Integral protective and sound-insulating chamber, particularly for automatic packaging machines

Abstract: The sound-insulating and protective chamber largely encloses the automatic machine, excepting the opposite extremities of its base which have removable covers (301) and the means (15) for feeding in the wrapping material and the electrical control panel (16). The chamber is closed at the anterior front by an outer door (22) which is convex towards the exterior in plan view and supported from above by an arm (21, 121) that pivots upon a vertical spindle (18) fixed to the top of said chamber. Integral with the bottom and top of the door are respective projecting plates (31, 32) which, when the door is in a closed position, are located below and above, respectively, the horizontal fixed walls (3, 8) of the chamber. When the door is closed, its vertical sides touch those of the chamber aperture.

Description: The present invention relates to a protective and sound-insulating chamber for automatic machines with noise producing elements, such as for example automatic machines for the wrapping of sweets and chocolates. Prior art document US-A-3 860 086 discloses a noise reduction chamber for a machine with noise producing elements in accordance with the preamble of claim 1 and comprising an enclosure having side walls, top walls, front walls and back walls made of sound reflecting panels. Most of the panels are easily lifted off or are hinged so as to define apertures for access to the elements of the machine. According to the present invention, there is provided, for the noise reduction of an automatic machine, a protective and sound-insulating chamber as defined in claim 1 and presenting a front aperture which is closed by a swingable door which allows, in an easy and simple manner, the maximum of accessibility into the machine for maintenance and adjustment. The machine, suitably raised off the floor, is largely enclosed in an integral sound-insulating and protective chamber, of for example parallelepiped shape, provided on at least its anterior front with an aperture closed by a door which is convex towards the exterior in plan view and supported from above by an arm that pivots upon a vertical spindle fixed to the top of said chamber. Integral with the bottom and top of the door may be projecting plates which, when said door is in the closed position, are located above and below, respectively, the horizontal fixed walls of the chamber. Owing to its internally concave shape, the door forms part of the sound-insulating chamber, so that when it is opened it is easier to access those working parts of the machine that are inside said chamber. One integral protective and sound-insulating chamber, constructed in accordance with the principles set forth above, and suitably dimensioned, can be used for many types of packaging machines, with obvious advantages from the point of view of practicality and economy of manufacture. Other features of the chamber according to the innovation, and the advantages procured thereby, will be clearer in the following description, which refers to the figures of the three accompanying plates of drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a wrapping machine with the chamber in an elevation view from the anterior front; Fig. 2 shows the wrapping machine with the chamber seen in plan view from above; Fig. 3 shows the wrapping machine with the chamber seen in side elevation. In Figure 3 the numerals 1, 101 indicate the base of the machine which has an L-shaped lateral profile and in which the lower part 1 serves chiefly as a pedestal and supports the machine's drive motor, while the upper part 101 supports the main parts of the machine and is fitted at the back with drive means, not shown, connected to said motor, and its anterior part supports the various working parts, of which more later. Fixed to the upper free part of the base 1 is the lower horizontal wall 3 of the present sound-insulating chamber, which has loadbearing characteristics and is made from any suitable material, not necessarily transparent. Fixed to the extremities of the wall 3 are two vertical parallel walls 6, 7 that form the lateral walls of the chamber, and fixed to these is the vertical rear wall 5 of said chamber, these walls being preferably made from sheets of suitable thickness of any suitable transparent material and being provided with a peripheral frame 4, preferably of aluminium sections. Fixed to the walls 5, 6, 7, which project a suitable amount above the part 101 of the base, is the horizontal upper wall 8 which, like the lower wall 3, is made from a non-transparent material. As can be seen in Figures 2 and 3, the rear wall 5 is preferably hung on vertical hinges 105 and is provided with a handle 205 with closure means, forming a door which can when necessary be opened to give access to the drive means at the back of the machine. Still in Figure 3, it can be seen that the lateral walls 6 and 7 of the chamber stand on and are fixed to the extremities of the raised part 101 of the base, in such a way that these extremities project from the sound-insulating chamber and can be fitted with removable sound-insulated covers 301 for quick access to the internal parts of the base. The lateral walls 6, 7 extend down at the rear in order also to involve the part 1 of the base for its entire height. That part of the sound-insulating chamber which projects at the rear from the base 1, 101 is closed at the bottom by a seal 103. It will be understood that the scope of the innovation also includes the alternative in which the part 101 of the base