EP0059818A1 - Machine for placing individual protection strips around oblong objects such as bottles, and an assembly of such machines - Google Patents

Abstract

1. A machine for the automatic fitting of individual protection strips on elongate articles such as bottles, essentially comprising : - means (9) for supplying the articles (8) one after the other, in the upright position, in a continuous line ; - means (12-17) for supplying successive strips (7) in a practically vertical position ; - means (11) for positioning the article at the head of the row opposite a strip (7) guided and positioned in the vertical position ; - means for shaping the strip (7) about the said article (8), these means comprising, inter alia, at a loading station, at least one pair of jaws (5) whose inner surfaces are in the form of cylindrical portions of vertical axes, these jaws (5) being articulated such that they are able, on one hand, to open providing a lateral passage for an article and its strip during shaping and, on the other hand, to close on this article provided with the said strip ; - means (24-31) for fastening the ends of the shaped strip (7) ; and - means (32) for removing the article provided with the said strip ; characterised in that the said positioning means are constituted by stop means and in that the said shaping means also comprise, at the loading station, a push member (19) having its inner surface in the shape of a cylindrical portion of a vertical axis, open laterally in the direction of the said pair of jaws (5), and designed to be displaced in this direction, pushing the article at the line, between a retracted position in which it provides a passage for the supply of the said article up to the stop means, and a forward position in which the article, provided with the strip, is introducted between the said jaws, after which the said push member (19) may return empty to the said retracted position.

Description

The present invention firstly relates to a machine for the automatic installation of individual protective strips on elongated objects such as bottles.

These bands can be made of corrugated cardboard or any other material capable of protecting the objects in question from impact, in the manner of well-known straws used to protect the bottles. These bands will however be able to effectively fulfill this protective role while only extending along part of the height of said objects and thus, in the case of bottles of conventional shape, with round or square belly, they may not extend only about halfway up the bottle, starting from the base. These strips will therefore in principle consist of cardboard or similar cutouts, of essentially rectangular shape.

It is understood that these protective bands can advantageously replace, in the packaging boxes, the braces usually used to separate the bottles or other objects of the same kind, and prevent them from colliding. The use of bands has the advantage over the crossbars that they also protect the labels of the bottles, preventing them from being damaged or their inscriptions being erased.

However, the problem arises of ensuring rapid and automatic installation of such strips on bottles to be packaged at a high rate.

The object of the present invention is to solve this particular problem and, for this purpose, a machine for the automatic laying of individual protective strips on elongated objects such as bottles is, according to the invention, characterized in that it essentially comprises: means for bringing said objects one behind the other, in a standing position, in a continuous line; means for bringing successive bands to the practical position vertical; means for stopping the object at the head of the queue in front of a guided strip stopped in a vertical position; means for shaping the strip around said object; means for fixing the ends of the shaped strip; and means for removing the object coated with said strip.

Of course, all of the aforementioned means will be controlled according to an operating cycle and according to appropriate sequences, capable of ensuring the various desired functions at high speed, this using all the means (motors, position detection, synchronization, mechanical, hydraulic and electronic) currently available to the technician in this area.

These various means, being well known, will not be described in more detail.

The above-mentioned shaping means may be produced in different ways, but it may be particularly advantageous, in accordance with one embodiment, to provide that said shaping means comprise inter alia, in a loading station, at least one pair of jaws whose internal surfaces are in the form of cylindrical portions of vertical axes, these jaws being articulated so as to be able on the one hand to open, leaving a lateral passage to an object and to its strip during conformation, and d 'on the other hand close on this object coated with said strip.

The mode of operation of these jaws will be better seen later, but it can already be noted that these are convenient and mechanically very simple and reliable means of winding up a strip of cardboard or the like, intended to constitute the band, around the object in question - bottle or other - and keep this band tight on the object until the aforementioned fixing means intervene. In addition, and as will also be seen subsequently, these jaws can very easily ensure a transfer of the object coated with its strip to the next station of the machine.

