WO2011054435A1

WO2011054435A1 - Method and device for handling cutouts of packaging material for cigarette packs

Info

Publication number: WO2011054435A1
Application number: PCT/EP2010/006244
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Häfker; Michael Schlenker; Axel Leifheit
Original assignee: Focke & Co. (Gmbh & Co. Kg)
Priority date: 2009-10-26
Filing date: 2010-10-13
Publication date: 2011-05-12
Also published as: DE102009050712A1; CN102596728A; EP2493762A1; BR112012009628A2; EP2493762B1; CN102596728B

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a corresponding device for handling cutouts (11) of packaging material for cigarette packs (10), in particular of the soft-pack type, wherein the cutouts (11) are kept ready in a stack in a magazine (22) and wherein the cutouts (11) are removed from the magazine (22) and fed to a packaging machine (21) for cigarette packs (10), in particular a soft cup packer. According to the invention, the cutouts (11) are fed to a coding station (23) for applying a coding (19, 20) to the cutouts (11), and after the coding the cutouts (11) are combined into a cutout flow in which adjacent cutouts (11) overlap and are transferred to the packaging machine (21).

Description

Method and device for handling blanks from packaging material for cigarette packs

description

The invention relates to a method for handling blanks of packaging material for cigarette packs, in particular of the type soft pack, wherein the blanks are held in a stack in a magazine and wherein the blanks are removed from the magazine and a packaging machine for cigarette packs, in particular a soft packer fed According to the preamble of claim 1. Furthermore, the invention relates to a corresponding device according to the preamble of claim 11. Methods and devices of the type mentioned are known in practice in various embodiments. Blanks eg for soft packs are kept ready and fed to a packaging machine. It is also known that the blanks are provided with a coding to attach, for example, the batch, the manufacturer or other information. It is known from practice to apply the coding in the production of the blanks or in the manufacture of the packs in the packaging machine. Both solutions, however, have their disadvantages. Thus, no information for the preparation of the package can be attached during the production of the blanks, since this information is not available. In the manufacture of packages, the coding is usually limited to install, since the packaging machines are usually very complex, so that little space is available to provide one or more additional coding stations. Proceeding from this, the object of the invention is to further develop methods and devices of the type mentioned in the introduction, in particular with regard to a preferably advantageous integration of the coding in the production path of the packages and / or with regard to the most effective attachment of codes to different package surfaces.

To solve this problem, a method with the features of claim 1 is proposed. It is accordingly provided that the blanks are fed to a coding station for attaching a coding to the blanks and that the blanks are combined after coding to form a blank stream with overlapping of adjacent blanks and transferred to the packaging machine. This solution has the particular advantage that the coding of the blanks is outsourced from the packaging machine, but remains integrated into the production of the cigarette packs. For example, a current date of manufacture can be coded.

According to a preferred development, it is provided that the blanks after removal from the magazine are first transported in a blank stream with overlapping adjacent blanks and that the blanks of the blank stream are then separated and fed to the coding station. In this way, coding in particular can be integrated efficiently into existing handling methods. A further advantageous embodiment provides that the blanks in the region of the coding station are at least partially unfolded to identify different areas of the blank, which are located after folding the blank to a cigarette pack on different side surfaces of the cigarette pack. In this way it is more or less possible, by means of a laser, to label several side surfaces of the cigarette pack in one step. There are then neither deflections of the laser required nor the installation of multiple lasers. Another special feature may be that the position of the blanks is checked in the supply to the coding, preferably by multiple light barriers in the conveying path of the blanks, and that malpositions of the blanks are compensated by appropriate control of the coding, in particular by appropriate control of the laser. In this way, it is not necessary in particular to deliver the blanks in a correct position. Possible misalignments and / or offsets can be detected and compensated by appropriate control of the laser. In this way, the number of defective produced blanks can be reduced.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that a plurality of magazines are combined to form a magazine carousel and that the blanks are fed from a plurality of magazine carousels, each with a separate conveyor to a buffer in front of the coding. In this way, the most complete possible promotion of the blanks can be ensured.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that the blanks after encoding with their longitudinal extent transversely to the conveying direction are transported and taken over by the packaging machine, in particular a soft packer, pointing with their longitudinal extent in the longitudinal direction. In this way, the handling of the blanks is particularly advantageously integrated into the production of the cigarette packs.

