ADLER, Nils, Peter (Høgtunvei 12, Asker, N-1370, NO)
BURROWS, Anthony, Gregory (Business Centre West, Avenue OneBusiness Park,Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire SG6 2HB, GB)
| CLAIMS 1. Apparatus for use in applying a fitment to packaging material, comprising an applicator including an anvil comprising a body and a receiver mounted on said body and arranged to receive a fitment, and a counter-member between which and said receiver said fitment is sandwiched and thereby said fitment is pressed against said receiver, wherein said receiver is loosely mounted on said body so as to be self-aligning relative to said counter-member when said fitment is pressed against said receiver. 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, and further comprising a biassing device arranged to urge said receiver towards said counter-member and a detent on said receiver arranged to limit movement of said receiver towards said counter-member relative to said body. 3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said biassing device comprises a resilient device substantially encircling said receiver. 4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said receiver comprises a head which receives said fitment, and a tail which is substantially encircled by said resilient device and includes said detent. 5. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, and further comprising a releasable device whereby said receiver is releasably mounted on said body. 6. Apparatus according to claim 5 as appended to claim 2, wherein said releasable device comprises an element displaceable laterally relative to said receiver to engage said detent releasably. 7. Apparatus according to claim 6 as appended to claim 4, wherein said element is slotted to embrace said tail at a location between said head and said detent. 8. Apparatus according to claim 4 or 7, or claim 5 or 6 as appended to claim 4, wherein said tail is received with play in a bore in said body. 9. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein counter-member is a pusher for mounting said fitment on said receiver. 10. A method of applying a fitment to packaging material, including sandwiching a fitment between a receiver loosely mounted on an anvil body and a counter-member and thereby pressing said fitment against said receiver, said receiver aligning itself relative to said counter- member. 11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said counter- member is a pusher which pushes said fitment onto said receiver. 12. A method according to claim 10, wherein said counter- member is an ultrasonic horn by means of which said fitment is sealed to said packaging material. 13. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 12 and further including biassing said receiver towards said counter-member, but limiting movement of said receiver towards said counter-member relative to said body. 14. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein said fitment is a plastics pour spout fitment. 15. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein said packaging material is a plastics-coated paperboard carton. |
This invention relates to apparatus for use in, and a method of, applying a fitment to packaging material. 5
In form-fill-seal packaging machines, it is known to use applicators for applying pour spout fitments to packaging cartons. It is known for such applicators to have one or more arms, the or each arm having a receiver, for example a 10 spigot, at a free end thereof for receiving a pour spout fitment and delivering the same to the carton, where a surface of the fitment is sealingly applied to an inside or outside surface of the carton. An example thereof is disclosed in EP-B-819611 which discloses a four-armed pour 5 spout fitment applicator arranged to rotate two of its arms, which are carrying respective flanged pour spout fitments on respective receivers thereof, into side-by-side, open-topped, plastics-coated paperboard cartons and advance axially to apply the flanged fitments outwardly to project through0 openings in respective top panels of the two cartons, while its other two arms are receiving two additional fitments transferred thereto by two pushers driven by air cylinders. External ultrasonic sealers have horns serving to bear on the outer panel surfaces to seal the flanges of the fitments to5 the inner surfaces of the top panels around the openings. In this instance, the two receivers are spigots which are directed parallelly to the axis of the applicator and serve to receive the fitments removably. 0 From WO2006/054061, it is known for the fitment- receiving spigots to be in a form similar to bolts, so that the spigot can be releasably screwed into the anvil bodies constituted by the outer end zones of the arms. That feature also makes the spigots replaceable. WO2008/136683A1 discloses an anvil device for a fitment applicator. The anvil device includes one or more arms, the or each of which is equipped with a spigot-like carrier for receiving a pour spout fitment against an annular contact surface of the carrier for co-operation with an annular welding head during fixing of a fitment to a carton. The or each carrier is releasably fixed to the arm by a co-axial nut-and-bolt fastener. The carrier and the arm are formed with respective part-spherical concentric surfaces whereby, in setting up the applicator, to avoid the need for highly accurate aligning of the welding head with the carrier, the head can be brought to bear against the annular contact surface of the carrier and the force thereby applied to the carrier cause the carrier to be self-aligning as enabled by the concentric surfaces, whereafter the nut-and-bolt fastener is tightened to clamp the carrier against the arm. The bolt extends with play through a bore in the carrier, so allowing such self-aligning by the carrier until, of course, the carrier is clamped to the arm ready for use.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for use in applying a fitment to packaging material, comprising an applicator including an anvil comprising a body and a receiver mounted on said body and arranged to receive a fitment, and a counter-member between which and said receiver said fitment is sandwiched and thereby said fitment is pressed against said receiver, wherein said receiver is loosely mounted on said body so as to be self-aligning relative to said counter-member when said fitment is pressed against said receiver.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of applying a fitment to packaging there is provided a method of applying a fitment to packaging material, including sandwiching a fitment between a receiver loosely mounted on an anvil body and a counter-member and thereby pressing said fitment against said receiver, said receiver aligning itself relative to said counter-member.
