Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With work feeding or handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-13
2001-04-10
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With work feeding or handling means
C156S566000, C156S569000, C156SDIG002, C221S075000, C198S625000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213185
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention disclosed herein pertains to a device for feeding articles automatically and will be illustrated herein as performing the function of feeding outserts for application to containers although the device can feed a variety of other articles as well.
Outserts, which are actually folded strips of literature, are commonly applied to pharmaceutical containers to inform a purchaser of proper dosages and contraindications, for example. The conventional way of adhering outserts to containers or their cartons is to transport the articles along a horizontal plane in the course of which glue is applied to a surface of the article so it can pick up by adhesion an outsert that is presented toward the article from a spring biased stack in a magazine channel. The traditional feeding method requires critical adjustment. A spring that pushes the stack of outserts toward the adhesion coated side of the moving article tends to apply a lesser and lesser pushing force on the stack or row of outserts as the stack approaches depletion so that it must be reloaded in the magazine. It is also problematical in conventional practice to gate the outserts from the exit end of the magazine in a stable and controlled fashion. As the outserts arrive consecutively at the output gate they must be restrained so that the force of the pusher spring does not push an outsert out of the gate when the container has not arrived at that point yet. The penalty for unstable outsert feeding under prior practice is that the feeding rate and, hence, the production rate of articles could be lower than it could otherwise be if springs and pneumatic or hydraulic pushers could be dispensed with.
Another preexisting method of applying outserts to containers involves picking up the outserts with an adhesive belt, applying adhesive to the outsert and tacking it onto the article. This procedure has the handicap of the preexisting procedure outlined above where there is no positive gripping control over the outsert before it is pressed onto and adhered to the article.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The problems and uncertainty in guiding, holding and pressing outserts onto containers using prior procedures are overcome with the new article feeder constituting the invention. The new feeder allows high speed feeding of outserts or other articles and maintains stable control over the outsert or other article until it is applied to a container.
According to the invention, outserts or other articles are fed from a source to a point of utilization by means of a pair of feed screws that are arranged in juxtaposition with each other for rotating about parallel axes. Each screw is basically a solid cylinder in which there is an axially advancing helical groove. The peripheries of the screws may be spaced laterally from each other which means that the grooves on one feed screw are mated with the grooves on an adjacent feed screw to provide a space for insertion of an item such as an outsert with part of the item is captured in each helical groove. As the feed screws rotate, they advance the inserted outserts axially from an insertion point to an exit point where they come to a tentative stop in timed relationship with the advancing adhesive treated container to provide for the container sweeping the outsert from the ends of the screws while the screws are in fact still applying a compressive force to the outserts as they are applied to the containers.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3841946 (1974-10-01), Carter
patent: 4378938 (1983-04-01), Staniszewski
patent: 4547114 (1985-10-01), Watrous et al.
patent: 4957409 (1990-09-01), Fukao et al.
patent: 5058725 (1991-10-01), Gamberini et al.
patent: 5163073 (1992-11-01), Chasteen et al.
patent: 5407057 (1995-04-01), Baranowski
patent: 5785803 (1998-07-01), Schiessl
Asghar Syed Ali
Boals Clifford A.
Heard Bruce L.
Larson Mark G.
Crispino Richard
Krones, Inc.
Purvis Sue A.
Ryan Kromholz & Manion S.C.
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