GB2109768A

GB2109768A - Form-fill-seal packaging machine

Info

Publication number: GB2109768A
Application number: GB08131383A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christoper John Burland
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-10-17
Filing date: 1981-10-17
Publication date: 1983-06-08

Abstract

In a form-fill-seal machine for packaging goods, e.g. coins, between opposed webs of plastics film (10, 26), two rolls (12, 28) of the film are provided one behind the other relative to a filling station so that one of the rolls is further from said station than the other, the film (26) from the further roll (28) being guided towards a nip with the film (10) from said one roll (12) by a hollow shoulder (30) through which the goods are fed between the films. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in and relating to packaging apparatus Field of invention This invention concerns packaging apparatus and in particular, but not exclusively, apparatus for packaging coins in plastics containers.

Background to the invention It is known to package plural items into containers such as plastics bags and the like for storage in accurately controlled quantities. This particularly applies to packaging for the retail trades and also the packaging of coin by banking institutions.

The present invention is concerned primarily with a packaging apparatus for packaging coins in plastics containers within banking institutions but it will be appreciated that the invention has general application and can be used for packaging plural items of any description within plastics material.

Apparatus known hitherto for performing similar functions has involved the use of a sleeve of plastics material which is first of all welded so as to form a closed seam and is then severed, filled and welded so as to form a top seam. A disadvantage of this known apparatus is that the plastics material forming the final container has essentially to be of one type and does not readily admit to the use of, for example, printed plastics sheet on one face of the container and coloured or clear plastics sheet on the other.

Apparatus has also been proposed by which two sheets of plastics film are fed to a sleeve forming nip where the two edges of the films are welded and a transverse weld is formed so as to form a pocket into which items can be dropped from above. After the requisite number of items have been inserted, further transverse welds are formed and the filled plastics container severed from the remainder of the film and the operation is then continued.

The disadvantage of this proposed apparatus is that because the two reels of film are located on opposite sides of the filling station, the latter cannot be accessed other than from the side so that a machine constructed along these lines tends to be very wide and is not suited to office or bank use.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved form of packaging apparatus which can be made sufficiently small and compact to be able to be used in a bank or office location and in which the filling station can be readily accessed from the front of the machine.

Summary of the invention According to one aspect of the present invention in a packaging machine for packaging plural items into plastics material, two rolls of sheet plastics material are located one behind the other relative to a filling station and guide means is provided for guiding film from the rolls into a nip beyond which opposed edges of the two film sheets are seam welded to form a sleeve and at or beyond which transverse welds can be formed so as to form ends to the sleeve, wherein the guide means includes a shoulder over which the film from the further reel passes and the shoulder includes an entrance into which articles can pass and includes a through passage leading to an exit below the shoulder through which articles can drop between the two sheets of film as the latter enters the nip.

According to a preferred feature of the invention, the nip is only in the region of the edges of the two sheets of film so that, as the sleeve of film is filled, the increasing thickness of the sleeve so formed is accommodated within the nip region.

The nip is conveniently formed by two edge clamps which include heating means for welding the edges of the two films together.

Preferably filling occurs whilst the clamps are in a clamped position so that the welds do not have to accommodate the stresses which occur during the initial filling stages.

Beyond the nip is a second welding region for welding transversely across the films to seal off and to sever sections of the film filled with the plural items. The second welding station also is conveniently formed by a nip, this time between a rubber or rubber and plastics material (typically neoprene) roller and two edge rollers which grip the edges of the film sleeve but leave the space in between open so as to accommodate the thickness of the filled sleeve. Conveniently the rollers are bridged by an axially parallel welding and severing element.

By choosing the diameter of the rolling elements appropriately so the welding element will rotate into contact with the film at intervals along the length of the film consistent with the size of the finished filled containers.

According to a preferred feature of the invention, one roll contains sheet plastics film of one type, and the other roll sheet plastics film of another type. Thus, for example, one roll may contain printed film and the other plain film.

Alternatively, or in addition, the one film may be coloured and the other plain or different coloured films may be used with or without printing.

Preferably a take-up mechanism is provided between the rolls and the first seam welding nip so as to take up the slack whilst the welding occurs. In this way the rolls may be operated virtually continuously. Conveniently the take-up mechanism comprises so-called dancing rollers.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the shoulder which serves to feed the sleeve of film is supplied with articles from a feeder which controls the quantity and quality and/or type of article supplied thereto. Typically, a coin sorting and feeding and counting apparatus serves to supply coins to the shoulder.

