GB1001012A - Packaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,001,012. Packaging-machines. BOWATER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CO. Ltd. Feb. 28, 1964 [March 6, 1963], No. 8925/63. Heading B8C. In a packaging machine, articles arranged in a predetermined pattern at each of two or more collection zones are transferred to a corresponding number of vertically spaced reception zones, and means are provided to move all the articles at the reception zones simultaneously therefrom so that they stack upon one another. In the embodiment shown, a collating station has two reception zones 2, 3, Fig. 2, formed by plates 4-8, the zones having open sides 11, 12 respectively and open opposite ends 9, 10, Fig. 1. The plate 4 which separates the zones is relatively thin and is preferably of metal. In operation, articles, for example coal briquettes, are transferred from continuously moving conveyers 26, 27 to article collecting stations 20, 21 from which in turn groups of articles are transferred by rams 22, 24 to the zones 2, 3 respectively. These rams are provided with shut-off gates 23, 25 and the size of the groups is determined by the dimensions of the stations 20, 21. A container, for example a bag which rests horizontally on a table 18 and whose mouth is held open by duck-bills 17, receives the articles from the collating station as a stacked double layer when a ram 13 having faces 14, 15 is moved in the direction shown. The filled container is removed by a conveyer 19 to a closing station. The collecting stations may be situated above, below or be inclined to the collating zones and the articles may be gravity fed and/or displaced by a lift as well as, or alternatively, to being ram fed to the reception zones.