BAG-MAKING-AND-FILLING PACKAGING APPARATUS

Abstract: This disclosure relates to an improvement of a bag-­ making-and-filling packaging apparatus in which a web supplied from a roll of packaging material is formed into a tube through a tube-forming member and intermittently delivered and the formed tube is filled with a material to be packaged and when the filling is completed, the tube is sealed along the width thereof. The apparatus comprises an improved packaging material delivery device which is effective to assure durability of delivery means and to prevent damage to the packaging material for good packaging finish as well as to increase precision of delivery of the packaging material, and an improved registering device in which setting and adjusting operation of registering is facilitated and the structure associated with a register mark sensor is simplified.

Description: The present invention relates to a bag-making-and-filling packaging apparatus, and more specifically to improvement of delivering and registering systems of packaging material for a bag-making-and-filling packaging apparatus in which a web supplied from a roll of packaging material is formed into a tube through a tube-forming member and intermittently delivered and the formed tube is filled with a material to be packaged and when the filling is completed, the tube is sealed along the width thereof. The conventional packaging apparatus comprises downstream of a tube-forming member delivery means, such as delivery belts or rollers, having a driving member and adapted for intermittent delivery by constantly rotating the driving member and then stopping it so as to obtain a predetermined length of delivery. In such a conventional system, however, slippage between the delivery belts or rollers and the packaging material, error in precision and control of mechanical components and others cause the delivered length different from a set length and fluctuation of delivery length. In another prior art system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-3325 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4288965), there is provided upstream of the tube-forming member a delivery roller which is adapted to deliver the web as well as to measure the delivery length. In this prior art system, however, it is required to dispose downstream of the tube-forming member a delivery belt so as to keep the packaging material downstream of the delivery roller in the strained condition. Then, great load is applied to the belt, and at the same time, the system is designed to intentionally cause slippage between the belt and the packaging material, resulting in lowered durability of the belt and damage to the packaging material due to the slippage. The above bag-making-and-filling packaging apparatus includes a registering system or, more in detail, system in which, when a register mark such as a boundary portion of patterns, such as pictures, trade marks and indications, printed on the web of the packaging material at regular intervals corresponding to packaging length reaches the position of a sealing device, travel of the web is stopped. In this system, the web with register marks is supplied from a roll of packaging material and delivered to travel by delivery means, and there is provided on the web-travelling path a sensor for detecting the register marks, and the driving member of the delivery means is stopped when the sensor detects a register mark. In such a prior art registering system, immediately after the sensor detects a register mark, the clutch of the driving member of the delivery means is disengaged to stop travel of the web, and if packaging materials having various register mark pitches are used, it is required to move the position of the register mark sensor along the web-travelling path through operation of a handle so as to adjust stop timing of the web. If there is any positional shifting of patterns during operation using a packaging material, adjustment by moving the sensor is also required. Thus, such a registering system not only requires much time for setting and adjustment, but also lacks in reproducibility, resulting in poor performance, and, furthermore, it has a defect that, as the sensor must include a moving structure, attachment structure of the sensor is complicated. Other prior art systems are disclosed in US Patents 4501109 and 4128985 and Swiss Patent 543122. The invention in US Patent 4501109 relates to a form fill and seal packaging machine, but this machine does not make any use of direct measurement of the length of the web fed into the machine. US Patent 4128985 also describes a form fill and seal packaging machine, but in this machine the length of the web is measured indirectly by means of timers, and the machine operates by the scanning for a registration mark on the web to trigger off a timer which then runs for a set interval of time for length measurement. Whilst Swiss Patent 543122 describes a packaging machine which is not of the form fill and seal type, it does disclose that a film is fed beneath a wheel which is used to measure the length of the film which has been fed, but the machine has no provision for correction for