Package making – Methods – Forming a cover adjunct or application of a cover adjunct to...
Patent
1998-04-14
2000-07-25
Moon, Daniel B.
Package making
Methods
Forming a cover adjunct or application of a cover adjunct to...
53 69, 53 72, 531332, 531334, 53410, 493 87, B65B 6118
Patent
active
060923512
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method of applying pouring elements to cuboid flat-gabled packages filled with free-flowing products, where the pouring elements are glued to the individually supplied and sealed packages and an apparatus suitable for [carrying out this method], having feed equipment for conveying the packages and the pouring elements and having a gluing station.
Cuboid flat-gabled packages are known especially as retail units for beverages in general. Depending on the size and contents of these packages, there is a need for providing such packages with reclosable pour spouts. On the one hand, this is for hygiene reasons, and on the other hand it is also done to make it possible to keep the contents fresh for a longer period of time and also prevent any loss of taste or aroma, A previously described flat-gabled package having such a reclosable pour spout is known, for example, from European Patent 332,800 B1 or WO 92/18394. With the previously known packages, the pouring element is applied to the package which has already been filled and sealed, so the top side of the package has a perforation in the laminated material to facilitate the penetration of the opening part of the pouring element in the actual operation of opening the package. To do so, the pouring element must be applied to the top side of the package exactly above the perforation.
It can be seen readily that gluing the pouring elements to the packages must be done very carefully to maintain the exact position as well as achieve a reliable bonding so that the pouring element will not pull away from the package and thus the desired freedom from leaks is also guaranteed after opening the package.
Therefore, the object of the invention is to embody and improve on the method defined initially and the corresponding apparatus so that fully automatic application operation is possible, while reliably preventing problems due to improper positioning and incomplete gluing of the pouring elements. In addition, it is desirable to prevent packages from leaving the gluing station without the pouring element sealed in place.
This object ia achieved with the following steps with regard to the method according to the definition of the species of claim 1: gluing station, depending on the presence of a pouring element, package.
The horizontally conveyed packages are preferably arranged in succession in the longitudinal direction. Hot-melt adhesive is preferably used for gluing the pouring elements.
With regard to the respective apparatus, the object on which this invention is based is achieved by the fact that a conveyor chain moving horizontally is used to guide the packages at the bottoms; a separator isolates the packages, and an entraining element with a number of driving elements is provided for conveying the isolated packages; a carrying chain with a number of carriers for the pouring elements is arranged above the entraining element, with the spacing between the carriers corresponding to the spacing between the driving elements arranged on the entraining element; the gluing station has an applicator element for applying the adhesive, and a detector is provided for detecting the proper presence of a pouring element in the pouring element carriers conveyed to the gluing station.
Thus, according to this invention, a package is always cycled into the entraining chain when a pouring element is "waiting" in the transfer position. This reliably ensures that a package also leaves the gluing station with a properly applied pouring element. The packages leaving the gluing station can thus be packaged fully automatically without sorting out packages that do not have a pouring element. There cannot be unintentional disturbances in operation due to downtime for cleaning up excessive or improperly applied hot-melt adhesive due to the fact that the metered amount of hot-melt adhesive is always correct due to the method according to this invention and the apparatus according to this invention.
In another embodiment of the invention, the separator has a brake unit
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Imkamp Thomas
Lonzen Hans Peter
Meyer Peter
Moon Daniel B.
SIG Combibloc GmbH
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