GB2074120A - Feeding and folding leaflets to be boxed with articles - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus has a leaflet supplying unit (9) from which leaflets (1a) are moved downwards by two driving belts (1) onto a support rail (7) over a pocketed conveyor (10, 11) for articles (15) to be boxed. Part of each leaflet sticks out on one side of an associated pocket and is folded down by a wheel (4) having cutouts (13). The folded-down ends of the leaflets are kept in the downwardly bent position by a rail (8) with a sloping front end (8a). While still supported on the support rail (7), the leaflets can be moved into desired positions between the pocket walls (11) by a belt (5) with driving pins (17) before, at the end of support rail (7), the leaflets are dropped onto the articles (15) in the pockets. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION An apparatus for supplying and placing leaflets The present invention is with respect to an apparatus for supplying and placing leaflets such as printed advertisements, directions for use, pricelists or the like to products, which are supported in the hollow supports of a chain of supports, moved in steps or smoothly, and forming part of a boxing machine, the apparatus furthermore having a transport belt or transport belts for supplying the leaflets, folded if necessary, from a leaflet supply unit.

It is normal for tubes, bottles or the like as placed in boxes to have leaflets such as printed advertisements, or directions for use, together with them in the boxes and, for this purpose, the products to be boxed are placed in hollow supports or troughs, forming a chain as part of a boxing machine, the leaflets being placed and positioned in a certain desired way in relation to the products. The chain of hollow supports may be moved smoothly or in steps, that is to say continuously or discontinuously. Nextly, the products are pushed by pushing parts into boxes or the like which are moved parallel to the products.

When such pushing in takes place, the leaflets as well are pushed into the boxes, because they are pushed along by the front end of the product in each case.

However, there are certain troubles in connection with the supply and placing of such leaflets in relation to the products resting in the hollow supports of the boxing machine.

In the prior art, a folding apparatus has been used for handing over leaflets, after being folded, to a tongs wheel, having a number of tongs on it, or to a horizontally moving endless chain with tongs. The leaflets taken up by the tongs on the wheel or chain are then turned through 900 and handed over to a chain of tongs, running parallel to the chain of supports but separate therefrom. It is furthermore old for the leaflets for the boxes to be gripped directly on tongs fixed to the hollow supports for the products. In a further case, the leaflets are gripped by a chain, separate as well, with parts which may be pressed upon, under the separate product hollow supports. In the case of this known apparatus, it is necessary for the separate tongs or pressing pieces to be opened and shut by specially designed systems on taking up and handing over the leaflets.Furthermore, in the case of these known designs, there is the shortcoming that, for the transport of the leaflets, the system is complex and of high price and exact control of the point at which the tongs are opened, is necessary.

In a further prior art system, the leaflets for the products are handed over using a transporter belt in pockets, which are placed under or furthermore to the left or right hand side next to the product supports. in this design there is the shortcoming that the leaflets have to be run in at a high speed at, in each case, 900 to the direction of motion of the pockets. Because this operation is responsible for a mechanical force acting on the leaflets, the leaflets have to be of a certain thickness and stiffness for operation of the system.

One purpose of the present invention is that of designing an apparatus in the case of which the supply and placing of the leaflets in the hollow supports of a boxing machine may be undertaken without tongs on plates or chains and in which respect, at the same time, the supply of the leaflets by way of a belt transporting system is made better and the handing over of the leaflets to pockets next to the product hollow supports is unnecessary.

Taking as a starting point an apparatus for the supply and placing of leaflets such as printed advertisements, directions for use, pricelists, catalogs etc. in relation to the products, which are supported in the hollow supports of a chain of supports, moved in steps or smoothly, and forming part of a boxing machine, the apparatus furthermore having a transport belt or transport belts for supplying the leaflets, folded if necessary, from a leaflet supply unit, these and other purposes of the invention are effected in that the leaflet supply unit and the transport belt are placed over the chain of hollow supports and the transport belt is used for so placing the leaflets over the hollow supports that the leaflets are only partly within them and one part of each leaflet is kept running out of its support to the side, and the hollow supports have upwardly running driving dogs for acting on the leaflets and, furthermore, the chain of hollow supports has a wheel, running in step with it and having cutouts for acting on the leaflet, for the purpose of easing round and bending the parts of each leaflet not within the hollow supports and there is furthermore a guide rail for forcing the eased round parts of the leaflets against the end face of each of the hollow supports.

