EP1464582B1 - Apparatus for applying handles - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method for attaching carrying handles made of any material to containers of all kinds.

Goods of all kinds are today offered to simplify the transport, to secure the goods themselves against damage or loss and for improved and thus sales-promoting presentation usually in packaging.

Also individually packaged goods, such as e.g. Bottled drinks, grouped into larger containers. These will then be e.g. compiled to so-called tray packs. In doing so, e.g. 6 bottles assembled by means of a cardboard bottom and a shrink film to form a mechanically stable sales unit.

To increase the customer benefit, it is considered advantageous by many market participants, if all types of packaging described above are provided with a carrying handle or can be provided.

Hereinafter, all known in the art packaging, bottles, cans, containers, etc. for the sake of simplicity referred to as a container.

In the majority of cases in which containers are equipped with a carrying handle, it is in the carrying handle to a plastic tape, which is designed on one side self-adhesive. During the beginning and end of this plastic tape pressed by suitable devices on each side of the container and thus adhered to this, the adhesive side of the center piece of this plastic tape is usually glued with a paper strip to a gluing the fingers of the customer to this band avoid and to ensure the formation of a lanyard.

Essentially two methods are used in the art for producing such plastic strips. In a first method, these tapes are equipped during their actual manufacturing process with the paper strip described above, so that these strips within the machine which attaches the carrying handles, only have to be cut to length and attached.

A disadvantage of this method is that any change in the shape of the handle, whether it be total length, length of the splices or Lände the strap draws a change of the plastic strip by itself.

In a second method, a plastic strip is first used, which is completely self-adhesive on one side. Within the machine which attaches the carrying handles, the section of this plastic strip lying between the two desired splices is now provided with a paper strip, the necessary splices remaining free at the beginning and at the end of the strip. As a result of this procedure, since the length of the plastic strip, the position and the length of the paper strip can easily be adapted to changing requirements, frequent replacement of the plastic strip can be dispensed with, which represents a great advantage in practice.

All statements made in the present specification in the context of plastic strips apply analogously to the use of starting materials which are made of other materials, such as. Paper or metal, or consist of any combination of these materials.

Regarding the machines which attach the carrying handles, hereinafter referred to as carrying handle dispensers, several different proposed solutions have become known in the past.

A device for attaching carrying handles was in the DE 20207217 presented. In this device, the Applizierwerkzeug consists essentially of a three-arm rotor whose horizontal axis of rotation is arranged transversely to the conveying direction of the container. Each of these rotor arms is equipped with a tape guide, a holding tool and a cutting tool. Between the rotor arms, near the hub of the rotor, there is ever a vacuum probe, which is to attract the plastic tape without contact, so that the plastic band does not directly connect the ends of the rotor arms in a straight line but essentially follows the inner contour of the rotor. The actual attachment of the carrying handle takes place in that the containers travel against a first rotor arm and thereby take over the beginning of the carrying handle. Subsequently, the containers pass under the rotating rotor and are provided by the respective subsequent rotor arm with the end of the carrying handle, wherein the cutting tool located at the end of the respective rotor arm divides the plastic band according to the division.

Of great disadvantage to a device according to the DE 20207217 is that the geometric shape of the rotor determines the length of the handle to be processed. Due to this situation, it is usually necessary for changes in the container, or their dimensions, to replace the rotor which is time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, it is disadvantageous that the suction of the plastic tape to the hub between two rotor arms in practice is a source of error.

Also known was a device according to the DE 3715445 in which the carrying handle is attached by a comparatively complicated arrangement of different levers and pressure rollers. The disadvantage is that this device is essentially suitable only for packet-shaped containers, and that an adaptation of the carrying handle to changing container dimensions is possible only to a limited extent.

