Packaging apparatus

Abstract: A weighing-packaging-pricing apparatus has a roll supporting device (100) to rotatably support a film roll (101), a film transporting device to pull a stretch film from this film roll and to transport a stretched film sheet to a packaging station (500), a weighing device (300) for weighing and measuring the dimensions of an object on a tray to be packed while it travels to a lifter which lifts the object to the packaging station and pushes it against the stretched film sheet, a folding device for folding edge sections of the film sheet to form a package, a retractable sealing device for sealing the edge sections, a label printer (900) for printing price label and a control device (800) which controls the film transportation device such that the film is stretched when it is perforated and when it is delivered to the packaging station, operates the folding device according to the measured dimensions of the object, and automatically selects a weighing-pricing mode of operation if the sealing device is found in retracted position. Separation between units for clamping both side edge sections of the film is automatically adjusted according to the length of the film roll to provide proper tension to the film.

Description: This invention relates to a packaging apparatus which supports a stretched film sheet at a packaging station, lifts an object from below said streched film sheet and packages said object by folding edge sections of said film sheet towards the bottom surface of said object, said packaging apparatus including a film supplying device which comprises roll supporting means for rotatably supporting a film roll and adjustable film transporting means for clamping side edge sections of a film pulled out of said roll supporting means and transporting said film to said packaging station. So-called pre-packaged merchandises, such as fresh produce placed on a styrofoam tray and wrapped with a stretch film with the tray, are commonly available nowadays at supermarkets and elsewhere. Apparatus for producing such pre-packaged merchandises usually includes a roll supporting device for rotatably supporting a roll of stretch film, a film transporting device for providing a film sheet of a desired size and holding it stretched for a packaging process, a weighing device for weighing items to be packaged including a tray, a lifter for lifting the weighed item to press it against a film sheet stretched above the lifter, a folding machine for folding the edge sections of the film sheet around the edges of the tray, and a sealing device for heating the folded edge sections of the film sheet. In addition, some apparatus are also provided with a label printer for printing the price of each packaged product on a label to be pasted thereon. It now goes without saying that each of these many constituent devices, having different functions to perform, can be improved. Regarding the mechanism for supporting a roll of film, it is desirable that such a mechanism be able to support film rolls of different width so that trays of different sizes can be used. According to Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 57-194915, a plurality of mutually parallel and vertically extending endless belts for clamping one side edge of a film to be transported are stretched around a frame. A bar is attached to this frame and the user holds this handle to manually move the frame in the transverse direction according to the width of the film to be used. When a different film roll with a different width is to be used, however, at least one of the film transporting mechanisms on one side of the film must be manually moved in the transverse direction so as to adjust the distance between the mechanisms for clamping the individual side edge sections of the film according to the width of the new film roll to be installed. Such adjustments are extremely cumbersome. According to the GB-A-2,080,240 the film transporting device is also adjustable but only with the aid of a hand wheel, which is connected fast in rotation with a threated spindle. Therefore, when a different film roll with a different width is to be used, the film transporting mechanism at least on one side must be manually moved so as to adjust the distance between the clamping mechanisms according to the width of the new film roll to be installed. Such adjustments are also extremely cumbersome as described above in connection with the Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 57-194915. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved film-supplying device for a packaging apparatus with which film rolls can be exchanged easily and the separation between the film transporting mechanisms for clamping side edge sections of a film can be adjusted efficiently and effortlessly. This object of the present invention is achieved by providing improved roll supporting means according to claims 1 to 4. Brief Description of the Drawings The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, illustrate various aspects of the present invention and, together with the specification, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a front view of a weighing-packaging-pricing apparatus embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional side view of the apparatus of Fig. 1 taken along the line 2-2 therein; Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the roll supporting device shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 2 to show the structure of the movable film transportin unit; Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 7-7 of Fig. 1; and Figs. 8-10 are schematic sectional side views of a mechanism shown as a portion of Fig. 2 according to different embodiments of the invention. Detailed Description of the Invention As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a weighing-packaging-pricing apparatus 50 embodying the present invention is comprised of a roll supporting device 100, a film transporting device 200, a weighing device 300, a lifter 400, a packaging station 500, a folding device 600, a sealing device 700, a control device 800 and a label printer 900 having a label dispenser 950. The weighing device 300 is in front at the center of the main housing 51 of the apparatus 50. The roll supporting device 100 is disposed in one side section of the main frame 51 and rotatably supports a film roll 101 around which a stretch film 60 of a specified width is wound many times. The film transporting device 200 is for holding by clamping both side edge sections of the film 60 pulled out of the roll supporting device 100 to transport it to the packaging station 500 formed above the weighing device 300 inside the main housing 51. The lifter 400 is for receiving from the weighing device 300 an item or items 70 such as fresh produce placed on a tray 75 to be weighed and lifting it to the packaging station 500. The folding device 600 is for using the film 60 transported to the packaging station 500 to package the item 70 together with the tray 75. The sealing device 700 is disposed above the weighing device 300 and in front of the packaging station 500 and is for thermally sealing the film 60 which has been folded towards the bottom of the tray 75 by the folding device 600. The control device 800, equipped with a display 801 and a keyboard as input means 801, is on the top surface of the main housing 51 and not only controls the operations of the weighing device 300, the film transporting device 200, the lifter 400, the folding device 600 and the sealing device 700 but also calculates the price of the item 70 on the basis of a signal indicative of its weight measured by the weighing device 300. The label printer 900 is for printing the weight, price, etc. of the packaged product on a label. The label dispenser 950 is formed unistructurally with the label printer 900. The input means 802 of the control device 800 may be operated to switch from one to another of the modes of operation of the apparatus 50. Selectable modes of operation of the apparatus 50 include the weighing-packaging-pricing mode wherein the weighing device 300, the folding device 600, the sealing device 700 and the label printer 900 are operated so that an item or items to be packaged can be weighed, packaged and priced in one series of action, the packaging mode wherein the folding device 600 and the sealing device 700 are operated such that only the packaging process is effected on an item or items to be packaged, and the weighing-pricing mode wherein the weighing device 300 and the label printer 900 are operated such that an item which has been packaged in the packaging mode of operation is weighed and priced. In what follows, the devices of which the apparatus 50 is comprised are described individually. Roll Supporting Device As shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, the roll supporting device 100 for rotatably supporting the film roll 101 is formed basically with a roll bar 102, a fixed holder 103, a movable holder 104 and a coil spring 105. The roll bar 102 has one of its ends rotatably supported by a bracket 106 secured to the main housing 51 at a specified position. The fixed holder 103 is affixed to the other end of the roll bar 102 and its diameter is such that it can pass through the film roll 101 and support one end of the film roll 101. The movable holder 104 has a flange part 107 with a large diameter unistructurally formed therewith and is movable longitudinally along the extension of the roll bar 102 between the position shown with solid lines and the position shown with broken lines according to the width of the film roll 101. The movable holder 104 serves to support the other end of the film roll 101. The coil spring 105 is attached to a pair of pieces 108 affixed to the mutually opposite surfaces of the fixed holder 103 and the movable holder 104 such that its biasing force tends to pull them together. The external circumferential surface of the fixed holder 103 is provided not only with a plurality of plate springs 109 which contact the inner surface of the core material 110 for the film roll 101 so as to prevent free rotation of the film roll 101 but also with a stopper member 111 which is biased by another plate spring 112 to protrude from this external circumferential surface of the fixed holder 103. When the film roll 101 is mounted, this stopper member 111 is pressed by the internal circumferential surface of the film roll 101 and is retracted into the fixed holder 103. After the film roll 