US1197877A - Bag-filling apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN D. WEBBER, OF BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO AUTOMATIC WEIGI-IING IVIACI-IINE COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

BAG-FILLING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

Application filed January 10, 1913. Serial N 0. 741,174.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN D. WEBBER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bayonne, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bag-Filling Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates more particularly to those parts of bag filling apparatus which have to do with holding the bags in positlon to receive their intended contents, and provides a simple and easily operated mechanism by means of which the open top of a bag may be clamped around a filling spout so securely that the bag can be suspended from the spout while being filled without danger of being detached therefrom by the weight of its contents.

The capacity to thus suspend a bag renders my improvements especially applicable to bag-filling machines of that character in which the material delivered to the bag is automatically weighed therein, and one of the features of my invention provides for controlling the operation of the weighing mechanism simultaneously with the clamping and unclamping of the bag by the operator.

My improvements are herein shown and described as combined with a Weighing apparatus of the character above referred to, of which only such parts are illustrated in the accompanying drawings as will suflice for an understanding of the invention.

In these drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating my improvements, as preferably constructed; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view showing the lower portion of a delivery spout hereinafter described; and Figs. 3, 4c and 5 are sectional perspective views illustrating three successive steps in the operation of folding the neck of a bag around the mouth of the delivery spout, prior to the operation of the means for clamping the bag upon the spout.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings 2 indicates a hopperlike delivery spout suspended by means of hangers 3 on one end of a scale beam which may be of any usual or suitable construction, but is herein assumed to be of that type in which the beam is bifurcated to provide two separated arms, such as the arms 4& in Fig. 1 which carry the hangers 3, whereby a broad and stable support is provided for the receptacle in which the material isweighed. It will be understood that this scale beam has associated with it a suitable weighing weight and such other parts as may be found desirable in the case of any glven apparatus, none of which parts are shown as they are not material to the present invention and may be of any suitable construction.

At its lower portion the spoutEZ is'surrounded by an outwardly-extending horizontal flange 5 adapted to have the open top of a bag drawn up over it, and just above this flange 5 is located a flexible strap 6 which passes around the spout 2 and is secured at its ends to a pair of arms 7 which may be moved toward or away from each other to tighten or relax the strap with respect to the spout which it incloses. In the particular example illustrated these arms 7 are journaled in vertical bearings 8 carried by the front side of the spout 2 and are each provlded with a gear 9 meshing with a corresponding gear 10 secured to a horizontal shaft 11, which shaft also is journaled on the front side of the spout 2 and is provided with an operating lever 12. The arrangement of the gears 9 and 10 is such that the arms 7 move simultaneously in opposite directions, and hence by moving the lever 12 in one direction the arms 7 may be swung toward each other and caused to pull the strap 6 around the neck of a bag which has been drawn over the flange 5, while by moving said lever in the opposite direction said arms 7 may be separated and thus caused to relax the strap and release the bag. This relaxing movement is continued until the strap has been separated from the spout sufliciently to permit a bag to be applied thereto as hereinafter described.

As it has been found that a bag which is clamped around a metal spout is liable to be pulled off the same by the weight of its contents, I prefer to provide the bag-clamping parts with non-metallic gripping sur faces, as by making the strap 6 of leather, covering the top of the flange 5 with a leather disk 13, and encircling the spout 2 above said disk with a soft rubber band 14. This insures an effective grip upon the bags, and the compressibility of the rubber band 14 is also advantageous for the reason that it enables the clamping of a bag to be effected with certainty by moving the lever 12 into a predetermined position, even though the thickness of the various bags employed may vary somewhat.

