JPH06115502A - Device for packaging article - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To quickly form a corrugated board tray to pack a group of articles, by folding a material along a fold line at a hopper station, loading the supplied articles onto a partially assembled material, guiding the same to a desired position of a packaging station, and adhering and bonding the tray containing the articles by an adhesive. CONSTITUTION: A material is withdrawn at a hopper station 16, and folded along a fold line. The partially assembled material is pushed out to a packaging station 18. A flap of the material is folded at a right-angle position, and placed in such manner that a bottom and a side wall of the material are positioned at a lower side of a stopper plate, and a group of articles is sent on the stopper plate to be contacted with the material. Then the partially assembled material loading the articles is sent to an adhesive applying station 20 for applying the adhesive to both ends of both sides of the tray to adhere and connect both side walls to a front wall flap and a rear wall flap whereby the article package is completed. That is, the corrugated board tray can be quickly assembled, and the article packages can be continuously formed by putting a group of articles such as cans, bottles and the like in the trays.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention stores a group of articles such as 24 cans or bottles in a cardboard tray, and wraps the articles for tightly covering a film sheet on the tray containing cans or bottles. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A packaging device for making a tray from a pre-cut corrugated cardboard material and packaging various products in the tray is disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 3,101,654 and US Pat. No. 3,196,761. No.

Further, as a packaging machine, a film sheet is pulled out from a roll of film and sequentially covered with products on a tray, the sheets are adhered to at least one pair of opposing walls of the tray, and the product is held on the tray. These are known from US Pat. No. 3,890,763.

Further, as a technical means for improving the above-mentioned packaging machine, the packed tray is fixed so that the articles stored in the tray are light in weight and low in cost as compared with those made of ordinary corrugated board so as not to make relative movement. Moreover, a transparent cover sheet is also known.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the packaging apparatus of the above type, a mechanism for making a tray from pre-cut corrugated cardboard material and a high-speed operation for putting products such as cans and bottles in the tray, and better quality There is room for improvement in controlling the molding of trays and product loading in the event of a failure by reducing tray molding, fixing in the packaging machine, and handling accidents before machine shutdown. However, there is a difficulty in extending the continuous operation time to improve the reliability of the operation.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a packaging device for forming corrugated cardboard trays one after another at high speed and putting a group of articles such as cans or bottles in each of these trays.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An article packaging apparatus according to the present invention is a packaging apparatus for producing a tray from precut cardboard material and packaging a large number of articles such as cans or bottles in the tray. It has a hopper portion, a packaging portion, an adhesive application portion, and a tray molding and sealing device in order from the upstream side in the feeding direction, and the hopper portion is a set of a front wall and a rear wall having a bottom plate and a flap, which are formed by a fold line. A device for holding a stack of pre-cut cardboard material forming the sidewalls, a cam-operated withdrawal device for withdrawing one material from the bottom of the material stack, and a crease line on the front wall of the material. A cam device for bending along a line in an upright position with respect to the bottom plate, a cam device for bending the rear wall, and a device for extruding a partially molded material from the hopper to the next packaging. And the hopper Has a device for keeping the front wall formed of the material in an upright position with respect to the bottom plate during the transfer from the to the packaging part, said packaging part folding the flaps of the front wall in a position perpendicular to the front wall A device for controlling the upper end position of the flap to engage the upper end of the front wall to keep the front wall in the upright position, a stationary plate for placing the articles to be sent on the upper surface, and A gate device for guiding the front wall to a desired position of the wrapping part when the walls and both side walls are under the stationary plate, and a group of articles are sent onto the stationary plate to contact the front wall to bring the material into the stationary plate. A device for feeding the material and cans from the bottom to another stationary plate located downstream from the packaging unit, and rotating the gate device away from the front wall so that the stationary plate of the packaging unit and the stationary plate downstream thereof A connecting device for forming a connecting bridge between the Has a device for sending Lee to the adhesive applying unit, the adhesive applied portion has a device for applying an adhesive to both ends of both side walls of the tray,
The tray forming and sealing device is for arranging the rear wall flap in a right angle position with the rear wall, and for arranging the end wall in a right angle position with the bottom wall and adhesively connecting the front wall flap and the rear wall flap. And the device.