101 has passed through the position of the stopper member 111, however, a portion of the stopper member 111 comes to protrude from the circumferential surface to engage with an end part of the film roll 101. Thus, if the film roll 101 is mounted from the side of the fixed holder 103 as shown in Fig. 2, the movable holder 104 moves along the roll bar 102 by a distance determined by the width of this film roll 101 and one end of the film roll 101 comes to be engaged with the stopper member 111. In this manner, the film roll 101 is kept in a mounted condition by being sandwiched between the fixed holder 103 and the movable holder 104. When it is desired to remove the film roll 101 from the roll bar 102, on the other hand, one has only to release the engaged condition of the stopper member 111 at one end of the core material 110. In other words, the film roll 101 can be exchanged easily according to the present invention. On the end part of the roll bar 102 distal from the fixed holder 103 and supported by the main housing 51, there is a brake drum 113 unistructurally attached and a lever 114 to which a brake shoe 115 sliding against this drum 113 is supported rotatably. If this lever 114 is rotated by a solenoid 116 disposed at a specified position on the main housing 51, the brake shoe 115 comes to be pressed against the external circumferential surface of the drum 113 such that the rotary motion of the roll bar 102 is impeded and the film 60 is thereby prevented from becoming pulled from the film roll 101 more than necessary. Next, there will be explained a mechanism according to the present invention by which the separation between the fixed and movable film transporting units 201 and 202 can be adjusted according to, or to become equal to, the width of the film 60. As shown in Figs. 2 and 6, the flange part 107 of the movable holder 104 engages with a bar 280 with an inverted U-shaped cross-section supported by a horizontally elongated member 281 which engages with a horizontal rail 282 so as to be horizontally slidable therealong with the horizontal motion of the movable holder 104 towards and away from the fixed holder 103. A bracket 283 is attached to one end of this horizontally elongated member 281 and a position sensor 284 for detecting the position of the movable film transporting unit 202 is secured to this bracket 283. Correspondingly, a horizontal bar 285 with an L-shaped cross-section is attached to the frame 203 of the movable film transporting unit 202 through a bracket 286 in such a way that the position of this horizontal bar 285 is detected by the position sensor 284 and hence that the position of the movable film transporting unit 202 can be adjusted according to the motion of the movable holder 104 when, for example, a new film roll is installed. To explain this function more in detail, the screw-shaft motor 210 is operated, when the film roll 101 is to be replaced by a new one, to rotate the screw shafts 206 in an appropriate direction so as to move the movable film transporting unit 202 to the right (from its position shown in Fig. 2). This causes the horizontal bar 285 to be separated from the position sensor 284. When the movable holder 104 is moved after a new film roll 101 is installed, the position sensor 284 moves accordingly to a specified position determined by the width of the film 60. The movable film transporting unit 202 is thereafter moved to the left (with reference to Fig. 2) towards the fixed film transporting unit 201 until the position detector 284 detects the horizontal bar 285 which is attached to the movable film transporting unit 202 and hence moves therewith. The particular embodiment described above of the mechanism for automatically adjusting the film transporting device 200 is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Fig. 8 shows another mechanism embodying the present invention characterized wherein a limit switch 290 is attached to the bottom of the movable film transporting unit 202 such that its contact piece 291 can come into contact with either the movable holder 104 or the film roll 101. If the amplitude of the oscillatory motion of the contact piece 291 exceeds a certain maximum value when the film roll 101 is replaced with a new one, the limit switch 290 outputs a signal which causes the screw shafts 206 to rotate and the movable film transporting unit 202 to move in the direction of the arrow F. A new film roll 101 may be installed in the meantime. As soon as the movable film transporting unit 202 reaches a predetermined right-hand position, the direction of rotation of the screw shafts 206 is reversed and the movable film transporting unit 202 begins to move in the direction of the arrow E and, when the contact piece 291 contacts either the newly installed film roll 101 or the side of the movable holder 104, the motion of the screw shafts 206 is stopped in response to a signal from the limit switch 290, thereby causing also the movable film transportation unit 202 to stop. Fig. 9 is still another mechanism according to the present invention for the same purpose, characterized wherein use is made of a photosensor instead of a limit switch. Photosensors of various types such as the transmission type and the reflection type may be used for