US3762129A

US3762129A - Packaging apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3762129A
Application number: US00210472A
Authority: US
Inventors: J Salomon
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1970-12-22
Filing date: 1971-12-21
Publication date: 1973-10-02
Anticipated expiration: 1990-10-02
Also published as: IL38425A0; IL38425A; CH549499A; DE2163588A1; GB1335223A; CA960573A

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a method and apparatus of packaging tea bags in cardboard boxes wherein the tea bags are transported along a guide in groups each of which will form the contents of one box, a folded and glued box blank is withdrawn from a stack and erected into an open-ended tubular configuration, a main flap at the top of the tubular box is folded over to form a floor of an inverted box, and the inverted box is then carried forwardly and downwardly to enclose the advancing group of articles. Advantageously a further main flap at the bottom of the box is then folded from a horizontal configuration underneath the box to a closed configuration enclosing the guide along which the box passes, the box then being advanced off the end of the guide to a delivery station.

Description

United States Patent Salomon 1 1 Oct. 2, 1973 [54] PACKAGING APPARATUS 3,137,112 6/1964 Kulleseid 53/376 3,445,980 5 1969 S1 53 26 1761 inventor: Jamb Salomon wezman 3 562 775 5/1968 53 243 x Holon, Israel [22] Filed; Dec. 21, 1971 Primary Examiner-Travis S. McGehee Assistant Examiner-Horace M. Culver [2]] Appl' 2l0472 Attorney-Fleit, Gipple & Jacobson [30] Foreign Application Priority Data 57] ABSTRACT Dec. 22, 1970 Great Britain 60,880/70 The disclosure relates to a method and apparatus of packaging tea bags in cardboard boxes wherein the tea [52] U.S. C1 53/186, 53/242, 53/376 bags are transported along a guide in groups each f [51] 1111!. C1 B651) 5/06 which will form the contents f one box' a folded d [58] Field 01' Search 53/186, 191, 242, glued box blank is withdrawn from a Stack and erected 53/243 into an open-ended tubular configuration, a main flap 392v 147 at the top of the tubular box is folded over to form a floor of an inverted box, and the inverted box is then [561 References cued carried forwardly and downwardly to enclose the ad- UNITED STATES PATENTS vancing group of articles. Advantageously a further 3,064,405 11/1962 Gentry 53 242 x main p at the bottom of the bOX is folded from 2,698,559 1/1955 53/374X a horizontal configuration underneath the box to a 1,962,481 6/1934 Clark 53/186 X closed configuration enclosing the guide along which 2,276,129 Wesselman v. X the box passes the box then being advanced ff the end 2,603,924 7/1952 Currie et a1... 53/242 X of the guide to a delivery station 2,935,918 5/1960 Goss 53/376 X 3,021,655 2/1962 Chadima et a1 53/243 15 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEB um 2m SHEET 3 [1F 4 PACKAGING APPARATUS The present invention relates to packaging apparatus and, more particularly, to an automatic device for erecting and filling a box from a folded box blank.

Hitherto boxes have been erected by either manually opening and folding a previously glued, flat, folded box blank and then filling the box, or alternatively by folding and gluing a flat sheet to form a box in the erected configuration and subsequently filling the box. These operations are both time-consuming and uneconomic since the first mentioned manual blank opening operation requires costly labour to effect the opening of a folded blank, and the second mentioned building of a box in an erect configuration for subsequent filling results in an erected and hence bulky box which is difficult to store, and is therefore best filled as soon as possible in which case at least one box building machine must be installed adjacent to if not integral with the box filling plant.

According to one aspect of the present invention I provide a box filling apparatus comprising means for supporting the intended contents of a box, means for opening and erecting a box blank to form an open box and means for placing the open box in an inverted configuration over the intended contents. Conveniently the means for supporting the intended contents may consist of a conveyor for transporting the articles past the box filling station, and means may be provided for synchronising the travel of the contents with the lowering of the inverted box into contact therewith.

