Abstract:
Disclosed are a method for supplying blanks to a marking apparatus, a conveyor device ( 1 ) and a transfer device ( 3 ) which can cooperate to actuate the method. The method steps include predisposing a quantity of blanks formed in a stack ( 2 ), arranging the stack ( 2 ) in an inclined configuration resting both on the base ( 21 ) thereof and on one side ( 22 ), bringing the stack ( 2 ) up to a removing position in proximity to the marking apparatus ( 4 ), rotating the upper blank ( 20 ) upwards and with respect to a horizontal axis (O) passing at an edge of the blank ( 20 ) which is opposite and more peripheral with respect to the edge of the same blank ( 20 ), raising the rotated upper blank ( 20 ), and bringing the upper blank ( 20 ) to the marking apparatus inlet ( 40 ), so that the blank is taken by the marking apparatus ( 4 ), and repeating for each blank.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to the sector of blanks destined to form packages for articles such as for example blister packs for pharmaceutical products, small jars for cosmetic products, trays for carrying vials containing perfume, etc. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
       [0002]    At present, blanks in arrival at the firm that packs the cited articles are already provided with all the graphic features that will adorn the finished package and ready to receive the articles so that they can be put up for sale. The graphic features comprise not only logos, marks and images aimed at attracting the attention of the consumer or at evoking the use of the product, but also identifying signs of the articles contained, such as bar codes, and information relating to the market destination, in the geographical and/or linguistic sense. 
         [0003]    The above-mentioned firms use paper and card firms which perform, on the original card, painting, printing and blanking operations, such as to provide the thus-readied blanks in stacks, ready for the receiving companies to use, taking them singly and opening them out, thus forming the packages, which are then filled with the above-mentioned articles and closed, packed and dispatched. 
         [0004]    The companies that produce, package and put up for public sale the above-mentioned articles at present feel the need for flexibility when attaching identifying signs and data on the blanks relating to the market destination of the products. 
         [0005]    The packages containing a given product are placed in various markets, i.e. they are sent to a multiplicity of countries, in which different languages are spoken, or even where the commercial name of a same product might not be the same, or where there are special standards relating to the printing of identifying codes, or even where the laws establishing which data has to be printed on the package containing the products are different, and so on. 
         [0006]    At present, companies are forced to place special orders with the paper-card firms, even where they require only a small number of commissions for a given market, which is disadvantageous both in terms of costs and time, while the globalization of markets, and the large number of competitors, mean that real-time responses and sharp changes in the requirements of the various markets have to be catered for. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The aim of the present invention is to obviate these and other drawbacks, providing, according to claim  1 , a method for supplying blanks to a marking apparatus for applying signs and/or labels to the surface of blanks, having an inlet for taking delivery of the blanks, each blank being presented either in an open configuration and flat or in a flattened tubular configuration. 
         [0008]    The disclosed method comprises the following steps: 
         [0009]    a. predisposing a quantity of blanks piled one on another to form a stack, having a base defined by a blank located at a bottom of the stack, a top defined by an upper blank placed onto the other blanks in the stack, and a plurality of sides, each of which is defined by a set of lateral edges of the plurality of blanks which faces in the same direction; 
         [0010]    b. arranging the stack in an inclined configuration in which it is resting both on the base thereof and on a side thereof, with each of the blanks in the stack resting both on a lower surface thereof and on a lateral edge thereof comprised in the set defining the rested side thereof; 
         [0011]    c. bringing the stack, while maintaining it in the inclined configuration, up to a removing position in proximity of the marking apparatus; 
         [0012]    d. rotating the upper blank upwards and with respect to a horizontal axis passing at an edge of the blank which is opposite and more peripheral with respect to the edge of the same blank comprised in the set defining the rested side of the stack, the axis remaining fixed with respect to the stack during the rotation of the upper blank; 
         [0013]    e. raising the rotated upper blank, distancing it from the stack, and then bringing the upper blank to the inlet of the marking apparatus, whereby the blank can be taken delivery of by the marking apparatus; 
         [0014]    f. repeating step d. and step e., applying them to each blank which in turn defines the top of the stack, including the blank defining the base of the stack when the said blank remains as the only blank in the stack. 