is completely enclosed by the sound-insulating and protective chamber. In Figure 3, the numerals 100 and 200 indicate internal partitions inside the sound-insulating and protective chamber: these are positioned at the top of the part 101 of the base and are made of a suitable sound-absorbent material. They divide the anterior part of the chamber from the rear part. Housed with ample clearance inside the chamber defined by the walls 3, 103, 5, 6, 7, 8, with its open anterior front, are the anterior and upper walls of the part 101 of the base, with the various working parts of the machine, which include, purely by way of indication: the horizontal table 9 rotating on a vertical axis and having peripheral slots or grooves each designed to take one sweet; the means 10 for feeding in and cutting the wrapping material (see below); the unit 11 formed by the mutually opposing lifting means which cyclically lift a sweet overlaid with the wrapping material from said table 9; a wheel 12 on a horizontal axis with a plurality of radial grippers set at equiangular intervals, which take the sweet with its wrapper from said unit 11 and lift it around a curved path on which there operate means that partly close the wrapping material; and a guiding and transferring unit 13 that takes the sweets with the partially closed wrapping material from the wheel 12, definitively closes this wrapping material and discharges the wrapped sweets to the outside of the sound-insulating chamber through an aperture in the wall 7 of this chamber. This same wall of the chamber also contains another aperture for the passage of, for example, the chute 14 which delivers the sweets to the table 9. It will be understood that, depending on the type of machine operating inside the present sound-insulating chamber, the packaged product may leave this chamber through an aperture in the wall 6 rather than through the wall 7 as stated above. Fixed to one of the extremities of the part 101 of the base is the projection 201 that supports the electrical control panel 16 and the reel 15 with the means for feeding in the wrapping material that will pass into the sound-insulating chamber through an aperture formed in its wall 6. Fixed to the upper wall 8 of the chamber, in a basically central position, is a fork 17 with a vertical pin 18 supporting a rotatable sleeve 19, from which there extend, with intermediate plates 20, 120, identical horizontal sections 21, 121 arranged parallel with and a short distance from said wall 8: their outermost ends are fixed to the upper corners of the frame of a door 22 of transparent material, which is convex towards the outside in plan view and closes off the anterior front aperture of the sound-insulating chamber. In this position of closure, the uprights 23, 123 of the frame of the door 22 are arranged parallel with, externally to and a short distance from the uprights 104, 204 of the anterior aperture of the chamber and, more particularly, the upright 123 abuts against an inclined edge of the upright 204 which, like the upright 104, is trapezoidal in cross-section and suitable for the purpose. The upright 123 of the door is fitted with closure means 24 which engage with a spring action with corresponding means on the upright 204, all of which may be devised and readily constructed by those skilled in the art. These closure means may be mechanical or magnetic, for example. The upright 123 is provided centrally on the outside with a handle 27 with which to open and close the door 22. The upper cross member 28 and lower cross member 128 of the frame of the door 22 are each in the form of a sector of a circle whose centre of curvature is on the axis of the pin 18, so that when the door 22 is opened by turning it on this pin 18, as illustrated in Figure 2 in dashed lines, the door does not interfere with the upright 104 of the anterior aperture of the chamber. In order to contain the outward convexity of the door 22, the pin 18 is as close as possible to the rear wall 5 of the chamber. In order to ensure that the door 22 can be opened without being obstructed by the means feeding the sweets onto the chute 14 and taking the packaged sweets off the means 13, these means may be oriented parallel with the wall 7 of the chamber, as indicated schematically in Figure 2 by the arrows 29 and 30. Figures 2 and 3 show that the space enclosed by the sections 21, 121 and 28 is closed by a plate 31 fixed in some suitable manner to these sections. Fixed to and projecting from the lower section 128 of the frame of the door 22 is a horizontal plate 32, which in plan view is in the form of a sector of a circular annulus and which, when the door 22 is in the closed position, is positioned underneath and a short distance from the lower wall 3 of the chamber. It will be obvious that these plates 31 and 32 form the necessary closures between the convex door 22 and the upper and lower walls of the chamber, thereby closing off said chamber from the exterior. The presence of the plates 31, 32 means that the anterior aperture of the chamber can be close to the working parts of the machine, which are thus easily reached by the operator when the door is opened. In order further to facilitate access to the machine's working parts inside the sound-insulating chamber, the upper wall 8 of this chamber is provided at the anterior front with a large recess 33, as indicated in chain lines in Figure 2. When the door 22 is in the closed position, the plate 31 is over said recess 33 and closes it off from the exterior. It will be understood that the lower wall 3 of the chamber may also have a small anterior