US1465402A - Positioning and feeding mechanism for confection-wrapping machines - Google Patents

Description

J. P. REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES F l y 1917 8 Sheets-Sheet 1 Imam/tom Aug. 21., 1923. 1,465,402?- J. P REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES Filed May 5. 1917 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 Imam Jasapkkroyifamizzym J. P. REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES 8 Sheets$heet 3 0 O h 10 mi M -W- a 1 |n |uunufl l lflunfinuu l h r rflflrh N n O, n n H n m m m u m Mum G fl fl nfl dunu u.. 1 nfl r m.fl nmu|mr| H r m I. lmmih n u kll .1 Q1 1t 0 (O art art Aug.21,1923. N I 1,465402 1 J. .P. REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM-FOR CONFECTIO N WRAPPING NACHINES Filed May 3 1917 8 Sheets-Sheet 4 Imw-wtor M W n w m m t e V/ 8 0 r w w w MW mm m h s o/JV J a w x: v w

Aug. '21, 1923.

POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES Aug. 21,1923. 1,465,402

J. P. REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES Filed May 5, 1917 8 Sheets-Sheet 6 .FIG. m.

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Aug. 21, 1923. 1,465,402

, J. P. REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES Filed May 1917 8 Sheets-Sheet 7 FIG? K 8 SheetsSheet 8 Aug. 21, 1923,

REMINGTON POSITIONING AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CONFECTION WRAPPING MACHINES- Filed May 5 19 7 all) Patented Aug. 21, I923.

@N'ETED? STATES messes rarest @EEFHCE.

JOSEPH PERCY REMINGTON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

-POSI'IIONING :AND FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CDNFEGTION-VTR-APPING IiIACHINES.

epplication filed May a,

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Josnrrr Pnncr R113:- INGTON, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Positioning and Feeding Mechanism for ConfectionJVrapping Machines, whereof the following is a specifica tion, reference being had to the accompany.- ing drawings.

, The invention relates to mechanism whereby confections of a generally conical form are properly set up, aligned, and fed to wrapping mechanism to be individually wrapped in tin foil or similar envelopment. IVhile my invention is especially'adapted to handling such chocolate confections, it is to be understood that the invention is not thus limited, but covers the similar setting up, aligning and feeding of similar articles.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. I, is a plan view of a wrapping machine conveniently illustrating the adaptation of invention thereto. I

Fig. II, is a side elevation of the same.

Fig. III, shows a partial plan view of the left hand end of themachine.

Fig. IV, is a similar view of the right hand end of the machine,

Fig. V, is a longitudinal sectional view through the portion of the machine shown in Fig. III, taken on the line V-V in Fig. III.

Fig. VI, is a detail of the mechanism for intermittently operating the main feed carrier. V

.F VII, illustrates a sectional view through the discharge end of the supply hopper and. the means for regulating the flow of the articles to be wrapped.

Fig. VIII, is a longitudinal sectional view through the portion of the machine comprehended in F ig. IV as designated on the said figure by the arrows VIII- -VIII.

F IX. is a partial plan section, along the line IX-IX in Fig. VIII.

Fig. X, is a detail plan on an enlarged scale showing the terminal ends of the run ways and the telling mechanism therefor.

Fig. XI, represents a section along the line XI-XI inpFig; X.

'Figs. XII, and XIII, are detail perspective views of the slip feeds.

Fig. XIV. 's a similar view of one of the tilting devices associated with the runways.

1917. Serial No. 166,134.

V Figs. XV, XVI, XVII, and XVIII, are detail views of one of the runways illustrat ing the method of guidance and also the ejection of improperly placed confections.

Figs. XIX and XX, illustrate the operation of the tilting device shown in detail in XIV In the drawings, the hopper 1, which is kept full of confections, is provided at its bottom with an inclined chute 2, leading to an outlet slot protected by a gate 3, which may be suitably adjusted to vary the height of the outlet slot, and consequently the rate at which confections will be fed by gravity from the hopper. Directly beneath this outlet slot, is an endlessftraveling carrier 4, running on rollers 5, and 6, of which the latter is driven by the worm gear 7, (see Fig. V), actuated bv the belt 8, driven by a pulley geared to the main shaft 9, which is driven by a worm gear from a shaft 25. which. is in turn actuated from the motor shaft 10.. Supplemental vertical endless bands 11, 11, protect the edges of the carrier. 4, and travel with it, being driven by the bevel gears 12, (see Fig. III).

