CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
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This patent application claims priority from
Italian patent application no. 102024000027759 filed on December 6, 2024 , the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
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The present invention relates to a packer machine and to a wrapping method to produce, together, two wraps containing two corresponding groups of smoking articles.
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The present invention is advantageously applied to the manufacturing of wraps containing groups of cigarettes, to which the following disclosure will explicitly refer without thereby losing generality.
PRIOR ART
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Rigid packs for cigarettes with a hinged lid are the most widespread packs for cigarettes currently on the market as they are simple to manufacture, easy and practical to use, and offer good protection to the cigarettes contained on their inside.
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A rigid pack for cigarettes with a hinged lid comprises a wrap consisting of a group of cigarettes wrapped in a wrapping sheet made of metallized paper and a rigid outer case which houses the wrap on its inside. The outer case consists of a cup-shaped container, which houses the group of cigarettes and has an open upper end, and a lid, which is also cup-shaped and is hinged to the container so as to rotate, with respect to the container, between an open position and a closed position of the open end.
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In
patent applications EP3925896A1 and
EP4257496A1 a packer machine is described wherein a folding conveyor has two side-by-side wrapping lines (namely a double wrapping line) along which two side-by-side groups of cigarettes are advanced which are wrapped in two respective wrapping sheets to form two wraps at a time (which can be classic or sealed). In the area of the side-by-side wrapping lines, the groups of cigarettes must be transversely spaced apart to have the space necessary to make the lateral folds of the wrapping sheets (and possibly the lateral seals of the wrapping sheets) between two side-by-side groups of cigarettes. A simple solution to simultaneously feed two groups of cigarettes spaced apart from each other to the two wrapping lines is to retrieve the two groups of cigarettes from two different drawers of a forming conveyor. For the sake of simplicity, the two wrapping sheets that are cyclically fed to the two wrapping lines come from one single band with a double width that is initially divided in two with a longitudinal cut and subsequently cut transversely to separate the two wrapping sheets.
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However, during the start or stop phase of the packer machine, transients occur in which some forming drawers are full and other forming drawers are empty, and it thus occurs that one single group of cigarettes is fed to the two side-by-side wrapping lines; in this situation rejecting one of the two wrapping sheets is inevitable, with a consequent waste of wrapping material and with the consequent need to manage (namely remove from the normal workflow) the unused (i.e. rejected) wrapping sheet.
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Patent application WO0115975A2 describes a packer machine to produce, together, two wraps containing two corresponding groups of cigarettes.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
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The object of the present invention is to provide a packer machine and a wrapping method to produce, together, two wraps containing two corresponding groups of smoking articles that allow reducing rejects.
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In accordance with the present invention, a packer machine and a wrapping method to produce, together, two wraps containing two corresponding groups of smoking articles are provided, according to what is claimed in the appended claims.
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The claims describe embodiments of the present invention, forming integral part of the present description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate some non-limiting example embodiments thereof, wherein:
- Figures 1, 2 and 3 are a front perspective view in a closed configuration, a rear perspective view in a closed configuration, and a front perspective view in an open configuration, respectively, of a rigid pack for cigarettes;
- Figure 4 is a front perspective view of a wrap of the pack of Figures 1, 2 and 3;
- Figure 5 is a schematic cross-section view of the wrap of Figure 4;
- Figure 6 is a plan view of a wrapping sheet used for manufacturing the wrap of Figure 4;
- Figure 7 is a schematic view of part of a packer machine that produces the wrap of figure 4;
- Figure 8 is a schematic perspective view of part of the packer machine of Figure 7; and
- Figure 9 is a schematic perspective view of part of the packer machine of Figure 7 according to an alternative embodiment.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
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In Figures 1, 2 and 3, reference numeral 1 indicates, as a whole, a "twin" rigid pack for cigarettes. The pack 1 for cigarettes comprises a cup-shaped container 2 consisting of cardboard or rigid paperboard and a pair of wraps 3 (one of which is better illustrated in Figure 4) housed next to each other inside the container 2.
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The container 2 has an open upper end and is provided with a lid 4, which is cup-shaped and is hinged to the container 2 along a hinge (illustrated in Figure 2) so as to rotate, with respect to the container 2, between an open position (illustrated in Figure 3) and a closed position (illustrated in Figures 1 and 2) of the open upper end.
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Each wrap 3 (illustrated in Figure 4) encloses a group 5 of cigarettes (schematically illustrated in Figure 5) of parallelepiped shape.
