EP0434412A1

EP0434412A1 - Cartoning machine

Info

Publication number: EP0434412A1
Application number: EP90313956A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Keith Talmadge
Original assignee: Reed Packaging Ltd; Field Group PLC
Current assignee: Field Group PLC
Priority date: 1989-12-19
Filing date: 1990-12-19
Publication date: 1991-06-26
Also published as: GB8928665D0

Abstract

Apparatus (1) for carrying out operations on cartons (5), such as erecting, loading and closing operations, has a piston and cylinder arrangement (2) for transporting the cartons between operation positions (A-H), by successive forward and reverse strokes. The cartons (5) are supplied from a magazine (4) and are erected by an erection plate (10) as they move into a receptacle or pocket (3).

Description

The invention relates to apparatus for carrying out operations on cartons, such as erecting, loading and closing operations. Apparatus of this type is generally known as a cartoning machine.
Conventional cartoning machines have a chain conveyor provided with longitudinally spaced lugs arranged to engage the base of cartons supplied from a magazine and transport them forwardly as the various operations are carried out on the cartons. At the end of the forward conveying movement the lugs disengage from the cartons, which are removed, and then move rearwardly with the chain to the rear of the conveyor where they engage further cartons supplied from the magazine. The chain is supported by sprockets and is continuously driven by an electric motor, typically having at any given time five or ten cartons being transported forwardly. The chain conveyor must be of sufficient length to provide space for the equipment to carry out the various operations on the cartons, such as manipulating the flaps of the cartons, loading each carton with a product, applying adhesive to the flaps, sealing the flaps closed, and removing the loaded cartons, and the conveyor is generally at least three or four metres in length. The depth of the conveyor is determined by the downward spacing of the rearwardly running portion of the chain from the forwardly running portion, for example of the order of half a metre.
According to the invention there is provided apparatus for carrying out operations on cartons, such as erecting, loading and closing operations, the apparatus having means for transporting the cartons between operating positions, wherein the transporting means is arranged successively to perform forward and reverse strokes in reciprocating manner.
Because the transporting means moves in a reciprocating manner it can occupy substantially less space than a chain conveyor which requires space for the returning portion of the chain. Furthermore, since the transporting means will stop at the end of each stroke it is possible to perform operations on the cartons at these stopped positions, allowing the apparatus to have a relatively short length. For example, the transporting means may be stationary when first receiving a carton and after a forward stroke may be stationary again when the loaded carton is ejected. Because the transporting means is stationary the relevant operation, such as ejection of the loaded carton, requires only a short length in which to be performed, in contrast to a continuously moving chain conveyor system in which the cartons move forwardly during the time taken for the operation. Thus the transporting means of the apparatus can be substantially more compact than the known chain conveyor systems, both in terms of depth and length.
The fact that the transporting means is stationary at the end of each stroke also results in greater accuracy in carrying out the operations in these positions. In particular, if the transporting means is stationary when receiving a carton there is less opportunity for it to be received out of position than when a carton engages the moving lugs of a chain conveyor; equally, if the transporting means is stationary during carton ejection there is less likelihood of jams or damage on ejection. Thus there is a reduced tendency for jamming of the apparatus to be caused by the operations which occur when the transporting means is stationary at the end of each stroke.
In one preferred embodiment, the transporting means is arranged to be stationary when receiving a carton and then to undergo a forward and a reverse stroke to return to the same position where the loaded carton is ejected e.g. by a lateral pushing member. In such an embodiment, the dwell or stationary period at the end of the forward stroke may be used as a compression period, during which the carton is compressed to ensure adhesion of the flaps to which adhesive has been previously applied. In another preferred embodiment, the apparatus is arranged to receive a carton before the forward stroke and to eject the carton at the end of the forward stroke. In this embodiment, if there is a compression step it will occur during the forward stroke and normally near the end thereof.
It is possible for the transporting means to stop at one or more positions intermediate the end of each stroke. This enables a further reduction in the length of the apparatus and again leads to improved accuracy in performing an operation, such as loading of a product into a carton, at such an intermediate stopping position.
The transporting means may be arranged to recieve two, three or more cartons and to transport these together as operations are performed thereon, but preferably carton receiving means is provided for receiving a single carton. If for any reason a carton is incorrectly positioned and becomes jammed then it is a simple matter to remove the carton, as compared to the situation in a chain conveyor type system where any jam tends to result in several cartons having to be removed.
The carton receiving means can be designed as a box-like receptacle or pocket arranged to engage and support an erected carton on three sides. Thus the receptacle or pocket might extend at least the full height of the carton. With such arrangements the carton can be positively located and will be erected squarely, so that the carton is accurately positioned and secured when operations are carried out thereon. Furthermore, the positive location of the carton in the receptacle or pocket avoids the need to have overhead guide rails as on a chain conveyor machine, thereby giving improved access. The receptacle or pocket is preferably open at the top to receive a carton from a magazine and is open at each end for access. An erection plate will normally be provided to erect each carton as it moves from the magazine (where it is stored in a flat condition) into the receptacle or pocket. The plate may be a fixed member provided separately of the pocket, or it may be attached to the receptacle or pocket to be transported therewith. This latter arrangement ensures that the erection plate is always in the correct position relative to the receptacle or pocket, so that once the carton leaves the magazine it is accurately guided during erection into the receptacle or pocket.
The transporting means may take various forms to provide the required reciprocating movement, for example a worm or electromagnetic drive, but preferably a piston and cylinder arrangement is provided. This will generally be pneumatically driven and is preferably rodless to save space in the longitudinal direction. A pneumatic cylinder may have a stroke selected for any particular application, for example a one metre stroke, and preferably includes a braking system for accurate stopping in the desired positions.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a side elevation view of apparatus in accordance with the invention;
Figure 2 is a plan view of the apparatus;
Figure 3 is an end elevation view on the arrow III shown in Figure 1; and
Figure 4 is a perspective view showing the sequence of operations carried out on a carton by the apparatus.
The apparatus comprises a cartoning machine 1 having transporting means in the form of a rodless pneumatic cylinder 2 which supports a carton receiving pocket 3 and extends longitudinally and centrally of the machine. A pair of external guides 6 are arranged parallel to the cylinder, one on each side thereof, and are engaged by laterally extending portions 7 of the carton receiving pocket 3. The pocket is arranged to receive a carton 5 which is transported through a series of positions A to H shown in Figures 1 and 4.
