The present invention relates to an apparatus for cutting the relatively rigid binding wire or band of bales and packages and for removing the cut wire or band.

The fastening and reinforcement of various bales and packages is generally effected by using a binding wire or tie band made of a relatively rigid material, usu¬ ally of metal, the removal of such wire being general¬ ly performed by manual cutting. This leads to a con¬ siderable demand for manual labour and, in addition, the removal of cut wires presents a problem because of their length and arbitrarily extending ends, result¬ ing e.g. in an injury hazard. The further processing of such long wires or bands to re-exploitable form or the destriction thereof is also problematic and incurs extra costs. Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for cutting the binding wires or bands of various bales and packages and for removing the cut wires, said apparatus facilitating automatic cutting and removing action. Another object is to provide an apparatus which facilitates the processing of wires removed from bales or packages to a more easily workable condition. In order to achieve this object, an apparatus of the invention is character¬ ized by what is set forth in the characterizing clause of claim 1.

The most important benefit of the present invention is the automatization of an inconvenient and tedious working stage and the processing the removed wires to a safer and more readily workable condition, e.g. into

short pieces having a length in the order of e.g. 5 - 10 cm.

An apparatus of the present invention is particular¬ ly intended for cutting metallic binding wires or bands but it can also be applied to cutting and re¬ moving other binding wires or bands made of a rela¬ tively rigid material, e.g. fibre-reinforced plastics. The reason for this strength requirement is to make the transfer of a wire from a removing mechanism to a further processing mechanism relatively simple and, in addition, problems like those described above do not even appear in the case of string-like binding wires or bands.

An apparatus of the invention is particularly suit¬ able for cutting and removing the metallic binding wires or bands of pulp bales but it can be readi¬ ly applied also to cutting and removing the binding wires of some other type of packages or bales. In the case of pulp bales, the pulp sheets are usually set in a vertical position in bales, crosswise to the longitudinal direction of bales where¬ by, as bales are carried along a path in the longitudi¬ nal direction thereof to a cutting and removing appa¬ ratus of the invention, the slotting tools are able to work their way quite easily in between the pulp sheets for locating the binding wires or bands even in the case that said wires or bands have been pushed to some extent inwards from the surface level of pulp bales. In the case of pulp bales, the possible damage to the sheets does not create any problems since the sheets are intended for the production of cellulose pulp.

In terms of packages, the slotting tool must be dimen-

sioned so as not to be able to penetrate inside a package to create a hazard for damaging the contents of a package.

The invention will now be described with reference made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 shows one embodiment of an apparatus of the invention in a schematic side view,

fig. 2 shows the apparatus of fig. 1 in a schematic plan view,

fig. 3 shows a detail of a cutting device of the invention,

fig. 4 shows a detail of a removing device of the invention, and

fig. 5 shows a section of the apparatus of fig. 1 along the line V - V.

Referring to the drawings, an apparatus of the inven¬ tion comprises a cutting device 1 abd a removing de¬ vice 2 as well as a further processing device 3. The cutting device 1 includes cutting means 6, comprising preferably a scissors-type of cutter which can be adapted to operate by continuously rotating around an axis of rotation or by effecting a reciprocating cutting motion. The cutting device further includes guide means for passing a wire or a band to said cutting means. The guide means include a claw-shaped slotting tool 5, provided with a guide surface 7a for extending a wire or a band 12 set around a bale or a package outwards from the surface of such bale or pack-

age towards cutting means 6, said cutting means being located at the end of guide surface 7a facing away from the tip 7 of slotting tool 5. The cutting means 6 together with their guide means are preferably adapt¬ ed to effect a reciproating motion a along a frame column 4 e.g. by means of a motor 22. Thus, the cutting of wire or band 12 is effected during the downward or upward movement of the cutting and guide means depending on the direction of tip 7 of slotting tool 5. The power unit for cutting means 6 may com¬ prise e.g. a hydraulic cylinder 21. In the illus¬ trated embodiment, the removing device is located opposite to cutting device 1 , said removing device 2 including collecting and disposing means 8 - 11 for cut-off wire or band 12. Hence, a bale or a package 13 is adapted to pass between cutting device 1 and re¬ moving device 2. The collecting means of removing de¬ vice 2 include a slotting tool 8 , which is provided with a collecting recess 10 and penetrates between cut-off wire or band 12 and bale or package 13 on the side surface facing away from cutting device 1 so as to guide said wire or band 12 into collecting recess 10. The slotting tool 8 is attached by means of an appropriate fastener 23 to an endless conveyor chain or belt 9, adapted to run around sprockets or pulleys 14 along a circumferential path. By means of a tip 11 and collecting recess 10, said slotting tool 8 gathers together all cut-off wires set around bale 13 and re¬ moves them in a single action from around a .bale or a package. As said slotting tool 8 is advancing, carried by conveyor chain or belt 9, through a bending or fold¬ ing means 36 included in removing device 2, the wires or bands collected in recess 10 are folded to a sub¬ stantially U-shaped loop whose legs are carried along behind slotting tool 8. Said folding means may com-

