EP1283796A1

EP1283796A1 - Device for tensioning and closing hoop bands

Info

Publication number: EP1283796A1
Application number: EP01936260A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Detlef Scholl; Christian Spohr; Peter Nober
Original assignee: Cyklop GmbH
Current assignee: Cyklop GmbH
Priority date: 2000-05-26
Filing date: 2001-04-21
Publication date: 2003-02-19
Anticipated expiration: 2021-04-21
Also published as: WO2001092112A1; EP1283796B1; DE50107430D1; AU2001262219B9; AU2001262219B2; BR0111107B1; BR0111107A; AU6221901A; US20030121611A1; DE10026197A1; US6957678B2

Abstract

The inventive device for tensioning and closing hoop bands has a band stop (24) for the inner band edges (27) of the band ends (20, 21) to be welded. According to the invention, the band stop is provided with a band width adjusting device (28) with the aid of which the band stop shifts perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the hoop band in the housing. This enables the device to be adjusted to different width hoop bands without modifying the device.

Description

DEVICE FOR TENSIONING AND SEALING STRAPS

The invention relates to a device for tensioning and closing strapping for packages or the like. With a housing, a band channel open on one side in the longitudinal direction of the strapping on a long side of the housing, an effective welding device in the band channel connecting the band ends of the strapping to one another and a welding device arranged on the outer or the inner long side of the band channel, the band ends laterally leading band stop.

Devices of this type are used to pack packages or the like. Tighten the plastic straps and lock them into strapping to prevent the packages from falling apart. The thermoplastic plastic tape is generally placed by hand or with a strapping tool around the package and then the strap ends of the strapping tape are inserted from the open longitudinal outside of the housing into the strap channel so that the strap ends lie cleanly one above the other. The strip end located below is used to clamp the strip ends against each other by a clamping plate or the like. held while the upper end of the band is pulled over the lower end of the band by means of a driven tensioning wheel until the desired tension is reached. The welding device is then actuated, which rubs the upper band end at high speed over the lower band end by means of a friction jaw movable transversely to the longitudinal direction of the band, which causes the plastic material to heat up and thus weld the two band ends. When tensioning the tape ends against each other, the tape stop ensures that the tape ends are exactly on top of each other lying and so a clean and firm U ripening is produced.

It is desirable to be able to process straps of different bandwidths with the same device. However, so that the ends of the strapping of different widths always take the correct position relative to the welding device and are guided with clean edges, it is necessary in the known devices to replace the strap stop when processing a new, narrower or wider strap in order to adjust the width of the strap channel to adjust the new bandwidth. For this purpose, several components of the device must be regularly removed and replacement parts must be reinstalled, which is not only very time-consuming, but also requires great experience of the user of the device, since incorrect installation of the replacement parts of the strap stop can damage the device and / or cause bad welds can lead to the strapping, which then do not hold the packages together securely. In addition, the known devices require an unfavorable stock of replacement parts of the belt stop for the different bandwidths and it can easily happen that the individual parts are lost and are then not available when they are needed.

The object of the invention is to improve a device of the type mentioned at the outset in such a way that tapes of different bandwidths can be processed in a particularly simple manner without expensive conversion work.

This object is achieved with the invention in that the strap stop is adjustable transversely to the longitudinal direction of the strapping by means of a strap adjustment device.

According to the invention, the device is therefore provided with a bandwidth adjustment device, with the aid of which the strap stop in the housing can be adjusted and thus in a very simple manner without Exchange of any 'components can be adapted to different bandwidths. The arrangement is expediently such that the bandwidth adjustment device has an adjustment mechanism which can be actuated from the outside of the housing and which can consist essentially of an eccentric drive which can be rotated and locked in different rotational positions and which is coupled to the strap stop. A rotary movement exerted on the eccentric drive from the outside of the housing is then converted by the eccentric drive into a longitudinal movement with which the band stop is displaced transversely in the housing.