[0008]

In the article wrapping apparatus of the present invention, one material is drawn out from the bottom of the material stack by the drawing device from the cardboard material stack held by the holding device in the hopper, and the drawn material is pulled out. Bending the front wall and the rear wall of the so as to stand upright with respect to the bottom plate along the crease line by the cam device, and extruding the partially molded material from the hopper to the next wrapping while maintaining the state, In this packaging part, the flap provided on the front wall of the material is bent at a right angle to the front wall, and the bottom plate, rear wall and both side walls of the material are stationary while the front wall is kept upright with respect to the bottom plate. It is arranged so that it is located below the plate, the articles to be sent are placed on the stationary plate, the gate device guides the front wall of the material to the desired position of the packaging unit, and the feeder device places the group of articles on the stationary plate. Send to the front wall of material Then, the draw-out material and the cans are sent from under the stationary plate to another stationary plate downstream from the packaging section by the connecting bridge formed by the connecting device, and the partially formed tray containing the articles is brought into contact. The adhesive is applied to the adhesive application part, and the adhesive is applied to both ends of both side walls of the tray at this adhesive application part, the rear wall flaps are positioned at right angles to the rear wall, and the both side walls are bottom plates. And a front wall flap and a rear wall flap are adhesively bonded to both side walls to form an article package.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIGS. 1A and 1B, reference numeral 1 indicates a packaging device for articles, and the packaging device 1 includes a supply device 10, a passage dividing portion 12, a collecting device 14, and a hopper portion in order from an upstream side along an article passage. 16, packaging unit 18, adhesive application unit 20, adhesive piece sealing device 22, film wrapper 24,
It has a film sealer 26 and a heating tunnel 28.

The supply device 10 is equipped with a supply conveyor and sends the closely arranged stream of cans 30 to the passage division 12.
The passage dividing unit 12 has five rows of passage guides 32, and each passage guide 32 divides the can 30 sent to the collecting device 14 located on the downstream side into six separate rows.

The collecting device 14 is clutch-driven from the sprocket 214 of the push bar conveyor, and discharges the cans 31 placed in the tray at predetermined time intervals. Typically, the can group has 6 canisters in the width direction and 4 canisters in the longitudinal direction, and 24 canisters are sent to one package. By appropriately adjusting the passage dividing portion 12, For example, 4 groups in the width direction and 3 groups in the longitudinal direction (1 for each box)
2 groups). The collecting device 14 acts as a weighing device that controls the entire packaging device,
The feed of the material of the group 31 and the tray to the 8 is controlled.

The collecting device 14 is controlled to slow down the packaging device before the collecting device clutch is reengaged. The wrapping apparatus shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B has the speed of producing 75 full trays per minute, and the operator may, for example, try to clean the wrapping apparatus in the event of an accident. The assembling device 14 is switched to reduce the speed of the packaging device to the speed of producing 60 full trays per minute. There is a 1-2 second delay when the collecting device 14 is engaged, after which the packaging device is raised to full speed. The operator control panel is shown at 33 in FIG. 1A.

As shown in FIG. 3, the hopper portion 16 includes a holding bar bracket 34, a sliding holding bar 36, and a holding bar 3.
8, hopper clamp bar 40, hopper rear holder 4
2. It has a rear wall bending cam 44, a hopper front holding member 46, a front wall bending cam 48 and a hopper stack end guide 50. The material guide 52, the material guide 54, and the material guide spacing piece 5 held by the bracket 51 are provided on the hopper portion 16.
6, a material supply guide 58, a flap holding guide plate 60, and a front wall holding guide 122 are provided.

