Machine for processing sheets with cutouts of folds transverse to their forward moving direction

• US 20050145083A1
• Filed: 06/06/2003
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rapidex Sm
• Original Assignee: Rapidex Sm
• Inventors: Taillardat, Jean-Jacques
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,821 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 83/469
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 2007/202 Rollers or cylinders being pivoted during operation
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/20 Cutting beds B26D7/018 takes precedence; supporting beds for severing by means of a fluid jet B26F3/008
• CPC Class Codes: B31B 50/146 using tools mounted on a drum
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/4795 Rotary tool
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/4838 With anvil backup
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/533 With photo-electric work-sensing means
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/768 Rotatable disc tool pair or tool and carrier

Abstract

The invention concerns a machine comprising driving means (14, 16, 18) for driving sheets in a drive direction (F) through a processing zone (T), and processing means including a tool (53, 53′) and a counter tool (56), respectively, borne by a first and by a second transverse rotary support shaft (52, 54). Said processing means are designed to produce in the sheets cutouts and folds transverse to their drive direction. The counter tool has a substantially cylindrical surface having at least one working strip (57) which extends parallel to the axis of the second support shaft and is radially offset relative to the portions (58) of said surface which are adjacent to said strip, the latter being designed to cooperate with the tool to form a cutout or a fold in a sheet.

Claims

1. A machine for processing sheets for the production of packagings comprising

a machine entrance, a machine exit and a processing zone between the entrance and the exit;

a drive capable of driving sheets in a drive direction and at a substantially constant drive speed through the processing zone situated between the entrance and the exit of the machine;

processing apparatus comprising a first tooling supported by a first rotary support shaft and a counter-tooling supported by a second rotary support shaft, the first and second shafts extend transversely to the drive direction and are disposed opposite each other and respectively on one and the opposite side of the path of the sheets through the processing zone, the processing apparatus being operable to produce at least one of cutouts and folds disposed in the sheets transversely to the drive direction;

operating apparatus for rotationally driving the support shafts so that, at least at a moment when the first tooling the counter-tooling cooperate with a sheet to make a transverse cutout or fold, the first tooling is rotating at a processing speed having a tangential component which is equal to the drive speed of the sheets, and the counter-tooling is situated opposite the first tooling;

the counter-tooling having a substantially cylindrical surface with at least one working strip thereon, the at least one working strip extends parallel to a rotation axis of the second support shaft and is radially offset relative to portions of the cylindrical surface which are adjacent to the working strip, the working strip being shaped and positioned to cooperate with the first tooling to form at least one of a cutout and a fold in a sheet, and

a motor drive to the first and second support shafts such that one of the support shafts is operated as a slave to the other of the support shafts.

2. The machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of the working strips spaced angularly apart on the surface of the counter-tooling.

3. The machine as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a regular alternation of the working strips which are projecting strips from the cylindrical surface and withdrawn strips on the surface of the counter-tooling.

4. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each working strip has a width in the circumferential direction greater than a width of the first tooling.

5. The machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein the width of each working strip lies within the range of 1.05 to 1.8 times the width of the first tooling.

6. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the working strip is mounted detachably on the counter-tooling.

7. The machine as claimed in claim 6, further comprising a support plate supporting the surface of the counter-tooling;

at least two surface elements on the support plate and having mutually opposite axial direction edges provided with respective first holding surfaces, defining a receptacle for each of the working strips between the holding surfaces, the working strip is capable of being inserted in the receptacle, the working strip having axial direction edges, and second holding surfaces on the edges of the working strip and capable of cooperating with the first holding surfaces.

8. The machine as claimed in claim 7, wherein the surface elements are fixed detachably on the support plate.

9. The machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a detector operable for determining information relating to a position of a sheet in the processing zone;

a control unit operable, as a function of the determined information relating to the position of a sheet in the processing zone, for operating the rotational drive of the first and second support shafts so that, during processing of a sheet, the first tooling is in contact with a predefined region of the sheet and the first tooling is propelled with a processing speed having a tangential component (V52) equal to the drive speed of the sheet, while the working strip is so positioned and then operable such that the working strip is in contact with the defined region of the sheet, on the other side of the sheet relative to the first tooling.

10. The machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein the control unit operates the rotational drive of the support shafts so that, at least when the first tooling and the at least one working strip cooperate with a sheet for the processing the sheet, the first tooling and the working strip are each propelled at a processing speed having a tangential component equal to the drive speed of the sheet.

11. The machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein the first support shaft is a multi-tooled support shaft supporting at least a first and a second tool which are spaced angularly apart around the first support;

the control unit operates the rotational drive of the multi-tooled support shaft according to a cycle comprising a processing phase in which the first tool is in contact with a defined first region of a sheet then situated in the processing zone of the machine and the first tool is propelled with a tangential speed equal to the drive speed of the sheet, followed by a positioning phase in which the multi-tooled support shaft is driven to place the second tool in a position to process a defined second region of the sheet, and followed by a processing phase in which the second tool is in contact with the second region and the second tool is propelled with a tangential speed equal to the drive speed of the sheet.

12. The machine as claimed in claim 11, wherein there are two of the working strips and the control unit operates the drive of the second support shaft so that, in the course of a cycle, the first and the second tools of the first support shaft cooperate with two separate ones of the working strips.

13. The machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control unit operates the rotational drive of the support shafts and is capable of operating the drive so that, during successive processing of a plurality of sheets, the tooling cooperates successively with different ones of the working strips.

14. The machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein the width of each working strip is approximately the width of the first tooling.