The present invention relates to a product wrapping unit for a packaging line.

Though the present invention is suitable for wrapping products in any type of packaging line, it may be used to particular advantage to wrap a packet or a multi-packet in a packaging line of pourable food products, such as milk, fruit juice, wine, etc., to which the following description refers purely by way of example .

Background of Invention

As known, in a packaging line of the above type packs are produced from a sheet packaging material, which is normally in the form of pre-cut blanks or a continuous strip and is subjected to a series of longitudinal folding and sealing operations to form a continuous tube of packaging material which, once filled, is sealed and cut transversely into individual packets .

The finished packets are then ordered to form two or more rows and are fed by a linear conveyor to a grouping and aligning unit, which is adapted to separate one or more, for example two, packet groups from the rest of the respective rows and to align the packet groups along a direction orthogonal to an advancement direction of the groups along the linear conveyor.

Downstream of the grouping and aligning unit, the packet groups first are moved through a wrapping station, where they are enveloped with a film of plastic heat-shrinkable material, and then are passed through an oven, where the film is heat-shrunk around each packet group so as to complete the formation of a respective multi-packet .

The wrapping station normally comprises a linear conveyor to advance the groups; a feeding device to feed sheet-cut film to an inlet of the linear conveyor; and a wrapping device having a plurality of bars which extend crosswise to the group advancement direction and are moved along an annular bar path extending around the linear conveyor. In particular, the bar path comprises a work stretch, along which the bars are moved in the same direction and at a higher speed than that of the groups so as to surmount and overtake them and resultingly wrap the film around the groups. The bar path further comprises a return stretch, along which the bars are moved below the linear conveyor in an opposite direction to the group advancement direction.

Though effective, the system described above has a drawback, due to the fact that at the inlet and outlet of the wrapping station and during the advancement through the wrapping station the packets are submitted to unavoidable stresses which may compromise the stability of the packets, in particular those with a relatively narrow rest base.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a product wrapping unit intended to mitigate the above drawbacks .

According to the present invention, there is provided a product wrapping unit for a packaging line, as claimed in claim 1 and preferably in any of the claims depending directly or indirectly to claim 1.

Brief description of the drawings

A non-limiting embodiment of the present invention will be described by way of example with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view, with parts removed for clarity, of a preferred embodiment of the wrapping unit according to the present invention;

Figure 2 shows a larger-scale perspective view of a detail in Figure 1;

Figure 3 shows a larger-scale perspective view of a further detail in Figure 1; and

Figures 4 to 9 show larger-scale side views of a detail of the wrapping unit according to the present invention in different operating configurations.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows a product wrapping unit, designated as a whole by reference numeral 1, in a packaging line 2.

In particular, in the example shown, the products are defined by multi-packets 3, each comprising a given number, three in the specific case, of individual packets 4, which are arranged next to one another in a compact arrangement and are preferably defined by respective aseptic packets of a pourable food product, such as fruit juice, milk, wine, etc.

For manufacturing packets 4 of this type, packaging line 2 comprises, in known manner:

- a forming unit (not shown) , in which packets 4 are formed from flat pre-cut blanks or from a continuous strip of material;

- a filling unit (not shown) ;

- a packet grouping and alignment unit (not shown) , in which packets 4 are grouped and ordered to form relative multi-packets 3; and

- a wrapping unit, in which multi-packets 3 are wrapped with a film 5 of heat-shrinkable material.

As shown in Figure 1, according to the present invention, wrapping unit 1 comprises a conveyor 6 (a linear conveyor in the embodiment shown) for continuously feeding, in an advancement direction 7, a succession of rows 8 of multi-packets 3 through a wrapping station 9, in which film 5 of heat-shrinkable material is wrapped around multi-packets 3.

The wrapping unit 1 further comprises an oven 10, which receives multi-packets 3 from wrapping station 9 and is provided with heating means (not shown) for heating film 5 wrapped around multi-packets 3 to form respective wrappings. Rows 8 are uniformly spaced apart along conveyor 6 and contain, each, one or more, two in the example shown, multi-packets 3 spaced from, and aligned with, one another in a direction 11 perpendicular to advancement direction 7.

Wrapping unit 1 comprises, finally, a stability control group 12, which will be described in detail hereinafter, and the function of which is to hinder a possible disequilibrium of packets 4 during advancement along conveyor 6, and, in particular, at wrapping station 9, so that each packet 4 maintains its upright position and stays aligned to packets 4 of the respective multi-packet 3 and respective of other multi- packets 3 arranged in the same row 8.