On the other hand, inside the hopper section 16, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, a laminated body 65 of corrugated board material 66 is provided.
Is placed. Each material 66 is pre-cut to facilitate tray molding. The tray has a bottom plate 67, a front wall 68, and a rear wall 7.
0, both side walls 72 and 74. Further, the material 66 includes a rear wall flap 76 and a front wall 6 on both side edges of the rear wall 70.
Front wall flaps 78 are provided at both side ends of 8, and further front wall fold lines 80, rear wall fold lines 82, and side wall fold lines 84, 86.
And fold lines for flaps 76, 78 (which consist of extensions of sidewall fold lines 84, 86) are made.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, the hopper portion 16 has a vacuum cup device 88 that reciprocates in the vertical direction, and this vacuum cup device 88 is connected to a suitable vacuum pump (not shown). And a driving means for pulling down the lowermost material 66 from the material stack 65 placed on the hopper portion 16. The vacuum cup means 88 has four oval vacuum cups 90, 92, 94 and 96. The mechanism for moving the vacuum cup means 88 up and down is the vacuum cup lifting plate 9.
8, pusher plate 74, pusher plate bracket 10
0, a block pusher guide 102, a pusher link rod 104, a rod end 106, a vacuum cup lever arm 108 and a surface cam 110 having a follower 112, the surface cam 110 having a special cam path (not shown), As the follower 112 follows the cam path, the lever arm 108 swings around the pivot 114, and the vacuum cup lifting plate 98 moves up and down via the pusher link rod 104 and the pusher plate bracket 100, so that four vacuums are provided. The cups 90, 92, 94 and 96 engage with the lowermost material 66 of the laminated body 65 and pull down the material 66 to the position for feeding the material to the packaging unit 18.

The vacuum cup means 88 is quickly raised by the special cam path of the surface cam 110 toward the lowermost material 66, but the descending speed of the vacuum cup means 88 is low at first and then high again. become. As a result of the raising and lowering of the vacuum cup means 88, one or more blanks 66 are rarely pulled down from the stack 65. In this way, by controlling the cam, the ascending is made rapid, the first descending is delayed so that only one material 66 is pulled out from the hopper portion 16, and then the descending is made rapid again. The first slow descent causes the air to enter between the material 66 being pulled down and the next material, thus counteracting the suction effect of trying to pull the next material down as well, leaving only one material at a time from the stack. Will be withdrawn.

As shown in FIG. 5, the vacuum cup means 88 is provided with a clamp plate 116 for adjusting the distance between the two sets of vacuum cups 90, 94 and 92, 96. 94 fixes its position, but by loosening the clamp plate 116, the positions of the cups 92 and 96 placed on the upstream side of the hopper portion 16 can be adjusted with respect to the positions of the cups 90 and 94.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the rear holder 42 of the hopper 16 is provided with a projection 118, and the front holder 46 is provided with a projection 120. The protrusions 118 and 120 are laminated cut-off devices, and their purpose is to shake the laminated body and move the materials vertically relative to each other as shown in FIG. 6 to apply pressure to the bottom surface of the material, particularly flap folding. The goal is to minimize the surface area of the bottom of the material that engages the curved cams 44 and 48.

In the perspective view of the hopper section shown in FIG. 4, the material 66 has already been lowered and advanced to the packaging section 18. The front wall 68 of the material 66 has already been erected at a position vertical to the bottom plate 67.
This is done by the cam 48 when the 6 is pulled down. Further, at this time, the fold line 82 for the rear wall of the material 66 is also bent. The front wall 68 is captured by a plastic guide 122 having an upper ledge 124, and when the material 66 is pulled down by the vacuum cup means 88, the upper end of the front wall 68 slides down the upper ledge 124 and is captured by the upper ledge 124. That is, the upper end of the front wall 68 slides down on the upper shelf 124, and the front wall 6
Folding at the fold line 80 of 8 enters under the upper shelf 124 and keeps the front wall 68 in an upright position relative to the bottom plate 67. In this way, by keeping the front wall 68 upright with respect to the bottom wall, the material 66 is not bent.

Then, the material 66 is formed by the rear wall bending cam 44.
The rear wall 70 is folded upwards and downwards.

In the perspective view of the hopper section shown in FIG. 4, the material 66 has already been lowered and is being advanced to the packaging section 18. The front wall 68 of the material 66 has already been erected at a position vertical to the bottom plate 67.
This is done by the cam 48 when the 6 is pulled down. Further, at this time, the fold line 82 for the rear wall of the material 66 is also bent. The front wall 68 is captured by a plastic guide 122 having an upper ledge 124, and when the material 66 is pulled down by the vacuum cup means 88, the upper end of the front wall 68 slides down the upper ledge 124 and is captured by the upper ledge 124. That is, the upper end of the front wall 68 slides down on the upper shelf 124, and the front wall 6
Folding at the fold line 80 of 8 enters under the upper shelf 124 and keeps the front wall 68 in an upright position relative to the bottom plate 67. In this way, by keeping the front wall 68 upright with respect to the bottom wall, the material 66 is not bent.

