Patent GB-1066635-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to carton forming machines
Inventor: GARWOOD ROY
IPC: B65H3/08
Filed: 1964-01-31
Abstract: 1,066,635. Feeding sheets. PEMBROKE CARTON & PRINTING CO. Ltd. Jan. 29, 1965 [Jan. 31, 1964], No. 4348/64. Heading B6B. Blanks for use in a carton erecting machine, particularly of the die-plunger type, are stacked on edge in a magazine, fed forward by a pressure plate, separated sequentially in a direction normal to the plane of a blank, and conveyed edgewise downwardly to the position ready for erection. Pile tables.-The magazine 8 comprises two sides 81, a base comprising a pair of free-running endless belts 11 supported on idler rollers 12, Fig. 4 (not shown), a back pressure plate 29, and small front plates 36, Fig. 3 (not shown), which are adjustably mounted on uprights 35<SP>1</SP> and past which the blanks 9 are flipped during separation. A lead-screw 14, Fig. 4 (not shown), adapted to be rotated by a motor 18 by a chain and sprockets, can be engaged by two half-nuts 22, 30 carried, respectively, by mounting blocks 19, 20. The block 20 is integral with the pressure plate 29, and the half-nut 30 on the block can be engaged with the screw 14 on the operation of a handle 33. The block 19 is for use when the carton stack requires replenishment, and the half-nut 22 thereon is caused to engage the screw 14 when an auxiliary pressure plate 26 is placed behind a depleted stack, and inserted in a recess in the block 19: the depleted stack is then urged forward by the plate 26, and the plate 29 is slid back to allow further blanks to be placed in the magazine. The motor 18 is controlled by a switch 37, Fig. 7 (not shown), operated by a trigger arm 38 engaging the bottom edge of the foremost blank 9. When a blank is removed from the stack, the pressure on the arm 38 is relieved, and the switch 37 restarts the motor 18  to feed the stack forward. Controlling &c. devices.-When the stack of cartons is depleted to a predetermined extent, the block 19, which is normally pushed forward by the block 20 against the action of a counterweight 42, depresses a plate 40 to operate a switch 39 and cause an alarm, such as a flashing lamp 41 on a frame member 41. When the block 19 reaches its forward limit, it operates a further switch 47, Fig. 5 (not shown), to stop the motor 18. The motor 18 is also stopped during the period immediately before, to immediately after, the separator means has removed a blank from the stack, by the operation of a switch 104, Fig. 6 (not shown), which is actuated by a cam 106 on gearing 57 which actuates the blank separator. Separators.-Two spaced cross-arms 62, adjustably carried on a shaft 52, each carry two adjustable suction grippers 63, Figs. 3, 5 and 7 (not shown), whereby a blank 9 can be engaged adjacent each of its four corners. The shaft 52 is carried by bell-crank arms 50, 51 pivoted on a shaft 48 in fixed bearings, and the arm 50 is connected to a rod 55 pivoted to a crank 56 on the shaft of a reduction gear-box 57 driven by a motor 58. The shaft 52 is thus oscillated through a restricted arc B, but a control means ensures that the arms 62 carrying the grippers 63 only turn through an arc A, so that a blank is extracted substantially in a direction normal to the plane of the blanks in the stack, so that the blank is deposited on guides 65. The suction grippers 63 are connected by identical lengths of piping 82 to a valve 79 which is automatically operated as the shaft 52 moves to its forward position so that all the grippers release a blank at the same time. The relief valve 79 is connected through a suction adjustment valve to a suction pump 64 driven by the motor 58. The motor 58 and pump 64 are mounted on a common base adjustable relatively to the gearbox 57, and an expanding pulley arrangement in the belt drive gives an infinitely variable speed drive to the blank separator. A prodder 107, Fig. 3 (not shown), adjustably mounted on the shaft 52 engages and flattens the front blank of the stack. Blank forwarders; guides.-Each blank separated is released by the suckers against substantially vertical face guides 65, and falls downwardly into the nip of two pairs of feed rollers 68, 69 which feed it downwardly into the position P3, Fig. 1 (not shown), over the mouth of a die. The guides 65, adjustable guides 65A, and rollers 69 are carried by a frame 65<SP>1</SP>, Figs. 3, 5 and 7 (not shown), and lower channel guides 74, 75, 76 are supported adjustably from a shaft 67. The rollers 68 are secured to a shaft 70 driven by belt and pulley means from the motor 58 through the reduction gear 57, and shaft 100, and the expanding pulley arrangement in the belt drive enables the feed rollers to be driven at an infinitely variable speed related to the speed of the blank separator.