Banding apparatus and method

Apparatus for applying tubular bands to articles advanced along a path, comprising:

• article advancement means to advance said articles one at a time along a path through a banding station where said bands are applied to the articles;
• band supply means for supplying a continuous web of flattened tubular banding material;
• band re-folding means to open out the supplied web of flattened banding material and then to re-fold and re-flatten the banding material with folds disposed mid-way between the original folds;
• band feed means to advance the re-folded banding material towards a band pick-up station and to deliver to that pick-up station a plurality of bands, one at a time, each comprising a predetermined length of the banding material, cut from the re-folded web thereof;
• a rotary banding drum;
• at least one gripper head mounted on said rotary banding drum so that on rotation of said drum the gripper head passes sequentially through the pick-up station and the banding station, the gripper head having at least one vacuum port facing the direction of movement of the gripper head upon said rotation of the drum;
• gripper control means to control the supply of vacuum to the vacuum port of said gripper head whereby said head may, on passing through the pick-up station, pick up a band advanced to that pick-up station by vacuum-holding only one side face of that band against the gripper head, and may release that band as said head passes through the banding station;
• and
• means to synchronise the rotation of said drum with the advancement of articles along said path whereby a band held by one side face on the gripper may partially and resiliently open out during the passage thereof from the pick-up station to the banding station and may there be slid on to an article during the advancement thereof through the banding station.