As shown in Figures 1 and 3, wrapping station 9 comprises a wrapping device 13 of known type and a film feeding device 14, also of known type, which is arranged below conveyor 6 and before wrapping device 13 with respect to advancement direction 7 for feeding, during operation, film 5 cut into sheets to wrapping device 13.

Wrapping device 13 comprises (Figure 3) a plurality of bars 15, which are parallel to each other and to direction 11 and are mounted on a frame comprising two support plates 16 to move all together along an annular path A comprising a work stretch Al arranged above conveyor 6 and a return stretch disposed below conveyor 6.

In particular, support plates 16 are arranged on opposite sides and outside of conveyor 6, lie in respective vertical planes parallel to advancement direction 7. On the inner side facing the other plate 16, each support plate 16 carries a respective chain 17, which is looped around a driving pulley 18, is tensioned by a pair of tensioning pinions 19 arranged, as well as driving pulley 18, below conveyor 6 and engages in sliding manner a grooved guide 20 rigidly connected to a portion of respective plate 16 protruding above conveyor 6.

The chain 17 may be replaced by another transmission element, for example a toothed belt.

In particular, grooved guide 20 comprises an intermediate portion 21 that extends in a direction substantially parallel to advancement direction 7 and defines, as it will be clear from what follows, the cited work stretch Al . Intermediate portion 21 is connected to the portion of chain 17 looped around driving pulley 18 and tensioning pinions 19 by means of two vertical sections of chain 17, which are arranged, as clearly shown in Figures 4 to 9, at respective transverse through openings 22 of conveyor 6.

To this purpose, conveyor 6 comprises a first conveyor 23 disposed upstream from wrapping station 9, a second conveyor 24 disposed downstream of wrapping station 9, and an intermediate conveyor 25, which is separate from conveyors 23 and 24 by respective gaps, which extend perpendicularly to advancement direction 7 and define the aforementioned openings 22.

With reference to Figure 3, each bar 15 extends from one to the other of plates 16 perpendicularly to advancement direction 7, and is rigidly connected to chains 17 by means of respective connecting elements fitted with respective ends of bar 15.

During operation, bars 15 are transported by chains 17 along path A so as to move always parallel to themselves and move along work stretch Al in advancement direction 7 and along the return stretch in the opposite direction to advancement direction 7. Bars 15 move through conveyor 6, in a direction transverse to advancement direction 7 and to direction 11, at an inlet of the wrapping station 9 , which inlet is defined by opening 22 arranged first in advancement direction 7, and at an outlet of wrapping station 9 , which outlet is defined by the other opening 22. In other words, bars 15 move I a substantially vertical directions at the inlet of the wrapping station 9 and at the outlet of the wrapping station 9 , i.e. at openings 22.

As will be described in more detail in the following, bars 15 intercept film 5 at the inlet of the wrapping station 9 and move with the film 5 along work stretch Al at a speed higher than the speed of multi- packets 3 so as to wrap film 5 around multi-packets 3 and finally abandon wrapping station 9 at the outlet of the wrapping station 9 .

As shown in Figure 1, the feeding device 14 (of known type) is adapted to receive film 5 of heat- shrinkable material in the form of a continuous strip unwound from a reel (not shown) and comprises, in series in a advancement direction R of the strip, a longitudinal cutter (not shown) adapted to cut the strip in the direction R to obtain two strips, a pair of opposite and counter-rotating traction rollers 27, and a transverse cutter 28 adapted to cut the strips perpendicularly to direction R to obtain a succession of pairs of sheets 29.

Feeding device 14 also comprises a further pair of opposite and counter-rotating traction rollers 30 adapted to advance in succession pairs of sheets 29 on an aspirated inclined plane 31, which cooperates with upper surface of conveyor 25 at the inlet of the wrapping station 9 and is designed to guide sheets 29, launched through the relative opening 22, to the front edge of intermediate conveyor 25.

With reference to Figures 1 and 2, stability control group 12 comprises a frame 32, on which a plurality of mobile anti-tip devices 33 (only two of which are illustrated in figure 1) are mounted, whose function is to prevent packets 4 of a respective row 8 from losing their equilibrium and falling forward or backward with respect to advancement direction 7, before, during and after their advancement along conveyor 25, and, in particular, at transition area between intermediate conveyor 25 and first conveyor 23 and at transition area between intermediate conveyor 25 and second conveyor 24, i.e. at openings 22.

