EP-A-0749904 discloses a pour spout fitment applicator which applies a flanged pour spout fitment through an opening in a carton top panel. The applicator includes an oscillatable shaft having an anvil secured thereto, a vacuum cup mounted on the distal end of the anvil and a cam- controlled pivotable chute segment for co-ordinating the supply of one fitment at a time to the vacuum cup. A linkage-and-toggle system serves to turn the anvil and the cam so as to insert the individual fitment directly into the opening. While backed-up by the anvil, the flange of the fitment is sealed by an ultrasonic sealer to the inner surface of the top panel around the opening. The applicator operates transversely to the path of movement of a single line of cartons along a conveyor.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an applicator for applying fitments to material, comprising a support, and a fitment holder oscillatable relative to said support between a fitment-receiving position and a fitment-delivering position for bringing a fitment to a zone of said material, characterized in that fitment- pushing means is arranged to push said fitment from behind from said holder to press said fitment into a final position relative to said material.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of applying a fitment to material, comprising displacing a fitment in a holder from a fitment- receiving position of said holder to a fitment-delivering position of said holder at a zone of said material, characterized by pushing said fitment from behind from said holder and thereby pressing said fitment into a final position relative to said material.

Owing to these aspects of the present invention, it is not necessary to have to rely upon the fitment holder itself to bring the fitment, which may be a pour spout fitment, into its final position relative to the material, which may be

packaging material, for example a carton.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is an applicator for applying fitments to material, comprising a support, a fitment holder oscillatable relative to said support between a fitment-receiving position and a fitment-delivering position for bringing a fitment to a zone of said material, and a fitment-guiding first chute fixed relative to said support, characterized in that a second chute is oscillatable with said holder and arranged to receive said fitments from said first chute when said holder is in said fitment-receiving position and to guide said fitments to said holder.

Owing to this aspect of the invention, it is possible to have a relatively simple mechanism for transferring a fitment from a fitment guide to a zone of material to which the fitment is to be applied.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an applicator for applying fitments to material, including a gravity chute arranged to guide said fitments to a lower delivery end of said chute, characterized in that means is arranged to displace into a delivery position any fitment which, under gravity, has attained a different position at said delivery end.

Owing to this aspect of the invention, it is possible to ensure that, even if the delivery end of the gravity chute is virtually horizontal, the position of any fitment which should have attained the delivery position but has not done so, has its actual position corrected.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus comprising a parallelogram linkage, characterized in that first and second opposite sides of said linkage are extended as respective arms of which one is longer than the other, and in that, upon turning of said linkage, an outer part of the shorter arm is traversed by a part of the longer arm during turning of said linkage through a maximum range of angular movement of said linkage.

In order that the invention may be clearly and

completely disclosed, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figure 1 shows a fragmentary end elevation of a fitment- applying station of a form-fill-seal machine, with a fitment holder in a fitment-receiving position, Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but with the fitment holder in a fitment-delivering position and a fitment pusher in a final position, and Figures 3 and 4 show respective intermediate positions of the fitment holder and the fitment pusher.

The form-fill-seal machine includes a number of stations (only one of which is shown). At initial stations, sheet material blanks are formed into open-topped, gable-top cartons C shown in the drawings. The cartons are indexed to the fitment-applying station shown in the drawings, in which a fitment F is firmly inserted into a hole H in a roof panel P of the carton, and thence the cartons are advanced to a fitment-sealing station and then a filling station and thence to top closure and top-sealing stations. Each fitment F is a pour spout fitment of thermoplastics material and comprises at least an externally threaded, flanged, tubular, pour spout and a screw cap having internal threading engaging the external-threading of the spout.

The fitment-applying station shown in the drawings includes a bracket arrangement 1 fixed to a frame (not shown) of the machine. The cartons C are indexed through the station by a pair of chain conveyors (of which one is shown and referenced 2), while the cartons C are supported upon a horizontal slide 3. Fixed to the bracket arrangement 1 is a gravity chute 4 including metal guides 5 and extending from a fitment feed bowl (not shown). The guides 5 receive guidingly between them diametrically opposite portions of the flange of each spout. At the vertical, lower, delivery end of the chute 4 is an escapement 6 consisting of two pneumatic piston-and-cylinder devices whereof the piston rods 7, when in projected positions, serve to retain above them the respective ones of the lowest two fitments in the chute 4.

