STATEMENT RE: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND
The invention relates to machines for packaging products with stretch film, belonging to IPC class B65B11/54, adapted to produce packages as shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, composed of a sheet of stretch film S, usually horizontal, which is stretched and taken to intimately wrap, with a vertical relative movement, a product V1 usually arranged in a tray or other container, under which there are then folded in an orderly manner, as indicated by the arrows Z of FIG. 1, the lateral flaps L1, L2, followed by the back flap L3 and finally the front flap L4 of the sheet of film S, while the packaged product V2 leaves the packaging station with a movement in the direction indicated by the arrow F1 of FIG. 2, which shows a perspective view of the same package, formed and overturned. Before leaving the machine, the packaged product V2 is conveyed resting with its lower flaps L1-L4 superimposed on a heated conveyor which provides for the mutual heat sealing of the same flaps and provides for blocking the package to prevent it from being accidentally separating or even opening.
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention intends to provide machines for producing packages with stretch film as said above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, or similar packages and/or which involve similar requirements, of a safety apparatus with the object of limiting the consumption of electricity by said final heat-sealing conveyor belt and of ensuring maximum safety for the operators in charge of using these packaging machines.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Further objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example in the figures of the four accompanying drawings where, besides FIGS. 1 and 2 considered above, it is specified that:
FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate, in a schematic top plan view, two different types of improved packaging machine according to the invention;
FIG. 5 illustrates details observed according to the line V-V of FIG. 3;
FIG. 6 illustrates other details observed according to the section VI-VI of FIG. 5;
FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate corresponding details observed according to the sections VII-VII and VIII-VIII of the machine of FIG. 4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The applicant has for some time produced packaging machines for forming packages as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, for example known with the trade names ELIXA ZX, MEGA or MAX, produced with the layout shown in the plan view of FIG. 3, where M1 indicates the packaging machine provided with a station S1 for feeding and controlling the size and weight of the product to be packaged V1, which enters the same machine with a movement according to the arrow F, which inside the same machine is wrapped with a sheet of stretch film as said with reference to FIG. 1 and which is then discharged from M1 with the orthogonal movement indicated by the arrow F1 to be conveyed to the final station S2, where the lower edges of the packaged product V2 are heat-sealed and from which the same package is unloaded in the same direction F1 of feed into S2 and is, for example, picked up by a curvilinear descending conveyor that channels the same packaged products V2 in a flow that passes laterally and in proximity to the same operator O controlling the feed station S1 and in front of whom the control panel Q of the machine M1 is available.
Other packaging machines known with the trade name ELIXA XP are of the type indicated with M2 in FIG. 4, are provided with the usual station Si for feeding and controlling the size and optionally the weight of the product V1 to be packaged which is fed in the direction F, wrapping the same product as said above with reference to FIG. 1, after which the same product is translated orthogonally according to the direction F1 to be fed, packaged and as indicated with V2 in FIG. 2, to the discharge and heat sealing station S2′, from which the same product V2 is removed with a movement F2 orthogonal to F1 and fed to a conveyor T′ for removal and for optional control of the weight, parallel to that of the same feed station S1, to allow control of the machine by a single operator O who, also in this case, has the control panel Q of the machine M2 in front of him/her.
To make rational use of the footprint of the machines M1 and M2, the reel of stretch film with the unit for feeding the same film to the packaging station, are placed in a known manner under the final stations S2, S2′, so that to facilitate reel change and the necessary adjustment and/or maintenance operations, the components of the same stations S2, S2′ must be arranged so that it is possible to move them easily and rapidly away from the underlying lower film feed means, for example with a swinging movement that then, just as easily, allows these same components of S2, S2′ to be returned to the lower operating position.
The current trend of packaging machine manufacturers is to provide these machines with protective casings that cover the moving members, to prevent the operator from coming into accidental contact therewith and to provide safety micro switches, so that, if said casings are raised or removed, the machine automatically stops operating if it has not previously been switched off or made safe by the operator. The invention proposes an apparatus with a protective casing also for the stations S2, S2′ for discharge of the product, contrary to the trend of many manufacturers of packaging machines, which in order to allow rapid manual removal of the product from the heat-sealing conveyor in the case of accidental or temporary stopping of the machine, or to allow the operator to take rapid action in the station S2, S2′ to remove labelled packages from a labelling machine 11, illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 with an unbroken line in the operating position (see below), leave the heat-sealing conveyor without any protective casing, with the drawback of loss of heat from this component into the work environment and consequent increased electricity consumption by this component, with the possibility of the operator getting burnt by touching this same conveyor, usually very hot, with his/her hands, and with the possibility of the same operator coming into contact with internal moving parts of the stations S2, S2′ or even touching parts in proximity of these stations inside the packaging machines M1 or M2. As prior art, it is possible to cite, for example, the patents EP 1.571.092 by Teraoka Seiko Co. Ltd, with priority of 2004, and the following further patent application publications: DE 10 2008 053665, EP 940 343 and DE 30 10 657.
