IL38425A - Box filling apparatus and method of packaging a plurality of substantially laminar articles - Google Patents

Description

i BOX PILLING APPARATUS AND METHOD OP PACKAGING A PLURALITY OP SUBSTANTIALLY LAMINAR The present invention to packaging apparatus more to an automatic device for and the spacer members being mounted subsequent downward raovement out of the inverted filled box Desirably for and the box blank include means for gripping the wall of a already glued box blank and means rotating said gripping means to effect unfolding of the box blank nring withdrawal from a desirably the box opening and erecting means may further comprise abutment means which with the gripping means for opening the folded blank to provide a rectangular tubular further gripping carried b the box gripping frame for holding tho opened rectangular and means with the gripping frame for folding two sido flaps and a main flap to close the floor of the box while in an inverted The said further gripping may be in tho form of a suction pad which may advantageously be carried on a suction gripping member carried by the box gripping said gripping frame may include an abutment surface the suction pad to engage a box wall held by the suction and each suction gripping member may include a piston sealingly slidably mounted within a cylinder stationary relative to said abutment means biasing said piston towards a first of said cylinder in a sense tending to retract the suction with respect to abutment a central axially extending passage through said suction pad and gripping member communicating the suction pad with said first end of the and means for optionally communicating said first end and a second end of the cylinder simultaneously with a common for advancing and inwardly further and for folding to the closed package which is then ejected from the delivery of The operation of the boxing mechanism is entirely automatic and relies merely upon the presence of an adequate supply of folded blanks in the magazine 2 and of tea bags being fed from a feed and bag counting mechanism may advantageously be as described and patent speci claimed in and any other suitable feed mechanism for supplyin counted groups of bags for boxing may be The detailed of the mechanism will now be described more fully in order more clearly to illustrate The magazine 2 comprises a horizontal container housing a stack of folded blanks of boxes when include four side walls with adjacent walls mutually perpendicular upper and lower main flaps and 28 each having a respective end ta and two lower side flaps and 25b two upper side flaps and of much reduced extents In the preferred form of box for use with this invention the flaps and have a vertical of the order of It should be remembered that in each of the accompanying drawings the box is shovm in inverted configuration in that the lowermost main flap 32 will in use become the lid of the box and the terms upper and lower referred to throughout this description are intended to denote the orientation of the box when in the flap 32 will be referred to as the upper main flap and the flap as the lower main One of the side walls of the is gripped by a suction pad connected to a suitable source of vacuum and secured to vertical rotatable shaft 5 driven by suitable cam mechanism The suction pad carries the box sideways into a guide position above the tea 9 and holds the gripped wall of the container in configuration in which it is perpendicular to direction bag advance along the guide By virtue the and particular manner of folding of the stacked bar an adjacent Wall of the box urge it into a in which it is mutually perpendicular with the gripped configuration be adopted by the two side Thus at this stage box blank will be opened and ready for gripping by the boxing The boxing member comprises vertical aide 8 and 9 a suction gripper joined at one end by a bridge the side walls being provided with of suction grippers The boxing member carried by a pair of swinging arms 12a 12b which connected on the one hand the machine frame on the other hand the boxing member side walls 8 and such that the boxing machine frame and arms 12a and 12b create a parallelogram linkage hich ensures that the boxing member always retains ah orientation in which the box is aligned with a group of bags to be The pivotally carried boxing member is raised and lowered by means of a lever 15 connected between the of arm 12b and one end of a further lever Ik pivoted to the machine frame by its other end having a cam follower riding on the surface of a cam 13 mounted on the main timing shaft 13a referred to The shape of the cam 13 is such that at the desired time of the cycle the suction grippers ll end the boxin member will advance and the opened box just before suction is disconnected from the pad will the box in a forward and direction onto a group of bags moving along the guide move out of register with associated cams 26a and 26b and tension spring extending between the crank 51a and to urge the cranks to rotate in directions which are consistent with downward the arm and 23b to fold the upstanding bottom side tabs 25 and 25b inwardly into a parallel Once the spring 27 has the two cranks and 51b be in the broken line position shown in Figures and 6 and will therefore be completely clear of the respective cams 26a and the mechanism cocked for the next side flap folding the boxing member moves forwardly and carry the inverted box into a position in register with a grou of counted bags on the the folding plate 1 is urged for pivoting in the clockwise sense as viewed in Figure through the Figure 7 configuration