Abstract:
A tape applicator for taping boxes or the like is provided with a cutting element mounted on the applicator out of the normal path of said tape but relatively positioned to the path so that relative movement between the tape and cutting element at the end of a threading operation to insert a tape into operative position in the applicator severs said tape and defines a free end of a tab at a free end of the tape.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to an improve tape applicator, more particularly the present invention relates to a tape applicator having a cut off knife for cutting the lead end of a new roll of tape being applied to the applicator 
       BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
       [0002]    Conventional tape applicators or tape heads used for applying adhesive tapes across to a box or carton or the like to seal the box flaps in closed position generally include a front link, having a wiper roll to apply the leading end of the tape to the leading face a carton moved relatively past the tape head, a trailing arm with a wiper roll for wiping the tape on the adjacent surface of the box and along the trailing end of the box and a cut off knife between the two arms and actuated to cut the tape to the proper length and, with a free end adjacent to the wiper roll on the front link in position to be applied to the next box. The applicators are common in the industry and have been found to operate very well. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,298 issued Oct. 14, 1997 to Lam or U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,721 issued Mar. 10, 1998 to Yeh. 
         [0003]    It is also common practice to provide of a cut off knife adjacent to a holding surface in various hand dispensers for adhesive tape (“Scotch tape”) dispensers to facilitate cutting off the tape after application. (see for example U.S. Design patent D502,508 S issued Mar. 1, 2005 to Hung). 
         [0004]    When a new tape is hand fed to the taping head as is in most cases the norm the leading end of the tape is pulled from the new roll of tape and positioned adjacent to the wiper roll on the front link and the excess tape which normally will be wrinkled etc., as it is grabbed and used as a handle to pull the tape from the roll and position it relative to the wiper roll is cut of by any suitable means normally a knife edge or a pair scissors. This is not a very effective way to cut the tape as one must have or position the cutting tool and then activate it to cut the tape at the proper location relative to the wiper roll. 
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
       [0005]    It is an object of the present invention to provide 
         [0006]    Broadly the present invention relates to a tape applicator having a front link and a rear link interconnected by a suitable frame, a first wiper for wiping a sealing tape against a carton being sealed in a tape sealing operation positioned at a free end of said front link remote from said frame, said rear link having a second wiper for wiping said sealing tape against a trailing end of said carton trailing in a direction of movement of said carton relative to said tape applicator during said sealing operation and a cut off knife for cutting said tape at the end of said taping operation, the improvement comprising a cutting element mounted on said front link adjacent to said first wiper but out of the normal path of said tape but relatively positioned to said wiper so that relative movement between said tape and said cutting element at the end of a threading operation to insert a new sealing tape into operative position in said applicator severs said tape and define a free end of a tab at a free end of said tape. 
         [0007]    Preferably said first wiper is a flexible pad and said cutting element is positioned on the side of said flexible pad opposite a side of said pad adjacent to a normal path of said sealing tape. 
         [0008]    Preferably said cutting element has its cutting edge facing away from said frame. 
         [0009]    Preferably said first wiper is composed of a pair of rollers spaced apart sufficiently for said cutting element to extend between them when in a cutting position for cutting said tape 
         [0010]    Preferably said cutting element has a cutting edge that is a spring biased to inactive position and is moveable from said inactive position to said cutting position. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]    Further features, objects and advantages will be evident from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which; 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration with parts omitted showing the Prior Art tape head with a new tape roll being applied. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration similar to  FIG. 1  but incorporating the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 2A  is an enlarged view showing the wiper and the cutting element of the  FIG. 2  embodiment in greater detail. 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  is a schematic illustration similar to  FIG. 1  but incorporating another embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  is a schematic illustration similar to  FIG. 1  but incorporating a third embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  is a schematic illustration similar to  FIG. 1  but incorporating a fourth embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 5A  is an enlarged view showing the wiper and the cutting element of the  FIG. 5  embodiment in greater detail. 