Another device was in the DE 693 00 175 presented. The device has a centrally arranged about a transversely to the transport direction of the container arranged drivable rotary plate. The radially outer ends of the rotary plate are each rounded and provided with two L-shaped levers as holding means for fixing the one side with a partially covered adhesive layer provided endless belt and a radially extendable cutting edge as a separating device for separating the carrying handle from the plastic band. At the beginning of the process, the rotary plate is perpendicular and protrudes with a first end in the transport path of the container, wherein on the, the containers side facing the length of the later carrying handle corresponding portion of the plastic tape held outwardly adhesive layer between the two ends of the rotary plate becomes. An incoming container then hits with its, with respect to the transport direction defined front side, on the rotary plate, whereby the beginning of the carrying handle is attached to the container. Subsequently, the rotary plate rotates over 180 degrees, with the container moving simultaneously by a certain amount so that the rotational movement is completed by the second end of the rotary plate contacting the rear of the container. In this contact, the end of the carrying handle is applied to the back of the container, at the same time arranged in the rotary plate cutting device separates the carrying handle from the endless plastic belt. A disadvantage of such a device is that the realization of the non-uniform rotational movement of the rotary plate causes a high control engineering effort, which also large drive power must be provided due to the high required angular accelerations. Also in this device, the length of the carrying handle is determined by the geometric shape of the device, so that a Adaptation to changed container dimensions can be made only by replacing the rotating plate and extensive adjustments.

The design principle described above essentially follows that in the DE 69308878 described device, so that the disadvantages described above also for a device according to the DE 69308878 be valid.

In all the above-mentioned devices, it is additionally disadvantageous that a change in the container size usually requires a costly readjustment of the working height of the device.

Also known was a device according to the WO 99/67138 , This document introduces a device in which an application head can be arranged on a cam-controlled motion transmission or an XY positioning unit. When arranged on an XY positioning unit, it is possible to freely program the movements of the application head. In this device, the length of the carrying handle is determined by the fact that the application head spans the carrying handle via a separate holding element during its course of movement and then fixed to the container. Due to the mandatory use of the retaining element, the length of the carrying handle is not freely determinable, which is to be regarded as disadvantageous in practice.

Furthermore, a device according to the EP 1 088 761 A1 , In this device is an application device for carrying handles, in which the package starts against a rotatably mounted element, whereby the beginning of the carrying handle is attached to the packaging. Subsequently, the rotatable member performs a rotational movement about the axis of rotation, wherein the end of the carrying handle is attached to the packaging. The length of the carrying handle is determined by the outer dimensions of the rotatable element and the height-wise distance of the axis of rotation of the transport plane of the package. A change in the length of the handle can be made only by manually made changes.

Object and purpose of the present invention is to provide a remedy and improvement, so that a method is presented which avoids the disadvantages mentioned above and can be easily adapted to a variety of container dimensions, including the length of the handle without manual Intervention is changeable.

Figur 1

in einer vereinfachten 3-D-Darstellung eine gesamte Vorrichtung zum Anbringen von Tragegriffen und die

Figur 2

in einer Detailansicht eine Vorrichtung mit X-Y-Positioniereinheit und Applikationskopf.

In the following, the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments. In detail, the shows

FIG. 1

in a simplified 3-D representation of an entire device for attaching handles and the

FIG. 2

in a detailed view of a device with XY positioning and application head.

Further developments, advantages and applications of the invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments and the drawings. All described and / or illustrated features alone or in any combination form the subject matter of the invention, regardless of their summary in the claims or their dependency. At the same time, the content of the claims is made part of the description.

Like in the FIG. 1 The carrying handle dispenser initially comprises a base frame 1. The containers to be provided with a carrying handle are transported by a belt conveyor known in the art, wherein the containers are initially arranged as a closed row, ie without a gap between the individual containers. Due to the transition to a second conveyor 2, which has a higher belt speed, the containers are arranged on the second conveyor 2 at a distance from each other.

On a side wall of the base frame 1 in the vertical direction above the container 3, an X-Y positioning unit based on flexible tension members is arranged, which carries an application head 4 at its lower end of the Y-axis.

Such, on flexible tension members such as e.g. Timing belt based X-Y positioning units have been known for some time. Of particular advantage in such embodiments is that the two required drive motors can be arranged stationary, whereby the moving masses can be significantly reduced, which allows a particularly advantageous construction and design. Also, the drive power of the motors can be significantly reduced because all motion sequences are driven simultaneously by both motors due to the special design.

The movement sequences in the X and / or Y direction, which are to be implemented somewhat differently to normal XY positioning units, have been described, for example, in US Pat DE 100 17 041 treated and presented in detail, so that can be omitted at this point on a new description.

The application head 4 initially comprises two pressure rollers 5, a cutting device 6 and a gripping device 7.
The plastic tape is supplied to the application head 4 from a tape storage via a feed device, not shown, and a roller with a backstop. There, the plastic band is first held by a gripping device 7. The gripping device 7 may be a vacuum gripper, mechanical, electrostatic or otherwise operating gripping devices.