Preferably the means for placing the box in an inverted configuration over the intended contents comprises a box gripping frame associated with the box blank opening and erecting means and pivotably carried by a parallelogram linkage arranged to carry the box forwardly with and downwardly onto the box contents being advanced by said conveyor. Desirably the means for opening and erecting the box blank may include means for gripping the wall of a folded, already glued box blank and means for rotating said gripping means to effect unfolding of the box blank during withdrawal from a stack. More desirably the box opening and erecting means may further comprise abutment means for opening the folded box blank to provide a rectangular tubular box, further gripping means for holding the opened rectangular box and means for folding two side flaps and a main flap to close the floor of the box while in an inverted configuration. The said further gripping means may be in the form of a suction pad which may advantageously be carried on a suction gripping member which includes at least one freely slidably mounted gripping member provided at one end with said suction pad; an abutment surface associated with the suction pad to engage an article held by the suction pad; a piston carried by the gripping member and sealingly slidably mounted within a cylinder stationary relative to said abutment surface; means biasing said piston towards a first end of said cylinder in a sense tending to retract the gripping member with respect to said abutment surface; a central axially extending passage within said gripping member communicating the suction pad with said one end of the cylinder; and means for optionally communicating said first end and a second end of the cylinder simultaneously with a common source of suction.

Suitably the apparatus may further comprise means for advancing the inverted filled boxes beyond the box erecting and lowering station, means for inwardly folding further side flaps of each box and means for inwardly folding a further main flap of the box to close the package.

According to a further aspect of the present invention I provide a method of packaging a plurality of substantially laminar articles, comprising feeding a group of said substantially laminar articles along a guide, opening and erecting a box blank to form an inverted open box, placing the inverted box over the group of articles travelling along the guide, folding the lid of the box during travel along the guide so that the lid encloses part of the guide in contact therewith, and sliding the closed end of the box off the end of the guide for delivery to a collecting station.

In order that the present invention may more readily be understood the following description is given, merely by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view showing an embodiment of automatic boxing mechanism in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the mechanism of FIG.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are sectional views taken along the lines 3-3 and 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the boxing unit in its raised, box-receiving condition;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational, partly sectional view showing the box folding unit in its FIG. 5 condition;

FIG. 7 is an end elevational, partly sectional view showing the boxing mechanism during the folding and box lowering operation; and

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view showing the boxing mechanism in the FIG. 7 condition.

The mechanism illustrated in the drawings is able to remove folded blanks 1 from a magazine 2 and to open the blanks above a succession of groups of tea bags passing therebelow between

spacer members

62 and 63. The boxing member then grips the opened blank and carries the blank forwardly and downwardly onto one of the groups of tea bags and also folds three

upper flaps

25a, 25b and 28 which will form the floor of the finished box. Finally, the groups of bags pass along a delivery guide during which time two

small side flaps

34a and 34b are tucked under and the main lid 32 is folded under to complete the closed package which is then ejected from the delivery end of the mechanism. The operation of the boxing mechanism is entirely automatic and relies merely upon the presence of an adequate supply of folded blanks in the magazine 2 and a continuous stream of counted groups of tea bags being fed from a starwheel arrangement. The starwheel feed and bag counting mechanism may advantageously be as described and claimed in my British Pat. Nos. 1,224,710 and 1,291,069. However, any other suitable feed mechanism for supplying counted groups of bags for boxing may be employed.

The detailed layout of the mechanism will now be described more fully in order more clearly to illustrate the invention.

The magazine 2 comprises a horizontal container housing a stack of folded blanks of boxes which, when erected, include four side walls with adjacent walls mutually perpendicular, upper and lower

main flaps

32 and 28 each having a

respective end tab

38 or 22, and two lower side flaps 25a and 25b and two

upper side flaps

34a and 34b of much reduced vertical extent. In the preferred form of box for use with this invention the flaps 34a and 3417 have a vertical depth of the order of threeeighths inch. It should be remembered that in each of the accompanying drawings the box is shown in inverted configuration in that the lowermost main flap 32 will in use become the lid of the box and the terms upper and lower referred to throughout this description are intended to denote the orientation of the box when in use, i.e., the flap 32 will be referred to as the upper main flap and the flap 28 as the lower main flap.

