US2862638A - Labelling machines - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 2, 1958 s. E. BANKS 2,862,638

LABEL-LING I MACHINES Filed Sept. 14, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

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9 /O9 /8 0 lQb Inventor SYDNEY ERNEST BANKS Y B Sem/ms 6% Sam/mes Attorneys 2, 1958' 's. BANKS LABELLING' MACHINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Sept. 14, 1955 i Inventor SYDNEY ERNEST BANKS B sgnbzas ttorneys Unlted States Patent ce meme, Dec, 2,

l i 2 the drum then causing the articles to roll along the guide means. 2,862,638 By the use of a transfer pusher that rotates continu- LABELLING MACHINES Sydney E. Banks, Sheffield, England, assignor to Morgan Fairest Limited, Sheflield, England Application September 14, 1955, Serial No. 534,319

Claims priority, application Great Britain September 15, 1954 12 Claims. (Cl. 21654) This invention relates to labelling machines of the type in which bottles or other articles are fed in succession to and rolled against the periphery of a delivery drum to'which the labels are held, gummed-side out, by suction, and particularly to machines in which the labels are previously given their coating of gum from an apertured pick-up member to which the gum is applied and from which the labels are transferred to the drum by a pusher movable through the apertured pick-up member.

The object of the invention is to provide a machine that is particularly suited to labelling articles at a high rate, say body-labelling at the 1200 doz. per hour rate at which Vz-pint beer bottles are received from a filling machine, the labelling machine being compact and robust, and simple as regards its mechanism, to minimise the chance of interruption of its operation at such high rates of working.

According to the present invention, a labelling machine comp'rises a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a rotatable multi-plate pick-up member with apertured plates, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher movable through an apertured plate in such position of rest to detach the label from the plate, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to move the pusher holding the label to bring the ungummed face of the label into close proximity to the drum, and means to control the suction at the pusher and the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

Rotary means may be used to move the transfer pusher from its label-detaching position towards the drum. Advantageously, the movement is one of continuous rotation.

For compactness of construction, which in turn as sists in high speed operation, a label may be presented to the drum by the transfer pusher in a position substantially parallel to the position of the label awaiting detachment from the apertured plate. For this purpose, the pusher may comprise a bar parallel to the axis of orbital rotation and carry a pad containing the suction openings, the pad being rotatable about an axis parallel to the axis of orbital rotation of the bar, means being provided for rotating the pad relatively to the bar to maintain its face parallel to itself.

When the articles to be labelled are of generally cylindrical form, e. g. bottles, rolling of the articles themselves by the drum as labels are applied may be efiected by having the guide means concentric with the drum,

ously, this motionlike that of the drum-may be very fast, and performed by simple driving mechanism. The pick-up member may be of light construction, and readily caused to perform its intermittent movement at a high rate, so that each of a rapid succession of articles meets a label that has been brought to the required position on the drum by simple high-speed devices.

For many purposes, a pick-up member in the form of an open-ended box with apertured sides, say four in;

number, may be used. Thus, for applying body labels to bottles, such a box rotatable about an upright axis,

parallel to that of the delivery drum makes for compactness. The transfer pusher may then rotate about an upright axis. Continuous rotation of such pusher permits it to enter the box through an aperture in one side when the box is at or approaching a position of rest,

and then to leave by the side of the box to which a label has been applied.

The label stack need only have a small reciprocatory motion sufiicient to allow for the part-rotation of the pick-up member or box between each label-presenting movement of the stack, which motion maybe very rapidly performed, as also that of the gumming device.

It is, however, preferable to have more than one assembly of pick-up member, transfer bar, label stack, and gumming device for the one delivery drum, so that such parts of the assembly (particularly those not using continuous rotary motion) may operate at proportionately lower rates with respect to the rate of drum rotation.

Thus, two such assemblies applying labels to dififerent tion opening in the drum phased to be covered by this,

extending part, the label is immediately brought into initial suction-holding position, the holding being completed as further rotation brings the remainder of the label to the periphery of the drum to cover one or more further suction openings.

The label and the drum both moving in the same approximate direction, the leading edge of the label is swept to the periphery of the. drum as it first meetsit to be attracted by suction from the drum. Both the drum and the face of the transfer pusher or pad are advantageously provided with a resilient covering, that on the drum assisting in the rolling of the articles.

