Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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The present invention relates to packing, more particu-
larly to the packing of fragile articles with protective packing
spacers.
The present invention provides an apparatus for use in
the foregoing packing.
This application is a divisional application of copending
application No. 285,565 filed August 26, 1977.
In said copending application there is disclosed and
claimed an automatic feed apparatus for supply packing spacer
sheets one at a time to a packing station, said apparatus including
a stack holder that holds a stack of spacer sheets with the end
spacer of the stack in a predetermined feed location, a transfer
carrier shiftably mounted for movement between a first location
adjacent said predetermined location for gripping the end spacer
sheet and a second location where it drops the gripped spacer
sheet, a chute under the second location to catch the dropped
spacer sheet and slide it down forwardly to a pick-up station,
and sheet inverting means connected to automatically rotate
predetermined spacer sheets about half a revolution around an
axis generally perpendicular to these sheets and also flip
these sheets over front-to-back so that they reach the pick-up
station so inverted.
According to the present invention there is provided
a transfer carrier for gripping a molded fiber packing sheet
having a raised rib structure, a set of jaws shaped to engage
the rib structure, the jaws having gripping teeth that dig into
the molded fiber of the rib structure when that structure is
engaged by the jaws, opening structure connected to open the
jaws when a gripped sheet is to be released, the jaws carrying
release assisting projections extending in the general direction
in which the jaws open, to engage adjacent portions of the sheet
when the jaws open and assure a positioning of the sheet that
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causes all the teeth to be pulled out of the molded fiber when the
jaws are opened.
The above as well as additional objects of the present
invention will be more fully understood from the following
description of several of its exemplifications, reference being
made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of a general arrangement
for packing straight fluorescent lamps pursuant to the present
invention;
Fig. 2 is an enlarged front view of a detail of a
packing feature in the packing arrangement of Fig. 1,
Fig. 3 is a plan view of a packing sheet used in the
packing arrangement of Figs. 1 and 2;
Fig. 4 is an elevational view of one of the automatic
feed units for the arrangement of Fig. l;
Fig. 5 is an enlarged view with parts broken away,
looking at the face of the transfer conveyor of the apparatus
of Fig. 4i
Fig. 6 is a more detailed elevational view similar to
that of Fig. 4, showing portions of the second automatic feed
unit looking at that unit from the rear;
Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view of some of the operating
mechanism for the construction of Fig. 4; and
Fig. 8 is an enlarged detail of the sheet-gripping
mechanism of the construction of Fig. 4, showing it gripping
a warped portion of a sheet.
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According to the present invention an automatic feed
apparatus that supplies packing spacer sheets one at a time to
a packing station, has a stack holder that holds a stack of spacer
sheets with the end spacer of the stack in a predetermined feed
location, a transfer carrier shiftably mounted for movement be-
tween a first location adjacent said predetermined location for
gripping the end spacer sheet and a second location where it
drops the yripped spacer sheet, a chute under the second location
to catch the dropped spacer sheet and slide it down forwardly to a
pick-up station, and sheet inverting means connected to automa-
tically invert a predetermined set of the spacer sheets so that
they reach the pick-up station inverted side for side. The invert-
ing means can include a first means for rotating the transfer
carrier about half a revolution around an axis generally perpen-
dicular to the sheet so that the rotated sheet drops into the chute
rotated about 180 around a perpendicular axis, and additional means
connected to flip the sheet over front-to-back as it moves down
the chute.
A transfer carrier for gripping a molded fiber packing
sheet having a raised rib structure, desirably has, according to
the present invention, a set of jaws shaped to engage the rib
structure, the jaws having gripping teeth that dig into the
molded fiber of the rib structure when that structure is engaged
by the ribs, and the jaws jointly float when in engaged position
so that they readily compensate for the dimensional variations
inherent in molded pulp products, and opening structure connected
to open the jaws when a gripped sheet is to be released. The
jaws can also carry release-assisting projections extending in
the general direction in which the jaws open, to engage adjacent
portions of the sheet when the jaws open and assure a positioning
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of the sheet that causes all the teeth to be pulled outof the
molded fiber when the jaws are opened.
