Method for folding and packing articles of clothing into bags and an apparatus for implementing such method

Abstract: A method for folding and packing articles of clothing into bags and an apparatus comprising six zones, in the first of which zones the article of clothing to be folded is laid out; in the second two longitudinal folds are formed; in the third a first lower cross-fold is formed by means of a retractable device (30); in the fourth a second middle cross-fold is formed by pre-pressing by way of a blade (44); in the fifth the article of clothing is packed into the bag, and in the sixth the bag is finally closed by means of a closing device (60) and collected in a collecting container. In the second zone auxiliary belts (23, 25) are provided on the tilting plates (22, 24) to improve the longitudinal folds of the articles of clothing, the device (30) allowing to reduce the length of the apparatus, and the device (60) providing a perfect closure of the bag flap.

Description: The present invention relates to an improved method for automatically folding articles of clothing and subsequently packing them on line into individual bags, as well as an apparatus suitable for implementing such method. Articles of clothing of wool, cotton or other textile fibers, produced directly by the manufactures or only assembled by third parties, must be carefully folded and packed into bags, usually of transparent material, which bags must be closed by means of the appropriate labels and provided with a cardboard support bearing a distinctive sign so that the article presents itself satisfactorily for sale. In many cases, the above mentioned operations are all performed manually, with evident waste of time and increased cost of labour. In order to speed up and facilitate the relative manual operations various apparatus are available which, however, carry out only partially and in an unsatisfactory manner the necessary operations which are difficult to perform on an article of clothing (which hereinafter, for brevity, will be called "article") exhibiting a poor consistency and stiffness. By way of example, already a first operating step, carried out in imperfect manner by the prior art apparatus, consists of longitudinally folding the article in order to fold the sleeves and a portion of its flanks onto its central part so as to reduce it nearly to half its width. This is performed in an imperfect manner because the article is displaced by a conveyor belt which, moving from the starting zone, wherein the article to be folded is laid out, to the zone wherein its side portions are folded over, becomes reduced in width thus entraining the article only at its central part, as a result of which its side parts, i.e. the flanks and shoulders, could be crumpled up or wrinkled with respect to the central part, thereby providing an imperfect folding. Moreover, with many known apparatuses, the packaging operation is performed by externally grasping the article by a grasping device, which increases considerably the thickness of the ensemble, thus requiring the use of a larger sized bag, which bag, once the grasping device is removed, will become slack, to the detriment of the aesthetic appearance when presenting the article for sale. Furthermore, the prior art folding apparatus do not allow both the inner cardboard sheet and the cardboard bearing the manufacturer's distinctive sign to be introduced into the bag, or the closing flap of said bag to be properly folded and well adherent. Finally, the drawback should not be overlooked whereby at the end of the packaging step, the article falls vertically into a collecting container, as a result of which the individual packaged articles could be undesirably wrinkled and crumpled up. An apparatus for folding T-shirts is described in US 3.744.903 granted on November 27, 1973 to Sjoman et al. In this patent the garment is folded around the sides of a card which is superimposed onto the article immediately after the latter's insertion into the machine. During the operation while the garment passes through the machine, said garment and the card are always confined between two conveyor belts which move at different speeds, and the machine members are designed on two or three superimposed levels; consequently the apparatus is very complicated and costly. Moreover, this apparatus does not foresee the insertion of the folded article into a bag. Object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for the folding and packaging of articles of clothing designed for overcoming the above mentioned drawbacks, while achieving the following aims: the perfect carrying out of the two longitudinal side foldings, the accurate implementation of a first and second lower cross-folding, the optional insertion of an inner stiffening cardboard element as well as of an outer cardboard element, or only one of these elements, the insertion of the article into a packaging bag which is strictly dimensioned to the size of said article in its folded condition, the improved closing of the bag with the bag adhering to the article placed therein, the falling, in a horizontal position of the articles packaged in their respective bags, directly into the containers for storage and/or dispatch, a reduced length of the apparatus. According to the invention, the above mentioned aims are achieved thanks to the method and apparatus of appended claims 1 and 3. The invention shall now be