Patent GB-1086180-A (GB)
Title: An improved packing or wrapping machine of the mould wheel type
IPC: B65B11/36
Filed: 1964-02-20
Abstract: 1,086,180. Wrapping-machines. MOLINS ORGANISATION Ltd., D. H. YOUNGMAN, W. C. H. BRIDGER, and J. GAGG. Feb. 17, 1965 [Feb. 20, 1964], No. 7136/64. Heading B8C. After an article 4 has been removed from an article feeding device 3 it is pressed into a recess 2 in a continuously moving mould wheel 1 carrying with it a sheet of wrapping material 11 which has been held over the recess. The sheet is then folded around the article as the mould wheel rotates. In the form shown, a sheet of wrapping material 11 is fed between two conveyer belts 12 over a recess 2 where it is held by a suction aperture 13. Each recoss 2 has a cam controlled bottom plate 15 which is in the raised position when the bottom article 4 is removed from the article feeding device 3 by means of a pusher 6 mounted on the drum 5 and co-operating with a forked lip 5, fixed below the magazine 3. Brushes 14 assist in keeping the articles in contact with the plate 15 and the pusher member 6. Suction is then released from the aperture 13 and the plate 15 lowered as the article is pushed into the recess so formed, by a member 16. The upstanding portion of the wrapper is then folded down by a plate 20 and the leading edge of the wrapper tucked down over the rear wall of the article by means of paddles 24, the pusher member 6 moving away from the article to allow this to happen. The pusher member 6 then moves back towards the rear end of the article to hold this longitudinal overlap together. Rotary tuckers 25 and fixed tuckers 26, see also Fig. 2 (not shown), then make narrow tucks in the material extending over the side edges of the article and conventional ploughs 27 and 28 fold down the broad flaps so formed on to the package ends. Each recess is provided with heated plates 29 rotated about pivots 30 to move into contact with the end faces and heat seal the broad flaps together. Upward movement of the bottom plate 15 of the recess causes the articles to be ejected from the recess and they are forced into a horizontal stacker having a heated bottom plate which seals the longitudinal overlap formed in the rear end of the package. In an alternative embodiment (Fig. 4, not shown) the wrapped articles are transferred from the mould wheel 1 into a second recessed rotating wheel where they are carried through 180 degrees and then transferred to a horizontal stacker having a heated top plate. Alternatively the second recessed wheel may be provided with heated grippers to form the longitudinal seal. The sheet feeding belts 12 may be replaced by a suction drum (Fig. 5, not shown) which may be as described in Specification 1,037,261, over which a web of material is fed and from which individual wrappers are severed. The article feeding means 3 (Fig. 1) may also be replaced by a plate (Fig. 5, not shown) along which articles are pushed by flights 56 on a conveyer into recesses in a rotating drum 58, the articles being removed from the drum by the pushers 6. The machine may be modified to wrap up single sticks of chewing gum and then package five of these sticks in a wrapper. In this case the sheets 11 may be made of foil and may have a paper label attached. Single sticks of gum are wrapped in a mould wheel similar to that described above but the tuckers and ploughs are dispensed with and the ends of the wrapper folded over on to the top face. The sticks are ejected from the mould wheel 1 into a second wheel having only five recesses. The second wheel continues to take these sticks from the first wheel until the recesses contain five sticks of gum, which are then transferred to a third wheel, which is similar to the first, where a final wrapper, which may again be of foil with a paper label, is wrapped around the set of five.