         [0015]    In the following it is explained how the method of the invention obviates the above-cited drawbacks and the special advantages its application brings. 
         [0016]    Firstly, the method enables using blanks in the ways in which they are usually presented by paper-card firms, i.e. stacked on one another, each being open and flat or pre-glued in a flattened tubular configuration, each possibly having the basic graphic elements (logos, figures, colors etc.) printed on them; these stacks, as they are presented, can be directly used, or smaller stacks can be used (which in effect are simply fractions of the presented stacks), as can higher stacks, which are indeed more than one stack placed on another (see in particular step a). 
         [0017]    The method also enables carrying the stacks to the marking apparatus (see step c) such as to provide single blanks in inlet (see steps d, e and f), which are therefore predisposed for application of labels or for the printing of information relating to the destined market. 
         [0018]    It follows that with the method of the invention, at any moment it can be decided which labels or information relating to the market destination are to be applied on the surface of the single blank, consequently obtaining the maximum flexibility and avoiding all the costs and work time of the above-mentioned drawbacks. 
         [0019]    Apart from the above, the invention offers the advantages which are illustrated in the following after a critical point that typically occurs when blanks are presented in stacks has been explained. 
         [0020]    When the blanks are to be drawn out singly, for example so that they can be opened out, they are removed one at a time from the top of the stack, which for example is lying resting on its base (i.e. the bottom blank, the blank beneath the others) on a horizontal plane. 
         [0021]    It has been found that the contacting surfaces of the contiguous blanks in the stack tend to attach to one another and a certain adherence takes place. 
         [0022]    It can therefore happen that another blank remains attached below the one removed from the stack, which then falls to the floor randomly and has to be manually picked up and usually thrown away. 
         [0023]    Not only this, but during the removal of the top blank, it often happens that the immediately lower one is also subject to adherence and in general the friction produced by the tangential rubbing of the respective contacting surfaces of the two blanks which can excessively dealign one or more blanks in the stack, thus compromising the cyclical removal operations. 
         [0024]    The proposed method is put together such as to be completely immune from the above-described risks. 
         [0025]    In fact, and especially in step b, the stack is set up in an inclined arrangement in which each blank is not only resting on the lower surface but also on one of its edges, and this sharing-out of the weight reduces the above-mentioned adherence, and the tendency of the blanks to attach to one another. 
         [0026]    The top blank is rotated in the ways duly explained in step d, such that there is no dragging between the lower surface of the rotated blank and the upper surface of the blank located immediately below, and therefore the problems due to adherence are completely prevented. 
         [0027]    Not only this, but if for some reason the blank below the removed one is initially even weakly attached to the upper blank, during the rotation of the blank the other blank would immediately detach due to the angular momentum produced by the gravity on the edge which contributes to forming the above-named rested side, returning into the original position thereof in the stack. 
         [0028]    After this, during step e, the top blank, rotated, is simply raised vertically, and as this operation does not cause dragging, no problems of friction, or of any other nature, emerge. 
         [0029]    The Applicant has verified that if the internal angle formed between the rested base and the rested side of the stack when in the inclined arrangement of step b is a right angle or an obtuse angle, the advantages are increased, because the above-mentioned sharing-out of the weight of the blanks is greater than when the angle is an acute one. 
         [0030]    In particular, the Applicant has verified that if the angle is 100 degrees, there is a good weight distribution of the stack, without the shared part on the rest side of the stack being excessive and thus risking compromising the integrity of the stack during the movement thereof. 
         [0031]    During actuation of the method, various stacks preferably are predisposed, for example all the same, in a straight line in which each stack is in the inclined configuration as described for step b. 
         [0032]    The line is advanced longitudinally, with a step-advancement up to when a first stack in the line reaches the above-mentioned collecting position, when the line stops to enable whole stacks to be processed at a time. 
         [0033]    At this point the first stack, or the first stack and one or more stacks, are processed, i.e. the blanks are gradually removed starting, obviously, from the top one. 