In cooperation and in addition to these jaws, said shaping means may further comprise, at said loading station, a pusher with an internal surface in the form of a cylindrical portion with a vertical axis, open laterally in the direction of said pair of jaws, and capable of moving in this direction, by pushing said object at the head of the file, between a withdrawal position for which it leaves a passage for said object, and an advanced position for which the latter, coated with said strip, is introduced between said jaws, after which said pusher can return empty to said withdrawal position.

It is understood that, in this jaw loading station, the object at the head of the queue, while stopped, is placed between the strip, also stopped, and said pusher, the strip itself located between the object and the lateral passage of the jaws, then open. It is therefore the lateral movement of the pusher towards the jaws which, through the object, will cause the strip to fold around the object, at the same time as the introduction of the latter between the jaws, which can then close.

The object therefore behaves, vis-à-vis the strip to be shaped, like a punch, cooperating with the matrix that constitute said jaws. By such a system, a very precise adjustment of the strip around the objects is obtained, which limits the risks of sliding by rotation, even if the diameter of the objects (in the case of bottles with round bellies) is likely to vary slightly. .

Said loading station may also be provided with two fixed conformers in the form of vertical plates extending in a general direction parallel to that in which the objects to be coated are brought to said station, and also extending to the outside of the jaws, from those of the edges thereof which delimit said lateral passage when they are in the open position.

The two edges facing each other, of these conformers, can advantageously be rounded, to facilitate the introduction and the guiding of the strip between the jaws, without it risking being cut in contact with the edges of the jaws which delimit the lateral passage. of these.

. According to an equally important arrangement of the invention, it is advantageously possible to provide that said pair of jaws is part of a group of at least three pairs of similar jaws, mounted on a common turntable, around the vertical axis of rotation. of it, this plate being associated with drive means suitable for rotating it step by step.

This is a very important provision, because it allows of course a great rate of installation of the banners on the objects, with a minimum delay in the journey that they make towards the packing boxes.

As for the fixing means mentioned above, they can therefore be provided in a fixing station located opposite the location occupied by a pair of jaws when the pair which precedes it (having regard to the direction of rotation of said turntable) is stopped at said loading station, while the third pair of jaws is stopped at a station called evacuation station.

The machine thus essentially comprises three stations, operating in synchronism: a loading station, a fixing station, and an evacuation station.

In addition to these general and important provisions, a machine according to the invention may also have more specific characteristics, which are of interest to one or other of these positions.

In particular, at the loading station, provision could advantageously be made for said means for feeding successive bands, in a practically vertical position, to include gripping means - of the suction cup type or the like - for a band in a store carrying a battery. strips, and guide means - of the kind with fixed pushers, rollers and / or slides - suitable for guiding the strip taken to a vertical position facing the object at the head of the queue, this object being stopped .

Again, these are simple but particularly reliable means.

As regards the fixing means provided at the so-called fixing station, they may include means of supply at least one end of adhesive tape overlapping the two ends of the strip formed around the object, means for applying this end to the strip, and means for cutting the strip, to leave, glued to the headband, the desired length.

More preferably, but not necessarily, said supply means are capable of gluing the end or ends of adhesive tape in a direction perpendicular to the junction line of said ends of the strip.

As for the evacuation means, located at the outlet of the machine, they may comprise on the one hand means for reopening the jaws, and on the other hand an ejection lever or the like, capable of extracting between the jaws open an object covered with its blindfold. This object can of course be ejected directly onto a conveyor belt or the like, to be taken, for example, to a machine for packaging objects in the crate.

Anyway, moreover, the various means envisaged for ensuring the various functions of a machine according to the invention, it will be particularly advantageous, again, to ensure that the means for bringing objects one behind the other and the means for evacuating objects coated with their strip are arranged so as to move the objects in parallel directions, in the same direction and at the same level.

The drawing clearly shows how this arrangement is particularly advantageous.

Several machines produced in the way just described can be combined in order to ensure greater production, therefore operating in parallel.

