JPS6058112B2 - A device that attaches heat-shrinkable collars to moving containers. - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for applying decorative or display collars to the necks of substantially identical containers, such as bottles, which are being moved side by side on a continuously advancing conveyor.

After the collar is installed, it is tightened to the container by heat shrinking. It is known to decorate various articles, e.g. bottles, with collars of heat-shrinkable plastics, such as polyethylene, which are cut from flat tubes or pods and later reopened to recover their original shape, after which these collars are applied. The article passes through a heated zone which causes the collar to contract tightly around the article.

According to a previous invention of this applicant, the pod is first compressed on one longitudinal plane to create a first J pair of parallel folds or crease lines, and then another perpendicular to said longitudinal plane is attempted to be cut. By deforming the pod with the substantial disappearance of these folds and compression of the pod in the longitudinal plane, a flattened to make a collar; facilitating the re-opening of the wrapper, this tube is formed with a second pair of folds. It is characterized by two flat sides that form a border,
The impression of the first pair of folds extending along the centerline of these flat sides facilitates separating the two sides when pressure is applied to the second pair of folds. However, even with this improvement, conventional technology does not facilitate one form of operation in which such a roller can be slid into the neck of a bottle while the incoming bottle is moving at a reasonable speed. do not have.

Conventional equipment for partially or completely wrapping bottles or other support elements in transit with a collar or jacket of heat-shrinkable plastic material or other material is therefore suitable for transporting such support elements and cutting equipment therein. Without the use of complex rotating equipment for conveying devices, slow intermittent movements of the conveyor are generally required, resulting in low output rates. The object of the invention is to obtain a device that allows the application of a collar to a container that is moving at a considerable speed.

According to one form of the invention, the deformable flattened sheath of variable length is arranged along a guide path descending towards the moving row of support elements on which the cut-off tubular wrapper is to be attached. Advancing, the pods form sides separated by a pair of longitudinal folds and can be separated from each other laterally.

The pod is cut transversely at the midpoint of the guideway to produce individual contiguous packets of the predetermined length, and each freshly cut packet is cut into a guideway that narrows in the axial longitudinal plane. and advance at an increased speed until the lateral spacing of the sides of the wrapper is approximately equal to the distance between the folds at the tip of the wrapper, i.e., the distance is reduced by approximately 1 from the original value. :Jl and then gradually separate the sides of the wrapper until this tip has a roughly square ring. while descending at an obtuse angle to the direction of movement of the support element, at the level where the fast edge of the tip (viewed in the direction of movement of the support element) meets the upright part of the incoming support element. ejecting the wrapper from its guideway, the raised part of the support element, for example the neck of the bottle, having a smaller cross-section than the tip of the wrapper;
The wrapper then stands upright and abuts around the raised portion of the support element. In some cases, the support element that receives the laterally expanding wrapper may be an intermediate support rather than the bottle or other item with the neck to be wrapped, and this support will take most of the movement of the item itself. It moves along a closed trajectory tangential to the horizontal to synchronize the rate of movement of the articles with that of the support, thereby facilitating the movement of each wrapper from the support to the neck of each item.

For example, if the wrappers have a height less than their width or cannot be safely severed by a neck passing horizontally under a structure defining an inclined guideway, these intermediate supports Body use is preferred. In each case, the sheath to be subdivided into packets is preferably made of a heat-shrinkable plastics material, and the collar or jacket constituted by each laterally expanded packet is wrapped in a manner known per se. Can be thermally fixed to the item or parts thereof.

As in the applicant's previous invention described above, the pod is pre-shaped, i.e. first flattened on a first longitudinal plane and then flattened again on a second longitudinal plane perpendicular to the first longitudinal plane. It is preferable to start with a tube that has been flattened, so that the original fold line has largely disappeared, leaving a mark in the center of the side of the pod and its wrapper, and the creases made while flattening it out again make the wrapper more visible. form a boundary. During the subsequent expansion step, the original fold line reappears together with the fold line to approximately limit the sides of the hexahedron, and the cross-sectional area of the hexahedron increases progressively in the advancing direction. According to another form of the invention, the pod and its wrapper are advanced by a conveying device, the conveying device being positioned on the main side of the pod in front of a pair of guide members partially defining the advancement path. a pair of counter-rotating feed rollers capable of engaging the parts and a drive capable of positively engaging the wrapper in the area of these guide members, preferably at least one of the two counter-rotating cylinders. The subdivision into the pods is completed perpendicular to the pod folds by a cutting device having one or more circumferential blades.

