Patent GB-412832-A (GB)
Title: An improved machine for packing articles, particularly cigarettes
IPC: B65B19/22
Filed: 1933-11-08
Abstract: 412,832. Wrapping - machines. UNIVERSELLE CIGARETTENMASCHINENFABRIK J. C. MULLER & CO., 48, Zwickauerstrasse, and JAHNE, E. H., 48, Frankenbergstrasse, both in Dresden, Germany. Nov. 8, 1933, No. 31139. [Class 94 (i).] The machine packs cigarettes, chocolate bars, reels of thread, and the like, in a continuous strip provided with troughs for the reception of individual cigarettes, a covering strip is superimposed and the intermediate webs are perforated to facilitate separation. Packets containing a predetermined number of articles are severed from the web, and faulty packets are deflected from the normal place of delivery. The cigarettes are fed from a hopper 1, Figs. 1<a> and 2<a> by a plunger 3 over a grooved guideway and beneath spring tongues 4 into troughs 6 on a continuously moving endless chain 5, which feeds them to a transfer position A. The paper or foil to form the strip is drawn from a reel 36 by feed rollers 42, 43 and passes over tensioning rollers 39, 40 to a shaping roller 41 by which it is formed into a succession of troughs 45<a>, Fig. 3<a>, separated by webs 46 and with peripheral flat folded portions 51. A preliminary shaping wheel 47 commences the formation of the parts 45, and a roller 44, the surface of which is complementary in shape to that of the roller 41, effects the main operation. Guides 48 smoothe the folds 51 and a final pressing is performed by a roller 49. The formed strip passes between this roller and a pressure roller 50 which bears on the edges 51, a member 52 assisting to disengage it from the roller 49. A pressure roller 78 places the strip in position with the troughs registering with the troughs 27 on a continuously moving endless chain 25, arranged parallel to the chain 5 and moving at the same speed and in the same direction. Before arriving at the position A, at which the troughs are to be filled with cigarettes &c., adhesive is applied to the webs 46 and a pad of one edge 51 by a gumming roll 86, the remainder of the edges being covered by guard strips. The roll 86 can be put out of action by swinging the container about a pivot 89 and retaining it in the raised position by an eccentric 90 on a handle 91. Transfer operation. The cigarettes are transferred, at station A, from the pockets in the chain 5 to the troughs in the strip by means of plungers and a suction device moving transversely in respect of the chains 5, 25 and also partaking of their longitudinal movement during the transfer. The plungers are mounted on a member 98, Figs. 1<a>, and 6, adapted to slide transversely on guide rods 100 and longitudinally on guide rods 132. The fingers 119, constituting the actual pushers, are pivoted at 120, Figs. 6 and 6<a>, to the members 98 and are normally downwardly urged by springs 122. During the forward stroke, a roller 123 on a tail piece 121 passes along a guide 124, the pushers being maintained at the level of the pockets in the chain so as to move the cigarettes on to a table 144. During the return stroke, a cam 130 having been raised into the path of the roller 123 by a spring 129, the parts 121, 119 are turned in an anticlockwise direction, and the pushers 119 return by a raised path until the roller 123 clears the end 128 of the cam. The table 144 on which the cigarettes arrive is provided with guide ribs to maintain them in position. The suction head 147 is formed with a nozzle for each cigarette, and is suspended on two links 149 from pivots 150 on a vertical slide 151 mounted for horizontal movement on the slide 101. The cigarettes are seized by their respective nozzles and lowered into corresponding troughs in the strip in the chain 25. A pin 161 enters between the chain links and ensures exact registration for the transfer and release of the cigarettes. Enclosure. Knives 189, 190 trim the edges 51 of the strip, and a feeler device 204, Fig. 2<c>, tests whether each trough has received a cigarette. The feeler comprises a leaf spring 204 on an arm 206 pivoted at each end to bars 203, 207. The bar 207 is moved to the right, and, if no cigarette is present, the spring 204 touches a contact 211 and closes a circuit to operate a relay device which eventually deflects the defective package at the delivery position. The covering strip 218 is drawn from a roll 216, Fig. 1<b>, by feed rolls 221, 222 and passes to a roll 228 which applies it to the lower strip. The travel of the chain 25 brings the strips beneath a brush on a support 232 adapted to be raised and lowered in a swinging movement. A pressure roller 249 assists in ensuring adhesion, after which a folding device comprising curved blades 263, Fig. 1<b>, turns the edges 51 into the position shown in Fig. 3<c>. The covering strip 218 is now secured at the left by adhesive and folding, and at the right by folding only. A portion 218<a> projects to facilitate opening. Pressure rollers 264, 274 secure the folds and knives 289, 290 sever portions of the strip containing predetermined numbers of articles. The knives move with the strip during the cutting operation. Delivery. The severed package passes over a shoot 302 on to a collector 304, 305, from which it is moved laterally by projections on endless chains 310. If a number of packages have accumulated in the collector, a fork 311 prevents any but the lowermost from being removed. The packages arrive on a guide plate 328, Fig. 11, the upper part 329 of which is pivoted at 330 and is adapted to be swung into a lower position to allow faulty packages to be segregated by passing down a lower shoot 358. The selection of faulty packages is made by the feeler illustrated with reference to Fig. 2<c>, which, in the absence of a cigarette in a trough in the strip, closes a circuit and energizes an electromagnet 333 to attract a core 347 on a lever 348, the lower end of which displaces a pin 346 axially mounted on a disc 344. The pin arrives in contact with a stop 352 at the same time that the faulty package arrives on the plate 329, and tilts the plate through links 355-357. The pin is replaced by a fixed cam. In a modified form of delivery apparatus, three packages are dealt with at once on three shoots 328 arranged in parallel. In this case, the disc 344 has three circles of pins in concentric and staggered relation, with which three electromagnets and associated parts co-operate.