Method of and apparatus for controlling access to groups of...

Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor frame or casing – Casing – cover – shield or load supporting surface

Reexamination Certificate

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C198S735300, C198S812000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06533109

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
This application claims the priority of the corresponding German patent application Serial No. 199 49 072.4 filed Oct. 12, 1999. The disclosure of the aforesaid priority application, as well as the disclosure of each and every US and/or foreign patent and/or patent application identified in the specification of the present application, is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to improvements in machines for the treatment of successive commodities of a series of commodities during transport between successive treating stations and, if necessary, past one or more intermediate stations. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in methods and apparatus which can be put to use in packing machines wherein successive commodities must be advanced, in a predictable manner, from an upstream treating station to a downstream treating station through one or more intermediate treating stations. Examples of such machines are cigarette packing machines wherein successive packs or portions of packs must be conveyed toward, through and beyond two or more successive stations wherein the packs and/or their constituents are manipulated by folding, adhesive applying, heating, cooling, label applying and/or other instrumentalities, often at a high or extremely high frequency.
A modern cigarette packing machine normally turns out box-shaped containers known as soft packs or hinged-lid packs. Each such pack contains an array or group of parallel plain or filter cigarettes and one or more envelopes which surround the array and can be made of metalic foil (such as tin foil), paper, transparent or translucent plastic sheet stock, cardboard and/or other suitable wrapping material. For example, the method and the apparatus of the present invention can be put to use and embodied in cigarette packing machines which are known as COMPAS 500 and are distributed by the assignee of the present application.
It is often necessary to advance successive commodities in the form of partly finished or finished cigarette packs along an elongated path which is defined by a group of suitable parts in a packing machine, particularly along a path which is defined in part by an elongated track in conjunction with a cover, bridge, lid or a similar guide member which overlies or underlies or is otherwise associated with the track to ensure predictable advancement of successive commodities between successive treating or processing stations in the packing machine. For the sake of simplicity, the aforementioned guide member will be referred to as bridge or elongated bridge but with the understanding that such bridge can be located above, below or along-side the path for successive commodities of a series of such commodities.
As a rule, or in many instances, a conventional bridge which is put to use in a cigarette packing machine is dimensioned in such a way that one of its end portions is or can be closely or immediately adjacent one or more parts at a first article processing station and that the other end portion of the bridge is or can be closely or immediately adjacent one or more parts at a second article processing station. Such selection of the length and of the mounting of the bridge in a packing machine or in a production line which employs one or more packing machines for cigarettes or the like can create problems when it becomes necessary to remove the bridge or to move the bridge out of the way (i.e., away from its customary operative position) because the one and/or the other end portion of the bridge is likely to collide with the part(s) at the adjacent station; this can result in damage to and in lengthy interruptions of operation of the packing machine or of the entire production line. Each interruption entails huge losses in output because a modern packing machine (such as the aforementioned COMPAS 500) is set up to turn out at least 500 cigarette packs (each of which normally contains twenty cigarettes) per minute.
Thus, if a packing machine for plain or filter cigarettes is designed to employ one or more apparatus wherein a bridge cooperates with (such as overlies or underlies) a track for predictable advancement of partly finished or finished commodities between a pair of successive treating or processing stations (e.g., a track defining a path wherein the blanks for the making of cigarette packs advance along one or more pasters which provides or provide selected portions (such as flaps, panels, tucks, walls or like parts) with coats or films of a suitable adhesive), even a short-lasting stoppage of such apparatus can entail huge losses in output and the making of large numbers of rejects (e.g., packets including blanks carrying films or layers of hardened adhesive which was permitted to set prior to bonding the adhesive-coated part to an adjacent part of the packet). A stoppage is likely to be necessary if a partially finished or finished pack blocks the path so that the bridge must be detached from or otherwise moved relative to the track in order to afford access to a damaged pack, to permit removal of the damaged pack or packs, and to reattach the bridge.
A likely location where a partly finished cigarette pack is apt to jam the path for successive packs is in the region of a paster which applies films of adhesive to blanks made, for example, of cardboard and already partially surrounding and confining metallic inner envelopes which can be made of metallic foil and surround an array of for example, twenty parallel plain or filter cigarettes. Films of adhesive are normally applied (such as sprayed) at least to lateral flaps of the aforementioned cardboard blanks which are to form part of hinged-lid packs of plain or filter cigarettes. In many instances, the application of adhesive films to lateral flaps of partially converted cardboard blanks takes place from below while the blanks advance along an elongated path defined in part by a track and in part by an elongated bridge which, in its normal operative position, overlies the track.
In many instances, a bridge is mounted in such a way that it can be pivoted to and from its operative position relative to the track. When in the operative position, the bridge is fixed to the track or to another support by metallic or other suitable fasteners. Such fasteners must be removed by hand (e.g., by means of a suitable tool) prior to pivoting of the bridge from the operative position, and the fasteners must be reapplied, again by hand, when the path is ready to guide successive packs from a first station to a second station. In addition to highly undesirable losses in output, frequent or even sporadic detachment of the bridge (or even a mere pivoting of the bridge to the inoperative position) results in wear upon the fasteners, misplacing of detached fasteners and other iconveniences (such as damage to component parts at the stations which are connected to each other by the track) which cannot be avoided in presently known packing machines or production lines employing one or more packing machines.
The likelihood of damage to parts which are installed at the station preceding and/or at the station following the path defined by the track and by the bridge can be avoided or reduced by removing such parts prior to movement of the bridge from the operative position to the inoperative position. However, such undertakings entail additional losses in output because a movement of the bridge from operative position must be preceded by removal of parts at the aforementioned station(s) and a movement of the bridge back to the operative position must be followed by reattachment of the parts to other devices at the respective station(s).
For example, if the track and the bridge cooperate to guide successive cardboard blanks or other types of blanks past one or more adhesive applying units (known as pasters) into the range of pushers which introduce adhesive-coated blanks and their contents into the pockets of an indexible blank converting wheel or turn-table, the bridge should be moved

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