Patent Application
20080202074
The present invention refers to a wrapping machine for small articles of ovate or spheroidal shape, in particular for chocolate small eggs, chocolate balls and similar products, and relates to a method for wrapping said articles.
There are known machines for wrapping small curved articles, such as chocolates, in a sheet material, which is progressively folded and laid adherent to the articles by means of folder, pressure roller, pincers and the like tools of the machine.
A drawback of said known machines consists in that they can damage the products owing to the excessively energetic action. Particularly the egg-shaped products and other hollow or liquid filled products can be broken by the members, namely folder, pressure roller and the like, of the known machines even if they are adjusted at a low operation speed.
An object of the present invention is to propose a machine and a method for wrapping articles of ovate or spheroidal or almost cylindrical shape with an adherent sheet without damaging them.
Other object is to propose a machine and a method for wrapping ovate and similar goods avoiding bumps, excessive solicitations and damages also at the high operational speed.
Further object is to propose a reliable, fast and relatively simple machine.
The characteristics of the invention are highlighted in the following with particular reference to the attached drawings, in which:
With reference to the
The machine 1 comprises at least, positioned in series, an inlet wheel 40, a feeding wheel 25 and a conveyor mean 2.
In an operational condition of the machine, the wheels are positioned on a vertical plane and the conveyor mean 2 is on a horizontal plane.
The inlet wheel 40 is rotating and is fit to grasp the articles P together with the respective wrapping sheets adjacent thereto. Said wheel 40, during its rotation and in cooperation with folders, which are known and not shown, and with a guide 34 shaped as a sector of circumference, rolls up in roughly manner said sheets around the articles and transfers these latter to the feeding wheel 25.
The feeding wheel 25 includes a rotation axis perpendicular in respect to the conveyor mean 2 and it is fit to feed this latter with the articles P roughly rolled up in the wrapping sheets.
The conveyor mean 2 is equipped with a plurality of housings 3 made of material with low friction rate, each fit for housing an article P roughly rolled up in the wrapping sheet.
The machine also comprises a movable matching mean 4 faced to the conveyor and fit to match a portion of the articles rolled up in the sheets and contained in the housings 3.
In the operational condition, each article is moved by the conveyor mean 2 at an average transport vector speed VT and a portion of each article protruding on the upper part from the respective housing 3 is matched with a portion of the matching mean 4. Said portion of the matching mean is movable at a different respective average vector speed VR, provoking the rotation of the article in its own housing and the consequent adherence of the sheet at least to the portion of the article matched by the movable matching mean 4.
The conveyor mean 2 and the movable matching mean 4 are mutually parallel and provided with driving means 10, 11, preferably equipped with respective electric motors separately controlled by control and driving means of the machine, to obtain respective vector speeds VT, VR.
Said vector speeds have almost parallel directions and can point accordingly or oppositely; and can have the same or different speed modulus.
The conveyor mean 2 comprises one or several first ring means 5, for example of belt type band type or chain type, swiveling engaged with two or several respective pulley means 6, 7, for example consisting of pinions, rollers, pulleys or the like, of which at least one pulley mean 6 is motorized by means of a connection to the respective driving means 10. The external surface of the first ring mean 5 includes the housings 3, fixed at mutual regular distances.
Each housing 3 is provided with a seat 8, of almost cylindrical shape, with geometric axis approximately perpendicular to the direction of the transporting vector speed VT.
Each seat 8 is provided with an extension 9 of the portion of the housing 3 arranged downstream in respect to the direction of the transporting vector speed VT, in a manner that said extension pushes the article P released from the feeding wheel.
The movable matching mean 4 comprises at least a second ring mean 12, consisting of a belt, band or the like, swiveling engaged with at least two respective pulley means 13, 14 consisting of rollers, pulleys, pinions or the like, of which at least one pulley mean 13 is motorized by means of a connection to the respective driving means 11.
The external surface of the second ring mean 12 is provided with a resilience mean 15 consisting of a layer made of foam rubber, neoprene, soft material or the like, that it adapts itself to the shape of the article P and it carries out a high friction.
The movable matching mean 4 are supported by translation means 16 for moving the matching mean 4 between an operational distance from the conveyor mean 2, in which the resilience mean matches the articles, and a maximum mutual distance from the conveyor mean to allow the cleaning or the maintenance of the machine.