         [0034]    In practice the following operations are cyclically performed: steps d, e and f (rotation or raising) are applied to the blanks one by one on the top of the first stack located in the collecting position, while in the meantime one or more further stacks are added to the queue at the end of the line of stacks. 
         [0035]    After this, once all the blanks of the first stack that were in the collecting position have been taken to the input of the marking apparatus, the line of stacks, exhibiting a new first stack, is step-advanced up to when the first stack reaches the collecting position, etc. 
         [0036]    Advantages obtained by the disclosed method are attained by using the conveyor device of claim  5  and the transfer device of claim  11 , which are made to be used together and thus actuate the present method. 
         [0037]    The conveyor device for transporting the blanks destined to form packages comprise at least a mobile housing destined to house and convey a quantity of blanks stacked one on another to form a stack, like the one described herein above. 
         [0038]    Each of the housings comprises a first rest surface and a second rest surface, both flat, oblique with respect to horizontal planes, which first and second surfaces are inclined with respect to one another by an internal angle which is a right-angle or an obtuse angle such as to define a seating having a V-profile, the first and second rest surfaces being of such dimensions that a stack of blanks can be received and conveyed resting in the V-seating with the base thereof resting on the first surface and with a rest side of the stack resting on the second surface over a full height thereof such as to define, between the base and the side of the stack, and angle which is equal to the angle between the first and the second surface of the V-seating. 
         [0039]    The stack that is housed and transported by the mobile housing is in the above arrangement inclined, in which each of the blanks is resting both on a lower surface thereof and on a lateral side thereof. 
         [0040]    The transfer device can functionally cooperate with the conveyor device and with the above-mentioned marking apparatus. 
         [0041]    The transfer device comprises: 
         [0042]    a collecting robot having at least three degrees of freedom comprising a collecting head which is rotatable with respect to a horizontal rotation axis, the head further being vertically mobile and translatable in a direction or a plurality of directions in space; and 
         [0043]    depression means fixedly mounted in the collecting head comprising at least a contact element for abutting a blank and connecting it to a depression source activatable and deactivatable such that the depression means can alternatingly grip or release a blank abutting with the contact element. 
         [0044]    An essential peculiarity of the transfer device of the invention is that the horizontal rotation axis of the collecting head is arranged, with respect to the contact element, in such a way that when the robot is commanded to place the contact element I contact with the top blank located at the top of a stack presented in an inclined configuration in which there is a right-angle or an obtuse angle between the bottom thereof and a side thereof, defined by lateral edges of the blanks which are facing in the same direction, the horizontal rotation axis passes through an edge of the top blank that is opposite and more peripheral with respect to an edge of the uppermost blank that is comprised in the totality defining the side. 
         [0045]    It follows that the conveyor device can rotate the blanks (taken one at a time by means of the depression means) in the same way in which they are rotated in step d of the method and then, as the collecting head is raisable, can take them away from the stack in the same way as is envisaged by step e of the method. 
         [0046]    Thus, by using the transfer device, the blanks can be cyclically transported from the conveyor device to the input of the marking apparatus, where they can be collected. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0047]    Specific embodiments of the invention, and advantageous technical-functional characteristics correlated to embodiments thereof only partially derivable from the above description, will be described in the following of the present description, according to what is set out in the claims and with the aid of the accompanying figures of the drawings, in which: 
           [0048]      FIG. 1  is a lateral view of the conveyor device; 
           [0049]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view from above of the conveyor device which functionally collaborates with the conveyor device and the conveyor device which cooperates with the marking apparatus; 
           [0050]      FIGS. 3A ,  3 B and  3 C are lateral schematic views of the step of engaging the collecting head of the conveyor device with the top blank of a stack; and 
           [0051]      FIGS. 4A ,  4 B and  4 C represent three moments of the processing of a single blank supplied to the marking apparatus. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0052]    In the accompanying figures,  1  denotes the conveyor device in its entirety. 
         [0053]    Before proceeding with an explanation of the structure and functioning of the conveyor device  1 , for reasons of explanatory clarity, we state that the blanks are represented in some of the figures in the flattened tubular configuration (see in particular  FIG. 2 ), in which they have a substantially quadrangular periphery, although this should not be taken as a limiting aspect of the invention. 
