GB910633A - Improvements in package feed devices in packaging machines - Google Patents

Abstract

910,633. Endless and rotary conveyers. HESSER, MASCHINENFABRIK-A.G., FR. Jan. 16, 1961 [Jan. 16, 1960], No. 1806/61. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XVII] In a packaging machine an intermittently moving conveyer device has spaced package holders, each of said holders having walls or parts which define an open-ended package closure and are mounted for simultaneous movement away from the enclosed package, to release the same temporarily, at a station in the travel of the conveyer device. The device may be a rotary or a chain conveyer. In one embodiment, Figs. 1, 2 and 4, a horizontal disc 1 has pairs of holder walls 3 pivotally mounted on its underface. A rear wall 4 is mounted between each pair of walls 3 by means of bearing blocks 10 which allow it to move freely in a radial direction. Pairs of rollers 11 ensure by coacting with shoulders 28 that the walls 3 move apart to release the enclosed package simultaneously with inward radial movement of the wall 4. The packages 2 are moved over a fixed annular support plate 6 to a filling device at a station I, to a control weigher at a station II and thence past an ejecting station III. The filling device and the control weigher are of known construction. The packages are released temporarily for weighing at the station II by a cam 22 (Fig. 2) being rotated while the disc 1 is stationary and coacting with a roller 23 to cause inward radial movement of the rear wall 4 (Fig. 2). After weighing the package is re-gripped and moved on past the ejecting station at which packages of faulty weight are ejected. A control device which regulates the filling device in response to alterations in the weight of the packages is provided. The ejecting device (Fig. 4) comprises a block 29 radially movable by a solenoid 32. When the roller 23 enters a groove in the block solenoid 32 is operated to move the block 29 outwards this causing outward movement of the wall 4 which ejects the package. In a modification, a chain conveyer having package holders as shown in plan in Fig. 7 is used. These comprise angled plates 41, 42 mounted on bell-crank levers 43, 44 pivoted at 45, 46 to the chain and operatively connected to a bell-crank 47. This mechanism is held in the full-line position shown by means of a spring 49 and a stop 50, but rotation of the crank 47 in the direction a causes the plates 41, 42 to move to the chain dotted position to release the package. The rear wall forming portion of the plates are recessed to allow for the passage of an ejecting plunger (Fig. 8, not shown). This type of package holder may be used on a rotary conveyer.