The carton receiving pocket is shown in Figures 1 and 2 in its initial location at the beginning of a forward stroke which corresponds to position B of the carton. A carton magazine 4 is arranged above the pocket in the initial location and contains a stack of cartons 5 in the form of pre-glued flat sleeves or skillets, as seen at position A in Figure 4. A pair of laterally spaced and pneumatically driven carton extraction rods 8 are arranged beneath the pocket 3 and are each provided at an upper end with a suction cup 9 in communication with a vacuum generator (not shown). The rods are driven by a common cylinder (not shown) and in alternative embodiments three or four rods could be provided. The carton extraction rods are arranged to move to an upper position where the suction cups 9 engage the lowermost carton 5 in the magazine and pull it downwardly. A carton erection plate 10 is located above and forwardly of the pocket 3 and is arranged to engage the forward edge of each carton as it is pulled downwardly to guide the carton into the pocket 3 and at the same time to cause the carton to transform from a flat condition to an erected condition (see Figure 1). Although the erection plate 10 is shown as a member separate from the pocket 3 it may also be secured to the pocket to ensure that it remains in the correct position relative thereto for accurate carton guiding and erection.
Various devices are provided to perform operations on the carton contained in the pocket 3 during its transportation by the cylinder 2. These include devices for flap manipulation such as a pneumatically driven flap tucking cylinder 11, a pneumatically driven rotary flap tucking cylinder 12 (in place of which an ordinary cylinder could be used), and upper and lower flap closing ploughs 13 and 14. For loading a product 15, which might be a roll of e.g. plastic bags, a cross feed pusher 16 is provided and in order to prevent the product from passing through the carton, the minor flaps on the remote side are closed prior to product loading. At the stage when the product is inserted by the cross feed pusher 16 (at position C) the braking system of the cylinder 2 operates to arrest the pocket and thus accurate product insertion is obtained. Alternatively, for certain applications, it is possible automatically to insert the product at position B. A coder 17 is provided on the remote side to operate at this stage.
A hot melt adhesive jetting device 18 is arranged to jet a line of adhesive onto the lower surface of the upper major flap at each end of the carton as shown at position E in Figures 1 and 4. Other arrangements for applying adhesive may be provided. A device (not shown) for compressing the carton ends is provided at position G to effect sealing of the previously applied adhesive. A second cross feed pusher 20 is arranged to engage the sealed carton once it has been transported during the reverse stroke of the cylinder 2 back to the initial location. The cross feed pusher is arranged to push the sealed carton 5 laterally out of the pocket to position H shown in Figure 4. In an alternative arrangement the cross feed pusher could be provided at the end of the forward stroke.
Guard rails 19 are provided at each end of the cartoning machine 1 and along both sides thereof (some of the guard rails being omitted from the drawings for clarity).
The sequence of operations carried out on the cartons by the cartoning machine 1 will now be described. In position A a carton 5 in the flat condition is located at the bottom of the magazine 4. The lower face of the carton is engaged by the suction cups 9 of the carton extraction rods 8 and the carton is pulled downwardly to be received by pocket 3 (position B). During the pulling action the carton is guided and erected by erection plate 10. Flap tucking cylinder 11 operates on the trailing minor flap at the remote end of the carton to move the flap to the closed position. The cylinder 2 operates to transport the pocket 3 together with the carton 5 to position C, where the cylinder 2 is arrested by its braking system and the cross feed pusher 16 engages the product 15 and pushes it into the carton. By this time the minor flaps at the remote end of the carton are closed to prevent the product 15 projecting through this remote end. Once the product has been inserted and the cross feed pusher 16 has retracted the rotary cylinder 12 operates to close the trailing minor flap at the near end of the carton.
The braking system releases the cylinder 2 and the pocket 3 together with the carton 5 are transported continuously from position C to position G to complete the forward stroke of the cylinder. During movement from position C to position E via position D the ploughs 13 and 14 operate to tuck the remaining flaps, apart from the upper major flaps which are in a horizontal orientation at position E for application of adhesive to their lower surfaces. The upper major flap at the remote end of the carton requires no manipulation since it has remained horizontal in the sequence up to this stage, but the upper major flap at the near end of the carton is manipulated downwards by the upper plough 13 to achieve the horizontal orientation. When the adhesive has been applied at position E the carton continues to move via position F where the upper major flaps are being moved by the ploughs to the closed condition to position G where compression occurs to effect sealing of the carton ends. The compression occurs at the end of the forward stroke when the cylinder is stationary and the reverse stroke of the cylinder takes the loaded and sealed carton back to position B where the second cross feed pusher 20 engages the carton and pushes it laterally out of the pocket 3 to position H. The pocket 3 is then ready to receive another carton for the next cycle of operation.
In an alternative embodiment, lateral ejection of the carton can occur at the end of the forward stroke (position G), in which case the compression step can be effected while the carton is still being transported forwardly.
Various sensors (not shown) are provided to detect the stage of the cycle so that the various devices operate on the carton at the appropriate time. It will be appreciated that since a single carton is handled in each cycle great accuracy can be achieved and if any jam does occur it is a simple matter to remove the carton. A cartoning machine having a rodless cylinder of one meter stoke may typically erect, load, close and seal 600 cartons per hour, and although this is slower than the rate achieved by a chain conveyor system it is generally sufficient to receive products such as rolls of plastic bags as fast as they are produced by rolling machines.
The cartoning machine can be used to insert various products in cartons of different shape whilst still achieving the advantages of a compact construction and accurate processing of the cartons. Certain of the operations described above could if desired be effected manually rather than automatically, such as loading of products into the cartons and ejection of each loaded carton from the pocket. Such manual operations are of course facilitated if they are performed when the transporting means is stationary.
It is to be clearly understood that there are no particular features of the foregoing specification, or of any claims appended hereto, which are at present regarded as being essential to the performance of the present invention, and that any one or more of such features or combinations thereof may therefore be included in, added to, omitted from or deleted from any of such claims if and when amended during the prosecution of this application or in the filing or prosecution of any divisional application based thereon. Furthermore the manner in which any of such features of the specification or claims are described or defined may be amended, broadened or otherwise modified in any manner which falls within the knowledge of a person skilled in the relevant art, for example so as to encompass, either implicitly or explicitly, equivalents or generalisations thereof.