overfeed. It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a bag-making-and-filling packaging apparatus which is effective to assure durability of the delivery means and to prevent damage to the packaging material for good packaging finish as well as to increase precision of delivery of the packaging material. It is another object of the present invention in a preferred form thereof to provide a bag-making-and-filling packaging apparatus in which, in order to eliminate the disadvantages associated with the prior art registering system, a register mark sensor is fixed at a predetermined position and stop timing of the web is variable so as to facilitate setting and adjusting operation of registering as well as to simplify the structure associated with the sensor. According to the present invention, there is provided a packaging machine of the form, fill and seal type, said packaging machine comprising means for delivering a web to a tube forming member, braking means to stop the web after a predetermined length has been delivered, longitudinal and transverse sealing elements for sealing said predetermined length to form a sealed bag, filling means for filling the bag before sealing, and control means for measuring said predetermined length and for operating said braking means when the predetermined length has been measured, characterised in that said control means comprises of a web movement sensor, a counter means which is operated by the sensor to count up as the web advances, and comparison means which operates the braking means when the count in counter is a preset value, said counter and sensor being adapted to be operated in the reverse direction in that said counter can be operated by the sensor to count down in the event that the web overfeeds past the sensor due to inertia in the system and is subsequently retracted by the amount of the overfeed. Preferably, the central means includes a registering device having a register mark sensor disposed on the web-travelling path upstream of the forming member, the register mark sensor and the measuring sensor being connected through a control system to the driving member of the delivery means, the control system including an offset counter for counting measurement value of the measuring means and input means for inputting a set value and having an offset sequence which actuates the offset counter when the sensor detects a register mark, the driving member of the delivery means being stopped when the measurement value of the counter comes up to the set value. The present invention will become more fully apparent from the claims and description as it proceeds in connection with the drawings. Fig 1 is a block diagram of the structure of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention; Fig 2 is a block diagram of the control system in Fig 1; Fig 3 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the control system; Fig 4 is a block diagram of the structure of another embodiment in accordance with the present invention; Fig 5 is a block diagram of the control system in Fig 4; and Figs. 6a to 6c are flow diagrams illustrating operation of the control system in Fig. 4, in which Fig. 6a is a flow diagram when an encoder is rotated in the forward direction; Fig. 6b is a flow diagram when a register mark is detected; and Fig. 6c is a flow diagram when the encoder is rotated in the reverse direction. Referring now to Fig. 1 in the drawings, there is illustrated a vertical type bag-making-and-filling packaging apparatus which comprises a tube-forming member 1, a bag-making cylindrical member 2 depending from the forming member 1, a pair of delivery belts 3 serving as delivery means, a vertical sealing device 4, a transverse sealing device 5 and a film roll A of wound packaging film or web a . The web a drawn out from the film roll A is properly introduced through guide rollers b1, b2, b3 ...... b11, to the tube-forming member 1. The web a is formed cylindrically when passing through the forming member 1, and then moves down in form of a tube a′ along the outer periphery of the cylindrical member 2. The path of the web a moving from the film roll A to the position under the cylindrical member 2 will be hereinafter called a web-travelling path. The delivery belts 3 come into contact with the outer periphery of the tube a′ and impart to the web a downward delivery force, which causes the web a to be drawn out against a tension lever 7′ and to move along the web-travelling path. The delivery belts 3 are disposed on the opposite sides of the outer periphery of the cylindrical member 2, and driving shafts of the delivery belts 3 are connected to a motor M through a clutch and brake 6 which starts and stops rotation of the shafts at proper times to perform intermittent rotation thereof and thereby to intermittently deliver the web a and the tube a′. When the tube a′ moves down along the cylindrical member 2, vertical joint edges of the tube a′ are sealed by the sealing device 4. When the tube a′ is lowered below the cylindrical member 2, a predetermined amount of material m to be packaged is supplied down through the cylindrical member 2 and is formed into the tube a′, which is then sealed at the position