GB2140378A - Wrapping machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A wrapping machine (1), in particular for articles (7) such as bars or cakes of soap, comprises a wrapping line (12) for the articles (7), a compartment-containing wheel (8) rotatable about a vertical axis and driven with intermittent motion, for feeding the articles (7) to the wrapping line (12), and an apparatus (6) for feeding the articles (7) into the compartments (10) of the wheel (8). The apparatus (6) is constituted by a horizontal belt conveyor (19) directed radially with respect to the compartment- containing wheel (8), and transfer means (22, 22') which include two elements (25) for gripping the articles (7) and disposed symmetrically about a radial plane of the compartment-containing wheel (8). The belt conveyor (19) and the transfer means (22, 22') are mounted on a common support element (17), which can be fixed to the base (2) of the machine (1) in at least two different positions. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Wrapping machine The present invention relates to a wrapping machine.

In particular, the present invention relates to a wrapping machine usable in a particularly advantageous manner for handling bars of cakes of soap, and is thereffore described hereinafter with reference to these articles, but without its range of application being in any way to be considered as limited thereby.

In the known art, bars or cakes of soap are usually fed to the wrapping line of wrapping machines by conveying apparatus which constitute the inlet section of said wrapping machines, and which convey the articles to the wrapping stations along substantially horizontal paths.

In known wrapping machines, these paths extend along directions which, according to the machine, either coincide substantially with the direction of the actual wrapping lines, or form a predetermined angle therewith, which is frequently 90 .

With machines of this type it is often difficult or impossible to attain a properly rational layout for the soap production and wrapping machines in a soap factory, because of the strict positional constraints imposed by the angle which said conveying apparatus forms with the relative wrapping lines. In other words, the fact that a wrapping machine comprises a conveying apparatus which receives the bars of soap in either a frontal or lateral manner means that the soap production machine has to be disposed respectively in front or to the side thereof, and this fact is often in contrast to the requirement of saving space or arranging the machines in the manner most easily accessible to the operators.

The object of the present invention is to provide a wrapping machine of the aforesaid type provided with an apparatus for feeding the articles to the wrapping line which is free from the aforesaid drawbacks of the known art.

According to the present invention in a wrapping machine for articles, comprising a wrapping line for said articles, a compartmentcontaining wheel rigid with the base of said machine and driven with intermittent rotary motion about its axis in order to feed said articles to said wrapping line, and an apparatus for feeding said articles to said wheel and constituted by means for conveying the articles to a withdrawal position and means for transferring the articles from said withdrawal position to the compartments of said wheel, said conveyor means and said transfer means are mounted on a common support element, means being provided for fixing said support element to said base in at least two different positions relative to said wheel.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter of a preferred embodiment thereof, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a wrapping machine constructed in accordance with the present invention; and Figure 2 is a partly sectional diagrammatic side view of the wrapping machine of Figure 1.

In Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, the reference numeral 1 indicates overall a wrapping machine comprising a base 2, formed from a baseplate 3 and an upright 4 extending upwards from this latter.

A feed apparatus comprising a unit 6 for articles 7, which in the considered example are pieces or cakes of soap, is fixed to the baseplate 3 by screws or fixing means 5, and is shown in two different positions by a continuous line and by a dashed and dotted line respectively. The unit 6 is arranged to feed said articles 7 in succession to a transfer wheel 8 which is rotatable about a vertical axis and is supported by a shaft 9 emerging from said baseplate and driven with intermittent rotary motion by drive means of known type, not shown.

The wheel 8 is provided with a plurality of unifformly distributed peripheral compartments 10, which are five in number in the example shown, and are each arranged to receive an article 7 and to transfer it into one of the compartments 11 of a wrapping wheel 1 2 which is rotatable about a horizontal axis and is supported and driven with intermittent rotary motion by a shaft 1 3 supported by the upright 4. The wheel 1 2 constitutes the first element of a wrapping line for the articles 7.

Below the wheel 8 there is provided a fixed plate 14 for supporting the articles 7 present in the compartments 10. The plate 14 comprises an aperture in a position corresponding with a station 1 5 for transferring the articles 7 from the compartments 10 to the compartments 11. This transfer is effected by an elevator 1 6 lying below the station 1 5, and which is supported by the baseplate 3 and is driven with vertical reciprocating motion by drive means, not shown.

The feed appartus 6 comprises a box-like support element 17, of which the upper horizonal wall 1 8 supports conveyor means for the articles 7, comprising a horizontal belt conveyor 1 9. The conveyor 1 9 is constituted by a belt 20 passing endlessly about two rollers 21 (only one of which is visible in the drawings, and is motorised in a manner not shown), and conveys mutually equidistant pairs of side-by-side articles 7 in succession towards the wheel 8.

Two transfer devices or means 22 or 22' for the articles 7 are supported respectively on opposite sides of the conveyor 19 by the wall 18. The devices 22 and 22' are disposed symmetrically about a radial plane of the wheel 8, and as they are identical with each other the description given hereinafter with reference to the one is also valid with reference to the other.

The device 22, for example, comprises a vertical shaft 23 which is rotatably supported by the box element 1 7 and carries, keyed on to its upper end, which emerges from said box element 17, a bar 24 parallel to the wall 1 8. The bar 24 supports, by means of its free end, a gripper element 25 constituted by a sucker which can be connected to a vacuum source, not shown.In that part thereof which is contained within the box element 17, each shaft 23 is provided with a series of equidistant annular projections 26 constituting a rack 27, which is engaged with a toothed sector 28 keyed on to a shaft 29 parallel to the shaft 1 3. The toothed sector 28 is driven with reciprocting motion about the axis 30 of the shaft 29, by being connected by way of a transmission bar 31 to an actuator element 32 supported inside the box element 17.