An apparatus for solving the above-mentioned problem has the features of claim 11. Accordingly, it is an encoding station for coding the individual blanks and a subsequent grouping station for combining the blanks into a blank stream with overlapping of adjacent blanks and a conveying device for transferring the blanks to the packaging machine for cigarette packs.

Preferred embodiments of the device relate to the structure of the coding station, the establishment of a buffer and other organs. Further advantageous details of the method and the device will become apparent from the dependent claims and the description otherwise.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will be explained below with reference to the drawing. In this show:

1 a cigarette pack of the type soft pack,

Fig. 2 shows an unfolded and spread blank for a

Cigarette pack according to FIG. 1,

3 is a schematic side view of a packaging machine,

4 is a plan view of the packaging machine of FIG. 3,

5 is an enlarged view of the area V in Fig. 3,

6 is an enlarged view of the area VI in Fig. 4,

7 is an enlarged view of the area VII in Fig. 4,

Fig. 8 is a side view of a part of the device according to arrow VIII in

7 in an enlarged view,

9 is an enlarged view of the area IX in Fig. 4, and

10 is a detail of the illustration of FIG. 9 in the

Removal of blanks.

The invention will be explained with reference to an apparatus and a method for producing cigarette packs 10 of the type soft pack. In this type of cigarette packs 10, the cigarettes or the contents of the pack are not in a box of thin cardboard as in Hinge Lid Packaged, but in a blank 1 1 of packaging material such as paper, plastic film or the like. For this purpose, a blank 11 made of appropriate material is used, which is folded around the contents of the package. This process is basically known from the prior art. The result is a cigarette pack 10 with a large-area front 12, an opposite corresponding back 13, narrow sides 14 connect the front 12 and rear 13 and a bottom wall 15 and opposite end wall 16. In the region of the end wall and the two adjacent side surfaces of the front 12 and the back 13 is shown in Fig. 1 usually a band 17 is provided. In the area of the bottom wall 15, folding flaps of the blank 1 are folded like a cover. The blank 11 is wrapped around the package contents in such a way that folding flaps of the blank 1 1 overlap in the region of one of the two narrow sides 14 and are connected to one another.

The blank 1 1 may have a decorative print 18, which is provided in the present case by way of example in the region of the front 12 and the back 13. In addition to this central printing 18, for example, with the corresponding cigarette brand, other decorative prints on the entire blank 11 may be provided. Instead of an imprint 18, a coupon or another corresponding print carrier can also be provided.

The invention is particularly concerned with the attachment of codes 19, 20, for example in the form of bar codes as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. However, the coding can also be achieved by other means, for example by numbers, letters, symbols or similar means.

As shown in FIG. 1, the codes 19, 20 are attached to two different side surfaces of the cigarette pack 10. Normally, attaching these codings 19, 20 in the area of a packaging machine 21 would be very complicated, since several lasers or similar coding devices would be required for each side surface of the cigarette pack 10. Alternatively, the laser could be redirected via mirrors or similar reflection devices become. However, both solutions are disadvantageous because in the area of the packaging machine 21 there is usually not enough space available to accommodate such facilities.

The solution according to the invention, on the other hand, provides for the coding of the cigarette packs 10 to be integrated into the area of the feed of the blanks 11 to the packaging machine 21. The blanks 11 can therefore be coded locally and in immediate temporal relation to the production of the cigarette packs 10. This avoids, in particular, a storage of already coded blanks 11. It also makes it possible to encode and to consume the cigarette pack 10 with price, place of manufacture and product identifications directly in the production of the cigarette packs 10, without the coding devices having to be integrated into the packaging machine 21. 3 and 4 show an example of a packaging machine 21 and a device for providing and coding the blanks 1 1, which is the packaging machine 21 upstream. The essential organs of the device are one or more magazines 22 for holding blanks 11, a coding station 23 for attaching the coding 19, 20 on the blanks 11 and various conveyors for connecting the magazines 22 to the coding station 23 and the packaging machine 21 Organs are a buffer 24, a test station 25 and an ejector 26th

