Back to results
US 3,940,907 AGranted
Bottle packaging machine
AssigneeFederal Paper Board Company, Inc.
InventorRobert H. Ganz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeFederal Paper Board Company, Inc.
InventorRobert H. Ganz
Estimating the term…
An apparatus for automatically opening and loading collapsed bottle carriers or cartons, which are formed of paperboard or similar foldable sheet material and which are adapted to be loaded through an open bottom after being set up into tubular condition, which apparatus comprises conveyor mechanism for advancing successive collapsed cartons and associated plow members for opening the same into tubular shape, with the cartons assuming a vertical position above a bottle carrying and grouping conveyor which delivers successive groups of the bottles to an assembly area where the cartons are lowered onto the bottle groups and thereafter advanced through mechanism which closes top and bottom wall forming panels and engages locking and latching members formed in overlapping margins of the panels so as to complete the packaging operation. This invention relates to packaging machinery or apparatus and is more particularly concerned with improvements in apparatus for opening collapsed or flattened carriers or cartons for beverage bottles, or similar articles, and filling the same with a predetermined number of bottles wherein the carriers are of the type which are initially formed as a collapsed tube with top and bottom wall forming panels extended in the plane of the side wall forming panels and having overlapping margins witth interengageable locking and latching elements herein. In the marketing of products such as bottled and canned beverages and the like, many different packaging arrangements have been employed. Generally, each new packaging design has resulted in the development of new machinery for handling the packaging operations. Two general types of packages have proven most acceptable to the beverage bottling and canning industry, both of which are adapted to contain a multiplicity of the product elements, usually six, eight or twelve bottles or cans. One form of package, used most often for canned beverages, is formed by wrapping an elongate rectangular blank, which is especially cut and scored, about an assembly of cans or bottles with its end secured so as to tightly enclose the assembly. Another type of package which is used for bottled beverages employs a carton which is in the form of a cellular basket with an open top and having a collapsed cell-forming partition structure which is opened up to receive the bottles when the initially collapsed carrier is set up. In loading this type carrier the bottles are dropped into the cells through the open top of the carrier. This involves considerable handling of the bottles which is undesirable. More recently there has been developed a package which employs a carton having some of the characteristics of both the basket type and the wraparound type and which is fabricated in collapsed or flattened condition with bottom wall forming panels initially extended in the plane of the side walls and enabling the container to be opened into tubular form and dropped over an assembly of bottles after which the bottom wall panels, and in some designs also the top wall panels, are folded to closed position and connected by interengaging locking and latching elements. A carton design of the latter type is disclosed in the application of Edwin A. Arneson and Guelfo A. Manizza, Ser. No. 368,825, filed June 11, 1973. It is a general object of the present invention to provide a machine which will open up a carton or carrier of this general type, drop it over an assembly of bottles, close and latch the panels forming the top and bottom wall of the package, which machine will operate efficiently at a relatively high rate of speed so as to be adapted for use in high speed beverage bottling and canning lines. It is a more specific object of the invention to provide an apparatus for automatically opening, or setting up, collapsed bottle carriers or cartons and filling the same, the cartons being of the type which are adapted to be opened, and to be filled or loaded by depositing them on groups or assemblies of bottles which are advancing on a conveyor in a bottling line or the like, and thereafter closing the bottoms by folding and latching bottom wall forming panels. It is another object of the invention to provide a machine for opening up collapsed bottle carriers or cartons which are of the type which are initially formed in collapsed tubular condition and with bottom wall forming panels extending in the plane of the side wall panels wherein the machine includes an entrance conveyor having a top run onto which successive collapsed cartons are fed and advanced to an opening station where they are each swung to an upright position and simultaneously opened into tubular condition for deposit from the top into an assembly of bottles carried on a conveyor beneath the carton supporting and feeding conveyor. It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for opening up collapsed bottle packaging cartons which are adapted to be loaded through the bottom wherein the apparatus comprises a horizontally disposed conveyor run on which the collapsed cartons are advanced and opened by means of associated mechanism for turning a bottom wall forming panel into a vertical plane and thereafter swinging the remainder of the carton upwardly while opening it into squared up condition so as to enable it to be advanced to a station or area where it is aligned with and dropped down over an assembly of bottles advancing on a feeding conveyor traveling in a path beneath the carton conveyor. It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for opening up bottle packaging cartons which are initially formed in collapsed tubular condition wherein the apparatus comprises a horizontally disposed conveyor run on which the cartons are advanced and associated mechanism for confining in a predetermined path one of a pair of bottom wall forming panels while turning the carton about the hinge connection of the confined panel with the side wall, into an upright position, and simultaneously squaring up the carton into tubular form, the apparatus including also mechanism enabling successive cartons to be deposited on an assembly of bottles after which the assembly is advanced through mechanism for folding top and bottom wall forming panels into closed position and for latching the same.