At the beginning of each cycle, the application head 4 is in the gap between two containers. A sensor located upstream of the container flow indicates that the leading edge of the next container has reached a certain position, thereby starting the work cycle.

First, the application head 4 touches the front of the container and thus secures the beginning of the handle to this. Subsequently, the application head 4 moves in the conveying direction of the container 3 and at the same time in the height, whereby the remaining surface of the first adhesive strip is pressed against the container wall.

If the lower edge of the application head 4 has exceeded the height of the container 3, then the X-Y positioning unit moves counter to the direction of movement of the container 3. By a distance traveled during this travel in the height distance, the length of the carrying strap is determined in any manner. The length of the carrying strap can also be determined by the application head 4 traversing the trailing edge of the container by a certain amount, wherein a combination of the two additional travel distances is also possible.

If the application head 4 has reached a position perpendicular to the trailing edge of the container 3, it follows its horizontal movement direction, first touches the upper trailing edge of the container 3 and attached at this point the beginning of the second adhesive strip of the handle. For complete attachment of the handle, the application head 4 further follows the horizontal movement of the container 3 and simultaneously moves in the direction of the container bottom of the container 3, whereby the remaining length of the second adhesive strip is securely attached to the container 3.

When the application head 4 reaches a point about 35 mm before the lowest point of its downward movement during its downward movement, the cutting device 6 cuts through the plastic strip and the application head 4 presses the still loose end of the carrying handle against the container 3.
Subsequently, the application head returns to the starting position of the working cycle, whereby a work cycle is completed.

A significant advantage of the present invention is that the movements of the X-Y positioning unit 8 and thus also of the application head 4 can be adapted by changing the programmed motion sequence in a simple manner to changed container dimensions or equipment requirements.

This is achieved by the fact that the drive motors 9 of the X-Y positioning device 8 are designed as servo drives. This means that each drive motor 9 is equipped with a desired value transmitter for the revolutions to be actuated by it, wherein, in addition to the absolute rotation angle, further parameters, such as, for example, are also provided. Direction of rotation, rotational speeds, angular acceleration and angular deceleration can be specified.

In addition, each motor has an actual value transmitter, e.g. an absolute value rotary encoder which determines the rotational movements actually carried out by the engine and transmits them to a control and regulating unit likewise associated with the engine. Within this control and regulation unit, the actual values received from the motors are constantly compared with the setpoint values and any necessary corrections initiated.

To implement these functions many different approaches have been described in the art, so that can be dispensed with a more detailed description of the topic "servo drives" at this point.

Another great advantage of the present invention is that a change in container size does not require height adjustment of units or equipment parts.

For another development it is provided that the application head 4 is provided with at least one spraying device for liquid or hot-liquid adhesives. In this development can be dispensed with the use of self-adhesive raw materials for the carrying handles, resulting in the following Advantages result: Use of a cheaper starting material and an increased storage capacity of the strip material storage, since the arranged between the two splices paper strip can be omitted.

For the design of the spray device, two variants are provided. In a first variant, two spray devices are used, which are arranged on the application head 4 such that one each sprayed the front and the back of the container 3 with adhesive, whereby the beginning and end of the handle can be glued to the container 3.
In a second variant, only one spraying device is used, which, however, is designed to be pivotable at least about one axis, so that this individual spraying device can also spray the front and back of the container 3 with adhesive. It is particularly advantageous if the pivoting movement is effected by a, controlled by the control and regulation unit, motor drive, and it is irrelevant what type of drive it is.

Claims (2)

1. Method for attaching carrying grips produced from any desired material to all types of containers, characterised in that an applicator head disposed on an X-Y positioning unit (8), the sequence of movement of the said applicator head being freely programmable, extends into the spacing between two containers (3), attaches the carrying grip to the first side of the container, moves over the top of the container to its rear side, wherein the length of the carrying grip is determined solely by the freely programmable spacing between the applicator head (4) and the top of the container and/or by a freely programmable movement over the rear edge of the container by a certain amount, and then attaches the carrying grip to the rear side of the container (3).
2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the quantities of adhesive required for the securement of the carrying grip are applied by at least one spray device that is disposed on the applicator head (4).

Images