by moans of clockwise movement of the a position of parallelism and abutment the side flaps 25a and The timing of the venting of suction jacks is such that the spindles and the folding arms and 23b are only retracted during the final part of of the folding plate 19 so that the side flaps and 25b are held down until the main flap has been folded through a considerable angle and is able to assume the task of holding the side flaps retraction of the folding arms a must be completed before the free of the terminal tab 22 entersthe above mentioned slot between the cut edges and the side i Simultaneously with this folding of the floor of the inverted box and lowering of the box the lid upper main flap is caused to engage a folding guide 33 as can be seen from Figures and is curved so that during its initial contact with the main the angle of the guide 33 quite steeply inclined to the horizontal causing the flap to commence pivoting During the latter part of the contact with the inclination of the flap is shallow thereby gently urging the main flap into a horizontal configuration in be gripped by sucker pads 33a and 33b to pull the box downwardly against the group of bags on the The suckers advance along the guide with the box until the box is entrained by a chain conveyor comprising chains carrying transversely extending bars Λ detailed description of precise mounting arrangement for the movable suction pads 33b will be omitted from this specification since it is within the scope of the invention to employ any suitable form of mounting system such as a moving carriage entrained for movement along with the box and towards a starting position as to bo allowed Pivoting of the folding plate actuating member is effected by of a pivot shaft 54 having at one end a bevel gear in constant meshing engagement a further gear to which crank arm 30 is mounted movement about the axis of the gear free end of the orank arm connected to a push rod which extends parallel to the main boxing support arms 1 and ί 2b and controlled from a suitable cam also on the main timing shaft mentioned above as controlling movement of the boxing member support and the illustration of Figure 8 that retraction of the push rod 31 will cause the desired downward folding movement of the member carryin with it the main foldin plate The suction gripper devices 11 1 1 1 1 are fed from the same source of suction the suction pneumatic the sucker pad the sucker pads 33a and and the suction pneumatic jack a suitable operated shut valve system may be arranged timing the various sucking and venting operations to control the timing of the operation of the various suction actuated By way of the operation of one sucker gripper device will now be although it will be appreciated that the other devices 1 operate in a similar Suction applied through a main conduit 55a which communicates suction to both sides of a piston by virtue of a narrower bore bypass passage the left hand side of the piston 56 is solely to the action of the the right hand side of the piston is communicated also to atmosphere when a suction pad 58a since the main shaf t of the suction pad 58a is hollow and ambient air pressure is therefore communicated into space to the right of the The piston presents a substantially planar face the right hand side in Figure and the left hand side of the piston has a extending peripheral skirt under which engages a helical compression spring 59a urging the piston 56a The reduced of the passage 57a will assist in delaying of suction to the right of the piston and thus the pressure to the right of the piston will be higher than that to the with the result that the piston moves against the action of the helical spring once the suction pad 58a comes into contact with the adjacent wall 53 of the opened box blank the right hand side of the piston no longer be exposed to ambient pressure since the passage through the suction pad now be blocked by the box At this point the pressure to the right of the piston reduce as will also the pressure within the suction thereby holding the suction pad more firmly against the box wall until such time as the suction gripper unit 11a is again Thus and gripping of the suction gripper device 11a is carefully but autonatically controlled so that gripping commences as soon as the suction pad contacts the adjacent box Upon the suction pad will no longer grip the wall and the pressure on either side of the piston 56a be allowing the compression spring to urge the piston rightuardly for retracting the suction the inverted boxes surrounding the respective groups of tea bags pass rightwardly along the guide the terminal tab of each main top flap passes under a folding bar 37 as shown in Figure 2 deflects the terminal tab downwardly into a configuration of perpendicularity with the horizontal upper main flap movement of the boxes due to entrainment by the conveyor continues causing the box to arrive at the righthand end of the folding bar 37 when it simultaneously comes in register with four snail cams and which rotate in an direction and shaped so as progressively to push the box downwardly as the upper side flaps and come downwardly against the by the snail the guide 44 as an a vil causes the upper side flaps a and 3 of the box to folded The leading upper side flap 4a is shown in Figure 1 as being directly above and in contact with a stationary serrated folding member 42 so that movement of the box and deflection by the cams and 4lb the free end of the side tab 34a is folded Simultaneously the trailing flap is impacted from behind by a rapidly advancing folding member a in the form of a serrated