JPH0613348B2 - Bag chain and its drive unit - Google Patents

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a bag chain having a straw bag provided on the tape, suitable for packing, and to pull the tape by the mutual spacing of a plurality of bags of the bag chain. The present invention relates to a drive unit that drives to. For example, pieces of meat or poultry are placed in these bags.

PRIOR ART AND ITS PROBLEMS The use of straw bags has been known for many years, and in the most common preferred form of these bags two separate tacky carrier tapes are used, The bag is arranged in a straw-like shape on the adhesive surface of, and the exposed portion of the bag is adhered to the adhesive surface.

Such a tape system is disclosed, for example, in British Patent Specification No. 1,240,371, in which system the lead ends of two tapes are shown together with a guided cassette. The tapes are pressed into contact on the sticky side and the combined tape is wound onto a reel inside the cassette. The tape is pressed together while sending the bag chain to the loader,
At the end of the bag chain, the spool is wrapped with tape that binds the spool until it is full, then removed from the machine and replaced with a new reel with a new bag chain attached. Such a cassette system is preferred because the tape is constantly advanced toward the point where it is compressed together, beyond which the tape can be treated as a single non-stick tape.

However, when using a cassette in which the two tapes are contacted and compressed with the adhesive surfaces facing each other as described above, the tension on one tape drops to zero and if the operator equalizes the tape lengths. Otherwise, all bag advancing tensions have the problem that they are only driven by the other tape and not driven properly.

Another proposal for a straw-shaped bag chain is British Patent No. 2,
064,477B. In this bag chain, the tapes are not gathered at one point but kept parallel to each other and wound onto a reel by a differential drive system. In such a system, the tension of the two tapes can be equal.

In British Patent No. 2,064,477B, it is necessary to manually attach the tape to the coaxial take-up reel, and there is a problem in that quick work cannot be performed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a bag chain and its drive unit that can take advantage of differential drive and perform a quick operation.

In accordance with the invention, in accordance with the present invention, in order to solve the problems as described above, a series of stacked bags, and a pair of juxtaposed, spaced tapes each having an adhesive surface; A pair of tape take-up rotors, one attached to each tape so as to engage the tape take-up drive unit for winding the tape on the drive unit, and a drive shaft having parallel axes of the tape take-up unit. Means for supporting the two tape winding rotors on substantially parallel axes of rotation so as to engage with each other.

One tape is attached to each of the pair of tape take-up rotors, and the work can be started simply by connecting the tape take-up rotors to the drive unit and the drive unit.

Further, according to the invention, in order to solve the problems as described above, a continuous stacked bag, a pair of juxtaposed and spaced tapes each having an adhesive surface, and a tape winding drive unit A detachable cassette and a pair of tape take-up rotors in the cassette, each of the tape take-up rotors being attached to a respective one of the tapes, A bag characterized by being engaged with each tape winding drive shaft to wind up the tape of the rotor drive portion, and the tape winding rotors being spaced apart and having substantially parallel rotation axes. A chain is provided.

Since one tape is attached to each of the pair of tape take-up rotors and these tape take-up rotors are arranged in the cassette, the operation is started by placing the cassette in the drive device. be able to.

Further in accordance with the present invention, in order to solve the problems as described above, a drive input shaft and a pair of spaced parallel tapes each adapted to engage a respective tape winding rotor of a bag chain. A drive shaft, a means for accommodating a cassette having two take-up spools coaxial with the drive shaft, and arranged between the input shaft and the tape drive shaft and associated with the tape drive shaft And a differential drive unit for equalizing tensions between the tapes attached to the respective tape take-up spools.

Since the means for accommodating the cassette having the two take-up spools coaxial with the drive shaft is provided, the operation can be started only by accommodating the cassette, and the tape is provided because the differential drive unit is provided. Can be properly wound.