Frame 32 is arranged entirely above conveyor 6 and comprises two shoulders 34 rigidly connected to each other and defined by respective plates of generally rectangular shape, which lie on respective vertical planes parallel to advancement direction 7 and are arranged on opposite sides of conveyor 6. Each anti-tip device 33 preferably comprises a pair of rods 35, which are parallel to the plane of conveyor 6 and perpendicular to advancement direction 7, and are movable, parallel to themselves, along an annular path P comprising a work stretch PI, along which rods 35 advance along conveyor 6 in advancement direction 7 and at the same speed as multi-packets 3, and a return stretch, along which rods 35 are moved in the opposite direction to advancement direction 7.

As will be clearly described in the following, along work stretch PI, each anti-tip device 33 is associated with a respective row 8 and the corresponding rods 35 are arranged on opposite sides of the same row 8, in respective positions facing to front and, respectively, rear faces of multi-packets 3 in the same row 8. Therefore, for the sake of clarity, in the description that follows rods 35 of each anti-tip device 33 will be indicated with reference numbers 35a and 35b, depending on they are arranged forward and, respectively, rearward in the advancement direction 7 along the stretch work PI.

With reference to Figures 4 to 9, each rod 35a, 35b is mounted on frame 32 to oscillate, when moving along work stretch PI, between a lowered or close position, in which rod 35a, 35b is facing to, and is conveniently in contact with, the respective face of row 8 in such a way as to define a transverse stop member movable with the same row 8, and a raised or spaced apart position, in which rod 35a, 35b is spaced from the relative side of the row 8, and defines, with row 8, a respective passage channel 36 adapted to permit, during operation, as will be explained in detail below, to a bar 15 to move through advancement path of rows 8 at the inlet of the wrapping station 9 and at the outlet of the wrapping station 9.

The anti-tip device 33 are uniformly distributed along aforementioned path P, and are moved synchronously along path P by means of a conveying device 37, which is, in the example shown, a chain transport device, but could be replaced by any other synchronous transport device suitable for that purpose, for example a toothed belt. Rods 35a 35b of each anti-tip device 33 are instead moved between the respective lowered position and raised position by means of a cam device 38.

As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, each rod 35 is mounted to shoulders 34 of frame 32 by means of two fastening brackets arranged at ends of a respective rod 35 and defined by respective rocker arms 39, each of which is pivoted, by means of a respective pin 40 parallel to rod 35, on a respective chain 41.

The chain 41 may be replaced by another transmission element, for example a toothed belt.

Each chain 41 is mounted to a respective shoulder

34, is looped around four sprockets 42, of which one is a powered sprocket, and includes a forward lower stretch, which is parallel to advancement direction 7 and defines the aforementioned work stretch PI, and an rearward upper stretch, which is parallel to the lower stretch, defines the aforementioned return stretch and is connected to the lower stretch through two substantially vertical chain stretches.

Since each anti-tip device 33 comprises two rods 35a and 35b, and each rod 35 is provided with a pair of rocker arms 39, conveying device 37 includes four toothed chains 41, a first pair of which carries the rocker arms 39 that are associated with the rods 35a, and a second pair of which carries the rocker arms 39 that are associated with rods 35b. Preferably, the toothed chains 41 in the first pair are arranged facing one another on respective inner sides of shoulders 34, while the toothed chain 41 in the second pair are arranged on respective outer sides of shoulders 34. Anti-tip devices 33 are uniformly distributed along toothed chains 41.

As shown in detail in Figure 2, each rocker arm 39 comprises a first arm 43, which extends up to and beyond the periphery of the respective shoulder 34, and has an end portion rigidly connected to one end of the respective rod 35, and a second arm 44, which is fitted, at its free end, with a follower 45 engaging in transversely sliding manner a track 46 of a respective annular front cam 47 which is integral with the relative shoulder 34.

Similarly to what said for toothed chain 41, stability control group 12 comprises four frontal cams 47, which define, all together, the aforementioned cam device 38 and comprise a first pair of front cam 47a, which is associated with rocker arms 39 of rods 35a, and a second pair of front cams 47b, which is associated to rocker arms 39 of rods 35b.

In particular, each front cam 47a and 47b is rigidly connected to an inner and, respectively, an outer face of a corresponding shoulder 34, and extends around the respective toothed chain 41.

As shown more clearly in Figures 4 to 9, track 46 of each front cam 47b comprises a straight portion 48 parallel to work stretch PI and comprising a curved portion 50, which is arranged at the inlet of the wrapping station 9 and is shaped so as to cause, during operation, a rocker arm 39 passing through it to swing around the respective pin 40 so as to move relative rod 35b backward in an opposite direction to advancement direction 7.