above the material m packaged therein by the sealing device 5, and, if required, the sealing device 5 may include a knife which is adapted to cut the sealed portion of the tube a′ at the middle thereof transversely or along the width thereof so as to separate a bag a″ from the lower end of the tube a′. As shown in the drawing, there are provided an auxiliary delivery roller 7 for reducing the force required to draw out the web a from the film roll A, a tension lever 7′ adapted for turning on and off the driving member of the delivery rollers 7 and serving as buffer or store for the web a , and another tension lever 8 for applying the brake at proper times to the web a drawn out from the film roll A. There is provided on the web-travelling path, or more specifically on the path upstream of the tube-forming member 1, an encoder 10 serving as measuring means. The encoder 10 is connected through a control system C, incorporating a computer, to the driving member of the delivery belts 3, that is, the clutch and brake 6 so as to control start and stop of the delivery belts 3. The encoder 10 is disposed in opposition to the web a travelling along the web-travelling path, rotatable in the forward and reverse directions at the speed corresponding to the travelling speed of the web a . The encoder 10 transmits pulses corresponding to the run length of the web a moving on the encoder 10 to a central processing unit CPU (Fig. 2) of the control system C in order to measure the actual run length of the web a . The control system whose block diagram is shown in Fig. 2 comprises ROM 11 or memory in which fixed data such as a time lag value and control data such as programs are written, RAM 12 or memory for writing input data, such as, write count of pulses transmitted from the encoder 10, that is, plus pulses at forward rotation (advance of web) and minus pulses at reverse rotation (retraction of web), and a backup RAM 13 or memory for storing set data such as pulse number which determines delivery length of the web a , and the set data is inputted by means of a key pad 14 which is a data input unit. CRT 15 in the drawing is a display device. In the above control system, when the brake of the clutch and brake 6 is turned off and the clutch thereof on, the delivery belts 3 are actuated to start delivering of the web a and, as a result, the web a travels to cause forward rotation of the encoder 10 and the operation in Fig. 3 is executed. In other words, forward rotation of the encoder 10 causes the counting operation (counter) of RAM 12 to count the amount of rotation (pulse count) of the encoder 10, and when the count comes up to the set value of RAM 13, RAM 12 is reset to zero, the clutch is moved to off and the time lag sequence is started. In the time lag sequence, a predetermined length of web travel is performed simply due to the inertia of the system with the clutch of the clutch and brake 6 off, after RAM 12 is reset to zero, and then the counter of RAM 12 starts counting of time lag and when the count comes up to the set time lag value stored in RAM 13, the brake of the clutch and brake 6 is turned on to stop the delivery belts 3, and the count in RAM 12 is returned to zero. During the above operation, material to be packaged is fed through the cylindrical member 2, and with the delivery belts 3 kept in a stop condition, the sealing device 5 performs sealing. When the sealing by the sealing device 5 is completed, the delivery belts 3 are restarted to repeat the above mentioned operation. As the delivery belts 3 repeat start and stop to intermittently deliver the web a , the web a will be slackened due to inertia thereof downstream of the encoder 10, for example, at the guide roller b10, when the delivery belts 3 are stopped or the brake is turned on. However, as the slackened length of the web a is measured by the encoder 10 and added to the count of RAM 12 in the following web delivery cycle, there remains no fear of error in web delivery. In the following delivery cycle, before delivering is started, back tension is applied to the web a by the gravity effect of rollers b6 and b4 to draw it back toward the upstream side, so that some of the slackened length of the web a is drawn back toward the upstream side of the encoder 10. At occurance of such a phenomenon, however, as the encoder 10 reversely rotates and thereby the value corresponding to the retracted length of the web a is substracted from the count of RAM 12, no error in web delivery occurs. Though the delivery belts are used as delivery means in this embodiment, other means such as delivery rollers may be employed, and measuring means may be freely selected from means other than the encoder. Though the operation of the above embodiment is explained in relation to the case including a time lag sequence, the time lag sequence may be omitted and the delivery belts may be designed to be stopped immediately when the encoder 10 measures the set length of the web. Furthermore, if desired, the bag-making cylindrical member 2 may be replaced by tubeless guide means. With this construction according to the embodiment of the present invention, the measuring means measures the actual run length of the