US1864479A - Means for forming cardboard and similar cartons or containers - Google Patents

Description

June 21, 1932.

H. M. WARE MEANS FOR FORMING CARDBOARD AND SIMILAR CARTONS OR CONTAINERS Filed Jan. 28, 1930 (fwwzr; #021- MW Patented June 21, 1932 Umrao STATES PATENT OFFICE HERBERT AGLEAN W RE; on sou'rn oRoYnoN, ENGLAND, AssIGNoR TO Asso- CIATEID ICE & DAIRIES LIMITED, F MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, A CORPORATION or GREAT BRITAIN I MEANS FOR FORMING CARDBOARD-AND SIMILAR CARTONS OR CONTAINERS Application filed January 28, 1930, Seria1No;;4;24,( )43,and in Great Britain February 11,1929.

My invention has referencetomachines or appliances for the production of tubular an; ticles such as the bodies of cardboard or simi;

lar cartons for containing milk and other liquids, bya method that is known per se,-and

involves the use of a mandril or former corresponding to the shape of thetube to be made, and of a tool comprisinga system of jaws or grips which, by and during a movement of the said tool relatively to the .mandril wrap container-bodies with glued lap joints is described in which there are a number of forming mandrils arranged upon an intermittently-rotating turret and blanks are mechani cally fed one at a time from the bottom of a magazine or hopper, to one. ofthe mandrils and an underside edge of the said blank'is mechanically served with liquid glue during the feed movement. Each of the mandrils has associated with it, a clamp bar for applying pressure to the lap joint produced by the action of the wrapping tools and mechanism is employed to maintain that pressure whilst the mandril turret is being rotated, through a number of steps, towards another part of the machine where a bottom is inserted into the formed and jointed body; The saidspecifi cation states that the purpose of so maintaining pressure on the joint, anddelaying the presentation of each body to thebottoming mechanism, is to give the glue of the, joint time to thoroughly dry before therj'ointing pressure is relieved. I V

In any machine such as that above referred to that is designed to mechanically feed blanks from a hopper or the like and to apply liquid adhesive to an edge of the blank during such feed, the problem of thoroughly drying the adhesive before jointing pressure. is relieved, must involve either considerable complication in the structure of the machine or the loss of considerable time in drying the adhesive under pressure, and a corresponding slow production rate, but the present invention proposes todeal with the drying prob.

lem by a machine that enables the rapid production of lap-jointed container bodies from blanks that have been gummed, and the gum allowed to sufliciently dry, or become tacky, before being'fed into the machine, so that only the application of a momentary pressure is needed to make a sound and permanent joint. I The invention also proposes to provide a simple vand relatively inexpensive machine for producing lap-jointed container-bodies which is capable of being easily operated by persons, such as dairymen or the like, possessing no special mechanical skill or knowledge, and, which will perform the whole sequence of the operations involved in the making of lap-jointed container-bodies under the control of a single starting and stopping pedal or lever, by the appropriate manipulation of which the operative or attendant is enabled to regulate or determine the time over which pressureis applied to the joint overlap to suit the nature or condition of the gum or adhesive.

- In the machine or appliance which consti tutes the said invention, a single stationary mandril or former is associated with trays-or equivalent expedients adapted so to locate a hand-fed blank (one edge of which has previouslyfbeen gummed or served with adhesive) that, on the said blank being wrapped upon the mandril by the action of a wrapping tool of the spring-jaw type, its gummed edge is constrained to over-lap un-gummed edge preliminary to .thecompletion of the joint by pressure. v i

' The machine also comprises means for clamping the blank to the mandril whilst the wrapping tools are in motion, and in the preferred construction, the moving tools for performing the blank-clamping, wrapping and jointing operations are brought into and taken out of action in the prescribed sequence by pneumatically: or hydraulicallyoperated mechanism adapted to be controlled by a single stop and start pedal or lever so that one operator may readily attend both to the feeding of the blanks and the removal of the finished tubes or bodies and in addition to being able to regulate or determine the duration of the pressure on the joint overlap.