Another feature of the present invention is a stack
holder that holds a generally horizontally extending stack of
generally vertically disposed packing sheets, a low friction
elongated supporting surface for the stack, a plurality of high
friction belts each less than about 1/2 inch wide having an upper
flight extending along said supporting surface and a lower flight
below said surface, the belts being spaced from each other by
at least two inches, advancing mechanism connected toadvance the
belts and carry stacked packing sheets to one end of the support-
ing surface, and fixed restraining elements at that end for
engaging the front of the stack by its edges, to keep the sheets
from being pushed off that end by the advancing mechanism, but
permitting the front sheet of the stack to be pulled off.
Turning now to the drawings, the overall sequence of
packing operations involving the present invention is best seen
in Fig. 1. A pair of arms 10,11 is arranged to carry a set of
six fluorescent lamps 15 spaced side by side in a horizontal row.
For this purpose the arms 10,11 have transverse grooves aligned
so that each lamp rests in one of the grooves on each arm. The
arms reciprocate together in the direction indicated by the double-
ended arrow 17 so that they retract from the illustrated position
to a loading position where they are below a series of the lamps
at an inspection station 16 between inspecting mirrors 14,14.
As individual in charge of the packing can stand in front ofthe
arms and use these mirrors to determine that the terminal pins
19 at both ends of each lamp are not bent and remove those lamps
that have bent terminals. The lamps are rolled into station 16
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from a test station where their terminal pins 19 are automatically
engaged by electrical contacts that cause the lamps to light if
they are not defective.
In the loading position the empty arms are elevated with
their front ends inclined upwardly to engage and lift a set of the
lamps inthe appropriate grooves after the inspection is completed,
and then the armsare moved to the illustrated position where
they hold the lamps in an essentially horizontal row over al~wering
platform 20. At about the same time a pair of packing sheets 21,
22 are moved from adjacent tables 131,132 and placed over the
sides of the platform under the respective ends of the lamps, an
operation that is performed by hand. The arms 10,11 are then
lowered slightly to leave the set of lamps they hold now supported
only by the packing sheets. At this point the arms are retracted
to the loading position to receive a fresh set of the lamps.
Platform 20 is now lowered by an amount approximating
the combined height of the lamps and their supporting sheets,
- another pair of packing sheets is placed over the ends of the
lowered lamps, and a fresh set of lamps is deposited on them by
- 20 arms 10,11 in the same way the first set of lamps was deposited.
The platform is again lowered and a third layer-of lamps placed
over a third pair of packing sheets, the steps being repeated
-~ until a desired number of lamp layers, such as six, is reached.
Now a seventh pair of packing sheets is placed over the sixth
layer of lamps and the six-layer assembly is ready for insertion
, into a corton.
. The cartoning can be effected by sliding the lowered
six-layer assembly endwise or backwards into open cartons held
below the level of tables 131,132. There is sufficient engage-
ment between the lamps and the packing sheets to assure that the
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assembly slides into a carton without dislodging any of the sheets.
Cartoning can also be accomplished by lifting the fully loaded
platform to push the assembled layers of lamps on it up into the
open end of an inve~ted open carton, after which the platform is
pivoted around its far edge 29 to roll the inverted filled carton
over into upright position so that its covers can be fastened to
make it ready for shipment. The lamps so packaged are all
cushioned at their ends by the spacers, there being one spacer
above and one below each lamp end. Each spacer has ribs that
partially encircle each lamp, the ribs of the last pair of spacers
partially encircling the same lamps that are partially encircled
by the ribs of the preceding pair.
Figs. 2 and 3 show this lamp packing more fully. The
packing spacers are each identical and are shown in Fig. 3 at 30.
They are molded from wood and/or paper pulp as generally rectan-
gular sheets having a set of five transversely-extending parallel
ribs 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 standing up from its central portion,
and upstanding walls 41,42 that provide rib-like packing surfaces
which increase to 7 the number of parallel rib-like surfaces.
These form a set of six channels 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 each of
which receives one end of an elongated fluorescent light bulb 15.
Along one long edge, the sheet 30 is formed into a
shoulder 61 merging into the successive rib structures to provide
abutments that engage the end walls 60 of the fluorescent lamps
but do not engage the terminal pins 19. Shoulder 61 is also shown
as having transverse grooves 64,65 receiving those terminal pins
and protectively extending beyond them.
