Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
23
.
PACKAGING COILS OF WIRE OR CABLE
This invention relates to the packaging of wire
or cable and particularly Jo the packaging of coils
of bare or insulated electric wire or cable, for example
wire or cable of the kinds used in house wiring
systems, all such wire and cable hereinafter, for
convenience, being included in the generic term "wire".
The interests of the manufacturer, wholesaler or
retailer, and user of wire are in conflict insofar as
packaging and transportation of wire are concerned For
ease of manufacture and transportation within the
factory, it is in the interests of the manufacturer that
the wire within the factory be in coil form. From the
point of view of the wholesaler or retailer who has to
keep a large stock of wires of different Sundays from one
another, storage of wire is facilitated if it is
supplied in packages of a shape and size such that they
can be readily stacked, On the other hand, the user
prefers wire to be supplied on a reel from which wire
can be readily unwound as and when required.
Generally, wire is marketed either in coils which
are covered by a towardly lapping of paper or cheap
fabric or on non-returnable reels. The former type of
packaging is cheap buy it is not popular with
wholesalers and retailers because such packaged coils
are not readily stackable and is not popular with users
because a wire cannot be readily withdrawn from a coil
and because once the towardly lapping is removed to
enable wire to be withdrawn from the coil, the balance
ox the coil is left unprotected and may become tangled,
as replacement of the towardly tapping is usually too
tiresome to be undertaken by the user. The alternative
form of packing in non-returnable reels is unpopular
with the wire manufacturer because it is more labor
intensive and costly and is disliked by the wholesaler
and retailer because reels cannot be readily stacked.
.
A known form of coil package comprises a closable
carton which is formed from at least one folded blank of
cardboard or plastics material and which has a pair of
oppositely disposed major side walls whose boundary
edges lie in substantially parallel planes, each of
which major side walls has an aperture in axial
alignment with the aperture of the other major side
wall, a coil of wire housed in the carton and bounding
the apertures in the major side walls, and, extending
through the coil of wire and between parts of the major
side walls bounding said aligned apertures, a
substantially rigid hollow hub. Such a known form of
coil package will hereinafter, for convenience, be
referred to as "of the kind described".
It is an object of the present invention to
provide an improved method of manufacturing a coil
package of the kind described.
Lo Eye
According to the invention, the method comprises
at least partly folding or otherwise shaping at least
one blank of cardboard or plastics material to form
partly or in whole a closable carton having a pair of
S oppositely disposed major side walls lying in
substantially parallel planes, each ox which major side
walls has an aperture in axial alignment with the
aperture of the other major side wall; feeding a coil of
wire into the carton so that the coil substantially bounds
the apertures in the major side walls; closing the carton;
introducing into the apertures in the carton a preformed
substantially rigid hollow hub in such a way that the hub
extends between, and protrudes beyond the outer surfaces
of, the major side walls, the hollow hub having a
transverse cross-section of substantially corrugated form
with the corrugations extending lengthwise of the hub;
expanding the corrugated hollow hub radially outwardly to
such an extent that the transverse cross-section of the
hollow hub becomes substantially circular and the hollow
hub fits tightly in the apertures in the major side walls;
and distorting the protruding end parts of -the hub in such a
way and under such a pressure that said distorted
protruding end parts bear against the outer surfaces of
the major side walls.
Preferably, the overall external diameter of the
corrugated hollow hub that is the diameter of a circle
which circumscribes the peaks of the corrugations, is
substantially less than the diameter of the aperture in
23
each major side wall so that the corrugated hollow hub can
be readily introduced into the apertures before it it
expanded radially outwardly to a -transverse cross-section
of substantially circular shape and to a diameter
approximating to that of each aperture.
Preferably, also, the hollow hub is made of a
metal or metal alloy and, in a preferred embodiment, is
formed by transversely folding a strip of metal or metal
alloy so that edges of the strip overlap and securing
these overlapping edges together to form a preformed
substantially rigid hollow hub, corrugations being
formed in the strip before or whilst it is transversely
folded or in the hollow hub after it 'nay been formed.
The hollow hub of corrugated transverse cross-
section is preferably expanded radially outwardly to substantially circular transverse cross-section by means
of a radially expandable mandrel.
The end parts of the hub protruding beyond the
outer surfaces of the major side walls are preferably
distorted in such a way and under such a pressure that
said distorted protruding end parts bear against the
outer surfaces of the major side walls and the major
side walls are pressed inwardly to such a dish-like shape
that no part of the hub protrudes beyond the plants
containing the boundary edges of the major side walls.
%3
The protruding end parts of the preformed rigid
hollow hub may be distorted to bear against the outer
surfaces of the major side walls in any convenient
manner but, preferably, each protruding end part is
folded radially outwardly to form a flange which bears
against the outer surface of, and whose extreme edge
bites into, one of the major side walls.