It will be seen that the invention allows a packing machine to be constructed in which the feeding station (to which access is normally required) may be located at one end of the relatively narrow machine which can thus be readily accommodated within an office or bank or the like. The coin feeding or other article feeding devide may thus be located at the operator's end of the equipment and this again is an advantage as compared with other designs in which, for example, the rolls of film are located one on each side of a filling station thus making a very bulky apparatus.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a side view apparatus embodying the invention; Figure 2 is an end view with certain parts removed taken in the direction of arrow A, and Figure 3 is a simple end view of the apparatus shown in Figure 1.

Detailed description of drawings In Figure 1 plastics film 10 is drawn from a first roller 12 and passes over dancing rollers 14 and 16 and thence over guide rollers 18 and 20 to feed a nip formed by two static cheeks of which one is shown at 22 and a pair of movable cheeks one of which is shown at 24.

Film 26 from a second roll 28 passes over a hollow shoulder 30 and enters the same nip between the two pairs of cheeks.

A mechanism is provided for moving the movable cheeks such. as 24 into and out of position. To this end the movable cheeks are carried by a carriage 32 which latter is carried by an arm 34 which is movable backwards and forward by a link arm 36 operated on by a cam mechanism generally designated 38.

Operation of the latter produces an oscillatory movement of the movable cheeks such as 24 which is synchronised with other motions within the apparatus as will hereinafter be described.

Below the nip formed between the cheeks 22 and 24 is a transverse welding station formed by a neoprene roller 40 and a pair of axially spaced apart discs one of which is shown at 42. The latter includes a welding insert shown at 44 and may include a second welding insert 46 if required. The circumference of the discs 42 is chosen so as to be equal to the length of film required to form each container or twice the length of such film where two such welding elements such as 44 and 46 are provided. One rotation of the discs (in synchronism with movement of the film sleeve designated by reference numeral 48) will thus cause appropriate welding and severing of the film as required.

Although not shown, drive means is provided between the cam mechanism 38 and the discs 42 and, if required, the neoprene roller 40 so that all operate in synchronism. A single drive belt 50 is shown driven from a common shaft itself driven by a gear-box 52 in turn driven by an electric motor 54. The belt 56 serves to transmit drive to driving wheels 58 and 60 which transmit drive through clutches (not shown) to friction drive rollers such as 62 and 64 or similar driving means for rotating the rolls 12 and 28.

Articles to be inserted into the bags which are formed by the welds (to be described) are inserted into the sleeve of plastics film material through the hollow shoulder 30. In this connection reference is made to Figure 3 which is an end view in the direction of arrow B of Figure 1. Here, the hollow shoulder 30 can be seen clearly and is shown as including inclined chutes feeding an opening 70 through which coins or other articles can fall. Two tangs of which one is shown at 72 are provided for spreading apart the two sheets of film.

The end view in Figure 3 also shows the exit chute 74 which is also designated in Figure 1.

For clarity, the rollers forming the transverse weld such as 40 and 42 are not shown in Figure 3.

In Figure 2 the rear of the housing 32 can be seen and attached thereto the link 34 made up of two arms 76 and 78. The latter are acted on by the cam mechanism (not shown in detail).

In operation and with two sheets of film already fed through the machine and extending as denoted beyond the transverse welding roller pair 40 and 42, the operating procedure is as follows: 1. A transverse weld is formed by heating a wire or like welding element in contact with the two sheets of film nipped between the roller 40 and the rollers 42; 2. The weld serves to seal the two sheets together and additionally severs any length of film extending beyond the welding element; 3. The cheeks of which one is denoted at 24 are moved into engagement with the cheeks 22 so as to nip the edges of the two films and welds are formed along the two abutting edges to form a sleeve; 4. The cheeks such as 24 are moved rearwardly; 5. The film with a sleeve formed in a portion of the length is advanced by one bag length by rotating the rollers 40 and rolling elements 42; 6. With the welding element once more in position, the wire or other element is heated once again and second transverse welding is formed sealing off the lower end of the sleeve section which by virtue of the lengthwise movement of the film through the apparatus is now in a position just above the nip formed between the roller 40 and the rolling elements 42; 7. The film below the roller 40 and the rolling elements 42 once again is severed and drops away and a first plastics bag is in position ready to receive articles; 8. The movable cheeks of which one is shown at 24 are moved into engagement with the edges of the film once again and edge welds are formed; 9. With the cheeks of which one is shown at 24 still in position, articles are allowed to fall into the nip between the two sheets of film from the hollow shoulder 30.After a requisite number of articles or weight of material has been entered through the hollow shoulder, the movable cheeks of which one is shown at 24 are moved away from the film and the latter is once more advanced by one bag length through the machine; 10. A filled section of sleeve is now located below the nip formed between the roller 40 and the rolling elements 42.The welding element 44 serves to seal off and sever the filled section of sleeve which drops away as a filled container and the simultaneous welding action also closes off the lower end of the sleeve section now immediately above the nip formed between the roller and the rolling elements 42 and the operation can be repeated by entering further articles through the hollow shoulder 30 as previously described once the movable cheeks such as 24 have been moved back into place again to clamp and weld the edges of the film to form a further sleeve section.

