GB2029787A

GB2029787A - Conveyor With Buffer Storage

Info

Publication number: GB2029787A
Application number: GB7928153A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: GD SpA
Current assignee: GD SpA
Priority date: 1978-09-14
Filing date: 1979-08-13
Publication date: 1980-03-26
Also published as: DE2936100A1; JPS6253145B2; FR2436076B1; DE2936100C2; IT1108854B; IT7803531A0; JPS5542593A; GB2029787B; FR2436076A1

Abstract

A system (5) for feeding elongated elements, particularly cigarettes, to a packaging machine (1), including at least two feed devices (6, 7), each having means (8-24, 25) for connection to an inlet hopper (2) of said packaging machine (1) in order to feed this latter with said elongated elements; and storage means (32) disposed below at least one of said connection means (24, 25); this latter having an end duct (25) having a substantially horizontal terminal portion communicating at one end with said hopper (2) and provided with an aperture (30), through which said duct (25) communicates with said storage means (32), the portion of said duct (25) lying between said hopper (2) and said aperture (30) being defined by reversible conveyor means (27, 29). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION System for Feeding Elongated Elements, Particularly Cigarettes, to a Packaging Machine This invention relates to a system for feeding elongated elements, particularly cigarettes, to a packaging machine.

It is known to feed a packaging machine, and in particular an inlet hopper thereof, by means of a continuous cigarette feed device able to supply said hopper along a feed duct opening therein, with a quantity of cigarettes which replace the cigarettes in the hopper as these become absorbed by the packaging machine.

It is also known to feed the hopper of a packaging machine by a so-called "box" feed system, which normally comprises a step conveyor arranged to successively feed a loading station, disposed above said hopper, with a plurality of "boxes", each being full of cigarettes.

Said loading station generally comprises a rotating head arranged to support two boxes in opposing positions spaced apart by 1800, and to rotate about a horizontal axis between a first position, in which the first of said two boxes is loaded in a full state on to said head, while the second, previously full, discharge its contents into the hopper, and a second position in which said first box discharges its contents into the hopper and the second of said boxes reaches the exit in an empty condition.

Said loading station also comprises a transfer device arranged to transfer the full boxes from said conveyor to the rotating head, and to withdraw the empty boxes therefrom to transfer them to the conveyor.

In general, when a packaging machine is fed with one or other of the aforesaid known feed devices,'any interruption in the operation of the packaging machine or feed device is transmitted upstream, and automatically stops the operation of the cigarette forming machines with which said feed devices are normally connected.

In order to obviate this drawback, and more generally to compensate for any unbalance between the production of the cigarette forming machines and the absorption of the packaging machine, compensation buffers have been provided in the known continuous feed devices, which are automatically operated in such a manner as to absorb cigarettes when the absorption of the packaging machine is less than the production of the forming machines, and to automatically feed cigarettes to the hopper of the packaging machine when the absorption of this latter exceeds the production of the cigarette forming machines.A similar result is normally obtained in the "box" feed devices by manualiyremoving the excess boxes from said conveyor when the absorption of the packaging machine falls below the production of the cigarette forming machines, and manually adding boxes to the conveyor when the opposite occurs.

In this respect, it should be noted that neither compensation buffers nor manual intervention completely obviates the aforesaid drawback, because firstly the compensation for the different production rates cannot last more than a certain determined time, so that the stoppage of the packaging machine or cigarette forming machines leads to stoppage of the whole system after a relatively short period, and secondly the stoppage of the feed device always leads to immediate stoppage of the entire system.

The object of the present invention is to provide a feed system capable of completely and finally obviating the aforesaid drawback.

This object is attained according to the present invention by a system for feeding elongated elements, particularly cigarettes, to a packaging machine, said system comprising, in combination, at least two feed devices, each of which comprises connection means for connecting it to an inlet hopper of said packaging machine in order to feed this latter with said elongated elements; and storage means disposed below at least one of said connection means; this latter comprising an end duct having a substantially horizontal terminal portion communicating at one end with said hopper and provided with an aperture, through which said duct communicates with said storage means, that portion of said duct lying between said hopper and said aperture being defined by reversible conveyor means.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, at least one of said feed devices is a socalled "box" feed device, and said storage means comprise a step conveyor and a plurality of boxes arranged to be fed stepwise below said aperture.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description given hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows a diagrammatic elevation, partly in section, of one non-limiting embodiment thereof.

The accompanying figure shows a packaging machine indicated overall by 1 and comprising an inlet hopper 2 with two upper inlet apertures indicated by 3 and 4 respectively, and to which cigarettes (not shown) are fed in quantity by a feed system indicated overall by 5.

The feed system 5 comprises two separate feed devices, the first of which, indicated by 6, is connected to the aperture 3, and the second, indicated by 7, is connected to the aperture 4.

In the example illustrated, the feed device 6 is of known continuous feed type, and comprises a terminal feed duct 8 communicating with the aperture 3, and to which the cigarettes are fed in quantity by two conveyors 9 and 10, each connected to the exit of at least one cigarette forming machine, not shown, and controlled by a sensor device 11 sensitive to the pressure exerted by the cigarettes at the point in which the conveyors 9 and 10 communicate with the duct 8.

The feed device 7 comprises a first conveyor 12 arranged to feed stepwise a loading station, indicated overall by 13, with a plurality of boxes 14 full of cigarettes (not shown).