described in a more detailed manner with reference to an exemplary but not limitative embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 schematically illustrates the sequence of the operating steps for folding an article of clothing, up to the insertion thereof into a packing bag, said operating steps being carried out in the respective zones of the apparatus; Figure 2 is a schematic top plan view illustrating the apparatus for folding the article of clothing wherein are sequentially indicated the operating zones as well as the main operating elements of said apparatus; Figure 3 is a schematic side elevation view illustrating, in their respective order, the main elements of the apparatus shown in the top plan view of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a perspective view highlighting the pivoted plates which fold over the side portions of the article of clothing, and the related driving belt elements; Figure 5 schematically illustrates, on an enlarged scale, the retractable member provided for carrying out the folding operation of the lower portion of the article of clothing; Figure 6 schematically illustrates the fourth zone of the apparatus, where the middle cross folding of the article of clothing is carried out; Figure 7 is a perspective view illustrating the articulated connection and the function of the curtain-like element for folding over the flap of the bag; and Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the curtain-like element of Figure 7. For a better understanding of the method and of the respective apparatus for its implementation, Figure 1 sequentially illustrates the steps of folding the article of clothing up to the packing into a bag, the reference numerals of said figure corresponding to the zones of the apparatus which is generally indicated under the reference number 10 in Figure 2, in which zones said steps are carried out: A1 indicates the article arranged in the zone 1 of the folding and packaging apparatus, A2, A2' on the article two longitudinal foldings are carried out in the zone 2 of the apparatus, after having applied, if so required, an inner cardboard element C1; A3 on the article is carried out a first cross-folding or bottom folding in the zone 3 of the apparatus; A4 in the zone 4 of the apparatus a second cross-folding nearly at the middle longitudinal location of the article is carried out; A5 after having deposited the bag B, the article, which has already been folded in the zones 2, 3, 4, is introduced into said bag, possibly together with an outer cardboard element C2, in zone 5 of the apparatus; A6 the flap of the bag is closed, and a label E2 is applied in the zone 6 of the apparatus. At the end of the above mentioned operating steps, the article, closed in its respective bag, falls into a bay 8 underlying the zone 6. With reference to Figures 2 and 3, the zone 1 is provided, in its overall width, with a conveyor belt consisting, in a per se known manner, of a plurality of parallel belt elements 11, wound around rollers 12 and 13. Only a central portion 11' of the belt elements 11 is extended to the zone 2, said belt elements 11' being wound between a roller 12 and an end roller 14 (Fig. 3). In the zone 2 are carried out the longitudinal foldings, indicated under A2, A2' in Fig, 1, by means of the tilting plates 22 and 24, which are provided with belt elements 23 and 25, respectively. Said side belts, arranged according to the invention in a novel manner on the plates 22 and 24, achieve the significant object of retaining the article A1 centered while it is transferred from the zone 1 to the zone 2, whereupon the plates 22 and 24 will be tilted by effect of a photocell, while the driving belt elements 23 and 25 are locked. Figure 4 is a perspective view illustrating the arrangement of the elements whereby this novel solution is attained. More specifically, the belt elements of the belts of the zones 1 and 2 of the apparatus 10 are driven by a geared motor unit 14' applied to the roller 13 which drives a front idle roller 12 and hence also the middle portion of the belt elements extending as 11' to the transmission roller 14, also of the idle type. The belt elements 15, having the same peripheral speed as the roller 13, drive a pair of gears 16 integral with an axle 17 provided with rubber rollers 18 whereon rest rollers 19, 19', said rollers 19, 19' driving the belt elements 25 and 23 of the tilting plates 24 and 22 respectively. In this manner, as a result of a double rotation reversal, the belt elements 25 and 23 move at the same speed as the central belt elements 11'. When the plates 25 and 23, pivoted at 26, 26' and 27, 27', are caused to perform their tilting movement, the rollers 19, 19' disengage from the friction rollers 18 and the belt elements 23 and 25 are brought to a stop condition. When continuing its movement, the longitudinally folded article (see A2, A2') arrives at the zone 3 where it is stopped by means of a photocell, which cause two fold marking fingers 31, 31' to be turned downwards to rest on the article, which fingers can be retracted into their related pistons 32, 32' (see Fig. 2 and Fig. 5) turnable through 45° both upwards and downwards, around which occurs the first cross or the lower folding step, as will be disclosed hereinbelow. This first cross folding is carried out by a novel device of a retractable type, generally indicated under 30 in Figure 5, which figure is a