Example In the drawings, a bag chain (b
The ag chain) comprises a number of overlapping bags 2a, 2b, 2c ... which are placed on two parallel carrier tapes 3 and 4, said tapes 3 and 4 being the horizontal tracks of each tape. It has their top adhesive surface on top. The tips of the tapes 3 and 4 are introduced into the cassette 5 via respective inlet openings 6 and 7, respectively. In this embodiment, the adhesive surface of the tape 3 is the surface closer to the observer as the tape passes through the cassette inlet opening 6, and the adhesive surface of the tape 4 is the surface farther from the observer, Therefore, the adhesive surface is oriented radially outward when the tape is attached to the respective take-up spool 8 and 9. These take-up spools 8 and 9 are formed as a part of the tape take-up rotor.

The two take-up spools 8 and 9 can be mounted floating in the tape 5 so that when the cassette is placed inside the housing for the cassette defined by the cover 10, each spool 8 And 9 are drive dogs (dfive dogs) 1 of the cassette drive unit 13.
It can be centered on 1 and 12.

The two take-up spools 8 and 9 are each preferably mounted in the cassette 5 via a one-way clutch structure,
This one-way clutch structure prevents rotation of the two spools 8 and 9 in the tape rewinding direction, but allows substantially unlimited rotation in the tape winding direction. This offers the following advantages: First, for example, when the cassette drive is switched off, the weight of the chain can drive the cassette drive in the opposite direction to prevent the tape from rewinding. This first feature is the drive dogs 11 and 1
Achieved by having a one-way clutch system in the drive for two, such a device is used in which the chain of bags is removed from the loader and the cassette 5 is disengaged. It also provides no protection against inadvertent unwinding of the bag chain from the cassette. To obtain the second advantage, as in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a one-way clutch system provided on the cassette is advantageous. A third advantage, described below, is that the tape can be prevented from being mistaken for other tapes of different types in the bag chain.

The drive unit 13 is placed on the drive shaft of the motor 15,
An input bevel gear 14 engaged with the first vertical bevel gear 16;
Holds two idler gears 17 and 18 for rotation about a horizontal axis which coincides with the longitudinal axes of the two worms 19 and 20. In practice, the first vertical bevel gear 16 is rotatably mounted about the axis of the right worm gear 20.

The two idler gears 17 and 18 constantly mesh with a left vertical bevel gear 21 fixed to the worm 19 and a right vertical bevel gear 21 fixed to the worm 20.

The left worm 19 drives the pinion 2 fixed to the drive dog 11 of the drive shaft for the left take-up spool 8 of the cassette 5, the right worm 20 drives the drive shaft for the right take-up spool 9 of the cassette 5. The pinion 24 fixed to the drive dog 12 is driven.

From the above description, assuming that the tensions on the two tapes 3 and 4 are equal when the motor 15 rotates, it is possible that the two take-up spools 8 and 9 will be driven at the same rotational speed but in opposite directions. it is obvious.

When either one of the tapes is slack, the take-up spool of the other tape is slowed down by the differential mechanism allowed by the free rotation of the two idler bevel guillars 17 and 18. Thus, in standard operation, the two bevel gears 17 and 18 do not rotate about their own axes, but instead orbit around the first vertical bevel gear 16 and the horizontal common axis of the two concentric worms 19 and 20. As the differential gear takes effect, there is some rotation of the two idler gears 17 and 18 in addition to the orbital movement of the two idler gears 17 and 18.

If desired, cassette 5 may include some means for coding in response to the particular type of bag attached to the chain of which the cassette forms a part, so that cassette A simple introduction into the housing defined by the cover 10 provides for bag loading as to what type of bag is included.
ding) The device is automatically instructed. This coding controls, for example, the width and / or height at which the bag is opened, so that the periphery of the bag mouth is not stretched too tightly in the open, unfolded state awaiting product insertion. The coding means comprises one part of the cassette, e.g. the mechanical shape of the slot or projection, to actuate the mechanical feeler forming part of the bag opening unit.