One of the side walls of the container is gripped by a suction pad 3 connected to a suitable source of vacuum and secured to a vertical rotatable shaft 5 driven by a suitable cam mechanism (not shown) driveably connected to a main boxing unit timing shaft 13a shown in FIG. 1.

The suction pad 3 carries the box blank sideways into a position above the tea bag guide 49 and holds the gripped wall of the container in a configuration in which it is perpendicular to the direction of bag advance along the guide 49. By virtue of the particular manner of folding of the stacked blank, a guide bar 6 will obstruct an adjacent wall of the box and urge it into a configuration in which it is mutually perpendicular with the gripped wall. A similar configuration will be adopted by the other side walls. Thus at this stage the box blank will be opened and ready for gripping by the boxing member.

The boxing member comprises

vertical side walls

8 and 9 joined at one end by a bridge 10, the

side walls

8 and 9 being provided with respective pairs of suction grippers 11b, 11d and 11a, 11c.

The boxing member is carried by a pair of swinging arms 12:: and 12b (FIG. 8) which are connected to, on the one hand the machine frame and, on the other hand the boxing

member side walls

8 and 9 such that the boxing member, machine frame and arms 12a and 12b create a parallelogram linkage which ensures that the boxing member always retains an orientation in which the box is aligned with a group of bags to be packaged. The pivotally carried boxing member is raised and lowered by means of a lever 15 connected between the mid-point of arm 12b and one end 14a ofa further lever 14 pivoted to the machine frame by its other end and having a cam follower 14c riding on the surface of a cam 13 mounted on the main timing shaft 13a referred to above.

The shape of the cam 13 is such that at the desired time of the cycle the suction grippers 11a, 11b, 11c and 11d of the boxing member will advance and grip the opened box just before suction is disconnected from the pad 3, and will lower the box in a forward and downward direction onto a group of bags moving along the guide 49. The boxing member will subsequently rise to collect the next opened box blank from the magazine 2. The shape of the cam is so related to the speed of operation of the mechanism that the forward component of velocity of the boxing member at the point of covering the group of bags with the box is equal to the rate of advance of the bags along the guide 49. Thus the bar will be placed closely around the bags and will already be moving at the correct speed before the box is released by the boxing member.

Before the boxing member commences its downward movement carrying the opened box, a pivotally mounted pneumatic suction jack 16a is operated to pull a bar 16 upwardly against the vertical bottom flap 28 of the box at a location just below a scored fold line between the bottom flap 28 and a terminal tab 22 thereof. The bar continues its movement into the crook of an angled folding plate 19 until a folding plate actuating member in the form ofa plate 21 abuts the bar 16 near its ends to prevent further movement of the bar. The folding plate 19 is pivotally mounted and is spring biased towards the actuating arm 21 by means ofa helical tension spring 21a but during the retraction of the bar 16 under the action of the jack 16a anticlockwise pivoting motion of the folding plate 19 is resisted by an abutment 20 which engages behind the pivotable folding plate 19. The bar 16 has a substantially triangular shape with one corner of the triangle disposed so as to cause a sharp bend at the scored fold line between the main lower tab 28 and its terminal tab 22. The dotted line position at FIG. 5 shows that the terminal tab 22 has been bent through an obtuse angle.

Simultaneously with the folding of the terminal tab 22, two further pneumatic suction jacks of which only one jack 50a is illustrated in FIG. 5 are actuated to urge respective pivot shafts 27a, 27b leftwardly until respective terminal folding

arms

23a, 23b thereof are in register with the centre of upstanding side bottom flaps 25a, 25b. At this

point cranks

51a and 51b (FIG. 6) move out of register with associated cams 26a and 26b and permit a tension spring 27 extending between the

crank

51a and 51b to urge the cranks to rotate in directions which are consistent with downward movement of the

arm

23a and 23b to fold the upstanding bottom side tabs 25a and 25b inwardly into a parallel configuration.

