GB2227222A

GB2227222A - Apparatus for the folding of wrappers

Info

Publication number: GB2227222A
Application number: GB9001294A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Werner Kmoch; Gerhard Heinrich; Dieter Buttenbender; Manfred Tautz
Original assignee: Nagema VEB
Current assignee: Nagema VEB
Priority date: 1989-01-20
Filing date: 1990-01-19
Publication date: 1990-07-25
Also published as: BR9000056A; IT9047507A0; DD279451A1; DE3936868A1; IT1239154B; JPH02242712A; IT9047507A1; GB9001294D0

Description

- 1 APPARATUS FOR THE FOLDING OF WRAPPERS The present invention relates to

apparatus for the folding of wrappers, and has particular reference to apparatus in which constantly rotating folding equipment, for production of lateral folds in wrappers, is arranged beside a wrapping head.

Apparatus for the formation and wrapping of products of a material fed in strand form is described in DD-PS 83 319. In that case, sweets severed off from a mass strand are each introduced into a respective radial compartment of a fan wheel and the fan wheel is thereafter turned through 90' in anti-clockwise sense, whereby each sweet is conducted to a second station. At this station, the sweet is pushed by a slide into a guide and passed through this. In the guide, the sweet is provided with a portion of wrapping material which is laid in U-shape around the sweet. Thereafter, the sweet is transferred to a gripper wheel. Through rotation of the gripper wheel, the sweet runs with a wrapping sleeve past folding elements by which folding is effected. This apparatus is usable only for discontinuous operation, as the feeds and the deliveries in the region of the fan wheel and the gripper wheel take place during standstill. The apparatus is not suitable for use in high performance wrapping.

A further apparatus of this kind is described in DE-OS 24 48 123. In that case, the sweets to be wrapped are supplied in recesses of a conveyor disc, covered by wrappers and guided by a lifting device through a channel which serves as a first folding element. In that case, each wrapper is bent into an inverted U-shape. Thereafter, the sweets are conducted to a wrapping wheel which is provided with pliers. The wrapping wheel rotates in anti-clockwise sense, while the folding is completed at individual stations. It is disadvantageous in that c 2 case that the first folding takes place at standstill and this ap,-aratus thus has an intermittent mode of operation, which is not acceptable for high performance machines.

Finally, in DE-OS 25 26 047 there is described apparatus in which sweets, which arrive in pockets of a constantly rotating feed conveyor, are continuously conducted to a charging station of a wrapping machine. At the charging station, the sweets are taken one after the other out of the pockets by an elevator and, together with a simultaneously advanced wrapper, are taken over by grippers of a rotating wheel. On the further rotation of the wheel, each sweet, which is already provided with the U-shaped wrapper, is moved into a folding position, in which that part of the wrapper extending out from the rear side of the sweet is turned over around a constantly rotating folding tool and onto the underside of the sweet. During further movement of the wheel, that part of the wrapper extending out from the front side of the sweet is then pressed by a stationary metal folding plate onto the already folded-over part, so that the wrapper is formed into a tube open at both ends. Thereafter, the sweet is conducted to a twisting station and the projecting wrapper ends are twisted. It is disadvantageous that the folding elements of this apparatus are suitable only for the formation of a tubular wrapper which is subsequently closed by rotational folding. The production of a lateral fold is not possible.

There thus remains a need to increase the performance of apparatus for folding wrappers, especially for the production of lateral folds.

In particular, it would be desirable for the folding operations entailed in production of lateral folds to be able to be performed without loss of speed in handling of the articles to be wrapped.

According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for the folding of wrappers, comprising a rotary wrapping head for transporting articles with wrappers and a rotary wrapping star cooperable with the wrapping head to fold the wrappers, the wrapping head and wrapping star being rotatable about substantially parallel axes and the wrapping star being drivably coupled to the wrapping head by drive transmission means comprising cam-controlled planetary gear means.