cross-sectional view of the device taken along the middle axis X-X (Fig. 2) of the apparatus 10, at the zone 3. The device 30, also shown in Figure 3, occupies only a transversely limited space of the apparatus since it is designed to operate on the article A3, already reduced in width, with the added advantage that said device will occupy a minimum space in the longitudinal direction between the end transmission roller 14 of the belts 11' and the subsequent roller 42 of the zone 4, thereby also allowing the length of apparatus 10 to be reduced. The device 30 comprises a small frame formed by a cross-member 33, supported by curved arms 34, in turn coupled to arms 35 connected to a pivot pin 36. The arms 34 are concentric to the axis of the pivot pin 36 and, accordingly, they easily pass through the gap between the rollers 14 and 42, driven by a small piston 37, thereby perfectly folding the end portion of the article A3 around the fold marking fingers 31, 31' which are then immediately withdrawn into the bodies of the pistons 32, 32' and turned upwards through 45°. With reference to Figure 6, the arrangement of the elements for performing the second cross-folding step shown in A4 (Fig. 1), carried out in the zone 4 of the apparatus 10, will be illustrated hereinafter. The article of clothing already folded at its lower portion is driven to the zone 4 by a conveyor belt 41 having belt elements wound between the rollers 42 and 43. When the article of clothing is approximatively halfway along the conveyor belt, a rigid blade 44 is lowered, pressing the article onto the conveyor belt 41, said rigid blade being then caused to slidably advance by a linear sliding driving assembly 45 (see Figures 2 and 3). The rigid blade 44 of very reduced thickness, is arranged with its end edge 44' at the comb element consisting of a plurality of rods 48 which are interposed between the belt elements of the conveyor belt 41. The rotation of this rod comb engaged with a cross pin 46 is indicated by a dashed line under 48' in Figure 6, which rotation causes the second cross-folding of the article A1, which has already been subjected to the bottom folding around the end edge 44' of the blade element 44, so that the latter blade element, after the folding operation, will remain engaged with the folded article and immediately afterwards will cause said folded article to advance to the zone 5, where said article is packed into one of the bags B stacked in a receptacle 51 (Fig. 3), the supply of the bags being provided by a photoelectric sensor controlling a pneumatic device 54 which keeps the top level of the bags constant and allows the opening of the top uppermost bag which is preliminarily inflated by means of blowing air and then immediately taken up by device 52 which maintains the bag open for receiving the folded over article. After having optionally applied an outer flexible cardboard sheet C2, which can be provided with a label E1 (Fig. 1) applied by a labelling machine 53 (Fig. 3), the blade element 41 introduces the article into the bag together with the cardboard sheet C2 and it causes the thus formed assembly to advance on the platform 61 of the zone 6, on which the article is held in a stop condition with the flap B1 of the bag still open and directed downwardly. The temporary clamping of the article and bag is performed by a pneumatic device 62 (Fig. 3) provided with small pistons 63 and 63', as schematically shown in perspective in Figure 7, which serve to retains the bag and respective article as the blade element 44 is withdrawn, said pneumatic device 62 being further provided with a plate 64 clamping the bag down while the bag flap is being folded as will be described hereinbelow. Near the edge 65 of the zone 6 there is provided a novel device for definitely closing the bag, said device being indicated generally under the reference number 60 and consisting of a cross-member 67 provided, at its ends, with rollers 68, 68' sliding on guides 69, 69'. The cross-member 67 is coupled to the arms 70, 70' pivoted on the lever arms 71, 71' driven by the small pistons 72, 72'. As the said small pistons 72, 72' are driven, the rollers 68, 68' are caused to slide on the guides 69, 69' thereby obliging the cross-member 67 to follow an appropriate path for folding over the flap B1 of the bag arranged above said cross-member, as shown in Figures 7 and 8. This folding-over operation is achieved by a teflon coated fabric curtain 75, completely folded over in a loop and encompassing the cross-member 67. In the curtain 75, the lower end of which is fixed to a rod 76 held taut by a pair of springs 77, a suitable opening 78 is formed which prevents any interferences with the label applying device 66 for closing the bag (see Fig. 3). By means of the device 60, the flap of the bag is folded over with an exactitude similar to a manual operation which previously could not be obtained by prior art means, thereby providing a perfect closure of the bag which, in the last step of the method, is closed by a label and caused to fall into che underlying bay 8 (see Fig. 8) thanks to a simultaneous transversal opening, as indicated by the arrows F, F', of the panels of the platform 61 driven by opposed pistons 80 (see Fig. 2). In the bay 8, located under the platform 61, with further saving of space lengthwise of the apparatus 10, are arranged containers suitable for reception and dispatch of the packaged articles.

