A method for placing a rectangular cover on a rectangular box which is open at the cover side, and also a device which is suitable for carrying out such a method.
The invention relates to a method for placing a rectangular cover on a rectangular box which is open at the cover side.
The invention furthermore relates to a device which is suitable for carrying out such a method.
In the packaging industry various packagings are known for packing a product in a box-shaped casing. A known casing is a so-called American folding box, whereby flaps are folded up and possibly sealed up on the upper side as well as on the bottom side of the box. Another known casing is a box which is open on one side and which is wrapped in shrink-foil . Large supermarket chains increasingly prefer boxes which are open on one side, whereby the box with the products present therein is placed in the supermarket and the consumer can take the products directly from the box.
It is thereby objectionable when closing flaps are present, because they remain attached to the box after the box has been opened. The use of shrink-foil is undesirable because the shrink foil has to be removed from the entire box.
A solution is therefore often sought in the use of a separate cover, which is placed over the open cover side of the box by hand and which can be removed from the box in a simple manner. The placing of the cover by hand is a time-consuming and laborious activity, however. First a stock of covers is manufactured, after which said covers are placed on the boxes.
The object of the invention is to provide a method by which a cover can be placed over a box having an open cover side, on which a cover can be placed by mechanical means.
With the method according to the invention this objective is achieved in that a plane sheet to be formed into a cover is placed between a forming frame and a set-up frame, after which said forming frame and said set-up frame are moved with respect to each other and the forming frame is slid over stops provided on the set-up frame, whereby the plane sheet is folded over along the edges and the cover is formed,
after which said set-up frame and the cover formed thereon are placed on said box, eventually the set-up frame is removed and the box is closed by the cover.
The cover is formed over the stops on the set-up frame, after which the cover thus formed is placed on the box by means of said set-up frame. The box is thereby aligned with respect to the cover by means of the set-up frame. In this way the cover formed is placed on the box directly after being formed and an efficient method has been obtained. Thus there will be no stock of covers. One embodiment of the method is characterized in that said set-up frame and said cover are moved away from each other after said set-up frame and the cover formed thereon have been placed on the box, whereby the cover remains behind on the box, after which said stops are moved apart and the set-up frame and the box closed by said cover are then moved relative to each other, whereby said set-up frame is moved past the box closed by the cover.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device by means of which a cover can be placed on a box by mechanical means.
To this end the device according to the invention is characterized in that said device comprises a folding frame and a set-up frame which is capable of movement within said folding frame, which folding frame is provided with cams, whilst said set-up frame is provided with a plurality of stops which mate with said cams, whereby in operation a plane sheet can be folded over said stops to form a cover by a relative movement of said folding frame with respect to said set-up frame in a sequence determined by said cams.
The cover is formed over the stops of the set-up frame, so that said stops determine the minimum interior dimension of the cover. The stops are then slid over the box, so that said stops also determine the maximum exterior dimension of the box. Thus the interior dimension of the cover is always greater than the exterior dimension of the box and the cover can be placed on the box at all times.
The invention will be explained in more detail hereafter with reference to the drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a part of the device according to the invention;
Figures 2A-2F show various steps of the method according to the invention.
In the Figures like parts are numbered alike. Only those parts of the device 1 shown in Figure 1 and Figures 2A-2F which are relevant to the invention are shown in the Figures. Mechanisms for the relative movement of the parts of the device or of objects are known per se and are not shown, therefore.
The device 1 comprises a rectangular forming frame 2 and a rectangular set-up frame 3 positioned parallel to and in line with forming frame 2. Forming frame 2 comprises a rectangular frame 4, which is provided with a plurality of lip-shaped cams 5, 6, 7 extending outwards and towards the set-up frame. Each lip-shaped cam 5, 6, 7 comprises a flat part extending in the direction of set-up frame 3 and a part which is bent in a direction away from frame 4 and from said flat part. Cams 5, 6, 7 extend over various distances in the direction of set-up frame 3, whereby cams 5 extend over the longest distance and cams 7 extend over the shortest distance. Forming frame 2 can be moved in a direction indicated by arrow PI and vice versa by means of a driving mechanism (not shown). Set-up frame 3 comprises a rectangular frame 8, which is in each corner provided with a stop 9 formed from an angle section, which stop is capable of pivoting movement, in a direction indicated by arrow P2 and vice versa, about a line L which includes an angle of 45° with sides of frame 8. Set-up frame 3 can be moved in a direction indicated by arrow P3 and vice versa by means of a driving mechanism (not shown). The device is furthermore provided with a stack magazine (not shown) containing a stack of plane sheets 10. From said stack magazine a single plane sheet of the stack 10 can be moved, by means of a pick-up device (not shown), in a direction indicated by arrow P4 and subsequently in a direction indicated by arrow P5, to an aligned position between forming frame 2 and set-up frame 3. The position of the plane sheet 11 after having been moved in the direction indicated by arrow P4 and before being moved in the direction indicated by arrow P5 is indicated at 11'. Each plane sheet 11 comprises a rectangular sheet portion 12, which is along two parallel longitudinal sides provided with flaps 14, which can be folded about folding lines 13. Said sheet portion 12 is along two other parallel longitudinal sides provided with flaps 16 which can be folded about folding lines 15, said flaps 16 comprising flaps 18 which
can be folded about folding lines 17. Said folding lines 17 extend parallel to folding lines 13.