Generally cylindrical articles may be held in rolling contact with the drum by a curved arcuate rail or pair of rails mounted concentrically with the drum, prefer-.

ably resiliently in a radial direction, and adjustable if necessary for dilferent diameters of articles. Because the articles are rolled over the stationary rail or rails, the peripheral speed of the drum is twice the speed at which the articles are moved bodily by the drum, and

p the suction apertures on the drum are therefore appropriately spaced at approximately twice the article spacing.

The drum thus have six sets of suction openings. With the pick-up, transfer, and delivery mechanism of the machine;

Figure 4 is an underneath plan of the principal driving mechanism;

Figure 5 is a vertical section, taken on the line 5- 5 of Figure 6, of the transfer mechanism;

Figure 6 is'a-plan'of the driving .and other mechanism ofthetransfer 'mechanism'in relation to the pick upand delivery members;

Figures 7, '8, and '9 are plans of three valve plates of mechanism shown "in Figure 5;

Figure 10 is a vertical section of the delivery member;

Figure 11 is a section taken on the line 11-11 of Figure 10; and

Figure 12 is "a vertical section of a pick-up member and associated "label stack support, together with a label stack.

In Figures 1 and '2, pedestal 1 has side wings 2, 3 for a conveyor run 4, '5 respectively. Bottles .6 to be labelled arrive in upright position on the feed conveyor 4 in packed sequence, and are separated into spaced sequence, as shown'at 7, by means of a worm feed 8 (see also Figure 3) to arrive at regular intervals at a delivery drum 9. The spacing of the worm 8 from the drum 9 is in accordance with the diameter of article to be labelled. Upon release from the feed device 8, each bottle is in rolling contact with the drum 9, as shown at 10, and receives a label '11 from the surface of the drum. The bottles are pressed between the drum 9 and a presser :member 12 having a concave surface 13 concentric with the drum. The member 12 may be interchangeable, for dealing -with articles of different diameters. The labelled bottles, shown at 14, are discharged by the conveyor 5, where an endless belt 15 rolls the bottles along a resilient support 16 to ensure that the labels are well applied to the bottles. For clarity in Figure 1, no attempt is made to show the bottles between those at position 6 and those at position 14.

Labels are supplied from two stacks 17a, 17b (Figures 2-and '3) to corresponding pick-up boxes 18a, 18b, the faces of which are gummed by gumming devices 19a, 19b, and labels are transferred from the boxes 18a, 18b to the delivery drum 9 by transfer mechanism 20. For clarity the stacks 17a, 17b are not shown in position in Figure l. The transfer mechanism 20 has two bar-like transfer pads 21a, 2112, one for each pick-up box 18a, 18b, rotatable at approximately the peripheral speed of the drum 9 continuously about orbits 22a, 22b (Figure 3) in a special manner to be described later with reference to Figure 5.

The feed worm 8 rotates six times for each revolution of .the .delivery drum 9; each pick-up box 18a, 18b rotates by steps through threequarter-turns for each revolution of the drum '9; the label stacks 17a, 17b move to-and-from the pick-up boxes 18a, 18b between each quarter-turn of the latter, the gumming devices 19a, 19b effect gumming of a face of each box between such quarter-turns; and each transfer pad 21a, 21b makes a complete turn of its orbit 22a, 22b for each such quarterturn. Figure 4 shows the interconnected gearing to produce these interrelated movements. The two assemblies, each containing parts 17, 18, 19, 20, are disposed 90 from each other with respect to the axis of the drum 9. Figure 4 being an underneath plan, the locations of the driving members in that figure is reversed from leftto-right as compared with the locations of the corresponding driven members as seen in Figures 2 and 3.

