HK1087078B - A device for automatically packaging of containers - Google Patents

Description

Device for automatically packaging containers

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a device for automatically packaging empty containers, such as shrink tubes or the like, which are supplied by a conveyor into a plurality of packaging containers which pick up empty containers.

Background

For example, methods for producing containers with a substantially circular or oval cross-section, in practice cylindrical containers with a variable cross-section (e.g. preferably shrink tubes, cans or tubes) are known from DE2643089a1 and WO 9115349. The shrink tube thus manufactured can be packed by a shrink tube packing machine to form a larger product unit, which can then be supplied to a filling company. The packaging machines required for this purpose are known, for example, from EP1114784B 1.

Both the manufacturing machine and the packaging machine allow about 200 to no more than 250 units to be manufactured and packaged separately per minute. However, production and packaging rates in the range of ± 500 units per minute are expected in the future. At present, such machines for manufacturing shrink tubes are under development and have already been put into production in part. However, no automatic packaging machine has been developed at such high speeds per minute, because at such high speeds the time available for loading the rows of shrink tubes is very short. Furthermore, problems related to the available time and loading rate are also exacerbated, as shrink tubes are often very heavy. Furthermore, the time available for changing the packaging containers is not sufficient, for example when the last row and the first row are loaded into two successive packaging containers (e.g. boxes); thus, the speed cannot be increased.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for automatically packaging empty containers, such as shrink tubes or the like, which are supplied by a conveyor into a plurality of packaging containers for picking up empty containers, with which a packaging rate of 500 containers per minute or more can be achieved without long cycle times.

To this end, the invention provides a device for automatically packaging containers (1), wherein the containers are supplied by a conveyor belt (2) into packaging containers (14), comprising an intermediate store (13), wherein the containers (1) are collected in a row before being conveyed to the packaging containers (14), wherein the intermediate store (13) has a stationary base plate (15) and a movable bottom strip (12a, 12b, 12 c; 12a ', 12b ', 12c ') which can be passed through the base plate (15).

With the device for automatically packaging containers according to the invention, the bottom strip can be returned to its initial state in a very short path for further operations, so that the device requires only little construction space and saves packaging time.

Drawings

The invention is described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a collection device and a continuously running feed belt;

FIG. 4 shows an independently rotatable suction V;

FIG. 5 shows two converters for rows of tubes collected in a collecting device and a push plate;

FIG. 6 shows a partial assembly of a device for pressing the rows of tubes without play;

FIG. 7 shows the same row of tubes as FIG. 6 but compressed;

fig. 8 shows different positions of different packaging containers;

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of an intermediate reservoir;

fig. 10 shows two different tube packaging formats.

The figures above show a schematic representation of the invention, and further variants of the implementation possibilities can be derived from the following detailed description.

Detailed Description

The invention is further described below with reference to an example.

As shown in fig. 1, substantially cylindrical containers such as cans or tubes or the like (here shrink tubes 1) are continuously supplied from the manufacturing unit HE onto the feed belt 2 on respective V-shaped transport supports 3, which constitute the feed belt 2. The V-shape of the transport carriage 3 allows containers, whose cross-section is variable over a wide range, to be picked up without change. At its end, the feed belt 2 is provided with a collecting device 4, here comprising eight independently driven rotatable suction chevrons (suctionvees) 5. The rotatable suction chevrons 5 pick up the shrink tubes 1 one by one from the feed belt 2-in this embodiment-transfer the collected shrink tubes 1 in a row of eight or seven in two cycles to fifteen holders 6 of an assembled transfer unit 7. The holder 6 is connected to the suction line and comprises parallel grooves evenly spaced from each other; into which the shrink tube 1, which has been picked up from the feed strip 2 and transferred by the suction chevrons 5, is fed. The ganging conveyor unit 7 transfers the formed row of shrink tubes 1 into a grouping device 8, which in this embodiment comprises fifteen shrink tube holding chevrons 9.

