Patent GB-1093532-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for filling boxes, trays or the like and feeding devices therefor
Inventor: HILLMAN JAMES GEORGE EDWARD
IPC: A24C5/354
Filed: 1963-05-21
Abstract: 1,093,532. Hoppers; packaging machines. MOLINS ORGANISATION Ltd. May 19, 1964 [May 21, 1963], No. 20195/63. Headings B8C and B8S. In apparatus for filling trays with cigarettes 3, a feeding device 10 is provided at the bottom of a hopper 11 which discharges into a tray 15. Feeding device 10.-Parallel hexagonal section shafts 1 are rotatably driven and are so spaced that cigarettes may only pass one at a time between each pair of adjacent shafts 1. Bars 2 may be simultaneously moved between positions in which they block the passage of cigarettes between the shafts 1, Fig. 2, and withdrawn positions below their associated shafts Fig. 1. Below the shafts 1 and bars 2, an agitator comprising parallel bars 47 is arranged to reciprocate horizontally at right angles to the length of the bars 47 when the feeding device is in its non-blocked setting. A photo-electric cell unit 44, 46 causes the apparatus to stop if the stack of cigarettes in the hopper 11 falls below a minimum height. Tray 15.-A vertically movable platform 17 projects into the tray 15, and a vertical pusher plate 18 lying outside an open side of the tray is movable horizontally across a plinth 14 for supporting the tray. A pair of pusher rods 19 connected to the pusher plate 18 are engageable with the bottom of the tray 15. The platform 17 is raised and lowered by means of chains 39 secured to a pair of sliding blocks 41 to which the platform is connected. The top of the plate 18 is connected to chains 34 and the rods 14 are connected by means of frames 19a to chains 30. A pusher bar 23 carried by a pair of chains or belts 22 serves to propel trays to and from the plinth 14. Operation.-With the platform in its highest position, the bars 2 of the feeding device 10 are moved to their withdrawn positions and the shafts 1 are rotated. Cigarettes accumulate on the platform 17 which descends and allows the tray 15 to fill from the top downwards. Shortly before the platform reaches the bottom of the tray, the bars 2 are moved to their blocking positions and rotation of the shafts 1 is stopped. As soon as the descent of the platform 17 is complete, the tray and the cigarettes on the platform are pushed to the left (Fig. 3) by the pusher rods 19 and the plate 18. The platform remains stationary. The plate 18 and rods 19 are withdrawn and the platform 17 raised, an empty tray is moved on to the plinth 14 and the sequence is repeated. Modification.-In Figs. 5, 7, 8 (not shown) the rotatable shafts (101) of the feeding device have faces which are slightly concave and the comers of faces are chamfered off. The shafts on the left of Fig. 8 rotate anticlockwise and the shafts on the right rotate clockwise. The blocking bars (102) are substantially rectangular in cross-section. The cigarettes are delivered to the feeding device by conveyer belts (261) and by chains interconnected by rods (263). The plinth (114) which supports the tray (115) is moved to the right in Fig. 7 together with a pusher plate (118), after the tray is full, and is then tilted due to action of a cam (245). The tray thus slides on to a platform (265). The platform (117) may be arranged to descend alongside an open-sided tray to be filled and then to move horizontally into and out of the tray so as to leave its load of cigarettes in the tray.