US3859773A

US3859773A - Means for applying an article carrier to a plurality of articles

Info

Publication number: US3859773A
Application number: US414032A
Authority: US
Inventors: Rodney K Calvert; Alton J Fishback
Original assignee: Mead Corp
Current assignee: Mead Corp
Priority date: 1973-11-09
Filing date: 1973-11-09
Publication date: 1975-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 1992-01-14
Also published as: FR2250675B1; PH11480A; AU476989B2; NL7413673A; NL173729C; DE2452420A1; CA1020731A; ES431798A1; DK584774A; DK143743C; JPS5078493A; DK143743B; AU7449674A; IT1023180B; JPS5548008B2; NL173729B; FR2250675A1; ZA746571B; DE2452420C2; BE822017A

Abstract

An article carrier having a plurality of apertures therein is applied to a plurality of articles in such manner that a part of each article is enveloped within one of the apertures by a machine which includes conveyor means for moving a group of articles arranged in side by side relationship into a loading station, a vertically reciprocable plunger disposed above the loading station, a carrier holder normally supported by said plunger and having at least one cavity therein for receiving and holding a carrier in substantially fixed relation relative to the holder, and article positioning means movable with said holder for engaging the articles at the loading station so as to align each article with an aperture in the carrier so that subsequent downward movement of said plunger drives the carrier out of said cavity downwardly to cause each article to be enveloped within one aperture in the holder.

Description

[ Jan. 14, 1975 United States Patent Calvert et a1.

3,680,279 3/1972 Picq 53/26 MEANS FOR APPLYING AN ARTICLE CARRIER TO A PLURALITY 0F ARTICLES [75] Inventors: Rodney K. Calvert oo y Primary Examiner-Robert L. Spruill Alton J. Fishback Austen, both of Attorney, Agent, or Fzrm Walter M. Rodgers Ga. [57] ABSTRACT An article carrier having a plurality of apertures [73] Assignee: The Mead Corporation, Dayton,

Ohio

therein is applied to a plurality of articles in such man- [22] Filed: N0 9, 1973 ner that a part of each article is enveloped within one of the apertures by a machine which includes con- PP No.1 414,032 veyor means for moving a group of articles arranged in side by side relationship into a loading station, a vertically reciprocable plunger disposed above the [52] 1.1.8. 53/48, 53/49, 53/196 B6513 21/00, B65b 27/04 loading station, a carrier holder normally supported by said plunger and having at least one cavity therein for [51] Int. [58] Field of Search.............

receiving and holding a carrier in substantially fixed 53/3 relation relative to the holder, and article positioning [56] References Cited means movable with said holder for engaging the arti- UNITED STATES PATENTS cles at the loading station so as to align each article with an aperture in the carrier so that subsequent downward movement of said plunger drives the carrier out of said cavity downwardly to cause each article to be enveloped within one aperture in the holder.

7 Claims, 14 Drawing Figures Reifsnyder..........,...........

PATENTED JAN 1 4 i975 SHEH 30F PATENTEDJAK14'BY5, 3,859,173

SHEET 8 OF 6 aw f) MEANS FOR APPLYING AN ARTICLE CARRIER TO A PLURALITY OF ARTICLES Article carriers are known which are provided with apertures or with slots about their edges and which are arranged so that an article is enveloped within an aperture or slot and such carriers may be used to package primary packages such as flanged cans as well as bottles having tapered neck portions and having flanges at their upper ends. One arrangement for packaging bottles in a carrier having slots or sockets disposed about its edges is disclosed and claimed in US. Pat. No. 2,936,558. The arrangement disclosed in this patent is not operable for use in conjunction with carriers having apertures therein as distinguished from slots or sockets due to the fact that the alignment means of that patent is supported by a transverse element which is received slidably within the slots of the carrier. Thus if a carrier is provided with apertures as distinguished from slots, the arrangement of US. Pat. No. 2,936,558 as disclosed in that patent cannot be used because there is no provision for accommodating the transverse member which supports the article aligning means. In US. Pat.

