Patent GB-1261841-A (GB)
Title: Packaging machine
Inventor: FREEMANTLE ARTHUR JOHN
IPC: B65B5/02
Filed: 1969-02-06
Abstract: 1,261,841. Packing machines. OFREX GROUP Ltd. 5 May, 1970 [6 Feb., 1969 (2)], Nos. 6484/69 and 6485/69. Heading B8C. A package machine comprises a collating station 14 to which strips of U-shaped articles, such as staples 4, are fed in a predetermined number in abutting, parallel, relationship and which includes tipping means operable to tilt the strips in pairs by engaging and raising the abutting edges of the strips in each pair and turning each strip through a right angle about one edge whereby each strip is arranged to rest on a face adjoining that on which it rested when initially fed to the collating station, and a compacting member 18 displaceable in relation to the tipping means to close up the up-tilted strips into a compact group. As shown lightlyinterconnected strips of staples 4, with their open sides downwards, are fed from a manufacturing process by a conveyer belt 5 into a reception chamber 9 twelve strips of staples received therein being urged laterally by a pusher 11 through the open sides of the chamber 9 and up against a far side wall of a compartment 12 located between an assembly of three piston and cylinder units 15, 16, 17 and collator or tippler box 14. The piston and cylinder unit 15 is first extended to move the block of staples into the tippler box 14 so that the leading strip abuts an inclined end wall 25, movement being obtained by a pusher 18 which is urged by a spring 19 towards pads 20 at the ends of the rods ofthe units 15- 17. The piston rod of the unit 15 is withdrawn and that of the unit 17 is advanced to a point slightly less than that previously reached by the unit 15 so that the pusher 18 is spaced from the last row of staples whereupon a tippler plate 29 and side bar 33, and tippler bar 23, 24, assemblies are lowered and raised respectively to co-operate in the tippler box 14 and tip up the rows of staples on their sides in inwardly facing pairs, Fig. 6, the tippler plate 29 and tippler bar 23, 24 being then withdrawn while the side bars 33 remain lowered to ensure that the staple strips cannot fall back. Finally, the piston and cylinder unit 16, having a long stroke, is operated so that the pusher 18 urges the mutually facing pairs of staples into one another, Fig. 7, (not shown). The bars 33 and the pusher 18 are then withdrawn. A pusher 41 is next operated by a cylinder 37 to push the condensed block of staples into an aligned bore 38, Fig. 9, which is open at the top and bottom and which is movable by a cylinder 40, back and forth, along a platform 39 which is located, by the height of a staple on its side, below the level of the floor of the tippler box 14 so that, upon withdrawal of the pusher 41, the block of staples falls into the collator box 38. A second block of staples is subsequently transferred into the box 38. The latter is then moved by the cylinder unit 40 along the platform 39 to a position directly above a vertically movable pusher 53 retractable into an opening 54 in the platform, Fig. 9. A tray blank 43 is subsequently withdrawn by a suction mechanism 49, 50 and transferred, by a pusher 47, along a plate 48 and over an opening 52 therein above the pusher 54. On extension of a cylinder unit 55 the staple block 4 is pushed upwardly out of the box 38, and through a draw forming-box 56 wherein the side and end flaps (59, 61), Fig. 11 (not shown), of the tray blank 43 are folded round the staples, a holder 60 above the forming box 56 then being moved by a cylinder unit 61 along guides 62 and over blades 63, Fig. 1, which fold end flaps (61) of the blank over the ends of the block of staples. At a position beyond the blades 63 a unit 64 is extended to push the staples in the tray out of an open side of the holder 60 on to a support plate 66. A stack of flattened carton shells 44 are withdrawn and opened out against a shoulder 70 one at a time from a magazine 67, the withdrawn shell being pushed laterally by a pusher block 75 toward a complementary fixed block 77 to be correctly positioned between the blocks ready to receive a drawer 43 with staples therein ejected from the holder 60. The drawer 43 is guided into the shell by a pair of spring-loaded, swinging gates 80, disposed adjacent the fixed block 77. After the drawer 43 has been fully inserted, by the pusher 65, into the carton 44 the gates 80 swing back to their normal position. The package, comprising the drawer 43 with staples and the carton 44, is removed from the blocks 75, 77 into a discharge shoot (85) by means of spring- urged pawl (84) on a block (83) on the rod of a cylinder unit (82) Fig. 17 (not shown).