prise e.g. an opening 26, shown in figs. 1 and 2 and provided in the bottom plate of a vertical housing element 27 mounted above said bale or package 13. This folding of wire or band into a loop makes it easier to carry it along by means of slotting tool 8. The cut-off wires or bands are carried by means of slotting tool 8 into a chute 2 , which chute extends horizontally in the upper section of removing device 2, as shown in fig. 1. According to fig. 5, said chute 24 is designed to comprise two sections. Thus, the slotting tool 8 is adapted to travel in the middle of the chute and hence the legs of wires or bands col¬ lected by the slotting tool travel each in its own half-chute. At the end facing away from cutting de¬ vice 1 , each half-chute is provided with an advancing roller 15, the leg of a wire or band in each half-chute laying itself upon said roller while slotting tool 8 travels forward through said advancing rollers 15. The advancing rollers 15 are fitted with side flanges 25 to prevent the lateral displacement of wires or bands aside from the top of said rollers. Above the advancing rollers are mounted press rollers 16, which are shifted into engagement with legs 12 of the cut¬ off wires or bands, whereby said cut-off wires or bands can be urged forward by means of rotating advancing rollers 15 into a further processing device 3, linked in connection with removing device 2. As shown in fig. 1 , said f rther processing device 3 is mounted on level with the upper section of removing device 2, downstream of chute 24 by means of a bracket 28, whereby said further processing device is in communication with chute 24 through the intermediary of a cone member 17. The cone member 17 serves as a guide means for steer¬ ing the advancing wires or bands into device 3. In the further processing device 3, the cut-off wires or

bands pass through rollers 18 to a chopper 19 which effects the chopping of wires or bands into pieces 12a of suitable length. Prom chopper 19, said pieces 12a are preferably dropped into a collecting vessel 20 to be carried to further treatment.

In certain ceses, said cutter 6 could comprise various cut-off saws but, especially in the case of pulp bales, a problem would be the mixing of metal chips within the cellulose pulp and, thus, these cases require the use of the cutter type of a severing device.

The purpose of the above embodiment is only to describe one preferred approach to carry out the invention and many details thereof can be considerably modified with¬ out departing from the scope of protection defined by the annexed claims.

For example, a cutting device 1 and a removing device 2 can be positioned at appr. 90 angle relative to each other in a manner that, upon carrying a bale or a package 13 into a corner formed by cutting device 1 and removing device 2, a slotting tool 5 included in cutting device 1 effects the cutting of binding wires or bands set around the bale or package on one vertic¬ al side surface while a slotting tool 8 included in removing device 2 effects the collection and disposal of said wires or packages along a vertical end surface set at a 90 angle relative to said vertical side surf¬ ace. In addition, cutting device 1 and removing de¬ vice 2 can be arranged side by side in a manner that the actions of slotting tool 5 of the cutting device and slotting tool 8 of the removing device occur in substantially parallel planes along the same vertical side surface of a bale or a package. This solution

requires a relatively long bale or package, which allows a sufficient spacing between slotting tools 5 and 8 to permit the folding of a wire or a band into a U-loop and thus the withdrawal of a wire or a band from around a bale or a package. In case it is necessary to place cutting device 1 and removing de¬ vice 2 side by side in a manner that said slotting tools 5 and 8 will be relatively close to each other, the slotting tool 8 can in principle be replaced by a suitable gripping means which squeezes around a wire or a band, whereby the wire or band can also be pull¬ ed at a position immediately adjacent to the point of cutting. However, this solution is inferior to the use of a described slotting tool 8 due to the fact that the free end of a wire or a band is forced to run around an entire bale prior to finding its way into a removing device and this leads to a hazard of the free end of a wire getting stuck in a bale or a package, causing possible damage to a bale or a pack¬ age.