The floor of the sheet can be stiffened somewhat by
depressions 71,72,73 distributed over it. These also provide
short plateaus 81,82,83 that help cushion the bulbs. Additional
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bracing can be provided by notches 91,92 molded in walls 41,42
as we'l as in the ribs.
The ribs are shaped and spaced from each other tohold
a fluorescent lamp cushioned so that less than half the lamp
thickness rests in a channel 51,52, etc. This leaves about half
the lamp thickness exposed at each of the five lowest layers 101,
102, 103, 104, 105 of stacked lamps. The uppermost lamp layer 106
has the extra packing sheets 121,122 inverted over its lamp ends
and these cover the otherwise exposed half thickness.
- 10 By using the above packing technique it becomes un-
necessary to devise a special packing sheet with ribs in its
upper and lower surfaces, and a single type of standard packing
sheet having all its ribs on one face does a very effective job.
This also saves the extra packing height that would be required
if the packing sheets had ribs on both their faces.
According to the present invention automatic feeders
201,202 are arranged to automatically and successively place
individual packing sheets on tables 131,132 so that they can be
,~ conveniently moved by a packer intoplace on platform 20. These
automatic feeders are shown as mirror images of each other and
; will now-be described in detail in connection with Figs. 4 through
8.
Each feeder has rigid low-friction support plate 210
of steel for example, which holds a stack 212 of packing sheets
all nested together. The stack is urged toward a stop frame 214
at one end of plate 210, b~i~ a set of belts 222 (Figs. 6 and 7)
each about 1/4 inch wide and spaced about 2 1/2 inches from each
other. These belts need not be flat, and are shown as standard
round rubber belts mounted on pulleys 224 adjacent stopframe
214 as
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well as on another set of such pulleys at the other end of the
support plate. A slot can be cut out of the plate as at 226, to
permit the pulleys 224 to be mounted under the plate with the
belts running through the slot. The belts are all connected for
simultaneous stepwise actuation to move their upper flights toward
the stop frame, thus carrying along the stack of packing sheets.
This stack is sufficiently light in weight that it does not cause
the development of too much friction between the support plate and
the stack-carrying belts. The belts themselves, or their upper
surfaces, are of high-friction material such as rubber so that
they very effectively carry and yieldably urge the packing sheets
along toward the stop frame, but the stack-carrying belts slide
easily over the low-friction support plate. Moreover, the inter-
mittent belt movement produces less wear on the belts than con-
tinuous belt movement.
Stop frame 214 encircles the stack at the forward end
of the support plate 210. The frame has uprights 230 and a top
bar 232, all spaced from the stack, and a bottom bar 234 the top
of which is about 1/2 inch above the support plate. The front of
the stack is held above plate 210 by the belts on the belt pulleys
and urged by the belts onto the top of the bottom bar 234.
A series of fingers 236 fitted to the uprights 230 and
to the top and bottom bars 232,234 extend toward the stack and
held retain its leading packing sheet in place so that it does not
fall off the forward end of the stack. These fingers each end
about 1/16 inch in from the outer margins of the leading packing
sheet, and can be pointed as shown to more readily permit that
sheet to be deliberately pulled forward from the stack when de-
sired. Heavy aligning guides 238 can also be used to make sure
the individual packing sheets are properly aligned when they reach
the forward end of the stack.
A transfer carrier 250 is arranged to grip and pull the
leading packing sheet from within the stop frame. The carrier is
shown as having a channel-shaped holding bracket 252 fitted with
three sets of gripping jaws 261,262,263 and mounted by a tubular
connector 254 in ajournal hearing 257 in a generally vertically
oriented plate 258. That plate in turn depends from a supporting
arm 259 clamped to one end of generally horizontal swivel arm 268
the other end of which is bent downwardly and is pivotally received
in a box 270.
The downwardly bent end projects out through the bottom
of box 270, as shown at 272 (Fig. 7) where a crank arm 274 is
clamped to it, the crank arm in turn being connected for rotation
by a bar 276 operated by a hydraulic cylinder 278 secured to
the lower portion of the base on which support plate 210 is held.
Cylinder 278 is fitted with hydraulic lines 280,282 by which the
arm 268 is rotated ~o bring carrier 250 against the leading spacer
sheet on the stack, or back to a sheet unloading position shown
in Fig. 4.