Once the spring 27 has contracted, the two

cranks

51a and 51b will be in the broken line position shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 and will therefore be completely clear of the respective cams 26a and 26b. However, as the boxing member advances and lowers the opened box onto a group of tea bags the pneumatic suction jack 50a is vented so that a main helical compression spring therewithin urges the arms 23a and 231; with the

respective cranks

51a and 51b back into the solid line position in FIG. 5. Hence as the boxing member returns to its raised position ready to grip the next opened box blank the cams 26a and 261) will strike the

cranks

51a and 51b urging them back into the FIG. 6 configuration in which the tension spring 27 is fully expanded and the mechanism cocked for the next side flap folding operation.

As the boxing member moves forwardly and downwardly to carry the inverted box into a position in register with a group of counted bags on the guide, the folding plate 19 is urged for pivoting movement, in the clockwise sense as viewed in FIG. 5, through the FIG. 7 configuration by means of clockwise movement of the actuating member 21 to which the folding plate 19 is secured by the above mentioned tension spring 21a. During this motion, the already folded terminal tab 22 of the lower main flap 28 enters a slot remaining between cut-away edges 52a and 52b of the lower side flaps 25a and 25b and the adjacent side wall 53 of the opened box. The terminal tab 22 is guided into this configuration by means of the crooked end of the folding plate 19, and at the very end of the clockwise pivoting motion the folding plate 19 abuts the floor of the inverted box while the actuating member 21 continues resiliently resisted clockwise pivoting to push home the main lower flap 28 into a position of parallelism and abutment with the lower side flaps a and 25b. The timing of the venting of suction jacks 50a and 50b is such that the spindles and the

folding arms

23a and 23b are only retracted during the final part of movement of the folding plate 19 so that the lower side flaps 25a and 25b are held down until the main flap 28 has been folded through a considerable angle and is able to assume the task of holding the side flaps down. Naturally, retraction of the folding arms 23a must be completed before the free end of the terminal tab 22 enters the above mentioned slot between the cut away edges 52a and 52b and the side walls 53.

Simultaneously with this folding of the floor of the inverted box and lowering of the box the lid or upper main flap 32 is caused to engage a folding guide 33 which, as can be seen from FIGS 5 and 6, is curved so that during its initial contact with the main flaps 32 the angle of the guide 33 is quite steeply inclined to the horizontal causing the flap to commence anticlockwise pivoting motion. During the latter part of the contact with the flap 32 the inclination of the flap is quite shallow thereby gently urging the main flap 32 into a horizontal configuration in which it can be gripped by

sucker pads

33a and 33b to pull the box downwardly against the group of bags on the guide. The

suckers

33a and 33b advance along the guide 49 with the box until the box is entrained by a chain

conveyor comprising chains

36a, 36b carrying spaced transversely extending bars 35. A detailed description of the precise mounting arrangement for the

movable suction pads

33a and 33b will be omitted from this specification since it is possible, within the scope of the invention to employ any suitable form of mounting system such as a moving carriage entrained for movement along with the box and spring-biased towards a starting position so as to be allowed to return to the left hand end of the guide 50 once the suction of

suckers

33a and 33b is released.

Pivoting of the folding plate actuating member 21 is effected by means of a pivot shaft 54 having at one end a bevel gear 2% in constant meshing engagement with a further bevel gear 29a to which a crank arm is mounted for movement about the axis of the gear 29a. The free end of the crank arm 30 is connected to a push rod 31 which extends parallel to the main boxing member support arms 12a and 12b and is controlled from a suitable cam also mounted on the main timing shaft 13a mentioned above as controlling movement of the boxing member support arms 12a and 12b. However, the illustration of FIG. 8 shows clearly that retraction of the push rod 31 will cause the desired downward folding movement of the member 21 carrying with it the main folding plate 19.

The suction gripper devices 11a, 11b, 11c and 11d are fed from the same source of suction as the suction pneumatic jacks a and 50b, the sucker pad 3, the

sucker pads

33a and 33b, and the suction pneumatic jack 16a. However, a suitable cam-operated shut off valve system may be arranged for timing the various sucking and venting operations to control the timing of the operation of the various suction actuated devices.