web and the delivery belts are stopped based upon the result, so that, even if there is any slippage between the delivery means and the web or tube or any error in mechanical precision, the delivering length of the web can be kept constant to improve the delivery precision of the packaging material. Furthermore, as it is not necessary to cause intentional slippage between the delivery means and the web or tube, the load applied to the delivery means can be reduced, so that durability of the means is improved because of less wear or damage thereto and also damage to the packaging material is prevented. Figs. 4 to 6 illustrate another embodiment of the present invention in which a registering system is combined to the apparatus shown in Figs. 1 to 3. As shown in Fig. 4, the construction is almost the same as that shown in Fig. 1 except that there is a register mark sensor S provided on the web-travelling path, the film roll A′ of wound web has equally spaced register marks thereon and there is a modified control system C′. Like parts are given like reference numbers and any further description will be omitted to simplify the explanation. As shown in Fig. 4, the register mark sensor S is disposed along with the encoder 10 on the web-travelling path, or more specifically on the path upstream of the tube-forming member 1. The encoder 10 and the sensor S are connected through the control system C′ to the driving member of the delivery belts 3, that is, the clutch and brake 6 so as to control start and stop of the delivery belts 3. The control system C′ whose block diagram is shown in Fig. 5 comprises ROM 11 or memory for storing fixed data such as the decision value for deciding whether or not the register mark is valid and the time lag value and control data such as programs, and RAM 12 or memory which receives output signals from the encoder 10 and the register mark sensor S and has a counter function of counting pulse signals transmitted from the encoder 10. A backup RAM 13 is a memory for storing set values such as offset values to determine the run length of the web after a register mark is detected, and the set values are variably inputted by a key pad 14 which is a data input unit. The counter function of RAM 12 is executed by a reversible register mark decision counter 12a whose function is to prevent the same register mark from being sensed twice due to rewind of the web by back tension and whose count is added to the decision value of ROM 11 at forward rotation of the encoder 10 and is subtracted therefrom at its reverse rotation, a first offset counter 12b and a second offset counter 12b′ which are incremented at forward rotation of the encoder 10 in the offset sequence after a register mark is detected, and a time lag counter 12c which is incremented at forward rotation of the encoder 10 in the time lag sequence after the count of the first or the second counter comes to the offset value. CRT 15 in Fig. 5 is a display device. Control operation of the system C′ is shown in Fig. 6. Fixed data of 20 mm decision value and 7 mm time lag value is previously stored in ROM 11, and the set value such as the offset value is previously inputted digitally into the backup RAM 13 of the control system C′ by means of the key pad 14, and then the packaging apparatus is started. When the apparatus is started, the brake of the clutch and brake 6 is turned off and the clutch thereof on to actuate the delivery belts, and the delivery of the web is started, and accordingly the web a travels and the encoder 10 rotates to perform measurement. At first, during travel of the web a , a forward rotation of the encoder 10 causes the register mark decision counter 12a of RAM 12 to subsequently decrement the decision count from 20 to 0. When a register mark of the web a is detected by the sensor S during travel of the web a , it is decided whether or not the decision counter 12a is zeroed at the point. If it is not zeroed, the offset sequence does not start as it is assumed that the register mark has previously been detected. If it is zeroed, a register mark detecting signal makes the operation proceed to the offset sequence. In the offset sequence illustrated in the drawing, an offset sequence 1 in which the first offset counter 12b is operated and an offset sequence 2 in which the second offset counter 12b′ is operated are programmed. The counters 12b and 12b′ operate alternately. If the offset sequence 1 is started, the first offset counter 12b counts the amount of rotation (pulse count) of the encoder 10 in response to the travel of the web a . When the count reaches the offset value of RAM 13, the first offset counter of RAM 12 is reset to zero and the decision counter is reset to 20, and then the operation proceeds to the time lag sequence. In the time lag sequence, a predetermined length of web travel is performed with the clutch of the clutch and brake 6 off, after the first offset counter of RAM 12 is reset to zero, and then the time lag counter 12c of RAM 12 starts counting, and when the count reaches the time lag value stored in ROM 11, the brake of the clutch and brake 6 is turned on to stop the delivery belts 3. During the above operation, material to be