Method of and apparatus for enveloping moving articles
First Claim
1. A method of fitting a series of continuously moving support elements with tubular attachments enveloping same at least in part, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a flattened deformable sheath of indefinite length having two major sides bounded by a pair of longitudinal creases, said sides being separable from each other in a transverse direction;
(b) advancing said sheath along a guidepath descending toward a row of said moving support elements;
(c) cross-cutting the advancing sheath at an intermediate point of said guidepath into successive clippings of predetermined length;
(d) advancing each freshly cut clipping at a higher speed than said sheath along a stretch of said guidepath narrowing in an axial plane including said creases, with resulting progressive separation of said sides from each other until their spacing in said transverse direction substantially equals the distance between said creases at a leading end of the clipping; and
(e) discharging each descending clipping from said guidepath at an obtuse angle to the direction of motion of said support elements at a level at which a remote edge of the leading end thereof is met by an upright part of an oncoming support element with a cross-sectional area smaller than that of said leading end whereby the descending clipping is erected and comes to rest around said upright part.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In order to envelop the necks of a series of continuously moving bottles with decorative or informative tubular attachments, an elongate tube of heat-shrinkable plastic material is flattened first in one longitudinal plane and then in another longitudinal plane, perpendicular to the former, to produce a sheath with two substantially flat sides bearing the traces of a first pair of creases while being bounded by a second pair of creases. The longitudinally advancing sheath is cut into clippings of predetermined length that are advanced codirectionally therewith but at higher speed along a sloping guidepath in which the existing creases are caused to converge while the original creases reappear as the two sides are progressively spread apart. At a point where the creases of the two pairs are separated by substantially the same distance at a leading end of a clipping, the latter meets the neck of an oncoming bottle at an obtuse angle to its direction of motion whereby a remote edge of that leading end is engaged and tilts the clipping into a vertical position in which it slides down the neck. A subsequent heat treatment shrinks the clipping around that neck as a tightly fitting collar or jacket.
26 Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A method of fitting a series of continuously moving support elements with tubular attachments enveloping same at least in part, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) providing a flattened deformable sheath of indefinite length having two major sides bounded by a pair of longitudinal creases, said sides being separable from each other in a transverse direction; (b) advancing said sheath along a guidepath descending toward a row of said moving support elements; (c) cross-cutting the advancing sheath at an intermediate point of said guidepath into successive clippings of predetermined length; (d) advancing each freshly cut clipping at a higher speed than said sheath along a stretch of said guidepath narrowing in an axial plane including said creases, with resulting progressive separation of said sides from each other until their spacing in said transverse direction substantially equals the distance between said creases at a leading end of the clipping; and (e) discharging each descending clipping from said guidepath at an obtuse angle to the direction of motion of said support elements at a level at which a remote edge of the leading end thereof is met by an upright part of an oncoming support element with a cross-sectional area smaller than that of said leading end whereby the descending clipping is erected and comes to rest around said upright part. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. In an apparatus for fitting a succession of movable support elements with tubular attachments enveloping at least parts of said support elements, including supply means for paying out a flattened deformable sheath of indefinite length with two transversely separable major sides bounded by a pair of longitudinal creases, transport means for advancing said sheath along a predetermined path, and cutter means for sectioning the advancing sheath perpendicularly to said creases into clippings of uniform length expandable transversely to said major sides,
the improvement wherein said path is defined downstream of said cutter means by a pair of guide members with crease-engaging zones converging in the direction of advance, said transport means comprising a pair of counterrotating feed rollers engageable with said major sides at a location upstream of said cutter means and a driver positively engageable with said clippings in the region of said guide members for advancing said clippings between said converging surfaces at a speed higher than the peripheral speed of said feed rollers, said converging zones being separated from each other at a discharge end of said path by a distance related in a ratio of approximately 1: - √
2 to the distance separating said converging zones in the vicinity of said cutter means whereby a clipping exiting from said path has a leading end of substantially square configuration. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
- √
Specification