           [0019]      FIG. 6  is a schematic illustration similar to  FIG. 1  but incorporating a fifth embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0020]      FIG. 1  (Prior Art) shows a taping head  10  that has a roll  12  mounted to the frame  14  of the taping head  10  in conventional manner. The head  10  includes a lead link or arm  16  rotatably mounted on the frame  10  on pin  18  and has a wiper roll  16  rotatably mounted adjacent to its free end  20  extending from the frame  14  (end remote from the pivot pin  18 ). A trailing link or arm  22  is rotatably mounted on the frame for pivotal movement about pin  24  having an axis of rotation substantially parallel to the axis of pin  18  and spaced there from. The tailing link  22  is formed by a pair of arms  26  and  28  extending from opposite sides of the bearing for or the position of the pivot pin  24 . The arm  28  is provide adjacent to its free end  30  extending from the frame  14  with a second wiper roll  32  that functions as is well known to wipe the tape  34  against the trailing end (in the direction of box movement past the taping head  10  as indicated by arrow  37 ) of a carton or box  36  shown in phantom lines. The arm  26  is connected to the link  16  via a connecting link  38  pivotable connected adjacent its opposite ends to the link  16  and arm  26  (adjacent to its free end  40  on the side of pin  24  remote from end  30 ) as indicated at  42  and  44  respectively. A spring  46  is shown as the biasing means forcing the free ends  20  and  30  to the left in  FIG. 1  to hold the roller  18  in with the carton  36  (i.e. tends to resist movement of the roller  18  in the direction of movement of the box  36  as indicated by the arrow  37 ). Mounted on the flame  14  between the links  16  and  22  is the cut off mechanism  50  which operated in the well known manner. 
         [0021]    The tape  34  has its sticky or adhesive side  52  facing to the centre of the roll  12  and is drawn off the roll and presented to the carton  36  facing the oncoming box  36  i.e. the non-sticky side of the tape  34  (side opposite the sticky side  52 ) engages the wiper roll  18 . The normal path of the tape as indicated at  53  extends between the guiding roller  15  and the surface of the wiper  18  and in the treading operation to insert a tape generally beyond the roll  18  as indicated at  53   a  in embodiments shown in  FIGS. 2 to 5A . 
         [0022]    When a new roll of tape  12  is applied (or obviously, if the tape breaks and must be rethreaded) the tape is threaded around the guide roller and the free end  54  is pulled (normally by hand) to extend beyond the roll  18  and the cut off by hand using a knife or scissors (not shown) to leave a tab  56  having a length L extending between the frame  14  and the roll  20  as indicated. 
         [0023]    This tab  56  defines the normal path of the tape relative to the wiper  18  at the free end of the arm  16  after the free end has been removed in normal operation. 
         [0024]    The device and the treading and cut off operations as described above are well known and described the current way in which the tape for a new roll is generally applied to the tape head  10 . 
         [0025]    Like reference numerals have been used to designate like parts throughout the drawings. 
         [0026]    The preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 2 . The significant change is that the wiper  18  at the free end  20  of the arm or link  16  has be replaced by a wiper pad  60  mounted on arm  16  via a suitable bracket  62 . Positioned on the rear side  58  of the wiper  60  opposite to the normal tape path i.e. behind the wiper  60  (ahead in the direction of relative travel of the box as indicated by the arrow  37 ) is a cutting element  64  the cutting edge  66  of which may be of any suitable form such as a sharp knife edge, a sharp serrated knife edge, plurality of needle points, etc. 
         [0027]    The wiper pad  60  is preferably, but not essentially flexible (see for example the  FIG. 3  embodiment) and may be made of any suitable material such as rubber, polymer coated sponge material or the like. If the pad  60  is to be flexible as is preferred the pad must be made of material that is flexible so that it may be deformed for cutting the tape as shown in  FIG. 2A  and when not under such pressure resume it normal shape as shown in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0028]    The new tape  34  (or free end of a broken tape) is treaded as described above however the free end  54  of the new tape  34  is cut off by deforming the pad  60  as shown in  FIG. 2A  so that the tape  34  is moved from its normal path  53 ,  53   a  against the edge  66  of the cutting element  64  to cut the tape  34  and leave the tab end  56  in position to be applied to the next box  36  to be sealed (see  FIG. 2 ). The cutting edge  66  is positioned so that the free end edge  68  of tape  34  (which defines one end of the length of tab  56 ) formed when the new tape is cut off is position adjacent to the end  70  of the relaxed pad  60  as shown in dash lined in  FIG. 2A . 