The strap stop is preferably coupled to the adjusting mechanism via an adjusting slide which is adjustable in the housing transversely to the longitudinal direction of the strapping strap. The eccentric drive can essentially consist of a rotatably mounted adjusting disk which is provided with an actuating pin arranged eccentrically to its axis of rotation, which engages in an elongated hole arranged on the adjusting slide. Such a construction is particularly simple and reliable and allows the strap stop to be positioned exactly in the desired position. The adjusting disk is preferably designed as a locking disk with a plurality of locking notches distributed over its circumference, into which a spring-loaded pressure piece engages with its locking end. The pressure piece engaging in the notches ensures that the strap stop is always locked in exactly the same positions that are specified for the different available strap widths. If, for example, tapes of widths 10, 13, 16 and 19 mm are to be welded with the device, the adjusting disk has four notches on its circumference, and by advancing the adjusting disk from one to the next latching position, the tape stop on the long side of the tape channel is adjusted by 3 mm each becomes.

A particularly advantageous embodiment results if the actuation angle of the adjusting disc is approximately 180 ° and is limited by the elongated hole on the adjusting slide. It is because of it It is impossible to move the belt stop beyond a specified minimum and maximum width in the belt channel, since the adjustment disc can only be rotated back and forth between these two extreme values. The adjusting disk is preferably accessible from the outside of the housing base for its actuation, wherein it can expediently be rotated with the aid of a suitable tool, for example a screwdriver or an Allen key. The setting slide is expediently received with a guide part in a guide groove arranged on the housing, preferably in the housing base.

A very particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention is that the band stop has a first band stop element and a second band stop element, the first band stop element being fixedly connected to the adjusting slide, while the second band stop element is arranged close to the welding device and displaceable relative to the adjusting slide is stored. When the strapping is being laid and tensioned, the two strap stop elements of the strap stop jointly guide the edges of the strap ends. Before the welding device is then triggered, the second stop element can be pulled sideways away from the edges of the band ends to be welded, so that it is not an obstacle if the welding device rubs one over the other band end and thereby generates the heat required for the welding. The first band stop element, which is located at a greater distance from the welding point, maintains its position during welding and thus also ensures that the strip ends are positioned precisely on one another during the welding process. The band ends clamped against each other are fixed in their edge-to-edge position one above the other in the area of the first band stop element by the tensioning wheel and the tensioning plate interacting with it, which clamp the band ends between them. The second band stop element, which is arranged near the welding device, is expediently received in a guide groove arranged on the housing, preferably on the housing base, so as to be displaceable. The guide part of the setting slide and the second band stop element can be received in the same guide groove.

It is particularly advantageous if the second band stop element is coupled to a retraction mechanism which is connected to the welding device and can be triggered by it, so that it is automatically retracted from the band edges as soon as the welding device is triggered. The retraction mechanism can essentially consist of an actuating spring and an actuating lever acted upon by an actuating member of the welding device, the actuating lever preferably being pivotably mounted on a holding flange arranged on the adjusting slide and the actuating spring acting on the one hand on the second band stop element and on the other hand on the adjusting slide.

If the actuating lever has a substantially straight actuating surface for the actuating member, which in the stop position of the second band stop element runs approximately parallel to the direction of movement of the adjusting slide and has a length that at least corresponds to the adjusting path of the band width adjusting device, it is ensured in a particularly simple manner that when adjusting the position of the strap stop on a different bandwidth, both strap stop elements are shifted equally far in the strap channel, since the position of the actuating lever relative to the second strap stop element does not change due to the straight actuating surface running parallel to the direction of adjustment of the bandwidth adjusting device, as long as the actuating member acts on the actuating surface.