Consequently, the shaft 23 is given a vertical reciprocating movement which is in a determined phase relationship with the arrival of the articles 7 under the sucker 25. To the lower end of each shaft 23 there is keyed a toothed sector 33 engaged with a relative rack 34 normal to the shafts 9 and 13, and connected, by means of a bar 35 parallel to the shaft 29, to an actuator 36 arranged to cause the bar 35 to move with a reciprocating motion parallel to the feed direction of the conveyor 19, in a predetermined phase relationship with the vertical movements of the shaft 23.

When in operation, the articles 7 are conveyed in succession by the belt conveyor 1 9 side-by-side in equidistant pairs towards the wheel 8. On reaching a withdrawal position indicated by 37, each article 7 of one pair becomes located below a sucker 25, which at that instant occupies its most retracted position with reference to the feed direction of the conveyor 1 9. At that instant, the suckers 25 are connected to said vacuum source, and each shaft 23 is lowered by the relative actuator 32 by means of the described rack 27-toothed sector 28 engagement, until the relative sucker 25 is brought into contact with an article 7. The shafts 23 are then raised, again by the actuators 32, to remove from the conveyor 1 9 the articles 7 held by the suckers 25.At this point, the actuator 36 causes the racks 34 to move in the opposite direction to the feed direction of said conveyor 19, and causes the bars 24 to rotate so as to bring the articles 7 held by the suckers 25 into a position above two respective adjacent compartments 10 of the wheel 8. The actuators 32 then lower the shafts 23 to as to insert said articles 7 into the relative compartments 10. On termination of this operation, the vacuum is cut-off from the suckers 25, which are returned to their described original position corresponding with the withdrawal position 37, by raising and rotating the shafts 23 by means of the actuators 32 and 36 respectively.

All the described operations are then repeated at each arrival of a pair of articles 7 in said withdrawal position 37.

The articles 7 are then transferred in succession from the wheel 8 to the transfer station 15, at which the elevator 16 inserts them, one after the other, into the compartments 11 of the wheel 1 2. While the articles 7 are occupying said compartments 11, means, not shown, begin to wrap them, and transfer means, not shown, then transfer said articles 7 in succession to further wrapping means (not shown) of the wrapping machine 1 according to the invention. If the articles 7 are to be fed by the conveyor 1 9 to the wheel 8 along the feed direction described heretofore, i.e. along a horizontal direction perpendicular to the shaft 13, the box element 1 7 is connected to the baseplate 3 in the position shown by the full line in the figures.

If however it is desirable to feed the articles 7 to the wheel along a different direction from that examined, but which must be radial to the wheel 8 and must pass between two adjacent compartments 10 disposed symmetrically with respect to said direction in the case of the example under consideration, the box element 7 can be disposed for example in the position in which it is partially illustrated by the dashed and dotted line in Figure 1. In order to effect this, it is necessary only to unscrew the screws 5 and re-screw them into suitable threaded seats provided in the baseplate 3 in positions suitable for holding the box element 7 in the new required position.

Again in this case, the articles 7 can undergo correct transfer from the compartments 10 to the compartments 11 in the manner heretofore described.

From the foregoing, it is apparent that the wrapping machine 1 according to the present invention is able to receive articles arriving in different directions from the feed apparatus 6 in accordance with the stated objects, and it is apparent that this enables the wrapping machines and production machines for said articles 7 to be arranged more freely in accordance with requirements.

Within the principle of the invention, numerous modifications can be made to the described wrapping machine without leaving the scope of the inventive idea. In this respect, all elements can be replaced by equivalent elements, and the conveyor 1 9 does not necessarily have to feed articles distributed side-byside in the form of pairs, but can instead feed a single row of articles, which are withdrawn in succession and transfferred to the wheel 8 by a single transfer device 22.

Claims (6)

1. A wrapping machine for articles, comprising a wrapping line for said articles, a compartment-containing wheel rigid with the base of said machine and driven with intermittent rotary motion about its axis in order to feed said articles to said wrapping line, and an apparatus for feeding said articles to said wheel and constituted by means for conveying the articles to a withdrawal position and means for transferring the articles from said withdrawal position to the compartments of said wheel, in which said conveyor means and said transfer means are mounted on a common support element, means being provided for fixing said support element to said base-in at least two different positions relative to said wheel.

2. A wrapping machine as claimed in claim 1, in which said wheel is mounted on a vertical shaft, and said transfer means are provided with at least one gripper element for the articles, which is driven with reciprocating motion about a substantially vertical axis between two extreme positions, of which one lies above said conveyor means in a position corresponding with said withdrawal position and the other is in vertical alignment with a compartment of said wheel, and in synchronism with pause stages of this latter.

3. A wrapping machine as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, in which said conveyor means extend rectilinearly, radially with respect to said wheel.

4. A wrapping machine as claimed in any preceding claim, in which said transfer means comprise two said gripper elements disposed symmetrically about a radial plane of said wheel and operating in synchronism, in order to transfer two articles at a time from said withdrawal position to two compartments of said wheel.

5. A wrapping machine as claimed in claim 4, in which said gripper elements are driven with vertical reciprocating movement between an upper position, which is assumed during the course of transfer of the articles from said withdrawal position to said wheel, and two lower positions, which are assumed in synchronism with the pause stages of the wheel, and are in correspondence with said withdrawal position and with the compartments of said wheel respectively.

6. A wrapping machine substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.