The present invention also relates to a set of such machines.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, such a set of machines can be essentially characterized in that it comprises several machines operating in synchronism and whose respective means of supplying and evacuating said objects provide them with displacements in directions which are all parallel, in the same direction and at same level, and in that said machines are regularly offset laterally and from upstream to downstream, one relative to the next, said machines being thus aligned in an oblique direction relative to said parallel directions.

_Here again the drawing will show, better than explanations, why this arrangement is particularly interesting, in that, in particular, it makes it possible to obtain a particularly compact set of machines.

• - les figures 1 à 6 représentent très schématiquement et partiellement une machine conforme à l'invention, dans ses séquences successives de fonctionnement ; et
• - la figure 7 montre un ensemble de telles machines, également conforme à l'invention.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of nonlimiting example, with reference to the figures of the appended drawing in which:

• - Figures 1 to 6 show very schematically and partially a machine according to the invention, in its successive operating sequences; and
• - Figure 7 shows a set of such machines, also according to the invention.

The same references have of course been used in the different figures to designate the same parts, elements or members.

In the figures, reference is made generally in 1, 2 and 3, respectively, the loading station, the fixing station, and the evacuation station of a machine according to the invention. In order not to overload the drawing and also to facilitate the explanations, we have not systematically shown all the components of the machine in all the figures.

The machine comprises as an essential and central element a turntable 4 capable of being driven in rotation step by step about its central axis, which is vertical. On this plate are arranged three pairs of jaws or clamps 5, mounted on pivoting arms 6 of the plate 4.

The other elements of the machine will now be listed and described in relation to the description of their operation. The objects to be coated with strips 7, which will be assumed in the following to be bottles 8 with a round body, are brought to station 1 by a conveyor 9 (FIGS. 5 and 6), in a supply direction 10, in an uninterrupted queue broken. Before the queue head bottle is stopped by a stop or the like 11 of the loading station, a strip 7 is taken up by suction cups 12 (carried by pivoting arms 13) in a store 14 of strips 7; these consist of simple cardboard rectangles stacked in the store (Figure 1). The removed strip 7 is then pushed down by claws 15 slidingly mounted on the arms 13 (FIGS. 2 to 4) and introduced on the one hand between two transfer rollers driven in opposite directions 16, and on the other hand between two vertical guide rails 17 (figure 2). The set of members 12, 13 and 15 to 17 constitutes what has been called above "the means of feeding strips". The cutout or strip 7 is thus brought into a vertical position, and at a standstill on the machine table, at the level of the turntable 4, in a position such that it is located between the bottle 8 at a standstill on the stop 11 and a lateral passage delimited by the edges or edges 18 of the corresponding jaws 5, then themselves stopped at said loading station 1, and in the open position.

As for the bottle 8, it is then located between the strip 7 and a movable pusher 19 perpendicular to the direction 10, in a back-and-forth movement, between a withdrawal position (Figures 1 and 2) for which it leaves passage to the bottle, and an advanced position corresponding to the introduction of the bottle between the jaws.

This being the case, it can be seen (FIG. 3) that the lateral displacement of the pusher 19 in the direction of the arrow 20 will produce the engagement of the bottle 8 between the open jaws 5, by the lateral passage formed between the edges 18 of these ci with, simultaneously, the engagement of the strip 7 and its folding between the cylindrical inner faces of the jaws 5 and the bottle, the latter thus acting as a punch cooperating with the matrix that constitute said jaws 5. In this way a adjustment and very precise winding of the strip 7 around the body of the bottle 8. This winding of the strip 7 around the bottle 8, while the latter is introduced between the m choires, is facilitated by fixed folding guides or shapers 21. As said above, these shapers consist of vertical plates, and extend parallel to the direction 10, outward from the edges 18 when the jaws are in the open position; these conformers have, as can be seen in the various figures, their edges which face rounded 22, which allows appropriate guiding of the strip without the risk that it will be damaged, in particular by contact with the edges 18 of the jaws.

