Patent Publication Number: US-9890002-B2

Title: Plant and method for making packages

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention concerns a plant and a method for making packages in a relatively rigid packaging material, such as smooth or corrugated cardboard, plastic material or other materials with similar characteristics of rigidity suitable to be used as packaging materials. 
     In particular, the plant is preferentially though not restrictively applied for obtaining flat semi-worked products, shaped and possibly provided with creasings, semi-creasings, incisions, notches, punching or other similar or comparable workings. Each semi-worked product defines a substantially two-dimensional development of a package to be made, or at least a part of this. The packages are therefore obtainable starting from said semi-worked products, for example, by folding them along the predisposed creasings. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In the packaging sector, it is known to obtain packages to contain products by folding flat semi-worked products made of a relatively rigid packaging material. 
     Among the packaging materials mainly used are cardboard, either smooth or corrugated, and plastic polymer materials such as for example polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but not excluding other materials with comparable characteristics of rigidity. Hereafter in the present description reference will be made to the combination of said materials using the generic term packaging materials. 
     It is known to make packages using plants comprising a machine for working packaging material provided with one or more operating stations configured to perform a plurality of workings, for example cutting and/or creasing, on said packaging materials. 
     From the application WO-A-2010/029418 in the name of the present Applicant plants are also known for making packages that also include an apparatus to feed the packaging material to the machine, which apparatus comprises a storage and feed unit, in which the packaging material to be worked is disposed, and removal and transport means to move the packaging material from the storage unit to the machine in which it is worked. 
     The storage and feed unit can include one or more storage sectors of the packaging material, following each other in a direction of feed of the material and configured to contain one or more pallets, possibly adjacent, of sheets, strips or reels of the packaging material, also of different sizes. 
     Each sector is served by corresponding removal and transport means, for the automatic feed of the packaging material to the working machine according to a feed line or more frequently, according to a plurality of overlapping feed lines. 
     Normally, in the plants thus made, the machine includes a loading device or selector, which receives the packaging material from the feed apparatus and conveys it toward a device to introduce the packaging material into the one or more work stations. 
     Though able to supply high productivity, known plants to make packages could have some limitations in terms of flexibility, in particular in the variety of conformation of the packaging materials that can be used. These limitations can be due, for example, to both the constraint defined by the sizes of the sectors of the storage and feed unit and to the configuration of the removal and transport means, and to the fact that said plants are applied with economic advantage only in continuous functioning or in the execution of large sized batches. 
     The execution, in known plants, of small production batches, heterogeneous, and/or with great diversity between the packaging materials needed, is at least disadvantageous, if not actually impossible, both for reasons concerning the times needed to prepare and modify the operating conditions, and also for reasons of design constancy. 
     There is therefore a need to perfect a plant and a corresponding method to make packages, which can overcome at least one of the disadvantages of the state of the art. 
     In particular, one purpose of the present invention is to obtain a plant to make packages which is flexible and can be used for the production of a wide range of products for which a great variety of sizes of packaging materials is needed, and which at the same time allows to carry out in an economically advantageous way production batches of both large sizes and small entity and heterogeneous. 
     The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is set forth and characterized in the independent claims, while the dependent claims describe other characteristics of the invention or variants to the main inventive idea. 
     In accordance with the above purpose, a plant to make packages according to the present invention comprises at least a machine for working packaging material and an automatic feed apparatus to feed the packaging material to the machine in a direction of automatic feed. 
     According to a characteristic aspect of the present invention, the plant comprises a manual feeding and loading station of the packaging material, adjacent and parallel to the automatic feed apparatus. Moreover, the machine for working the packaging material is mobile in a direction of movement transverse to the direction of automatic feed and is selectively positionable in a first position aligned to the automatic feed apparatus and in a second position aligned to the manual feeding and loading station. Moreover, guide means are provided to guide the machine between the first position and the second position and vice versa. 
