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AssigneeCPS, Inc.
InventorsStefano Cassoli, Marco Cassoli, Paolo Cassoli
Estimating the term…
There is described a machine for packaging products in tubular wrappings of thermoplastic material obtained from continuous film unwound from a reel, equipped with a double transverse heat-sealing and intermediate cutting assembly that, with a horizontal translation movement, accompanies the pack that the assembly is closing the trailing end of to be unloaded while it is simultaneously closing the leading end of the tubular wrapper of the future pack that the heat-sealing and cutting assembly, also due to the presence thereon of pressers and counter-pressers, extracts from a tube-forming and longitudinal heat-sealing mandrel and that, by the same assembly, is separated from the pack upstream with a transverse cut. At the end of its active movement, the transverse heat-sealing and cutting assembly opens and with a horizontal movement in the opposite direction to and at a higher speed than the preceding one returns to the cycle start position, upstream of a new pack already filled and ready to be heat sealed at the trailing end and accompanied to be unloaded, repeating the cycle described. The transverse heat-sealing and cutting assembly is aided by a conveyor that supports and advances the packs being formed and those finished and separated, and that is equipped with a gap with variable geometry, which opens during the active horizontal movement of the same assembly and closes during the reverse horizontal movement of the same assembly.
A wrapping machine for wrapping individual or grouped and/or stacked products, in packs of thermoplastic material of the type comprising a hollow horizontal mandrel to the loading end of which there is fed a continuous film of thermoplastic material, unwound from a reel, which proceeding towards the unloading end of this mandrel, is formed in a tube with overlapping and mutual heat-sealing of its longitudinal edges by heat-sealing means and which exits from the same mandrel in the form of a tubular wrapping, which is closed transversely by an assembly positioned downstream of the same mandrel and which, on the portion of the tubular wrapping previously gusseted by folders, carries out two transverse heat seals and an intermediate cut, filled and formed in the previous cycle, to close the leading end of the following pack and to separate the completed pack from the one being formed, and which comprises upstream of said mandrel and aligned longitudinally therewith, a loading station of the products to be packaged, grouped and/or stacked and compressed in transverse direction and which upstream of this station comprises aligned longitudinally, a pusher that, on command, transfers the product or products from the loading station into the tubular pack produced by said mandrel, passing through this latter for the whole of its length and beyond, characterised in that the parallel and opposed elements that form said assembly for carrying out the double transverse heat seal and the intermediate cut, are equipped upstream with respective pressers and counter-pressers to firmly clamp in transverse direction the portion of gusseted wrapping on which this assembly, on command, is closed, the same assembly being mounted on a main carriage with horizontal movement and operated by motion means to be able in correct phase to be moved away from the tube-forming mandrel to follow the completed pack during heat sealing of the trailing end and to extract from the mandrel a new portion of tubular wrapping into which in correct phase said pusher inserts a product to form said subsequent pack, there being provided means such that said main carriage is returned rapidly to the initial position moved towards the mandrel, to be arranged downstream of the new pack already filled and to be closed at the trailing end, a motorized conveyor being provided to support the packs being formed downstream of said mandrel and the upper branch of this conveyor being guided on parallel rollers supported rotatingly by said main carriage and being guided in a zigzag path on further rollers supported by a secondary carriage sliding horizontally on command on the same main carriage, all so as to form at said double transverse heat-sealing and intermediate cutting assembly a gap inside which the lower element of said assembly is normally housed and this gap being opened by the movement in one direction of said secondary carriage, to allow freedom of action of this lower element and the same gap, when engaged by said lower element, being closed by the movement of said secondary carriage in the opposite direction, so that said conveyor correctly supports the packs being formed during the return movement of said main carriage.
The wrapping machine according to claim 14, wherein the main carriage that carries said double transverse heat-sealing and cutting assembly, is equipped laterally with slides that slide on pairs of rectilinear and horizontal guides fixed longitudinally to the side panels of the portion of base plate of the same machine and these side panels also support, parallel to said pairs of guides, toothed belts closed in a loop and guided on respective end pulleys, a pair of which is interconnected by a transverse shaft in turn connected to a motion assembly with electric motor that rotates in two directions and of the type with electronic speed and phase control, the two side panels of the main carriage being connected to a branch of said two toothed belts, by means of clamps, to receive therefrom the necessary rectilinear reciprocating movement with the necessary acceleration and deceleration ramps.
The wrapping machine according to claim 34, wherein fixed to the inner sides of said vertical slides with supports that respectively support them by the lower end and by an intermediate area, are vertical guide rods, with a round section, sliding on which, with the interposition of recirculating ball bearings, are sleeves if the lower of which slides between said supports and supports the end of the lower transverse heat-sealing and cutting element, while the upper sleeves slide above the upper supports of the respective rods and support the ends of the upper transverse heat-sealing and cutting element, the sleeves of each said rod being fixed by means of respective clamps to the opposite branches of toothed belts guided on a pulley supported adjustably by the upper end of each rod and on a toothed pulley supported by the lower end of each said vertical slide and the same lower pulleys are connected to each other by a synchronizer shaft, in turn connected to a motion assembly with electric motor that rotates in two directions and preferably of the type with electronic speed and phase control, which transmits to the opposed elements of the transverse heat-sealing and cutting assembly the movements for total or partial closing or total or partial opening, with the necessary acceleration and deceleration ramps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.