Package making – Depositing articles and arranging material in preformed... – Successive deposits of articles
Patent
1987-02-25
1988-12-13
Coan, James F.
Package making
Depositing articles and arranging material in preformed...
Successive deposits of articles
53251, 53377, 53543, B65B 3530
Patent
active
047901160
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically packing products in a package, comprising a delivery station for empty packages, a collecting station with products, a packing station located opposite the collecting station and arranged for packing the products in the package, and a conveyor which travels through the delivery station and the packing station and on which the package is placed, the packing station having carrier members which can be moved substantially transversely of the conveyor for collecting products from the collecting station opposite the packing station, with the products resting on the carrier members.
In series manufacture of products, it is often desirable to attain a maximum degree of automation. Optimally, both manufacture and packing are performed automatically with a minimum number of attending personnel. Generally speaking, the development has advanced furthest in the automation of the manufacturing process, while the packing operation, surprisingly often, is still performed manually. This also applies to the food and baking industry, often involving products that must be handled with great care, such as biscuits, cream puffs etc. Because of the fragility of these products, it is necessary in most cases to resort to manual packing, which is of course a slow operation requiring a certain number of personnel. Moreover, manual packing does not comply with high hygienic standards.
Many attempts have been made to automate the packing of biscuits and the like. One example is disclosed in DK published application 126,635 describing a method and an apparatus for transferring biscuits from a conveyor belt into paper moulds, which is effected by means of a transfer mechanism having a number of suction nozzles which are movable back and forth between a collecting station and a delivery station. An obvious drawback of this apparatus is that fragile products, such as cream puffs, can be damaged by the suction nozzles. Further, the products must have a suitable form to be properly sucked by the suction nozzles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus ensuring rapid and automatic packing of products in packages, without causing any damage to the products, e.g. cream puffs or biscuits.
This object and further objects stated in the following description are achieved by means of the apparatus stated by way of introduction, which is characterized in that means provided in the path of movement of the carrier members across the conveyor are adapted to remove the products from the carrier members so that the products will drop into the package.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the conveyor travelling through the apparatus consists of a chain having drivers for moving the packages through the apparatus and for orienting them when the products should be placed in the packages and, as the case may be, when the packages should be sealed.
Where it is desirable to pack the products in packages comprising a trough-shaped bottom part and a folding cover connected thereto, the apparatus preferably comprises a sealing station having a sealing means which is adapted to engage with the cover of the filled package and which can be moved over the package for sealing the cover to the bottom part.
Further features of the invention are stated in the accompanying claims.
The apparatus according to the invention ensures a very high product-packing capacity. In a practical test, cream puffs were packed in troughs, each of which held 15 puffs and which were delivered to the packing station two by two. In this test, 20,000 puffs/h were packed and the apparatus was attended by one operator. In order to pack the same amount of puffs manually, 3-4 operators were required.
As previously mentioned, the products are supplied at a collecting station which is located opposite the packing station in which the products are brought together with the packages. The collecting station preferably consists of a conveyor d
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Coan James F.
Weihrouch Steven P.
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