APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING PACKAGING UNITS
The invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units in a tubular bag forming, filling and sealing machine, having a horizontal conveyor installation for transferring separated products (14) to a portioning appliance (15) for manufacturing portion units (12) with a defined arrangement and number of products, and having a vertical conveyor installation (22) for conveying the portion units, which are enveloped by a film web (11), to a separating appliance for separating the packaging units, wherein the vertical conveyor installation has two parallel strap conveyors (34, 35), each having a multiplicity of support appliances arranged in the conveying direction (17) for supporting the conveying straps along the conveying channel.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units in a tubular bag forming, filling and sealing machine, having a horizontal conveyor installation for transferring separated products to a portioning appliance for manufacturing portion units with a defined arrangement and number of products, and having a vertical conveyor installation for conveying the portion units, which are enveloped by a film web, to a separating appliance for separating the packaging units, wherein the vertical conveyor installation has two parallel strap conveyors, defining, with conveying sides arranged so as to be opposed to each other and pertaining to circulating conveying straps, a conveying channel for conveying the portion units, which are enveloped by the film web, wherein the strap conveyors each have a multiplicity of support appliances arranged in the conveying direction for supporting the conveying straps along the conveying channel.
Apparatuses of the type mentioned at the beginning allow for arranging a vertical conveying device after a portioning appliance in the vertical sense, wherein, in the region of the vertical conveyor installation, as the portion units manufactured in the portioning appliance are being continuously conveyed, they are simultaneously enveloped in a film web and normally film edges of the film web are also sealed for realizing a film tube receiving the portion units. For finishing portion packages receiving individual portion units, the only thing then left is to partition the film tube at points corresponding to the portion units carried along in the same.
Normally, manufacturing packaging units with which the film envelope rests against the products realizing the respective portion unit as tightly as possible is desirable. Moreover, the operations of enveloping the portion units and conveying the portion units are desired to be performed in a fashion as gentle on the product as possible.
The invention is therefore based on the task of proposing an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units allowing for manufacturing a clinging product package while conveying the packaged products in a fashion that is gentle on the products.
This task is solved by the apparatus having the features of claim 1.
The apparatus in accordance with the invention has a vertical conveyor installation having support appliances, which have a pivoting lever which is borne at a framework of the strap conveyor and exposed to a pretensioning force with the help of an elastic element against the conveying direction, and which is provided, at its free lever end, with a contact appliance for resting against a rear side of the conveying straps in a supporting fashion.
Owing to the fact that the support appliance is realized as a pivoting lever pretensioned with the help of an elastic element, it is achieved that each support appliance individually acts on the product conveyed through the conveying channel. Hereby, an adaptation of the conveying sides of the conveying straps to the product contours in contact with the conveying straps becomes possible, peripheral differences in the conveying direction existing at the products themselves or also between successive products of a portion unit being compensated during said adaptation. The result is that the conveying straps and hence also the film envelope arranged between the conveying straps and the portion units tightly comes to rest against the contour of the products or portion units and that cavities can mostly be prevented from developing between the film envelope and the products or the portion units.
It is particularly advantageous if the contact appliance of the pivoting to lever has a contact roller borne at the lever end, such that undesired frictional effects can mostly be prevented between the contact appliance and the conveying straps, resulting in the contact appliance being able to better follow the contour of the product conveyed past the contact appliance in the conveying channel, which means that in particular no delays occur of the pivoting movements of the support appliance due to frictional effects between the contact appliance and the conveying strap.
If in each instance two contact rollers arranged in a common horizontal plane on opposite sides of the conveying channel form a contact roller pair having a left contact roller and a right contact roller, wherein the contact rollers define a front conveying gap in a front conveying channel cross-section, said gap being offset to the side relative to a rear conveying gap defined in a rear conveying channel cross-section, the support appliance does not only make it possible to adapt the conveying channel contour to the products and portion units conveyed, but also in particular to adapt the conveying channel contour in a transverse direction to the conveying direction, such that a conveying gap is defined in a rear conveying channel cross-section, being offset with respect to a conveying gap in a front conveying channel cross-section.
Such a transverse shift to the conveying direction can particularly simply be achieved if the contact rollers are realized as flanged rollers, having a first roller section having a diameter d1 and a second roller section having a diameter d2, wherein d1 is smaller than d2.
If, in addition, contact roller pairs arranged so as to be adjacent in the conveying direction have an alternating arrangement of the right and of the left contact roller, in such a manner that the conveying gap, both in a front conveying channel plane and in a rear conveying channel plane, in the transition from one pair of contact rollers to the adjacent pair of rollers, has an alternating lateral conveying gap shift, a particularly good adaptation of the conveying channel contour to products or portion units having, in the conveying direction, a diameter changing greatly can be achieved, as it is, for instance, the case with round disk-shaped products, when the disk-shaped product is arranged so as to be parallel to the conveying direction.