Furthermore, the spools 8 and 9 are provided by the cassette 5, namely
It is held rotatably free, without a directional clutch, and the cassette is stored, for example during transport, by the leading part of each of the wound tapes, so that the leading end of the first bag 2a The rim is substantially opposite to that surface of the cassette 5 in which the openings 6 and 7 are formed, thus allowing the cassette to be loaded into the loader before it is loaded into the machine. The tape is pulled out of the lead bag 2a so as to rewind each part of the tape 3 and 4 in order to provide the required length of tape between the cassette and the lead bag. Such a system is disclosed in British Patent 1,240,3 for the face-to-face contact bonding of two tapes when the one-way clutch is integrated or at the point where the tapes are in the cassette.
This is not possible with the 71 prior art cassette.

Alternatively, each of tapes 3 and 4 can have a non-adhesive leader portion.

Therefore, the cassette according to the present invention can provide an improved method of holding the bag during shipping.

When the two take-up spools 8 and 9 are free to float in the cassette 5, these spools are allowed to be accurately centered on their drive dogs 11 and 12, thus the bag chain 1 In use, the spools 8 and 9 are always engaged on the drive dogs 11 and 12.

Both of the above cassette types according to the invention are twin (twi
n) When used with a spool differential drive system, it offers the advantage of a more rapid method than threading up the bag chain. It is only necessary to position the cassette to fit the two drive dogs, then push the cassette onto the drive dogs and close the cover 10 to complete the loading operation, except for the bags 2a, 2b, 2c ... on the loading table. Suppose it is placed in the proper position.

In light of this advantage, the cassette 5 is driven by the drive dogs 11 and 1.
It is realized that it serves as an indicating means for holding the take-up rotor or spools 8 and 9 ready for rapid installation and removal of the two. Therefore, it is not important to have the cassette 5 completely enclosed around the spools 8 and 9.

FIG. 2 shows details of mounting the spool 8 of FIG. 1 on the cassette body 5. The cassette body has an opening 27 for accommodating the hollow spindle of the spool 8, which opening 27 extends radially outward from the hub on the flange portion of the spool 8 and has oppositely inclined resilient teeth 29.
Elastic teeth 2 inclined around its periphery to engage with
It is formed together with 8.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, when the spool 8 is rotated in the direction of the counterclockwise hand, the tip of the tooth 29 can slip on the tooth 28 and the tip, but in the direction of the clockwise hand of the spool. When rotation is attempted, the spool teeth 29 lock against the cassette body teeth 28 to prevent rotation.

The splines 26 on the spindle portion of the spool, as well as the storage 30 of the adhesive tape 3, can be easily seen in FIG.

Of course, for the cassette illustrated in the drawings, a differential drive structure is preferred, but could be used with a direct drive rather than a differential drive.

In use of the cassette, once one bag chain has been emptied and all or nearly all of the bags have been removed from tapes 3 and 4, drive motor 15 is activated to expose the exposed ends of tapes 3 and 4. Is pulled into the cassette 5, following which the loose cassette is removed and replaced by a new, empty cassette attached to the bag chain. And when is the now-removed snappy cassette scraped?
Or processed for removal of the take-up tape and reuse of the cassette.

The cassette cordage is any one of several methods
Only some of which include color coding of the cassette, or notches or tabs on the cassette body, or printing on the cassette, or labels attached to the cassette. I'm out. Typically, the product identification is marked on the box that surrounds the bag chain, and thus the product identification is lost once the bag chain is removed from the box. However, the cassette 5 remains attached to the tape, so that there is always a reliable indication of product identification. Further, as pointed out earlier, the use of coding holes or tabs on the cassette will automatically instruct the bag loading machine as to the machine adjustments required when changing from one bag type to another. Can help give. When a cassette has this "coding" feature, the particular bag chain is completely removed from the cassette, having a bag with different characteristics than those displayed by the cassette coding. Preventing rotation in the rewind direction is especially important for spools to reduce the chances that they may be replaced by other chains that may be present.