the purpose. Fig. 9 shows an example where use is made of a photosensor of the transmission type using a light emitter 292 and a light receiver 293. A vertical arm 294 is attached to the bottom surface of the movable film transporting unit 202 and a C-shaped arm 295 is attached to the lower end of this vertical arm 294. The light emitter 292 is attached to one end of the C-shaped arm 295 and the light receiver 293 is attached to the other end thereof such that light emitted from the light emitter 292 will be received by the light receiver 293 by traversing the space where the film roll 101 is set. The movable film transporting unit 202 according to this embodiment is so designed as to always stop at the position vertically corresponding to that of (or exactly above) the movable holder 104. Thus, if the movable holder 104 is moved in the direction of the arrow E in connection with the replacement of the film roll 101, the beam of light from the light emitter 292 which has been obstructed by the movable holder 104 is detected by the light receiver 293 and the screw shafts 206 begin to rotate in response thereto, causing the movable film transporting unit 202 to also move in the direction of the arrow E by following the motion of the movable holder 104. The movable film transporting unit 202 is also so designed that it stops at a position not reached by the movable holder 104 at its initial position if no film roll 101 is set in the roll supporting device 100. If a new film roll 101 is set thereafter, the beam of light from the light emitter 292 is obstructed by this film roll 101 and a signal emitted in response causes the screw shafts 206 to rotate in the reverse direction so as to move the movable film transporting unit 202 to move in the direction of the arrow F. When the movable film transporting unit 202 thereafter passes the set position of the movable holder 104 and the beam is detected again by the light receiver 293, the screw shafts 206 reverse the direction of their rotation, thereby beginning to move the movable film transporting unit 202 in the direction of arrow E. When the beam comes to be obstructed again by the movable holder 104 still thereafter, the rotation of the screw shafts 206 is stopped, causing the movable film transporting unit 202 to stop at a position vertically corresponding to that of (or exactly above) the movable holder 104. If a photosensor of the reflection type is to be used, the surface of the roll bar 102 opposite to the photosensor may be prepared as a reflective surface, the movable film transporting unit being so designed as to stop at the boundary where the beam reflected by the roll bar 102 ceases to be detected. The two examples described above by way of Figs. 8 and 9 are characterized wherein the film-clamping position of the film transporting device 200 (that is, the stopping position of the movable film transportation unit 202) is automatically adjusted according to the set position of the film roll 101 in the roll supporting device 100. The example shown in Fig. 10, by contrast, is characterized wherein the film-clamping position of the film transporting device 200 is automatically adjusted on the basis of the width of the film roll 101 set in the roll supporting device 100. As shown in Fig. 10, a scale beam 296 is set parallel to the roll bar 102 according to this example. A scale S, like a bar code repeating reflective and non-reflective lines at uniform intervals, is formed on the surface of the scale beam 296. The movable holder 104, on the other hand, is provided with an arm 297 extending from its side surface and a scanner 298 for detecting the striped reflective lines is attached to this arm 297 such that the scale S lies along the trajectory of this scanner 298 as the movable holder 104 is moved. The scale beam 296 has a totally reflective area 299 at the beginning end of the scale S and is so disposed that the scanner 298 is opposite this totally reflective area 299 when the movable holder 104 is at its initial position. When a film roll 101 is set in the roll supporting device 100 and the movable holder 104 is moved in the direction of the arrow F, the scanner 298 scans the scale S and outputs a pulse signal in response. The pulse signal is received by a counter (not shown) and counted thereby as an indicator of the distance by which the movable holder 104 has moved. The width of the set film roll 101 is calculated from the distance thus counted, the stopping position of the movable film transporting unit 202 is thereby determined, and the separation between the fixed and movable film transporting units 201 and 202 can be adjusted optimally corresponding to the width of the film 60. Besides the examples described above, the mechanism may be so designed that not only the movable film transporting unit 202 but the fixed film transporting unit 201 is also movable such that its position always corresponds to that of the left-hand edge surface of the film roll 101. With the film transporting device 200 thus structured according to the present invention, the film transportation units 201 and 202 can be automatically and constantly positioned optimally whenever a film roll of a different length is installed and hence the work efficiency can be improved.

