Package making – With contents treating – Reshaping
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-09
2004-02-03
Smith, Scott A. (Department: 3721)
Package making
With contents treating
Reshaping
C053S436000, C053S438000, C053S474000, C053S472000, C053S135100, C053S139500, C053S527000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06684600
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a loading apparatus for loading a strip of a soft material, such as cotton, plastic, or paper, into a container.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2
illustrate a conventional loading apparatus for continuously loading a soft material
20
, such as cotton, plastic, or paper, into a series of containers
50
on a container conveyor
101
so as to cover material, such as tablets or capsules, in the containers
50
. The loading apparatus includes a support
10
having upper and lower mounting plates
407
,
408
, a shaft
400
rotatably mounted on the upper and lower mounting plates
407
,
408
, a rotatable seat
40
mounted on the shaft
400
, a pair of diametrically disposed sleeve members
404
,
405
mounted on the rotatable seat
40
, a supporting plate
300
mounted on the support
10
below the shaft
400
and defining a feed passage for supporting a strip
21
of the soft material
20
that is to be loaded into an adjacent one of the containers
50
, and a feeding unit
30
for forming and carrying the strip
21
of the soft material
20
to the feed passage of the supporting plate
300
. Each of the sleeve members
404
,
405
is rotatable along with the shaft
400
between first and second angular positions. A center portion of the strip
21
of the soft material
20
on the supporting plate
300
is vertically aligned with the first angular position. The container conveyor
101
is mounted on the support
10
for carrying each container
50
to the second angular position. A first cylinder unit
402
is mounted on the support
10
below the supporting plate
300
at a position vertically aligned with the first angular position, and includes a first cylinder and a first piston that is telescopically extendable from the first cylinder for pushing the strip
21
of the soft material
20
into the sleeve member
404
when the sleeve member
404
is positioned at the first angular position and is vertically aligned with the first cylinder unit
402
and the center portion of the strip
21
of the soft material
20
. A second cylinder unit
403
is mounted on the support
10
above the supporting plate
300
at a position vertically aligned with the second angular position, and includes a second cylinder and a second piston that is telescopically extendable from the second cylinder for pushing the strip
21
of the soft material
20
in the sleeve member
405
into the container
50
when the sleeve member
405
is positioned at the second angular position and is vertically aligned with the second cylinder unit
403
. The feeding unit
30
includes two pairs of nipping-rollers
301
,
302
for nipping a source of the soft material
20
, and for forming and carrying the strip
21
of the soft material
20
to the supporting plate
300
. The strip
21
of the soft material
20
is formed by tearing the source of the soft material
20
by stopping rotation of one of the pairs of the nipping-rollers
301
while continuing rotation of the other pair of the nipping-rollers
302
.
The conventional loading apparatus is disadvantageous in that loading of the strip
21
of the soft material
20
from one of the sleeve members
405
into the container
50
via the second cylinder unit
403
is inconvenient and that the quality of covering provided by the strip
21
of the soft material
20
to the contents in the container
50
may be poor. Moreover, tearing of the source of the soft material
20
to form the strip
21
of the soft material
20
tends to slow down the whole process of loading the strip
21
of the soft material
20
into the container
50
, and results in fine fibers of cotton that float in the air, thereby polluting the surrounding environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a loading apparatus that is capable of overcoming the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the present invention, there is provided a loading apparatus adapted to load a strip of a soft material into a container. The apparatus comprises: a support; a rotatable seat mounted rotatably on the support and rotatable about an axis relative to the support; a vertically extending tubular sleeve member mounted securely on the rotatable seat and rotatable about the axis along with the rotatable seat among first, second, and third angular positions which are angularly spaced apart from one another; a strip forming unit that is adapted to form a source of the soft material into a predetermined length of a strip of the soft material; a feeding unit mounted on the support, defining a horizontally extending feed passage below the sleeve member, and adapted to feed the source of the soft material through the strip forming unit and advance the strip of the soft material along the feed passage to a position vertically aligned with the first angular position; a first cylinder unit mounted on the support and having a vertically extending first cylinder and a first piston that is telescopically extendable from the first cylinder, the first cylinder being disposed below the feed passage at a position vertically aligned with the first angular position, the sleeve member being vertically aligned with the first cylinder when the sleeve member is turned to the first angular position so as to permit the strip of the soft material on the feed passage to be pushed into the sleeve member by the first piston when the first piston extends outwardly from the first cylinder into the sleeve member; a buffering unit mounted securely on the support and including a spring-biased abutting member that is disposed below the sleeve member at a position vertically aligned with the second angular position; a second cylinder unit mounted on the support and having a vertically extending second cylinder and a second piston that is telescopically extendable from the second cylinder, the second cylinder being disposed above the sleeve member at a position vertically aligned with the second angular position, the sleeve member being vertically aligned with the second cylinder and the spring-biased abutting member when the sleeve member is turned to the second angular position so as to permit the strip of the soft material in the sleeve member to be pressed into a compact form of the soft material by the second piston when the second piston extends outwardly from the second cylinder into the sleeve member and presses the strip of the soft material against the spring-biased abutting member; a container conveyor adapted to carry the container to the third angular position; and a third cylinder unit mounted on the support and having a third cylinder and a third piston that is telescopically extendable from the third cylinder. The third cylinder is disposed above the sleeve member at a position aligned with the third angular position. The sleeve member is vertically aligned with the third cylinder and the container when the sleeve member is turned to the third angular position so as to permit the compact form of the soft material in the sleeve member to be pushed into the container by the third piston when the third piston extends outwardly from the third cylinder through the sleeve member and into the container.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2691473 (1954-10-01), Gantzer
patent: 2805531 (1957-09-01), Dimond
patent: 2810245 (1957-10-01), Dimond
patent: 2817934 (1957-12-01), Dimond
patent: 2895269 (1959-07-01), Lakso et al.
patent: 2895273 (1959-07-01), Lakso
patent: 2895275 (1959-07-01), Hollis
patent: 3030748 (1962-04-01), Moses
patent: 3066460 (1962-12-01), Lakso
patent: 3224157 (1965-12-01), Lakso
patent: 4890753 (1990-01-01), Duryee et al.
patent: 6505457 (2003-01-01), Grass et al.
patent: 6598368 (2003-07-01), Haida
Desai Hemant M.
Lowe Hauptman & Gilman & Berner LLP
Smith Scott A.
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