By way of explanation, the operation of one sucker gripper device 110 will now be described, although it will be appreciated that the other devices 11b, 11c and 11d operate in a similar manner. Suction is applied through the main conduit 55a which communicates suction to both sides of the piston 56a, by virtue of a narrower bore bypass passage 57a. However, the left hand side of the piston 56a is exposed solely to the action of the suction pressure, the right hand side of the piston is communicated also to atmosphere when the suction pad 58a is retracted since the main shaft of the suction pad 58a is hollow and ambient air pressure is therefore communicated into the space to the right of the piston. The reduced diameter of the passage 570 will assist in delaying build-up of suction to the right of the piston 56a and thus the pressure to the right of the piston 56a will be higher than that to the left, with the result that the piston moves leftwardly against the action of the helical compression spring 59a. However, once the suction pad 58a comes into contact with the adjacent wall 53 of the opened box blank the right hand side of the piston 56a will no longer be exposed to ambient pressure since the passage through the suction pad will now be blocked by the box wall. At this point the pressure to the right of the piston will reduce as will also the pressure within the suction pad, thereby holding the suction pad more firmly against the adjacent box wall until such time as the suction gripper unit 11a is again vented. Thus advance and gripping of the suction gripper device 11a is carefully but automatically controlled so that gripping commences as soon as the suction pad 58a contacts the adjacent box wall. Upon venting, the suction pad 58a will no longer grip the wall and the pressure on either side of the piston 56a will be equalised, allowing the compression spring 59a to urge the piston rightwardly for retracting the suction pad.

As the inverted boxes surrounding the respective groups of tea bags pass rightwardly along the guide 49 the terminal tab 38 of each main top flap 32 passes under a folding bar 37 which, as shown in FIG. 2, deflects the terminal tab downwardly into a configuration of perpendicularity with the horizontal upper main flap Rightward movement of the boxes due to entrainment by the

conveyor

36a, 36b continues causing the box to arrive at the righthand end of the folding bar 37 when it simultaneously comes in register with four

snail cams

40a, 40b, 41a and 41b which rotate in an anticlockwise direction and are shaped so as progressively to push the box downwardly as the upper side flaps 34a and 34b come in contact with respective serrated folding members. As the box is pushed downwardly against the guide 44 by the snail cams the guide 44 serves as an anvil which causes the upper side flaps 34a and 34b of the box to be folded under.

The leading upper side flap 34a is shown in FIG. 1 as being directly above and in contact with a stationary serrated folding member 42 so that upon rightward movement of the box and downward deflection by the cams 41a and 41b the free end of the side tab 34a is folded under. Simultaneously the trailing side flap 34b is impacted from behind by a rapidly advancing folding member 43a in the form of a serrated folding pad carried by a continuous belt passing around three parallel triangularly arranged rollers. The belt carries a further similar serrated folding pad 43b arranged so that each travelling pad will fold the trailing upper side flaps 34b of alternate boxes. Naturally, the speed of advance of the travelling serrated folding pads 43a and 43b will be arranged to be much greater than that of the advancing box so that the trailing upper side flap 34b is always folded inwardly towards the leading upper side flap 34a. Progressive lowering of the box under the

cams

40a, 40 b, 41a and 4lb will complete the folding operation just before the upper main flap 32 comes in register with the two stage final folding mechanism illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

The folding member for the upper main flap 32 includes a hemi-cylindrical guide 39 disposed below the main box and bag guide 49 in an upwardly concave configuration and having a diameter substantially twice the width of each box. The length of the hemicylindrical guide 39 is in excess of the length of two spaced, successive boxes travelling along the guide 49 and the associated folding mechanism is arranged to carry out a two-stage folding operation as the boxes travel along the guide.

The first stage of the final folding operation is illustrated clearly in FIG. 3 which shows a pivotable folding plate 45 having a rib 45a disposed along the free end and arranged to urge the flap 32 in a clockwise direction. The plate 45 is mounted on a main folding spindle 47 which extends parallel to the direction of box advance and is operated by a push rod operated crank arm 47a at the delivery end of the spindle 47. The spindle is carried by journal bearings 47b and 470 clearly illustrated in FIG. 2.