The blanks 1 1 are held in upright magazines 22. Several magazines 22 are combined to form magazine carousels 27. Each magazine carousel 27 receives a plurality of magazines 22, which can be successively rotated by rotation of the magazine carousel 27 in a removal position. Thus, blanks 11 can be continuously removed from the magazines 22. In the present case, two magazine carousels 27 are provided (FIG. 5) from which blanks 11 are taken in parallel. In this way, the seamless feeding of the blanks 11 can be further improved.

The blanks 11 are removed as shown in FIG. 6 on the underside of a magazine 22. In the magazine 22, the blank 11 are spread so flat arranged one above the other to form a stack. The removal of the blanks 11 on the underside of the magazine 22 can take place in a manner known from the prior art by means of a removal roller 28, which passes through the blanks 1 1 to a subsequent conveyor 29 by rotation. The conveyor 29 is used to supply the blanks 11 to the buffer 24th

In the present case, the conveyor 29 is designed so that the blanks are conveyed under overlap in the transport direction. The blanks 11 are thus transported as geschuppter blank stream. In the present case, the blank stream is transported between two runs of endless conveyors 30, 31, which rest on the top and bottom sides of the blank stream. The endless conveyors 30, 31 are guided multiple times over pulleys 32 and thereby bent or angled along a conveying path. Due to the arrangement of two magazine carousels 27 lead in the present case, two conveyors 29 to a common discharge conveyor 33, which is structurally constructed the same as the two conveyors 29. The discharge conveyor 33 takes over the two blank streams from the two conveyors 29, unites them and leads the Blanks in the buffer 24 a. In the buffer 24, the blanks 11 are again arranged as in the magazines 22 to a flat stack one above the other.

It is understood that a different number of magazine carousels 27 may be provided. The same applies to the number of magazines 22. Correspondingly, the number of conveyors 29 can also vary. Optionally, the conveyor 29 may also direct the blanks 11 or the blank stream directly into the buffer 24.

From the buffer 24, the blanks 11 are removed on the underside in a separating station 51 individually. For this purpose, a special removal member 34 is provided which detects the blanks 11 on the underside and at the edge and transfers them to a suction conveyor 35. The suction conveyor 35 extends in an upright or vertical direction. The suction conveyor 35 has two endless conveyors 36 whose conveying runs have recesses 37 in the manner of suction bores through which the blanks 11 lying on the suction conveyor 35 can be held with negative pressure by means of a vacuum device 38. The two endless conveyors 36 are arranged at a distance from one another and hold the blanks 11 at the edges in the region of opposite side edges.

The blanks 1 1 separated by the removal element 34 from the buffer 24 are transferred to the suction conveyor 35 by means of conveying rollers 39, 40. The conveyor rollers 39, 40 detect the blanks 11 on both sides and transport them by opposing rotation on. A special feature consists in the fact that a rear conveyor roller 40 is formed from two conveyor roller sections, which end on both sides of the removal member 34, so that the removal member 34 can occur between the two conveyor roller sections.

Furthermore, control devices in the form of light barriers 41 are provided in the region of the suction conveyor 35. With the help of the light barriers 41, the relative position and orientation of the blanks 1 1 is checked. This is done by scanning the edges of the blanks 11. The results of the measurement of the light barriers 41 are evaluated in a control unit, not shown, and used to control the coding station 23 as described below. The coding station 23 is arranged in the region of the upright suction conveyor 35, so that the blanks 11 resting against the endless conveyors 36 can be provided with the coding 19, 20. The blanks 11 are preferably passed completely along the suction conveyor 35 at the coding station 23. At least, however, the areas of the blank 11 to be coded should be unfolded in the plane of the suction conveyor 35.