With such a design of the apparatus, it is no longer necessary for pockets to be placed next to the hollow product supports for taking up the leaflets and furthermore it is no longer necessary for the leaflets to be stiff and to have a certain thickness before they may be processed in the apparatus and, in fact, generally speaking, thin leaklets may be used. Furthermore, there is no longer any need for a driving and controlling system for tongs, grippers and the like.

In accordance with a further preferred measure of the invention, over the chain of hollow supports there is a fixed support rail for the leaflets and over this support rail, and spaced therefrom, there is a covering rail. The support rail and the covering rail are used for guiding the leaflets placed over the hollow supports.

As part of a further preferred measure of the invention, the driving dogs for the leaflets are in the form of side walls of the hollow support, such side walls having slots to "let through" the support and covering rails. Because the support and covering rails are fixed in position, while on the other hand, the hollow supports are part of a chain, moving smoothly or in steps, of a boxing machine, the slots in the side walls of the hollow supports are used at the same time for keeping the hollow supports parallel. Furthermore, the leaflets are supported and positioned thereby on the two sides of the rails.

As part of a further preferred measure of the invention at each cutout of the wheel there is an easing round edge for easing round and bending the parts of the leaflets sticking out from the hollow supports. The wheel or disk, having a number of such cutouts is turned anticlock-wise in step with the speed of the chain of supports of the boxing machine. Taking into account the circumferencesof the wheel, the number and placing of the cutouts is in line with the chain of hollow supports.

As a still further preferred measure of the invention, the guide rail at a position near to the wheel, has an outwardly running, sloping inlet part, it then being parallel to the chain of hollow supports. The leaflets as acted upon by the easing over edges of the wheel, after bending round, are acted upon by the inlet or takeup part of the guide rail and kept in a position parallel to the side, open ends of the hollow supports. This guiding of the leaflets, in relation to the hollow supports, goes on till the products in the hollow supports, together with their leaflets, have been pushed into the open-ended boxes.

As part of a further and useful development of the invention it is possible to have a driving belt, having pins, over the chain of hollow supports for positioning the leaflets at any desired position of the hollow supports. This driving belt is used for acting on the leaflet resting right up against the side wall of the hollow support in question and moving it using the pin to any desired point of the support. For example, the leaflets may be moved into a middle position on the hollow support or more towards the front side wall. In this respect, care is only to be taken to see that between the driving pins of the driving belt and the chain of hollow supports of the boxing machine, there is a different speed of running for part of the distance of motion. This may be undertaken by having the two system parts generally running at different speeds.Furthermore, they may be run at the same speed generally with only a part of the driving belt being speeded up for a short distance by a guide causing a change in direction of its motion.

An account will now be given of one working example of the invention to be seen in the diagrammatic figures.

Figure 1 is a side view of a leaflet supplying and placing apparatus.

Figures 2 is a plan view of the leaflet supplying and placing apparatus, only certain parts of the apparatus being seen in the figure, to make it more straightforward.

The leaflets such as printed advertisements, pricelists, catalogs, directions for use etc. in a stack S are transported by a system, not detailed here, to a leaflet supplying unit 9, in which the leaflets are taken separately and folded. The folded leaflets 1 a are transported out of the unit 9 by two transport belts 1 gripping the leaflets between them in their runs which are parallel to each other. After coming from the unit 9 the leaflets go to a double wheel 2 having pins 3 in which, at the same time, the leaflets Ia are lined up and positioned or alined.The lined-up leaflets 1 a are then moved onwards by transport belts 1 and, by way of a sheet metal guide 16, go to a chain 10 of hollow supports forming part of a boxing machine, the separate supports being numbered 11, at which position the leaflets are dropped down onto a support rail 7, placed over the supports. The leaflets 1 a, moved into position by the transport belt 1, are, in this respect, so supplied to the support rail that only parts of them are over the supports 11 (see Figure 2) while the rest is kept sticking out past the limit of the supports 11. For stopping the leaflets 1 a from dropping down from the support rail as the chain 10 of supports is moving forwards, a covering rail 6 is placed over rail 7 and parallel thereto.For moving along the lined-up leaflets 1 a, as handed over from the sheet metal guide 16 to the support rail 7, alqng -with the chain 10 of supports, the side walls of the supports 11 are designed as driving dogs 1 2 running out to a higher level past the support rail 7. As looked at In the direction of forward motion, in each case, one back side wall is used for pushing along a leaflet 1 a for further transport. The side walls of the hollow supports 11 have slots, not to be seen in the figure, in which the covering and support rails 6 and 7 are positioned so that the leaflets are acted upon on each side of the rails 6 and 7 by the driving dogs 12 and are kept in position.