packaged is fed through the cylindrical member 2, and with the delivery belts 3 kept in a stop condition, the sealing device 5 performs sealing. When the sealing by the sealing device 5 is completed, the delivery belts 3 are restarted to repeat the above mentioned operation. As the delivery belts 3 repeat start and stop to intermittently deliver the web a , the web a will be retracted or moves to and fro reciprocatingly on the sensor S due to slack of the web a , when the delivery belts 3 are stopped, and in such a case, the sensor S may detect the same register mark more than twice. At occurance of such a phenomenon, the encoder is reversely rotated or repeats small amounts of forward and reverse rotations. The decision counter 12a of RAM 12 is incremented at forward rotation of the encoder 10 and decremented at reverse rotation thereof, and when the sensor S detects a register mark, it is decided whether or not the decision counter is zeroed. If the decision counter 12a is not zeroed, the detected register mark is decided to be the one previously detected, and transition to the offset sequence caused by detection of the register mark is inhibited to prevent malfunctions of the delivery belts 3. Such a process of preventing duplicate detection of a register mark by the decision counter is also effective to prevent malfunctions caused by, such as, misprint of register marks. Though, in the above embodiment, there are provided two offset sequences for the operation, it is of course possible to perform the operation in a single offset sequence. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 4, stop time of the delivery means can be varied by inputting the set values (offset values) to the control system by the input unit so as to set or adjust stop timing of the web. Therefore, the registering operation of the packaging material is remarkably facilitated in comparison with the conventional sensor-moving system, and also has a good reproducibility. Furthermore, as the mesuring means measures the actual length of the web travel in the offset sequence, the set amount of the web delivery can be kept constant to improve delivery precision. As the sensor is fixed at a position, attachment structure thereof is simple in comparison with that for a moving sensor, so that the structure associated with the sensor can be simplified.

Claims: A packaging machine of the form, fill and seal type, said packaging machine comprising means for delivering a web (a) to a tube forming member (2), braking means (6) to stop the web after a predetermined length has been delivered, longitudinal (4) and transverse (5) sealing elements for sealing said predetermined length to form a sealed bag, filling means for filling the bag before sealing, and control means for measuring said predetermined length and for operating said braking means when the predetermined length has been measured, characterised in that said control means comprises a web movement sensor (10), a counter means (12) which is operated by the sensor (10) to count up as the web advances, and comparison means (13) which operates the braking means (6) when the count in counter is a preset value, said counter (12) and sensor (10) being adapted to be operated in the reverse direction in that said counter (12) can be operated by the sensor (10) to count down in the event that the web overfeeds past the sensor (10) due to inertia in the system and is subsequently retracted by the amount of the overfeed. A packaging machine according to claim 1, characterised in that the control means includes a clutch in said means for driving the web. A packaging machine according to claim 2, characterised in that the sensor comprises an encoder (10) positioned adjacent the web (a) and rotatable in both forward and reverse directions at a speed corresponding to the speed of the web (a). A packaging machine according to claim 3, characterised in that the encoder (10) transmits pulses corresponding to the run length of the web (a) moving over the encoder (10) to a central processing unit of the control system. A packaging machine according to claim 4, characterised in that the comparison means includes a ROM (11) for storing fixed data and control data and a backup RAM (13) into which predetermined target values for the counter means (12) can be entered. A packaging machine according to claim 5, characterised in that the web (a) is provided with register marks at regular intervals along its length and said sensor is arranged to detect the marks. A packaging machine according to claim 6, characterised in that the sensor comprises a register mark sensor (S) positioned upstream of the encoder (10) and the counter means (12) includes a plurality of counter systems for counting the run length of the web (a), the offset length of the web (a) which is measured before the said run length and a time lag length which is measured after said run length. A packaging machine according to any preceeding claim, wherein the counter is a RAM (12).

Inventors: ISHIHARA, HISAMITSU, KANNO, NOBUAKI, KOBAYASHI, HISAFUMI
Applicants: TOKYO AUTOMATIC MACHINERY WORKS LIMITED
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B65B9
IPC codes: B65B9, B65B41