Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Endless conveyor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-13
2001-11-13
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Endless conveyor
C198S817000, C493S179000, C493S182000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315110
ABSTRACT:
The present invention refers to a retractable central conveyor in a folder-gluer, which is a machine, that is commonly used in the packaging industry, for example, for manufacturing carton boxes from cut plate-like workpieces.
Such machines, which comprise a succession of modules, the number of which depend on the complexity of the manufacturing operations required by the type of box chosen, generally consist of at least a feeder feeding the box production blank by blank from a pile, a breaker prebreaking the first and third creases between 90° and 180° then reopening the blank, a module of folders with hooks, which fold the front flaps then the rear flaps of the blank to 180°, a gluing station, a folder for folding the second and fourth creases of the blank, a pressing device, which compresses the second and fourth creases and arranges the boxes in a shingle stream and, finally, a delivery module, which receives the boxes while keeping them pressed to allow the glue to dry. The blanks are conveyed from station to station by means of belt conveyors, which frictionally seize the blank either between lower and upper belts or between lower belts and upper support rollers.
The retractable conveyor is used in the folder, which folds the second and fourth creases of the blank. Such a station generally consists of belt conveyors, which are longitudinally arranged in the travelling direction of the workpieces, and of a plurality of folding means such as belts, helical guides, blades and folding ramps. All these means are advantageously mounted in a line, generally on three longitudinal bars, which are transversely movable according to the size of the blanks to be processed. In the folder, during converting, the blanks are primarily conveyed by a lower and upper central belt conveyor and by two pairs of lower and upper lateral belt conveyors. The folding achieves progressively following the twisted geometry of a lateral folding belt, the twist of which being ensured by a helical folding guide.
When the job size should be changed while using the same equipment, the longitudinal bars supporting the conveyor belts and the folding means can easily be moved transversely between the frames of the folder-gluer. However, the maximum useable width of such a machine is roughly given by the distance separating its two frames, and the minimum useable width is defined by the value of the widths of the three belts of the lateral conveyors and the central conveyor. If with this same folder-gluer a job is to be performed with blanks of sizes, which are smaller than this minimum width, it is necessary to save the space taken by the central conveyor or conveyors by removing them from the folder-gluer. The removal of the upper central conveyor does not present any particular problem, since it can easily be raised above the production line in a rest position, but the lower central conveyor has to be completely dismantled. To this end, it is necessary to slacken and remove the driving belt of the central conveyor, to detach the transmission shaft and to completely extract the central longitudinal bar held between the frames of the machine. This is a long and tedious task, due to the space requirement, the mass of some objects and the lack of access to this central part of the folder-gluer, without any alternative known at present.
To meet these difficulties, the present invention proposes a retractable lower central conveyor, which can easily be housed in the gaps left by the two lateral conveyors placed side by side without interferring with the operating mode of them. Of course, the lower central conveyor is only retracted when the corresponding upper conveyor is itself in a retracted position above the production line. Thus, it will be possible for a folder-gluer, which generally works with large and medium sizes, by this retraction and in a very short time, to develop its useable width up to a minimum dimension approaching the dimension of only two belts placed side by side.
To this aim, the present invention refers to a retractable central conveyor according to claim
1
.
The following advantages result from the present invention
a machine set-up time being considerably shortened by a semiautomatic retraction of said conveyor and by the simplicity of and the little operations required for putting it into operation or out of action,
the fact that there is no heavy and bulky material to be mounted or dismantled, thus avoiding any undesired handling involving, for example, the need of any lifting means for removing the central conveyor,
a very short adjusting time since it is not necessary to slacken and retighten or even replace the lower belt at each retraction of the central conveyor,
the fact that there is no need for the objects such as the transmission shaft or the sliding axes of the longitudinal bars to be removed from the frame of the folder-gluer,
and, consequently, the reduction of the selfcost price of any packaging production requiring such an adaption of the folding module.
In order to define a few terms introduced into the present description and describing the position of certain components in the folder-gluer, we shall use the expressions “operator's side” (C.C.) and “opposite operator's side” (C.O.C.), these terms being used by general agreement to denote a particular side relative to the longitudinal central axis of the machine. This choice avoids any confusion regarding the usual terms “left” and “right”, which depend on the observer's point of view. Similarly, the orientation of some movements or objects will be described by the usual terms “longitudinal” and “transversal”, always with reference to the central axis of the machine, the orientation of which depends on the direction of travel of the plate-like workpieces. Finally, note that the terms “upstream” and “downstream” refer to the direction of motion of the plate-like workpieces in the folder-gluer.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1096633 (1914-05-01), Labombarde
patent: 1104018 (1914-07-01), Staude
patent: 3797370 (1974-03-01), Sawada
patent: 5151075 (1992-09-01), Beaulleu
patent: 5165516 (1992-11-01), Reed et al.
patent: 5542809 (1996-08-01), Kita et al.
patent: 5797831 (1998-08-01), Roberts et al.
patent: 5853360 (1998-12-01), Jeffrey et al.
patent: 2335341 (1977-07-01), None
patent: 6000898 (1994-01-01), None
Reymond Jacques
Valterio Roberto
Bobst SA
Deuble Mark A.
Ellis Christopher P.
Ostrolenk, Faber, Gerb & Soffen, LL
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