         [0054]    The blanks are represented stacked in stacks  2 , which have a base  21  defined by a blank located on the bottom of the stack  2 , a top defined by a top blank  20  located above the other blanks in the stack  2 , and a plurality of sides, each of which is defined by a totality of lateral edges of the various blanks facing in the same direction (the above-mentioned rested side of the stack is denoted by  22 ). 
         [0055]    As can be seen in  FIG. 1 , the conveyor device  1  comprises a plurality of mobile housings  10 , 11 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , described in detail herein below, which each house a respective stack  2  and transport it in a conveying direction X with a movement that is preferably a step-motion. 
         [0056]      FIG. 1  represents five housings arranged in a line and destined to slide longitudinally. 
         [0057]    Each housing comprises a first rest surface  10  and a second rest surface  11 , both being flat and oblique with respect to horizontal planes. 
         [0058]    The first and the second rest surfaces  10 ,  11  are inclined with respect to one another by an internal angle that is a right-angle or an obtuse angle, such as to define a seating having a V-profile, which receives the stacks  2  that are therefore inclined. 
         [0059]    In detail, the first and the second rest surface  10 ,  11  are of such dimensions that the stack  2  is received thereby and conveyed resting on the V-seating with the base  21  thereof resting on the first surface  10  and with the rest side  22  of the stack  2  rested on the second surface  11  over the whole height thereof. 
         [0060]    In this way, between the base  21  and the rest side  22  an angle is formed which is equal to the angle between the first and the second surface of the V-seating (see  FIGS. 3A and 3B ). 
         [0061]    The first and second surface  10 ,  11  preferably have dimensions that are sufficient to abut the whole extension of the base  21  and the rested side  22  of a stack  2 . 
         [0062]    In practice, the stack  2 , when housed in the housing  10 ,  11 ,  100 ,  101 ,  102 ,  103 ,  104 , is inclined in the desired way with each of the blanks resting both on a lower surface thereof and on a lateral edge thereof, which is what makes it possible to obtain various advantages as already explained above. 
         [0063]    Therefore, for reasons already given, the angle between the first and the second surface  10 ,  22  is preferably one hundred degrees (as duly illustrated in  FIG. 3B ). 
         [0064]    The transport direction X (see  FIGS. 1 and 2 ) is preferably such that the rested side  22  of the stack  2  is further back with respect to an opposite side, and it is the rested side  22  which is interested by the stresses of the inertia, or friction with air, due to the motion of the stack  2  and to the resting thereof on the second rest side of the V-seating. 
         [0065]    In this way, the inertia or the friction with the air acting on the blanks during the transport is prevented from causing the blanks to slide away from the respective stack  2 . 
         [0066]    Before more completely explaining the preferred modalities for realizing the conveyor device  1 , we will first explain the functioning thereof and the way in which it can functionally cooperate with the transfer device  3 , such as practically to define a supply system for supplying blanks to a marking apparatus. 
         [0067]    As already mentioned, the housings for the stacks  2  of blanks preferably proceed in a step-motion and, when cyclically stationary, those which are at the further end of the conveyor device  1  (further back with respect to the transport direction X) are loaded with the respective stacks  2 . 
         [0068]    After this, the housings advance by one or more steps, on the basis of their number and how many of them are emptied contemporaneously in the way described herein below; in this way, obviously, the blanks are brought into the vicinity of the marking apparatus  4 , or rather the vicinity of the input  40  (as can clearly be seen in  FIG. 2 ). 
         [0069]    In practice, when one or more housings which restingly support inclined stacks  2  are in the respective collecting position, the transfer of the blanks begins, one at a time for each stack  2  (and in the meantime the empty housings arranged further back in the conveyor device  1  are filled manually or automatically). 
         [0070]    Even when in the collecting position, the stacks  2  are inclined in the above-described manner. 
         [0071]    At this point, for a given collection cycle, the conveyor device  3  intervenes, which comprises a collecting robot  3  having at least three degrees of freedom (preferably four), in turn comprising a collecting head  30  that is rotatable with respect to a horizontal rotation axis (first degree of freedom), vertically mobile (second degree) and translatable in one or more directions in space (third and possible fourth degree of freedom). 