No. 2,936,558 a fluid motor is provided for imparting vertically reciprocable motion to bottle aligning means whereby bottles arranged in a group are precisely positioned. Following this operation, a ram is driven by a second fluid motor into engagement with an article carrier in such manner as to drive the carrier downwardly and to cause the slots or sockets about its periphery to receive the necks of the aligned bottles. This action requires that the slots slide downwardly in enveloping relationship relative to the bottle alignment means.

According to the present invention, a machine is provided which is adaptable for applying an article carrier having apertures therein in such manner that the upper part of each article is received within and enveloped by one aperture in secure and snugly gripping relationship. Alignment means for precisely positioning the articles prior to downward enveloping movement of the carrier relative to the articles in the form of alignment means normally supported by a carrier holder which itself is normally supported by a vertically reciprocable plunger driven by a single fluid motor. Thus with a group of articles disposed at a loading station and with one or more carriers fixed in position within the holder and with the bottles aligned with the apertures in the holder by the action of the bottle aligning means, subsequent downward motion of the plunger drives the carrier downwardly and out of the holder to cause the upper portion of each article to become enveloped by one aperture in the carrier.

While the invention is shown and described in conjunction with bottles having tapered neck portions and flanges near their upper ends, it will be understood that the invention is not limited thereto and may be used with obvious modifications to package a plurality of cans having flanges or outwardly projecting chimes disposed at their upper ends.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a machine constructed according to this invention; FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a package formed by the machine constructed according to this invention; FIG. 2 is a frontal view of the machine shown in FIG. 1 and taken generally from the same general vantage point as FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the machine shown in FIGS. 1 and as the machine appears from the right hand side of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the machine as viewed in FIG. 2 and which shows the vertically reciprocable plunger, the carrier holder suspended from the plunger structure together'with article positioning means mounted on and movable with the holder; FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along the line designated 5-5 in FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line designated 6--6 in FIG. 4 and with a portion thereof broken away; FIG. 6A is a fragmentary detailed view of a modified arrangement for use in conjunction with the structure of FIG. 6; FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a carrier which is applied to a group of articles in accordance with this invention; FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken along the line designated 88 in FIG. 5; FIG. 9 is a plan view of the carrier shown in FIG. 7 which shows the relationship of the carrier to a feeder element which draws the lowermost carrier from a hopper and feeds it into the holder; FIG. 10 is a front view of FIG. 9; FIG. 11 is a view from below looking upwardly of the plunger structure which engages and drives the carriers into cooperative relationship relative to a group of articles and in which FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a component structure from which the arrangement shown in FIG. 11 -is formed.

The machine of this invention is for the purpose of applying a carrier such as is designated at C in FIG. 7 to a plurality of articles such as are designated B to form a completed package such as is shown in FIG. 1A.

The carrier C is constructed with a body portion designated by the numeral 1 which is relatively rigid and which is provided with a plurality of

apertures

2, 3 and 4. The portions of the carrier C which define these apertures are semi-rigid although "the parts of the body portion of the carrier which engage and envelope the necks of the packaged bottles are yieldable as is well understood in the art. The side portions of the carrier C are relatively yieldable and in the drawings are designated generally by the

numerals

5 and 6. These yieldable side portions can be folded upwardly to provide a handle member for manually gripping the carrier and for facilitating portability. The

flexible side portions

5 and 6 of the carrier perform a yieldable holding function for supporting and then releasing the carrier from its holder during a package forming operation as will be explained in detail hereinafter.

