The invention relates to equipment for continuously feeding boxes or containers, which are initially stacked in a flattened tubular configuration in the form in which they are received from a paper products factory, to a packaging machine which is, for example, of the straight-line or other continuously operating type. The most similar prior art to the equipment described here is represented by the international patent application WO 1992/015450 entitled “Feeder mechanism for sleeve type cartons” and European patent EP 1 597 150 granted on May 14, 2008, entitled “Apparatus for forming containers”. The first of these patents describes equipment for feeding containers to the cellular conveyor of a packaging machine, in which the magazine holding the stacked containers is downwardly open and is located above the initial part of the cellular conveyor, with a carousel located between these two components and having a horizontal axis orthogonal to the direction of operation of the cellular conveyor, a plurality of suction cup pick-up units being mounted on the carousel in a radial arrangement with equal angular intervals between them, and being positioned in a way which is controlled by cams. The carousel rotates in phase with the conveyor of the packaging machine and moves each of its pick-up units in sequence in order to grip a container, draw it out of the base of the magazine, move it downwards, interact with an opening means, and, after a rotation of about 180°, insert the substantially open container at the correct time into a cell being formed in the initial part of the underlying conveyor, the container being supported by the wall opposite that with which the container touches the base of the cell. The equipment therefore requires extremely complicated, time-consuming, difficult and costly adjustments whenever the format of the containers is changed. It is also difficult to adjust the equipment in order to avoid damage to the container during its transfer to the conveyor of the packaging machine, each cell of which must always be positioned so that it is open at the rear and must then be closed on the container which has been fed into it. Furthermore, the height of this equipment is considerable, making it necessary to position the container magazine at a very high level, creating difficulties in the cyclic restocking and in the control of operation. However, the equipment is capable of operating continuously at high speed.
The equipment described in the second of the aforementioned patents partially overcomes the drawbacks of the first equipment, in that it enables the magazine to be positioned at a very low level and the containers are inserted into the cells of the packaging conveyor with their lower walls retained by the same means as those used to extract the containers from the feed magazine. The container feed means are therefore required to move between two “zero” reference positions, namely the base of the feed magazine and the base of the cells, which do not change when the format of the containers changes, and consequently the procedure for adapting the equipment to the changes in format is considerably simplified. In particular, the containers are drawn, one at a time, from the base of the magazine by a suction cup arm which initially swings downwards and then extends towards the initial part of the cellular conveyor of the packaging machine, where opening means operate at the correct time to open the container so that the latter can be inserted at the correct time into the cell which is open at the rear and which is being formed in the initial part of the conveyor. After the feed step, the suction cup arm releases the container, is lowered, is retracted under the magazine, and is then raised again to repeat the cycle which has been described. Clearly, equipment of this type has long periods of downtime and cannot operate at a speed as high as that of the carousel device described in the first of the cited patents. This equipment is subject to the same problems of adjustment as the first, for the purpose of avoiding damage to the container during its transfer to the conveyor of the packaging machine, each cell of which must always be positioned so that it is open at the rear and must then be closed on the container which has been fed into it.
The invention proposes equipment for feeding boxes or containers, initially stacked in a flattened configuration, to the conveyor of a packaging machine, this equipment having the advantages of the aforesaid known equipment, but being free of their drawbacks, in that it can operate continuously at high speed, requires no complicated adjustment when the format of the containers changes, can insert the containers into cells which are already substantially formed, and allows the magazine to be positioned at a low level where it can easily be restocked and inspected. The innovative characteristics of the equipment according to the invention are summarized in the attached Claim 1, and will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example in the figures on the three attached sheets of drawing, in which:
In the drawings, the letter M indicates the magazine of a known type in which the containers A in a flattened tubular configuration are stacked, with one of the two open ends facing the viewer of
The container feed equipment is located under the magazine M, upstream of the conveyor T and substantially at the same level as the conveyor, this feed equipment comprising a carousel 1 supported by one end of a horizontal main shaft 101 which is orthogonal to the direction F of advance of the conveyor T and which is supported rotatably by a support 2 fixed to the vertical plate 3 of a base structure of greater width (not shown). The end of the shaft 101 opposite that which supports the carousel 1 is connected to a motion transmission system 4, 104 of any type which can transmit to the carousel a rotation in the clockwise direction as it appears to the viewer of
A rotary distributor 6 connected to a pneumatic circuit 106, described more fully below, is mounted on the end of the shaft 101 which is closer to the transmission system 4.
The carousel 1, which is fixed on the end of the shaft 101, is star-shaped, having for example three identical spokes 201 spaced at equal angular intervals from each other, whose distal ends rotatably support corresponding pivot pins 7 which are parallel to the shaft 101, and which project from both sides of the corresponding spokes 201, a corresponding feed unit U1, U2, U3 as described below being fixed on the end of each pivot pin. On the other end of each pin 7, which projects towards the base side member 3, there is fixed a right-angled lever 8 which has an arm of greater length 108 whose end carries, on the side facing the side member 3, a roller 9 which follows the double-acting and closed annular profile 110 of a face cam 10 fixed to the base side member 3. The profile 110, as shown in
An arm 15 is fixed perpendicularly to the other end of each pivot pin 7, this arm being Z-shaped in plan view in order to keep its distal end 115 at a suitable distance from the adjacent carousel 1, and this end 115 is designed in such a way that a plate 16 can be mounted on it in an adjustable and interchangeable way, the plate 16 having a shape related to that of the containers A and being provided with the correct number of suitably distributed suction cups 116, which are connected at the correct time to suction means or to the atmosphere. For example, good results have been obtained by mounting in the lower part of each plate 16, in communication with its inner cavities to which the suction cups 116 are connected, a small stationary Venturi vacuum pump 17, which has a silenced outlet filter 117 and has its inlet 217 connected to a compressed air delivery tube 18, which is supported in at least one intermediate part by a support 19 fixed to the arm 15, and whose other end is connected to a connector 20 fixed on the end of the pivot pin 7 which supports the arm 15. The connector 20 is connected to an axial cavity 21 of the pivot pin 7 which has a radial slot-like outlet 121 opening in a portion of the pin 7 on which is mounted, with the interposition of sealing means, a rotary collector 22 which is connected by means of a tube 23 with corresponding connectors 123, 223 to an axial cavity 24 of the shaft 101, which is connected at the other end of this shaft to the circuit 6, 106 which in turn is connected to a compressed air supply. By means of the circuit which has been described, the compressed air is sent to each Venturi pump 17 which converts it to a suction force acting on the suction pumps 116. The rotary collector 22 is internally shaped in such a way that, in its interaction by relative rotation with the radial slot-like outlet 121, it forms an automatic distribution chamber which, in certain specific angular positions of the carousel 1 and of each arm 15, causes the suction cups 116 of each arm to create suction or to be connected to the atmosphere (see below). In order to balance the weight of each arm 15 and the corresponding plate 16, a suitable counterweight 25 for static and dynamic balancing is fixed to the end of the pivot pin 7 which also carries the arm.
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Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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BO2010A000533 | Aug 2010 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2011/063870 | 8/11/2011 | WO | 00 | 2/27/2013 |