GB1590311A

GB1590311A - Wrapper

Info

Publication number: GB1590311A
Application number: GB2392977A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Parlour & Black Holdings Ltd
Current assignee: Parlour & Black Holdings Ltd
Priority date: 1978-05-31
Filing date: 1978-05-31
Publication date: 1981-05-28

Description

(54) WRAPPER (71) We, PARLOUR & BLACK (HOLD INGS) LIMITED, a British company of Fairfield House, 7 Fairfield Avenue, Staines, Middlesex, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to wrapping assembles for wrapping individual pieces of food material, such assemblies being intended to be used in machines which cut strips of the food material into the individual pieces and subsequently wrap the individual pieces. The invention also includes within its scope cutting and wrapping machines including such assemblies.

According to the invention a wrapping assembly for wrapping individual pieces of food material comprises a rotatable wheel having on its periphery a plurality of circumferentailly spaced pockets for receiving the pieces of food material and the material with which the food pieces are to be wrapped, wrapping of the pieces being effected during rotation of the wheel, the width of each pocket in the circumferential direction being defined by the spacing between two spaced rigid shims backed by elastomeric material which imparts sufficient resilience to the shims to enable the pieces of food material to be firmly held in the pockets and also readily inserted in and removed from the pockets.

The use of the elastomeric material is simpler and cheaper than known expedients which rely on providing each pocket with two relatively movable jaws, either one jaw being fixed and the other movable in a circumferential direction or both jaws being movable in the circumferential direction.

A wrapping assembly according to the invention may by incorporated in a machine having additional assemblies for preparing the food material and the wrapping material prior to wrapping of the food material.

A cutting and wrapping machine including a wrapping assembly according to the: invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the machine; Figures 2a, 2b and 2c show three possible ways of folding an inner paper wrapping around individual pieces produced by the machine; Figures 3a. 3b and 3c show three possible ways of folding an outer paper wrapping around a row of inner-wrapped individual pieces; Figure 4 is a side elevation of a cutter assembly of the machine; Figure 5 is;a sectional view of the line V-V of Figure 4;; Figure 6 and 7 are respectively elevation and side views of an outer cutter disc of the cutter assembly, with Figure 6 being a fragmentary sectional view of the line A-A of Figure 6; Figures 8 and 9 are respectively elevation and side views of an inner cutter disc of the cutter assembly; Figure 8a being a fragmentary sectional view on the line B-B of Figure 8; Figure 10 is an elevation of a transfer wheel of a transfer assembly of the machine; Figure 11 is 2 sectional view on the line XI-XI of Figure 10; Figure 12 is an elevation of a cooling water jacket of the transfer assembly; Figure 13 is a fragmentary sectional view on the line XIlI-XIII of Figure 12; Figure 14 is a side view of the cooling water jacket of Figure 12;; Figure 15 is a vertical sectional view of a splicing head of the machine; Figure 16 is an elevation of a rotatable wheel of the wrapping assembly; Figure 17 is a sectional view on the line XVII-XVII of Figure 16, and Figure 18 is an enlarged view of a portion of Figure 16.

Referring to Figure 1, the machine comprises a housing which supports on its upper surface an infeed channel 19 along which an extruded strip of toffee (or similar food material such as chewing gum or hard candy) is passed. The strip of toffee is sized by means of two opposed sizing wheels 18 which ensure that the strip is of the correct cross-sectional shape and size. The sizing wheels 18 are driven at a speed which feeds an appropriate length of the strip to a cutting station 23 where the cutter assembly shown in Figures 4 to 9 is located. As described hereinafter, the cutter assembly at the station 23 comprises two contra-rotating cutter discs which cut the strip of toffee into individual pieces of toffee pass into a transfer assembly 22 including a transfer wheel which rotates the toffee pieces through 2700 and deposits them in a transfer assembly 16.

The infeed channel 19, the contra-rotating discs at the station 23 and the transfer wheel 22 of the assembly 16 are enclosed in a cooling water jacket in order to cool the extruded toffee and set the shape of the strip and, subsequently, the shape of the individual pieces.