folding pad carried by a continuous belt passing around three parallel triangularly arranged The belt carries a further similar serrated folding pad 43b arranged so that each travelling pad will fold the trailing upper side flaps 34b of alternate the speed of advance of the travelling serrated folding pads 43a and 43b will be arranged to be much greater than that of the advancing box so that the trailing upper side flap 34b is always folded inwardly towards the leading upper side flap Progressive lowering of the box under the corns 4la and 4lb will complete the folding operation just before the upper main flap 32 comes in register with the two stage final folding mechanism illustrated in Figures 3 and The folding member for the upper main flap 32 includes a guide 39 disposed below the main box and bag guide 4 in an upwardly concave configuration and having a diameter substantially the width of each The length of the guide 39 in excess of the length of two successive boxes travelling along the guide 49 and the associated folding mechanism is arranged to carry out a folding operation as the boxes travel along the The first stage of the final folding operation is plate 45 having a rib disposed along the free end and arranged to urge the flap 32 in a clockwise The plate 45 is mounted on a main folding spindle 47 which extends parallel to the direction of box advance and is operated by a push rod operated crank arm 47a at the delivery end of the spindle spindle is carried by journal bearings 47b and clearly illustrated in Figure The second stage of the final folding operation is illustrated in Figure 4 showing the same spindle carrying a cranked folding plate 46 having a rib 46a near its free end to effect the folding abutment with the flap Both Figures 3 and 4 show a reduced width tongue 44 forming the floor of the guide 49 at the output and Figure 1 shows that the tongue 44 is disposed above a dovmstream floor section 44a which supports the box after the final folding operation has been The crank in the second stage folding plate 46 is arranged so that both the first stage and second stage folding plates 45 and 46 may be carried by a common spindle 47 which must be disposed above the level of the floor 44 of the guide 4 in order to permit the initially horizontal upper main flap to pass under the bearing 47b of the spindle 47 during feed of the unfolded box to the final folding station of Figures 3 and The sectional views of Figures 3 and 4 correspond to a single common position of the spindle 47 in that the dotted line representations of the first stage and second stage folding plates 45 and 46 correspond to the position of the spindle 47 at the start of the folding operation and the full line position the position of the folding plates at the end of a folding Once a box 60a arrives in the illustrated in Figure the spindle 47 commences its rotation which will only occupy an angular deflection of approximately thus the main flap becomes folded from the broken line position of Figure 3 the full line position of Figure 3 during the final folding simultaneously with this first stage folding operation a box 60b at the second stage of the folding station will have alread been folded to the full line configuration of Figure 3 and this correspond to the broken line configuration Figure The angular orientation of the tvfo folding plates nnd 46 on the shaft 47 is such that the two folding plates 45 and 46 are in their full line positions Thus at the end of each folding operation the shaft 47 must be rapidly rotated in the direction as viewed in Figures 3 4 in order to restore the two folding plates to their broken line or initial configuration before advance of the This will leave the plate 46 of Figure 4 substantially vertical and abutting a vertical upper main flap so that upon the next successive first stage folding operation a simultaneous secondary folding operation will place in that the flap will be rotated from the Figure 4 broken line position to arrive at the Figure 4 full line position in which the terminal tab has entered the box and the upper main flap is now fully folded except for the presence of the reduced width tongue 44 of the guide as the box 60b is advanced to the of Figure 1 it will slide off the end of the tongue 44 onto the downstream floor portion 4 and the settling of the box will effect completion of the folding Thus the box 60c arriving at the delivery end of the boxing apparatus been automatically filled with tea bags and closed from a folded box blank configuration 1 to a final acka e confi uration This o eration has been carried out entirely automatically without the need for any human intervention other than Gupervision to ensure tha a steady flow of tea bags arrives at the boxing station and that a plentiful auppl of box blanks 1 ia disposed within the magazine Hitherto it has been very difficult to package substantially laminar articles such as but the boxing of the present particularly in combination a guide which feeds counted bags in upstanding juxtaposed relationship between end spacer ensures that this fully utomatic operation may be carried out at extremely high the tea bags delivered from the 6l a the input end the guide are expected land on the at rate of 1200 per minute and the particular counting mechanism illustrated in British Figure 1 and fully described and claimed in patent enables bags delivered at that high rate to be counted into groups of a predetermined spaced during travel along the by causing the end the guide at regular intervals corresponding with delivery of the desired number of tea from the 6l and then the