Then, the material 66 is formed by the rear wall bending cam 44.
The rear wall 70 is bent upward and is bent downward. The rear wall 70 is pre-bent so as not to prevent a subsequent operation for raising the blank 66 to the vertical position. The pusher bar 126 shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG.
8 is connected to an air cylinder 130 (shown in FIG. 7). The pusher bar 126 has the material 6
6 to move the material 66 to a position where it engages the material conveyor 132 for advancing the material 66 to the packaging section 18.

The material conveyor 132 has an endless belt 134 driven by a chain drive mechanism 136, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. As shown in FIG. 4, the material conveyor 132 in the hopper section 16 is provided with two sets of supply rollers 138 and 140.
8 and 140 cooperate with a roller 141 located below as shown in FIG. 5 to guide the blank 66 into engagement with the belt 134.

As shown in FIG. 8, the packaging unit 18 has a stationary plate 142, and a group of groups (for example, a group of 6 in the width direction and a group of 4 in the longitudinal direction) is provided on the upper surface of the stationary plate 142. Sent from. Further, the material 66 is successively sent by the conveyor 132 to the position where it cooperates with the stationary plate 142. At this time,
Bottom plate 67 of each material 66, rear wall 70 and both side walls 72, 74
Is placed under the stationary plate 142, the front wall 68 of the blank 66 projects above the stationary plate 142 and is held in an upright position by a guide 122, which is held near the end of the stationary plate 142. Further, the packaging unit 18 is provided with a plastic material stopper 144, and the material stopper 144 is attached to the material 66.
The side walls of the raw material 66 collide with each other and the lateral movement of the material 66 from the hopper portion 16 to the packaging portion 18 by the conveyor 132 is suppressed. The supply rollers 138, 140, 141 are made of the material 6
6 is provided so as to separate from the material when it collides with the stopper 144. This is because the material 66 is rollers 138, 140,
This is because the material 66 cannot freely come out from under the stationary plate 142 when it is engaged with 141.

As shown in FIG. 8, at the exit end of the assembling device 14, there are provided 6 articulated drive chains 146, and these drive chains 146 (6 in the lateral direction and 4 in the longitudinal direction). The group of cans is sent to the packaging unit 18, but the next group of cans is not sent on the stationary plate 142. For this purpose and for feeding the cans placed in each tray further downstream, a can feeding means shown as 147 in FIG. 9 is provided.

The feeding means 147 is a set of chains 1.
48 with 5 feed bars 150 in the chain 148
Is installed. The feed bar 150 is a chain 14
8 equally spaced apart, moved in orbit by a chain 148, and driven by a chain 154 from a sprocket 152 for the assembling device and feeding means 147.

In operation, as shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, each feed bar 150 is successively fed by the feeding means 147.
The swivel group 3 moves around the tail end sprocket 166 of the swivel sprocket 166 and comes out of the passage guide 32 toward the packaging section 18.
The rear wall 156 of No. 1 is approached from behind and engages with it. As a result, the can group 31 is pushed up onto the stationary plate 142,
The front wall 160 of the can group 31 engages the front wall 68 of the upright blank 66 and is then put into place on the packaging section 18. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, each of the feeding bars 150 has a rectangular shape, and the cam follower (roller) 16
4 has a spring plate 162 controlled by the cam roller 1
64 strikes the cam path 170 of the cam 168 upstream of the bar feeding means 147 as the bar feeding bar 150 turns around the sprocket 156, thereby causing the bar feeding bar 150 to move.
And the spring plate 162 is rotated by 90 °, and the spring 162 is placed in a position to push the rod group 31. The feeding bar 150 is held in a locked state. There are 5 feeding bars 15
0 and a cam roller 164 are provided. To prevent the cans from tipping forward when pushed, the shape of the spring plate 162 preferably engages the rear wall 156 of the canister group 31 in a lower position (below the center of gravity). Tail end sprocket 16 of feeding means 147 of passage guide 32
The end near 6 is cut to allow passage of the feed bar 150, to prevent the spring leaf 162 from contacting the passage guide 32.