         [0072]    It is clear that the robot  3  is suitably positionable in proximity of both the conveyor device  1  and the marking apparatus  4  such as to be able to operate at least between the collecting position of the housings of the former and the input  40  of the latter. 
         [0073]    The robot  3  comprises depression means that are fixed in the collecting head  30  and comprise two contact elements  31  for encountering a blank and connecting it to a depression source, which preferably have tubes that can place in communication a depression source (of any type known in the sector, as long as it is suitable for the purpose) which bear suckers at the free end thereof, which have a passage for placing the source and the blank abutting against the suckers in fluid-dynamic communication. 
         [0074]    What is important is that these contact elements  31  are suitably dimensioned and arranged such as to be able together to encounter a blank and rotate it, as explained below, and then translate it as described. 
         [0075]    The depression source is activatable and deactivatable such as to be able to enable the depression means alternatively to grip and release a blank encountered by the contact element  31 . 
         [0076]    The robot  3  is automatically activated such as to arrange the collecting head  30  above the top blank  20  in the stack ( FIG. 3A  and  FIG. 3B ) with the head  30  parallel to the top blank  30  and with the contact elements having free ends (bearing the suckers) in contact with the upper surface of the top blank  20 , and therefore arranged on a plane which is inclined by a right-angle or an obtuse angle. 
         [0077]    The top blank  20  has an edge comprised in the rested side  22  of the stack  2  arranged inferiorly of an opposite advance edge, as the second rest surface  11  on which it is rested is inclined by an angle of at least ninety degrees with respect to the first surface  10 , which further implies that the upwards rotation, which precedes the completion of the collection, is in no way obstructed. 
         [0078]    It is significant that the transfer device  3  is arranged such that the horizontal rotation axis of the collecting head  30  is arranged, with respect to the contact elements  31 , in such a way that when the elements  31  are abutting with the top blank  20 , the transfer device  3  coincides with a horizontal axis  0  which passes at the edge of the top blank  20  which is opposite, advanced and more peripheral (with respect to the edge of the rested side  11 ). 
         [0079]    In practice, to be clear, the horizontal rotation axis of the collecting head  30  is arranged with respect to the contact element  31  such that when the robot  3  is commanded to place the contact element  31  against the top blank  20  of a stack  2  which is presented to the transfer device  3  in an inclined configuration in which there is a right-angle or an obtuse angle between the bottom  21  and a side  22  thereof, then the horizontal rotation axis  0  passes at an edge of the top blank  20  opposite and more peripheral than an edge of the blank  20  comprised in the side  22 . 
         [0080]    It is clear that this advantageous and original particular is implementable in the various practical cases by an expert person in the field without any especial difficulties, as the measurements of the blanks are standard and in any case can be known previously. 
         [0081]    The collecting head  30 , after the depression source has been activated to couple the top blank  20  to the contact elements  31 , rotates the top blank  20  with respect to the axis  0  passing through the opposite and peripheral edge ( FIG. 3C ), such as to obtain all the relative advantages already expressed when discussing the proposed method. 
         [0082]    The top blank  20  is preferably rotated such as to bring it into a horizontal position, as illustrated in  FIG. 3C . 
         [0083]    The collecting head  30 , with the blank it has picked up, now raises vertically (for the advantages of this, please refer to the detailed examination of the proposed method) and translates or roto-translates up to the input  40  of the marking apparatus  4 , and then descends in order to deposit (by deactivation of the depression source) the blank  200 , for example at a conveyor belt  400  comprised in the marking apparatus  4  (see  FIG. 4A ), which brings the single and separated blank  200  towards labeling means  401  ( FIG. 4B ) and/or printing means  402  (for example a laser printer) ( FIG. 4C ). 
         [0084]    The various functioning operations of the transfer device  3  as described above are cyclically repeated (collecting cycle) up to removing one at a time all of the blanks from a stack  2  or plurality of stacks  2  and transferring them to the marking apparatus  4 . 
         [0085]    After this, the conveyor device  1  advances other stacks  2  and the various operating cycles are repeated in a way which is easily derivable. 
