A device for forming and filling tubular containers

Abstract

 A method for forming and filling tubular con­tainers and a device to carry out this method, starting from tubular bodies (1) into which the pieces (8) are in­troduced and whose ends are closed by means of respective lids (10) fastened under heat sticking and; or flanging of the outer edges (11). The device comprises, further to the conventional means for cutting, stamping out and rolling of the tubular bodies, a continuous conveyer (12) with automatically opening and closing nippers (14) catching the tubular bodies as they pass by stations comprising a stop (7) and a pusher (9) for inserting the pieces (8), pushers (15) for engagement of the lids (10) and flanging devices for the terminal borders (11) of the tubular bodies (1).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method in­tended to facilitate filling of tubular containers, spe­cially when it is intended to can in the said container solid pieces such as blocks or tablets of a comparatively large size, as well as to the device intended to facilitate carrying out this method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] It is well known the need for canning blocks or tablets of a comparatively large size as it arises, for example, when preparing blocks of washing means such as those used in the machine washing of clothes and washing up dishes in domestic use.

[0003] In all of these cases, canning of such blocks is generally performed by means of covers made of cellophane, plastics or other material of a light nature, which do not afford to the product the necessary protection against mechanical strains such as blows, pressures, friction and the like fatally damaging the said product, breaking and crumbling it such that it losses its appearance.

[0004] On the other hand, there are as well known con­tainers made of a cardboard sheet rolled over itself, with their borders mutually overlapped and adhered with one another, the container having on its inside and close to at least one of its ends, respective heat sensitive adher­ing stripes to secure the lids which are to close these ends, such as described in the Spanish Utility Model N° 242 532.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The subject of the invention is indeed to facilitate canning and preparing pieces of the above said features, such that they are able to reach the user public in a good condition and with its whole shape, such that its appearance is not impaired.

[0006] To this end, according to the invention, the method for forming and filling tubular containers, preferably with washing agents in the form of large blocks or tablets, comprises the steps of:
A cardboard or the like sheet as claimed in the Spanish Utility Model N° 242 532, is rolled over itself to define a tubular body;
the thus formed tubular body is placed in a fixed filling position, and a movable stop is placed at one terminal opening of the said tubular body;
a suitable number of the pieces of material to be canned are placed in a row in front of the opposite opening of the tubular body;
the rowed pieces are pushed towards the inside of the tubular body until they abut onto the movable stop; and
a lid is fitted at each opening of the container an glued or flanged thereto to leave the container closed and ready for dispatch to the market.

[0007] In a case in which pan-shaped lids are applied fitted to the inside of the tubular body, such lids will become firmly secured by the heat sensitive adhering stripes provided in the tubular body after a heat applica­tion.

[0008] The device intended to facilitate carrying up the described method, besides the fact that it may com­prise a conventional cutting and stamping off station, it is characterized it that it is made up of:
an endless conveyer guided between two direction change points thus forming at least one essentially straight working run between these points and driven stepwise in one working direction;
a plurality of pairs of nippers mounted on the conveyer at regularly spaced points of its length, each pair of nippers having two legs fast on the outer surface of the endless conveyer at longitudinally spaced points thereof, such that the said nippers assume an open, container releasing, position at the places where the conveyer performs a change of direction, and a closed, container holding position, along the working runs;
a container filling station coinciding with the step posi­tion of one closed pair of nippers, and including a movable stop associated with a first opening of the container held by the nippers at this step station, and a pusher faced to the second opening of the con­tainer and connected with driving means to push a row of product blocks put between the pusher and the con­tainer into this container and until abutting with the movable stop;
a lid fitting station including a device for inserting lids at both openings of the containers;
a container closing station including a device for secur­ing the said lids to the borders of the said containers;
an empty container inserting station at a step position in which the nippers stay open, and
a full container removing station at another step position in which the nippers stay open.

[0009] It is obvious that the nippers of the conveyer can be present in a number suitable for picking up, and subsequently releasing, one or more tubes or containers at a time. In this latter case, the filling stations will also be, as it is obvious, several in number and arranged along the conveyer length.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] For a better understanding of the above exposi­tion, the enclosed drawings show, in a thoroughly diagram­matic form and only by way of example, with no limiting character at all, a practical embodiment of the method ac­cording to the invention and of the device facilitating the filling and closing of the containers. In the said drawings:

Figure 1 corresponds to an isometric view of a tubular body formed by rolling and overlapping the borders of a sheet;

Figure 2 shows in longitudinal section a container at the time of filling it;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, after the terminal lids have been fitted;