The flange 5 is intentionally made smaller transversely than the open mouths of the bags intended to be used with the apparatus in order that the lower end of the spout 2 may be quickly and easily inserted into the top of a bag, and this requires that a portion of the bag be folded upon itself to make it fit closely around the flange 5, and the band 11 above it. To facilitate this folding of the bags I provide a horizontal finger 15 secured at one end to the spout 2 above the band 1 1 and projecting outward over the flange 5, the outer end of said finger being preferably provided with a notch 16. This finger is utilized in applying a bag to the spout as illustrated in Figs. 8, 4 and 5, in which the bag is shown at 17, by first drawing the top of the bag upward past the flange 5 (Fig. 3), then catching the upper edge of the bag in the notch 16 in the finger 15 (Fig. at), and then drawing the slack in the top of the bag over thetop of said finger and folding it down upon the internally supported portion of the bag (Fig. 5). After the bag has been thus applied to the spout the lever 12 is drawn forward from the position shown in Fig. 1 until the strap 6 is drawn tightly around the bag, which is thus clamped against the compressible ring 14: and bent sharply outward and downward over the flange 5.

I have found that by the means above described a bag can be secured to a spout so firmly that there will be no danger or its being drawn off the spout by the weight of the material filled into the bag, and as it is desirable to retain the parts in clamping position while a bag is being filled, said parts may be provided with a locking device such as is illustrated in Fig. 1, in which 18 represents an arm rigidly secured to the shaft 11 and provided at its free end with a laterally-projeeting pin 19, and 20 represents a catch member pivotally mounted on the spout 2 and adapted to ride over the pin 19 when the shaft 11 is turned to draw the strap 6 around a bag. The catch 20 is drawn toward the shaft 11. by a spring 21, and the under surface of this catch is so shaped as to form a cam face which will resist the straprelaxing movement of the pin 19 and hold the parts in bag-clamping position unless the resistance is overcome by force applied to the lever 12.

When the parts above described are embodied in an automatic weighing. machine it is desirable to provide a safe-guard against the supplying of material to the spout 2 until after a filled bag has been removed from said spout and replaced by an empty bag, and to this end I have devised a locking arrangement which operates automatically to hold the spout 2 in its lowermost position until after the strap 6 has been tightened around the spout by a movement of the lever 12. Since it is the common practice to cause the supply valve to be opened by the rising of the receptacle in which the material is weighed, the locking arrangement just referred to serves the intended purpose of preventing premature delivery of the material into the spout 2. My locking device, as preferably constructed, consists of a segment 22, shown as formed integral with the lever 12, which extends upward from the shaft 11 in such a position that after a bag has been filled the first portion of the unclamping movement of the lever 12 causes said segment 22 to pass under a roller 23 carried by the framework 24 of the apparatus. Said segment travels under the roller 23 during the continuance of the unclamping movement and said roller thus acts as a block to prevent upward movement of the spout 2 after the bag has been released therefrom. Conversely, after an empty bag has been folded around the spout 2 the segment 22 remains beneath the roller 23 until the bag has been securely clamped to the spout, and at the end of the clamping movement of the lever 12 said segment passes from under the roller and permits the spout and bag to rise, whereupon the supply valve is automatically opened and the bag-filling operation proceeds in the usual way.

The operation just described is facilitated by the fact that the band 14 is made of compressible material and by the arrangement of the arms 7 in the manner illustrated, since the last portion of the bag-clamping movement of these arms has a relatively slight effect on the tightening of the strap, as will be clear from Fig. 2, and hence there is enough give in these parts to permit the final unlocking movement of the lever 12 after the bag has been securely clamped to the spout 2.

lVhile I have shown and described my invention as utilized in an automatic weighing apparatus, it will be evident that my bag-clamping mechanism may be employed for securing a bag to any sort of spout, whether the bag is to be used as a weighing receptacle or not, and that the construction and arrangement of the several parts and features of the mechanism described may be modified in various ways without departing from my invention.

I claim:

1. A bag-filling apparatus comprising a spout, strap-supporting devices located at one side of the spout, a clamping strap extending around the spout and carried by said supporting devices, said strap being otherwise free, and means for operating the strap-supporting devices to tighten and relax the strap.

2. A bag filling apparatus comprising a spout provided with a finger projecting outward therefrom and adapted to have a fold in a bag formed over it, a clamping strap extending around the spout below said finger, and means for tightening and relaxing said strap.