         [0086]    In the following a description will be made of particular embodiments of the conveyor device  1 , with reference to  FIG. 1 . 
         [0087]    The conveyor device comprises a conveyor means having a straight development  1000  which in turn comprises: 
         [0088]    a conveyor branch  1001  that is straight, elongate and horizontal destined to slide longitudinally, and 
         [0089]    several support elements  100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104  (made in a special way which will be fully described herein below) in use projecting superiorly from the conveyor branch  1001  and drawn in a horizontal translation by the longitudinal sliding of the conveyor branch  1001  itself. 
         [0090]    The support elements  100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104  have a prismatic shape with a triangular base, and have a larger surface  10  (which is not the most extended side of the prism) and a smaller surface  11  that are rectangular, consecutive, oblique with respect to horizontal planes, inclined to one another at an upper corner  105  of a right or obtuse angle (preferably one hundred degrees) and are further arranged transversally to the longitudinal development of the transport branch  1001 . 
         [0091]    In twos, the support elements are in use consecutive in the longitudinal development of the conveyor branch  1001  and are also arranged with respect to one another in such a way that the larger surface  10  of one and the smaller surface  11  of the other together define the V-seating of the mobile housing, from which the angle that forms between the first and the second rest surface is equal to the larger angle as mentioned above (which is the larger internal angle of the triangular surfaces of the prism). 
         [0092]    In this way the line of housings  10 , 11 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104  is obtained for the inclined stacks which makes the conveyor device  1  capable of attaining the cited advantages. 
         [0093]    According to preferred constructional aspect, see  FIG. 1  once more, the conveyor means  1000  comprises a plurality of transversal plates  110  flanked two by two such as to define a closed sliding conveyor loop, the closed loop being guided by guide means, in turn comprising two return pulleys, and further guide components within the knowledge of the person expert in the field of mechanical engineering for looped conveyors. 
         [0094]    The conveyor loop is wound about the pulleys; the loop superiorly, and instant by instant, defines the straight conveyor branch  1001 , in which the plates  101  are coplanar. 
         [0095]    Further, the conveyor device  1  comprises activating means for activating the sliding of the conveyor loop, for example chains connected to the plates or motors connected to the pulleys or other motorized means known to the expert person in the sector. 
         [0096]    It is important that in this embodiment each plate  101  fixedly bears a polyhedral member  100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104  projecting externally of the closed loop, which is a portion of one of the conveyor elements. 
         [0097]    The polyhedral members are advantageously arrangeable with respect to one another when the relative plate  101  is in the upper straight branch  1001 , such as to form together a plurality of consecutive conveyor elements two by two defining a relative V-seating. 
         [0098]    In the case represented in  FIG. 1 , each prismatic conveyor element is sub-divided into five polyhedral members  100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , which have a shape corresponding to the sections of a prism which is cut by four parallel planes perpendicular to the larger-size surface, which, in practice, in the case of the support elements, is the one located at the top of the flanked plates  101 . 
         [0099]    The polyhedral member denoted by  100  is the one which comprises the above-mentioned top corner and thus the one which defines the angle of inclination of the V-seating and therefore the stack  2  resting therein. 
         [0100]    By changing the polyhedral members  100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , the following is changed: the number of mobile housings (and therefore the number of stacks  2  that are contemporaneously transportable), the inclination of the stacks  2 , the type of blanks housable, etc. 
         [0101]    Thus, with this constructional solution, a conveyor device  1  is obtained which can be implemented in particular cases with the maximum of flexibility. 
         [0102]    In still more detail, the plates  110  can be singly pivoted about a respective median axis  11 , transversal to the conveyor loop such that when they slide in a curved pathway  1011  guided by one of the return pulleys, the respective polyhedral members  100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104  can be arranged distanced and splayed with respect to the other polyhedral members of consecutive plates  101 . 
         [0103]    In this way smaller pulleys can be used, and in general a conveyor device  1  can be made which, given equal length, has a smaller loop. 
         [0104]    The above has been described by way of non-limiting example, and any eventual constructional variants are intended to fall within the ambit of protection of the present technical solution, as claimed herein below.