     In this way the advantage is achieved of obtaining a flexible and complete plant, able to satisfy almost any production need, both in terms of dimensional varieties of the types of packaging material that can be fed to the working machine, and also in terms of quantitative varieties of the packages to be produced. Indeed, the plant according to the present invention lends itself both to the production in succession of considerable quantities of packages, for example according to continuous processes or in large size batches, and also to the production of small size heterogeneous batches, even needing packaging material of different bulk and possibly off-specification to the automatic feed apparatus. 
     Moreover, on the basis of the above, the present invention allows to obtain a plant which, as well as being versatile, is also advantageous economically, since it allows to use a manual load in all those difficult situations in which equipping the automatic loading apparatus would be too long and expensive. 
     According to one aspect of the present invention, the plant also comprises a loading device to load the packaging material interposed between said machine and the automatic feed apparatus and aligned to both. The loading device is mobile in the direction of automatic feed in order to assume a first loading condition in which it is connected to the working machine of the packaging material, and a second non-operative condition in which it is unconstrained and separate from the machine. 
     The fact that the loading device is mobile allows to free the working machine, when necessary, in order to allow it to move in the direction of movement. 
     The present invention also concerns a method to make packages using a plant for making packages, which provides to feed packaging material automatically in an automatic direction of feed, by means of an automatic feed apparatus, to a machine for working the packaging material. 
     According to the present invention, the method also provides to feed the packaging material manually to the machine by means of a manual feeding and loading station, which is adjacent and parallel to the automatic feed apparatus. Moreover, according to the invention, it is provided to move the machine in a direction of movement transverse with respect to the direction of automatic feed in order to selectively position it in a first position aligned to the automatic feed apparatus so as to feed the packaging material automatically, and in a second position aligned to the manual feeding and loading station to feed the packaging material manually. 
     In some forms of embodiment, feeding packaging material automatically first of all provides to prepare a loading device of the packaging material interposed between the working machine and the automatic feed apparatus, and aligned to both, and to connect the loading device to the machine in a first loading position. Moreover, before moving the machine from the first position to the second position, it provides to move the loading device in the direction of automatic feed, with respect to the loading condition, away from the machine, in order to make the loading device assume a second non-operative condition in which it is unconstrained and separate from the machine, which can therefore be moved. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and other characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of some forms of embodiment, given as a non-restrictive example with reference to the attached drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a plan view of forms of embodiment of a plant to make packages according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a lateral view of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIGS. 3 and 4  are lateral views in section of the plant according to the section line A-A of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIGS. 5, 6 and 7  are plan views of a part of the plant in  FIG. 1 , in different functioning conditions. 
     
    
    
     In the following description, the same reference numbers indicate identical parts of the plant for making packages according to the present invention, also in different forms of embodiment. It is understood that elements and characteristics of one form of embodiment can be conveniently incorporated into other forms of embodiment without further clarifications. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF FORMS OF EMBODIMENT 
     We shall now refer in detail to the various forms of embodiment of the present invention, of which one or more examples are shown in the attached drawing. Each example is supplied by way of illustration of the invention and shall not be understood as a limitation thereof. For example, the characteristics shown or described insomuch as they are part of one form of embodiment can be adopted on, or in association with, other forms of embodiment to produce another form of embodiment. It is understood that the present invention shall include all such modifications and variants. 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  are used to describe forms of embodiment of a plant  10  for making packages, comprising a machine  11  for working packaging material, an automatic feed apparatus  12 , and a manual feeding and loading station  14 . 
     The automatic feed apparatus  12  is configured to feed the packaging material automatically, for example according to a process of continuous functioning, to the machine  11 , making the material follow a travel in a direction of automatic feed P. 
     The machine  11  is configured to subject the packaging material to workings, such as for example cutting, incisions, and/or creasing for working flat semi-worked products, shaped and possibly creased, which are then folded and/or glued and/or assembled in another way in order to obtain the desired packages, for example of a box-like shape. 
     The automatic feed apparatus  12  can include a storage unit  15  of the packaging material, contained there in the form of sheets, strips or reels, even of different sizes. 
     In some forms of embodiment, the storage unit  15  can include a single, or in other possible implementations, a plurality of sectors  16 , in each of which one or more pallets  17  of packaging material are positioned, possibly adjacent to each other to fill the space pertaining to each sector  16 . 