By the operation of the parts thus described, a continuous supply of confections passes from the hopper on to the endless carrier, and is by it discharged promiscuously upon the inclined chute 13. This chute has small perforations 14:, formed in 'it, which permit any crumbs or foreign sub stances which may be fed from the hopper, to be discharged at this point by way of the chute 15, (Fig. V). I

Beneath the discharge end of the inclined chute 13, is the basing or setting up table 16, over the surface of which runs the endless carrier 17. tion of this tableis that while the whole table reciprocates longitudinally in relation to. the machine, the receiving end of it is given a coincident lateral motion. At the same time the endless carrier 1.7, is given intermittent forward motion. The carrier 17 passes around rollers 18, and 19, which rest in bearings carried by the frame of the table. Of this frame, one cross-piece 20, nearest thereceiving end, is pivotedupon a crank 21, set upon vertical shaft 22, driven by the bevel gear 23, from a shaft 24, actuated bv a belt from the countersha-ft 25, by which the main shaft is.. driven. The other cross-piece 26, of the frame of the table, is

The peculiarity of the mo- 9 surface of thesetting up table has a com-.

pound motion, consisting a longitudinal reciprocation along with the whole table, a lateral reciproca"'on at the receiving end only of the table, and an intermittent drive operating only as the table moves forward.

This combination of motions effects apeculiar joggling of the confections, which have been fed upon it, of such intensity as to tumble them about, the joggling motion being strong enough to constantly right or set uponthe flat end, confections resting upon their side, although not strong enough to overturn confe'ctions which have been righted. Gnejof the reasons why this action takes place is that an article of generally conical form when resting onits conical surface adds the momentum of its rotary motion to the motion of the j'oggling surface upon which it rests, while when resting. on its base no such momentum exists. As a result of the travel of; the confections from one end tothe other of this settingnp table, nearly all of the confections before reaching the discharge end have been right'ed or set upright.

Touching the upper surface of the carrier 17, is a brush 33,'which' derives its rotation from the motion of the carrier. It is useful to spread or" distribute the confection more evenly across the widthof the carrier '17, and to limit any momentarily to'o rapid feeding? of the confections down the chute 13.

To further assist the jo'gglingmot-ion of the surface of. the setting up table, in setting up the confections, a; series of guiding surfaces 34, are mounted just above. the surface of. the carrier in fixed relation to the framework of the machine, and in positions inclined to the long aXis of the table, whereby the joggling motion of the carrier constantly drives the confections which rest upon it against these guiding surfaces which thus assist in righting the confections and also arrange them in. lanes running lengthwise of the table. Subsequent'edge guides push confections toward the entrance of the runways, which will shortly be described.

The endless carrier 17, is maintained properly taut by the tension roller 36, m'ounted on the hell crank lever 37, and

eapableof being adjusted by the turn buckle 38, as clearly seen in .Fig. V.

Should the mechanisms Which have been described, be feeding confections more rapidly than the'runway's can receive them,

' and returned or should oneor 'more runways become clogged, any surplus confections rejected by V the filled runways pass toward the sides of the table and are dischargedby the carrier upon the chute 39', whe-ncesuch overplus can be collected in a receptacle/l0, (Fig. Hi), to the hopper fromtimeto time.

From this point the confections are distributed among a series of parallel runways each leading to its own wrapping mechanism. In the machine illustrated in the drawings, four such runways are shown, but it will be understood that the'number may i'ary as may be found convenient.

The carrier 17, discharges by way of an inclined chute a1. Along this chute and overhanging the discl'ia-rge end of the carrier are the guide strips 42, spa-ced'to form entrances to the runways and partitions between them. Below the discharge end of the chute 411-, is another series of guiding walls 43, which accomplish a narrowing of the runways. Corresponding to each of these runways and forming a travelling bot tom therefor is an endless carrier band as, mounted at one end upon a pulley on the shaft 45, and at the other end. by similar pulley on a shaft 4E6. The shaft is supported upon levers 47 counter-weighted by the weight 48, whereby similar and adjustable tension is put upon. all of the endless bands. The shaft a6, is driven by ageared connection with the shaft 91, (see Fig, 11), which is involved in a sprocketdrive from the shaft 92. i

The endless bands pass between the guiding wallst3, and. then "across an opening 49, wherethe runways and the bands lack any side protection, and the bands are subjected to tilting means. Ektending across this opening immediately beneath the bands is a rock shaft 50, to the operativecrank of which is pivoted a link 51, driven by a crank on the end of the shaft. 46. This-rock shaft 50,. carries tilting collars 52, set one beneath each band. Qne of these is clear y shown in perspective in Fig. XIlV. It is provided with two inclined surfaces, one sloping in one direction, and the other in the other, and so related to each other that as the shaft rocks, these inclined surfaces successivelypush against the lower side of each endless band, and tilt it first to one side and then to the other. of these surfaces as shown in Figs. XIX and XX, isnot sufiicientf to cause confections resting upright thereon, to tumble off the band, but if confections have reached The inclination vide a meansof eliminating an excess of confections since such excess cannot remain on the belts where there are no sides to the channels,