recess that can be closed by the horizontal plate 32. The clearances between the uprights of the frame of the door 22 and the uprights of the sound-insulating chamber aperture, and the clearances between the cross members of this aperture and the abovementioned cover plates 31, 32, can be wholly or partly filled by means of small brushes and/or seals, but these are not illustrated as they can be devised and readily constructed by those skilled in the art. It will be understood that any small modifications that achieve equal utility and follow the same innovative concept can be made to the sound-insulating chamber here described, without thereby going beyond the limits of protection of the present industrial model, as defined by the appended claims. For example, one variant may relate to the shape of the door, which may differ from that illustrated. Another variant may relate to the fact that the door 22 is opened and closed by a servocontrol. Another variant may relate to the fact that the door 22 is opened with an anticlockwise rotation of this door (Fig. 2), thus bringing it to the side of the reel of wrapping material. The position of the means by which sweets are fed to the chute 14 and of the means used to discharge the wrapped sweets from the unloading means 13, is thus not dependent on the opening movement of the door 22. In this variant the pivot pin 18 may be located elsewhere, not in the middle of the wall 8 as in Figure 2, but close to the wall 6, with the section 121 shorter than the section 21. With this modification the door 22 is opened with a considerable projecting movement of the door from the lateral wall 6, so that the opening action is not obstructed by the means 3, 15, 16. In the following claims, references in brackets are purely by way of indication and do not limit the scope of protection of said claims.

Claims: Protective and sound-insulating chamber of an automatic machine with noise producing elements, comprising two side walls (6, 7), a rear wall (5), at least one bottom wall (3, 103) and a top wall (8), the said walls forming an enclosure which largely encloses the machine, the said enclosure presenting a front aperture through which it is possible the access to the various working parts of the machine, the said aperture being closed by a front door (22), the said walls and the said door being made at least partially of transparent material, with reinforcing frames (4), characterized by the fact that the said front door (22) is convex towards the exterior in plan view, and is supported by at least one arm (21, 121) swingable above the top wall (8), the said swingable arm (21, 121) being supported for rotation about a vertical spindle (18) mounted on the said top wall (8). Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the said front aperture is vertically defined by vertical uprights (104, 204) corresponding to the free ends of the side walls (6, 7) intended to cooperate with corresponding vertical uprights (23, 123) of the front door (22), the said door (22) being further provided at its top and and its bottom with horizontal inwardly projecting plates (31, 32) intended to cooperate, in the closure position of the door, with corresponding top and bottom edges of the said aperture. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the rear wall (5) is constructed as a rear door mounted on vertical hinges (105) to allow access to the rear elements of the machine. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that it is provided with one or more internal partitions (100, 200) of suitable sound-absorbent material, in order to divide a front portion from a rear portion at the interior of the chamber. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 1, in which the front door (22) is in the form of a sector of a circle in plan view, with its centre of curvature on the vertical spindle (18) on which the said door is pivotable. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 2, in which the front door (22) is defined by a peripheral frame (23, 123, 28, 128) mounting a sheet of transparent material and attached by its upper corners to a pair of sections (21, 121) that define the pivot arm of the door and are integral with a sleeve that rotates upon a vertical spindle (18) held by a fork (17) mounted on the upper wall of the chamber, while the horizontal plate (31) projecting inwardly from the top of the frame is also fixed to the said sections (21, 121) defining the pivot arm. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 2 characterized by the fact that the top wall (8) at its side over the aperture presents a recessed portion (33) which is closed by the inwardly projecting upper horizontal plate (31) whenever the anterior door (22) is closed. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 2 characterized by the fact that the inwardly projecting lower horizontal plate (32) is in the form of a sector of annulus in plan view and is located beneath the bottom wall (3) of the chamber whenever the front door (22) is closed. Protective and sound-insulating chamber according to claim 2, characterized by the fact that at least one of the uprights (123) of the front door (22) is provided externally with a handle (27) and is also provided with locking or closure means (24) which engage with a spring action corresponding means on the upright (204) of the aperture against which the door (22) abuts whenever closed.

Inventors: CARLE MARCO GIOVANNI, CARLE, MARCO GIOVANNI
Applicants: CARLE & MONTANARI SPA, CARLE & MONTANARI S.P.A.
Application year: 1996
Main classification: B65B65
IPC codes: G10K11, B65B65