EP0645307B1 - Packaging machine for the production of cigarette packs - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a packaging machine for the production of cigarette packs, in particular hinge-lid packs, with a central cigarette store, namely a cigarette magazine, with folding members for folding blanks to form the packs, and with units for storing and Handling of packaging material, namely material aggregates.

Packaging machines for cigarettes are designed according to the corresponding concept that a (limited) cigarette store, namely a cigarette magazine, folding elements, in particular folding turret and material units for storing and preparing packaging material together with drive elements form a unit, namely a packaging machine conventional type. A plurality of such packaging machines is in each case arranged spatially distributed in a manufacturing or packaging system. The supply of cigarettes and packaging material takes place via conveyor systems leading to the packaging machines.

Such a machine concept no longer meets the constant demands for higher performance because, above all, the individual mechanical organs reach the performance limit.

The invention is based on the object of proposing a new concept for packaging machines by means of which a further increase in performance can be achieved without changing individual organs of the packaging machine.

This object is achieved by the packaging machine according to the invention according to claim 1. A common cigarette store or a common cigarette magazine is assigned to several packaging units, each with a complete set of folding elements and material units. The invention introduces the principle of modular construction in the conceptual design of packaging machines for cigarettes. The cigarette magazine as a standard device for a packaging machine is designed and designed so that it can supply several packaging units, i.e. independent modules. The packaging units are, in accordance with the invention, closed and delimited structures for the manufacture or partial manufacture of a cigarette packet. The packaging machine can be equipped with a number of such packaging units corresponding to the desired performance. At least two, preferably four packaging units form a packaging machine together with a cigarette magazine. This also includes the required drive elements as part of a packaging unit.

According to a further feature of the invention, each packaging unit is subdivided into further independent sub-units, namely a folding unit on the one hand and a material unit on the other. The folding unit is equipped with the necessary folding elements, in particular with one or more folding turrets and conveying elements. The material unit is equipped with the material aggregates, which consist of continuous material webs for the production of blanks and feeding them to the folding members or of magazines with finished blanks.

The individual units are positioned to each other in a special way, so that free access to each unit is possible for operating personnel.

Further features of the invention relate to the design of individual units, including the cigarette magazine.

Fig. 1

eine Verpackungsmaschine in schematischem Grundriß als Blockbild,

Fig. 2

eine Darstellung analog zu Fig. 1 für eine andere Ausführungsform der Verpackungsmaschine,

Fig. 3

eine Verpackungsmaschine nach dem Konzept der Fig. 1 in Seitenansicht,

Fig. 4

Einzelheiten eines Zigaretten-Magazins in stark vereinfachter Seitenansicht,

Fig. 5

ein Ausführungsbeispiel für eine Falt-Einheit in Vorderansicht,

Fig. 6

eine Verpackungseinheit in Queransicht mit Einzelheiten der Falt-Einheit,

Fig. 7

eine Einzelheit eines Förderers für Zigaretten-Gruppen, nämlich eine Taschenkette, im Vertikalschnitt,

Fig. 8

eine Material-Einheit in einer Darstellung analog zu Fig. 5.

Exemplary embodiments of the packaging machine according to the invention are explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings. It shows:

Fig. 1

a packaging machine in a schematic plan view as a block diagram,

Fig. 2

1 for another embodiment of the packaging machine,

Fig. 3

a packaging machine according to the concept of FIG. 1 in side view,

Fig. 4

Details of a cigarette magazine in a greatly simplified side view,

Fig. 5

an embodiment of a folding unit in front view,

Fig. 6

a packaging unit in transverse view with details of the folding unit,

Fig. 7

a detail of a conveyor for cigarette groups, namely a pocket chain, in vertical section,

Fig. 8

a material unit in a representation analogous to FIG. 5.

In one embodiment, the concept of a packaging machine or packaging system is shown in a highly simplified manner in FIG. 1. The packaging machine consists of several units or modules, depending on the performance of individual areas or individual organs. A first unit forms a cigarette store assigned to the packaging machine, namely a cigarette magazine 10. This is designed in such a way that it serves to supply several packaging units 11, 12, 13, 14. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, four such packaging units 11.14 are positioned in a row one after the other and side by side. The packaging units 11.14 are supplied with ready-to-pack cigarette groups, each of which corresponds to the content of a cigarette packet 15 to be produced. The cigarette groups are transferred to a common conveyor in the area of the cigarette magazine 10, namely to a pocket chain 16. This consists of pockets 17 lined up, each for holding a cigarette group. The pocket chain 16 runs with an upper run from the cigarette magazine along all successive packaging units 11.14. In each case in the area of an insertion station 18, groups of cigarettes are transferred from the pocket chain 16 to a packaging unit 11.14.

