GB870551A - Improvements in or relating to methods of and means for packing commodities - Google Patents

Abstract

870,551. Container-forming and filling machines; packages. DOWNIE, G. Sept. 20, 1957 [Sept. 27, 1956], No. 29590/56. Class 94(1). In a machine for producing an article consisting of a solidified substance contained in a bag and mounted on a stick, e.g. a lollipop, a web 13 of heat-sealable material is fed from a roll 12 by rollers 14, 15 and passes through guides 19 and a slot 28 in a table 26. Knives 16, 17 sever a portion 18 from the web and a recessed plate 20 is moved to the right Fig. 2 over the table to remove four sticks from stacks 22 contained in magazines 21 and fold the portion 18 about the sticks. A heated plate 29 is lowered to unite the folds over areas 33, thus forming four pockets, and secure the stick to the mouths of the pockets at 34. The pockets are then conveyed to the left, Fig. 1, by endless chains 41 projecting through slots in the table 26, and lifted from the table by cam-operated grippers 80 which engage the ends of the sticks. The grippers are carried by bars 47 pivoted at their ends to the links of endless chains 45, 46 passing over verticallyspaced sprockets 43 and 44, the latter being driven intermittently. The pockets are first raised to station D, where pivoted knives 51 are swung downwardly to cut away the shaded areas 33, thus partially separating the pockets, and then to station E where the pockets are opened by blasts of air delivered through nozzles 56 and filled with measured quantities of liquid from reservoirs 58 supplied by a pipe 59. The flow from the reservoirs is controlled by valves operated by linkage 57, 61. At the next station F, the mouths of the pockets are heat sealed by pivoted heaters 63 which are swung downwardly by linkage 67, 68 into co-operating relationship with a fixed bar 69, and the completed packages and then conveyed through station G for freezing or other treatment. The pockets may be formed from two webs instead of a folded web and opened by suckers or plungers instead of air blasts. If the solidified substance is subsequently to be consumed as a beverage, the sticks may be hollow so as to serve as drinking straws and the pockets may be closed and sealed in planes at right angles to their bases, see Figs. 3-7 (not shown).