The tubular connector 254 is arranged for rotation by a
hydraulic cylinder 284 which raises and lowers a rack 286 having
teeth meshing with a gear 288 fitted around the cylinder. This
enables rotation of the holding bracket 252 180 and back around
the axis of the tubular connector, between the position shown in
Figs. 5 and 6 to the upside-down position shown in Fig. 4.
In the sheet unloading position illustrated in Fig. 4,
the transfer carrier is over a discharge chute 289 fitted with a
hydraulically operated retractable dam 290 and a hydraulically
operated retractable push-rod 291. The chute leads down to table
132 where packing sheets are successively delivered by the trans-
fer carrier.
.
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As shown more clearly in Fig. 5, the three sets of grip-
ping jaws 261, 262 and 263 are pivoted to the holding hracket 252
as by bolts 292 that penetrate through openings in generally
horizontal flanges on the carrier, and also penetrate through blocks
291 welded onto the rear of each jaw (Fig. 8). Spacers 289 can
be slipped over each bolt above and below the block to hold the
blocks at the proper level on the bolts. The mouths of every jaw
are fitted with rows of needle-like teeth 293 that have lengths
about equal to or somewhat longer than the wall thickness of a
packing sheet. The teeth are also sufficiently narrow, about 1/32
inch thick at their widest portion, so they readily penetrate
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the wall of a packing sheet without damaging it.
The jaws of each pair are biased toward each other by
engaging springs 294 hooked between ears 290 extending out later-
ally from each jaw, and are pushed apart by hydraulic cylinders
295 one of which is positioned inside the tubular mount 254. These
cylinders have piston rods 256 that engage cams 258 carried by
each jaw where it faces its mating jaw, and movement of the piston
rods toward the jaws causes the rods to engage and push the cams,
thus pivoting the jaws outwardly around the bolts 292. This
operation is more clearly shown in Fig. 8. As also shown in that
figure the jaws are held in a jointly floating relation by their
springs 294 and readily adjust themselves to properly engage a rib
as at 31, even though the rib is not symmetrically spaced with res-
pect to both jaw pivots. Molded pulp articles inherently tend to
have substantial amounts of dimensional variation.
The mouths of the jaws are also shown as carrying on
their outer faces sets of spacers 296 that assure the disengage-
ment of the jaws from a packing sheet, although this feature is
not essential. Also the jaws can be further fitted with guides
297 that engage and guide a packing sheet when it is released by
the jaws, to assure that it falls free and its shoulder 61 does
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not get hung up on the top corners of those jaws. In the
illustrated construction, those guides are only provided on the
outer sets of jaws 261,263, and only on the inner jaws of those
two sets. It is preferred that the transfer carriage be ~ilted
a few degrees, 8 to 10 for example, away from the exact vertical,
as more clearly shown in Figs. 4 and 6. This helps assure that
the packing sheets drop onto-the chutes 289 with the same face up.
An additional hydraulic cylinder 298 (Fig. 7) is also
fitted to the lower portion of the base for support plate 210, and
is connected to ratchet a one-way clutch 299 that drives a
chain-and-sprocket assembly to rotate the forward pulleys 224 of
the advancing belts 222.
All of the hydraulic cylinders are connected in parallel
to a standard hydraulic pump and fluid return system containing
electrically operative valves that separately effect cylinder
actuation. A variably speed cycling switch is arranged to bring
about the following sequence:
(a) rotation of the transfer carriage to a position
against the leading packing sheet on the stack while the
gripping jaws are held in opened position;
(b) release of the opened gripping jaws so they are
moved by their actuating springs to engage the forwardly
projecting walls of the rihs on that sheet. As noted above,
the individual jaws are not in fixed orientation on the holder
252 but that any of the pairs of jaws can rotate a bit around
their pivots to adapt to minor variations in the shape and
location ofthe rib walls;
(c) rotation of the transfer carriage with the gripped
sheet back to the sheet unloading position over chute 289
(Fig. 4).