From the transfer assembly 16, the pieces of toffee are passed, together with inner wrapping paper, into a wrapping assembly 7 including a rotatable spider. The assembly 7 is described in greater detail hereinafter.

The wrapping paper is wound off a reel 10 the rotational speed of which is controlled electronically to ensure that a constant linear speed of paper is maintained as the diameter of the paper on the reel 10 diminishes. A running splicer head 9 is fitted to enable a replacement length of paper to be fed into the machine before the existing reel is exhausted, without stopping the machine.

The individual pieces of toffee, now individually wrapped in one of the three styles shown respectively in Figures 2a, 2b and 2c, are collected (either on edge or face down) and fed into a rotating wheel 26 which rotates about a vertical rotational axis and carries the pieces past a reject plunger 11.

If the plunger 11 senses unwrapped or badly wrapped pieces, supply of outer wrapping paper 32 from a reel 2 is interrupted. The reel 2 is provided with a speed control, similar to that of the reel 10, which ensures constant linear speed of supply of the outer wrapping paper 32. A tear strip is wound on a reel 1 and is made to adhere to the inner surface of the outer wrapping paper by means of adhesive in a container 31. The outer wrapping paper passes a print registration device, and is cut by the reciprocating action of an arm (forming part of paper feed assembly 28) which causes the paper to be cut by a guillotine 29.The outer wrapping paper is placed over each collated row of pieces which are then rotated through 270 in a wheel 4 so that the outer wrapping paper is folded around the row, being sealed (by means of a heater assembly 3) in one of the three styles shown respectively in Figures 3a, 3b and 3c. The overwrapped row or sticks pass through a cooler jacket 5 and emerge from the wheel 4 onto a discharge platform 6.

The machine is electrically powered and is capable of producing 1000 individually wrapped pieces of toffee per minutes.

Referring to Figures 4 to 9, the cutter assembly at the cutting station 23 comprises two cutter discs 40 and 42 mounted in faceto-face relationship for rotation in mutually opposite directions about a common rotational axis X-X. The outermost disc 40 (shown in detail in Figures 6 and 7) comprises a split hub 43 clamped onto the end of a rotatable spindle 44. The cutter disc 40 has an;arcuate aperture 45 which subtends an angle of 245 at the axis of rotation X-X of the disc 40. Ths edge of the trailing end of the aperture 45 is sharpened to form a cutter blade 46 having two arcuate concave cutter blade portions bevelled at 450 as shown in the scrap sectional view forming Figure 6a.

The inner cutter disc 42 (shown in detail in Figures 8 and 9) also has a split hub 47 but this is clamped onto a sleeve 48 which coaxially surrounds the spindle 44. The disc 42 is formed with an aperture 49 of similar shape to that of the aperture 45, the trailing edge of the aperture 49 again being sharpened to form a cutter blade 50 having two arcuate cutter blade portions bevelled at 450 to form the cutting edge.

The discs 40 and 42 are driven in mutually opposite rotational directions about the axis X-X by means of a transmission which comprises, in addition to the spindle 44 and the sleeve 48, a transverse drive shaft 52 one end of which carries a bevel gear 53.

The bevel gear 53 meshes with two spaced bevel gears 54 and 55 respectively fixed in a rotational sense to the spindle 44 and the sleeve 48, so that rotation of the transverse drive shaft 52 causes the spindle 44 and the sleeve 48 to rotate in opposite directions, as previously described.

The rotational speed of the cutter discs 40 and 42 is chosen in relation to the speed of movement of the strip of toffee along the channel 19 such that a desired length of strip passes through the apertures 45 and 49 whilst they overlap, this desired length then being severed by means of the two cutter blades 46, 50 which cooperate with a shearing action to cut the strip from the whole of the outer perimeter of the strip towards the centre. The cutter discs 40 and 42 cut the pieces of toffee at speeds up to 1000 pieces per minute and are self-sharpen- ing.

Figures 10 to 14 show in greater detail the transfer assembly indicated generally at 22 in Figure 1. The transfer wheel consists of a rotatable spider 60 having eight radially projecting arms the radially outer end of each of which carries two circumferentially spaced flanges 62 defining between them a corresponding recess. The spider 60 is rotatably mounted on a drive shaft 63 supported in spaced ball bearings 64, 65 as shown in Figure 11.

