GB1351876A - Packaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1351876 Packaging apparatus CANADIAN INDUSTRIES Ltd 21 March 1973 [10 April 1972] 16406/72 Heading B8C An apparatus for packaging stacks of flexible articles, such as plastics bags, comprises an input conveyer 1, 5 or 2, 6, Fig. 1, which is adapted to accept successive stacks of articles and convey them to a stack pick-up position, stack clamping means 12, 13 located at the pickup position and traversable in a direction away from the stack pick-up position; and a container holding means 22-24 which is located within the traverse of the clamping means and which is adapted to hold an open container in such position that the clamping means can insert a stack of articles therein. As shown, a stack of bags is placed, with the assistance of a draping arm 3 or 4, into one of two, alternately-chargeable, baskets 1, 2 located, for loading, at the outer end of the corresponding one of a pair of, inwardly converging, tracks 5, 6 of the input conveyer each basket being formed of three separate sections. After the stack has been loaded the charged basket, for instance 1, is moved, by means of an endless cable-andcylinder mechanism 7, along its track 5, the outer end of each track 5, or 6, being pivoted at 8, and the adjacent ends of the tracks 5, 6 being raised by a pneumatic motor 9 so that the charged basket passes over, and beneath, respectively twin lower and upper clamp arms 12, 13 on a carriage 17 located at the pick-up position, the upper clamp arms 13, which are vertically-movable by a motor 15, being in their raised position. The motors 9 and 15 are operated to lower respectively the basket 1 and the upper clamp arms 13 so that the stack of bags become clamped between the two sets of arms 12, 13. At this stage a set of bag ties can be dropped on to the stack of bags from a dispenser 16. As the carriage 17 moves out of the pick-up position along tracks 19, 20 it carries the clamped stack of bags to an overslip bag-loading station. At the latter a group of overslip bags, rest upon a platform 22 and are attached by their flaps to a wicket, the platform 22, mounted upon a carriage 24, being adjustable vertically by an increment, each time a bag is taken off the wicket. A standby carriage 24<SP>1</SP> is provided. The carriage 24 is movable to a position so that a slip-bag, opened by a current of air directed from a blower between movable guides 28, is ready to accept the stack of bags between the clamp arms 12, 13, the opening of the bag being assisted by a short blast of air from a tube 32. Continued movement of the carriage 17 carries the slip-bag and contents between upper and lower clamping members 38, 37 which are then urged together to clamp the overslip bag and contents while the carriage 17 is retracted and returned to its initial position, and the slip bag is sealed by reciprocable sealing members 34, 35. When the latter are retracted the sealed overslip bag slides off the platform 37 to be picked up by a take-out conveyer, not shown. The operation of the apparatus is controlled by an electrical-pneumatic control system, Fig. 4, not shown.