Each packaging unit 11.14 independently manufactures cigarette packs 15, which are transported away via each conveyor unit 11.14 associated discharge conveyor 19 and, for example, get into a collecting conveyor.

The cigarette magazine is specially designed to cope with the higher output. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, four shaft groups 20, 21, 22 and 23 are provided for collecting the cigarettes and for forming the cigarette groups pushed out below. The shaft groups 20..23 are designed in a conventional manner. Sliders, not shown in detail, are assigned to each shaft group 20..23 for the ejection of a cigarette group. After leaving the shaft group 20..23, these are picked up directly by a suitably positioned pocket 17 of the pocket chain 16. The performance of the cigarette magazine 10 is based on that of the packaging units 11.14. A shaft group 20..23 is assigned to each packaging unit 11..14.

4 schematically shows a modified version of a cigarette magazine 10. There are also four shaft groups 20..23. The two shaft groups 20, 21 are combined into one unit. Two groups of cigarettes can be removed from each of these via the shaft groups 20, 21. In contrast, the shaft groups 22 and 23 are designed independently. They can be loaded with cigarettes individually. Furthermore, individual groups of cigarettes can be removed. If the packaging machine is equipped with four packaging units 11..14, all four shaft groups must deliver 20..23 cigarette groups. With a smaller number of packaging units 11 .., the shaft groups 22 and / or 23 can be put out of operation. The cigarette magazine designed in the above manner enables the simultaneous processing of up to three different cigarette types.

The shaft groups 20..23 are arranged at such a distance from one another that the pocket chain 16, which is moved one cycle at a time, always positions a free pocket 17 in front of each shaft group 20..23. Accordingly, while the pocket chain 16 is at a standstill, cigarette groups are pushed out of each shaft group 20, 23 and four pockets 17 of the pocket chain 16 are thus filled. The minimum distance between the lower areas of the shaft groups 20 to 23 corresponds to the double division of the pocket chain 16. In the present case, this has a pocket distance of, for example, 70 mm. The minimum distance between the shaft groups 20..23 corresponds to the double chain or pocket division.

The packaging units 11.14 are independent modules for producing complete cigarette packs 15 - in the present exemplary embodiment without an outer wrapping made of plastic film. Each packaging unit 11 .. accordingly contains a complete set of folding elements, units for handling the packaging material (material units) and drive elements. In the exemplary embodiments shown, each packaging unit 11. Is subdivided into a plurality, namely three sub-units to be handled independently, namely a folding unit 24, a material unit 25 and a drive unit 26. These accordingly form one Packing unit 11. The sub-units, namely folding unit 24, material unit 25 and drive unit 26, are positioned relative to one another in such a way that the interaction in the manufacture of the cigarette pack 15 is ensured. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the folding unit 24 faces the feed conveyor or the pocket chain 16. The material unit 25 is positioned on the back of the folding unit 24 and the common drive unit 26 is arranged here as a base below the two aforementioned units.

The organs of the folding unit 24 on the one hand and the material unit 25 on the other are each on the free side attached, i.e. on the front on the one hand and on the back on the other. This ensures free access to the individual organs.

The folding unit 24 consists of a box-like structure with an arrangement of folding and conveying members on the free side on an upright support wall 27. In the present exemplary embodiment, a folding turret 28 rotating about a horizontal axis is mounted approximately centrally on the support wall 27. The folding turret 28 is configured here, for example, like the folding turret described and illustrated in US Pat. No. 4,084,393.

The cigarette groups are fed to the folding turret 28 from below. The pocket chain 16 runs here in a plane below the folding unit 24, namely at the level of the drive unit 26. The cigarette groups are pushed out of the pocket 17 by a transverse slide 29 and inserted into a turning wheel 30. This is arranged directly next to the pocket chain 16 in the insertion station 18 of each packaging unit 11. The turning wheel 30 is driven in cycles, each with a 90 ° rotation. This will move the cigarette groups into an upright position. They are pushed up out of the turning wheel 30. To perform this task, the turning wheel 30 is provided with two intersecting, continuous, radial slots for the passage of the cigarette groups.

The cigarette groups now reach the area of the folding unit 24. They enter an upward conveying path 31. On the (lower) entry side in this conveyor track 31, a first blank is kept ready, namely an inner blank 32 made of paper or tin foil. This is first laid around the cigarette group in a U-shape and folded completely during further transport. For this purpose, the conveyor track 31 can be designed in the same way as described in US Pat. No. 4,308,708 and shown.

The wrapping of the cigarette group in the inner blank 32 creates a cigarette block 33. This is fed to a further blank, a collar blank 34, during the further upward transport in the conveyor track 31 inserted in a pocket 35 of the folding turret 28 in the upward direction.

During transport through the folding turret 28, the cigarette block 33 is encased in a blank, namely in the actual package blank 36. In the present case, this consists of thin cardboard and is used to produce a hinged box (hinge-lid package). The folding of the package blank 36 can be carried out in the sense of US Pat. No. 4,084,393.