Preferably, the folding star stands in connection with the wrapping head by way of drive elements and is arranged parallelly to the axis of the head, the drive elements of the star being constructed as a camcontrolled planetary gear. The folding star preferably comprises folding element pairs, the number of which is in a ratio at most equal to 0.5 to the retaining element pairs of the wrapping head. The folding elements of the star can be constructed in hammer shape. Thereby, it may be possible to produce lateral folds without loss of speed of the articles to be wrapped, whereby the performance of the apparatus may be substantially increased.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic elevation of apparatus embodying the invention, with illustration of the folded form of wrappers at folding stations a, b and c; and Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the apparatus along the line A-A of Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown part of wrapping apparatus comprising a rotary wrapping head 1 provided with retaining element pairs 2 and V, and a folding star 3 which is provided with folding element pairs 4, 4' and which is mounted on a shaft 5 to be rotatable about an axis parallel to the axis of rotation of the head 1. The shaft 5 is mounted to be rotatable in a sleeve 6, which is fastened to a frame 7, and a toothed gear 8 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 5. Parallelly to the axis of the shaft 5, the gear 8 carries a lever shaft 9 on which, at the frame side, is mounted a cam lever 10 with a follower roller 11. The roller 11 co-operates with a cam track of a cam 12, which is fastened to the sleeve 6. Fastened to the free end of the shaft 9 is a toothed segment 13, which meshes with a gear wheel 14 fastened to the shaft 5. Drive takes place by way of the gear 8, which meshes with a toothed gear 15 fastened to the wrapping head 1.

A folding deflector 16, arranged downstream of the folding star 3, is mounted in the range of action of the wrapping head 1 in rotational direction.

In use, sweets B, which are held by the retaining elements 2 and of the wrapping head 1 and which, according to the illustration 'a', have a preliminarily folded wrapper, are transported by the wrapping head 1 into the range of action of the folding star 3. The star 3 is driven from the wrapping head 1 by way of the gear 15, the gear 8, the shaft 9, the toothed segment 13 and the gear wheel 14 on the shaft 5. In the course of transport of the sweets, the constantly rotating star 3 is pivoted back relative to the wrapping head in order to permit entry of each sweet B and preliminarily folded wrapper, which is still disposed vertically, without deforming the wrapper. This relative movement of the star 3 is achieved through running of the cam roller 11 along the track of the cam 12, which has four lobes in the case of j a four-element star 3. When each sweet B has reached the station b, the star 3 pivots forward in its direction of rotation at increased speed and folds the wrapper, which projects beyond the retaining elements 2 and 2' of the wrapping head 1, in at both sides at the end face in direction of rotation of the head 1. On further rotation of the wrapping head 1, the still open side is folded over by the folding deflector 16 against the direction of rotation of the wrapping head 1, whilst the folding star 3 repeats the corresponding relative movement in order to enable the next sweet B with the preliminarily folded wrapper to enter the station b. On continuing rotation of the head 1, the still perpendicular part of the wrapper is laid against the sweet B and the folding is completed through a further folding deflector (not shown).

9

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Apparatus for the folding of wrappers, comprising a rotary

wrapping head for transporting articles with wrappers and a rotary wrapping star co-operable with the wrapping head to fold the wrappers, the wrapping head and wrapping star being rotatable about substantially parallel axes and the wrapping star being drivably coupled to the wrapping head by drive transmission means comprising cam-controlled planetary gear means.
2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wrapping head comprises a plurality of retaining element pairs for the articles and wrappers and the folding star comprises a plurality Of folding element pairs co- operable with the retaining element pairs, the number of folding element pairs being at most equal to half the number of retaining element pairs.
3. Apparatus as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the folding star comprises hammer-shaped folding elements.
4. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

i Published 1990 at The PatentOffice. State House. W71 High Holborn.London WC1R4TP. Further copies maybe obtainedfrom The PatentOffice Sales Branch, St Mary Cray, Orpington. Kent BR5 3RD. Printed by Multiplex techniques ltd, St Mary Cray, Kent, Con. D87