Similarly, track 46 of each face cam 47a includes a straight portion 48 parallel to work stretch PI and comprising a curved portion 49, which is arranged at an output of the wrapping station 9 and is shaped so as to cause, during operation, a rocker arm 39 passing through it to swing around the respective pin 40 so as to move the respective rod 35a forward in advancement direction 7.

With reference to the above, it is important to point out that, according to a variation not shown, each anti-tip device 33 may comprise a single rod 35. In this embodiment, the remaining rod will act, depending on whether it is a rod 35a or a rod 35b, as transversal stop member for a corresponding front or rear row 8. Resultingly, in this embodiment, conveying device 37 comprises only one pair of toothed chains 41, and cam device 38 only comprises a pair of front cams 47.

Finally, it should be specified that as previously described with respect to the stability control of two or more multi-packets 3 aligned along a relative row 8 is clearly applicable, without any substantial modification, even for the stability control of a different product, for example a single packet.

The operation of the wrapping material 1 will be described in the following with reference to Figures 4 to 9, which show, by way of example, a single row 8 advancing through the wrapping station 9.

As shown in Figure 4, when a row 8 is on the conveyor 23 (row 8 drawn with dotted line) , rods 35a and 35b of anti-tip device 33 associated with this row 8 are both arranged in the lowered positions. Under the action of the conveyor 23, row 8 comes to an inlet of the wrapping station 9 (row 8 drawn with continuous line) and, through the opening 22, is advanced to the conveyor 25. When row 8 passes onto conveyor 25, the front edge of each multi-packet 3 engages the front end of a respective sheet 29, which remains gripped below the multi-packet 3 and is dragged forward along conveyor 25.

Immediately before row 8 passes through opening 22 at the inlet of the wrapping station 9, followers 45 of rocker arms 39 which are fitted with rod 35b engage respective curved portions 50 of respective front cam 47b. As a result, as anti-tip device 33 advances in advancement direction 7 together with row 8, rocker arms 39 rotate around the respective pin 40 and space rod 35b apart from row 8 in a direction opposite to advancement direction 7, so as to allow the channel 36 to be formed between row 8 and rod 35b and a bar 15 to move upwards along channel 36. While row 8 proceeds along conveyor 25, bar 15 moves along portion Al at a speed higher than that of conveyor 25 and wraps (in known manner) sheets 29 of the film 5 around the respective multi-packets 3.

As shown in Figure 5, curved portion 50 is designed so that, as soon as bar 15 has passed through opening 22, the relative rocker arms 39 rotate so as to bring rod 35b again in its lowered position, in which rod 35b acts as a rear transversal barrier for row 8.

As shown in Figure 6, movements of rod 35b and bar 15 are timed to each other such that, when rod 35b reaches its lowered position, bar 15 has wrapped sheets 29 around the rear face of the respective multi-packets 3 so that only a single layer of film 5 remains between rod 35b and rear face of multi-packets 3. In this way, rod 35b is prevented to hold the portion of sheet 29 still to be wound back against the action of bar 15 so causing the sheet 29 to be pulled out from the bottom of multi-packets 3.

As shown in Figure 7, before row 8 reaches the outlet of the wrapping station 9 and is transferred on the conveyor 24 through the relative opening 22, rocker arms 39 which are fitted with rod 35a behave in a similar way to what occurs to rocker arms 39 fitted with rod 35b close to the inlet of the wrapping station 9. In fact, when bar 15 gets close to the terminal portion of stretch Al, followers 45 of rocker arms 39 fitted with rod 35a engage respective curved portions 49 and cause the respective rocker arms 39 to rotate with consequent spacing apart of rod 35a from row 8 in advancement direction 7 and formation of channel 36 between rod 35a and the front face of multi-packets 3.

The profile of curved portion 49 is designed such that rod 35a is substantially in its raised position when bar 15 passes through aperture 22 and returns to the lowered position when row 8 has finally reached conveyor 24 (Figure 9) .

From the foregoing it is possible to understand the advantages associated with wrapping unit 1 of the present invention and resulting from the presence of stability control group 12 in combination with the film wrapping device 13.

In particular, anti-tip devices 33 are able to support, if necessary, rows 8 before, during and after the wrapping station 9 by acting as fixed barriers without exerting any direct gripping thrust on packets 4 and, therefore, without the risk of damaging the packets 4. At the inlet of the wrapping station 9 and at the outlet of the wrapping station 9, anti-tip devices 33 are configured in such a way to effectively and quickly disengage respective rows 8, especially in view of the considerable speeds at which row 8 are moved, and to the time strictly necessary to allow the passage of bars 15 and film 5, while maintaining a partial supporting action of multi-packets 3 due to the presence of at least one among rods 35a, 35b.