The axial spacing of the fifteen shrink tubes 1 so arranged still corresponds to the spacing of the delivery stents 3, i.e. the tubes are arranged at the same pitch (see fig. 6). In order to obtain a tight and close packing of the shrink tube rows, the shrink tubes 1 must be "packed" so that they are arranged adjacent to each other or in contact with each other. Each row (in this embodiment comprising fifteen compressed shrink tubes 1, which are in contact with each other) is then deposited on the lowerable bottom strip 12 of the intermediate store 13 by means of a row of transfer units 10, said row of transfer units 10 having holding suction chambers 11 arranged according to a "compressed" row (see fig. 7). The bottom strip 12 is then lowered stepwise to pick up the next row of compacted shrink tubes 1. The stepwise lowering is carried out until a desired number of rows, for example five rows, have been formed; thereafter a greater lowering movement is carried out so as to place five rows of shrink tubes on the firm base 15 of the intermediate storage 13. The intermediate storage 13 may be box-shaped, one of its moving side walls being provided as a slide 16, the sliding of which allows to transfer all the shrink tubes 1 collected in the intermediate storage 13 into the emptied or partially filled magazine 14 arranged behind the intermediate storage 13. Depending on its size, the box 14 may already be partially filled and/or require more batches of collecting shrink tubes 1 to be completely filled.

The initially empty magazine 14 is arranged in a vertical position behind the intermediate storage 13 and is held by the holding fork 17 progressively lower according to the filling degree. By means of a rotary drive 18, the holding fork 17 is arranged at a linear drive 19 for vertical adjustment. The linear actuator 19 allows the holding fork 17 to be placed at different heights, each of which may preferably be activated by a mechanical or automatic control system (not shown).

Once the empty magazine 14 is filled with the desired number of shrink tubes 1, it is rotated by means of the rotary drive 18 by 90 degrees from a position behind the intermediate store 13 and placed on a conveyor belt, which may be designed, for example, as a spiked belt 20, so that the holding fork 17 can comb through the spiked belt 20 to a position below the spiked belt 20. The filled boxes 14' are then transferred to a loader (not shown) or a warehouse (not shown) on a conveyor belt, preferably arranged transversely and designed for example as a roller conveyor 21.

Once the full magazine 14 'has released the spike belt 20, the holding fork 17 is moved by the linear drive 19 from its lowermost position into the uppermost position while first combing through a first, lower spike belt 20 and subsequently through a second, upper spike belt 20' which is arranged parallel to the first and spaced apart in height and which can be designed, for example, as a second roller conveyor 21 ', and picking up a new empty magazine 14 which has been supplied beforehand, for example, by means of a conveyor belt 20'. After having received the empty magazine 14 from the upper spiked belt 20 ', the holding fork 17 momentarily remains in an uppermost position only slightly higher than the upper spiked belt 20', where it is turned through 90 degrees by means of the rotary drive 18 so that the opening of the magazine 14 is directed towards the intermediate store 13 and moves behind the intermediate store 13 and descends to the required working height necessary for storage, where it can pick up any number of batches of shrink tubes 1 again until the empty magazine 14 is full.

The empty magazine 14 can be resupplied by a roller conveyor 21 'and supplied to the upper spiked belt 20' by a preferably controllable stopper 22, if desired.

Following the above summary of the invention, the following is a description of the various steps.

The collecting device 4 assigned to the feed belt 2 for the shrink tube 1 comprises suction chevrons 5, eight suction chevrons 5 being provided in the present embodiment (see fig. 3). The suction chevrons 5 are driven independently and mounted between the feed belt 2 and the battery of transfer units 7 so that they can rotate about parallel axes, and from the transfer carriages 3 of the feed belt 2 eight shrink tubes 1 are picked up in a first step and seven shrink tubes 1 are picked up in a second step, so that a total of fifteen shrink tubes 1 are picked up by the battery of transfer units 7. It is also possible to provide more or less than eight suction chevrons 5 in order to pick up more or less shrink tubes 1 from the feed belt 2.

At the delivery position A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H of the collection device 4, the shrink tube 1 close to the feed strip 2 is picked up by the suction chevrons 5 assigned to each delivery position a to H, as shown in fig. 3. In fig. 3, the transfer positions a to D are already occupied. However, the next transfer rack 3 is not occupied and has a gap L. If the shrink tube previously located there is, for example, expelled by an upstream control system and has been detached, a gap L results.