To overcome all these problems of the prior art, as illustrated in FIGS. 3, 5 and 6, the invention provides for securing to lateral appendices 101 of the structure, schematically indicated with 1 and which support the guide rollers and heating plate of the heat-sealing conveyor 2, which with its upper branch travels in the direction of the arrow F1, so as to be on top of and to incorporate the same conveyor 2, a parallelepiped-shaped chamber 3 made of any material or combination of materials with good heat insulating properties and having a size such as to allow conveying, without interference, of the packages of products V2 that are delivered from the machine and that are conveyed on the heat-sealing conveyor 2, also of those packages of the largest size that can be processed by the same machine, this chamber 3 being provided with openings 4 and 5, opposite and aligned with each other, positioned at the ends of the conveyor 2 and for which the same chamber 3 substantially acts as a tunnel. The openings 4 and 5 are closed by swinging barriers 104, 105, advantageously formed by a plurality of vertical and rigid slats of plastic material, with rounded profile, pivoted on transverse and upper axes 204, 205 supported by the upper horizontal sides of the openings 4 and 5 of the chamber 3, to form first, second or third class levers, for which there are provided on the same upper horizontal side of the openings 4, 5 and/or in another suitable position, stops 103 and 203 or the like, against which said barrier slats can rest when they are in the closing position and so that the same barrier slats can swing only in counter-clockwise direction, for those observing FIG. 5, being raised by the thrust of the packaged product V2 fed from the packaging machine M1 and then by the same product V2 that leaves the heat-sealing conveyor 2, exits from the chamber 3 and is fed to the removal conveyor T as in FIG. 3. After the product has passed beyond the raised slats of the barriers 104, 105, these return through gravity to the vertical position for closing the openings 4 and 5, maintaining in the chamber 3 the heat generated by the conveyor 2, which in this way is not lost into the work environment and limits the consumption of electricity by the same conveyor 2. If from their vertical rest position the barriers 104 and 105 were to be thrust to rotate in clockwise direction, for those observing FIG. 5, for example by the operator's hands, this movement would be prevented by the rigidity of the single slats that form the same barriers 104, 105 and by the fact that the same slats would be thrust against the upper stops 103 and 203 that would prevent such swinging thereof in clockwise direction. Therefore, the swinging barriers 104, 105 also act as safety barrier, due to the fact that they prevent objects from entering the chamber 3 through the discharge opening 5 and prevent backflow of objects from the chamber 3 to the machine M1 through the feed opening 4. In order to place a hand inside the chamber 3, the operator would have to lift a single slat of the external barrier 105 with his/her fingers so as to open therein a small passage into which a finger could be inserted and, using this finger, lift several adjacent slats of the same barrier, in a quantity such as to allow the formation of a larger passage that would allow a hand to pass through. This method of operating would require more time and more risks than the following possibility of rapid and safe access to the chamber 3 provided by the invention, by providing the lateral wall of the same chamber 3 facing the operator 0 with a large window 6 closed by a door 106 preferably made of transparent material, to allow maximum visibility of everything that happens inside the same chamber 3, as to satisfy its heat insulating needs, it is not possible to produce the same protective chamber 3, inexpensively and safely, with transparent material. The door 106 can be made of the same material as the material of which the door of small electric ovens for domestic use are made and, just as these, is preferably characterized by being hinged to the window 6 of the chamber 3 with a horizontal lower hinge 7, so that it can be opened with downward swinging through 90° and remain firmly in the open position through gravity and maximum opening swing of said hinge 7. The door 106 is provided on the upper horizontal side with an outer gripping knob 8 and is provided with any suitable means that maintain it safely in the raised position to close the chamber 3, as illustrated with the unbroken line in FIGS. 3 and 6, for example with elastic means of known type, that act on the hinge 7 or with a snap or magnetic type closure 108 positioned partly on the upper horizontal side of the door 106, for example in association with the knob 8, and placed partly on the upper horizontal side of the window 6. Opening the door 106, the operator is able to rapidly access the inside of the chamber 3 with one hand, to remove a package V2 that would otherwise remain stationary on the conveyor 2, with the safety of not touching the conveyor 2 and the safety provided by the presence of the swinging barrier upstream 104, which will prevent the same operator from entering the machine with his/her hands or from inserting undesirable parts into the same machine M1. From the detail of FIG. 6 it can then be observed that with the hinge 7 there is associated a micro switch 9, from which there departs an electrical contact 109 that is sent, directly or indirectly, to the control panel Q of the machine (FIG. 3), which is arranged so that if the micro switch 9 is activated due to opening of the door 106, the machine is automatically stopped and the power supply to the various components thereof, including the heat-sealing conveyor 2, is disconnected. Vice versa, by closing the door 106 and when the micro switch 9 transmits a signal that communicates this condition, the control panel Q is arranged so that by acting, for example, on the start button, the packaging machine can start up again rapidly and from the point in which it stopped, with opening of the door 106, without activating, or reducing, the verification and diagnostics protocols that are instead required for other causes of accidental stopping of the same packaging machine.