Figure 4 is as well a similar view after the edges of the container openings have been flanged for closing the container;

Figure 5 shows an isometric view of a container closed and endowed with opening means by tearing, and

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view of the container filling and closing device which is to complete, as indicated, a conventional station for cutting and stamping off the sheets which are the basis for the method.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0011] A it may be seen in Figure 1 of the drawings, the method starts from a sheet of the features described in the Spanish Utility Model Nº 242 532, which is rolled up over itself to define a tubular body 1 with its borders 2 overlapped and stuck by respective heat sensitive adhe­sion bands 3 which are disposed at the inside and adjacent the container ends. This body will, eventually, have a tearing band 4 for opening the container, and a small win­dow 5 covered by a transparent sheet 6 to look at the in­side.

[0012] The thus constituted tubular body is placed in front of a preferably movable stop 7, and the blocks or tablets 8 to be canned are inserted therein through the opposite opening, for example by means of a pusher or the like 9 which is suitably operated. Once the blocks have been inserted, it is proceeded with applying lids 10 at both ends of the container, which may be, indifferently, a shape of a flat disc or the indicated shape of a shallow pan, with its wings juxtaposed to the terminal edges of the container, after which the container will be completed and closed by a flanging 11, enclosing into it the canned product 8.

[0013] A device suitable for filling and closing the containers is represented in diagrammatic form in the Figure 6 and will complete an installation which is to comprise stations, of a conventional composition, for cut­ting and stamping off the sheets 1.

[0014] The said device comprises of an endless conveyer 12 formed of ring closed flexible band of any suitable conventional construction which is mounted taught between two direction changing rollers or the like 13 such that it forms two straight upper and lower runs respectively 12a,12b, with the rollers adapted to rotate about respec­tive central axis 13a and connected with suitable well known operating means. For example, one axis 13a can be mounted on lengthwise adjustable journals, not shown, to place the conveyer band under a suitable working tension, and the other shaft 13a, of fixed position, can be con­nected to a conventional speed reducing motor gear to drive the ensemble of the conveyer in the direction shown by the arrows in Figure 6.

[0015] The conveyer 12 has mounted on its outer surface (as regards the closed ring) suitable pairs of nippers 14, disposed at regularly spaced positions along the length of the conveyer band. Each said pair of nippers is formed of two legs 14a,14b mounted at a short mutual longitudinal distance on the band, and the mutually faced sides of each leg in a pair of nippers are formed with complementary surfaces to form, together, a housing for a tubular con­tainer 1. In this example it is assumed that the legs are conformed to receive containers 1 of a cylindrical shape, but it is obvious that the described nippers could be devised to handle containers 1 having whatever different shape in cross section. It is also possible to devise the legs 14a,14b such that they, or at least a portion thereof could by substituted by legs, or parts of leg, defining a housing for differently shaped containers 1.

[0016] The two legs 14a,14b of each pair of nippers 14 are mounted fast, independently of one another, on the surface of the band of the conveyer 12, such that the nip­pers 14c,14d,14e that any time are located on a straight run, for example 12a, of the conveyer 12 conform, with the complementary faces of their legs 14a,14b, a housing with the cross section dimensions suitable to grasp in fixed relation a corresponding tubular container 1c,1d,1e. However, when the nippers are run by the conveyer 12 about the curved surface of the rollers 13, the legs of these latter are moved from their parallel positions on the straight runs 12a,12b to a radial position, respect to the concerned axis 13a, as the nipper 14 at the left end of Figure 6, thus assuming a more separated or open position allowing the empty containers 1 to be inserted in the con­veyer or the filled and closed containers to be removed therefrom.

[0017] As described, the conveyer 12 is driven such that it rotates in the direction indicated by the arrows in Figure 6. Preferably this drive is performed in a step­wise manner such that the several nippers remain station­ary at the positions shown in the Figure 6 for a time suitable for the several operations to be carried about on the containers to take place as desired, and when these operations are finished, the ensemble of the conveyer is moved forward a length corresponding to the peripheral pitch of the pairs of nippers 14 on the conveyer band and these latter are advanced one pitch along the series of positions or stations indicated by the nippers 14, 14c, 14d and 14e. In other words, the container in the station 1 is moved to the station 1c, the one in station 1c to the station 1d, and so forth.

[0018] In the example of Figure 6 an ensemble of four positions or working stations is thus defined: load and discharge station 14, filling station 14c, lid placing station 14d and lid closing station 14e.