Further, means 1 for holding down the cans 31 as they are fed onto the stationary plate 142.
72 (FIG. 9) is preferably provided, and this can group holding means 172 is made of a durable plastic sheet to prevent the can group from falling forward.
Press the top edge of 1.

In FIG. 10, the can group 31 has a feed bar 150.
Although the state immediately after being engaged with is shown, the above-mentioned can group pressing means 172 is not shown for simplification of the drawing. As shown, the front wall 160 of the cluster 31 is still at a slight distance from the upright front wall 68 of the blank 66, so that the fold lines for the front wall 68, front wall pieces 78, and 78 are visible. .

FIG. 12 shows a packaging section 18 similar to that shown in FIG.
In order to show that the front wall 160 of the can group 31 is engaged with the front wall 68 of the blank 66 and pulls the blank 66 out from the bottom of the stationary plate 142, some of the braces in the can group 31 are shown in FIG. Not shown. That is, in FIG. 12, the material 66 is the stationary plate 14
2, the tray front flap 78 is started to be bent by the cam shoe, and the upper end of the folded front flap 78 is captured under the shelf 178 to show the bent state. keep. A similar cam shoe 174 (not shown) is provided on the other side of the front wall 68 of the blank 66 so that the other front flap 78 also begins to be formed. The front flaps 78 are made 1/16 "(0.1587 cm) higher than the side walls 72,74 to keep them under the shelves 178, thereby making the tray at a right angle. The front wall 68 of the material is
It is kept in a vertical upright position, although it is not kept by the guide 122.

As shown in FIG. 8, FIG. 9 and FIG.
In addition, a tray gate 176 is provided which, when in a vertical position, causes the material 66 to traverse an opening referred to as the "wrapper's throat", the hopper section 16
To the packaging unit 18. The gate 176 serves to catch the leading edge of the blank 66 that has passed through the cam shoe forming the leading flap 78, thereby maintaining the vertical position of the blank front wall 68. The gate 176 guides the blank 66 and holds the front wall 68 until the front wall 68 moves away from the guide 122, which guide 122 ends near the shoe 174, as shown in FIG. That is, the leading end of the front wall 68 reaches the outer shoe with the leading end of the material, and the flaps 78 at both ends of the front wall 68 are bent backward by the inner shoe 174 and the corresponding outer shoes. Keep that position until.

As shown in FIG. 9, the gate 176 is brought to an upright position shown by an air cylinder 178, a tray stop cylinder lever, a coarse material gate shaft 182, a tray stop lever shaft 184, a tray gate rod 186 and a gate hinge pin 188. Actuating to and from the horizontal position, pneumatic cylinder 1
When the 78 is activated, the gate 176 is lowered to the horizontal position,
Therefore, the can group 31 is carried by the can feeding means 147 across the gate and onto the next stationary plate 190.

In the present invention, the material 66 is the gate 174.
Guided by, across the "wrapper throat" between the hopper section 16 and the wrap section 18 and the front wall 68 and outer flap 78 pass the forming shoe, the gate 176 completes its mission. Immediately before entering the group 31 and its front wall 160 contacting the front wall 68 of the blank 66, the air cylinder 178 is activated and the gate 176 is moved from the vertical position to the horizontal position. In the horizontal position, the gate 176 acts as a connecting bridge for feeding the front portion of the material 66 across the gap (the "wrapper's throat") or across to the next short stationary plate 190. . From the stationary plate 190, the partially-formed raw material 66 with the cans 31 placed therein is pushed by the pusher bar conveyor 19.
2 is sent to the adhesive application section 20, and the conveyor 19
The reference numeral 2 also serves to feed the partially formed material and the rod group 31 to the tray uprighting and sealing means 191 which will be described later.

As shown in FIGS. 1A and 2A, the adhesive application section 20 includes four spray guns 194, 196, 19.
8,200, these spray guns have adhesive glued downwardly toward the ends of the side walls 72,74 which are still flat (ie not raised at right angles to the bottom plate 67 of material). To spray.