Claims: A method for folding and packing into bags articles of clothing, including the steps of: a) laying out the article of clothing on a first handling zone, provided with a conveying means; b) transferring the article of clothing to a second handling zone wherein the sleeves and a portion of the sides thereof are folded longitudinally onto the central portion of said article, with an optional insertion of a stiffening cardboard sheet; c) transferring the longitudinally folded article to a third handling zone in which a first cross-folding of the article is performed; d) transferring the article to a fourth handling zone wherein a middle cross-folding of the article is performed: characterized in that : in the step a) the article is laid with its back portion turned upwards; in the step d) a rigid blade is superimposed onto the upper half portion of the article in order to define, by the lower free edge of said rigid blade, the location of the middle cross-folding line, and the remaining lower half portion of the article is folded over said rigid blade so that the introduced rigid blade remains confined in the folded article; and further characterized by the following steps: e) causing said rigid blade, supporting the folded article of clothing, to advance into an open bag provided with a closure flap; f) withdrawing said rigid blade from the article of clothing already introduced into said bag; g) folding said closure flap and fixing it by way of an adhesive label; h) unloading the packaged article by causing it to horizontally fall into a container. A method according to Claim 1, characterized in that between the steps d) and e) an illustrative and/or advertising light cardboard sheet is optionally inserted, which is driven into said bag in the subsequent step e). A folding apparatus for folding and packing articles of clothing, characterized in that said apparatus comprises: a) a first handling zone for laying out an article to be folded, said first zone having a width suitable for articles of different sizes, and being provided with a conveyor (11) formed by belt elements along its overall cross extension; b) a second handling zone in which is optionally deposited an inner stiffening cardboard sheet, which helps to define the locations of the longitudinal folds, and wherein, at the sides of the central strip of the belt elements (11') extending from the first zone, there extend two lateral bands (23, 25) of synchronous conveyor belts, which move at the same speed as that of the central portion to prevent the article from being crumpled during its displacement and which are arranged on tilting plates (22, 24) provided for performing the longitudinal folding of the sleeves and of a portion of the sides of the article, said lateral bands (23, 25) being caused to stop as the longitudinal folding operation is carried out; c) a third zone in which the article, already folded longitudinally on both its sides, advances on the central belts and its bottom end portion is cross-folded round about two fold marking fingers (31, 31') of a retractable tilting devices (30), which rest on the article and are controlled by a photocell; d) a fourth handling zone in which the article, which has already been cross-folded at its bottom end, is made to advance by a fourth belt conveyor (41) and pressed down by a rigid blade (44) of reduced thickness, the free edge thereof being arranged at the location of the article where the second cross-fold is to be made, the article being folded by means of a rod comb (48) the rods of which are interposed between the belt elements of said fourth belt conveyor (41), so that the rigid blade (44) of reduced thickness comes to be engaged with the article folded in half; e) a fifth handling zone in which said rigid blade, while advancing causes said article to be introduced into a packaging bag (B) fed from a bag receptacle (51), said fifth zone being provided with a spreading apart device (52) as well as means for keeping said bags in a taut and open condition; f) a sixth and last handling zone in which the article thus introduced into said bag (B) is pressed at suitable points for retaining it firmly when the inner rigid blade (44) is withdrawn, and a closing device element (60) is actuated for closing the closure flap (B1) of the bag, said device (60) consisting of a closed loop curtain (75), held taut by springs (77) and wound over a cross-member (67) supported at its ends by two bearings (68, 68') which, by sliding on suitably contoured sliding guides (69, 69'), lead the bag flap to perfectly fit to the inner contents; g) a means (66) for applying an adhesive label for closing the flap of the bag; h) laterally sliding panels (61) forming the base of the closing zone, said panels opening up synchronously in a trap-like manner, thereby causing the article to horizontally fall into the underlying collecting container. A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that between the fifth and sixth zone of said apparatus is provided a means for supplying vertically by gravity an adversiting and/or illustrative cardboard sheet (C2), optionally provided with a lower foldable flap, which can be provided with a personalized mark, said cardboard sheet being arranged at the opening mouth of the bag in a vertical position with respect to the article to be packaged and being caused to rest, possibly in a folded condition if a folding flap cardboard is used, on said folded article during the packaging step so as to be exposed to the view through the transparent bag. A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that the first zone (1) is provided, along its overall width, with a conveyor belt (11) consisting of a plurality of