Part of the coding station 23 is a laser 42 which is suitable for writing an encoding on the packaging material of the blank 11. According to Fig. 7, the laser or whose laser beam is directed transversely to the vertical transport plane of the blanks 1 1. In the region of the suction conveyor 35, the blanks 1 1 are singulated, that is, transported at a distance successive each other. The coding of the blanks 1 1 can be carried out continuously or during a short standstill phase of the suction conveyor 35.

If it is detected by means of the light barriers 41 that the blanks 11 have not been fed in the prescribed relative position, that is, not at the appropriate distance from one another or at an angle to the transport direction on the suction conveyor 35, the laser 42 can be controlled by means of the control device in such a way that an offset occurs or a misalignment is compensated.

Subsequent to the coding station 23, a test station 25 is arranged in the region of the suction conveyor 35. In a simple case, the test station 25 records an image of the coded blanks 1 and compares it to a reference image. Other testing mechanisms known in the art may also be used.

Subsequent to the coding and testing of the blanks 11, these are again assembled in a grouping station 50 into a blank stream with overlapping of the blanks 11 in the transport direction. For this purpose, a corresponding station 43 in which also recognized as defective blanks 1 1 can be discarded. This part of the device is shown in FIG. Subsequent to the suction conveyor 35, the blanks 1 1 are transported by conveyor roller pairs along a curved conveying path and thereby deflected to a horizontal discharge conveyor 44. By appropriate drive of the conveyor roller pair 45, the blanks 1 1 are accelerated relative to the discharge conveyor 44 and brought there to overlap. The discharge conveyor 44 is designed as constructively as the discharge conveyor 33 and the conveyor 29th

Preferably, the degree of overlap s is over 50%, preferably 60%. By specifying a relatively large degree of overlap s is a sufficient even in the absence of a blank 11 in the blank stream Residual overlap or a corresponding residual overlap degree s * of about 20% is given.

The discharge conveyor 44 transports the blanks 1 1 of the blank stream to the packaging machine 21.

The rejection of faulty blanks 11 is carried out by a pivotable rotary flap 46 is pivoted in the deflection region of the conveying path of the blanks 1 1 as shown in Fig. 10 to weed out a faulty blank 1 1. In this case, the faulty blank 11 enters the area of a transport shaft 47 which derives the faulty blanks 11 into a collecting container 48.

It goes without saying that individual organs or sections of the device can be dispensed with. Thus, it is conceivable, for example, that the blanks 1 are not initially conveyed as a blank stream with overlapping of the blanks 11 in the transport direction. Instead, it is conceivable that the blanks 11 are also fed directly to the buffer 24 and the suction conveyor 35.

Furthermore, the device is also suitable to process other blanks 1 1 in particular for other types of packages or bundles of packaging accordingly.

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LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 cigarette pack 39 feed roller

1 1 Cutting 40 Feed roller

12 front 41 photocell

13 Rear 42. laser

14 narrow side 43 station

15 bottom wall 44 discharge conveyor

16 end wall 45 conveyor roller pair

17 Banderole 46 Rotary flap

18 Printing 47 Transport shaft

19 Coding 48 Collection containers

20 Coding 49 Grouping station

21 packaging machine 50 separating station

22 Magazine

23 Coding station s degree of overlap

24 latches s * reduced

25 test station overlap degree

26 ejection station

27 magazine carousel

28 extraction roller

29 sponsors

30 endless conveyor

31 endless conveyor

32 pulleys

33 discharge conveyor

34 removal organ

35 suction conveyor

36 endless conveyor

37 recess

38 negative pressure device

Claims

claims

A method for handling blanks (11) from packaging material for cigarette packs (10), in particular of the type soft pack, wherein the blanks (1 1) in a stack in a magazine (22) are kept ready and wherein the blanks (1 1) the Magazine (22) and a packaging machine (21) for cigarette packs (10), in particular a soft packer, fed, characterized in that the blanks (1 1) a coding station (23) for attaching a coding (19, 20) to the Blanks (1 1) are fed and that the blanks (1 1) are combined after coding to a blank stream with overlap of adjacent blanks (11) and transferred to the packaging machine (21).