The translation means 16 comprise a supporting frame for the movable matching mean 4 sliding along respective guides and raised by respective actuator means, consisting of, for example, an electric motor with transmission without possibility of retrograde motion or with safety stops to avoid risks to the operators during the maintenance.
The conveyor mean 2 protrudes downstream of the movable matching mean 4, in respect to the pointing direction of the transporting vector speed VT, and has a portion for taking the wrapped articles, for instance, by some packing machines.
The housings 3 have a transversal dimension, in respect to the transporting vector speed VT, smaller than that of the articles P.
Furthermore, the machine comprises two side guides 17, 18 fixed to the sides of the portion of the conveyor mean 2 faced to the movable matching mean 4.
The side guides 17, 18 have respective longitudinal concavities 19, 20 shaped in a complementary manner in respect to the portions of the article P protruding laterally from the housing. Said longitudinal concavities 19, 20 are fit to match, in sliding and swiveling manner, the portions protruding out of the article P in order to carry out the adherence of the sheet also onto said portions.
When the articles are of spherical shape, the longitudinal concavities 19, 20 they have respective sections with the same profile of circumference arc; when the articles are of ovate shape, for example an egg-shaped article, the longitudinal concavities 19, 20 are different because one concavity is fit to match the more acute end of the egg while the another concavity has to match the end of the egg with bigger curved rate.
The feeding wheel 25 is provided of a plurality of feeding pincers 26, each of them is fit to take an article and then to put it in a housing 3.
Each feeding pincers 26 comprises a pair of arms 27, 28 positioned roughly tangential in respect to the feeding wheel 25 and movable for opening and closing on a respective plane parallel to the rotation axis of the feeding wheel 25 and almost tangent to the feeding wheel.
To avoid interferences of the arms 27, 28 with the conveyor mean 2, said arms of each feeding pincers 26, after transferring the object to a housing 3 are opened at a mutual distance bigger than the width of the conveyor mean 2.
One of the arms 27 is driven for opening and closing by respective cam means 29 and the another arm 28 is driven for opening by a respective cam mean 30 and for closing by a spring mean 31, for instance of metallic helicoidal type, in order to limit the maximum clamping force for the articles to the force provided by the spring mean.
The external ends of the arms 27, 28 are provided with respective matching means 32, 33 for the article P fixed in free swiveling manner to allow the free rotation of said article P.
The circumference sector guide 34 is coaxial in respect to the feeding wheel 25 and it is fit to match the articles P fed by said wheel 25 to provoke the rotation thereof and to obtain the partial adherence of the wrapping sheets.
The circumference sector guide 34 can be provided with elastic fixings to the machine for reducing the risks to damage the articles.
The inlet wheels 40 and the feeding wheel 25 are adjacent and, as seen, are coplanar.
The inlet wheel 40 includes a set of radial pincers 41 each of them comprises a couple of jaws 42, 43 movable, to be opened and to be closed, on a plane perpendicular in respect to the rotation axis of the inlet wheel 40.
The wheels 25, 40 are driven by driving means controlled by the control means of the machine for synchronization with the conveyor mean 2 in intermittent or continuous motion.
The operation of the machine according to the method of the invention for wrapping an ovate article P provides:
The method also allows the free rotation of the article by means of swiveling matching means 32, 33 of the feeding pincers 26 and to make a side portion of the turning article to match with a circumference sector guide 34 during the rotation of the feeding wheel 25 to obtain at least the partial adherence of the sheet to said side portion.
Furthermore, the method provides the step to place the article P in a housing 3 of the conveyor mean 2 by opening the feeding pincers 26 and falling of the article when this latter is at the minimum distance from the housing.
It is important to observe that the configuration of the feeding wheel 25 and the method of the invention allow advantageously to carry out a taking, a transfer and a release of the product in a very gentle manner without bumps and excessive solicitations and furthermore, they allow to make maximum use of the circular trajectory of the product carried out by the feeding wheel to obtain a partial adherence of the sheet to the product simplifying advantageously the following wrapping steps.
An advantage of the present invention is to provide a wrapping machine and a method with an adherent sheet for articles of ovate, spheroidal or roughly cylindrical form, without damaging them.
Other advantage is to provide a machine and a method for wrapping egg-shaped and similar products without bumps, excessive solicitations and damages the products even in the operation at high production speed.
Further advantage is to provide a reliable, fast and relatively simple machine.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| B02005A000273 | Apr 2005 | IT | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2006/001045 | 4/19/2006 | WO | 00 | 10/19/2007 |
