GB648017A - Improvements in or relating to packaging equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

648,017. Packing tablets &c. DONOFRIO, A. M. Dec. 3, 1947, No. 31937. Convention date, Dec. 4, 1946. [Class 94(i)] In a machine for producing continuous strip packages each containing an individual unit of commodity, one or more sheets of heat-sealable packaging material are guided into opposed layers with their lateral edges joined to form a tube-like structure which is then transversely sealed by spaced heated crimping means, units being released into the space between the layers and between successive seals, in timed relation to the operation of the sealing means, means being located exteriorly of the packaging material and intermittently operative to crowd the opposed layers together outside a released unit for preventing jamming of the unit between the sealing means. Tablets are fed from a hopper 34, Fig. 1, via a vibratory feeding- device controllable by a switch 37 to an opening 102, Fig. 3, in a cover plate 98 of an annular housing 54 of channel-shaped cross section. The housing 54 is rotatable in steps by a Geneva mechanism having a slotted member 50 engageable with rollers 48 on a rotatable element 47. The element 47 may engage by means of a manuallyoperated clutch, Fig. 5 (not shown), with a shaft (not shown) which is geared to a main drive shaft 19, Fig. 1. Dust is removed from the housing 54 by air supplied through a pipe 96. The shaft 19 is also connected by gearing with rollers 31, 33 which each have a transversely-spaced pair of circumferential series of pockets 85, Fig. 8. Between the pockets are formed transversely extending radial slots 86. Every third slot carries a cutting blade 88. The remaining peripheral area of the rollers 31, 33 is formed with crimping recesses. The recesses on the respective rollers are forced into inter-engagement by the action of resilient means (89, Fig. 2, not shown) acting to urge the rollers together. A web of " Cellophane " (Registered Trade Mark), is fed from a roller 64 journalled at 62 in the machine frame 1. A leather strap 67 loaded by a .spring 68 applies a friction loading to tension the web which passes over a roller 69, a pivoted roller 70 a flanged guide-roller 72 and roller 73, and then through a forming device 74 by which the web is drawn around a tube 60 into the form of a tube 75 having overlapping edges. The tube 60 extends to a point just above the point of contact of the rollers 31, 33 and is flattened out and flared towards this end as shown in Fig. 12. The base of the housing 54, Fig. 3, is formed with a pair of radially spaced grooves 55. Circumferentiallyspaced radially aligned slots 56 are formed in the grooves 55. An annular plate 57 which underlies the housing base is formed with apertures for tablet delivery tubes 58, 59, which extend through the tube 60 and have outlet ports positioned between a centre tongue 109 and side ears 110 of the flared end of the tube 60. An arm 23 having a bifurcated end journalled on the shaft 19 carries a roller 22 which is urged into engagement with a cam 21 on the shaft 19, by a spring 24. The outer end of the arm 23 is pivotally connected by a link 114 to the frame 1, and carries a pair of spring fingers 112 which are laterally spaced so as to be in alignment with the pockets 85. The drive to shaft 19 is from an electric motor, Fig. 2 (not shown), via a belt 17. The drive may be engaged or disengaged by the action of a control lever 12 which rocks the motor mounting 6 by means of a link 15. The shaft 19 may be manually rotated for adjustment purposes by a wheel 20. The rollers 31, 33 have heaters which are wired in series by means of slip rings with each other and a thermostatic switch (not shown) so that the rollers are maintained at a given temperature. Operation. Tablets arriving in the housing 54 are guided into the slots 56 by brushes 104. A scraper 106 prevents more than two tablets being present in the pair of slots 56 which are approaching the apertures in the plate 57 leading to the tubes 58, 59. The tablets are delivered through the tubes 58, 59 into the packing tube 75 and are pressed into a converging pair of recesses 85 of the rollers, by the action of the fingers 112. The severed packages of six tablets each are deposited on a conveyer belt 115 which has a speed in excess of that of the peripheral speed of the rollers.