Claims: In a packaging apparatus (50) which supports a stretched film sheet at a packaging station (500), lifts an object from below said stretched film sheet and packages said object by folding edge sections of said film sheet towards the bottom surface of said object, said packaging apparatus (50) including a film supplying device which comprises roll supporting means (100) for rotatably supporting a film roll (101) and adjustable film transporting means (200) for clamping side edge sections of a film (60) pulled out of said roll supporting means (100) and transporting said film to said packaging station (500), characterised in that said film supplying device includes detecting means (284, 290, 292, 293, 298) for detecting film roll position where said film roll (101) is set in said roll supporting means (100) and adjusting means (204, 206) for automatically adjusting clamping positions where said film transporting means (200) clamps said film according to the film roll position detected by said detecting means (284, 290, 292, 293, 298). In a packaging apparatus (50) which supports a stretched film sheet at a packaging station (500), lifts an object from below said stretched film sheet and packages said object by folding edge sections of said film sheet towards the bottom surface of said object, said packaging apparatus (50) including a film supplying device which comprises roll supporting means (100) for rotatably supporting a film roll (101) and adjustable film transporting means (200) for clamping side edge sections of a film (60) pulled out of said roll supporting means (100) and transporting said film (60) to said packaging station (500), characterised in that said film supplying device includes detecting means (284, 290, 292, 293, 298) for detecting the width of said film roll (101) and adjusting means (204, 206) for automatically adjusting clamping positions where said film transporting means (200) clamps said film (60) according to the width of said film roll (101), detected by said detecting means (284, 290, 292, 293, 298). In a packaging apparatus (50) which supports a stretched film sheet at a packaging station (500), lifts an object from below said stretched film sheet and packages said object by folding edge sections of said film sheet towards the bottom surface of said object, said packaging apparatus (50) including a film supplying device which comprises roll supporting means (100) for rotatably supporting a film roll (101) and adjustable film transporting means (200) for clamping side edge sections of a film (60) pulled out of said roll supporting means (100) and transporting said film to said packaging station (500), characterised in that said roll supporting means (100) includes a roll bar (102) for supporting said film roll (101), a fixed holder (103) affixed to said roll bar (102) and a movable holder (104) which is movable along said roll bar (102) said fixed holder (103) and said movable holder (104) serving to clampingly support said film roll therebetween, said film transporting means (200) including a fixed transporting unit (201) for transporting said film by clamping one side edge of said film, a movable transporting unit (202) for transporting said film by clamping the other side edge of said film (60) opposite from said one side edge said movable transporting unit (202) being movable such that the distance therefrom to said fixed transportation unit (201) is adjustable, and driving means (206 - 210) for driving said movable transporting unit (202) according to the position of said movable holder (104) such that the distance between said fixed transporting unit (201) and said movable transporting unit (202) corresponds to the width of said film (60). The packaging apparatus of claim 3, characterised in that said roll supporting means (100) further comprising an elastic member (105) for applying a biasing force on said movable holder (104) towards said fixed holder (103), said fixed holder (103) having a diameter small enough such that said fixed holder can pass through said film roll (101), said fixed holder (103) having engaging means (111) which protrudes therefrom after said film roll (101) has passed over said fixed holder to thereby engage one end of said film roll (101) therewith.

Inventors: HIROBE KENJI, KOMORI YOSHINORI, NAKASHIMA MASAMI, TAKEMURA KAZUHIKO, TERASHIMA KIICHI, HIROBE, KENJI, KOMORI, YOSHINORI, NAKASHIMA, MASAMI, TAKEMURA, KAZUHIKO, TERASHIMA, KIICHI
Applicants: ISHIDA SEISAKUSHO, ISHIDA CO., LTD.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: B65B11
IPC codes: B65B41, B65C9, B65B11