The support chain 10 is designed for operation with a wheel 4 having cutouts 13 and turning in step with the chain 10 of the hollow supports. The back or trailing edge of each cutout 13 takes the form of an easing round and bending edge 14 designed with the purpose of easing round the part, sticking out of each support 11, of each leaflet 1 a. At each wheel 4 there is a guide rail 8 firstly having an inlet part 8a, which is bent at a slope outwards for taking up that part of each leaflet which has been eased and bent round by the wheel 4.Then the guide rail 8 becomes parallel to the chain 10 of hollow supports and has the function of keeping the leaflets in the eased round position till the products 15, positioned in the supports, together with the leaflets 1 a are moved into boxes of cartons which are placed on a conveyor running parallel to the chain of supports but given in the present figures. The guide rail 8 may be seen from figure 1 to be downwardly sloping in inlet part 8a for moving the eased round parts of the leaflets to a lower level.

Over the chain 10 of supports, it is possible to have a driving belt 5 next to wheel 4 and having pins 1 7. This driving belt 5 is used for positioning the leaflets resting on the support rail 7 and positioned over the supports 11 so that such leaflets are moved into any desired position in relation to and within the hollow supports. For example, the leaflets placed on the left hand side wall of the support 11 are taken up by pins 17 and moved somewhat to the right on support rail 7 so that they take up positions in the middle of the separate supports, as will be seen diagrammatically in the case of the right hand leaflet 1 a to be seen in figure 1. By slightly stepping up the speed of turning of driving belt 5, it is naturally possible for the leaflets 1 a to be pushed over towards the right hand side of each support 11. It is furthermore possible for the lower run of the driving belt, running at the same speed and in step with the chain of supports, to be supported by a guiding roller at that position where the leaflets are to be acted upon so that, for a short time at this position, the speed of motion of the driving pins to be increased.

Claims (11)

1. An apparatus for supplying leaflets to products and placing them in desired positions in relations to the products, the products being in hollow supports joined together in a chain, which is moved and is part of a boxing machine for putting the products in boxes, the apparatus furthermore having a transport belt for moving the leaflets from a leaflet supplying unit, characterized in that the leaflet supplying unit and the transport belt are positioned over the support chain, the belt is designed for placing the leaflets in the supports with parts thereof running out to one side of the supports, the hollow supports having driving dogs running out upwards from them and designed for acting on the leaflets, the chain of supports furthermore having a driving wheel with an edge having cutouts for easing and bending round the outwardly running parts of said leaflets in the supports, the apparatus furthermore having a guide rail for forcing the eased round and bent round parts of the leaflets against end faces of the supports.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that it has a fixed suppdrt rail for the leaflets.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that it has a covering rail spaced from and placed over the support rail.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the driving dogs are in the form of side walls of the hollow supports.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the support side walls have slots near the supports and covering rails.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that each cutout of the wheel is limited in part by an easing-over edge for easing over and bending round the parts of the leaflets not within the supports.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the guide rail near the wheel has an inlet part stretching outwards at an angle and a further part next to the upwardly running sloping part, this further part being parallel to the chain of supports.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that it has over the support chain a driving belt with driving pins for positioning the leaflets in desired parts of the hollow supports.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the hollow supports are moved in steps.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the chain of supports is moved smoothly, the leaflets being folded.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 substantially as described in the specification with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying figures.