Patent GB-1487714-A (GB)
Title: Packaging installation for packaging flat rectangular objects
IPC: B65G57/09
Filed: 1976-01-16
Abstract: 1487714 Apparatus for packaging flat rectangular objects SAPAL SOC ANON DES PLIEUSES AUTOMATIQUES 16 Jan 1976 [19 Feb 1975] 01781/76 Heading B8C A packaging installation for packaging flat rectangular objects 1, e.g. wrapped chocolate slabs, comprises a conveyer 7 for carrying the objects spaced apart one behind the other past a checking mechanism 14 for checking the individual objects and removing defective objects, and a distributor mechanism 15 arranged to receive checked objects from the conveyer 7 and to deliver the objects in turn, and standing on edge, into an assembler pocket 17 of a counting and grouping mechanism, the latter being arranged to collect the objects into stacks 2 containing a predetermined number of objects and including a plurality of assembler pockets 17 for forming stacks therein. The installation also essentially comprises means for driving the counting and grouping mechanism synchronously with the distributor mechanism, the counting and grouping being so arranged that, during the formation of a stack 2 in one assembler pocket 17, a stack, previously formed in another assembler pocket, can be ejected from that assembler pocket without interrupting the supply of objects to said one pocket. As shown, grippers 5 on a revolving gripper wheel 6 of a wrapping machine 4 deliver the chocolate slabs 1, in sequence, between spring strip guides 12, 13 and onto the continuously-running conveyer 7 which has strikers 100 which engage the slabs and carry them past the checking mechanism 14 and into the distributor mechanism 15. The latter includes a guide 19 which partially surrounds a conveyer guide roller 10 and a second, pivotally-mounted conveyer 20 comprising separate belts 21, 22 with spaced, parallel sections 23, 24 to receive, and transport, the slabs 1 at the correct speed and frequency through an outlet 16 leading to the counting and grouping wheel 26 which has a plurality of circumferentially-spaced, stackreceiving pockets 17. Each pocket comprises a stop 28, which is pivoted to a curved bottom part 27 and which is rocked, by a cam-and-link mechanism 280, 282, to the right, as shown, in dotted lines in Fig. 3, at the location of the outlet 16 of the conveyer 20 which is simultaneously swung in the opposite direction so that the first slab 1b of the new stack about to be formed is safely transferred into the pocket next to be filled. A radial arm 30, pivoted to the hub 31 of the wheel 26, is connected to the bottom 27 of each pocket 17, and is swung forwardly by a second cam-link and driving arm mechanism 300, 301, 303 to accelerate the pocket as it moves from its fully-loaded position towards a stack-ejection position 33 where the stack can be ejected without interrupting the formation of the new stack. An ejector mechanism includes two arms 35 on opposite sides of the wheel 26 and with ejector fingers 37 at their ends, the arms 35 being movable horizontally by a lever 36 to thrust the stack into engagement with a wrapper blank 3, previously introduced into its path by means of a roller mechanism 58 to rest against a stop 42. A suction head 56 withdraws the blanks from a magazine 41 and supplies them, one at a time, to a roller feed mechanism 58. The stack and the blank 3 are finally pushed into a corresponding pocket of a folder wheel 38 during the rotation of which the cover part 44 of the blank is held open while it is glued and is then folded down, the folded box then being ejected while, at the same time, the three glued tongues of the cover part 44 are folded in against the sides of the folded blank. The completed box is then ejected by an ejector 48 and finally taken away on a conveyer 51. The folder wheel 38, the ejector mechanism 34, and the outlet ejector 48 are driven by a separate motor via a one-revolution clutch.