The machine of this invention comprises conveyor means generally designated by the numeral 7 which conveys a group of articles to be packaged into a loading station generally designated by the letter S in FIG. 1 and which upon completion of a loading operation discharges one or more loaded carriers generally toward the right and onto an outfeed conveyor not shown in the drawings. Carriers as shown in FIG. 7 are stacked one atop another in a hopper structure generally designated by the numeral 8. The lowermost carrier in one I or more stacks of carriers in the hopper is fed from right to left as viewed in FIG. 3 by feeder means generally designated by the numeral 9 into a carrier holder generally designated by the numeral 10 as best seen in FIG. 1 and is held in fixed relationship relative thereto. Article positioning means generally designated by the numeral 11 as is best shown in FIG. 2 is supported on a plunger generally designated by the numeral 12 and serves to align the articles disposed in the container generally designated by the numeral 13 in such manner that one aperture in each article carrier is disposed in substantially vertical alignment with an article disposed in container 13. The article positioning means 11, supported by the plunger 12 by a lost-motion relationship together with the carrier holder are reciprocated vertically by the fluid motor generally designated by the numeral 14 whose piston end is vertically reciprocable and secured to plunger 12.

Thus downward motion of plunger 12 causes the article positioning means 11 first to engage and align the articles within the case 13 at station S. Thereafter continued downward movement of the plunger 12 causes the plunger to engage and drive one or more article carriers out of the holder 10 and into enveloping relationship with the articles in the case 13.

Conveyor 7 comprises a plurality of idler rollers 15 journally mounted in

parallel frame elements

16 and 17. Preferably a driving belt or other suitable means is disposed below and is frictionally related with the rollers 15. The upper working reach of this endless belt moves from right to left as viewed in FIGS. 1 and 2 and imparts clockwise rotation to rollers 15 and thus conveys a series of containers such as 13 toward the loading station S. A plurality of conveyor elements such as the

chains

18 and 19 receive a case such as 13 from the rollers 15 and position that case atop an intermediate conveyor disposed immediately underneath the case 13 but not shown in detail in FIG. 1 and on which a plurality of feeder lugs 20 are mounted. The lugs 20 move by increments in such manner as to position a case at the loading station S as shown at 1 3 for example in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. Each case such as 13 is guided against transverse movement by a pair of longitudinal spaced apart, parallel, fixed guides 21. These guides at their infeed ends have beveled portions on their inner surfaces as indicated at 22. The mechanism which imparts movement to conveyor rollers 15 and to conveyors l8 and 19 as well as to the incrementally movable conveyor and its associated lugs 20 includes a motor M and its associated gear box G and driving chains not shown in detail all as is well known in the art. The conveyor mechanism 7 and its driving means is disposed within a housing designated by the numeral 23 which is supported at its corners by

adjustable feet

24, 25 and 26 only three of which appear, the fourth foot not being shown in the drawings.

For supporting the hopper 8, and other operative elements of the machine,

vertical support elements

27, 28, 29 and 30 are secured to the frame of the machine and horizontally disposed

structural support elements

31, 32, 33 and 34 are disposed atop the vertical struts 27-30.

The hopper structure generally designated by the numeral 8 is provided with vertically disposed laterally spaced slats such as are depicted at 35, 36, 37 and 38 in FIG. 1. A particular carrier such as is shown for example in FIG. 7 is mounted between the

struts

35 and 36 on one side and the

struts

37 and 38 on the other side and the lowermost carrier element in each stack of elements is forced from underneath the hopper toward the left as viewed in FIG. 3 by the feeder means generally designated by the numeral 9.

As is best shown in FIG. 10, each feeder element 39 is provided with a shoulder 40 which defines a lower level 41 and an upper level 42. Thus when the shoulder 40 engages the trailing portion such as 43 of the lowermost carrier in a stack, this carrier is pushed out from underneath the hopper and toward the right as viewed in FIG. 10. Feeder element 39 is provided with a pair of hooks designated by the

numerals

44 and 45 which enter the

slits

46 and 47 in the carrier C as best shown in FIG. 9. Thus either the shoulder 40 or one or both of the

hooks

44 and 45 will engage its associated part of the carrier such as the trailing part 43 or the

notches

46 and 47 to insure a positive engagement between the feeder element 39 and the lowermost carrier in the hopper. As shown in the drawings, the hopper includes a plurality of upstanding slats as best shown in FIG. 2. Four different stacks of article carriers are accommodated by the machine as shown in the drawings.