If the gap L now approaches the transport position E which is not occupied, the respectively last assigned suction chevrons 5 which are not yet occupied by the shrink tube 1 are not activated, i.e. the empty transport carriers 3 pass through the collecting device 4. The suction chevrons 5' at the transfer position E are only activated when the shrink tube 1 in the transfer carriage 3 is approached. If, for example, an optical sensor (not shown) detects that a shrink tube 1 is approaching the transfer position E and thus also the assigned suction chevrons 5 ', the suction chevrons 5' are rotated in the direction of the arrow (see fig. 4) and the shrink tube 1 is received in the range P1, rotated to be ready for transfer and transferred to the group transfer unit 7 and into the holders 6a, h at the position P2₁Wherein the linear velocity V of the transport carriage 3 (and thus of the shrink tube 1 on the feed belt 2)₁And the tangential velocity V of the rotatable suction V-shaped member 5₂Substantially equal or synchronized, and at least when the shrink tube is received at P1.

Once all the delivery positions A to H have been loaded with the shrink tube 1 and the latter in eight positions a₁To h₁Is transferred to the holder 6, followed by a further shrink tube 1 loading cycle step at positions a to G and a successive corresponding receiving step of seven shrink tubes, seven of whichThe shrink tubes are now transferred at position P3 to the holders 6i of the grouped transfer unit 7 (see FIG. 3)₁To 0₁(see fig. 4). The suction chevrons 5 assigned to the transfer position H are only operated at each first cycle, so that an alternating sequence of eight shrink tubes in the first cycle and seven shrink tubes in the second cycle can be performed and thus fifteen shrink tubes 1 can be loaded into the ganged transfer unit 7. Before picking up the seven shrink tubes in the second cycle, the group transfer unit 7 is lifted slightly so that the picking up of the still missing seven shrink tubes can take place at position P3.

Fig. 5 shows a pick-up position P4, for example eight shrink tubes 1 for the first cycle, and a slightly deflected position 4' which the gang transfer unit 7 approaches shortly after having picked up the eight shrink tubes 1. Thereafter, the battery of transfer units 7 is returned to position P4 in order to pick up seven shrink tubes 1 in the second cycle, so that the battery of transfer units 7 is loaded with a total of fifteen shrink tubes 1. It then passes to position P5 where all fifteen shrink tubes 1 are placed in the grouping device 8 with the retaining chevrons 9.

The holding V9 (see fig. 6, 7) of the grouping device 8 has a suction chamber, i.e. the shrink tube 1 to which a negative pressure is applied, so that the shrink tube 1 is held on the holding V9.

The grouping device 8 comprises fifteen retaining chevrons 9 spaced apart from one another. The retaining chevrons 9 comprising the shrink tubes 1 are slidable, for example arranged on two rods 23, where they can be pushed together so that they are in contact with each other, i.e. all shrink tubes 1 in a row are in transverse contact with each other (see fig. 7). The row formed by fifteen shrink tubes 1 in contact with each other is picked up by the row of transfer units 10 with suction chambers 11 at position P5 (see fig. 5) and, after one rotary movement (see arrow in fig. 5), is transferred to and placed on the lowerable bottom strip 12a, 12b, 12c of the intermediate store 13 at position P6.

If it is desired to pack the shrink tubes 1 in the magazine 14 as tightly as possible, the rows of transfer units 10 are subjected to a lateral offset movement (schematically indicated in fig. 7 by the arrow between the positions P7 and P8), thus enabling alternate packing of the shrink tubes 1 (see fig. 10b), i.e. a packing type which is staggered for each successive row of shrink tubes 1. However, it is also possible to provide a package type in which one row is placed exactly on top of the other row (see fig. 10 a).

After a row of shrink tubes 1 has been placed on the lowerable bottom strip 12a, 12b, 12c of the intermediate store 13, the bottom strip 12a, 12b, 12c is lowered by an amount corresponding to the particular packaging mode desired (see for example fig. 10a and b). If the packaging is tight, i.e. a higher degree of filling (see fig. 10b), the lowering movement is equal to the corresponding diameter of the shrink tube multiplied by a factor of 0.5 × √ 3; if the package is loose according to fig. 10a, the lowering movement is equal to the shrink tube diameter. Thereafter, the shrink tube rows are placed further and the lowering movement is carried out further until the respective desired number of rows and the desired filling degree of the magazine 14 are reached.