The devices 7 are operated alternately to enable the fitments

in the chute 4 to drop one-by-one out of the lower end of the chute 4. They drop into an oscillatable, curved chute 8 by which the flange of each fitment is guided to guide the fitment to the lower, delivery end of the chute 8 which, when in the fitment-receiving position shown in Figure 1, curves from a substantially vertical orientation downwardly into an orientation which is almost horizontal. The lower, delivery end of the chute 8 acts as a fitment holder 9 which is U- shaped and which retains the fitment F by the flange of the spout around a U-shaped portion of the flange around the spout itself. The holder 9 is otherwise open at its back to receive a fitment-pusher 10 fixed to the free end of an arm 11 of a cranked lever 12 of which another arm 13 is pivotally connected to a piston rod 14 of a pneumatic piston-and- cylinder device 15 itself mounted by a horizontal pivot 16 on the bracket arrangement 1. The lever 12 is mounted on the bracket arrangement 1 by a horizontal pivot 17 directly below which is another horizontal pivot 18 by way of which a cranked link 19 is mounted on the bracket arrangement 1, the link 19 being cranked so as to be able to come to lie closely along the lever 12. The other end of the link 19 is connected, via a horizontal pivot 20, to the chute 8 at a location just above the holder 9. Another link 21 connected at one end to the pivot 20 has its other end connected by a horizontal pivot 22 to a location on the lever 12 between the pusher 10 and the horizontal pivot 17. The connections among the horizontal pivots 17,18,20 and 22 constitute a parallelogram linkage 23. The distance between the pivot 22 and the centreline Cl0 of the pusher 10 is greater than the distance between the pivot 21 and the centreline Cg of the holder 9, whereby longer and shorter arms A1 and A2 re- respectively are provided, with the pusher 10 being at the free end of the longer arm and the holder 9 being at the free end of the shorter arm. Fixed to the bracket arrangement 1 is a pneumatic piston-and-cylinder device 24 which is substantially tangential to the outer side of the curved chute 8 at the holder 9 in the fitment-receiving position of the holder 9 and is disposed to that side of the holder 9

opposite the lower extremity of the chute 8. The device 24 has a piston rod 25. The bracket arrangement 1 is formed with an annular anvil 26.

The operation of the applicator will now be described.

In the condition shown in Figure 1, while a carton C is being advanced into the fitment-applying station, the escapement 6 allows a single fitment F to drop into the chute 8. It is intended, of course, that the fitment so dropped will continue into a correct delivery position in the holder 9. In case the fitment F does not quite reach that position, the device 24 is operated to cause the piston rod 25 to project to push the fitment to the very bottom of the guide 8 and thus into its correct position in the holder 9. As the carton C nears its dwell condition, the piston rod 25 is withdrawn and the device 15 is operated to swing the lever 12, the link 19, the holder 9 and the pusher 10 towards the hole H. As the carton C arrives in its dwell condition, the parallelogram linkage 23 continues to turn under the action of the device 15 to bring the fitment F into the top of the carton C, as shown in Figure 3. Continued turning of the parallelogram linkage 23 advances the pusher 10 completely into the open back of the holder 9, as shown in Figure 4, so that the pusher 10 starts to bear against the back of the fitment F as the fitment begins to enter the hole H. Continued turning of the parallelogram linkage 23 brings it into the condition shown in Figure 2, in which the lever 12 bears against and lies closely along the link 19 and so prevents further turning of the linkage in the same sense, the holder 9 has stopped short of contacting the inside surface of the carton C, and the pusher 10 has pressed the fitment flange entirely out of the holder 9 and lodged the fitment F in the hole H, the surrounding material edge of which engages the tubular main body of the spout of the fitment F. The annular anvil 26 the edge of which is co-extensive with the edge of the hole H, prevents the surrounding material edge from yielding laterally of the carton C under the action of the pusher 10.

The next station (not shown) is the fitment-sealing station at which, say, an ultrasonic horn of annular form is applied

to one of the inwardly-facing surface of the flange of the fitment and the outwardly-facing surface of the carton panel zone encircling the fitment, with a supporting anvil being applied to the other of the two surfaces.

The applicator described with reference to the drawings has a number of advantages. Firstly, the device 24 ensures that the gravity-fed fitment F reaches its desired delivery position (the device 24 is of course applicable to other applicators of different construction in which there is a risk that fitments may not attain their intended delivery positions). Secondly, the arrangement whereby the parallelogram linkage 23 supports and drives both the holder 9 and the pusher 10 in such manner that the relative position of the pusher 10 tends to pass through that of the holder 9 over part of the angular movement of the linkage 23 has the advantage that the holder 9 itself can stop short of the inside surface of the carton, so that the holder does not need to touch that inside surface, which is advantageous for hygienic reasons, and that the pusher 10 pushes only against the back of the fitment and thus again does not come into contact with the inside surface of the carton. This means that the fitment can be fully inserted into its final position relative to the carton without any part of the applying mechanism coming into contact with that inside surface. (This arrangement is also employable, but with less advantage, in the applying of fitments to the external surface of the unfilled carton, or of the carton after top- sealing. Moreover, the arrangement is also employable in the applying of fitments to carton blanks from which cartons are to be made, or even to webs of material from which carton blanks are to be made). The arrangement whereby the lower chute 8 incorporates the holder 9 which brings the fitment to almost its final position has the advantage of avoiding the need to provide some mechanism for transferring the fitment transversely from the lower end of a gravity chute to a spigot or suction cup of a holder (again, this arrangement is applicable to applicators of different characters from that of the present applicator).