The chamber 3 can be provided at the top with an opening 10 for passage of the movable pad 111 of a labelling machine 11 that affixes at least one label E (FIG. 3) to the packaged product V2, stopped or temporarily decelerated on the heat-sealing conveyor 2, for qualification and/or pricing of the same packaged product. The labelling machine 11 can, for example, be mounted so that it can rotate on a vertical axis 12, to be able to be taken from the operating position illustrated with an unbroken line in FIG. 3, to a rest position indicated with a broken line, in which the same labelling machine is positioned laterally to the footprint of the chamber 3, to allow this chamber and the whole of the heat-sealing conveyor 2 assembly to be lifted after the casing upstream 13 that covers the packaging machine M1 has been raised. For this purpose, in FIG. 5 it can be observed that the whole assembly of the structure 1 carrying the heat-sealing conveyor 2 and the chamber 3 is, for example, pivoted on a base structure, not illustrated, with hinge on an axis coincident with or parallel to the first axis 14 for guiding and driving the same heat-sealing conveyor 2 and it can also be observed that when the same structure 1, directly or by interposing an appendix 201, is in the horizontal operating position it rests on a stop 15, usually provided with a micro switch to communicate this condition to the control panel Q. In FIG. 5 it can also be observed that the structure 1 or the chamber 3 and the labelling machine 11 are provided laterally with respective handles 16, 211, by acting on which the operator can move the labelling machine away and can lift the same structure 1 with the conveyor 2 and with the chamber 3 in clockwise direction to allow access to the underlying feed means of the packaging film, not illustrated as they are known and irrelevant to an understanding of the invention.
In a different solution to the one described above, see FIG. 6, it can be provided that the structure 1 is prearranged so that it can swing not on said axis 14 but on an axis 19 horizontal and parallel to the direction of feed F1 and so that the labelling machine 11 can swing on an axis 22 parallel to the axis 19, substantially as described now with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8, which illustrate in particular the improvements in question made to the machine M2 of FIG. 4.
FIG. 7 shows that the structure 1′ that carries the heat-sealing conveyor 2′ with the protective chamber 3′ above, upstream of these components supports an exchange platform 17 coplanar to the upper branch of the same conveyor 2′, on which the packaged product V2 is conveyed to the exit from the machine M2 and along which a pusher 18 operates, which through known means for alternated movement according to the arrows 118, transfers the same product V2 from this platform 17 to the conveyor 2, with raising of the swinging barrier 104′. The supporting structure 1′ is in this case hinged on an axis 19 placed on the outer side of the exchange platform 17, parallel to the direction F1 of delivery of the product V2 from the packaging machine M2 and in the lower operating position, the same supporting structure 1′ rests on a stop 15′, if necessary with a micro switch to communicate this condition to the control panel Q of the machine M2. On top of the exchange platform 17 is an auxiliary protective chamber 20 with opening to 90° to receive the product V2 from the machine M2 and then allow translation of the same product by the pusher 18 and insertion of the same product V2 into the chamber 3′, said auxiliary chamber 20 being provided with an optional upper opening 21 for passage of the pad 111′ of an optional labelling machine 11′ mounted, for example, so that it can swing on an axis 22 parallel to the axis 19. In this case, to be able to access the feed means of the film in the machine M2, through the relevant handle 211 the optional labelling machine 11′ is first raised, with swinging about the axis 22 and then the structure 1′ with all the annexed parts, is raised, acting on a handle 23 secured, for example, to the upper part of the protective chamber 3′, in a comfortable position for the operator O of FIG. 4. To allow the operator to act rapidly on the packaged product that would remain stationary on the heat-sealing conveyor 2, in this case the chamber 3′ is provided with an upper window 6′ closed by a door 106′ hinged on a hinge 7′ parallel to the axis 19, provided with a firm open position to 90° of the door 106′ and that also in this case acts on a micro switch 9′ with electrical connection 109′ to the control panel Q. In this case the door 106′ remains firmly closed through gravity and therefore does not require the closing means indicated with 108 in FIG. 6.
To prevent the openings 10 and 21 from becoming an unsafe passage for the operator, if the labelling machine 11 or 11′ is moved away from these openings, there can be associated with the same labelling machine safety micro switches, not illustrated, electrically connected to the control panel Q to limit operation of the packaging machine if the same labelling machines are not in the correct operating position.
To improve the visibility of the inner parts of the protective chamber 3, at least the swinging protective barrier 105′ could be made with slats of transparent plastic material.
It is understood that the description refers to some preferred embodiments of the invention, to which numerous variants, modifications and construction equivalences can be made, all without departing from the overarching principle of the invention, as described, illustrated and as claimed below. In the claims, the references provided in brackets are purely indicative and do not limit the scope of protection of the same claims.
Patent Application
20170210497