Once the lowermost layer of the stored shrink tubes 1 reaches the base plate 15 of the intermediate store 13, wherein the base plate 15 is arranged in an immovable manner and is provided with a cut-out for the passage of the bottom strip 12a, 12b, 12c, the slide 16 drives all shrink tubes 1 collected in the intermediate store 13 into the empty or partially filled magazine 14, wherein an adjustable transverse guide 24 is provided, which can be adjusted to the specific shrink tube diameter and type of packaging by any adjusting device (not shown). The intermediate reservoir 13 also has an upper front limiting plate 25, which is arranged at a distance and can be lowered if necessary to allow the passage of one row (or several rows if necessary) of shrink tubes. Further, a rear restriction plate 25' is provided, the distance of which is adjusted to the length of the contracted tube, and which also serves to stabilize the contracted tube when the contracted tube having been transferred into the intermediate reservoir 13 is stored in the intermediate reservoir 13.

According to a preferred embodiment, the two sets of bottom straps 12a, 12b, 12c and 12a ', 12b ', 12c ' are arranged on three cooperating chain drives 26a, 26b, 26c in the intermediate store 13. All the ribbons are driven together by a single motor through a sprocket shaft 27. After the lowermost part of all the rows of shrink tubes 1 on the bottom strips 12a, 12b, 12c stored in the storage 13 has reached the base plate 15 and the slides 16 have transferred all the shrink tubes 1 into the magazine 14 or loaded all the shrink tubes 1 into said magazine 14, the rows of shrink tubes 1 are further grouped by means of the chain drives 26a, 26b, 26c and the additional bottom strips 12a ', 12b ', 12c ', so that further shrink tube packages are formed in the intermediate storage 13. Since the two sets of bottom straps 12a, 12b, 12c and 12a ', 12b ', 12c ' are arranged in a staggered manner on the chain drives 26a, 26b, 26c and are driven by a single co-sprocket shaft 27 at equal chain lengths, each chain drive 26a, 26b, 26c has a different sequence which compensates for their respective different arrangement.

As shown in fig. 2 and 8, the holding fork 17 is connected by a rotary actuator 18 to a vertically adjustable linear actuator 19, thus providing the possibility of being moved to heights H1 to H7. At height H1, the holding fork 17 receives an empty magazine 14 from the upper spiked belt 20'. It is then rotated through 90 degrees by the rotary drive 18 and conveyed to a variable working height according to the filling level of the tank 14 and to the specific working height H3 required. Once filling of the box 14 with shrink tube 1 is completed as desired, it is moved to height H5. To avoid collisions, the height H6 is skipped and the subsequently filled bin is arranged at the height H7 on the lower spiked belt 20 by means of the holding fork 17 and the rotary drive 18 and is subsequently transferred to a filling plant (not shown) or warehouse by means of the lower roller conveyor 21.

The device is characterized in that there is always sufficient time to complete each next work step, so that practically no problems arise in relation to the available time.

Claims (11)

1. An apparatus for automatically packaging containers (1), wherein the containers are supplied by a conveyor (2) into packaging containers (14), said apparatus comprising an intermediate storage (13), wherein the containers (1) are collected in a row before being transported to the packaging containers (14), characterized in that the intermediate storage (13) has a stationary base plate (15) and a movable bottom strip (12a, 12b, 12 c; 12a ', 12b ', 12c ') which can pass through the base plate (15).

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the intermediate store (13) has adjustable lateral guides (24), adjustable limiting plates (25, 25') and at least two sets of movable bottom straps.

3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom strips (12a, 12b, 12c and 12a ', 12b ', 12c ') are movable in synchronism with each other.

4. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the conveyor belt (2) has a conveying carriage (3) for the containers (1) and has an independently driven and adjustable suction V (5) for picking up the containers (1) from the conveyor belt (2).

5. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that means are provided for moving the row of containers (1) into proximity before it is transferred to the intermediate store (13).

6. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that each container (1) in the intermediate storage (13) makes a point contact with an adjacent container (1) located above it.

7. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that each container (1) in the intermediate storage (13) is in contact with two adjacent containers (1) located above it.

8. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the packaging container (14) can be arranged in a pivotable and vertically adjustable manner behind the intermediate storage (13).

9. Device according to claim 8, characterized by a holding fork (17) for holding the packaging container (14).

10. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that conveyor belts (20, 20 ', 21, 21') are provided for supplying empty packaging containers (14) and removing filled packaging containers (14), which are arranged at two different heights.

11. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that a slide 16 is provided for conveying the containers (1) stored in the intermediate storage (13) into the packaging container (14).