parallel belt elements wound between a front idle roller (12) and an end trasmission roller (13) arranged at the end of said first zone (1) and driven by a geared motor unit (14') (Figure 4). A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that the second zone (2) is provided with a conveyor belt of reduced width consisting of belt elements (11') affecting only the central portion of said second zone, said conveyor belts being wound between the idle front roller (12) of the first zone (1), rotatively driven by said belt elements (11), and an idle roller (14) arranged at the end of the second zone (2), on the sides of said conveyor belt of reduced width formed by said belt elements (11') there being provided tilting plates (22 and 24) provided with respective hinge pairs (26, 26' and 27, 27'), which plates serve to longitudinally fold said article of clothing. A folding apparatus according to Claim 6, characterized in that each of said tilting plates (22 and 24) is provided with an assembly of belt elements (23 and 25) which slide at the same speed as said central conveyor belt (11'), thanks to the motion imparted thereto by its driving rollers (19, 19'), friction bearing on rollers (18) integral with an axle (17) in turn driven by a belt element assembly (15) driven by the same geared motor unit (14') driving said belt elements (11) through a pair of motion reversal gears (16), so that as said plates (23 and 24) are tilted, said driving rollers (19, 19') and friction rollers (18) are disengaged from one another whereby said belt elements (23, 25) (Figure 4) are caused to stop. A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that in the third zone (3) arranged between the end of the second zone (2) and the start of the fourth zone (4) is provided a retractable device (30) for carrying out the bottom cross-folding of the article of clothing, said device being constistuted of a frame including a cross member (33) supported by curved arms (34) in turn coupled to arms (35) fixed to a pivot pin (36), said curved arms (34) being concentric to the axis of the pivot pin (36), so as to take up a minimum space between the end roller (14) of the second zone (2) and the roller (42) of the subsequent fourth zone (4), when the device (30) is driven by a small piston (37), said cross folding of the article being defined by fold marking fingers (31, 31') resting on the article to be folded and which are retractable into the body of respective small pistons (32, 32'), turnable upwards and downwards through 45° (Figures 2 and 5). A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that the fourth zone (4) is provided with a conveyor belt formed by belt elements (41) wound between the rollers (42 and 43) at the front and rear respectively of said fourth zone (4), with a comb constituted of rods (48) interposed between said belt elements (41) of said conveyor belt, and with a rigid blade (44) to press down the article of clothing, which has been already subjected to the first lower cross-folding operation in order to carry out the second cross-folding around the end portion (44') of said rigid blade (44), said rod comb (48) being integral with a cross pin (46), which rigid blade (44) can advance driven by a linear sliding assembly (45) (Figures 2 and 3). A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that the fifth zone (5) is provided with a receptacle (51) for the stacked bags (B), comprising a pneumatic device (54) which maintains the top level of the bags constant while allowing the uppermost bag to be opened by means of spreading apart devices (52) in order to introduce into said bag the article of clothing made to advance by said rigid blade (44) engaged therewith. A folding apparatus according to Claim 3, characterized in that the sixth zone (6) is provided with a device (62) comprising a pair of small pistons (63, 63') designed for retaining the article of clothing already inserted in its respective bag (B) as the rigid blade (44) is disengaged by backward withdrawal along said sliding guides (45), and with a pressure plate (64) for clamping down the article and the bag as the flap (B1) of said envelope is turned up and over. A folding apparatus according to Claim 11, characterized in that in the vicinity of the front edge (65) of the sixth zone (6) is provided a device (60) (Figure 7) consisting of a cross-member (67) having at its ends rollers (68, 68') which slide on guides (69, 69'), said cross-member (67) being coupled to arms (70, 70') pivoted on lever arms (71, 71') driven by small pistons (72, 72'), on said cross-member (67) being arranged a curtain (75), folded over in a loop, anchored to a rod (76) and held taut by a pair of springs (77), through which curtain (75) an opening (78) is formed for preventing any interferences with the label applying device (66) for the bag. A folding apparatus according to Claims 11 and 12, characterized in that in the sixth zone (6) the panels of platform (61) are simultaneously openable apart in opposite side directions (F, F'), through the control of opposed pistons (80) (Figure 2). A folding apparatus according to Claim 4, characterized in that said assembly for supplying the flexible cardboard sheets (C2), which may optionally bear a label (E1) applied by a labelling device (53), is suitable for supplying, for each bag (B), one of said flexible cardboard sheets (C2) to be folded inside said envelope, but externally with respect to the article of clothing.

Inventors: BIANCO ALESSANDRO, SEGRETO FRANCESCO, BIANCO, ALESSANDRO, SEGRETO, FRANCESCO
Applicants: NEW MEC DI SEGRETO FRANCESCO &, NEW.MEC. DI SEGRETO FRANCESCO & C. S.A.S.
Application year: 1998
Main classification: B65B63
IPC codes: B65B25, B65B63