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According to what is illustrated in Figure 4, the wrap 3 has, at the top and at the front, a cigarette extraction opening 6, which is delimited by a pre-weakened tear line, is closed by a re-stick closing label 7 and involves a portion of a front wall of the wrap 3 and a portion of a top wall of the wrap 3. According to a different embodiment not illustrated, the wrap 3 is devoid of the extraction opening 6 and of the relative closing label 7 and has a removable upper portion, which is separate from the remaining part of the wrap 3 by a tearable pre-weakened line so as to be eliminated by tear upon the first opening of the wrap 3.
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The wrap 3 is obtained by folding a wrapping sheet 8 (illustrated in Figure 6) of rectangular shape.
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According to what is illustrated in Figure 5, the wrap 3 also comprises a reinforcement element 9, which consists of cardboard or rigid paperboard, is "U"-shaped and is arranged inside the wrap 3 in contact with the group 5 of cigarettes and comprises a front wall and two side walls arranged on opposite sides of the front wall.
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The formation of the wrap 3 entails initially forming the group 5 of cigarettes and then folding the reinforcement element 9 around the group 5 of cigarettes. Subsequently, the wrapping sheet 8 is folded around the group 5 of cigarettes coupled to the reinforcement element 9.
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In Figure 7, a packer machine 10 is schematically illustrated which is adapted to manufacture the pack 1 for cigarettes described above and operates with intermittent motion (namely, a motion which entails a cyclical alternation of motion phases and stop phases). The packer machine 10 comprises a forming unit A, in which the groups 5 of cigarettes are formed in sequence, a wrapping unit B in which around each group 5 of cigarettes a respective wrapping sheet 8 is wrapped so as to manufacture a wrap 3, and a wrapping unit (not illustrated) in which around each pair of wraps 3 coupled to each other (namely arranged next to each other) a blank is wrapped so as to manufacture a container 2 provided with a lid 4.
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The forming unit A of the groups 5 of cigarettes comprises a hopper 11 provided with three output mouths 12 for simultaneously feeding three pairs of groups 5 of cigarettes (namely six groups 5 of cigarettes) to three respective pairs of pockets 13 of a forming conveyor 14 that supports a plurality of pairs of pockets 13 (each accommodating a group 5 of cigarettes). The forming conveyor 14 comprises an annular-shaped conveyor belt, which is wound around two end pulleys (one of which is motorized), supports the pockets 13 and moves step by step to cyclically move the pockets 13 along a forming path P1. The forming path P1 develops between an input station S1 in which each pair of groups 5 of cigarettes is extracted from an outlet mouth 12 of the hopper 11 and enters a corresponding pair of pockets 13 and a transfer station S2 in which each pair of groups 5 of cigarettes is extracted from the corresponding pair of pockets 13.
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The wrapping unit B comprises a wrapping conveyor 15 adapted to advance two groups 5 of cigarettes side by side (extracted together from two different pockets 13 of the forming conveyor 14 in the transfer station S2) along a horizontal straight wrapping path P2. In particular, the wrapping path P2 extends from the transfer station S2 in which the wrapping conveyor 15 extracts two groups 5 of cigarettes at a time from the corresponding pockets 13 of the forming conveyor 14, passes through a feeding station S3 in which each group 5 of cigarettes is coupled to a corresponding wrapping sheet 8 which folds in a "U"-shape around the group 5 of cigarettes, and ends in a transfer station S4 in which two wraps 3 side by side (each formed by a wrapping sheet 8 folded around a group 5 of cigarettes) leave the wrapping conveyor 15.
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The wrapping conveyor 15 comprises two twin horizontal channels, which are parallel and side by side, each delimited at least at the bottom and on the side (preferably also at the top in the initial part thereof), is arranged along the wrapping path P2, and contains each group 5 of cigarettes on its inside, whereas the group 5 of cigarettes advances along the wrapping path P2 pushed from behind.
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Along the wrapping path P2 (and thus in the area of the wrapping conveyor 15) the feeding station S3 is present in which each wrapping sheet 8 is arranged to be intercepted by a corresponding group 5 of cigarettes around which the wrapping sheet 8 folds in a "U"-shape; in other words, each group 5 of cigarettes advancing along the wrapping path P2 intercepts a corresponding wrapping sheet 8 arranged in the feeding station S3, determining the folding in a "U"-shape of the wrapping sheet 8.
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The packer machine 10 comprises a feeding device 16 which cyclically feeds pairs of wrapping sheets 8 into the feeding station S3, namely arranges each pair of wrapping sheets 8 in the feeding station S3 so that the wrapping sheets 8 are intercepted by two corresponding groups 5 of cigarettes advancing along the wrapping path P2.