These cylinders and the two feed rollers are operated by a drive at a circumferential speed that is less than the speed at which they are applied to the resulting wrapper. The two guide members have fold-engaging areas that taper in the forward direction, and these fold-engaging areas are approximately 1:J! at the discharge end of the guide passage. are separated from each other by a distance related to their distance near the cutting device, so that each parcel is ejected from the discharge end with a generally square tip as described above. The rear end of each wrapper is roughly polyhedral (although the difference between a prismatic rear end and a square front end is minimal for low-height collars); When used for transport, the collars are actually inverted and held by their rear ends over the receiving item. The guide member is preferably inclined towards the lower level and the support element is continuously advanced by means of a suitable conveyor device over the guide member in order to intercept the descending parcels as described above. However, in general, these guide members can be vertical if the wrapper is to be held on a support element that thus impedes movement during holding. These and other features of the invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The device shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 is a transmission housing 6.
8 and a mounting plate 1 rising therefrom at an inclination of about 300 degrees to the vertical.

The reel 3 received at the top of the mounting plate is formed by winding a flat tube 2 of heat-shrinkable plastic material, for example polyethylene, the flat tube 2 being bounded by a pair of longitudinal folds 8. The flat tube 2 is intermittently pulled out from the reel 3 by a pair of feed rollers 10 rotating in opposite directions.
The feed roller 10 is driven by a step motor 19, and only a chain 71 and a sprocket 72 are shown as transmission devices for the step motor 19, and the axis of the feed roller 10 is perpendicular to the flat side of the flat tube 2. 900 offset from the axis of the first pair of guide rollers 5 near the reel 3, and downstream of the first pair of guide rollers 5, the second pair of guide rollers 6
parallel to the axis of As in the applicant's previous invention described above, the polyhedral core 4 is connected to two pairs of guide rollers 5, 6.
It is then rolled out and wrapped in a flat tube 2 to form a sheath 2'', the sheath 2'' having a longitudinal plane P perpendicular to the longitudinal plane of the flat tube. It has generally flat sides. The core 4 thus has two opposing triangular faces that diverge from an upper lateral edge 4a to a lower lateral edge 4b placed with a small gap between the rollers 5; The two other opposing triangular faces of the core 4 are inclined with respect to the upper lateral edge 4a or have a small gap between the rollers 6.
It tapers from a to the lower lateral edge 4b. These triangular surfaces are sandwiched between another pair of guide rollers 7, which have the axis of the roller 5 and hold the core suspended in a suspended position in the vertical plane P through the sheath 2''. The guide roller 7 is designed so that the guide roller 6 and the feed roller 10 eliminate the original crease 8 and leave only the trace of the crease along the center line of the flat side.The guide roller 5 and the guide roller 7 supported on the mounting plate 1, and the guide roller 6 and feed roller 10
are provided inside the transmission housing 68.

The stepping motor 19 is further provided in a vertical plane P.

two counter-rotating cylinders 16a, 16b on opposite sides of
The cylinders 16a and 16b have the same diameter as the feed roller 10 and rotate at the same speed. cylinder 16
cylinder 1 forming part of the cutting device 12 together with b
6a is several pieces equally spaced around the circumference (in this case, 4 pieces)
The blades 17 extend parallel to the axis of the cylinder 16a and cut the incoming sheath 2'' into separate adjacent packet pieces 14, the length of the cut pieces 14 being the same as those of these blades 17. Determined by the spacing. Feed roller 10 and cylinders 16a, 16
two additional rollers 18 with axes parallel to the axis of b
a, 18b are vertical planes P downstream of these cylinders 16a, 16b. The axes of the rollers 18a and 18b are on the horizontal plane P1 (FIG. 2);
is another transverse plane P2 by a distance e not greater than the length L of the wrapper 14, in order to engage the tip of the wrapper 14 as soon as the wrapper 14 is separated from the sheath 2'' by the blade 17. The axes of the cylinders 16a and 16b are on this horizontal plane P2.The two cylinders 16
a, 16b by the thickness of the sheath 2'' corresponding to the height of the blade, and if cylinder 16b has a circumferential groove that corresponds to the high blade, then of course such a high blade can be attached to cylinder 1.
It can be used for 6a. As can be seen, both cylinders 16a, 16b are provided with such blades in some medicinal relationship, for example. If the length of the wrapper 14 exceeds the circumference of the cutting cylinders, which can be conveniently accommodated in the transmission housing 68, these cylinders are driven by the stepping motor 19 at low speed via a reduction gear. Must.

