US 5,916,079 AGranted

Horizontal container forming machine

AssigneeDelaware Capital Formation, Inc.

InventorsDavid S. Haring, Michael A. White

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Abstract

An improved horizontally-oriented machine capable of forming a trays or other similar fiberboard containers from single blanks. The improved machine includes three distinct sections: (1) a loading bay which includes a vertical lift, a sheet feeders and a unique set of gates for pre-positioning the end flaps of container blanks for later folding; (2) an adhesion and flap-folding section which includes adhesive applicators, a series of folding plows and a compression area for pre-folding the end flaps of the container to be formed; and (3) a final forming section including an adjustable vertically mounted mandrel surrounded by adjustable forming plows for making the final container. The flap-folding section includes a flight chain assembly which can be easily lowered when the machine is not operating, to allow service access to the interior of the machine in the event of a jam or misfeed, thereby avoiding the time consuming task of cutting or tearing out the misfeed, and allowing the machine to be quickly brought back on line.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A machine for forming a fiberboard container comprising:

a. a vertical loading bay for receiving a stack of precut and pre-scored flat fiberboard container blanks, said bay comprising an open end and two parallel side walls, a lift, squaring arms for positioning said blanks, two pluralities of overhead suctions for removing the uppermost blank from the stack the first such plurality being centrally located for reaching the midsection of the uppermost container blank, and the second such plurality having locations near the four corners of the bay in order to reach the corners of the container blank, said second plurality being capable of upwardly raising the pre-cut end flaps at the corners of said container blank higher than the midsection thereof, a plurality of separation gates and angled support rails in the side walls of said bay for elevating the pre-cut end flaps on the leading and trailing edges of said blank from the midsection thereof, and an overhead feed for conveying said blank, leading edge first, into the flap former of the machine;
b. a flap former for pre-folding the leading and trailing edges of said container blank, said former comprising a plurality of applicators for spraying adhesive onto portions of said blank, a plurality of angled forming plows and rods for forming end panels from the elevated pre-scored end flaps on the leading and trailing edges of said container blank, a horizontal conveyor with cleats for moving said blank through said plows, a plurality of compression rollers for securing the folded adhesively sprayed flaps of said blank, and a conveyor for moving said blank into a final container former;
and
c. a final container former comprising a second pair of angled rails for supporting the corners of said end panels as said blank is received from said flap former, an adjustable mandrel having a vertical stroke, a first set of adjustable parallel forming plows below said mandrel along the path of said stroke for forming the ends of the container to be formed, a second set of adjustable parallel forming plows along the path of said stroke below said first set and perpendicular thereto for forming the sides of said container, and a conveyor below said second set of plows for removing the formed container from the machine.

1 more element

In a machine for forming a fiberboard container, a pre-forming apparatus comprising:

a. a vertical loading bay for receiving a stack of precut and pre-scored flat fiberboard container blanks, said bay comprising an open end and two parallel side walls, a lift, squaring arms for positioning said blanks, two pluralities of overhead suctions for removing the uppermost blank from the stack, the first such plurality being centrally located for reaching the midsection of the uppermost container blank, and the second such plurality having locations near the four corners of the bay in order to reach the corners of the container blank, said second plurality being capable of upwardly raising the pre-cut end flaps at the corners of said container blank higher than the midsection thereof;
a plurality of separation gates and angled support rails in the side walls of said bay for elevating the pre-cut end flaps on the leading and trailing edges of said blank from the midsection thereof, and an overhead feed for conveying said blank, leading edge first, into the flap former of the machine;
and
b. a flap former for pre-folding the leading and trailing edges of said container blank, said former comprising a plurality of applicators for spraying adhesive onto portions of said blank, a plurality of angled forming plows and rods for forming end panels from the elevated pre-scored end flaps on the leading and trailing edges of said container blank, a horizontal conveyor with cleats for moving said blank through said plows, a plurality of compression rollers for securing the folded adhesively sprayed flaps of said blank, and a conveyor for moving said blank into a final container former.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.