The station 1 3 comprises an upright 1 5 extending upwards from a support frame 16 and supporting a projecting arm 17 extending horizontally, transversely to the conveyor 12. The arm 17 acts as a slide guide for a slide 18 provided with two arms 19 constituting a fork which laterally engages a box 14 disposed on the conveyor 12, and feeds it by sliding it on a sliding surface 20 to a rotating head 21 rotatably mounted on a shaft 22 parallel to the arm 17 and supported by the upright 15. The slide 18 is displaced along the arm 17, in the example illustrated, by a screw 23 rotated by drive means, not shown, and coupled to a nut screw (not shown) mounted on the slide 1 8.

The rotating head 21, for a detailed description of which reference should be made to Italian Patent No. 779,386 of the same applicant, is arranged to support two boxes 14 in opposing side-by-side positions, and is disposed above a hopper 24 carried by the frame 1 6 and constituting at its bottom with one end of a duct 25, the other end of which is connected to the hopper 2 at its aperture 4. The duct 25 extends substantially horizontally along the frame 16, and is defined upperly by the lower branch of two belt conveyors 26 and 27 disposed adjacent and aligned, and lowerly by the upper branch of the two belt conveyors 28 and 29 disposed facing the conveyors 26 and 27.The conveyors 26 and 28, which could also be dispensed with, are unidirectional, and when in use tend to urge the cigarettes towards the aperture 4, whereas the conveyors 27 and 29 are reversible and can be driven either in the same direction as that in which the conveyors 26 and 28 move, or in the opposite direction.

The facing ends ot the conveyors 28 and 29 are spaced apart to define an aperture 30, through which the duct 25 communicates with a hopper 31.

Storage means, indicated overall by 32, are provided below the hopper 31, and are arranged to contain a plurality of "boxes" 14, which are either full of cigarettes or empty. The storage means 32 comprise a horizontal step conveyor 33 for transferring the empty "boxes" 14 to a filling position, filling being carried out with the aid of known means situated in a position corresponding with the discharge mouth of the hopper 31.

When in operation, only one of the feed devices 5, 6 is normally used for connecting the cigarette forming machines (not shown) to the hopper 2. Consequently, as the feed devices 6 and 7 are normally disposed in parallel between the cigarette forming machines and the packaging machine 1, any stoppage due to a defect in the device 6 or 7 used does not automatically lead to the stoppage of the entire system, as the cigarettes produced by the cigarette forming machines can be immediately fed to the packaging machine 1 by way of the device 6 or 7, which up to now has not been used.

If the packaging machine 1 slows down or stops for any reason, the cigarette forming machines can continue to operate for an indefinite ) time without being stopped. In this respect, if the cigarettes are fed to the hopper 2 by the feed device 6, they can be fed to the aperture 30 by operating the conveyors 27 and 29 in the direction of the arrow 34, and made to fall through this latter aperture so as to feed the empty boxes 14 disposed on the conveyor 33.

Once these latter are filled, they can be suitably stored, and then withdrawn during any stoppage of the cigarette forming machines, for direct feed I to the conveyor 12.

If the cigarettes are fed to the hopper 2 by the device 7 or by the devices 6 and 7 operating simultaneously, the conveyors 27 and 29 are operated in the direction of the arrow 35 when the packaging machine 1 is able to absorb all the cigarettes fed to the hopper 2. However, when the absorption rate of the cigarettes by the packaging machine 1 is less than the production rate of the cigarette forming machines (not shown), the conveyors 27 and 29 are slowed down and the conveyor 33 and said filling machines are simultaneously operated to enable the excess cigarettes to descend through the aperture 30 into the boxes 14 on the conveyor 33.

Within the principle of the invention, numerous modifications can be made to the feed system described by way of non-limiting example, without leaving the scope of the inventive idea.

For example, the duct 8 could also be connected to the hopper 2 by a substantially horizontal terminal portion similar to the duct 25, and also be provided with a connection aperture to storage means comprising a plurality of boxes 14.

Finally, further feed devices (not shown) could be connected to the hopper 2 in parallel with the devices 6 and 7.

The invention includes apparatus for feeding articles to a hopper, which apparatus comprises at least two conduits connected to the hopper through which articles may be supplied, at least one of the conduits extending substantially horizontally from the hopper and containing a reversible conveyor extending from the hopper to means for storing the articles and communicating with means for supplying articles to the conveyor, whereby the conveyor may be operated in one direction to convey articles from the supply to the hopper and is the reverse direction to convey articles from the hopper to the store.

Claims

1. A system for feeding elongate elements, particularly cigarettes, to a packaging machine, comprising in combination, at least two feed devices, each of which comprises connection means for connecting it to an inlet hopper of said packaging machine in order to feed this latter with said elongated elements; and storage means disposed below at least one of said connection means; this latter comprising an end duct having a substantially horizontal terminal portion communicating at one end with said hopper and provided with an aperture, through which said duct communicates with said storage means, that portion of said duct lying between said hopper and said aperture being defined by reversible conveyor means.

2. A feed device as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said feed devices is a so-called "box" feed device, and said storage means comprise a step conveyor and a plurality of boxes arranged to be fed stepwise below said aperture.

3. A system for feeding elongated elements, particularly cigarettes, to a packaging machine, substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

4. Apparatus for feeding articles to a hopper which apparatus comprises at least two conduits connected to the hopper through which articles may be suppiied, at least one of the conduits extending substantially horizontally from the hopper and containing a reversible conveyor extending from the hopper to means for storing the articles and communicating with means for supplying articles to the conveyor, whereby the conveyor may be operated in one direction to convey articles from the supply to the hopper and in the reverse direction to convey articles from the hopper to the store.