Station for thermoforming thermoplastic sheet-like blanks for thermoforming lines and a corresponding method
AssigneeI.M.A. Industria Macchine Automatiche S.P.A In Sigla Ima S.P.A.
InventorFilippo Furlotti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A station for feeding closing seals for containers, which includes at least one fixed magazine of seals which is provided with an outlet from which the seals can be taken individually. The station includes a carousel for feeding seals which can rotate with respect to a first central rotation axis and is provided with pickers which are radially spaced apart from the first rotation axis. The pickers are individually rotatable about a second rotation axis which is not parallel to the first axis of the carousel. During the rotation of the carousel, at least one picker can is configured to rotate about the second axis from a position for taking the seal from the magazine to a position for releasing the seal.
Claims9
A thermoforming station for thermoforming thermoplastic sheet-like blanks for a thermoforming line, the thermoforming station comprising:
- a thermoforming carousel configured to rotate continuously about a central axis and which comprises a plurality of thermoforming heads which are radially spaced apart from said central axis, each thermoforming head being adapted to receive at least one respective heated thermoplastic sheet-like blank at a first peripheral region which is outside the thermoforming carousel, so as to deform said sheet-like blank during the rotation of the thermoforming carousel in order to generate a container and release said container to a second peripheral region which is outside the thermoforming carousel and is angularly spaced apart from the first peripheral region, wherein each thermoforming head comprises a gripping device for gripping said sheet-like blank arriving from the first peripheral region, for positioning it at a thermoforming region and for releasing said container at said second peripheral region, said gripping device comprising grippers, each of said thermoforming heads being associated with a dedicated upright column which is fixed to a lower support ring of the thermoforming carousel and which vertically extends with its axis parallel to the central axis, wherein said gripping device can translate along said upright column.
A method of continuously thermoforming thermoplastic sheet-like blanks for forming containers, the method including the following steps:
- continuously rotating a thermoforming carousel about a central axis, said thermoforming carousel having a plurality of thermoforming heads which are radially spaced apart from said central axis,
- at a first peripheral region which is outside said thermoforming carousel, feeding heated thermoplastic sheet-like blanks to said thermoforming heads, so that each thermoforming head that passes through said first peripheral region receives a respective heated sheet-like blank, wherein said feeding step comprises gripping said respective heated blank by a respective gripping device of the respective thermoforming head, said gripping device comprising grippers,
- during said rotation, holding said sheet-like blanks in the respective thermoforming heads, vertically translating said gripping device along a dedicated upright column parallel to said central axis, fixed to a lower support ring of the thermoforming carousel and associated to each thermoforming head, and plastically deforming said sheet-like blanks until they are brought to the shape of a container, and
- releasing said containers by the grippers to a second peripheral region around the thermoforming carousel, which is angularly spaced apart from the first peripheral region with respect to said central axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.