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the blanks (11) in the coding station (23) are provided with a coding, in particular by means of a laser (42), wherein preferably the blanks (11) in the region of the coding (23) be transported along an upright conveyor line and transversely to the transport direction with the laser (42) are encoded.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the blanks (1 1) after removal from the magazine (22) are first transported in a blank stream with overlapping adjacent blanks and that the blanks (1 1) of the blank stream then separated and the coding station (23) are supplied.

4. The method according to claim 1 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that the blanks (11) in the region of the coding station (23) are at least partially unfolded to identify different areas of the blank (11), which after the folding of the Blank (1 1) to a cigarette pack (10) on different side surfaces (12..16) of the cigarette pack (10) are located.

5. The method of claim 1 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that the coding (19, 20) is checked and blanks are singled out with missing and / or incorrect coding.

6. The method according to claim 1 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that the position of the blanks (11) in the

Feed to the coding station (23) is checked, preferably by a plurality of light barriers (41) in the conveying path of the blanks (11), and that malpositions of the blanks (11) are compensated by appropriate control of the coding station (23), in particular by appropriate control of the laser ( 42).

7. The method according to claim 1 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that the blanks (11) have a degree of overlap (s) of more than 50%, preferably 60% for transport as a blank stream with overlap to compensate for rejected defective blanks ( 11) while maintaining a (lesser) degree of overlap (s *).

8. The method according to claim 1 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that a plurality of magazines (22) are provided with blanks (11), from which successive blanks (11) are removed to ensure a substantially complete blank stream.

9. The method according to claim 8 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that a plurality of magazines (22) to a

Magazine carousel (27) are summarized and that the blanks (11) from a plurality of magazine carousels (27), each with a separate conveyor (29) to a buffer (24) in front of the coding (23) are supplied.

10. The method according to claim 1 or one of the further preceding claims, characterized in that the blanks (1 1) after encoding with their longitudinal extent transversely to the conveying direction are transported and transported by the packaging machine (21), in particular a soft packer, with its longitudinal extent taken over in the longitudinal direction.

11. A device for handling blanks (1 1) of packaging material for cigarette packs (10), in particular of the type soft pack, with a magazine (22) for storing blanks (1 1) in a stack and a conveyor for removing the blanks (1 1) from the magazine (22) and for feeding the blanks (11) to a packaging machine (21) for cigarette packs (10), in particular a soft packer, characterized by a coding station (23) for coding (19, 20) of the singulated blanks ( 1 1) and a subsequent Gruppiersation (49) for merging the blanks (1 1) to a blank stream with overlapping adjacent blanks (1 1) and a conveyor (44) for transferring the blanks (11) to the packaging machine (21).

12. The device according to claim 1 1, characterized in that in the region of the coding station (23) a suction conveyor (35) is provided for transporting the individual blanks (11) on an upright conveying strand of the suction conveyor (35) and for coding different areas of the blanks (11) by means of a laser (42).

13. The apparatus of claim 1 1 or 12, characterized in that a buffer (24) is provided for receiving the blanks (11) and feeding them to the suction conveyor (35), wherein between the buffer (24) and the suction conveyor (35 ) a removal member (34) is arranged for individual transfer of the blanks (11) from the buffer (24) to the suction conveyor (35) and wherein in the region of the suction conveyor (35) detection means (41) for determining the position of the blanks (11) are arranged to control the laser (42).

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that a plurality of magazines (22) are arranged on a rotatable magazine carousel (27) for the removal of blanks (11) successively from successive magazines (22), and that preferably several of these magazine carousel (27) are provided for filling the buffer (24).

15. The apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that the suction conveyor (35) has two juxtaposed and parallel spaced endless conveyor (36), the suction holes (37) for securing the position of the blanks (1 1) on the endless conveyors (36 ) exhibit.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 1, characterized in that a separating station (50) for separating the blanks (11) of the blank stream of the coding station (23) is arranged upstream.

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