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing shows a sectional elevation and H Figure 2 a front view of a combined bodyforming and j oint-sealing machine constructed in accordance with an application of my invention and adapted for the production of lap-jointed conoidal carton-bodies in which the making of the joint between overlapping edges of the material is provided for the gumming of one of the said edges before theblank is introduced into the machine. I

In this machine, the blank-gripping, bodyforming, and joint-sealing tools are successively brought into operation by pneumati Cally or hydraulically-actuated mechanism under the control of a edal which is adapted to be worked by the operative who also at= tends to the feeding of the body blanks into the machine and the removal of the finished bodies. 7

The said machine comprises a rigid framemember or pedestal a carrying a conoidal mandril Z) which constitutes the fixed element of the body-forming and joint-sealing tools and has its smaller end resented to the front to enable withdrawal of the finished bodies, and this mandril is associated with a blankgripping bar or lever c, with a blank-wrap ping tool (l, and with a joint sealing res'sure bare, all of which arepower operate The wrapping tool d is mounted on a reciprocating plunger (2 suitably guided in the frame and adapted to be lifted by the power displacement of a ram] which works in a power cylinder 7" located at the base of the machine and is controlled by a valve 9 whose piston g is connected directly with a foot pedal 72.. Return movement of the wrapping tool is provided for by a system of springs such as e 7 The joint-sealing pressure bar (which may be heated by electrical or other agen y) is carried by a suitably-guided plunger e in a plane parallel with the centre-line of the mandril and is adapted tobe depressed by the ram e of a power-cylinder e which is arranged at the head of the machine and has the piston e of its control valve interconnected with the ram 7 of the lower power-cylinder f by a rod 6 which is coupled to a pair of ed b a forked levers e 6 adapted to be trip projection f fixed to the ram e va ve chambers pertaining to the upper and lower cylinders are associated with a system of power-pipes and exhaust pipes as shown and springs such as e are provided for liiting the upper ram and returning the sealing bar to its normal position after the power has been out off from the u per cylinder at the end of each cycle of operations.

The blank-gripping bar 0 is arranged below the mandril and in the plane of the mandril centre-line and is interconnected with the ram fby linking the same to a lever i having arollered end. 2' adapted to contact with the face of the wrapping-tool plunger 611 which is formed with a cam at d whereby, at the commencement of each working stroke of the min f, the lever i is tripped and the grip-' ping bar brought into action in advance of thelefiective movement of the body-wrapping too r The moving wrapping tool consists of a series of pairs of arcuate spring jaws or limbs (i arranged to roduce a row of suitably-spaced circular ips or grips of differing diameters adapted respectively to engage with and circumferentially conform to different parts of the fixed mandril b. The shanks dof the spring jaws are fi'x'edto the plunger d, but their other and free ends are extended into outwardly inclined tongues d which, as the tool is lifted by the ram f, eo-act with the stationary mandril for opening or expanding the jaws as hereinafter explained in the description of the operation of the machine. The free ends of the jaws normally are separated suflicientl'y to provide clearance below the mandril for the blank-gripping tool a to operate in.

Trays j, j, are fixed to the frame below and on opposite sides of the mandril for supporting the body blanks in appropriate relation to the said mandril and to the moving blank-gripping and wrapping tool at the commencement of the operation. The gripping tool 0 operates in the space between the inner edges of the trays.

At the commencement of each sequence of operations, the various moving parts of the machine occupy the positions shown in the drawings and the operator places a blank (one e go of which has previously been gammed on the opposite side) upon the locating trays and between the blank-gripping tool 0 and the fixed mandril b. Depression of the eontrohpedal operates the valveiston g for admitting fluid pressure to the ower power-cylinder f and starting the working stroke of the ram f, the upper cylinder being meanwhile cut off from power. The cam d on the plunger 03 immediately acts on the lever z, and so displaces the bar 0 as to enact the initial gripping of the middle of the blank between the said tool 0 and the underside of the Inandril b, and thereafter maintains such gri until the Wrapping tool 4 is efl'ective for c ipping the blank around the mandril and preventing dislocation of the material in relation to the joint-sealing tool.