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The wrapping unit B comprises a pair of folding devices 17 which are arranged along the wrapping path P2 downstream of the feeding station S3 and are adapted to fold two open side ends of each wrapping sheet 8 folded in a "U"-shape around a corresponding group 5 of cigarettes for forming a tubular wrap having an open end. Preferably, each folding device 17 comprises only folding profiles (namely folding spirals) which are fixed (namely totally devoid of parts in movement) and are arranged on opposite sides of the wrapping path P2.
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The wrapping path P2 begins in the transfer station S2 (in which the groups 5 of cigarettes enter two by two in the wrapping conveyor 15) and ends in the transfer station S4 (in which the wraps 3 leave the wrapping conveyor 15 two by two). The wrapping unit B comprises a wrapping conveyor 18 which receives the wraps 3 in the transfer station S4 and advances the wraps 3 along a straight wrapping path P3 perpendicular to the wrapping path P2 up to a transfer station in which the wraps 3 leave the transfer conveyor 24 to enter the wrapping unit in which the containers 2 provided with hinged lids 4 are manufactured.
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The wrapping unit B comprises a folding device 19 which is arranged along the wrapping path P3 (thus downstream of the wrapping path P2 and the transfer station S4) and is adapted to complete the folding of each wrapping sheet 8 around the corresponding group 5 of cigarettes (and thus end the manufacturing of the wrap 3) to close the open end (namely left open previously by the corresponding folding device 17).
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According to what is illustrated in Figure 8, the feeding device 16 comprises an unwinding station S5 in which a wrapping material band 20 with a double width is unwound from a reel 21 and is advanced towards a longitudinal cutting device 22 of known type which cyclically performs a longitudinal cut of the wrapping material band 20 with a double width to divide the wrapping material band 20 with a double width in two halves and thus obtain two wrapping material bands 23 with a single width. In particular, an advancement device 24 is provided which is configured to advance the two wrapping material bands 23 with a single width along two parallel feeding paths P4 and P5 which end in the feeding station S3. Downstream of the longitudinal cutting device 22 and along the feeding paths P4 and P5, a transverse cutting device 25 is arranged which cyclically separates pairs of wrapping sheets 8 from the two wrapping material bands 23 with a single width (namely from the two halves of the wrapping material band 20 with a double width).
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The feeding device 16 could also comprise a processing member (e.g. an embosser) which is arranged between the unwinding station S5 and the longitudinal cutting member 22 and performs a processing (e.g. an embossing) of the wrapping material band 20.
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The packer machine 10 comprises a storage device 26 which is part of the feeding device 16, is arranged upstream of the feeding station S3 and is configured to store the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8 in the feeding path P4, leaving the feeding path P5 active, so as to arrange one single wrapping sheet 8 in the feeding station S3 along the feeding path P5 and to release the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8 previously stored in the feeding path P4, temporarily blocking the feeding path P5 so as to arrange one single wrapping sheet 8 in the feeding station S3 along the feeding path P4. In other words, the function of the storage device 26 is to make one single wrapping sheet 8 arrive in the feeding station S3 (which can be arranged along the feeding path P4 or along the feeding path P5) when one single group 5 of cigarettes arrives in the feeding station S3, along the wrapping path P2.
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Namely, the storage device 26 is configured to store the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8 in the feeding path P4, leaving the feeding path P5 active, so as to arrange in the feeding station S3 one single wrapping sheet 8 along the feeding path P5 when the wrapping conveyor 15 advances through the feeding station S3 only one single group 5 of smoking articles in the area of the feeding path P5; similarly, the storage device 26 is configured to release the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8 previously stored in the feeding path P4, temporarily blocking the feeding path P5 so as to arrange in the feeding station S3 one single wrapping sheet 8 along the feeding path P4 when the wrapping conveyor 15 advances through the feeding station S3 only one single group 5 of smoking articles in the area of only the feeding path P4.
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In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 8, the storage device 26 is arranged upstream of the transverse cutting device 25 (namely is arranged between the longitudinal cutting device 22 and the transverse cutting device 25); therefore, the storage device 26 acts on a respective wrapping material band 23 with a single width which can be seen as a (not yet separated) succession of wrapping sheets 8 in a row.
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According to a preferred embodiment, the storage device 26 is configured to lengthen the feeding path P4 to store (at least) the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8 (namely a length of the respective wrapping material band 23 with a single width equal to the length of a wrapping sheet 8) and to shorten the feeding path P4 to release (at least) the equivalent of a previously stored wrapping sheet 8 (namely a length of the respective wrapping material band 23 with a single width equal to the length of a wrapping sheet 8). In particular, the storage device 26 is arranged in the area of a loop of the feeding path P4 and is configured to vary the length of the loop: the length of the loop increases to lengthen (by an amount equal to the length of the wrapping sheet 8) the feeding path P4 (thus store the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8) and the length of the loop decreases (by an amount equal to the length of the wrapping sheet 8) to shorten the feeding path P4 (thus release the equivalent of a previously stored wrapping sheet 8).