The second stage of the final folding operation is illustrated in FIG. 4 showing the same spindle 47 carrying a cranked folding plate 46 having a rib 46a near its free end to effect the folding abutment with the flap 32.

Both FIGS. 3 and 4 show a reduced width tongue 44 forming the floor of the guide 49 at the output end, and FIG. 1 shows that the tongue 44 is disposed above a downstream floor section 44a which supports the box after the final folding operation has been completed. The crank in the second stage folding plate 46 is arranged so that both the first stage and second

stage folding plates

45 and 46 may be carried by a common spindle 47 which must be disposed above the level of the floor 44 of the guide 49 in order to permit the initially horizontal upper main flap 32 to pass under the bearing 47b of the spindle 47 during feed of the unfolded box to the final folding station of FIGS. 3 and 4.

The sectional views of FIGS. 3 and 4 correspond to a single common position of the spindle 47 in that the dotted line representations of the first stage and second

stage folding plates

45 and 46 correspond to the position of the spindle 47 at the start of the folding operation and the full line position shows the position of the folding plates at the end of a folding operation. Once a box 60a arrives in the position illustrated in FIG. 2, the spindle 47 commences its rotation which will only occupy an angular deflection of approximately 95, and thus the main flap 32 becomes folded from the initial, broken line position of FIG. 3 to the final, full line position of FIG. 3 during the first stage of the final folding operation.

However, simultaneously with this first stage folding operation a box 60b at the second stage of the folding station will' have already been folded to the full line configuration of FIG. 3 and this will correspond to the broken line configuration of FIG. 4. The angular orientation of the two

folding plates

45 and 46 on the shaft 47 is such that the two

folding plates

45 and 46 are in their full line positions simultaneously. Thus at the end of each folding operation the shaft 47 must be rapidly rotated in the anti-clockwise direction as viewed in FIGS. 3 and 4 in order to restore the two folding plates to their broken line or initial configuration before advance of the boxes. This will leave the plate 46 of FIG. 4 substantially vertical and abutting a vertical upper main flap 32 so that upon the next successive first stage folding operation a simultaneous secondary folding operation will take place in that the flap 32 will be rotated from the FIG. 4 broken line position to arrive at the FIG. 4 full line position in which the terminal tab 38 has entere d the box and the upper main flap 32 is now fully folded except for the presence of the reduced width tongue 44 of the guide floor. However, as the box b is advanced to the 60c configuration of FIG. I it will slide off the end of the tongue 44 onto the downstream floor portion 44a and the settling of the box will effect completion of the folding operation. Thus the box 60c arriving at the delivery end of the boxing apparatus has been automatically filled with tea bags and closed from a folded box blank configuration 1 to a final package configuration 60c. This operation has been carried out entirely automatically without the need for any human intervention other than supervision to ensure that a steady flow of tea bags arrives at the boxing station and that a plentiful supply of box blanks l is disposed within the magazine 2.

Hitherto it has been very difficult to package limp substantially laminar articles such as tea bags but the boxing apparatus of the present invention, particularly when in combination with a guide which feeds counted bags in upstanding juxtaposed relationship between end spacer plates, ensures that this fully automatic operation may be carried out at extremely high speed. In practice, the tea bags delivered from the starwheel 61 at the input end of the guide 49 are expected to land on the guide at a rate of 1200 per minute and the particular counting mechanism illustrated in FIG. 1 and fully described and claimed in my said British Pat. No. l,29l ,069 enables bags delivered at that high rate to be counted into groups of a predetermined number and spaced during travel along the guide.

The counting and spacing operation is effected by causing pairs of fingers in contacting relationship to arrive at the input end of the guide 49 at regular intervals corresponding with delivery of the desired number of tea bags from the starwheel 61, and then the fingers, during their rightward travel along the guide are spaced apart to define the desired spacing between successive groups and allow sufficient room for the

boxing memher

8, 9 to place a box over the counted group of bags and spaced

fingers

62 and 63.

