GB1186778A - Packaging Machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1,186,778. Packaging machines; discharge of cups from hoppers; endless conveyers. A.E.I. CORP. 15 June, 1967, No. 27576/67. Headings B8A, B8C and B8S. Apparatus for packaging powdered goods into containers includes means to dispense the containers from a supply to a filling position, means to cap them after filling, the capped containers being spaced. from each other, and means to close them up together preparatory to discharge from the machine. This last function may be performed by grippers which deposit a batch of containers into a receptacle. Dispensing and filling the containers.-An intermittently moving endless chain of apertured plates 37 passes beneath a magazine 81 comprising slotted holders 84, Fig. 6, for stacks of nested cups 80. At the base of the stacks parallel bars 88-91 common to all of them dispense a row of cups into a corresponding row of apertures 39 in the plates 37. Bars 88, 89 carry separators 93 which, when these bars approach each other, engage between the rims of the lowermost and penultimate cups of each stack to separate them. The bars 90, 91 at the same time, move outwards to withdrawn stack supporting lugs 94 to permit the lowermost cup to fall into an aperture. The bars then reverse their movement to again support the stack. The cups halt beneath a transverse row of outlets from a hopper 112 through which contents are fed by vertical augers 115, Figs. 1, 11, having clutch plates at their upper ends which are engaged intermittently by constantly rotating driven members 119 mounted on a vertically reciprocable frame 121. Capping and discharging.-Capping discs stacked in magazines 151 are engaged by a row of suction cups 172, Fig. 16, on a vertically reciprocable manifold 158. As the manifold descends, it rotates through 180 degrees depositing the discs on the filled containers beneath. These then pass beneath conventional sealing means 182 (not detailed). The closing up means, Figs. 21, 24, comprises a series of suction cups depending from blocks 196, 208, and carried by a frame 190 slidable horizontally between members 186 and also movable vertically to engage and raise a group of filled cups from the plates 37. Each block 196 carries rods 198 on which the other blocks slide, held apart by springs 209. The blocks 196 are slidable on rods 194 and spaced apart by springs 197. As the frame 190 moves horizontally to right as shown carrying the cups, the rods 194 are moved inwards by cams 203, and collars 201, fixed on them, close up the blocks transversely of the line of travel. Towards the end of the frame's travel, fixed rods 214 engage the leading blocks 208 causing longitudinal closing up. Finally the whole batch is released into a receptacle (not shown) on a discharge conveyer 216. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 957,695.