The point of the rapid loading equipment provided by the present invention is that the bag loading machine can now have a fixed bag chain support table, on the contrary, which is now the more cumbersome but loading operation. Requires that the bag chain be attached to a trolley, and that the tape be passed through meshing interlocking wheels that adhere the tapes in a face-to-face contact and press them together, necessitating replacement of the bag chain. At one point, it was necessary to utilize at least one spare bag trolley system that eliminated the need to roll almost any trolley to the loader.

Yet another advantage of the twin spool system according to the present invention is that prior art requires separating the gears and passing the two tapes into a face-to-face contact between the gears before reengaging the gears. There is no risk of damage to the operator or bag chain during the loading operation, as may occur with the drive gears used in this system.

As suggested above, instead of having an enclosed cassette for the tape, it is provided with means for holding the two rotors in a substantially precise center-to-center spacing for quick connection of the rotors to the drive unit of the bag unit. However, it is possible to simplify the bag-growing operation by simply providing a bag tape drive rotor of any shape attached to the tip of the tape or a non-adhesive leader attached to the beginning of the tape.

Effect According to the first aspect of the present invention, one tape is attached to each of the pair of tape take-up rotors, and these tape take-up rotors are arranged in the cassette. The work can be started by placing the cassette in the drive.

According to the second invention, one tape is attached to each of the pair of tape take-up rotors, and the tape take-up rotors are arranged in the cassette.
The work can be started by placing the cassette in the drive.

According to the third invention, since the means for accommodating the cassette having the two take-up spools coaxial with the drive shaft is provided, the work can be started only by accommodating the cassette, and the differential drive unit can be installed. Since it is provided, the tape can be properly wound.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of one embodiment of a bag chain and drive unit according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a detailed view of one of the tape winding rollers shown in FIG. 1 ... Bag chain 3,4 ... Tape 5 ... Cassette 6,7 ... Inlet opening 8,9 ... Take-up spool 10 ... Cover 13 ... Driving unit 15 ... Motor 19,20 ... Worm

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --Continued Front Page (56) References US Patent 3908343 (US, A)

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A continuous stacked bag, a pair of juxtaposed, spaced tapes each having an adhesive surface, each engaging a tape winding drive that winds the tape on the drive. A pair of tape take-up rotors, one attached to each of the tapes, and the two on substantially parallel axes of rotation for engaging the drive axes of the parallel axes of the tape take-up unit. And a separating means for supporting the two tape winding rotors. 2. A continuous stacked bag, a pair of juxtaposed and spaced tapes each having an adhesive surface, a cassette removably mounted on a tape winding drive unit, and within the cassette. A pair of tape take-up rotors, each of the tape take-up rotors being attached to a respective one of the tapes and engaging a respective tape-winding drive shaft of the tape-winding drive unit. A bag chain, wherein the tape of the rotor drive section is wound up, and the tape winding-up rotor is separated and has substantially parallel rotation axes. 3. The bag chain according to claim 2, wherein the tape winding rotor comprises a winding spool movably supported in the cassette. 4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising means for prohibiting rotation of the tape winding rotor with respect to the cassette main body in a tape rewinding direction and enabling unrestricted rotation of the tape winding direction. Bag chain according to item 3. 5. A bag chain unit responsive to a particular type of bag of chains associated with said cassette engaging sensor means of a bag chain drive unit in which said cassette is adapted to be used. The bag chain according to any one of claims 2 to 4, further comprising a coding means for adjusting. 6. A drive input shaft, a pair of spaced parallel tape drive shafts each adapted to engage a respective tape take-up rotor of the bag chain, and two coaxial drive shafts. Means for accommodating a cassette with a take-up spool, and a tape attached to each tape take-up spool disposed between the input shaft and the tape drive shaft and associated with the tape drive shaft. And a differential drive unit for equalizing the tensions of the bag chain drive unit. 7. The tape drive unit is tuned in response to coding of a cassette surrounding the tape take-up rotor of the bag chain and in response to a particular type of bag of the chain. The bag chain drive unit according to item 6.