For the remainderof its oper tive travel, each endless band passes along a metal channel 53. Initially, this channel has low edges, as shown in Fig. XVI, but first one and then the other edge is turned partway over, asillustrated in Figs. XVII and XVIII, so that during the latter partof its travel, the

band draws the confections through a partially closed channeled runway of such shape that the confections are confined in their lateral movement, so that they cannot stagger enough to lock, and in their vertical movement so that they cannot capsize. The edges of thechannel 53 at the beginning of their inturned portions are inclined as shown in XV, so that any confections which by any possibility passthe setting up table l6 and the tiltin mechanism illustrated in Figs. XIX and A X on their sides, as shown in Fig; XV, are naturally rejected and thrown sidewise from the channel. This tends especially to eliminate misshapen or abnormal shaped confections, since confections of perfectly normal shapes will not 3 usually pass the tilting mechanism unless resting on their bases.

In dropped goods, notwithstanding the variations'in shape to which they are subject, there is naturally a plane at a determinable height above the base at which all the goods have a common cross-section, and the channel 53, is so shaped that the line of contact of the channel sides, touches the sides of the confections in this plane. Below this plane, on the other hand, the shape and dimensions of the channel 53 enable it to accommodate any upright confections whose forms are not so far beyond the normal range of variation as must prevent their reaching this portion of the channel.

As the confections pass along the runways, they are subject to inspection and the rejection of a y imperfect or misshaped confections may be thus manually facilitated if desired.

A' clutch on the shaft 25, is operated by the lever 62, (see I), the end of which is connected bya pin and slot connection with the transverse shifting rod 63, by the movement of which the entire machine can be quickly started or stopped bythe operator from a point where the lines of travelinsz" confections are subjectto inspection.

The channels 58, lead each toa point' which is in juxtaposition to the plungers by which the wrapping operation is effected, as will be hereafter described. The end ofeach. channel is protected by a gate 55, forming part of the slip feed 56, by which, when the gate is opened, the endmost confection is received and tolled off to one side, and deposited upon the envelopmcnt table, in proper position. The motion of these slip feeds and the gates which they carry, is a transverse motion, which is accomplished by reciprocation of a slide bar 57, carrying spring clips 54, to which the slip feeds are attached. This slide bar 57, (see Fig. XI), is pivotally attached at one end to a pivoted lever 58, spring pressed against a cam 59,

by the rotation of which the slide bar is reciprocated to effect the intermittent opening of the terminal gate of each channel, and the feeding of the endmost confection to the envelopinent table for wrapping, as hereinafter described.

The spring clips are slidably set upon the slide bar 57, subject to the adjustable pressure of flat springs interposed between the side of the spring clip and the opposing side of the slide bar, (see X to XIII). This permits the slip feed to remain stationary, notwithstanding the reciprocation of the slide bar, in the contingency that a confection is but partially fed from the runway channel as shown in Fig. X. Fixed stops 60, and 61, put a proper limit to the play of the spring clips upon the slide-bar.

The wrapping mechanism herein shown forms the subject matter of an application filed by me under date of December a, 1915, Serial No. 65006, and will, therefore, not be described in detail. A general explanation of the same will, however, facilitate the understanding of the prefererd type of wrapping mechanism with which .the present invention may be successfully associated.

The wrapping mechanism is substantially confined within a superstructure 70, comprised by the side frames of the machine (see Figs. I, II, IV, VIII and IX). The tin foil is drawn from a supply roll 71, and through the instrumentality of a guide roll 72, directed to a pair of cooperative cutting rolls 78, and 7 4, whereby the web is divided into a plurality of ribbons corresponding in number to that of the channels 53. These ribbons are thereafter passed between the feed rolls 75, and 76, whereby they are horizontally cut into squares of the required size for wrapping the individual confections.

If preferred, the web may be supplied with paper stickers which ultimately serve as a lining for the tin foil wrapper. These are provided by a mechanism comprehensively indicated at 77, after the under face of the foil has been supplied with daubs of adhesive by the mechanism 78, for this purpose. After severance by the rollers 75, and 76,

i the squares cut from the foil are directed by rectly over these apertures and the con-fec- V tions thereafter properly delivered and centered upon these squares by means ofthe slip in feeds of the feeding mechanism already described. A series of plungers 86, respectively aligned with the lobed apertures of the envelopment table, subsequently force the con- 1 fections together with the foil through the said apertures, while the spring pressed plates yield contemporaneously and in the further progress of the confections, serve to facilitate the envelop-ment of the same.

The confections are deposited by means of the plungers, upon a twisting table 87, which comprises a series of paired bars 88, and 89, whereby the wrappers are finally twisted aboutthe confections and delivered to the discharge chute 90.