Further features and advantages of the invention result from the following description and the drawing, in which a preferred drafted embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail using an example. It shows:

1 shows a side view of a device according to the invention, the housing of the device being indicated only by dash-dotted lines for reasons of clarity;

FIG. 2 shows a part of the device according to the invention according to FIG. 1 in a perspective illustration with the band stop resting against the edges of the band ends;

Fig. 3 shows the subject of Fig. 2 after actuation of the

Welding device with tape stop pulled back from the tape edges;

4 shows a detail of the bandwidth adjustment device in the region of its adjustment mechanism in a first position; and

Fig. 5 shows the subject of Fig. 4 in a second position.

The device designated 10 in its entirety in the drawing serves for tensioning and closing a plastic strapping band 11, which is placed around a package, which is indicated by dash-dotted lines in FIG. 1 at 12.

The device 10 has, in the interior of its housing 13, a clamping unit 14 and a welding device 15 arranged behind it in the clamping direction and in FIG. 1 to the right of the clamping unit. In a manner known per se, the tensioning unit essentially consists of a driven tensioning wheel 16 and a tensioning plate 18 formed by the housing base 17, between which a one-sided opening on a longitudinal outer side of the housing 13 ner band channel 19 is formed, in which the two strap ends 20, 21 of the strapping 11 are inserted from the longitudinal outside of the housing so that they are in the front housing part in the region of the tensioning unit between tensioning wheel 16 and tensioning plate

18 and in the rear housing part in the area of the welding device between a friction plate of the welding device and the housing base 17.

As can best be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3, the band channel 19 is delimited on its inner longitudinal side 23 near the welding device 15 by a band stop 24 which has a first, front band stop element 25 in the tensioning direction in front of the tensioning unit 14 and a second Has band stop element 26 which is located in the vicinity of the welding device 15. The two band ends 20, 21 lying one above the other lie on the band stop elements 25, 26 with their inside in the band channel

19 lying band edges 27 so that they lie exactly on top of each other in the band channel.

To use one and the same device when processing strapping tapes of different bandwidths, the strap stop 24 is provided with a strap width adjusting device 28, with the aid of which the strap stop 24 can be adjusted transversely to the longitudinal direction 29 of the strapping strap. For this purpose, the band width adjustment device 28 is provided with an adjusting slide 30, which is displaceably mounted on the housing base 17 transversely to the longitudinal direction 29 of the strapping band 11 and can be locked in various positions, which is received with a guide part 31 in a guide groove 32 in the housing base 17 and with which the band stop elements 25, 26 are coupled.

To adjust the band stop 24, the band width adjustment device 28 is provided with an adjustment mechanism 34 which is accessible from the underside 33 of the housing base 17 and which essentially consists of a rotatable eccentric drive 35 which can be locked in different rotational positions. This has a Housing floor 17 rotatably mounted adjusting disk 36 with an actuating pin 38 arranged eccentrically to its axis of rotation 37, which engages in an elongated hole 39 provided on the adjusting slide 30. The adjusting disk can be rotated with an Allen key from the underside 33 of the housing base, as a result of which the adjusting slide 30 and thus the strap stop elements 25, 26 of the strap stop 24 are adjusted transversely to the longitudinal direction 29 of the strapping strap.

The adjustment mechanism is shown in more detail in FIGS. 4 and 5. As can be clearly seen there, the adjusting disk 36 is designed as a latching disk and is provided with five latching notches 40 distributed over its half circumference, into which a spring-loaded pressure piece 41 accommodated in the housing bottom 17 can engage with its front locking end 42. In the position of the adjusting disk 36 shown in FIG. 4, the pressure piece snaps into the middle of the five possible notches, the elongated hole 39 in the adjusting slide 30 being aligned in this position with the axis of rotation of the adjusting disk 37. In the position shown in FIG. 5, the pressure piece engages in the notch 40 'for the largest, provided bandwidth, in which the band stop elements 25, 26 in the band channel are adjusted inward by an amount e compared to the position shown in FIG. 4 and are in the innermost position in the band channel. When the pressure piece engages in this or in the opposite notch 40 '', the actuating pin 38 strikes one end in the lower end of the elongated hole 39 in the figures, so that the adjusting disk is only rotated back and forth by an amount of 180 ° can.

