GB739911A - Improvements in wrapping machines - Google Patents

Abstract

739,911. Wrapping-machines. ROSE BROS. (GAINSBOROUGH), Ltd. Feb. 23, 1954 [Feb. 25, 1953], No. 5213/53. Class 94 (1). [Also in Group XXX] In a machine in which articles, e.g. sweets, are transferred to the wrapping mechanism from successive pockets in a rotatable feed wheel, a band conveyer is arranged to feed the articles along a guiding channel in a single continuous file towards the feed wheel, and the latter is rotated intermittently to present each pocket in turn in line with the channel so as to receive the leading article directly therefrom. As shown, sweets 11 are fed from a spiral elevator 12 down a shoot 13 to a continuously - moving belt conveyer 14 which carries them along a guiding channel 16, the outlet of which is adjacent the periphery of a feed wheel 17 formed with openended radial pockets 18. The sweets pass directly from the channel into the pockets, the leading sweet engaging the rear wall of each pocket so as to arrest the forward movement of the file of sweets on the belt during rotation of the wheel to bring the next pocket into register. The wheel conveys the sweets in succession to a wrapping station at which they are transferred, each with a wrapper 20, to a pocketed wrapping- wheel 19 by a reciprocating pusher 21. The sweets are supported,in the pockets of the feed wheel by a platform 22 extending over the operative half thereof and having a projection 23 receiving the sweets from the channel 16, outward movement of the sweets being prevented by a retaining wall 24. The trailing side walls of the pockets are curved at 26, see Fig. 4 (not shown) to ensure that any sweet protruding into a pocket already occupied by the leading sweet (as may arise, for example, if the leading sweet is broken or shorter than normal) is urged back into the channel in readiness to enter the next pocket. A feeler 32 is arranged adjacent the conveyer 14, to detect a gap in the file of sweets and temporarily stop the machine as described in Specification 738,302. The elevator 12 is of the kind in which the sweets are fed upwardly from a circular container along a spiral path 39 leading to the shoot 13, the container being vibrated by electromagnetic or other means. The container is supplied from a hopper 43 by a vibrating shoot 41, 42 which is controlled by a micro-switch 46 actuated by a feeler 44 to maintain the level of sweets in the container constant. Specifications 655,453, [Group XXX], and 699,364 also are referred to.