The above-referenced members 5, 19 and 21 thus constitute what has been called above, in general, the "shaping means" of the strips.

It should be noted here that the front face of the aforementioned pusher 19 may at the same time constitute a stop for the next bottle 8 while the previous bottle is introduced between the jaws 5.

Then, these jaws close on the bottle thus wrapped by the strip 7, and the turntable 4 pivots by a third of a turn to bring said bottle to the next station, namely the fixing station 2. At the same time the abovementioned operations of removing a new strip 7 from the magazine 14, guiding this strip to the loading station 1, as well as returning (arrow 23) from the pusher 19 to its withdrawn position, being of course of a in general, that stations 1 to 3 of the machine simultaneously perform their respective functions.

. At the fixing station 2, suitable fixing means will make it possible to join the two ends of the rolled-up strip 7. It will be convenient for this purpose to provide at least a portion of adhesive tape stuck astride the junction line of these two ends.

We can provide a piece of adhesive tape glued longitudinally along all or part of this junction line, but we can more conveniently provide one or two sections of adhesive tape glued, on the contrary, transversely on this junction line, for example at the top and downstairs.

This is the method of attachment that is shown in Figures 5 and 6.

For this purpose, the machine comprises two coils 24 of adhesive strips 24a, these strips being led towards the aforementioned junction line by means of drive rollers 25, counter-thrust rollers 26 and return rollers 27 and 28. Pressure members 29 carried by a support 30 can press the desired length of adhesive tape on the strip 7, on either side of the aforementioned junction line, and then knives 31, also carried by the support 30, cut the sections of adhesive tape to the desired length.

Finally, the turntable 4 is still driven in rotation over a third of a turn, and the two jaws considered 5 arrive at the evacuation station 3 and open to allow the evacuation of the bottle 8 equipped with its strip 7 on a outlet conveyor 32 (Figure 6). The ejection of the bottle 8 from the open jaws 5 can be ensured by a rotary ejector 33.

It should be noted that the evacuation conveyor 32 extends in a direction 10 ′ which is parallel to the direction 10 for supplying naked bottles to the machine.

We could of course adopt a different arrangement, according to which the direction of evacuation 10 ′ of the bottles 8 is perpendicular to the direction of supply 10, but the parallel arrangement shown in the figures has the very great advantage, inter alia, of allowing to group several machines into a particularly compact set, as shown in Figure 7.

In particular and according to a particularly advantageous arrangement of the invention, already described above, it is possible to provide a certain number of machines (four in the example) whose respective means of supplying and evacuating the bottles provide them displacements in directions which are all parallel, in the same direction and at the same level. In addition, we will provide that the four machines in question are regularly offset laterally and from upstream to downstream, one with respect to the next, these machines thus being aligned in an oblique direction with respect to the above-mentioned parallel directions.

A particularly compact grouping of machines is thus obtained.

In FIG. 7, reference lines 9a, 9b, 9c and 9d refer to the supply conveyors of the four machines of the assembly, and in 32a, 32b, 32c and 32d their respective evacuation conveyors.

In order not to overload the drawing, we have not referenced in this figure 7 the various organs of the individual machines, and we have simply identified these by the letters a, b, c and d in correspondence with the numbering of their conveyors respective inlet and outlet. Of course, these different machines a to d operate in parallel and at the same rate, which makes it possible to obtain a high throughput production of bottles individually coated with their strip and ready to be crated automatically.

For information, each machine will be able to equip their headband with at least sixty bottles per minute, which corresponds to an equipment rate of 240 bottles per minute for a set of four machines.

As goes without saying, and as it already follows from the above, the invention is in no way limited to those of its modes of application and embodiments which have been more particularly envisaged; on the contrary, it embraces all its variants.