The counter-member may be a pusher for mounting the fitment on the receiver, or be an ultrasonic horn whereby the fitment is sealed to the packaging material.
Owing to the invention, exact alignment of the pusher or the horn with the anvil body is not necessary. Particularly in the instance where the counter-member is an ultrasonic horn, the self-alignment by the receiver improves the reliability of sealing of the fitment to the packaging material .
Advantageously, the apparatus includes a biassing device arranged to urge the receiver towards the counter-member and a detent on the receiver arranged to limit movement of the receiver towards the counter-member relative to the anvil body. The biassing device advantageously comprises a resilient device substantially encircling the receiver. The resilient device may be one or more dish springs, a helical spring, or an elastomeric washer.
Preferably, the apparatus comprises a releasable device whereby the receiver is releasably mounted on the body, in order to enable replacement of the receiver by a receiver suited to a differing pour spout fitment.
In order that the invention may be clearly and completely disclosed, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawing, in which: - Figure 1 shows a fragmentary, axial sectional view through a pour spout fitment applicator; and
Figure 2 is an underneath perspective view of part of the applicator.
The applicator shown on the drawing is part of a form- fill-seal machine of the character disclosed in our EP-B- 819611.
Figure 1 shows the applicator in use in sealing a top- hat shaped fitment 2 to a top panel 4 of a thermoplastics- coated paperboard carton, the panel 4 being shown in dot-dash lines for the sake of clarity. In a per se known manner, the pour spout of the diagrammatically shown fitment 2 is having its flange 6 ultrasonically sealed to the inside surface of the panel 4. The applicator includes a four-armed spider 8 rotatable about and reciprocable along a horizontal axis A. The free end zone of each arm 10 of the spider 8 constitutes an anvil body. Loosely and readily releasably mounted on each anvil body is a receiver 12 urged in one direction of the axis A by a pair of dish springs 14 and retained thereon by a releasable device 16. The receiver 12 includes a spigot 18 which is a friction fit in the pour spout of the fitment 2. The spigot 18 is part of a head of the receiver 12, the head including a skirt 20 which loosely encircles a boss 22 of the anvil body provided by the free end zone of the relevant arm 10. Extending from the head oppositely to the spigot 18 is a tail 24 of which the free end is formed with a diametral enlargement 26 of a frusto-conical shape. The tail 24 extends through a bore 28 formed through the anvil body parallelly to the axis A and of a diameter greater than that of the enlargement 26, so that the receiver 12 can be dismounted from the arm 10 and, if so desired, replaced by a receiver 12 suited to a pour spout fitment differing in size from the fitment 2. The releasable device 16 retains the receiver 12 mounted on the arm 10 and includes a radially slotted disc 30 located on a plane perpendicular to the axis A and releasably attached to the outer end of the arm 10 by way of a screw
(not shown) inserted through a hole 32 in the disc 30 into a screw hole 34 in a surface of the arm 10 perpendicular to the axis A. The slot 36 in the disc 30 embraces the tail 24 and, centrally of the disc 30, is shaped complementarily to the frusto-conical enlargement 26 of the tail 24. Figure 1 illustrates particularly an instance in which the axis B of an ultrasonic sealing horn 38 of the applicator is very slightly oblique with respect to the axis A. Nevertheless, the receiver 12 can cope with that, since, as can be seen, it aligns itself with the axis B, particularly because the tail 24 is only loosely received in the bore 28.
Moreover, if the relative strokes of the spider 8 and the horn 38 are slightly wrongly set, the springs 14 allow slight movement of the receiver 12 relative to the spider 8 to cope with that. It will be understood that, if the receiver 12 is to be replaced by a differing one, it is simply necessary to remove the screw (not shown) from the holes 32 and 34, then to urge the receiver 12 against the action of the dish springs 14 and then withdraw the disc 30 towards the axis A, so that the enlargement 26 can be passed through the bore 28. Mounting of the new, differing receiver 12 is performed in the reverse manner.
It will be understood that, although the outer end zones of the other three arms 10 are shown plain, they themselves, and the parts carried thereby, are formed identically to those items 12 to 36 shown in detail.