The main drive from a clutch 23 (Figure 4) is taken to a gear box 24, the output shaft 25 of which carries a chain sprocket 26 for driving the worm feed 8. Bevel gears 27 drive a cross-shaft 28, with a chain sprocket 29 for driving the conveyor run 4, 5 and a chain sprocket 30 for driving a sprocket 31a of the gumming device 19a. A bevel pinion 32 .on the shaft 28 drives a crown wheel 33 (see also Figure 10) for driving the delivery drum 9. The wheel 33 drives a bevel pinion 34 on a shaft 35 carrying a bevel pinion 36a meshing with a bevel pinion 37a (see Figure 12) on a shaft 38a. At the bottom of the shaft 38a is the driving member 39a of a Geneva-stop mechanism carrying a pin 46a to engage in turn one of the cruciform slots 41a of the driven member 42a of the mechanism carried at the bottom of a shaft 43a on which the pick-up drum 18a is mounted, for rotation .by quarter-turns.

The shaft 38a (Figure l2)'carries a crank disc 44a to operate by a connecting rod 45a the to-and-fro movements of the label stack 17a with respect to the pick-up box 18a, as will be described in detail later.

A bevel pinion 46 on the shaft'28 (Figure 4) meshes with a bevel pinion 47 on a shaft 48, on which is a chain sprocket 49 to drive through a chain sprocket 50 a crank 44b for the label stack 17b, a further chain sprocket "31b serving for the driving of the label stack 17b with respect to the pick-up box 18b.

A bevel pinion 51 on the shaft 48 meshes with a pinion 52 serving for the drive of the transfer mechanism 20, as will be described later with reference to Figure 5. A further bevel pinion 36b on the shaft 43 meshes with a bevel pinion'37b on a shaft 38b for the driving member 39b of a second Geneva-stop mechanism for the pick-up box 18b, a pin 40b on the member 3% engaging in turn the slots 41b of the driven member 42b carried at the bottom of a shaft 431: on which the pick-up box 18b is mounted.

Figure 5 shows the transfer mechanism 20 mounted on a column 53, up which passes a shaft 54 carrying the pinion 52 at its bottom end. A head 55 secured on the column 53 carries pendant spindles 56a, 56b co-axial with the orbits 22a, 22b of the transfer pads 21a, 211;. On the spindles 56a, 56b are continuously rotatable carriers 57a, 57b with sprockets 58a, 53b chain-driven from sprockets 59a, 59b on the shaft 54, with idler sprockets 60a, 60b (Figure 6). The pads 21a, 21b as seen in Figure 3 are in the approximate positions of the pads as shown in full lines in Figure 3, and the taking of the sectional view of Figure 5 along the angular line 55 of Figure 6 causesthe identical mechanisms associated with the pads to be seen in different positions in Figure 5. If, therefore, any one part of any one of these mechanisms is only to be seen in one such mechanism in that figure,

it is to be understood that the other mechanism contains a corresponding part, but unseen. For simplicity, therefore, the suffixes a and b Will no longer be used in describing the parts associated with pad 21a and pad 21b respectively, although they will continue to be correctly applied in the figures.

Each carrier 57 rotatably supports a shaft 61 parallel to the spindle 56 and 'at a radius corresponding to that of the orbit 22. A pinion 62 on the shaft '56 (and therefore stationary) engages through an idler pinion 63 carried by the carrier 57 a pinion 64 of equal size to itself on the shaft 61. Consequently, although the shaft 61 rotates bodily about the shaft 56, it does not rotate about its own axis. Reference to Figure 3 shows that the pad 21 has a face parallel to one face of the pick-up box 18 through which it leaves the box, and this face there fore remains parallel to itself in all positions of the pad as it moves round the orbit 22, and is substantially parallel to the portions of the periphery of the drum 9 at the nearest approach of the pad to the drum.

Suction is connected to the transfer mechanism by two lines 65, 66, the first supplying a stronger suction than the second ending at ports 67, 68 through a valve plate 69 concentric with the top of the shaft '54 within a cover 70. The under face of the plate 69 has two arcuate portextensio-ns 71, 72 covering 30 of are (See Figure 7). The plate 69 is pressed by springs '73 to a valve plate 74 rotatable With the shaft 54. This contains a small transfer port 75 (see also Figure 8) extending radially out- Figure 5.)

aseaeae wards fromthe radius of port 67 inthe plate 69 to a radius intermediate the radii of the ports 67, 68, to provide a communication with a port 76 through the plate 69 connected by a tube 77 to the transfer pad 21a, and also with a port 78 in a stationary valve plate 79 pressed to the lower side of the plate 74 by springs 80. The port 78 is connected by a tube 81 to the transfer pad 21b. The connection thus provided by the port 75 between the stronger suction line 65 and the transfer pads is brief, because of the short circumferential width of the port 75. The brief connection suffices for strong suction to be applied to each pad just as the pad takes a label from one of the pick-up boxes 18a, 18b.

