GB728097A - Improvements in wrapping machines - Google Patents

Abstract

728,097. Wrapping-machines. FORGROVE MACHINERY CO., Ltd., and BROOK, L Nov. 25, 1953 [Feb. 27, 1953], No. 5559/53. Class 94 (1). [Also in Group XXX] A wrapping machine of the type comprising an intermittently rotating horizontal feed disc having a series of circumferentiallyspaced pockets which convey sweets and like tablets to be wrapped in succession to a lifting station at which they are lifted into a wrapping mechanism, comprises an elevator for feeding a procession of tablets on to the feed disc, a trip member adapted to rest on the tablets on the disc and means operating in response to lifting of the trip member, by accumulation of tablets beneath it, above a predetermined level, for reducing the rate of feed of tablets to the disc from the elevator, or diverting the flow of tablets away from the disc, until the trip member has fallen again to said predetermined level. In one form, Figs. 1 and 3, the tablets are lifted from a bowl 10 by a vibrating elevator 11 comprising a vertical tube 12 surrounded by a spiral ramp 13 and are discharged from a platform 14 down a pivoted shoot 16 on to the feed disc 19 which is rotated intermittently in a counterclockwise direction over a fixed annular plate 21 which supports the tablets when they fall into the pockets 20 of the disc. The plate is formed with an aperture 31 for the passage of a plunger 24 which lifts each tablet together with a wrapper 29 into a pocket 30 of a. twistwrapping wheel 28. Fixed walls 22, 23 and 123 extend across and around the disc to define a tablet-receiving tray, and a brush 25, driven by an electric motor 26 in opposition to tha disc, prevents tablets not retained in the pockets from passing out of the tray to the lifting station. The elevator 11 normally feeds tablets to the disc at a rate greater than their rate of removal by the plunger 24. As the tablets accumulate they lift a pivoted trip arm 32 which operates a microswitch in a casing 41 to de-energize a solenoid 42, the armature of which is coupled by linkage 43-45 to the shoot 16, thereby allowing a spring 46 to swing the shoot to the broken-line position in which it returns the tablets to the bowl 10. When the accumulation has been cleared, the arm 32 drops and the solenoid is energized to return the shoot to its normal position. The shoot may, alternatively, be biased to the full-line position by the spring and movable to the broken-line position by the solenoid, the latter being energized when the arm 32 is lifted. In a second form, Fig. 5, the tablet-conveying mechanism comprises overlapping primary and secondary discs 119 and 219, as described in Specification 726,554, the tablets are discharged directly on to the disc 119 from a platform 114 supplied by the elevator 11, and the operation of the microswitch by the trip arm 32 is arranged to effect a reduction in the alternating current supplied to the electro-magnet which vibrates the elevator, so that the rate of feed of tablets on to the disc is reduced from, for example, a value 25 per cent. in excess of the requirements of the wrapping machine to a value 25 per cent below such requirement until the accumulation is cleared. Specification 676,822, [Group XXX], also is referred to.