[0019] In the load and discharge station, for example, an empty container 1 is pushed by a conventional means from the outer position shown up to between the two legs 14a,14b of the nipper in position 14, at the same time pushing out of the conveyer a filled and closed container, not shown, which has reached this station after several step motions along the lower run 12b of the conveyer. In an alternative embodiment, a similar pusher device, not shown, can discharge a completed container at the open position which the nippers 14 assume at the opposite end of the conveyer. Otherwise, although not as much effi­ciently, one or both operations can be performed by hand on one or both terminal stations described.

[0020] A one step advance motion is performed and the thus inserted tubular container 1 comes to the next sta­ tion or filling station 14c comprising the movable stop 7 and pusher 9 foreseen in Figure 2, according to which the blocks 8 are inserted in the tubular bodies 1.

[0021] With a next step motion the filled tubular con­tainer 1c comes to the lid inserting station 14d, in which lids 10 are fitted in the ends of the tubular body 1d by means of opposite pushers 15.

[0022] A further step motion carries the tubular con­tainer 1d, with its lids fitted, in front of the last sta­tion 14e in which several conventional flanging mechanisms 16 act upon the edges of the tubular body, and eventually also on those of the lids 10, such that the tubular body or container 1 becomes thoroughly closed and with the product 8 housed in its inside, as previously indicated.

[0023] A further step motion would carry the thus com­pleted container 1e to the discharge station located at the right side end of the conveyer according to the described alternative embodiment, or the said completed container will come, after a number of step advancing mo­tions, to the load and discharge station 14 as described above.

[0024] The working mode of the described device derives itself from the above description of the method and the device and requires no further discussion.

[0025] It is obvious that the development of this device may respond to a merely mechanic, pressure fluid or the like conception, with no change at all of the essen­tials of the invention. On the other hand, the means used in the described stations, including the loading and dis­charging stations may be formed of conventional, well known in the art means which can be easily devised by the expert.

[0026] On the other side, it will be understood that the described method can be applied to whatever product, even if this latter does not assume a block or tablet shape, by arranging to this end suitable pushing or in­serting means, whereas it has been preferably developed in its conception for the above solid and shaped products.

[0027] Finally, it can be said that whereas in the description and claims reference is made to a conveyer with a single nipper 14 for each working step, these nip­pers may be arranged over the conveyer 12 forming groups for every one of these steps, such that they act picking up and releasing, respectively at the conveyer beginning and end, a suitable number of containers at a time to be handled simultaneously one group at a time, in which case the handling stations will as well be multiple at each filling and closing station.

Claims

1. A method for forming and filling tubular containers starting from a cardboard sheet of the features claimed in the Spanish Utility Model Nº 242 532, charac­terized in that it comprises the steps of:
Rolling a cardboard or the like sheet over itself, as claimed in the Spanish Utility Model N° 242 532, to define a tubular body;
the thus formed tubular body is placed in a fixed filling position, and a movable stop is placed at one terminal opening of the said tubular body;
a suitable number of the pieces of material to be canned are placed in a row in front of the opposite opening of the tubular body;
the rowed pieces are pushed towards the inside of the tubular body until they abut onto the movable stop; and
a lid is fitted at each opening of the container an glued or flanged thereto to leave the container closed and ready for dispatch to the market.

2. A device for forming and filling tubular containers, according to the method of claim 1, comprising a conventional cutting and stamping off station, charac­terized in that it comprises:
and endless conveyer (12) guided between two direction change points (13) thus forming at least one essen­tially straight working run (12a) between these points and driven stepwise in one working direction;
a plurality of pairs of nippers (14) mounted on the con­veyer (12) at regularly spaced points of its length, each pair of nippers having two legs (14a,14b) fast on the outer surface of the endless conveyer (12) at lon­gitudinally spaced points thereof, such that the said nippers assume an open, container releasing, position at the places (13) where the conveyer performs a change of direction, and a closed, container holding position, along the working runs;
a container filling station (14c) coinciding with the step position of one closed pair of nippers, and including a movable stop (7) associated with a first opening of the container (1c) held by the nippers (14c) at this step station, and a pusher (9) faced to the second opening of the container and connected with driving means to push a row of product blocks (8) put between the pusher and the container into this container and until abutting with the movable stop (7);
a container lid inserting station (14d) including a device (15) for inserting lids (10) at both openings of the containers (1d);
a container closing station (14e) comprising devices (16) for securing the said lids to the borders of the said containers;
an empty container inserting station (14) at a step posi­tion in which the nippers (14) stay open, and
a full container removing station at the same or another step position (14) in which the nippers stay open.

Drawing