The continued lift of the ram and plunger 7, (i brings the spring jaws of the wrapping tool into operation for starting the wrapping of the blank around the mandril and as their tongue extensions (1 encounter the resistance of the mandril, the said jaws are opened out or expanded until they have been lifted past the maximum diameter of the said mandril, whereupon the jaws automatically contract or close to complete the wrapping of the blank tube-wise around the mandril and to make the ungummed edge on one side of the blank over-lap the gummed edge on the other side in a plane below the joint-sealing tool 6. The spring jaws then circumferentially grip the material and preserve its tubular formation whilst the joint is being pressure-sealed.

As soon as the tool d is gripping the tube on the mandril, the trip f on the plunger d acts upon the lever e which so shifts the control-valve 6* of the upper power cylinder as to admit fluid pressure to the latter and bring about depression of the sealing tool 6 which compresses the gummed joint of the formed tube between itself and the mandril, and may at the same time apply heat to the joint. At this stage, and after sufficient pressure has been applied properly to seal the joint, the operator releases the foot-pedal which, under the action of its return spring, shifts the valve g of the lower power cylinder to place the latter in connection with exhaust and allow the plunger d and wrapping tool d to be retracted by their return-springs, whilst on completion of the return stroke of the said plunger, the trips 7 act upon the lever e to shift the valve 6 of the upper cylinder for placing the said cylinder in connection with exhaust. That is to say, the power remains on the upper cylinder during the. whole of the retractive stroke of the tool 61 so that the pressure of the tool e on the oint side of the tube is maintained, and the said tube is definitely clamped to the mandril until the wrapping-tool jaws have completely disengaged, which prevents the finished tube being dragged off the mandril, or being.

otherwise dislocated, by the friction of the disengaging wrapping jaws. As soon, however, as the jaws are retracted clear of the mandril the cutting off of the upper-cylinder power by the trip gear allows the tool 6 to be lifted and at or about the same time, the cam 03 on the plunger d permits the gripping bar a to drop through the clearance between the ends of the wrapping jaws and allow the finished tube to be withdrawn from the mandril.

It is obvious that by suitably modifying the shapes of the mandril and wrapping-tool jaws, a machine such as above described may be adapted for producing cylindrical cartonbodies and tubes, and that given a suificiently heated joint sealing tool, it may be used for making or/and sealing joints between the over-lapping edges of waxed or similarlytreated material.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A machine for producing lap-jointed tubes, such as carton bodies from blanks, the sealing edges of which have been ummed previously to the blanks being fed y hand to the machine, comprising a stationary man dril or former corresponding to the shape of the carton to be made, a tray element 1n which the blank for forming a carton is initially placed by hand for forming around the mandril, said trayelement being asymetrically arranged relatively to the mandril so as to ensure that the edges of the blank overlap in correct relationship, a pivoted bar which is operable to hold the blank in contact with the underside of the mandril, a series of spring jaws which are operable to wrap the so-gripped blank around the mandril and cause the edges of the blank to overlap each other and a member disposed on the upper side of the mandril which is operable to seal the oint.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 where in said tray element comprises laterally separated parts and the said spring jaws and the said pivoted member are arranged to operate within the clearance between such parts.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said spring jaws and the said member for sealing the joint of the formed blank are slidably mounted on the machine frame and fluid pressure means are provided and adapted to operatethese parts in their described sequence, said fluid pressure means being under the control of a foot pedal or lever.

4. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the spring jaws are slidably mounted on the machine frame and means are associated with means for moving said spring jaws into and out of operative association with the mandril adapted to operate the said pivoted blank clamping member at the beginning and end of each sequence of said movements of the spring jaws.

In witness whereof I afiix my signature.

HERBERT MACLEAN WARE.

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