Patent GB-1300816-A (GB)
Title: Mechanism for producing cushioning dunnage
Inventor: JOHNSON GEORGE REEBIE
IPC: B65B63/00
Filed: 1970-03-19
Abstract: 1300816 Mechanism for producing cushioning dunnage; packaging fragile articles ARPAX CO 19 March 1970 13430/70 Headings B8C and B8P In a mechanism for producing cushioning dunnage a sheet 14 of material such as kraft paper is fed from a roll 10, provided with a weighted braking strip 29. through a crumpler funnel 38, to emerge as a continuous narrow strip which is delivered obliquely to the nip of a bevel gear mechanism 40 the latter forming the strip 16 into spiral, spring-like, loops 54. The strip 16 is cut into suitable lengths by a pivotal-knife cutter 58. One of the gears 40a of the mechanism 40 is driven by a variablespeed, electric motor 46 through a gear-box 42, and a belt and pulley mechanism 44. In order to prevent symmetrical collapsing of the spiral dunnage, a kink 60 (Fig. 4) is formed at random locations along its length. The meshing relationship between the bevel gears can be varied to provide a strip with the desired resilience, and density, the discharge end of the crumpler funnel 38 being movable toward, or away, from the bevel gears 40a, 40b to vary the amount of strip which actually passes between the teeth of the gears. The latter are shielded by a cowling 56, which is enclosed within a cylindrical housing (66), Fig. 3, not shown, having a counterbalanced bottom wall (66a) which is adapted to cause reversal of the coiling of the strip and produce the kinks 60. Other baulking surfaces may be used to form the kinks 60. A slug of predetermined weight of dunnage may be collected in a metering housing (78), Fig. 6, not shown, the bottom wall (78a) of which is adapted to be forced open when a slug of dunnage of the required weight has been collected therein. In a modification, Fig. 8, a sheet of material is fed over a vertical rib and behind an arcuate vertical rib 108 and into a slot 110 in a support 98 which carries two sets of laterally-offset and converging slats 96a, 96b which fold the sheet into a generally flat strip 104, Fig. 11, before it passes to a pair of coacting pulling rollers 114, 114a, forwardly over a roller 116, and on to the underside of a belt 118 which co-operates with a spiral mandrel 120 to draw the strip of material around the helix in compressed relation and form the strip into a helical configuration for guidance along a rod 148 and into a receptacle 150. The belt 118, tensioned and guided by a pair of rollers 142, 144, passes round pulleys 132, 126, the pulley 126 being driven by a variablespeed electric motor 128 through a gear-box 130 and the roller 116 being driven by the pulley 126 through chain and sprocket, and belt and pulley mechanisms 134 and 136, 138 respectively. In a further embodiment, Fig. 14, two webs 164, 164a are fed past respective ring guides 198, 190 and into a crumpler funnel 172, which gathers in the webs coming from the rolls 164, 164a and delivers the crumpled strip to two sets of horizontally spaced coacting spur gears 170, 170 the latter crimping the strip along each edge before it is cut into suitable lengths by a emitter mechanism 204. The guide ring 190 carries a belly-pusher rod 192 which engages the front face of the web 164a. The cutter mechanism (204), Fig. 22, not shown, comprises a pair of blades (220) which are pivoted to each other at (222) and to respective intermeshing gears (224, 226) at (223), the gear (224) being provided with a handle (228) to rotate it. Fig. 7 shows a tangled mass of dunnage material which surrounds an article A in a shipping container 62.