Article Selection and Placement Assembly and Method
AssigneeGraphic Packaging International, Inc.
InventorKelly Ziegler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus is disclosed for applying tags with attached elastic anchor bands onto the tops of objects such as bottles in a high speed packaging application. The apparatus includes an infeed assembly for feeding a web, a conveyor assembly that receives a web and conveys it along a path in an upstream direction, a rotating selector wheel, a placement assembly, a pair of rotating jaw assembles, a vacuum cup of the selector wheel, and stretched elastic bands over the tops of respective bottles being conveyed along a path below the placing assembly. The elastic bands then snap onto the tops of their respective bottles to secure the tags to the bottles.
Claims36
An article selection and placement assembly comprising:
- an infeed assembly for continuously feeding a supply of articles to be placed on objects;
- a conveyor assembly receiving the supply of articles from the infeed assembly and moving the articles in an upstream direction;
- a selector assembly at an upstream end of the conveyor assembly configured to select individual articles from the supply of articles moving on the conveyor assembly;
- and
- a placing assembly configured to receive selected articles, to prepare the selected articles for placement onto objects, and to place the prepared articles on the objects.
A method of placing elastic bands onto objects moving along a path in an article selection and placement assembly, the method comprising the steps of:
- continuously feeding a supply of articles to be placed on objects by operating an infeed assembly;
- receiving the supply of articles from the infeed assembly and moving the articles in an upstream direction on a conveyor assembly;
- selecting individual articles from the supply of articles moving on the conveyor assembly by operating a selector assembly at an upstream end of the conveyor assembly;
- and
- receiving selected articles, preparing the selected articles for placement onto objects, and placing the prepared articles on the objects by operating a placing assembly.
A method of placing elastic bands onto objects moving along a path, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) conveying a web comprising a multitude of detachable elastic bands in an upstream direction;
- (b) sequentially capturing each elastic band as it moves in the upstream direction;
- (c) detaching captured elastic bands from the web;
- (d) stretching the elastic bands to a size sufficient to extend around at least a portion of objects moving along the path;
- (e) sequentially moving the stretched elastic bands around respective objects;
- and
- (f) releasing the elastic bands so that they snap onto the respective objects.
An infeed assembly for feeding a web to a continuously operating machine comprising a first reel carrying a first web and a second reel carrying a second web, a first guide assembly associated with the first reel and a second guide assembly associated with the second reel, each guide assembly comprising a queuing member configured to queue the end portion of a respective web in position to be loaded into the machine while the other web is being used by the machine.
An apparatus comprising:
- a rotatable hub;
- an array of elongated members attached at one end to the rotatable hub, each elongated member having a cam follower projecting therefrom.
- a rotatable wheel disposed adjacent the rotatable hub and being axially offset with respect thereto;
- an array of slots formed in the rotatable wheel and having distal ends adjacent the periphery of the wheel that are spaced further apart than opposite proximal ends of the slots;
- the cam follower of each elongated member extending slidably into a respective one of the slots;
- rotation of the hub and the wheel rotating the elongated members and moving their cam followers between proximal and distal ends of their respective slots to cause the elongated members to spread apart and bunch together as they are rotated by the hub.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.