The rotating valve plate 74 has an arcuate port 82 of a radial width sufiicient to connect the weaker suction port 68 of the plate 69 with the ports 76, 78. The arcuate length of the port 82 is about 90 and sufiices for the holding of 'a label to a pad 21 while the pad moves about 90 away from its pick-up box 18.

.The tubes 77, 81 are connected respectively to passages 83 in the stationary spindles 56, each of which passages ends'in a branch 84 leading to a pipe connection 85 that is rotatable on the spindle 56 and is connected by a bent pipe 86 to a corresponding connection 87 on the shaft 61 of the transfer pad 21. In the shaft 61, a passage 88 leads to a pair of openings 89 in the forward face of the pad 21.

Figures 3 and 12 show that each pick-up box 18 has a vertical aperture 90 centrally of each of its four faces, the

aperture being open at the top. With a box 18 in-a position of rest, as shown in Figure 3, the orbit 22 of its transfer pad 21 carries the pad into the box by an aperture 90 in the face remote from the label stack 17 and out of the box by an aperture in the face that has rotated a quarter-turn past the stack 17. To leave the box 18, the pad 21 makes contact with the middle of the face of a label 11 that extends across the aperture 90 from the gummed side-portions of the box face, and at this moment the stronger suction is applied by the openings 89 in the pad. The movement of the pad away from the box 18 detaches the label 11 and retains the label to itself by the applied suction. The gummed portions of the label 11 extend beyond each side of the face of the pad 21, and the non-gummed face of the label (which face bears the printed matter of the label) is brought towards the face of the delivery drum 9. V

Figure 10 shows the drum 9 supported by a column 91, within which rotates a shaft 92 driven by the crown wheel 33. A wing-nut '93 secures a central top plates 94 of the drum to the shaft 92. The periphery of the drum contains six equal compartments 95 (see also Figure 11) connected by suction passages '96 in an annular top plate 97 to ports 98, in a valve plate 99 secured to the shaft 92. Below the plate 99 is a non-rotating valve plate 100 with a pair of short ports 101 alternating with a pair of long ports 102, together occupying 180. The ports 101 are supplied with stronger suction, one suction line 103 being shown in Figure 10; the ports 102 are supplied with weaker suction by similar lines (not shown). The plate 100 is pressed to the plate 99 by springs 104 (one shown).

,Each compartment 95 has two pairs of upper and lower openings 105 extending through a resilient cover 106. (The pads 21 have a similarly resilient cover 107 As shown in Figure 3, the leading edge of a label 11 on a pad 21 is brought over the leading openings 105 of a compartment 95 of the drum 9. At this mo ment, strong suction is applied via the port 101 then connected to that compartment 95, to ensure that the drum takes over the label as the weaker holding suction at the pad 21 is cut off by operation of the valve in the transfer mechanism 20. On further movement of the pad 21 and the drum 9, the rear end of the label is brought over the other openings 105 of the compartment 95, and weaker holding suction is applied through all four openings 105 Ga to hold the label to the periphery of the drum 9. The; pad 21 continues in its orbit 22 to pick up the next label removed from the stack 17 at the next quarter-turn of the box 18. p

The compartments occupying 60, the pad 21a has applied its label to the drum 9 just before the preceding compartment 95 is in position to receive a label from the pad 21b, but the pad 21b performs a similar operation, to leave two consecutive compartments 95 holding two labels to the drum. The next two compartments similarly receive two labels in turn, so that there are four operative label-holding positions on the drum, and two further holding positions on their way from the last labelling position 10 to the first pad 21a. Since each pick-up and transfer mechanism supplies a label for alternate bottles, those mechanisms operate at the relatively leisurely rate of one-half of the bottlefeed rate.