Rollers 18a, 18b collectively form part of a conveying system designated 51, which includes a pair of endless internally toothed belts 52 (best shown in FIG. 3).
and each internal tooth engages a grooved upstream pulley 53 and a toothed downstream pulley 54, the downstream pulley 54 idling on a shaft 55 supported by an arm 58. Upstream pulley 53
is keyed to the shaft 56, the shaft 56 supports the roller 18b as well as the gear 73, the gear 73 meshes with another gear 74, and the gear 47 supports the roller 10 and the cylinders 16a, 16b.
The endless belt 5 has a linear velocity that is twice the circumferential velocity of the endless belt 5.
It forms part of an acceleration drive in addition to the above. The endless belt 52 is provided with separated horizontal bars 57, and the interval therebetween is greater than the length L of the wrapping piece 14.

The rollers 18 have a radius that roughly exceeds the radius of the pulley 53 by the height of these crossbars 57, so that the crossbars 57 project closer to the circumference of the rollers 18b as they pass around the upstream pulley 53. . Therefore, the endless belt 52 has the first and second
Vertical plane P from the right side of roller 18b as shown in the figure.
furthermore, these runs extend along their longitudinal plane P at a small angle in the forward direction illustrated by arrow 21 for reasons that will become clear later on.
O becomes Suehiro. The guide device 15 near the lower end of the transmission housing 68 has two parallel guide members 59;
Guide members 59 support conveyor 52 between them.

Each guide member 59 is provided with a vertically extending V-shaped groove 60, as best shown in FIG. defines a zone with the sides 61a, 61b of the sheath 2'' and engages one of the two longitudinal folds of the wrapper cut from the sheath 2'', designated by 9 in FIGS. 3 and 4. These two vertical folds illustrated in the forward direction 21
Tapers toward each other. This tapering is due to the fact that the two V-shaped grooves 60 become gradually shallower in the forward direction, as is clear from FIG. 3, so that the bottoms 62 of the V-shaped grooves approach each other, As best illustrated in FIG.
becomes progressively wider as the angle it forms increases. Fold line 9
The wrapper 14, driven by a pair of crossbars 57 on two endless belts 52 touching the trailing edge of the first flat cut piece 14 near They are gradually deformed so as to move apart, while the original fold line 8 of the flat tube 2 reappears and begins to widen at the same time as the fold line 9 tapers.
Front vertical plane P. Said inclination of the closely spaced runs of the endless belt 52 against each other causes each wrapper 14 to laterally expand while maintaining the driving engagement between each wrapper 14 and each crossbar 57. A V-shape defined by the guide member 59 so that the wrapper 14 leaving the guide channel as shown in FIG. 2 has a generally polyhedral rear end and a generally square front end as shown in FIG. Select the shape of the groove 60 and the length of the guide passage.

Since the wrapping strips 14 are generally flat when engaged by the guide member 59, the separation of the bottoms of the V-shaped grooves 60 must vary from their upper ends to their lower ends in a ratio of approximately J]:1. . In FIG. 1, a series of articles 40 are illustrated, the articles 40 being in the longitudinal plane P of the sheath.