         [0029]    In the  FIG. 3  embodiment the flexible pad  60  is replace by a similar but thicker and thus less flexible wiper pad  80  having its fee end  82  rounded so that the grasped end  54  of the tape  34  may be pulled around the end  82  of the pad  80  as indicated by the arrow  84  out of the normal path  53   a  and moved into contact with the edge  66  of the cutting element  64  to form the free end edge  86  (shown in dash lines) of the tape  34  and define the free end of the tab  56  the location of which is determined by the positioning of the cutting element edge  66  and the thickness and curvature of the pad  80  which are set so that the end edge  86  is beyond the free end  82  of the pad  80  which is acceptable (after the first carton  36  has been taped the position of the corresponding fee end of the tape will be determined in the normal manner by the cut off mechanism  50 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  shows yet another embodiment of the present invention wherein the pad  60  or  80  is replaced with a pair of rollers  90  and  92  that define a gap  94  therebetween. The cutting element  96  in this embodiment is preferably made of spring steel and is connected at its end adjacent to the pivot pin  18  to the arm  16  as indicated at  98 . The element  96  is bent adjacent to its end remote form the connection  98  for form a cutting edge  100  that projects into the gap between the rolls  90  and  92 . In its normal position the cutting edge  100  clears the path of the tape, however when a new roll is applied the tape is pulled over the rolls  90  and  92  and the cutting element is flexed to move the cutting edge  100  across the path of the tape  34  and sever the tape  34  and thereby define the end of the tab  56 . 
         [0031]    The fourth embodiment shown in  FIGS. 5 and 5A  is specifically designed for retrofitting existing tape heads i.e. to replace the roller  18  shown in  FIG. 1  and is similar to the  FIG. 3  embodiment but the pad  80  has been replaced by a curved pad  110  having a curved (preferably a segment of an arc of a circle) as indicated at  112  and has an L shaped cutting element  114  the mounting flange  116  mounted on a surface  118  of the pad  80  which surface preferably is substantially parallel to the direction of travel  37  when the taping head  10  is in inactive position as shown (i.e. before a box is moved into against the tape tab  56 ). The cutting edge  120  (equivalent to the edges  66 ,  110 ) of the cutting element  114  in the illustrated arrangement extends substantially perpendicular to the surface  118  and across the path of the tape end  54  so that the tape end grasped by the operator may be moved to sever the tape  34  to the proper length by bending around the pad  110  similar to the cutting operation with the  FIG. 3  embodiment. It will be evident that the element  114  need not be L shaped but may be any convenient shape for mounting and positioning the edge  120  in a location to cut the tape to the desired length during the threading operation 
         [0032]    Turning to  FIG. 6  the fifth illustrated embodiment takes the cutting element (equivalent to the cutting elements described above) from adjacent to the free end  20  of the leading arm  16  and mounts it as indicated at  200  in  FIG. 6  on the frame  14  in front of the leading arm  16  and out of the normal path of travel of the tape  34 . The cutting edge  202  of the element  200  is spaced from the normal path of the tape so that the cut length of the tape provides the required tab  56  of the appropriate length L. 
         [0033]    In the  FIG. 6  embodiment the end  54  of the tape  34  is pulled rearward relative to the direction of box travel as indicated by arrow  37  and then around the front of the frame  14  as indicated by the arrow  204  so that the tape traverses the edge  202  and is severed to the desired length. 
         [0034]    It will be apparent that the frame  14  is normally a plate and the various elements are mounted cantilever fashion therefrom. 
         [0035]    Having described the invention, modifications will be evident to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.