(d) movement of the gripping jaws to their opened posi-
tions to release the gripped sheet. This release is made
fool-proof by the spacers 296 which upon opening of the jaws
engage the walls of the sheet adjacent to the rib wall in
which the jaw teeth are inserted. By such engagement on jaw
opening, the sheet is kept approximately centered with respect
to the jaws so that it cannot he shifted any significant dis-
tance laterally on the teeth of the three left-hand jaws
of each set, for example, as the jaws are opened. Such
lateral sheet movement would permit the teeth of the right-hand
jaws to disengage from the walls in which they were inserted,
` but could leave the teeth of all left-hand jaws still inserted
in the sheet and thus keep the sheet from dropping onto the
chute;
(e) actuation of belt advance by reciprocation of
cylinder 298. This need not be a separate step and can be
conducted during any of steps (b), (c) or (d);
(f) repetition of the foregoing sequence of-steps
except that every seventh sequence is modified by
(I) conducting its step (c) so that rotation of
the transfer carriage with a gripped sheet back to the
sheet unloading position is accompanied by revolving of
carriage holder 252 180 around the tubular connector
254 to rotate the gripped sheet side for side,
(II) conducting its step (d) to open the gripping
jaws while raising dam 290 so that is catches the un-
loaded sheet and holds it on the chute with the trailing
portion of the sheet over the push-rod 291,
(III) then reciprocating the push-rod to tilt the
sheet thus positioned over the dam and invert it front-
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to-back as the sheet slides into position on table 132
in side-to-side inverted relation as compared to those
arriving there in the preceding six sequences; and
(IV) retracting dam 290, a step which is pre-
ferably effected while the transfer carriage goes
through step (a) of the next sequence.
The seventhsequence carried out in the foregoing manner
takes a little longer than any of the first six sequences because
of the added time required to invert over the dam the sheet being
delivered. The added time delay can be as little as a fraction of
a second, and may be desired to help the packing operator recog-
nize the seventh sequence so that he can correlate it with the
completion of a stack of lamps. If such recognition is not de-
sired, then the packing can be speeded up by speeding up steps (a),
(b), (c) and/or (d) of the seventh sequence so that the seventh
sequence requires the same or even less time than each of the
first six.
The packing sheet delivery can also be synchronized
with the packing as by providing an easily moved switch arm 229
20- over a portion of table 132 onto which a packing sheet lands when
- - discharged from chute 289 and from which the sheet is moved when
it is removed from the table, and connecting that arm so that is
actuates a switch 300 that triggers the start of a feed sequence
whenever a packing sheet is removed from the table. Such sequence
triggering can cause a sequence to start at step (a), or at step
(d). The latter arrangement is particularly desirable for maximum
packing speed inasmuch as the apparatus can then be connected to
automatically go through its sequencing at maximum speed, but
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automaticallv stopping at the completion of step (c). This makes
a fresh packing sheet ready to immediately drop onto table 132 as
soon as possible after the previous packing sheet is removed. The
entire equipment is then automatically controlled by the packing
individual without requiring him to go out of his way, or to set
`~ or reset timers or the like.
To effect such automatic synchronization, the actuation
of the cylinders that open the gripping jaws is arranged to auto-
matically close a switch 303 that actuates cylinder 278 to rotate
the transfer carriage to the face of the stack. A pin 305 standing
up from the piston rod 256 of one of the jaws can he conveniently
used to operate switch 303. It is helpful to have such a switch
incorporate a little delay in the actuation of the carriage
rotation, to assure that the packing sheet released by the jaw
opening has time to fall free of the carriage before the carriage
rotation can deflect the fall away from chute 289.
; A switch such as shown at 301 in Fig. 4 is actuated by
the downwardly bent portion of swivel arm 268 when that arm is
rotated enough to bring the carriage against the stack, and re-
tracts the jaw cylinders to cause the jaws to be moved into
gripping position by springs 294, to thus grip the leading sheet.
Completion of the retraction of the jaw cylinders then
automatically actuates cylinder 278, as through switch 303, to
return the transfer carriage to the sheet release position in
which position the apparatus can remain until the previously
released sheet is removed from table 132. Switch 300 tripped upon
such removal can be self-resetting or can be reset by the arrival
of the carriage at the stack.
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:,.
Obviously many modifications and variations of the
present invention are possible in the light of the above
: teachings. It is therefore to be ~nderstood that within the
, scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced
. otherwise than as specifically described.
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