The cigarette packet 15 (almost) finished folded with respect to the package blank 36 is in an upper position opposite the conveyor track 31, upwards out of the pocket 35 of the folding turret 28 and pushed into a further conveyor, namely into a transfer turret. In its area, the folding of the package blank 36 with respect to the gluing of side tabs of the side walls is completed. The finished cigarette pack 15 is then ejected from the transfer turret 37 into the removal conveyor 19. The cigarette packs 15 are transferred from the transfer turret 37 to the removal conveyor 19 in an obliquely upward direction of movement. This consists of several conveyor belts which are deflected in order to deflect the packs from the inclined position into a horizontal position during the conveying away.

The folding and conveying members of the folding unit 24 described are mounted in the supporting wall 27 with horizontal brackets or with horizontal drive shafts 38 or 39. The drive shafts 38, 39 and other drive elements are inside the folding unit 24 designed as a housing is operatively connected to the drive unit 26.

An interesting detail is shown in FIG. 7. The pockets 17 of the pocket chain 16 are checked for the presence of cigarette groups in the area of a lower, returning run by optoelectric sensors 40. If there are mis-switching cigarette groups in individual pockets 17, these become ejected at a suitable point, namely by a slide 41. The cigarettes enter a collecting container 42 (FIG. 7). If the folding unit 24 fails, the others can continue to work without restrictions.

The material unit 25 is constructed analogously to the folding unit 24. Material assemblies for handling packaging material are arranged on a support wall 43 of a support device designed as a housing. The exemplary embodiment shown is a paper unit 44, a collar unit 45 and a blank magazine 46. The support wall 43 is arranged on the side facing away from the support wall 27 of the folding unit 24.

The paper unit 44 is used to manufacture and provide the inner blanks 32 for the inner wrapping. These can consist of paper or tinfoil. The packaging material for this is delivered as a wound web, namely as a bobbin. The paper unit 44 is designed such that a supply bobbin 47 and an active drain bobbin 48 are present in each case. Furthermore, the paper unit 44 includes a splice device 49 for connecting the running material web 50 to the free end of the supply bobbin 47. In this respect, the paper unit can be designed as in DE-P 43 25 944.8 (published on 09/02 / 95). The material web 50 (paper or tin foil) is conveyed downward by the paper unit 44 arranged in the upper region of the support wall 43, namely to the lower edge of the material unit 25. In this region the inner blanks 32 separated from the material web 50 by a separating device, not shown in detail. The inner blanks 32 are now fed to the front of the folding unit 24. For this purpose, the material unit 25 is provided with a recess 51 at the lower edge of the material unit 25. This corresponds to a corresponding recess 52 in the folding unit 24. The two recesses 51, 52 accordingly make the inner cuts 32 from the back of the packaging unit 11, namely from the material unit 25, to the front into the region of the organs the folding unit 24 promoted.

The collar blanks 34 are prepared by a collar unit 45 designed in an analogous manner. Like the paper unit 44, this is provided with a receptacle for a drain bobbin 53 and a supply bobbin 54. A material web 55 made of thin cardboard is pulled off the drain bobbin 53 and conveyed through a splice device 56. The material web 55 reaches the area of a recess 57 arranged on a lateral edge of the material unit 25 via deflection rollers. A correspondingly arranged recess 58 on the edge of the folding unit 24 corresponds to this recess 57 (FIG. 5). The material web 55 is conveyed through the recesses 57, 58 to the front side of the folding unit 24 with appropriate deflection. A separating element is arranged here for separating the individual collar blanks 34 from the material web 55.

The prefabricated pack blanks 36 are in a larger number in the blank magazine 46 also arranged on the supporting wall 43 of the material unit 25. Below, the pack blanks 36 are successively by a suitable organ, z. B. removed by an unwinder 59 and conveyed via a horizontally extending conveyor track 60 to the opposite edge of the material unit 25. During shipping, the pack blanks 36 are rotated so that they finally stand upright Level. For this purpose, the conveyor track 60 is provided with turning rollers which bring about the rotary movement of the package blank 36 during transport.

At the free edge of the material unit 25 there is a further recess 61 for the transport of the package blank 36 to the front, namely to the folding unit 24. This is also provided with a lateral recess 62 at the same place. The pack blank 36 is fed to the folding turret 28 in the area of the folding unit 24 with another deflection. The recesses 61, 62 are located exactly at the height of this folding turret 28.

In the packaging machine, the number of packaging units 11..14 can be selected according to the desired performance without further changes. In addition, however, the individual units, namely the folding unit 24, the material unit 25 and the drive unit 26 can also be exchanged within the packaging units 11.14, in particular for repair purposes or in the event of a format change, that is to say when manufacturing cigarette Packs of other sizes.