Horizontal reciprocatory motion is imparted to feeder element 39 by means of fluid motor FM having one end mounted on base pivot BP affixed to the frame structure and which is interconnected at pivot P1 with line L1 which in turn is pivoted at fixed pivot P2 supported by suitable frame structure. Link Ll at its lower end is connected to link L2 by pivot P3. Thus operation of fluid motor FM rotates link Ll about pivot P2 and imparts reciprocatory motion to link L2 which by virtue of its connection at P4 to feeder lug 39 is moved in and out of the holder 10 from left to right as viewed in FIG. 3.

Upon completion of a feeding stroke, one ormore carriers is inserted into a cavity formed within the holder 10. As best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, base plate 48 of the carrier holder 10 is provided with

openings

49, 50, 51 and 52 over which the corresponding carriers C are disposed. Carrier Cl is arranged atop opening 49 and between side walls 53 and 54 between which the

yieldable portions

5 and 6 of carrier C1 are interposed. Holder top plate 55 overlies the side walls 53 and 54 and thus defines with these walls and with base plate 48 a cavity into which carrier C1 is inserted by feeder element 39. A fixed pin 56 is secured in base plate 48 and engages a leading edge portion 57 of carrier Cl and thus determines the limit of inward travel of carrier Cl due to feeding movement of feeder element 39. The trailing edge 58 of carrier C1 is engaged by the vertical portion 59 of spring 60 which is secured by bolt 61 within a slot 62 formed in base plate 48. The inherent bias of spring 50 urges that spring toward its upper carrier holding position as shown in FIG. 8. Thus when clip Cl is moved into its cavity, the spring 61 is initially depressed. When the trailing edge 58 of carrier CI passes over the edge 59 of the spring 60, spring 60 springs upwardly into the position shown in FIG. 8 and thus limits backward movement of carrier Cl. Thus by the side, bottom and top walls of the cavity into which carrier C1 is inserted together with the fixed stop 56 and the yieldable spring 60, the carrier C1 is fixed in position relative to the holder in accordance with one facet of this invention.

Of course carriers C2, C3 and C4 are fixed in position with their respective cavities in a manner described in detail in connection with carrier C1.

With the carriers fixed in position in the holder, it is necessary to insure that the apertures in each holder are aligned with the corresponding articles within the container 13 at the loading statin S. To this end article positioning means 11 is affixed securely to holder 10 and as best shown in FIGS. 4 and 11 comprises longitudinally disposed

bars

65 and 66 and transversely disposed

bars

67, 68, 69, 70 and 71 suspended by Vertical struts such as are indicated at 72 from the base plate 48 of the carrier holder 12.

For engaging the outer sides of the container 13, a plurality of fingers such as F1 and F2 are provided and are securely affixed in any suitable manner to the article positioning means 11 as by bolts or other means.

Thus as is indicated in FIGS. 4 and 6 downward motion of plunger 12 is accompanied initially by downward motion of holder 10 and of article positioning means 11. When fingers F1 and F2 engage container 13 and when the longitudinal and transverse article engaging bars 65-71 engage the tapered shoulders of the bottles B disposed within container 13, the bottles are shifted somewhat and are aligned with the

apertures

2, 3 and 4 of carriers C as depicted somewhat schematically in FIG. 11. After the article positioning means 11 performs its article aligning function, its lower limit of travel and that of holder 10 are reached and the plunger 12 continues its downward motion by virtue of the lost motion association between plunger plate 74 and corner posts 75 which posts are securely affixed to carrier holder plate 48 at the corners thereof and which bear a slidable connection with the plunger plate 74. Thus after the alignment structure 11 and the carrier holder 12 reach their lower limit of travel, the plunger plate 74 continues its downward travel and the plunger bars 76, 77, 78 and 79 which are securely affixed in any suitable manner to the plate 74 continue their downward motion until these bars engage the body portions 1 of the associated carriers. Continued downward motion after this engagement takes place causes the