The pusher bar conveyor 192 has a fourteenth
As shown in FIGS. B and 16, the first set of chains 202
And a second set of chains 203, which are driven from the gabox 207 via chains 206 and sprockets 208. A large number of front pusher bars 204 are mounted between the first set of chains 202, and similarly, a large number of rear pusher bars 205 are mounted between the second set of chains 203, so that the front pusher bar 204 and the rear pusher bar 204 are mounted. Multiple sets of bars 205 are formed, and the spacing between each set of pusher bars 204 and 205 is such that the front pusher bars 204 contact the front wall 68 of the tray (containing the product) and the rear A pusher bar 205 is defined to contact the rear wall 70 of the tray and grasp the tray. It is desirable to provide suitable means for adjusting the spacing between the front pusher bar 204 and the rear pusher bar 205 to capture trays having different spacings between the front and rear walls.

As shown in FIG. 15A, the tail end shafts 210 of the pusher bar chains 202 and 203 have a "Ferguson" overload coupling 212 and a double drive sprocket 21 for the assembling device 14 and the feeding device 147.
4 is provided, thus providing a chain drive between the sprocket 214 and the sprocket 152 of the feeder 147, shown as 154 in FIG. 1A. The drive chain 215 shown in FIG. 1A drives the assembling device 14 and the six chains 146. The sprocket 152 is attached to an air clutch that deactivates the feeder 147 in the event of a failure.

The pusher bar conveyor 192 further has a large number of stationary plates 215 on which the material 6 is placed.
6 and can group 31 are pushed forward. Upon activation of the conveyor 192, the rear bar 205 approaches this tray from behind the tray (containing the product) and causes the rear wall 70 to bottom plate 67.
To a position at a right angle to the front wall 6 of the tray and then the front wall 68 of the tray is pushed into a position to engage the front bar 204.
The upright position of 8 is maintained by the cooperation of the front wall 68 of the blank 66 and the shelf 175.

With the material 66, the front wall 68 and the rear wall 70 are both placed in a position perpendicular to the bottom plate 67, the packaging unit 1
8 from the front, the flap folders 216 placed on either side of the conveyor 192 as shown in FIG. 15A.
And 218 swing, and the rear wall piece 76 of the blank 66 is bent inward. The benders 216 and 218 are mounted on a shaft 220 which is swung by a cam 222 via a lever arm 224, the lever arm 224 being at its end.
It has a follower 226 that engages the cam surface of the cam 222.

The material 66 and the group of bars are the bars 204 and 20.
When further advanced by 5, the rear wall adhesive piece 76 is captured by the side guide 228 in the inwardly bent position,
Once the adhesive strips 76 have been captured in this manner, the material and cans are delivered to the adhesive applicator 20 where they are directed toward the ends of each of the side walls 72 and 74, which are still in the horizontal position, as described above. And the adhesive is sprayed downwards.

Next to the adhesive applying device 20, the raw material 66 and the bar group are sealed by the bars 204 and 205.
Proceed to pass 1. The sealing means 191 has a set of folding bars 230, as shown in FIG. 14A,
A pair of folding bars 230 serve to erect both side walls 72 and 74, and an adhesive strip guide 232 is provided at the end of each folding bar 230. As you proceed further, both side walls 7
2 and 74 are captured between opposing compression plates 234,
The compression plates 234 are placed on both sides of the conveyor 192 in the sealing station 22 of the packaging machine 1. At the sealing location 22, the adhesive applied to both ends of the side walls 72 and 74 is dried, and the adhesive pieces 78 of the side walls 72, 74 and the front wall 68 are dried.
And a strong bond is formed between the rear wall 70 and the adhesive piece 76, thus forming a completed tray around the can 31, i.e. a tray full of cans 31. An exit level 236 is provided at the exit end of the conveyor 192,
The unload level 236 allows the filled tray to be moved to the rear bar 205.
From the tray at a slightly faster rate so that it does not damage the tray as it travels around the end of the conveyor 192.

After leaving the conveyor 192, the full tray is fed to a film wrapper 24, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, where the full tray is filled with a film sheet, such as a thin polyethylene film or Covered with paper. The tray from the film wrapper 24 is moved to the film sealer 26 by the discharge conveyor 238 (FIG. 1B).
Where the film is glued to the wall of the tray to form a firm bond between the film and the tray. The trays are then fed to a heating tunnel 28 where the full, film-covered trays are formed into a tight wrap.

