameter than the latter and.mit the chain (8) of the first conveyor is in engagement. 109824/1224