3. A bag filling apparatus comprising a spout having an outwardly-extending flange and a finger projecting outward from the spout above said flange and adapted to have a fold in a bag formed over it, a clamping strap extending around the spout above the flange and below the finger, and means for tightening and relaxing said strap.

4. A bag-filling apparatus comprising a spout having an outwardly -extending flange, a clamping strap extending around the spout above the flange, strap-supporting devices located at one side of the spout and movable toward and away from each other, said strap being attached thereto at its ends and being otherwise free, and means for operating said strap-supporting devices to tighten and relax the strap.

5. A bag-filling apparatus comprising a spout, a compressible band surrounding the same, strap-supporting devices mounted on one side of the spout, a clamping strap extending around the spout and attached at its ends to said strap-supporting devices, said strap being otherwise free, means for operating the latter to tighten and relax the strap, and means for maintaining the strapsupporting devices in a predetermined position corresponding to the tightened position of the strap.

6. A bag-filling apparatus comprising a spout, a pair of arms independently mounted on one side of the spout and movable toward and away from each other, a clamping strap extending around the spout and connected at its ends to said arms, whereby the strap is supported in a position adjacent to but out of contact with the spout, and means for simultaneously moving said arms in opposite directions to tighten or relax the strap.

7. A bag filling apparatus comprising a spout, a clamping strap extending around the same, means comprising a rotatable shaft for tightening and relaxing said strap, an arm carried by said shaft, and a springactuated catch member provided with a cam face adapted to ride over the free end of said arm and resist the strap-relaxing movement of the same.

8. A bag filling apparatus comprising a spout, a pair of horizontally-movable arms, a clamping strap extending around the spout and secured at its ends to said arms, a rotatable shaft connected to said arms by intermeshing gears arranged to impart thereto simultaneous movements in opposite directions, and an operating lever connected to said shaft.

9. A bag filling apparatus comprising a spout having an outwardly-extending flange, a compressible band surrounding the spout above the flange, a pair of horizontally movable arms, means to support them adjacent to, but out of contact with, the spout, a clamping strap extending around the spout opposite said band and connected at its ends to said arms, and means for simultaneously moving said arms in opposite directions to tighten or relax the strap.

10. A bag filling apparatus comprising a vertically-movable spout, means for secur ing a bag to said spout, and means operative with the releasing of the bag for locking said spout in a depressed position.

11. A bag filling apparatus comprising a vertically movable spout, means including a shaft j ournaled on the spout for securing a bag thereto, a fixed abutment, and a segment operated by said shaft and movable under said abutment when the spout is in a depressed position.

12. A bag filling apparatus comprising a vertically-movable spout and provided with means including a shaft journaled on the spout for clamping a bag thereto, means for holding said shaft in bag-clamping position, and means operated by the unclamping movement of the shaft for locking the spout in a depressed position.

13. A bag filling apparatus comprising a vertically-movable spout, a shaft journaled on said spout and provided with an upwardly-extending segment and an operating lever, a pair of horizontally-movable arms mounted on the spout and connected to said shaft in such manner as to be simultaneously moved in opposite directions thereby, a clamping strap extending around the spout and secured at its ends to said arms, and a fixed abutment located in position to obstruct upward movement of said segment when the spout is in a depressed position and the clamping strap is relaxed.

14:. A bag filling apparatus comprising a vertically-movable spout, a compressible band surrounding said spout, a clamping strap extending around the spout opposite said band, means for tightening and relaxing said strap, and means operative with the first portion of the strap-relaxing movement for locking the spout in depressed position.

15. A bag filling apparatus comprising a vertically-movable spout and having an outwardly extending flange, a compressible band surrounding the spout above said flange, a pair of horizontally-movable arms mounted on said spout, a clamping strap extending around the spout opposite said band and connected at its ends to said arms, means comprising a shaft journaled on the spout for simultaneously moving said arms in opposite directions to tighten or relax the strap, means for holding said shaft in its Signed by me at Newark, N. J this seventh day of January, 1913.

JOHN D. WEBBER.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM BROWN, G- GO'UVERNEUR ASIIVELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

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