side portions

5 and 6 of each carrier C to bend upwardly due to engagement with the side ledges such as 48A and 48B of each cavity such as that associated with carrier C1. The carrier such as CI is forced through the opening 49 and is urged downwardly so that aperture 2 for example in carrier C1 envelopes the cap 80 and upper portion of the neck of the bottle of BI while the cap 80 of bottle BI is received into the generally circular recess 81 formed in plunger bar 76. The lower limit of the stroke of the plunger 12 is depicted in FIG. 6 and carrier Cl is shown in that figure in loaded position. Of course the three remaining carriers are also fully loaded at this limit of travel. Upon completion of a loading operation, the fluid motor 14 is reversed and drives the plunger 12, the article positioning means 11 and the carrier holder I0 upwardly to their uppermost positions and the machine is ready to initiate a succeeding cycle of operation.

We claim:

1. A machine for applying an article carrier having a plurality of apertures therein to a plurality of articles so that a part of each article is enveloped by one aperture, said machine comprising conveyor means for moving a group of articles arranged in side by side relationship into a loading station, a vertically reciprocable plunger disposed above said loading station, a carrier holder supported by said plunger by a lost motion relationship and movable between a carrier receiving position above the tops of the articles to a carrier applying position in proximity to the tops of the articles and having at least one carrier cavity therein for receiving a carrier and for holding said carrier in substantially fixed position relative to said holder, and article positioning means movable downwardly with said carrier holder and engageable with the upper portions of a group of articles to determine its lower limit of travel and so as to align the articles with the apertures in the carrier in coordination with downward movement of said plunger toward the group of articles, said plunger being engageable with the carrier and being effective to drive the carrier out of its cavity in said holder and to cause the apertures therein to envelope parts of the articles respectively following alignment of the articles with the apertures respectively.

2. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the carrier is inserted into said holder by a horizontally reciprocable feeder element which engages and moves the carrier into said cavity and wherein such movement is limited by stop means in said cavity which engages the carrier at the limit of its horizontal travel and wherein a yieldable stop element is disposed in the path of horizontal movement of the carrier and is moved out of such path upon engagement with a leading part of the carrier but which moves behind a trailing part of the carrier upon engagement of the carrier with said stop means thereby to prevent reverse movement of the carrier relative to said holder.

3. A machine according to claim 2 wherein the cavity in said holder includes side walls engageable with side portions of the carrier in snug relationship thereby to prevent relative transverse movement between the carrier and said holder.

4. A machine according to claim 2 wherein the carrier is inserted into said holder by said feeder element when said holder and plunger are disposed at approximately the upper limit of their travel.

5. A machine according to claim I wherein said cavity is defined in part by side ledges which are engageable by yieldable side portions of the carrier and wherein a discharge opening is formed in a bottom portion of said holder intermediate said side ledges through which the carrier is driven by said plunger into cooperative engagement with the articles.

6. A machine according to claim 1 wherein said article positioning means comprises a plurality of spaced bars and wherein said plunger comprises a plurality of plunger bars arranged to move downwardly between said spaced bars to effect a carrier loading operation, said plunger bars having recesses to accommodate the tops of the articles when said plunger is in its lowered position.

7. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the articles are disposed within an open top container having bottom, side and end walls and wherein downwardly extending fingers are mounted on said carrier holder and adapted to engage the outer sides of said container when said carrier holder is in its carrier applying position.

Claims

5. A machine according to claim 1 wherein said cavity is defined in part by side ledges which are engageable by yieldable side portions of the carrier and wherein a discharge opening is formed in a bottom portion of said holder intermediate said side ledges through which the carrier is driven by said plunger into cooperative engagement with the articles.