The leading edge of each label 11 arrives with the drum 9 in phase with the release of a bottle by the worm feed 8, so that as the bottle is rotated by the drum and rolled over the pressure member 12, the gummed face of the label is rolled on to the body of the bottle, and the bottle leaves the drum with the label applied to the bottle, as shown at 108 (Figure 3). Final rolling by the belt 15 (Figure 2) completes the labelling.

The gumming devices 19a, 19b are of the known type, in which pairs of rollers 109 pick up gum from endless belts 110 (Figures 1 and 2) supplied from rollers 111 in a trough 112, each pair of rollers 109 being urged by springs 113 to roll up a face of a pick-up box 18 to each side of the aperture 90. With three pairs of rollers 109 as shown, the rate of rotation of each gumming device is one-third higher than that of a pick-up box 18.

Figure 3 shows detector devices 114 located opposite the worm feed 8, and spaced equally to the spacing of the bottles 7. Each device 114 controls a corresponding solenoid 115 (Figure 12) associated with a label stack 17. So long as there is no interruption in the bottle sequence 7, each solenoid 115 keeps a latch 116 below the level of a catch 117 on a carrier plate 118 for the stack 17, and leaves the plate 118 free to approach the pick-up box 18 under an urge applied by the connecting rod 45 through a spring 119 and a block 120 carried by the plate. If, however, a bottle is missing from the sequence 7, the corresponding solenoid does not withdraw the latch 116 when the plate 118 is advancing from its farthermost movement from the box 18, and the catch 117 engages the latch. The plate 118 being thus restrained (the spring 119 being compressed idly), the stack 17 cannot approach the box 18, and no label is withdrawn from the stack. In this way, a gummed label is not presented to the delivery drum 9 when there is no bottle to pass over the corresponding arc of the drum.

What I claim is:

1. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into c'ontact'with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a rotatable multiplate pick-up member with apertured plates, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher movable in a circular orbit to pass through an apertured plate in such position of rest to detach the label from the plate and to carry the label into proximity with the delivery drum, section openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label addi- 1 tionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bringthe ungummed face of the label tangential to the periphery of the drum, the pusherrnoving at the 7 same speed andin the same direction'as'that'periphery, and means to Control the suction at the pusher and the drum for the drum to takeover the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

'2. Alabelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a rotatable multiplate pick-up member withapertured plates, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pushermovable through an apertured plate in such position of rest to detach the label from the plate, the pusher comprising a bar rotatable in a circular-orbit at the peripheral speed of the delivery drum and a pad on the bar containing the suction'openings and mounted for rotation aboutan axis parallel to the axis of orbital rotation of the bar, means for rotating the pad relatively to the bar to maintain its face parallel to itself during the orbital rotation of the bar, that orbital rotation serving to bring into close tangential proximity to the drum the ungummed face of a label that is kept by the pad in a position substantially parallel to the position of the label awaiting detachment from the apertured plate and to move the label in the same direction as the periphery of the drum, and means to control the suction at the pusher and the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

3. A labelling machine as in claim 2, comprising a stationary gear at the axis of orbital rotation of the bar, a similarly sized gear on the pad, and an idler gear meshing with both gears and rotatable orbitally with the bar to holdthe pad stationary with respect to its own axis.

4. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a rotatable multiplate pick-up member with apertured plates, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher movable in a circular orbit to pass through an apertured plate in such position chest to detach the label from the plate and to carry the label into proximity with the delivery drum, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label additionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bring the ungummed face of the label tangential to the periphery of the drum, the pusher moving at the same speed and in the same direction as that periphery, two suction connections to the openings in the transfer pusher, a valve to put the openings into communication with first one suction supply connection during detaching of the label and then with another and reduced suction supply connection, a suction connection to the'openings in the drum, and a valve controlling that connection, the valves being operable to cut off suction at the pusher and to apply suction to the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

S. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled,means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the-drum, a rotatable multipl'ate picloup member with apertured plates, a vgumming 8 device to apply liquid gum tothe plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a 'gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of theportion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher'movable in a circular orbit to pass through an apertured plate in such position of rest to detach the label from the plate, and to carry the label into proximity with the delivery drum, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label additionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bring the ungummed face of the label tangential to the periphery of the drum, the pusher moving at the same speed and in the same direction as that periphery, two suction connections to the openings in the transfer pusher, a valve to put the openings into communication with first one suction supply connection and then with another and reduced suction supply connection, two suction connections to the openings in the drum, a valve to put the openings into communication with first one suction supply connection and then with another and reduced suction supply connection, the valves being operable to cut ofi suction at the pusher and to apply suction to the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

6. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of generally cylindrical articles to be labelled, means concentric with the drum to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a rotatable multi-plate pick-up member with apertured plates, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher movable in a circular orbit to pass through an apertured plate in such position of rest to detach the label from the plate and to carry the label into proximity with the delivery drum, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label additionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bring the ungummed face of the label tangential to the periphery of the drum, the pusher moving at the same speed and in the same direction as that periphery, and means to control the suction at the pusher and the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled as the article is rolled along the guide means by the delivery drum.

7. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a rotatable multisided pick-up box with apertured sides, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the sides alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up side, means to rotate the pick-up box intermittently to bring a side carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles a transfer pusher movable in a circular path to pass into the pick-up box through one apertured side While the box is at rest and to leave the box through the apertured side carrying the label to detach the label from that side, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label additionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bring the ungummed face of the label tangential to the periphery of the drum and to complete this rotation of the pusher in the interval between detachment of one label and the next, the pusher moving at the same speed and in the same direction as that periphery, and means to control the suction at the pusher and the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

8. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery and rotatable about an upright axis, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a multi-sided pick-up box with apertured sides and rotatable about an upright axis, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the sides alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up side, means to rotate the pick-up box intermittently to bring a side carrying a label to rest near the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher movable in a circular orbit to pass into the pick-up box through one apertured side while the box is at rest and to leave the box through the apertured side carrying the label to detach the label from that side and to carry the label into proximity with the delivery drum, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label additionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bring the ungummed face of the label tangential to the periphery of the drum and to complete this rotation of the pusher between detachment of one label and the next, the pusher moving at the same speed and in the same direction as that periphery, and means to control the suction at the pusher and the drum for the drum to take over the label from the pusher and carry it to and roll it on an article to be labelled.

9. A labelling machine comprising a rotatable delivery drum with suction openings in its periphery, means to feed to the drum a close succession of articles to be labelled, means to guide the articles into contact with a portion of the periphery of the drum, a plurality of assemblie each comprising a rotatable multi-plate pickup member with apertured plates, a gumming device to apply liquid gum to the plates alongside the apertures, a label stack for the application of a label to a gummed pick-up plate, means to rotate the pick-up member intermittently to bring a plate carryinga label to rest near 4 the delivery drum clear of the portion contacted by the articles, a transfer pusher movable in a circular orbit to pass through an apertured plate in such position of rest to detach the label from the plate and to carry the label into proximity with one part of the delivery drum, suction openings in the pusher to hold the detached label, means to rotate the pusher holding the label additionally about an axis parallel to the axis of its circular orbit to bring the ungummed face of the label tangential to that part of the drum, the pusher moving at the same speed and in the same direction as that periphery, means to operate the assemblies at proportionally lower rates with respect to the rate of drum rotation, and means to control the suction at the pushers of each assembly and at appropriate openings in the drum for the drum to take over labels from each assembly in spaced positions on the drum and roll them on successive articles to be labelled.

10. A labelling machine as in claim 9 wherein there are two assemblies of pick-up member, transfer pusher, label stack, and gumming device, with the operating means operating the assemblies at half-rate with respect to the rate of drum rotation.

11. A labelling machine as in claim 10, wherein the two pushers are movable towards positions of the periphery of the drum disposed about 90 from each other with respect to the drum axis.

12. A labelling machine as in claim 10, wherein the drum has six sets of suction openings, and each pickup member is a four-sided box with apertured sides, rotatable by three quarter-turns for each rotation of the drum, with each pusher rotatable through a complete circular orbit for each quarter turn of its associated pickup box.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,110,814 Parsons Mar. 8, 1938 2,525,741 Von Hofe Oct. 10, 1951 2,613,007 Von Hofe Oct. 7, 1952 2,723,042 Banks Nov. 8, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 236,019 Great Britain July 2, 1925 701,397 Great Britain Dec. 23, 1953'

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