Device for printing and feeding covers to containers

• US 3,939,625 A
• Filed: 04/21/1975
• Issued: 02/24/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Karl Remele
• Original Assignee: Karl Remele
• Inventors: Remele, Karl, Weiberg, Dieter
• Primary Examiner(s): Schran, Donald R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gilden, Leon
• Application Number:
  US05/570,133
• Time in Patent Office: 309 Days
• Field of Search: 53/131, 53/307, 53/329, 156/492
• US Class Current: 53/131.3
• CPC Class Codes: B41F 17/24 for printing on flat surfaces of polyhedral articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 61/025 for applying, e.g. printing, code or date marks on material prior to packaging
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 7/2807 Feeding closures

Abstract

A device for printing and feeding covers to containers, comprises arranged above a conveyor for containers, rotary devices for picking up covers from a supply or stack, and presenting them to a printing device, and for applying the printed covers to the containers with the printed side visible. The rotary devices each comprise a plurality of arms extending from a hub tipped with suction pads. The first device picks up the covers from the supply, acts as an anvil for the printing device, and presents the cover to the second device with the printed side upwardly directed, so that the second device can deposit the covers on the containers, printed side up.

Claims

1. A device for printing and feeding covers to containers, characterised in that a rotating pick-up is provided above a conveyor for moving the containers and provided with a plurality of suction heads for taking the covers from a magazine by their side opposed to the visible side, and keeping them on a certain path of rotation, a printing mechanism printing the covers on their visible side, being associated with this pick-up, and a rotating turning device, provided with several suction heads for engaging the printed covers by their visible side and receiving them from the pick-up, keeping them in a certain path of rotation and then depositing them on the containers, is provided for the pick-up in the direction of rotation behind the printing mechanism.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the pick-up and the turning device with their suction heads form in each case a turnstile or a revolving star rotating about a horizontal shaft and, at the same time, the pick-up is provided on its shaft with several, preferably four suction heads telescopically displaceable in a radial direction, and the turning device comprises on its shaft several, preferably six, radially disposed and stationary suction heads.

3. Device according to claim 2, characterised in that the magazine is arranged on one side and the turning device on the other side of the pick-up and the turning device and the magazine are diagonally opposed to each other and the printing mechanism is arranged between the magazine and turning device.

4. Device according to claim 3, characterised in that the covers are transportable from the magazine until they are disposed on the containers by the pick-up and the turning device over an S-shaped path and the area of transfer of the covers from the pick-up to the turning device is provided opposite to the magazine.

5. Device according to claim 4, characterised in that each suction head of the pick-up and the turning device rigidly connected to the shaft has a suction channel leading towards the shaft and continuing in its own channel extending in the longitudinal direction of the shaft, said channel communicating, with the interposition of a vacuum control device with a vacuum producer provided for each device.

6. Device according to claim 5, characterised in that the pick-up and the turning device are each associated with a vacuum control device through a pipeline to the vacuum producer said control device having a stationary part and a rotatable part rigidly connected to the shaft, a vacuum groove connected to the pipeline and a ventilating terminal provided with a clearance therefrom being arranged in the stationary part, and a channel running in the extension of each shaft channel and alternately connectable with the vacuum groove and with the ventilation channel are provided in the rotatable part.

7. Device according to claim 6, characterised in that the vacuum groove extends curved in the form of a divided circle in the stationary part of the two vacuum control devices and assumes an angle of approximately 180°

and is provided in the direction of rotation of the suction heads with a clearance behind the vacuum groove of the ventilation channel emerging from the stationary part.

8. Device according to claim 7, characterised in that the telescopically displaceable suction heads of the pick-up are radially outwardly displaceable into the magazine extraction position and the cover transfer position by means of a control disc and control levers co-operating therewith.

9. Device according to claim 8, characterised in that the control disc is provided to rotate about the shaft of the pick-up and has a cam track which is formed by a groove and, near the magazine and the transfer area has portions extending outwardly in an arc in opposite directions, said portions which merge with each other into two portions opposed to each other and extending with the same clearance from the shaft, but with a smaller clearance from said shaft than the portion.

10. Device according to claim 9, characterised in that on each side of the shaft a control lever, rigidly connected to a pivot axis, is provided which engages by a control member, preferably a roller, in the cam track and an actuating lever also untwistably connected to the pivot axis is mounted with a clearance from the control lever, said actuating lever having an actuating member, preferably a roller, for the telescopic displacement of the suction heads, engaging in a cam track of each suction head.

11. Device according to claim 10, characterised in that a stationary, circular guide track is provided around the shaft of the pick-up and has, near the magazine and in the transfer area, a slot through which, during the radial displacement of the suction head in the direction of the shaft, a retaining member, preferably a roller, is moved positively guiding the suction head in its pushed-in position along the guide path.

12. Device according to claim 11, characterised in that the two shafts are connected to and synchronously rotated by a common drive and at the same time both shafts are rotatably mounted in a gear casing and on one side of the casing, outside thereof, the suction heads are provided and, on the other side of the casing outside thereof the vacuum control devices are provided.

13. Device according to claim 12, characterised in that the gear casing contains a rotatable drive shaft connected to the drive and provided with a plate-shaped disc having at least two drivers, said disc co-operating with its drivers with a Maltese cross for the shaft drive, mounted on the shaft of the pick-up that a gearwheel is non-rotatably mounted on the shaft and, for driving the shaft of the turning device, meshes with a gearwheel mounted on the shaft, and that the control disc is mounted on a gearwheel which is rotatable about the shaft of the pick-up and meshes with a gearwheel untwistably secured to the drive shaft.

14. Device according to claim 13, characterised in that the printing mechanism is formed by an inked ribbon winding and unwinding on two rollers and by a printing stamp co-operating with the inked ribbon and at the same time an inked ribbon roller is coupled through a gearwheel and/or contact drive with the shaft of the pick-up or the drive shaft.

15. Device according to claim 14, characterised in that two or more suction heads are provided adjacently to each other on the shafts and the suction channels of which communicate through connecting lines with the associated shaft channels, an actuating lever being associated with each of the suction heads arranged adjacently to each other in pairs and the actuating levers are secured to the common shaft rotated backward and forwards by the control lever.

16. Device according to claim 15, characterised in that said device is arranged on a filling and packing machine which is provided, above a conveyor belt as conveying means, in the direction of travel, and in succession, with a container feed device, with one or more filling devices, the printing and feeding mechanism, a cover welding device and, near the conveyor belt, behind the cover welding device, has a device, such as an inclined conveyor belt, expelling the filled and sealed containers from the conveyor belt.