Claims (13)

1. Machine for the automatic laying of individual protective strips on elongated objects such as bottles, characterized in that it essentially comprises: means for feeding (9) said objects (8) one behind the other , in a standing position, in a continuous line; means for bringing (12 to 17) of successive bands (7) into a practically vertical position; means for stopping (11) the head object of the file facing a strip (7) guided and stopped in a vertical position; means of shaping (5, 19 and 21) of the strip (7) around said object (8); fixing means (24 to 31) of the ends of the shaped strip (7); and means for evacuating (32) the object coated with said strip. 2. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that said shaping means comprise inter alia, in a loading station, at least one pair of jaws (5) whose internal surfaces are in the form of cylindrical portions of vertical axes, these jaws (5) being articulated so as to be able on the one hand to open while leaving a lateral passage to an object and to its strip during conformation, and on the other hand to close on this object coated with said strip. 3. Machine according to claim 2, characterized in that said shaping means further comprise, at said loading station, a pusher (11) with internal surface in the form of a cylindrical portion of vertical axis, open laterally in the direction of said pair jaws (5), and. suitable for moving in this direction, by pushing said object at the head of the queue, between a withdrawal position for which it allows passage for said object, and an advanced position for which the latter, coated with said strip, is introduced between said jaws, after which said pusher (11) can return empty to said withdrawal position. 4. Machine according to claim 3, characterized in that, in its stop position at said loading station, said strip (7), not yet shaped, is positioned between said lateral passage of the pair of jaws, then in the open position, and the object (8) at the head of the queue, itself stopped, the back and forth movement of the pusher (11) s 'effecting in a general direction perpendicular to that (10) in which the objects to be coated are brought to said station (1). 5. Machine according to claim 4, characterized in that said loading station (1) are also provided two conformers (21) fixed in the form of vertical plates extending in a general direction parallel to that (10) according to which the objects (8) to be coated are brought to said station (1), and also extending, outside the jaws (5), from those (18) of the edges of these which delimit said passage lateral when they are in the open position. 6. Machine according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that said pair of jaws (5) is part of a group of at least three pairs of similar jaws, mounted on a common turntable (4) , around the vertical axis of rotation thereof, this plate (4) being associated with drive means adapted to rotate it step by step. 7. Machine according to claim 6, characterized in that said fixing means are provided in a fixing station (2) located opposite the location occupied by a pair of jaws (5) when the pair which the foregoing (having regard to the direction of rotation of said turntable) is stopped at said loading station, while the third pair of jaws is stopped at a station called evacuation station (3). 8. Machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said means for bringing successive strips, in a practically vertical position, comprise means for gripping - of the suction cup type (12) or the like - a strip (7) in a store (14) carrying a stack of strips, and guide means - of the kind with pushers, rollers (16) and / or fixed slides (17) - suitable for guiding the strip (7) taken to a vertical position facing the lead object (8) of the queue, this object being stopped. 9. Machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the said fixing means comprise means for feeding at least one end of the adhesive strip (24a) to overlap the two ends of the strip (7) shaped around of the object (8), means of application (29) of this end on the strip, and means of cutting (31) of the strip, to leave, glued on the strip, the desired length. 10. Machine according to claim 9, characterized in that said supply means are capable of sticking the end or ends of adhesive tape (24a) in a direction perpendicular to the junction line of said ends of the strip. 11. Machine according to any one of claims 2 to 10, characterized in that said discharge means comprise on the one hand means for reopening the jaws, and on the other hand an ejection lever (33) or the like , capable of extracting an object (8) coated with its strip (7) from between the open jaws (5). 12. Machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means (9) for bringing objects (8) one behind the other and the means (32) for evacuating objects coated with their strip are arranged to move the objects in directions (10, 10 ') parallel, in the same direction and at the same level. 13. Set of machines according to claim 12-, characterized in that it comprises several machines (a to d) operating in synchronism and whose respective means of supplying and evacuating said objects (8) provide those- ci displacements in directions (9a to 9d and 32a to 32d) which are all parallel, in the same direction and at the same level, and in that said machines are regularly offset laterally and from upstream to downstream, the one with respect to the next, said machines thus being aligned in an oblique direction with respect to said parallel directions.

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