As can be seen from the drawings, the first, front band stop element 25 is rigidly coupled to the adjusting slide 30 at 43 and does not change its position relative to the adjusting slide. The second band stop element 26, which is arranged in the vicinity of the welding device, on the other hand, is displaceably mounted on the adjusting slide 30 and can thus be in the Moment are pulled away from the band edges 27 by actuating the welding device for connecting the band ends 20, 21.

For this purpose, the second strap stop element 26 essentially consists of an approximately U-shaped component, the front leg 44 of which forms a stop surface for the strap edges and the web 45 of which can be moved transversely to the longitudinal direction 29 of the strapping strap in the same guide groove 32 as the guide part 31 in the housing base 17 is recorded.

A retraction mechanism 47 engages on the rear leg 46 of the band stop element 26 and, when the welding device 15 is actuated, automatically retracts the second band stop element 26 from the advanced position shown in FIG. 2 to the retracted position shown in FIG. 3 when the friction plate 48 the welding device 15 is lowered from the raised position shown in FIG. 2 into the active position according to FIG. 3, in which it lies firmly on the upper band end 20.

The retraction mechanism 47 has an adjusting lever 49 which is pivotably mounted on a holding flange 50 arranged on the adjusting slide 30, and a retracting spring 51 which engages on the one hand on the rear leg 46 and on the other hand on a connecting plate 52 on the adjusting slide. The adjusting lever 49 is provided at its shorter lever end with a fork head 53 which overlaps the leg 46 of the band stop element 26 and at its longer leg 54 with an actuating surface 55 which, in the position of the band stop element 26 shown in FIG. 2, runs parallel to the guide groove 32 and in this position, against the action of the return spring 51, is held down by an actuating cam 56 which is located on the main pressure spring 57 for the friction plate 48 of the welding device 15 and is coupled to the friction plate 48 via a lever mechanism 58. As long as the friction plate 48 of the welding device 15 is in its ineffective, raised position, in which the band ends 20, 21 can be placed one above the other in the band channel 19, the actuating cam 56 presses the longer leg 53 of the actuating lever 49 down over its actuating surface 55 and thereby the band stop element 26 against the action of the return spring 51 inwards into the band channel into the position shown in FIG. 2, in which the band edges can rest against the stop surface of the front leg 44 when the band ends are inserted into the band channel. If a trigger mechanism (not shown) is activated for the welding device and the main pressure spring 57 is triggered in a manner known per se in order to lower the friction plate 48 down onto the upper band end 20, the actuating cam 56 moves upward so that it has the longer leg of the adjusting lever 49 is no longer locked in the approximately horizontal position, which leads to the return spring 51 pulling the second band stop element 26 in the guide groove 32 back into the position shown in FIG. 3. It can be seen that the front leg 44 is located at a sufficient distance from the band edges 27 of the band ends, so that the upper band end 20 moves freely from the friction plate 48 with the aid of the associated eccentric drive 59 back and forth across the lower band end to the longitudinal direction 29 of the band can be without bumping against the tape stop element 26. If the friction plate 48 is raised again after the band ends have been welded and the main pressure spring 57 is compressed again, the actuating cam 56 presses the actuating lever 49 down again, so that the band stop element 26 also counteracts the action of the return spring 51 in the guide groove 32 inwards Fig. 2 shown position is shifted, in which the leg 44 abuts the band edges 27.

It can be seen that when the bandwidth is adjusted with the aid of the bandwidth adjustment device 28, the relative position of the second tape stop element 24 to the adjusting slide 44 does not change as long as the actuating cam 39 moves the adjusting lever 33 in holds its pressed down position, since in this position the actuating surface 38 runs parallel to the guide groove 28. When the strap stop 24 is adjusted, the second strap stop element 26 is therefore displaced in the strap channel by the same amount as the first strap stop element 25, which is firmly coupled to the setting plate, if the device is to be used for a strap with a different strap width.

The invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment shown and described, but many changes and additions are conceivable without leaving the scope of the invention. For example, instead of an eccentric drive, it is conceivable to provide an adjusting element for the bandwidth adjusting device that is adjustable in translation in the housing, or also an externally rotatable adjusting spindle that interacts with a spindle nut on the strap stop. In simple embodiments of the invention, the second stop element that can be withdrawn during welding can be dispensed with. The . second band stop element 26 does not have to be arranged between the tensioning unit 14 and the welding device 15 as shown in the drawing, but it is also possible to arrange this second band stop element 26 in the longitudinal direction 29 behind the welding device 15, that is to say at the rear end of the device.

Claims

P A T E N T A N S P R Ü C H E

Device for tensioning and closing strapping for packages or the like, with a housing, a band channel open on one side in the longitudinal direction of the strapping on a long side of the housing, an effective in the band channel, the strap ends of the strapping together and a welding device on the outer or arranged on the inner longitudinal side of the band channel and laterally leading the band ends, characterized in that the band stop (24) can be adjusted transversely to the longitudinal direction (29) of the strapping band (11) by means of a band width adjusting device (28).

Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bandwidth adjustment device (28) has an adjustment mechanism which can be actuated from the outside of the housing

(34).

Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the adjusting mechanism (34) consists essentially of a rotatable eccentric drive (35) which can be locked in different rotational positions and which is coupled to the belt stop (24).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the strap stop (24) is coupled to the adjusting mechanism (34) via an adjusting slide (30) which is adjustable in the housing (13) transversely to the longitudinal direction (29) of the strapping strap (11).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the eccentric drive (35) essentially consists of a rotatably mounted adjusting disc (36) consists of an actuating pin (38) arranged eccentrically to its axis of rotation (37), which engages in an elongated hole (39) arranged on the adjusting slide (30).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the adjusting disc (36) is designed as a locking disc with a plurality of locking notches (40) distributed over its circumference, into which a spring-loaded pressure piece (41) engages with its locking end (42).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the actuation angle of the adjusting disc (36) is approximately 180 ° and is limited by the elongated hole (39) on the adjusting slide (30).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the adjusting disc (36) is accessible from the outside (33) of the housing base (17) for its actuation.

Device according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the adjusting slide (30) is received with a guide part (31) in a guide groove (32) which is arranged on the housing (13) and is preferably arranged in the housing base (17).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the band stop (24) has a first band stop element (25) and a second band stop element (26), the first band stop element (25) being fixedly connected to the adjusting slide (30) is near while the second band stop member (26) the welding device (15) is arranged and is displaceably mounted on the adjusting slide (30) thereon.

Device according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the second band stop element (26) arranged near the welding device (15) is accommodated in a guide groove (32) which is arranged on the housing (13) and is preferably arranged on the housing base (17).

Apparatus according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the guide part (31) and the second band stop element (26) are received in the same guide groove (32).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the second band stop element

(26) is coupled to a retraction mechanism (47) which is connected to the welding device (15) and can be triggered by it.

Device according to one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the retraction mechanism (47) consists essentially of an actuating spring (51) and an actuating lever (49) acted upon by an actuating member (56) of the welding device (15).

Device according to one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that the adjusting lever (49) is pivotally mounted on a holding flange (50) arranged on the adjusting slide (30) and the actuating spring (51) on the one hand on the second band stop element (26) and on the other hand on the adjusting slide (30) attacks. Device according to one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that the adjusting lever (49) has an essentially straight actuating surface (55) for the actuating member (56), which in the stop position of the second band stop element (26) is approximately parallel to the direction of movement of the adjusting slide (30) runs and has a length that at least corresponds to the adjustment path of the bandwidth adjustment device (28).