The spider 60 is rotatably mounted about an axis Y-Y within a cooling water jacket 66 (Figures 12 and 14) which subtends an angle of the order of 2200 about the rotational axis Y-Y of the spider 60. The cooling jacket 66 is secured to the remainder of the machine by three horizontal posts 67 and is of generally U-shape in radial cross-section as shown in Figure 13. The spaced flanges 62 of the spider 60 pass through the channel 68 (Figure 13) defined between the side limbs of the cooling jacket 66 as the spider 60 rotates. Figure 13 shows a piece of toffee 69 within the channel 68.

In operation, the individual pieces of toffee are delivered to a platform 70 (Figure 12) adjacent the lower end of the cooling jacket 66. Each piece is inserted between the spaced flanges 62 of one of the radially projecting arms of the spider 60 and rotated through the cooling jacket, being discharged onto a discharge platform 72 which is displaced by 270 from the platform 70. Each piece of toffee is thus held between the spaced side flanges 62 which maintain dimensional stability of each piece of toffee as the latter is further cooled in its passage through the cooling jacket 66.

The splicing head 9 is shown in greater detail in vertical section in Figure 15. The head comprises two feed channels into which two lengths 75 and 76 of the inner wrapping can be fed. The channels are identical and each is provided with cutting means in the form of a guillotine 77 and two draw rollers 78 leading to a passage 79 which converges in a direction extending away from the draw rollers 78.

The two feed channels merge on the input side of a nip between two rotatable feed rollers 80 which supply the inner wrapping paper from the splicing head 9 at the desired constant speed. Each guillotine 77 is secured on the inner end of a manually depressible knob 81 the shank of which is surrounded by a helical compression spring 82 which urges the guillotine 77 to the inoperative retracted position shown in Figure 15.

Depression of one of the knobs 81 against the influence of the spring 82 moves the corresponding guillotine 77 to an operative extended position in which it cuts the length of paper passing through the corresponding channel. The two draw rollers 78 are rotated by a manually operable knob 83 so that a waiting length of paper can be advanced into one or other passage in readiness for splicing.

In the situation depicted in Figure 15, the length 75 of the inner wrapping paper from the reel 10 passes through the upper channel of the splicing head 9 whilst the leading end of the length 76 is disposed in the lower channel. When the reel 10 is close to exhaustion, the lower pair of draw rollers 78 are rotated by the lower knob 83 so as to advance the waiting length 76 of paper into the nip between the rollers 80 where it is joined to the running length 75 from the reel 10. Depression of the uppermost knob 81 shown in Figure 15 causes the paper from the reel 10 to be severed by the upper guillotine 77 leaving the paper to be supplied only from the replacement reel through the lower channel. Supply of paper through alternate channels in this manner ensures continuity of supply of the wrapping paper at the required constant speed.

The wrapping assembly 7 is shown in greater detail in Figures 16 to 18. The assembly 7 comprises a wheel, rotatable about a horizontal axis ZZ and in the shape of a spider 91, having eight radially extending equi-angularly spaced arms each of which is formed with a recess 90 on its radially outer end. Two strips 92 of elastomeric material (e.g. a flexible rubberised material) are respectively bonded to opposed edges of each recess 90 as shown in Figures 16 and 18.

Thin shims 93 of steel are bonded or vulcanised to the elastomeric strips 92 so that the effective width of the resulting pocket in the circumferential direction is defined by the spacing between the opposed shims 93.

In operation, the wheel 7 rotates in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figure 16, one piece of toffee and its corresponding length of inner wrapping paper being inserted in turn into each of the pockets as the latter pass station 94 las the wheel rotates.