during their rightward travel along the guide are spaced apart to define the desired spacing between successive groups and allow sufficient room for the boxing member 8 9 to place a box over the counted group of bags and spaced fingers 62 and Separation of the spacer fingers 62 ensured by mounting the finger 63 on a first conveyor moving a particular o the finger slidable relative to the finger and o beJ contacted by an abutment on a second conveyor moving at a slightl the above mentioned changes to the folding be to replace the folding bar 16 by similar bar whose pivot axis ifl rather than the arc Of operation of the bar In such a construction the bar 16 will initially contact the flap 28 to hold this against the folding actuating member 21 while the mounted end portion of the folding plate swings dovm to its osition to trap the end tab 22 in the acute angle formed between the end pl portions and the actuating member The folding bar 16 can then be retracted pivoting movements about its mounting axis and the folding plate and actuating member assembly can carry lower flap 28 with its folded end tab 22 downwardly to close the insufficientOCRQuality

Claims (1)

1. WE ft least one of for the and defining of intended of 9 fo and orocting to open associated with blank opening erecting carried linkage to carry ike with tho contents and advanced along said and for travel tho with lowering the inverted int contact spacer being for of inverted lled b according to claim X9 wherein for opening and erecting tho blank include for gripping tho wall of a already glued blank and means for rotating said gripping to effect unfolding of the blank withdrawal a according to alalia wherein tho opening and erecting further comprises abutment which with such gripping means for opening tho foldod box blank to provide a rectangular tubular further gripping moans carried by box gripping holdin tho rectangular and tho gripping for folding tv and a main flap to close tho floor of tho wherein for flap an guide a to fold the flap to closing of apparatus to claim 4 t e main flap folding includes a folding of a gear mechanism actuated by a rod parallel to pivot arms of the arallelogram to claim wherein the push rod the of tho pivot arms are controlled cams mounted on a timing Apparatus according to claim or wherein the moans for folding the side includes folding arms on retractable shafts which shafts also carry resiliently biased cava follower arms to effect folding of the folding arms upo advance pf the arms to a folding position in engagement with the previously unfolded side Apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to wherein said gripping means comprise suction pads and the means said main and side o the includo suction pneumatic connected to a source of suction common with that of suction Apparatus according to claim wherein each suction is carried on a rospectivo suction gripping said gripping an abutment surface associated with the to a suction each gripping includes a piston moun a cylinder stationary said biasing a first of said cylinder in a tending to retrac tho pad with respect to a through said cuction pad and the pad with first end of tho and for optionally conEnunicating first end and a end of tho cylinder simultaneously with a of according to wherein the abutment sur includes a cylindrical within which said suction pad Apparatus according to claim 9 or wherein the for optionally both ends of tho piston simultaneously with a source of cuction includes a conduit opening directly into tho second end of tho cylinder and a separate bypass conduit extending between tho said end and tho said first end of tho tho conduit having at least a portion thereof which of a diameter smaller than that of mentioned apparatus according to claim wherein rst conduit connected to a control Apparatus to tho control valve is a shut to of to piston a planar annular towards said ond of the cylinder and has a extending away the said st resilient a helical spring engaging under said and abutting the said second ond of tho Apparatus according to any one of to and further for advancing tho inverted filled away from the bo gripping for inwardly a flap of the box to close the Apparatus according to wherein the for folding the said side flaps of each means urging the box downwardly against tho guide to deformation of laps a stationary folding positioned on said guide to fold under the leading side flap of tho during advancing of tho invortod and a rapidly advancing folding along said guido for folding undor tho trailing further side flap of the inverted filled vherob action of tho stationary and overtaking folding is assisted by the means for urging tho agains the claim stationary folding tho overtaking folding serrated by rapidl advancing conveyor guide according to claim or 17 wherein the for box downwardly at leas two rotating snail cams arranged to while its upstanding are in contact with the said stationary and rapidly advancing folding according any one of claims to and including for advancing tho folding of tho while hold in configuration in which the further main flap of the horizontal and means for folding a terminal tab of tho said wain flap vertically according to an of to said for folding inwardly the main fla of comprises a folding guide disposed below said and at least one folding arranged to pivot about tho longitudinal of the guide o urge the main flap of the box to rotate into a closed Apparatus according to claim and including a further such pivotablQ folding disposed on a pivot with and angularly dioplacod at wit respect to tho first mentioned folding membe insufficientOCRQuality