JPS5843297B2 - Goods packaging machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a packaging machine for packaging cans, bottles and similar articles into trays.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Packaging for cans, bottles and similar articles is known which consists of a filling tray having a tubular film-like member heat-shrinked around the periphery to form a strong package.

For example, U.S. Patent No. 3,34 dated October 17, 1967.
No. 7,365 discloses such packaging and for manually or automatically cutting rolls of transparent film-like sheet material into flat blanks, transparent tubular or sleeve members having ends that overlap the bottom of the tray; The blank surrounds the periphery of the filled tray, the overlapping ends of which are heat shrunk together so that the sheet of film material extends beyond the sides of the articles in the tray. forming a tubular shape around the filled tray at both ends of the film-like material; pre-swaging and shrinking the open ends of the tubular film-like member around the ends of the articles in the tray; and then retaining the articles in the tray. and heat shrinking a film-like material to form a rigid package.

Instead of wrapping a film-like material around a filled tray, the patent consists of forming the film in a tubular shape without a predetermined longitudinal seam and inserting the filled tray into the seamless tubular sleeve. Other methods are also mentioned.

Such packaging has many advantages over conventional rectangular cardboard cases.

For example, it is light in weight, inexpensive, can lock cans or bottles to trays to prevent relative movement or stacking irregularities, is transparent to allow viewing of product labels, and cuts film sheets. It can be easily taken out.

Furthermore, the heat-shrinked film sheet keeps the item clean.

However, this packaging also has a number of drawbacks.

For example, the bottom of the tray may have an overlapping portion of film sheets that often impedes sliding movement of the tray when transferring the tray from one position to another.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome this drawback of the prior art and to provide a packaging machine for forming improved packages.

Another objective is to provide a package that does not have a film-like material at the bottom of the tray to prevent package slippage, and which is more economical as it uses less film than traditional heat-shrinked film packages. It is to provide.

These objectives are achieved by a package containing a filled tray and a sheet of heat-shrinked film that encases the articles within the tray and is attached to both walls of the tray by adhesive.

Examples will be described below.

In the drawings, Figures 2A-2C show a can 35, a package 33 for bottles and the like;
3 is a cardboard tray 37 having a bottom portion 39 and a rising wall extending from the bottom portion 39 in which a first pair of walls 45 and 47 are connected to a second pair of walls 41 and 43; and a strip of adhesive 51 connecting the ends of the film sheet 49 to the opposite walls 45, 47 of the tray 37, the film sheet 49 is typically heat-shrinked and attached to the tray 37. Holds 35.

The film sheet 49 has a retrograde shape and forms an opposite end 53 that overlaps the side of the can 35.

The embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 1-5A includes an accelerator belt 67 that moves the filled tray faster than the feed belt 69 to separate the feed belt 69 and the trays a fixed distance. a tray indexing section 65 having a
A gluing station 21 with a horizontal adhesive applicator T1 and a position on each side of the advancing tray 37 for pressing the film sheet 49 against the adhesive 51 applied on the side walls 45, 47; A packaging machine 199 is shown comprising a pressure station or section 31A including a sheared vertical pressure belt 201.

Belts 201 pass around end rollers 203 and are held close together by spring loaded rollers 205 or other suitable pressure means.

Figure 3 shows mechanism 1 with belt 201 removed for clarity.
99 is shown in a side view.

Tray 37 does not rotate 90 degrees.

Trays 37 are driven over idler rollers 207 by belt 201 driven by a clutch brake that starts and brakes so that they are fed into belt 201.

This action spaces the cases as desired. During abort, film cutting mechanism 211 cuts film 43 and releases the leading tray to driven rollers 213.

The film cutting mechanism 211 includes a film separating or cutting device 215 that is vertically reciprocated by an air cylinder 217 and a connecting link 219.

FIG. 4 shows a portion of a cutting knife 221 used in film cutting device 215. A heated wire may also be used as the cutting tool in device 215.

Another method of packaging articles such as cans 35 into trays 37 provides a film sheet 49A (FIGS. 5 and 5A) having dashed lines 225 across the sheet at regular intervals along the sheet.

In this method, referring to FIG. 5, trays 37 are fed to a tray indexing station where an accelerator belt 67 separates the trays by accelerating the movement of the trays.

The tray is then sprayed with adhesive on its walls at the gluing station, and both sides of the film sheet 49A are brought into the adhesive strip as the tray enters the pressing station 31A.

The suppression station includes a pressure belt 201 that presses the film sheet 49A against the adhesive 51 on the side walls 45.47.