Separation of the

spacer fingers

62 and 63 is ensured by mounting the spacer finger 63 on a first conveyor 64 moving at a particular speed, and arranged for the relatively slidable spacer finger 62 to be contacted by an abutment on a second conveyor 65 moving at a slightly slower speed so that during motion along the guide the finger 62 will be retarded with respect to the finger 63. Subsequently, at the right hand end of the main conveyor 65 the

fingers

62 and 63 will descend through a wider slot portion 66 to pass below the guide 50 and to leave the flimsy tea bags supported now by the end walls of the inverted box. Thus the spacer fingers serve to support the ends of the counted group of bags at all times until a box has been safely positioned around the group of bags.

Several possible variations of the apparatus described above can be incorporated. For example, in order to increase the throughput it is readily possible to mount two or more of the boxing mechanisms side by side or, alternatively, to arrange each boxing mechanism to operate on a box wide enough to accommodate two or more rows of bags side by side. In this way it is particularly convenient when employing the starwheel mechanism of my earlier British Pat. No. 1,224,710 to adapt the starwheel to handle a web consisting of two or more rows of tea bags side by side and to serve the web into discreet sets of articles each consisting of two or more articles which may or may not be separated from one another before boxing, as the case may be.

A further possible modification of the apparatus consists in replacing the angled folding plate 19 by a pair of plates, one corresponding to the main plate portion of the member 19 and the other corresponding to the transversely extending end portion but pivotally connected to the main portion and driven for pivotable movement between an initial position, in which the main and the end plate portions subtend an obtuse angle at the hinge line, and a folding position in which the two plate portions subtend an acute angle at the hinge line. The mechanism may be arranged so that the two plate portions pivot from the initial position to the folding position to fold down the end tab 22 and are then carried in the clockwise direction about the main pivot axis to fold the main top flap downwardly and so to close the box.

With the above mentioned changes to the folding member 19 it may additiOnally be desirable to replace the folding bar 16 by a similar bar whose pivot axis 18 is positioned above rather than below the arc of operation of the bar 16. In such a construction the bar 16 will initially contact the flap 28 to hold this against the folding plate actuating member 21 while the pivotally mounted end portion of the folding plate swings down to its folding position to trap the end tab 22 in the acute angle formed between the end plate portions and the actuating member 21.

The folding bar 16 can then be retracted rightwardly by clockwise pivoting movements about its mounting axis and the folding plate and actuating member assembly can carry the lower flap 28 with its folded end tab 22 downwardly to close the box.

I claim:

1. Box filling apparatus comprising a guide, at least one pair of advancing spacer members driven for movement along said guide and defining ends of the intended contents of a single box, means for opening and erecting a box blank to form an inverted open box, a box gripping frame associated with the box blank opening and erecting means, a pivotally mounted parallelogram linkage supporting the box gripping frame and arranged to carry a box gripped by the frame forwardly with and downwardly onto the box contents and spacer members being advanced along said guide, means for synchronising the travel of said contents with the operation of said parallelogram linkage lowering said inverted box into contact with the contents and spacer members, and means mounting the spacer members for subsequent downward movement out of the advancing inverted filled box.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for opening and erecting the box blank include means for supporting a stack of folded already glued box blanks, means for gripping the wall ofa folded box blank carried by said stack supporting means, and means for rotating said gripping means to effect unfolding of the box blank during withdrawal from said stack.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said box opening and erecting means further comprises abutment means for opening the folded box blank to provide a rectangular tubular box, further gripping means for holding the opened rectangular box, and means for folding two side flaps and a main flap to close the floor of the box while in an inverted configuration.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said means for folding the main flap comprises an angled guide and a eo-operating bar to fold a terminal tab of the box blank main flap prior to closing of the main flap itself.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the means for folding the side flaps includes retractable pivot shafts folding arms carried by said retractable pivot shafts, driven cams mounted adjacent said shafts, and resiliently biased cam follower arms on said pivot shafts in contact with said driven cams to effect folding movement of the folding arms upon advance of the arms to a folding position in engagement with the previously unfolded side flaps.

6. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said further gripping means comprise suction pads, and the means for folding said main and side flaps of the box include suction pneumatic jacks and a source of mo tion connected to both the pneumatic jacks and said suction pads.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein each suction pad is carried on a respective suction gripping member which includes at least one freely slidably mounted gripping member provided at one end with said suction pad; an abutment surface associated with the suction pad to engage an article held by the suction pad; a piston carried by the gripping member and sealingly slidably mounted within a cylinder stationary relative to said abutment surface; means biasing said piston towards a first end of said cylinder in a sense tending to retract the gripping member with respect to said abutment surface; a central axially extending passage within said gripping member communicating the suction pad with said one end of the cylinder; and means for optionally communicating said first end and a second end of the cylinder simultaneously with a common source of suction.

8. Apparatus according to claim 3, and further including means for advancing the inverted filled boxes beyond the box opening and erecting means, means for inwardly folding further side flaps of each box and means for inwardly folding a further main flap of the box to close the package.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the means for inwardly folding further side flaps of each box comprise means for urging the box downwardly against an anvil to effect deformation of the further side flaps, a stationary folding member positioned on said anvil to fold under the leading further side flap of the box during advancing movement of the inverted filled box, and a rapidly advancing overtaking folding member movable along said anvil for folding under the trailing further side flap of the inverted filled box, whereby the action of the said stationary and overtaking folding members is assisted by the means for urging the box against the anvil.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the stationary folding member comprises a serrated pad and the overtaking folding member comprises a similar serrated pad and wherein a rapidly advancing conveyor is disposed below the anvil and carries the overtaking folding member.

11. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the means for urging the box downwardly against the anvil comprises at least two rotating snail cams arranged to urge the box rapidly downwardly while its upstanding side flaps are in contact with the said stationary and rapidly advancing folding members.

12. Apparatus according to claim 8, and including means for advancing the box beyond the anvil after folding of the side flaps, means disposed adjacent said advancing means for holding the further main flap of the box in a horizontal configuration, and means associated with said main flap holding means for folding a terminal tab of the said further main flap vertically downwardly.

13. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said means for folding inwardly the further main flap of the box comprises a hemi-cylindrical folding guide disposed below said guide, and at least one folding member arranged to pivot about the longitudinal axis of the hemi-cylindrical guide to urge the main flap of the box to rotate into a closed configuration.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13, and including a pivot shaft supporting said folding member, and a further such pivotable folding member disposed on said pivot shaft angularly displaced at with respect to the first mentioned folding member; said hemicylindrical guide being arranged parallel to said pivot shaft whereby a first box may have its main flap rotated through an angle of 90 while a second already partially closed box may have its main flap rotated through a further 90 with the result that each individual box upon travelling past the two said folding members has its main flap rotated through a total of into the fully folded position.

15. Apparatus according to claim 14, and including: surface means for supporting a box passing said pivotable folding members, said surface means comprising a guide member which has a width less than the radius of said hemi-cylindrical guide and terminates downstream of said further pivotable folding member; and including a downstream supporting plate disposed at the point of termination of said guide member and at a level which is closely spaced below that of the guide member, whereby the said further main flap of the box is folded into a closed position over said guide member and further advance of the folded box beyond the point of termination of said guide member leaves the box resting on said downstream supporting plate with the main flap in a fully closed position and disposed above said downstream supporting plate.

Claims

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for opening and erecting the box blank include means for supporting a stack of folded already glued box blanks, means for gripping the wall of a folded box blank carried by said stack supporting means, and means for rotating said gripping means to effect unfolding of the box blank during withdrawal from said stack.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said means for folding the main flap comprises an angled guide and a co-operating bar to fold a terminal tab of the box blank main flap prior to closing of the main flap itself.

6. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said further gripping means comprise suction pads, and the means for folding said main and side flaps of the box include suction pneumatic jacks and a source of suction connected to both the pneumatic jacks and said suction pads.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13, and including a pivot shaft supporting said folding member, and a further such pivotable folding member disposed on said pivot shaft angularly displaced at 90* with respect to the first mentioned folding member; said hemi-cylindrical guide being arranged parallel to said pivot shaft whereby a first box may have its main flap rotated through an angle of 90* while a second already partially closed box may have its main flap rotated through a further 90* with the result that each individual box upon travelling past the two said folding members has its main flap rotated through a total of 180* into the fully folded position.