     The automatic feed apparatus  12  also includes one or, as described by way of example with reference to the attached drawings, a plurality of removal and transport devices  18  to move the packaging material from the storage unit  15  to the machine  11 . 
     Each removal and transport device  18  can be governed by a sector  16  of the storage unit  15  in order to remove the packaging material in the desired shape and size needed from the corresponding pallets  17 , and to transport it to the working machine  11 . In possible implementations, each removal and transport device  18  can include guide members  19  which allow to transfer the packaging material in a suitable guided manner, defining a feed path in the direction of automatic feed P. 
     With reference by way of example to  FIG. 1 , guide members  19  can be provided which define overlapping and vertically distanced feed paths, so as not to interfere with each other during the functioning of the plant  10 . 
     The plant  10  described with reference by way of non-restrictive example to  FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 , can include a plurality of feed paths, six for example. 
     Simplified solutions, for example with five, four, three, two feed paths and even only one feed path, like solutions comprising more than six feed paths, for example seven, eight, nine or more than nine, can be equally provided in a plant  10  according to forms of embodiment in accordance with the present description. 
     In some forms of embodiment in accordance with the present description, the plant  10  can also comprise a loading device or selector  13 . In possible implementations, the selector  13  is interposed between the automatic feed apparatus  12  and the machine  11 , aligned to both, and has the function of loading into the machine  11  the packaging material coming from the automatic feed apparatus  12 . 
     When the functioning of the plant  10  provides to feed the packaging material automatically to the machine  11 , the selector  13  is connected to the machine  11  itself, in a loading condition. 
     The connection between the selector  13  and machine  11  can provide, for example, a removable mechanical attachment constraint, or the partial insertion of the selector  13  inside the machine  11  can be provided, so that it interferes with the transverse bulk of the latter. An example of a plant  10  that adopts the solution of partial insertion of the selector  13  into the machine  11  is described with reference to  FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 5  for example. 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  are used to describe forms of embodiment in which the manual feeding and loading station  14  is adjacent and parallel to the machine  11 , for example laterally thereto with respect to the direction of automatic feed P. 
     By adjacent and parallel we mean that the automatic feed apparatus  12  and the manual feeding and loading station  14  can be used alternatively to feed the packaging material to the machine  11 . It can mean that the parallel positioning implies that the manual feeding and loading station  14  defines a direction of manual feed that is parallel to the direction of automatic feed P. 
     In particular the first is used to feed the packaging material automatically, while the second is used to feed the material manually. 
     For this purpose, the machine  11  is configured mobile transversely with respect to the direction of automatic feed P, in a direction of movement M, in order to assume a first position aligned to the automatic feed apparatus  12 , and a second position aligned to the manual feeding and loading station  14 . 
     In preferential implementations, the direction of movement M is perpendicular with respect to the direction of automatic feed P. 
     In some forms of embodiment, the plant  10  can include guide means to guide the machine  11  between the first position and the second position, and vice versa. Transverse guides  20 , rectilinear for example, are examples of possible guide means in accordance with forms of embodiment described here. In possible implementations, the transverse guides  20  can be positioned transversely with respect to the direction of automatic feed P and disposed in the direction of movement M. 
     The machine  11  can be mobile on the transverse guides  20  in order to position itself, when required, in the first and second position. 
     In possible solutions, the manual feeding and loading station  14  can define a support plane Q able to receive single sheets of packaging material that have to be fed manually to the machine  11 . For example, the manual feeding and loading station  14  can include a support structure, or frame  14   a,  defining said support plane Q. 
     In possible implementations, the disposition of the support plane Q is such as to allow the manual feed of the sheets only by translating them in the direction of automatic feed P once positioned on the same support plane Q. 
     In some forms of embodiment, it can be provided that the manual feeding and loading station  14  is mobile at least in the direction of automatic feed P, for example to be moved toward the machine  11  after the latter has been placed in the second position cited above, and to be moved away from the machine  11  in order to facilitate the movement of the latter toward the first position. 
     Other solutions can provide a movement of the manual feeding and loading station  14  along two axes that are orthogonal to each other, for example disposed according to the directions of feed P and movement M. 