In this embodiment, belt 201 is driven and the tray is moved through push station 31A while the adhesive hardens.

Belt 201 then transports the tray to rollers 213.

These rollers 213 are driven and the suppression part 3
The speed of the tray 37 coming from 1 is increased and the film sheet 1-49A is cut along the broken line 225, and the tray 3 that has been transported is
Separate the film sheet on 7 from the film sheet on the next succeeding tray.

Tray 37 is then transported to shrink tunnel 27 where film sheet 49A is heat shrunk around can 35 to form a rigid package.

The film sheet 49 may be made of vinyl chloride, polyethylene, polypropylene, etc., as long as it has heat-shrinkable, elastic properties to tightly hold the article together with the tray.

Non-shrink films and papers could also be used in these packaging machines.

The film on the short walls 41, 43 is open but could be closed if necessary.

In order to close the film on these short walls 41.43, a pair of spray guns or applicators are placed and apply the glue in a strip along the short walls 41.43 of the tray 37. do.

This strip of glue 229 will become viscous within the shrink tunnel 27 and as the edge 53 of the film shrinks it will contact the adhesive 229 to form a bond.

Even though the adhesive strip 229 is not applied to the short walls 41, 43 of the tray, the pressure of the roller 231 will heat and bond the contracted ends 53 to the walls 41,43.

The packaging of the present invention has a separate configuration that uses only about seven sheets of film in known tube-shaped packaging, and the cost of glue is negligible.

This package is easy to carry.

This is because there is no film on the underside of the package that wrinkles or rides on conventional conveyor systems when exiting the shrink tunnel (not shown).

Also, since there is no film on the underside of the package, there is no chance for the heated film to stick to the conveyor rollers.

, another advantage of the present invention is that the film sheet 49 and the tray 3
The glue joint between 7 and 7 is easy to apply and fix.

On the other hand, melt bonding or overlapping edge bonding of film sheets is a rather difficult task.

Furthermore, during loading, the paper-to-film bond of the present invention is less likely to tear than the film-to-film bond under the stacking load during transportation.

The gluing part 21 and the spray gun 71 are made by Huntington Co.
Ur t ingdon Iudus tries
U.S. Patent No. 3,1 of Incorpor-aied)
No. 52,923.

No. 3.198,435, No. 3,395,694, etc.

When stacked, the bottom of paper trays presents fewer handling problems than the bottom of an entirely plastic package.

When stacked on a pallet, paper trays stacked on top of the film canopy of the lower package are less prone to slipping and shifting than film to film or paper to paper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the packaging machine of the invention, FIG. 2A is a perspective view showing the state of the filled tray in the gluing station, and FIG. A perspective view showing the state of the advancing tray when it is wrapped with a sheet, FIG. 2C shows the package after wrapping has been completed after coming out of the shrink tunnel, and FIG. 3 is the embodiment of FIGS. 2.2A and 2B. FIG. 4 is a partial elevational view of the cutting knife used in the embodiment of FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of the cutting knife used in the embodiment of FIG. 3; FIG. However, here is an example using a film sheet with perforations at regular intervals.
FIG. 5A is a partial front view of FIG. 5 showing the film sheet with dashed or perforated lines. Explanation of symbols, 21: Gluing part, 25: Pressing part, 31:
Pressing part, 33: Packaging body, 41, 43: Second opposite wall, 45
, 47: first opposing wall, 49: film sheet, 51:
Adhesive, 65: Tray indexing part, 199: Packaging machine, 2
11: Film cutting mechanism.

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. Cans, bottles, and similar articles having a bottom and an upright wall extending from the bottom, a first pair of spaced apart walls connected together by a second pair of walls. In a packaging machine for packaging into a series of trays, a gluing station having means for applying adhesive to a first pair of walls; a suppressor comprising means for placing a sheet of heat-shrinkable film onto the article; and means for pressing the sheet of heat-shrinkable film against an adhesive applied to the wall until the adhesive hardens; and a tray. means for separating the film sheets between them, and heating means for heat-shrinking the film sheets to retain the articles in the tray, the suppression portion comprising a pair of vertically arranged belts; A packaging machine comprising: means for forcing the belt to press the film sheet against an applied adhesive. 2. In the packaging machine according to claim 1, the heat-shrinkable film sheet has broken line portions that cross the sheet at regular intervals along the sheet, and the film sheet is separated between trays. A packaging machine characterized in that the means for cutting the film sheet off a device which increases the speed of movement of the preceding tray relative to the speed of movement of the succeeding tray in order to sever the dashed line between the preceding tray and the succeeding tray.