An apparatus for opening and loading a folded tubular packaging container of the type which comprises a plurality of side wall panels connected on parallel hinge lines and having top and bottom wall forming closure panels extending in the plane of the side wall panels and hinged thereto, said container being adapted to be unfolded by hinging in opposite directions the side wall panels on hinge lines at opposite ends of the container, said apparatus comprising means for advancing successive folded containers in a generally horizontal plane and along a predetermined path with the hinge lines which connect the side wall panels extending transversely of the direction of travel, means forming a panel confining channel extending along one side of said container advancing means, means for turning a bottom wall forming panel on each successive container downwardly into a generally vertical plane and guiding the same into said panel confining channel, means for hinging said container about the panel which is confined in said channel so as to position said container in a generally vertical plane along said one side of said container advancing means with the unconfined panels free to pivot on said connecting hinge lines and to move a predetermined distance outwardly relative to said confined panel, means to move said unconfined panels outwardly thereby to open up said container into tubular condition, means to advance said opened up container to an assembly station, means to advance to said assembly station one or more articles to be loaded into said container and means to align the container vertically with said articles and to guide the container down onto the articles so as to load the container.
An apparatus for opening a collapsed tubular container of the type which is characterized by a series of hingedly connected side and end wall forming panels adapted to collapse by folding into a common plane and to be opened by swinging the end wall forming panels at opposite ends about their connecting hinge folds, said container having top and bottom wall forming panels hingedly connected to oppositely disposed side wall panels which are in the plane of the associated side wall panels in the collapsed condition, said apparatus comprising conveyor means having a horizontally disposed run for receiving successive containers in collapsed condition and for advancing said containers along a predetermined path with the end hinge folds thereof extending transversely of the direction of travel, means forming a narrow guide channel in laterally spaced relation along one side of the path of said container conveyor means, means for engaging a lowermost bottom wall forming panel on each successive carton and for guiding it into said channel in a vertical extending position, means associated with said container advancing means for swinging each successive container about the hinge connection with the panel which is confined in said channel so as to bring the container into a vertical position, and means operative on an upstanding unconfined panel to cause the end wall panels to swing about the vertically disposed end fold lines and thereby open the container and position it in upright tubular form.
An apparatus for opening, filling and closing collapsed tubular containers of the type which comprise a series of hingedly connected side wall panels which are folded into a common plane and top and bottom wall forming panels which are in the plane of the associated side wall panels, and which are hinged to top and bottom forming edges of said side wall panels, said container being adapted to be opened by hinging the side wall panels at their opposite ends in opposite directions about hinge forming connecting folds, said apparatus comprising means for advancing successive collapsed containers along a generally horizontal path with said hinge forming folds extending transversely of the direction of travel, means forming a vertical channel along a side of the path of said container advancing means, means disposed along one side of the path of travel for folding a lowermost bottom wall forming panel of each successive container downwardly about its hinged connection with the associated side wall panel and guiding it into said vertical channel which is disposed along said one side of the path of said container advancing means, means for engaging said container and for turning the container upwardly about the hinged connection with the panel which is confined in said vertical channel so as to swing the container, while it is advancing, into a vertical position with the side wall panels extending above said vertical channel and certain of said panels being free to hinge about the vertically disposed connecting folds, panel guiding means operative to open the container into tubular form by hinging said free side wall forming panels about said connecting folds, conveyor means for advancing assemblies of articles in a path extending below the container opening means, means to align the containers with successive article assemblies, means moving with said containers for guiding the opened containers down an inclined path and depositing them on successive article assemblies, means for folding the bottom wall forming panels into bottom closing position and means traveling with said containers for folding the top wall forming panels onto top closing position.
An apparatus for opening collapsed cartons preparatory to filling the same, which cartons are formed of foldable sheet material with body forming side and end wall panels connected on parallel hinge lines and having top and bottom wall forming closure panels which are hingedly connected to top and bottom edges of the side wall panels and which extend in the plane of the associated side wall when in collapsed condition, said apparatus comprising a carton supporting conveyor having a horizontal disposed run on which successive collapsed cartons are positioned with the parallel hinge lines connecting the side and end wall panels extending transversely of the path of advance of said supporting conveyor, means for folding down along the side of the path of said supporting conveyor a bottom wall forming closure panel of each successive carton, means along the side of said conveyor means for retaining said folded down panels in a generally vertical plane while the cartons are advanced by said supporting conveyor to a carton opening area, means at said carton opening area for swinging the collapsed body forming panels of each successive carton upwardly about the hinged connection with said folded down closure panel so as to bring the carton into a generally vertical plane, and means for forcing the wall forming panels which are free of said folded down closure panel in a direction laterally of the path of said supporting conveyor so as to open said carton into tubular condition, thereby enabling the carton to be advanced to a filling station where it is adapted to be filled through the open bottom thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.