This ensures that the article moves horizontally, as illustrated by the arrow 27, at an obtuse angle α with the direction of advancement 21 of the wrapper 14. Vertical shaft 67 rotated by an electric motor (not shown)
These items or bottles are conveyed by a suitable drive, shown as having a star axle 66. A star wheel 66 with a circumferential notch accommodating the neck of a bottle 40 passing in close proximity approaches the discharge end of the guide device 15.
Sensing device 28 (which may be of the photoelectric type) generates a pulse that causes stepper motor 19 to step forward to advance sheath 2'' by the length of wrapper 14, thereby bringing such wrapper closer together. When the ejected wrapper meets the incoming bottle, the top of the bottle should be released from the guide path in the direction of the bottle being disposed of. Strike the far edge 14a (FIG. 2). The expanded tip of the wrapper has an internal width somewhat greater than the diameter of the top of the bottle. Fixed but preferably adjustable guide member 42 of the inverted U-ring. has sides 43 that pinch the neck of the advancing bottle as best illustrated in FIG. 6, so that the bottle contacts the wrapper 14 to the desired extent further below the neck, e.g. in a heating chamber. A subsequent heat treatment causes the wrapper to shrink around the neck of the bottle to form a tightly bonded collar.As can be seen, the wrapper is designed to form a wrapper around at least the main portion of the item to be wrapped. The apparatus of the present invention can be used to make large length parcels.

If the sheath fed out from the reel 3 is already made into a certain shape as described above, the rollers 5, 6, 7 and the core are omitted.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a somewhat schematic front view of a device according to the invention for wrapping moving bottles with tubular wrappers; FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of a conveying device within the device of FIG. 1; FIG. is a partial sectional view of the conveyance device taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a package discharged by the conveyance device, and FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view of the conveyance device taken along the line An enlarged perspective view of the working guide member with a V-shaped groove, FIG. 6 is taken along the line ■-■ of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a cutaway cross-sectional view taken along a line. In the figure, 1 is a mounting plate, 2 is a flat tube, 2'' is a sheath, 3 is a reel, 4 is a core, 4a is an upper side edge, 4b is a lower side edge, 5, 6, 7 are guide rollers, 8 is the fold line, 9 is the crease,
10 is a feed roller, 12 is a cutting device, 14 is a wrapping piece, 1
5 is a guide device, 16a, 16b are cylinders, 17 blades, 1
8a and 18b are rollers, 19 is a stepping motor, 28 is a sensing device, 40 is an article, 51 is a conveyance device, 52 is an endless belt, 54 is a downstream pulley, 55, 56 is a shaft, 57 is a horizontal bar, 5
9 is a guide member, 60 is a ■-shaped groove, 61a, 61b are side surfaces, 62 is a bottom, 66 is a star wheel, 67 is a vertical shaft, 68 is a transmission housing, 70 is a gear, 71 is a chain, 72
is a sprocket, 74 is a gear, PO is a vertical plane, and P1 is a horizontal plane.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A source of a flat tube 2 which is a material for a collar, which is folded flat, and a flat tube pulled out from the source are expanded and then folded flat so that the folds overlap each other and are flattened. straightening devices 4 and 6, a pair of feed rollers 10 and 10 that sandwich and move the refolded flat tube 2', and feed roller 1.
A cutting device 12 that cuts the flat tube 2' sent out from 0 and 10 into wrapping pieces 14 of a required length, and a wrapping piece that guides and conveys the wrapping piece 14 cut by the cutting device 12 toward its insertion position. In a device for attaching a heat-shrinkable collar to a moving container (bottle, etc.), the cutting device 12 includes a pair of cylinders 16a, 16b having a blade 17 on at least one of the cylinders 16a. A pair of feed rollers 18a, in which the wrapped piece transfer device transports the wrapped pieces 14 at a higher speed than the feeding speed of the flat tube;
18b, and the fold line 9 of the wrapping piece 14, which is about to expand into a rectangular tube shape due to the restoring force of the fold lines 8, 8 and the fold lines 9, 9.
a guide device 15 having a pair of guide members 59, 59 into which the collar pieces 9 fit and slide, and a pair of endless belts 52, 52 stretched along the transfer path to control the expansion of the collar pieces.
and a conveying device 51 having a horizontal bar 57 attached to the pair of endless belts 52, 52 facing each other at a required interval. 1. A device for attaching a heat-shrinkable collar to a moving container, characterized in that the lower end opening of the container is configured to open toward the upstream side of a passage for movement of inserted objects.