Patent GB-1341941-A (GB)
Title: Applying sheet material to a box
IPC: B31B15/00
Filed: 1972-03-07
Abstract: 1341941 Covering boxes I A FISH 7 March 1972 10600/72 Heading B5D A piece of sheet material having an adhesive on one face is applied to a box by bringing the exterior face of one side of the box into contact with the adhesive face of the sheet material, and advancing pressing means which enter the box and engage the interior face of the said one side of the box and press said one side of the box against the sheet material. Preferably the pressing means comprises a plurality of spring- loaded presser members which advance simultaneously with one another towards the box so that some of them enter the box and engage the interior face of said one side of the box and press said one side against the sheet material, ensuring that none of the presser members engage the tips of the other side of the box by interposing guard means in the paths of presser members which would otherwise engage the tips, which guard means halt the advance of those presser members. The box may be of cardboard and the sheet material may be paper. Apparatus for carrying out the method comprises as shown in Figs. 1 and 1A a flat support 1, a plurality of spring-loaded presser members 3 mounted above the support, means for moving the presser members simultaneously downwardly towards the support and guard means 22 and 23 for positioning above the support to ensure that some of the presser members do not move as far as the others towards the support. The guard means comprises either a L-shaped part or two disconnected bars perpendicular to one another, not necessarily with their axes lying in the same plane. Each presser member may comprise as shown in Fig. 2 a vertical rod with an eye at its upper end into which is hooked the lower end of a helical wire compression spring 4, the upper end of the spring being anchored to a tube 5 which is fixed to the plate 2 and within which the spring and the rod slide. There may be provided second and third supports, means for moving a box or sheet material adhering to it from the first mentioned support to the second support and later from the second support to the third support, means operable whilst the box is on the second support to apply the sheet material to the exterior faces of two opposite sides of the box and means operable whilst the box is on the third support to apply the sheet material to the exterior faces of two more opposite sides of the box. At each of the second and third locations, two opposite sides of the box are braced by separate bracing devices 35 as shown in Fig. 3 within and on opposite sides of the box and the sheet material is pressed from outside the box against the exterior faces of the two opposite sides of the box by rollers 32. At each of the second and third locations the two projecting portions of the sheet material which are brought into contact with two sides of the box at location are turned over the tips of these two sides of the box by a bar 37 which is bent into the form of three sides of a rectangle with a gap 38 between the longest side and the supporting block 36, and brought into contact with the interior faces of the sides of the box by lowering part 39 which passes through the gap 38, the bracing device 35 then being moved so that it presses the paper against the interior face of side 16 of the box 36 which acts as a bracing member to prevent deformation of the box. In another embodiment of the invention instead of using spring-loaded presser members, the box is pressed against its piece of sheet material by advancing a plate with a profile having substantially the same shape and size as the inside of the box into the interior of the box to engage said one side of the box.