US 5,944,064 AGranted

Tying method and tying apparatus for articles

AssigneeJapan Automatic Machine Co., Ltd.

InventorsTsutomu Saito, Seiichi Takahashi, Hirokazu Watanabe

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Abstract

An engaging portion in engagement with a tying material and a hook, as a twisting mechanism, are mounted on an oscillating member provided on a spindle, and the continuous linear tying material is fed in a direction crossing a spindle axis into engagement with the engaging portion to form a starting point which is folded into a U-shape. In this state, the tying material is delivered to an encompassing guide to thereby guide the tying material around articles to be tied together, while forming two wires by folding the tying material into a substantially U-shape by a feeding force. The engaging portion and the hook are integrally rotated so that a folded extreme end portion and a rear end portion on the other side of the tying material are twisted together with each other to tie articles together. Accordingly, tying can be firmly done with one winding, while forming two wires by automatically folding the continuous linear tying material in half.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method of tying articles comprising:

a tying material bending step of holding a substantially extreme end portion of a continuous linear tying material, being delivered by tying material holding means, to apply a resistance to form a starting point at which said continuous linear tying material is bent into a first substantially U-shape for forming a pair of side-by-side strands of said continuous linear tying material;
an encompassing and guiding step of guiding said continuous linear tying material around an article to be tied, while bending said continuous linear tying material into a second substantially U-shape;
a tying material cutting step of cutting a rear end portion of said continuous linear tying material from a continuous wire at a suitable time;
and
a twisting step of twisting a U-shaped bent extreme end portion and other side end portion of said continuous linear tying material together to band said article to be tied, wherein during said twisting step, said other side end portion consists of said substantially extreme end portion held by said tying material holding means and said rear end portion being cut off from said continuous linear tying material, and said U-shaped bent extreme end portion and said other side end portion of said continuous linear tying material are twisted together, while said tying material holding means and said twisting means are rotated integrally.

2 more elements

An apparatus for tying articles comprising:

tying material delivery means (21, 106, 125, 135) for delivering a continuous linear tying material;
tying material holding means for holding an end of said continuous linear tying material delivered from said tying material delivery means;
encompassing and guiding means (5, 117) for guiding, around articles to be tied, said continuous linear tying material, while said continuous linear tying material is being bent into a substantially U-shape in a state where a substantially end portion thereof is held by said tying material holding means;
cutting means for cutting said continuous linear tying material into a predetermined length;
and
twisting means for twisting together a U-shaped bent extreme end portion of said continuous linear tying material and other side rear end portion consisting of an extreme end portion held by said tying material holding means and a cut end portion cut off from said continuous linear tying material, wherein said tying material holding means is provided on a spindle body to be rotated and driven and is rotated integrally with said twisting means.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.