     Solutions can also be provided, shown by way of example in  FIGS. 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 , in which the manual feeding and loading station  14  is freely mobile on its own lying plane, for example the floor of the building that contains the plant  10 . 
     To allow this free movement of the manual feeding and loading station  14 , the latter can include pirouetting wheels  14   b,  connected to its own frame  14   a  for example. 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  are also used to describe other forms of embodiment, which can be combined with all the forms of embodiment described here, in which the plant  10  can include longitudinal guides  21 , rectilinear for example, positioned in the direction of automatic feed P and associated to the selector  13  for example. 
     The selector  13  is mobile in the direction of automatic feed P and can slide in this direction along the longitudinal guides  21 . 
       FIGS. 3 and 4  are used to describe possible forms of embodiment of the plant  10  in which the machine  11  comprises a bearing structure  11   a  configured to support and contain one or more work stations  111 , each of which is able to carry out a working, for example cutting and/or creasing, on the packaging material. 
     The machine  11  can also include, in accordance with possible implementations, an introduction device  22 , with the function of introducing into the work stations  111  packaging material coming from the automatic feed apparatus  12  or from the manual feeding and loading station  14 . 
     With reference by way of example to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the machine  11  can include a movement device  23 , connected to the bearing structure  11   a  and cooperating with the transverse guides  20  to move the machine  11  in the direction of movement M. 
     The movement device  23  can be, for example, the rack type and include a drive member  24  to which a pulley  25  is connected, engaged on a fixed rack  26 , parallel to the transverse guides  20 . The motion conferred on the pulley  25  by the drive member  24  allows the movement of the bearing structure  11   a,  and consequently of the machine  11 , along the fixed rack  26  and therefore along the transverse guides  20  in the direction of movement M. 
     The sliding of the machine  11  on the transverse guides  20  can be obtained by wheels  27  connected to the bearing structure  11   a.    
     Other solutions can provide different types of movement devices  23 , for example comprising one or more linear actuators of the screw type, pneumatic, hydraulic, magnetic or sliders or motorized belts or other. 
     In possible implementations, described with reference by way of example to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the longitudinal guides  21  can include upper guides  21   a  and lower guides  21   b,  whose combined presence can for example supply stability to the movement of the selector  13 . 
     This movement, for example, can be supplied to the loading device  13  by a movement device  28 , in this case the mechanical rack type. However, different types of movement device  28  cannot be excluded from the scope of the present invention, for example comprising one or more linear actuators of the screw type, pneumatic, hydraulic, magnetic or sliders or belts or other. 
       FIGS. 5, 6 and 7  are used to describe by way of example the functioning of the plant  10 . 
       FIG. 5  is used to describe a possible initial condition in which, for example, the machine  11  is in its first position, that is, aligned to the automatic feed apparatus  12 , in order to feed the packaging material automatically, and the selector  13  is in its loading condition, partially inside the longitudinal bulk, that is, in the direction of automatic feed P, of the machine  11 . 
     Starting from this initial condition, if it is necessary to pass to a manual feed of the packaging material, the selector  13  is translated along the longitudinal guides  21  in the direction of automatic feed P away from the machine  11 , resulting completely outside and unconstrained from it (see  FIG. 6  for example). 
     Then, the machine  11  can be translated along the transverse guides  20  in the direction of movement M and positioned in its second position, aligned to the manual feeding and loading station  14  (see  FIG. 7  for example). 
     The machine  11  can therefore be fed manually, positioning one or more sheets of packaging material on the support plane Q and thrusting the sheets toward the machine  11 , so that the introduction device  22  grips the sheets and introduces them to the one or more work stations  111 . 
     In possible implementations, it can be provided to move the manual feeding and loading station  14  in the direction of automatic feed P and nearer to the machine  11 , after the positioning of the latter in its second position. 
     It is clear that modifications and/or additions of parts may be made to the plant  10  as described heretofore, without departing from the field and scope of the present invention. 
     It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to some specific examples, a person of skill in the art shall certainly be able to achieve many other equivalent forms of plant  10 , having the characteristics as set forth in the claims and hence all coming within the field of protection defined thereby.