The invention relates to apparatus for packaging articles such as bottles and more particularly to apparatus for engaging a carton, for example of a wraparound type, with an array of articles and folding the side panels of the carton against the articles.

Known apparatus of this general type is disclosed by Ebbinghaus in US 3908332 and Zabatone in US 3827211. In the former, a packaging machine is disclosed having pressure bars mounted on an endless chain which engage and press downwardly upon the top panel of a carton blank. This causes the top panel, which contains apertures through which bottle necks extend, to lower onto the bottles. The cartons are then loaded onto a conveyor belt and passed between two rotating blades which cause downward folding of the side panels of the carton blank.

Zabatone discloses a packaging machine having bars carried on an endless chain which push down the top panel of a carton blank onto an array of articles. Again, the carton top panel has an array of apertures through which necks of bottles can extend. In contrast to Ebbinghaus however, Zabatone discloses use of a fixed, rotating blade to fold down one side panel of the carton and a plough forming bar for folding down the other side panel.

The present invention seeks to avoid or at least mitigate various problems of the prior art. According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a carton folding mechanism for lowering and partially folding a carton around an array of necked articles such as bottles,

comprising means for moving the carton relative to the array of articles so as to engage the

article necks, means for folding the side panels of the carton to a position adjacent the sides

of the articles and a drive mechanism for driving both folding means and moving means

along an endless path.

The folding means can comprise a first and second folding plate which are displaced from one another so as to be able to fold separate carton side panels. The separation of the first and second folding plates can be adjustable so that the mechanism is usable with various types of arrays of articles having one, two or more rows of articles.

The lowering means and folding means can be guided through an inclined path at the carton engaging part of their endless path such that the lowering means abuts the carton and causes it to move downwardly relative to the array of articles.

The folding means and lowering means can cooperate to cause at least partial lowering of the carton onto an array of articles. The folding means can comprise a plate having a bevel led leading edge which cooperates with the lowering means. The lowering means can comprise a series of lugs protruding from the folding means and separated from one another along the direction of flow of cartons through the mechanism.

The lugs can be telescopic such that they are extendable to adapt to the type of array of articles being packaged.

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

FIGURE 1 is a schematic side elevation view of a machine according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a schematic perspective view from above of the machine according to the invention as shown in Figure 1 adapted for a two-by-two array of articles; and

FIGURE 3 is an exploded perspective view of an embodiment of a machine according to the invention.

Referring to Figure 1, there is shown part of the lowering and folding apparatus 10 according to the invention which comprises lowering lugs 12 and side panel folding plates 14. As can be seen from Figures 2 and 3, two of the lowering lugs, namely 12a and 12c extend from one side of the apparatus whilst a third lowering lug 12b is positioned between both lugs 12a and 12c and extends from the other side of the apparatus.

In operation a regularly spaced series of lowering and folding devices 12 and 14 are moved along an endless path for example by a chain mechanism such as 16 and 18 shown in Figure 3. An unfolded carton blank C positioned on top of an array of necked articles, such as bottles B, which are conveyed along a conveyor 20. The blank C is caused to be lowered onto the necked articles by engagement with leading lowering lug 12a followed by

engagement with the other lowering lugs 12b and 12c as the group of articles are conveyed

along the path P indicated by an arrow in each of the figures. Advantageously, the side panel folding plates 14 can comprise a bevelled leading edge IS such that the side folding plates 14 initially act on a finite length of side panel at first engagement rather than a point. Further, leading edge 15 and leading lug 12a can be caused to engage a carton C at the same time by appropriately configuring the angle of inclination of the downward movement of the lowering and folding assemblies on their drive chains relative to the separation and relative positions of lugs 12a and leading edges IS. This is shown schematically for the second array of articles in Figure 1. Thus, a leading part of a carton C can be engaged at the same time as a relatively rearward part of a carton thus causing the carton to be lowered on the necks of an array of bottles B in a substantially horizontal manner. Therefore, the risk of disturbing an array of articles through non-horizontal lowering of a carton is minimized.

As an array of articles continues along path P the side panel folding plates 14 are caused to rotate into a substantially upright position thereby folding downwardly the side panels of carton C. At the same time central lug and rearward lug 12b and 12c respectively are lowered into engagement with the carton top panel thus ensuring that the carton is properly engaged on the necks of the array of articles. The partially packaged array of articles is then conveyed further along path P to a known mechanism for folding the base panels of the wraparound carton C into engagement with the bottoms of the articles so as to form a packaged carton.

O 95/23091

As can be seen by comparing Figures 1 and 2, apparatus 10 is readily useable with a variety

of arrays of articles. In Figure 1 a side elevation view is shown of a series of three bottles B which could be in an aπay of two rows similar to the two-by-two array shown in Figure 2. Alternatively, the machine is adaptable to more rows of articles or only a single row. With regard to the latter arrangement, the lugs 12 can advantageously be made relatively short so that by moving drive chain 16 and 18 closer together along their support beams 22 and 24 shown in Figure 3, the apparatus 10 is easily adaptable for a single line carton. As can be seen in Figure 2, the length of lugs 12 are substantially equal to one another and of the order of the diameter of a bottle B. Thus, side panel folding plates 14 can still be used to fold the side panels of a carton adapted for a single line of articles. Of course any number of lugs could be used in the mechanism and indeed the side folding devices need not be a single plate. Additionally, the lugs can be telescopic such that they could be extended to suit the width of carton being used, which is of course dependent on the number of rows of articles being packaged.

The apparatus 10 is shown in more detail in Figure 3 wherein it can be seen that the drive chains 16 and 18 are each driven around a guided path by various guides and wheels referred to generally as 26 and 28 of chains 16 and 18 respectively. Thus, a continuous endless path of movement can be provided for a series of lowering and folding assemblies 12 and 14 positioned at spaced intervals along the drive chain.