GB669097A - Improvements in or relating to wrapping machines - Google Patents

Abstract

669,097. Wrapping-machines. JAKES, J. H., and GRACE, I. April 27, 1950. [Jan 27, 1949; Nov. 3, 1949] Nos. 2316/49 and 28232/49. Class 94(i). A machine for wrapping ice cream bricks or similar articles comprises a wrapping chamber having an open top, automatic means for introducing a brick into said chamber on top of a wrapper previously placed over the open top of said chamber, thereby folding up the sides of the wrapper, a plurality of folding members adapted to be thereafter automatically moved respectively and successively across the top of said chamber from both sides thereof, across both ends of said chamber from top to bottom thereof, and across both ends of said chamber from both sides thereof, each of said folding members making a forward and return movement and, in its forward movement, engaging a portion of the wrapper and folding it on the brick, an ejector for thereafter automatically ejecting the partly wrapped brick from said chamber by pushing it horizontally and longitudinally of said chamber on to the open top of a box-shaped well, and an autcmatically operated plunger adapted to urge the brick vertically into said well so that the ends of the partly wrapped brick are engaged by the walls of said well, whereby the wrapping operation is completed, the brick emerging from the open bottom of said well. A long bar of ice-cream is fed by an endless belt conveyer 11, intermittently actuated by ratchet means 15 actuated by a cam 17 on a main driving shaft 3, beneath a guillotine 20, operated by a cam 29 on the main shaft 3, which slices a brick from the end of the bar to drop, on resumption of the conveyer movement, on to a grid 31. This grid is reciprocated horizontally by cam and lever means to carry the brick to a position above an open-topped and openended wrapping chamber 70. A web of wrapping material from a holder 41 is fed over the chamber 70 by a roller 43, intermittently rotated by ratchet means 44 actuated by a cam 48 on the shaft 3, and a wrapper is cut therefrom by a cam-operated cutter 45. The brick, positioned above the wrapper thus placed over the open top of the chamber 70, is gripped by plates 62, Fig. 4, carried on a pusher member 54 and moved to engage the ends of the brick by lever means actuated by a cam operated rod or cable, and the grid 31 withdrawn. The member 54 is moved downwards by cam-operated lever means to push the brick together with wrapper into the chamber 70 causing the sides of the wrapper to fold up as shown in Fig 9a. The plates 62 then release the block and the pusher 54 rises out of the chamber. The upstanding wrapper flaps are then folded one over the other on to the top of the brick, Fig. 9b, by horizontally-reciprocated plates 78, Fig. 6, moved in succession across the top of the chamber by pivotedlevers 91, 91<SP>1</SP> operated by cams 88, 88<SP>1</SP> on shafts 82, 82<SP>1</SP> driven from the shaft 3. The pusher 54 then moves down again with the plates 62 extended at right-angles to a plate 61 carried by the pusher to engage the top portions of the wrapper projecting over either end of the block and fold them down over the block ends, Fig. 9c. The pusher 54 is then withdrawn and rollers 73 are moved across the ends of the brick by links 89, 89<SP>1</SP> operated by cams 87, 87<SP>1</SP> on the shafts 82, 82<SP>1</SP>, first from one side of the brick then from the other to fold the side portions of the projecting wrapper on to the brick ends, leaving triangular flaps extending from the bottom, Fig. 9d. After the rollers 73 have been withdrawn the brick is pushed as it is longitudinally from the chamber 70 by a cam-operated ejector 101, Fig. 1, to a position over a well 106 open at top and bottom. A cam-operated plunger 110 pushes the brick down into the well, where spring-loaded sides press up the triangular flaps, on top of blocks previously fed in and thus ejecting the lowermost from the bottom of the well. According to the first Provisional Specification, a long bar of ice-cream is placed on a pivoted shoot which is moved to a vertical position and bricks are sliced from the base of the bar by an eccentrically mounted circular knife, individual wrappers are fed from a magazine by reciprocated suction means, and the projecting triangular end flaps of the wrapper are folded on to the brick ends by rollers moved up from the bottom of the wrapping chamber.