Fig. 2 shows a variant for the relative position of the individual packaging units 11 .. or their sub-units. The folding units 24 are arranged in this embodiment - as in FIG. 1 - in the conveying direction of the cigarette groups in succession and immediately next to one another. The assigned material units 25 are arranged transversely to the folding units 24 in this formation. This results in an angular floor plan. Two middle material units 25 lie against each other with their backs. This creates gaps 63 and 64 that allow easy access for operating personnel. In this constellation, the organs of the folding units 24 and of the material units 25 are also free for any manual interventions. In this solution, the drive units 26 can be positioned below the folding units 24 and / or the material units 25. The The aforementioned units are each connected to one another by suitable couplings, in particular for drive transmission. The packaging units 11 .. are otherwise provided with their own drive and can be operated independently of each other, in synchronism with the movement of the pocket chain 16th

Claims (12)

1. Packaging machine for the production of cigarette packs (15), especially hinge-lid packs, with a central cigarette stock, in particular a cigarette magazine (10), to which a plurality of packaging units, each with folding members for the folding of blanks to form the packs (15) and with assemblies for the stocking and handling of packaging material, in particular material assemblies, are connected, characterized in that the packaging units (11, 12, 13, 14) being connected to the cigarette magazine (10) by means of a common continuous conveyor, for the transport of formed cigarette groups, corresponding to the content of a cigarette pack (15), to the individual packaging units (11 to 14), especially by means of a pocket chain (16) with pockets (17), each for receiving a cigarette group of this type.
2. Packaging machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that the packaging units (11 to 14) are arranged in succession in a row in the conveying direction of the pocket chain, whilst the cigarette groups can be conveyed to the packaging units (11 to 14) by being pushed out of the pockets (17) transversely to the conveying direction of the pocket chain (16).
3. Packaging machine according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the pocket chain (16) runs in a plane directly below the folding units (24) located next to one another, and characterized in that, in the region of a pushing-in station (18) of each packaging unit (11 to 14), cigarette groups can be transferred from the pocket chain (16) onto the folding units (24) in the lower region of the latter, especially via a turning wheel (30) for rotating the cigarette groups through 90°.
4. Packaging machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that the cigarette magazine (10) has a number of shaft groups (20, 21, 22, 23), each for forming a cigarette group capable of being pushed out of these, which corresponds to the number of packaging units (11 to 14) to be fed.
5. Packaging machine according to Claim 4, characterized in that a plurality of, especially two shaft groups (20, 21) are combined to form a common container unit and further, especially two shaft groups (22, 23) can be fed with cigarettes independently of one another.
6. Packaging machine according to Claim 1 or one of the further claims, characterized in that each packaging unit (11 to 14) consists of a plurality of, especially of three independently handleable part units, especially of a folding unit (24), of a material unit (25) and of a drive unit (26).
7. Packaging machine according to Claim 6, characterized in that the folding unit (24) and material unit (25) are designed as vertical units, with a housing-like supporting device which has at least one supporting wall (27, 43) for the mounting of folding members on the one hand and of material assemblies on the other hand.
8. Packaging machine according to Claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the folding unit (24) and material unit (25) being in a relative position such that the folding members on the one hand and the material assemblies on the other hand are free, especially by the folding unit (24) and material unit (25) lying back-to-back with supporting walls (27, 43) facing away from one another, or such that the folding unit (24) and material unit (25) are arranged at right angles to one another.
9. Packaging machine according to Claim 6, characterized in that the independent drive unit (26) is arranged underneath the folding unit (24) and/or material unit.
10. Packaging machine according to Claim 6, characterized in that the folding members on the one hand and the material assemblies on the other hand are mounted one above the other and next to one another by means of horizontal rotary axles or drive shafts (38, 39) on the vertical folding units (24) and the material units (25) respectively.
11. Packaging machine according to Claim 6, characterized in that there are arranged on the folding unit (24), especially on its supporting wall (27), a conveyor track, extending in the upward direction from below, for the transport of cigarette groups wrapped in an inner blank (32), that is to say cigarette blocks (33), and, approximately mid-height and centrally, a folding turret (28), rotating in a vertical plane, for the processing of pack blanks (36), and thereafter, especially above the folding turret (28), conveying members for the upwardly leading transporting away of the cigarette packs (15), especially a transfer turret (37) and a discharge conveyor (19).
12. Packaging machine according to Claim 6, characterized in that, with the folding unit (24) and material unit (25) resting against one another, the blanks or material webs formed or stocked in the region of the material unit (25) can be conveyed, via matching recesses (51, 52; 57, 58; 61, 62) in the folding unit (24) on the one hand and the material unit (25) on the other hand, from the latter to the free side of the folding unit (24).

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