Claims (Filed on 18/10/82).

1. In a packaging machine for packaging plural times items into plastic material wherein there is provided two rolls of sheet plastics material located one behind the other relative to a filling station so that one of the reels is further from the filling station than the other guide means for guiding film from the rolls into a nip, seam welding means beyond the nip by which opposed edges of the two film sheets are seam welded to form a sleeve, and further welding means at or beyond the seam welding station by which transverse welds can be formed so as to form ends to the sleeve, and wherein the guide means includes a shoulder over which the film from the said further reel passes and the shoulder includes a through passage leading to an exit below the shoulder through which articles can droop between the two sheets of film as the latter enter the nip.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the nip is only in the edge region of the two sheets of film, so that,as the sleeve of film is filled, the increasing thickness of the sleeve so formed can be accommodated within the nip region.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 or 2 in which the nip is formed by two edge clamps which include heating means for welding the edges of the two films together.

4. A machine as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 to which filling occurs whilst the clamps are in a clamped position so that the welds do not have to accommodate the stresses which occur during the initial filling stages.

5. A machine as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the welding means for welding transversely across the films to seal off and to sever sections of filled film sleeve comprises a nip between a roller of rubber or rubber and plastics material (typically neoprene) and two edge rollers which grip the edges of the film sleeve but leave the space in between open so as to accommodate the thickness of the filled sleeve, and the rollers are bridged by an axially parallel heating element for welding and severing transversely to the direction of movement of the film.

6. A machine as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5 wherein the diameter of the rollers is selected such that the heating element will rotate into contact with the film at intervals along the length of the film at intervals along the length of the film consistent with the derived length of the finished filled containers.

7. A machine as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein one roll contains sheet plastics film on one type, and the other roll sheet plastics film of another type.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein one roll contains printed film and the other plain film.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein one roll contains coloured film and the other roll contains a plain or differently coloured film.

10. A machine as claimed in any of claims 1 to 9 wherein a takeup mechanism is provided between the rolls and the first seam welding nip, so as to take up the slack whilst the welding occurs, so that the rolls may be operated continuously.

11. A machine as claimed in claim 10 wherein the takeup mechanism comprises so called dancing rollers.

12. A machine as claimed in any of claims 1 to 11 in which the shoulder which serves to feed the film sleeve is supplied with articles from a feeder which controls the quantity and quality and/or type of article supplied thereto. Typically, a coin sorting and feeding and counting serves to supply coins to the shoulder.

13. A machine as claimed in any of the preceding claims in combination with a coin sorting and counting apparatus and means for supplying coins therefrom to the shoulder which feeds the film sleeve.

14. A method of packaging plural items into plastics material comprising the steps of: 1. drawing from first and second rolls of sheet plastics material, two continual films thereof so that the films run parallel and spaced apart towards filling and welding stations, 2. guiding the two films just in advance of the filling station so that they converge, 3. intermittently heating the two films beyond the thereof to form spaced apart transverse welds, with or without severance; 4. transversely introducing plural items between the two films just before they merge, and 5. heating the overlying edges of the merged films to form seam welds along opposite sides of the merged films to form a sleeve around the items introduced there between.

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

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. 24 still in position, articles are allowed to fall into the nip between the two sheets of film from the hollow shoulder 30. After a requisite number of articles or weight of material has been entered through the hollow shoulder, the movable cheeks of which one is shown at 24 are moved away from the film and the latter is once more advanced by one bag length through the machine; 10. A filled section of sleeve is now located below the nip formed between the roller 40 and the rolling elements 42.The welding element 44 serves to seal off and sever the filled section of sleeve which drops away as a filled container and the simultaneous welding action also closes off the lower end of the sleeve section now immediately above the nip formed between the roller and the rolling elements 42 and the operation can be repeated by entering further articles through the hollow shoulder 30 as previously described once the movable cheeks such as 24 have been moved back into place again to clamp and weld the edges of the film to form a further sleeve section. Claims (Filed on 18/10/82).

1 5. A machine for packaging plural articles

constructed and arranged and adapted to operate substantively as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.