Claims

Apparatus (1) for carrying out operations on cartons (5), such as erecting, loading and closing operations, the apparatus having means (2) for transporting the cartons between operating positions (A-H), characterised in that the transporting means is arranged successively to perform forward and reverse strokes in reciprocating manner.
Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transporting means (2) is arranged to be stationary when receiving a carton (5) and then to undergo a forward and a reverse stroke to return to the same position where the loaded carton is ejected.
Apparatus as claimed in 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to receive a carton (5) before the forward stroke and to eject the carton at the end of the forward stroke.
Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the transporting means (2) is arranged to stop at one or more positions (C) intermediate the end of each stroke.
Apparatus as claimed in claim, 4 further comprising means (16) for loading a product into a carton (5) at such an intermediate stopping position (C).
Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising carton receiving means in the form of a box-like receptacle (3) arranged to engage and support an erected carton (5) on three sides.
Apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the receptacle (3) extends at least the full height of the carton (5).
Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein the receptacle (5) is open at the top to receive a carton from a magazine and is open at each end for access.
Apparatus as claimed in 6, 7 or 8, further comprising an erection plate (10) provided to erect a carton (5) as it moves from a magazine (4) where it is stored in a flat condition into the receptacle (3).
Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the transporting means (2) is in the form of a pneumatically driven rodless piston and cylinder arrangement.