After rotating the piece of toffee and its piece cf inner wrapping paper through 270 , the wrapped piece of toffee is discharged from the wheel at station 95. The strips 92 of elastomeric material ensure that the pieces of toffee and the inner wrapping paper are firmly held in the pockets, whilst ensuring easy insertion into, and discharge froom the pockets of the pieces of toffee and wrapping paper.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:- 1. A wrapping assembly for wrapping

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. whole of the outer perimeter of the strip towards the centre. The cutter discs 40 and 42 cut the pieces of toffee at speeds up to 1000 pieces per minute and are self-sharpen- ing. Figures 10 to 14 show in greater detail the transfer assembly indicated generally at 22 in Figure 1. The transfer wheel consists of a rotatable spider 60 having eight radially projecting arms the radially outer end of each of which carries two circumferentially spaced flanges 62 defining between them a corresponding recess. The spider 60 is rotatably mounted on a drive shaft 63 supported in spaced ball bearings 64, 65 as shown in Figure 11. The spider 60 is rotatably mounted about an axis Y-Y within a cooling water jacket 66 (Figures 12 and 14) which subtends an angle of the order of 2200 about the rotational axis Y-Y of the spider 60. The cooling jacket 66 is secured to the remainder of the machine by three horizontal posts 67 and is of generally U-shape in radial cross-section as shown in Figure 13. The spaced flanges 62 of the spider 60 pass through the channel 68 (Figure 13) defined between the side limbs of the cooling jacket 66 as the spider 60 rotates. Figure 13 shows a piece of toffee 69 within the channel 68. In operation, the individual pieces of toffee are delivered to a platform 70 (Figure 12) adjacent the lower end of the cooling jacket 66. Each piece is inserted between the spaced flanges 62 of one of the radially projecting arms of the spider 60 and rotated through the cooling jacket, being discharged onto a discharge platform 72 which is displaced by 270 from the platform 70. Each piece of toffee is thus held between the spaced side flanges 62 which maintain dimensional stability of each piece of toffee as the latter is further cooled in its passage through the cooling jacket 66. The splicing head 9 is shown in greater detail in vertical section in Figure 15. The head comprises two feed channels into which two lengths 75 and 76 of the inner wrapping can be fed. The channels are identical and each is provided with cutting means in the form of a guillotine 77 and two draw rollers 78 leading to a passage 79 which converges in a direction extending away from the draw rollers 78. The two feed channels merge on the input side of a nip between two rotatable feed rollers 80 which supply the inner wrapping paper from the splicing head 9 at the desired constant speed. Each guillotine 77 is secured on the inner end of a manually depressible knob 81 the shank of which is surrounded by a helical compression spring 82 which urges the guillotine 77 to the inoperative retracted position shown in Figure 15. Depression of one of the knobs 81 against the influence of the spring 82 moves the corresponding guillotine 77 to an operative extended position in which it cuts the length of paper passing through the corresponding channel. The two draw rollers 78 are rotated by a manually operable knob 83 so that a waiting length of paper can be advanced into one or other passage in readiness for splicing. In the situation depicted in Figure 15, the length 75 of the inner wrapping paper from the reel 10 passes through the upper channel of the splicing head 9 whilst the leading end of the length 76 is disposed in the lower channel. When the reel 10 is close to exhaustion, the lower pair of draw rollers 78 are rotated by the lower knob 83 so as to advance the waiting length 76 of paper into the nip between the rollers 80 where it is joined to the running length 75 from the reel 10. Depression of the uppermost knob 81 shown in Figure 15 causes the paper from the reel 10 to be severed by the upper guillotine 77 leaving the paper to be supplied only from the replacement reel through the lower channel. Supply of paper through alternate channels in this manner ensures continuity of supply of the wrapping paper at the required constant speed. The wrapping assembly 7 is shown in greater detail in Figures 16 to 18. The assembly 7 comprises a wheel, rotatable about a horizontal axis ZZ and in the shape of a spider 91, having eight radially extending equi-angularly spaced arms each of which is formed with a recess 90 on its radially outer end. Two strips 92 of elastomeric material (e.g. a flexible rubberised material) are respectively bonded to opposed edges of each recess 90 as shown in Figures 16 and 18. Thin shims 93 of steel are bonded or vulcanised to the elastomeric strips 92 so that the effective width of the resulting pocket in the circumferential direction is defined by the spacing between the opposed shims 93. In operation, the wheel 7 rotates in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figure 16, one piece of toffee and its corresponding length of inner wrapping paper being inserted in turn into each of the pockets as the latter pass station 94 las the wheel rotates. After rotating the piece of toffee and its piece cf inner wrapping paper through 270 , the wrapped piece of toffee is discharged from the wheel at station 95. The strips 92 of elastomeric material ensure that the pieces of toffee and the inner wrapping paper are firmly held in the pockets, whilst ensuring easy insertion into, and discharge froom the pockets of the pieces of toffee and wrapping paper. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:-