The several devices above described are all geared or otherwise co-ordinated with the horizontal shaft 9, so as to be operative in proper timed relation with each other, and also with the feeding and aligning meehanism.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim:

1. In a machine of the class described, means for setting upright promiscuouslyfed generally conical objects, which comprise a moving surface uponwhi'ch the objects are fed, and means for imparting to said surface a juggling motion of such intensity as to be capable of. settingup on its to base a conical object lying on its side, but not of suflicient intensity to overturn. such a conical object standing on its base.

2. In a machine of the class described,

means for setting upright promiscuously fed generally conical objects, which comprise a moving surface, and a fixed guiding surface in juxtaposition to the moving sun face, and means for imparting intermittentmotion to the moving surface, whereby objects resting upon it are thrown against the fixed surface, the intensity of the motion of the moving surface being such that said objects if resting on their conical surface are thrown against the fixed surface with sufficient force to set them upon their base,

but not with sufficient force to effect an overturning of such objects if standing upon their base.

8. In a: machine of the, classy described, a

69 setting up table with an endless" carrier passing longitudinally over its face, means for effecting lateral reciprocation of a part of said table, and guiding surfaces held in fixed relation above the moving surface of said table, andso close thereto that objects resting uponthe surface of the table are carried into contact therewith by the motion thereof.

l. In a machine of the class described, feeding and setting up means comprising 7 a table, the surface of which is given a jolting motion, whereby conicalobjeets if resting on their periphery are set upon their base, in combination with. means whereby promiscuously-fed conical objects are; carried over the surface of said table.

5. In a machine of the class described, feedingand setting up means comprising. a table pivotally supported at one end upon a rotating crank and at the other end upon a sliding pivot, with means for effecting the continuous travel of objects from one end of ,the table to the other.

6. In; a. machine of the class described, a setting up table,- provided. with means for setting conical objects on. their base, means for effecting the travel of such objects across the surface of. the table, during the setting up operation, means for; continuously feeding promisouo'usly-fed objects to; the receiving end of the table, and means whereby said objects having been set up during their travel across the table, are fed to one of several similar runways.

7. In a machine of the class described, a as setting up table to which confections are fed promiscuously and there setup, a. plurality of parallel runways leading each. to its own wrapping mechanism, and means for feeding confections from. the setting up-table to; the; entrance of. each runway.

8. In a machine of the class described, a setting up table to which confections are fed promiscuously and there set up, a plurality of. parallel runways leading. each to its. own wrapping mechanism, means for distributing confections from thesetting up table among the runways, and means whereby the setting up table disposes of any surplus confections. after the runways are filled. V

9. In a machine ofthe classdescribed,a runway for dropped. confections of variable form but all having a. plane of. common, dimension at the same height comprising a channel with overhanging sides affording 11 ample space for'accommodating normal variations of form in the portions of the con fections below their natural plane of common dimension, but at said plane confining the confections so narrowly as to prevent loclring'or capsizing.

10. The method of handling or feeding dropped confections of variable form. but all having a. plane of common dimension at thesame height which consists in propelling 1 them on their natural bases while closely confinedan-d guided at their natural plane of common dimension only.

.11. In amachineofjthe class described, a runway, means for feeding a:- single line of runway, a slip feed held thereon subject to spring pressure, and a gate for the runway forming part of the slip feed. 7

12. In a machine of the class described, a runway, means for feeding confections along the runway, and means for tolling oi the endconfection, comprising a slide bar reciprocating across the end of the runway, a slip feed carried thereby and moving across the exit of the runway, and a gate attached to the slip feed whereby after one confection has been tolled off the runway is closed until the return of the slip feed opens it.

13. In a machine of the class described, a runway, means for feeding a single line of confections along the runwa and means for feeding confections, one at a time, laterally from the end of the runway comprising a confection engaging means operating transversely to the end of the runway, a positive operating means therefore and a slip con nection between the confection engaging means and the operating means to permitthe confection engaging means to remain stationary in the event that a confection is but partially fed fromthe runway, and a gate for the runway cooperating with said eed.

14. The combination of a setting-up table for setting dropped confections on their bases, and runways receiving confections from said table having channel portions whereby upright confections are confined and guided to wrapping means in such wise that they cannot lock or capsize.

15. The combination of a setting-up table whereon dropped confections are set upon their bases, with means for causing the confections to travel to one end thereof; runways receiving confections from said table having travelling bottoms for conveying the confections and also having guide channel portions whereby upright confections are confined and guided only at their plane of common dimension, in suchwise as to prevent locking or capsizing thereof; and means at the ends of the channels for toll ing off upright confections laterally therefrom, one at a time, to corresponding wrapping means.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- Vania, this 26th day of April 1917.

JOSEPH PERCY REMINGTON.

Witnesses:

JAMES H. BELL, E. L. FULLERTON.

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