High speed lidder
AssigneeMoen Industries, Inc.
InventorsLenard E. Moen, Ronald D. Pounds
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lidding apparatus has a pair of brake shoes which elevate a box from a conveyor, the box being decelerated by the brake shoes. A lidding assembly includes an opposite pair of grooves with a release configuration for supporting a flat lid blank but allowing the flaps of the blank to rotate out of the grooves. The lid blank is maintained in a flat condition as the lid blank and box are bought into mutually centered contact whereupon the side flaps are rotated toward the box through the clearances provided by the release configuration by shoes of the lidding assembly.
Claims22
A box lidding machine comprising:
- a framework mounting a horizontally disposed conveyor means having entrance and exit ends, said conveyor means passing through a lidding station of said framework;
- a gate means at said entrance end for sequentially admitting one box at a time to said conveyor means;
- accelerator means positioned adjacent to said gate means for accelerating a box admitted by said gate means downstream to be carried into said lidding station by said conveyor means;
- a brake means within said lidding station for decelerating a box on said conveyor means,
- said brake means being movable between inactive and active positions thereof that are, respectively, out of and in contact with a box moving on said conveyor means;
- means for moving said brake means between said inactive and active positions;
- said brake means when moving to said active position moving a box out of contact with said conveyor means to be decelerated by said brake means;
- a stop means on said brake means for arresting a box on said brake means within said lidding station;
- said brake means when moving from said active position into said inactive position moving a lidded box into contact with said conveyor means to be carried towards said exit end.
A box lidding machine comprising:
- a framework comprising a lidding station;
- indexing means for supporting an open box in said lidding station to have a lid formed out of a flat blank and secured to the open top of the box;
- a sub-assembly mounted in said lidding station for vertical reciprocation and positioned in substantially centered relationship with respect to a box indexed in said lidding station;
- means for reciprocating said sub-assembly between raised and lowered positions;
- a pair of parallel rails fixedly mounted on opposite sides of said sub-assembly laterally spaced apart to pass with clearance a pair of opposite sides of the top of a box in said lidding station during reciprocation of said sub-assembly;
- said pair of rails being formed on confronting inner faces thereof with substantially coplanar grooves to receive a pair of opposite edges of marginal flaps of a lid blank;
- lid blank indexing means including said pair of grooves for substantially horizontally supporting a lid blank in substantially centered relationship with respect to a box indexed in said lidding station;
- shoe means fixedly mounted on opposite sides of said subassembly in alignment with the marginal flaps of an indexed lid blank;
- said pair of grooves supporting the lid blank in substantially planar condition during descent of said sub-assembly until the lid engages and is arrested by the top of a box in said lidding station,
- each of said shoe means having a lower edge spaced above the plane of said grooves engagable with a flap of the lid blank for rotating the flap relative to an upper edge of a box during part of an initial descent of said sub-assembly,
- each of said grooves having a release configuration such that the edges of the marginal flaps of the lid blank are rotatable out of and released from said grooves upon continued descent of said sub-assembly.
A method of lidding an open top box with a lid formed from a flat lid blank having a central panel flanked by an integral opposite pair of foldable side flaps, said method comprising:
- positioning the box and lid blank in mutually centered relationship with the central panel in registration with the open top of the box while maintaining clearances for unobstructed rotation of the side flaps of the centered lid blank towards the box;
- restraining the lid blank in substantially flat condition while maintaining the clearances and bringing the central panel of the lid blank and open top of the box into mutually centered contact;
- and
- releasing the lid blank from restrained flat condition by rotating the side flaps towards the box through the clearances.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.