GB881433A - Improvements in or relating to packaging machines - Google Patents

Abstract

881,433. Packaging-machines; making cartons. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. Dec. 23, 1957 [Dec. 24, 1956], No. 39961/57. Classes 18 and 94(1). In a machine for packaging articles, e.g. cigarettes, of the type comprising a series of hollow mandrels carried by a rotary turret, a flexible inner wrapper is applied to and folded about each mandrel in succession, and a relatively-stiff, cardboard, outer wrapper, provided with end and side flaps, is subjected to preliminary folding operations while being conveyed towards the turret and is then applied to each mandrel over the inner wrapper. The folding of each outer wrapper is completed on its associated mandrel and the lined carton thus formed is filled with articles delivered through the mandrel, the filling operation stripping the carton from the mandrel and transferring it to mechanism for closing its open end. Apart from the mechanism for conveying the cardboard outer wrappers and effecting the preliminary folding operations thereon, the machine is generally similar to that described in Specification 550,042. Cardboard blanks, of the form shown in Fig. 7, are removed in succession from a magazine, Fig. 2, by suction cups 203 on an oscillating arm and delivered by rollers 208, 231 on to a chain 209 carrying feeding lugs 210. The blanks pass under a thickness detector which operates a microswitch 202, Fig. 4, to stop the machine if two or more blanks are superimposed. In the first of the five stages of movement of the blank shown in Fig. 4, adhesive is applied to the lower surface of a major end flap K, and a rotary member 211 separates the edges F of flap L from the inner front panel Z. In the second stage, adhesive is applied to the shaded areas of flaps or panels M, N, O and P. In the third stage, a rotary plough 214 bends the flap Q upwardly at right angles to the panel R, and a rotary member 232 folds the panels X, Y and Z upwardly about the creases G and H and then downwardly so that they are superimposed on the remainder of the blank. The folded parts are pressed together by ironing rollers 216, and in the fourth stage ; a rotary plough 217 bends the flap Q inwardly over the panels R and X and then allows it to spring back, and the front panels are pressed together by an ironing wheel 218. The folded blank is then applied to the underside of one of a series of hollow mandrels 207 carried by a turret which rotates intermittently about a horizontal axis, the mandrel being at the three o'clock position shown in Fig. 5 and having previously received an inner wrapper 224 which is held in position by a clamping finger 219. When the mandrel moves to the next position, the blank is folded to U- form by a trough-shaped folder 222 associated with each mandrel and the flap Q is folded over the flap P by a folder 225. The end flaps N, O, S and T are then tucked in and folded by mechanism similar to that described in Specification 550,042, and the open-ended, lined carton then formed receives a charge of cigarettes when the mandrel reaches the nine o'clock position.