A particularly simple and reliable constructive design of the support appliance, which in addition makes it possible to design the support appliance in a particularly compact fashion, is achieved if the elastic element is realized as a swivel pin spring and is arranged on a swing shaft so as to be coaxial with respect to the longitudinal axis of the swing shaft of the pivoting lever.
If, for setting the conveying channel width, the distance between the frameworks of the strap conveyors is adjustable, products or portion units deviating to a large extent with respect to the product diameter or to the diameter of the portion unit can be conveyed with the same vertical conveyor installation, such that the spring path of the elastic element required for the function of the support appliances is not restricted by the product dimensions and that the advantageous characteristics of the support appliance can be utilized in the same manner with products or with portion units having a relatively small diameter and with products or portion units having a relatively large diameter. This means that, by adjusting the distance between the frameworks of the strap conveyors, the conveying channel width can receive a normal setting, such that the advantageous effects discussed hereinbefore, of the support appliances, can set in based on this normal setting.
In the following, preferred embodiments of the apparatus will be explained in more detail with the aid of the drawings.
In the figures:
For being transferred to a vertical conveyor installation 22 which is arranged below a transfer region 21, and which is only schematically illustrated in
As
As
The vertical conveyor installation 22, together with the film take-off appliance 36, forms a transport unit 41, which makes sure that the film envelope 24 is synchronously conveyed together with the portion units 12 received therein.
For explaining the function and the construction of the vertical conveyor installation 22, reference initially is to be made to
For an exemplary design of a conveying channel setting appliance, which serves to set the distance b of conveying sides 61, 62 arranged so as to be opposed to each other and pertaining to the conveying straps 34, 35, the driving shafts 50 or the shaft housings 51 of the driving shafts 50, as it is illustrated in particular in
As
As it is illustrated in
As shown by
As shown by
Owing to the roller sections 110, 111 provided with different diameters d1, d2, a front conveying gap 116 is realized between the contact rollers 107, 108 in a front conveying channel cross-section 115, said gap being offset with respect to a rear conveying gap 117, which is realized in a rear conveying channel cross-section 118.
In
As
In
Claims
1. An apparatus for manufacturing packaging units in a tubular bag forming, filling and sealing machine, having a horizontal conveyor installation for transferring separated products to a portioning appliance for manufacturing portion units with a defined arrangement and number of products, said apparatus comprising:
- a vertical conveyor installation for conveying the portion units enveloped by a film web, wherein the vertical conveyor installation has two parallel strap conveyors including circulating conveying straps with conveying sides arranged so as to be opposed to each other, said conveying straps defining a conveying channel for conveying the portion units enveloped by the film web;
- a plurality of support appliances arranged in a conveying direction and supporting the conveying straps along the conveying channel;
- a pivoting lever borne at a framework of the strap conveyor and exposed to a pretensioning force against the conveying direction; and
- a contact appliance resting against a rear side of the conveying straps in a supporting fashion at a free lever end of the pivoting lever.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the contact appliance of the pivoting lever has a contact roller borne at the lever end.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2, in which in each instance, two contact rollers arranged in a common horizontal plane on opposite sides of the conveying channel form a contact roller pair having a left contact roller and a right contact roller, wherein the contact rollers define a front conveying gap in a front conveying channel cross-section, said gap being laterally offset relative to a rear conveying gap defined in a rear conveying channel cross-section.
4. The apparatus according to claim 3, in which the contact rollers are flanged rollers, each flanged roller having a first roller section having a diameter d1 and a second roller section having a diameter d2, wherein d1 is smaller than d2.
5. The apparatus according to claim 3, in which contact roller pairs arranged so as to be adjacent in the conveying direction have an alternating arrangement of the right and of the left contact roller, in such a manner that the conveying gap, both in a front conveying channel plane and in a rear conveying channel plane, in the transition from one pair of contact rollers to the adjacent pair of contact rollers, has an alternating lateral conveying gap shift.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the pretensioning force is provided by a swivel pin spring arranged on a swing shaft so as to be coaxial with respect to a longitudinal axis of the swing shaft of the pivoting lever.
7. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which, the distance between the frameworks of the strap conveyors is adjustable for setting the conveying channel width.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 14, 2014
Publication Date: Aug 11, 2016
Inventors: Markus SCHMACHTEL (Allendorf-Lumda), Horst KONSTANDIN (Karlsbad)
Application Number: 15/021,860