Preferably, during loading of the coil the
closable carton is arranged in such a way that the
common axis of the apertures in the major side walls
extends substantially horizontally and the coil of wire
is fed into the carton in a substantially vertical
direction with its axis substantially horizontal. It is
to be understood, however, that the closable carton may
be arranged in such a way thaw the common axis of the
apertures in the major side walls lies substantially
vertical or in any other plane inclined to the vertical
and the coil of wire is fed into the carton in a
substantially horizontal direction with its axis lying
substantially vertical or is Ted into the carton with
its axis lying in a plane that is substantially parallel
to the plane containing the common axis of the
apertures.
the preformed rigid hollow hub of corrugated
25 transverse cross-section may have, spaced inwardly from
its ends, outwardly extending continuous or
discontinuous circumferential ribs which are of such a
height and shape that, when the hollow hub is expanded
radially outwardly and pressure is imparted to distort
the protruding end parts of the hub, they will be
distorted to form outwardly extending continuous or
discontinuous circumferential shoulders bearing against
the inner faces of the major side walls, the distance
between the shoulders preferably being such that the
major side walls pressed inwardly against the shoulders
and gripped between the shoulders and the flanged end
parts are of dish-like shape and no par-t of the flanged
end parts of the hub protrudes beyond the planes
containing the boundary edges of the major side walls.
The operations of feeding a coil ox wire into a
carton and, when necessary, substantially centering the
coil in the carton so that its axis is approximately co-
linear with the axis of the apertures in the major side
walls of the carton, introducing a preformed rigid hub
of corrugated transverse cross-section into the carton,
expanding the hub radially outwardly to substantially
circular cross-section, distorting the protruding end
parts ox the hub, and closing the carton may be effected
in sequence at a single operating station but,
preferably, cartons are conveyed in turn between two or
more mutually spaced stations at each of which one or
more of these operations is effected, the or an
operation at each of the stations preferably being
effected substantially simultaneously so that, at any
~Z~'716~3
one time, operations are being effected on two or more
cartons. In this latter case, the stations are
preferably in alignment and the cartons conveyed along a
substantially rectilinear path from station to station
or, if desired, the stations may be arranged at
circumferential spaced positions around a circle and
the carton conveyed from station to station either by
means of a rotatable turntable or by a rotating spider
having a plurality of radially extending arms, each
carrying means for supporting a carton. In all cases,
conveying of cartons from one station to a succeeding
station or succeeding stations and the operation or
operations at each station are effected automatically
and in the appropriate sequence.
The invention also includes apparatus for us in
the improved method as herein before described of
manufacturing a coil package of the kind described.
The invention is further illustrated by a
description, by way of an example, of the preferred
method of manufacturing a coil package with reference to
the accompanying drawings, in which:-
Figure 1 - is a perspective view of the
corrugated hub to be employed,
shown in its preformed state;
:~L2~7623
Figure 2 - is a perspective view of the
coil package at an intermediate
stage of its manufacture, and
Figure 3 - is a perspective view of the
completed coil package.
Referring to Figure 1, the preformed hub 1
is constructed from a cardboard strip which has
corrugations 2 extending lengthwise along the strip and
which is ~xansversely folded so that the strip edges
overlap to form a seam 3. The overlapping edges are
secured together to form a hollow hub with longitudinal
extending corrugations. The hollow hub has an overall
diameter substantially less than the diameters of the
apertures in the major side walls of the coil package
into which it is to be secured.
Referring now to Figure 2, the carton is
constructed by folding a blank of cardboard to form a
closable carton 4, having a pair of oppositely disposed
major side walls 5, which lie in parallel planes and
each of which has a centrally positioned aperture 6.
A coil 7 of wire is inserted into the carton 4
from a vertical direction with the axis of the coil
horizontal until the axis of the coil is colinear with
the axis of the apertures 6 in the major side walls 5.
~L2~l~6~3
The preformed corrugated hub 1 it fed through the
aperture 6 in the major side wall-5, through the coil 7
of wire and the aperture in the other major side wall so
that the hub protrudes beyond the major side walls. The
corrugated hub 1 it now radially expanded by means of a
radially expandable mandrel Jo an extent such that the
hub has a circular transverse cross-section and fits
tightly with the apertures 6 in the major side walls 5.
Finally, each protruding end part of the hub 1 is
folded radially outwardly to form a flange 8 which bears
against the outer surface of, and whose extreme edge
bites into, one of the major side walls 5, the force
employed to form the flanges being such that the major
side walls are pressed inwardly to such a dish-like
shape that no part of the hub protrudes beyond the
planes containing the boundary edges of the major side
walls, as shown in Figure 3.
