Machine for making a tapering carton

• US 5,160,307 A
• Filed: 12/17/1991
• Issued: 11/03/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Smurfit-Stone Container Enterprises Incorporated (Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Otor S.A.
• Inventors: Bacques, Jean-Yves, Coalier, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): Terrell, William E.
• Application Number:
  US07/808,773
• Time in Patent Office: 322 Days
• Field of Search: 493/143, 493/153, 493/175, 493/176, 493/295, 493/296
• US Class Current: 493/176
• CPC Class Codes: B31B 50/28 around mandrels, e.g. for forming bottoms
• CPC Class Codes: B31B 50/44 by plungers moving through folding dies
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 5/029 the tubular body presenting a special shape pyramidal B65D5/008

Abstract

A pack made of sheet material such as card or corrugated card has rectangular side faces that are interconnected in pairs by respective fold lines, said fold lines being mutually parallel and said side faces forming a rectangular parallelepiped. According to the invention this pack is remarkable in that it includes other side faces that form a pyramid whose base coincides with a face of said parallelepiped. The pack is obtained from a blank of sheet material that includes trapezium-shaped or triangular panels hinged to rectangular panels.

Claims

1. A machine for making a pack from a blank of sheet material comprising a sequence of rectangular first panels connected to one another via mutually parallel first fold lines and a first set of end flaps disposed on one side of said sequence of panels and connected thereto via second fold lines perpendicular to said first fold lines and intended to form at least a portion of the bottom of said pack, said machine including:

a mandrel whose outside section corresponds to the inside section of said pack to be obtained;

means for freely supporting an intermediate panel of said sequence of panels at least approximately facing the corresponding face of said mandrel, but at a distance therefrom, and then for moving said intermediate panel towards said corresponding face of the mandrel, and then pressing said intermediate panel against said corresponding face after folding the panels adjacent to said intermediate panel so that said adjacent panels bear against said mandrel;

means for winding said sequence of first panels around said mandrel; and

means for fixing together the end panels of said sequence of first panels when wound around said mandrel in this manner;

wherein said blank includes trapezium-shaped or triangular second panels each of which is connected via its base to the side of a corresponding one of said first panels that is furthest from the end flaps of said first set, along a third fold line perpendicular to said first fold lines, with the sloping lateral edges of said second panels being free;

said mandrel being in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped having the base of a truncated pyramid or pyramid placed thereagainst;

said means for supporting, for moving, and for pressing said intermediate panel including a pressure plate having two rigidly interconnected faces, a first one of said faces corresponding to said intermediate panel and a second one of said faces corresponding to that one of said second panels which is adjacent to said intermediate panel, said first and second faces of the pressure plate defining a dihedral angle such that when said first face is pressed against the corresponding face of the rectangular portion of the mandrel, said second face is pressed against one of the faces of the truncated pyramid-shaped or pyramid-shaped portion of said mandrel that corresponds to said adjacent second panel, the edge of said dihedral angle then coinciding with the ridge of said mandrel between said faces of said mandrel that correspond respectively to said rectangular portion and to said truncated pyramid-shaped or pyramid-shaped portion;

means are provided for pressing said second panels against respective corresponding faces of the truncated pyramid-shaped or pyramid-shaped portion of said mandrel; and

means are provided for fixing together said second panels when pressed in this way against said mandrel.

2. A machine according to claim 1, for a blank in which at least some of said second panels include a foldable triangular tab along at least one of their free sloping edges, the tabs being connected to the corresponding second panels by respective fold lines, wherein the means for fixing said second panels together include means for folding said triangular tabs and for fixing them to the second panels carrying them.

3. A machine according to claim 1, for a blank in which said second panels are trapezium-shaped and which includes a second set of end flaps disposed adjacent to the small bases of said second panels and connected thereto by fourth fold lines perpendicular to said first fold lines, for the purpose of forming at least a portion of a closure face for said pack, wherein the machine includes:

means for folding the flaps of said second set against the end face of the pyramid-shaped portion of said mandrel; and

means for fixing together said flaps folded down in this way.

4. A machine according to claim 1, wherein said means for winding said sequence of first panels around the mandrel comprise moving equipment including rocking arms.