1. A wrapping assembly for wrapping

individual pieces of food material, the assembly comprising a rotatable wheel having on its periphery a plurality of circumferentially spaced pockets for receiving the pieces of food material and the material with which the food pieces are to be wrapped, wrapping of the pieces being effected during rotation of the wheel, the width of each pocket in the circumferential direction being defined by the spacing between two spaced rigid shims backed by elastomeric material which imparts sufficient resilience to the shims to enable the pieces of food material to be firmly held in the pockets and also readily inserted in and removed from the pockets.

2. A wrapping assembly according to claim 1, wherein the rotatable wheel is constituted by a spider having radially projecting arms the radially outer end of each of which is formed with a corresponding one of said pockets.

3. A wrapping assembly according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rotatable wheel rotates past a receiving station, at which the pieces of food material and wrapping material are inserted into the pockets as the latter pass the receiving station, and a discharge station at which the wrapped food material is discharged.

4. A wrapping assembly according to claim 3, wherein the receiving station and discharge station are displaced by substantially 2700 around the rotational axis of the rotatable wheel.

5. A wrapping assembly constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. A machine including a wrapping assembly according to any one of the preceding claims.

7. A machine according to claim 6, and including a cutter assembly for cutting a strip of the food material into the individual pieces prior to wrapping, the cutter assembly comprising two cutter discs mounted for rotation in mutually opposite directions about a common axis, each disc having an aperture a portion of the edge of which is sharpened to form a corresponding cutter blade, and a transmission for imparting said rotation to the discs, the apertures being shaped such that, as the discs rotate, the apertures repeatedly overlap and the cutter blades repeatedly move across one another with a shearing action intended to cut the strip inserted though the apertures when the latter overlap.

8. A machine according to claim .7, wherein each aperture is of arcuate shape and centred on the common axis, the end of each aperture which trails during rotation of the discs being formed with the corresponding cutter blade.

9. A machine according to claim 8, wherein each cutter blade is formed by two concave blade portions such that the shearing action of the cooperating blades cuts from around the whole of the outer perimeter of the strip towards the centre of the strip.

10. A machine according to any one of claims 6 to 9, and including a transfer assembly for transferring the individual pieces of unwrapped food material from one station to another station whilst maintaining dimensional stability of the pieces, the transfer assembly comprising a rotatable transfer wheel having on its outer periphery a plurality of circumferentially spaced recesses each of which has a width, in the circumferential direction, defined between two spaced surfaces, and a cooling jacket surrounding the wheel, the wheel being operative to collect the pieces, one in each recess, at said one station, transfer the pieces through the cooling jacket and discharge the pieces at said another station, the spaced surfaces of each recess acting to maintain the width of each piece whilst the latter is being transferred by the transfer wheel.

11. A machine according to claim 10, wherein the cooling jacket has an internal cooling water passage and is of U-shape in transverse section, the spaced surfaces of each recess projecting into the channel defined between the side limbs of the cooling jacket.

12. A machine according to any one of claims 6 to 11, and including a spicing head for joining two lengths of the sheet material with which the pieces of food material are with which the pieces of food material are to be wrapped whilst ensuring continuity of supply of the sheet material from the splicing head, the splicing head comprising two feed channels each of which is provided with a corresponding pair of rotatable draw rollers for advancing the sheet material along the channel and a corresponding cutting means movable against biasing means to an operative position in which the cutting means projects into the channel in order to cut the length of material, a pair of feed rollers defining between them a nip into which both channels lead and in which two lengths of material respectively passing along the two channels can be joined, one of the lengths then being cut by the corresponding cutting means so that the passage of sheet material can be alternated from one channel to the other channel to provide said continuity.

13. A machine according to claim 12, wherein each cutting means is a guillotine carried on the inner end of a manually depressible knob surrounded by a helical compression spring providing the biasing means.

14. A machine constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.