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In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 9, the storage device 26 is arranged downstream of the transverse cutting device 25 (namely is arranged between the transverse cutting device 25 and the feeding station S3) therefore, the storage device 26 acts directly on the individual wrapping sheets 8.
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According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in Figure 9, the storage device 26 is configured to remove a wrapping sheet 8 from the feeding path P4 (thus, in actual fact, store the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8) and to add a previously stored wrapping sheet 8 (thus, in actual fact, release the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8) in the feeding path P4. In particular, the storage device 26 comprises a (at least one) storage seat configured to house a wrapping sheet 8 and a storage conveyor 27 movable between a loading/unloading position, in which the storage seat is arranged along the feeding path P4, and a storage position, in which the storage seat is separate from the feeding path P4. Preferably, the storage conveyor 27 comprises a drum which is mounted so as to rotate around a rotation axis 28 which is perpendicular to the feeding path P4; in this case, the storage seat is sucking and is obtained in the outer surface of the drum.
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According to a possible embodiment, in the area of the storage conveyor 27, a deflector device 29 is arranged which is configured to push a wrapping sheet 8 located along the feeding path P4 towards the storage seat of the storage conveyor 27 and/or to pull a wrapping sheet 8 located in the storage seat of the storage conveyor 27 towards the feeding path P4.
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In summary, the storage device 26 is configured to store or release the equivalent of a wrapping sheet 8 which can consist (as in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 8) of a length of a wrapping material band 23 with a single width equal to the length of a wrapping sheet 8 (thus, in essence, the wrapping material which shortly downstream will become a wrapping sheet 8 following a transverse cut) or can directly consist (as in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 9) of a wrapping sheet 8.
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Based on what set forth above, it is evident that, in the illustrated embodiments, the storage device 26 always and only acts on the feeding path P4 and thus the feeding path P5 is never affected by the action of the storage device 26.
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According to a variant not illustrated, two twin storage devices 26 are provided which act on both feeding paths P4 and P5 and can be manufactured as in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 8 or can be manufactured as in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 9.
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During the start or stop phase of the packer machine 10, transients occur in which some pockets 13 of the forming conveyor 14 are full and other pockets 13 of the forming conveyor 14 are empty, and it thus occurs that one single group 5 of cigarettes is fed to the two side-by-side wrapping lines of the wrapping conveyor 15 instead of two side-by-side groups 5 of cigarettes; in this situation, to prevent the rejection of one of the two wrapping sheets 8, the storage device 26 intervenes which, operating as described above, is able to make one single wrapping sheet 8 arrive at the feeding station S3 (obviously in the area where the single group 4 of cigarettes arrives).
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The embodiment illustrated in the accompanying figures refers to the manufacturing of a pack for cigarettes, but the present invention is also applicable without substantial modifications to the manufacturing of any other type of pack for smoking articles (for example a pack for cigars, a pack for electronic cigarettes of the liquid vaporization type, a pack for next generation heat-not-burn cigarettes...).
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The embodiments described herein can be combined with one another.
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The packer machine 10 described above has numerous advantages.
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Firstly, the packer machine 10 described above allows preventing the rejection of wrapping sheets 8 in the start or stop phase of the packer machine 10, with a saving of wrapping material and with a simplification in the management of the rejects.
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Furthermore, the packer machine 10 described above is particularly simple to manufacture and compact in that it entails minimal and non-invasive modifications with respect to a similar known packer machine.
LIST OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS OF THE FIGURES
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- 1
- pack for cigarettes
- 2
- container
- 3
- wrap
- 4
- lid
- 5
- group of cigarettes
- 6
- extraction opening
- 7
- closing label
- 8
- wrapping sheet
- 9
- reinforcement element
- 10
- packer machine
- 11
- hopper
- 12
- output mouths
- 13
- pockets
- 14
- forming conveyor
- 15
- wrapping conveyor
- 16
- feeding device
- 17
- folding device
- 18
- wrapping conveyor
- 19
- folding device
- 20
- wrapping material band
- 21
- reel
- 22
- longitudinal cutting device
- 23
- wrapping material band
- 24
- advancement device
- 25
- transverse cutting device
- 26
- storage device
- 27
- storage conveyor
- 28
- rotation axis
- 29
- deflector device
- P1
- forming path
- P2
- wrapping path
- P3
- wrapping path
- P4
- feeding path
- P5
- feeding path
- S1
- input station
- S2
- transfer station
- S3
- feeding station
- S4
- transfer station
- S5
- unwinding station
- A
- forming unit
- B
- wrapping unit