Film wrapper 24, film sealer 2
6 and heating tunnel 28 are preferably constructed and arranged as shown in the above-referenced US application 683,611 by the present inventor, and therefore it is not considered necessary to elaborate further here. On the other hand, the film wrapper 24 and the film sealer 26 are provided with driving means for pressing the tray against the film sheet extending from the constant tension film rewinding means, and after the pressing, the film is wrapped by the feed bar. It only mentions that it is pulled tightly on the top of the finished product and against the back wall of the tray. The pressure of the film against the tray is effective in pressing the film against the wall of the tray to create a firm bond between the film and the tray.

As mentioned above, drive means having several motors are provided to drive several conveyors, these motors being described in US Pat. Nos. 3,101,654,3,3.
It is similar to the driving means shown in 196, 761, 3,890, 763.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, cardboard trays are molded one after another at a high speed, and an article package in which a group of articles such as cans or bottles are placed in each of these trays is continuously formed. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a left side portion of an article packaging apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the right side portion of the article packaging apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the left side portion of the packaging apparatus for articles according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the right side portion of the packaging apparatus for articles according to the present invention.

5 is an elevational view of the hopper section seen from the packaging section in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of a hopper section seen toward the packaging section in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a partial perspective view of a hopper section seen toward the packaging section in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a material stack of a tray.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a hopper section viewed from the right side of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing the material conveyor, the stationary plate of the packaging unit, the means for feeding the material to the stationary plate and the collecting device conveyor, and the gate device downstream.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged side view of the packaging unit.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a state in which a can group is captured by a can feeding device.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing a feeding bar and an operating cam attached thereto.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing a state in which the front wall of the cluster is in contact with the front wall of the material and the flap at the end of the front wall of the material is formed.

FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional view of the packaging section as seen from the downstream side.

FIG. 16 is an enlarged side view of the pusher bar conveyor from the packaging section to the adhesive application section.

FIG. 17 is an enlarged side view of the pusher bar conveyor from the film wrapper to the film sealer.

18 is a plan view of the pusher bar conveyor shown in FIG.

19 is a plan view of the pusher bar conveyor shown in FIG.

FIG. 20 is a perspective view showing a chain drive for a pusher bar conveyor and a discharge belt.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Packaging device 10 Supply device 12 Passage division part 14 Collecting device 16 Hopper part 18 Packaging part 20 Adhesive application part 22 Adhesive piece sealing device 24 Film wrapper 26 Film sealer 28 Heating tunnel

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tray is made from precut cardboard material,
A packaging apparatus for packaging a large number of articles such as cans and bottles in this tray, which has a hopper section, a packaging section, an adhesive application section, and a tray molding and sealing apparatus in order from the upstream side in the article feeding direction, The hopper part is a device for holding a stack of pre-cut cardboard material forming a pair of side walls with a front wall and a back wall having a bottom plate and a flap by a fold line, and a device from the bottom of the material stack. A pulling device that operates with a cam for pulling out one material, a cam device for bending the front wall of the material along the fold line to an upright position with respect to the bottom plate, and a cam device for bending the rear wall, A device for extruding the partially formed material from the hopper to the next wrapping section and for maintaining the front wall formed of the material in an upright position relative to the bottom plate during transfer from the hopper section to the wrapping section. With the device above The baffle is a device for folding the flap of the front wall into a position perpendicular to the front wall and a device for controlling the upper end position of the flap to engage the upper end of the front wall to keep the front wall in the upright position. A device, a stationary plate for placing an article to be sent on the upper surface, and a gate device for guiding the front wall to a desired position of the packaging unit while the rear wall and both side walls are under the stationary plate. , A device for sending a group of articles onto a stationary plate to bring them into contact with the front wall, pulling out the material from under the stationary plate, and sending the material and the group of clusters to another stationary plate downstream from the packaging unit, and a gate device in front. Adhesion of a partially formed tray with articles and a coupling device for rotating away from the wall to form a connecting bridge between the stationary plate of the packaging and the stationary plate downstream. And a device for feeding the adhesive to the tray. The tray forming and sealing device has a device for applying the rear wall flap at a right angle position with the rear wall, and an end wall at a right angle position with the bottom wall and a front wall flap and a rear wall. And a device for adhesively bonding the wall flap.