The device 1 is furthermore provided with a box supply and discharge device (not shown), by means of which a box 19 being open on one side can be moved in a direction indicated by arrow P6 to a position under set-up frame 3, whereby the open side 20 of box 19 is directed towards set-up frame 3.
The operation of the device 1 will be explained in more detail with reference to Figure 1 and Figures 2A-2F. Figures 2A-2F show various steps of the method according to the invention for forming a cover from a plane sheet and subsequently placing the cover thus formed on a box. Figures 2A-2F are views of the device illustrated in Figure 1 in the direction of arrow P6.
A plane sheet 11 is picked up from the stack 10 and moved to a position between forming frame 2 and set-up frame 3 (Figure 2A), whereby plane sheet 11 is held against the underside of forming frame 2 by holding means (not shown). Then the forming frame 2 and the plane sheet 11 are moved in the direction indicated by arrow PI until plane 11 butts against the angular stops 9 (Figure 2B). The positions of the angular stops 9 correspond with the corner points of the cover to be formed. The corner points of the cover to be formed are determined by the intersecting points of folding lines 13 and 15 of the plane sheet 11. Then forming frame 2 is moved along in the direction indicated by arrow PI. The rectangular sheet portion 12 of sheet 11 thereby remains positioned on stops 9. When forming frame 3 is moved along, cams 5 come into contact with flaps 18 and flaps 18 are folded about folding lines 17 in the direction indicated by arrow P7. Then cams 6 come into contact with flaps 16 and flaps 16 are folded about folding lines 15, in the direction indicated by arrow P8, together with the flaps 18 connected with flaps 16. Following that cams 7 come into contact with flaps 14 and flaps 14 are folded about the folding lines 13 in the direction indicated by arrow P9, and plane 11 has been formed into a cover 21 (Figure 2C). Flaps 14 are positioned opposite flaps 18 with their ends. An adhesive has been applied to flaps 18 or to flaps 14 by means of an adhesive applicator (not shown) after removing plane sheet 11 from stack 10 and before placing said plane sheet between forming frame 2 and set-up frame 3, as a result of which flaps 18 and flaps 14 can be glued together. In the position shown in Figure 2C flaps 18 and
flaps 14 are pressed together by means of air cylinders 23 (Figure 1) between stops 9 and the pistons of air cylinders 23. As a result of this a satisfactory adhesive connection is obtained. While or before cover 21 is formed from plane sheet 11, a box 19 (not shown) filled with products is moved in a direction indicated by arrow P6 and positioned under set-up frame 3. After cover 21 has been formed, forming frame 2 is returned in the direction indicated by arrow P10 to the initial position shown in Figure 2A. Set-up frame 3 and the cover 21 formed thereon are moved in the direction indicated by arrow P3. The angular stops 9 slide along corners of the box 19 and align box 19 with respect to cover 21. When the set-up frame 3 is moved in the direction indicated by arrow P3, sheet portion 12 of the cover 21 will come to lie on box 19 and when the set-up frame 3 is moved along even further, cover 21 will remain behind on box 21 (Figure 2D). After stops 9 have moved out of the cover, stops 9 are pivoted in the direction indicated by arrow P2 (see Figure 2E) by means of air cylinder 22, after which set-up frame 3 is moved in the direction indicated by arrow Pll around the box 19 closed by cover 21 to the initial position illustrated in Figure 2A. The box 19 closed by cover 21 is then discharged in the direction indicated by arrow P6 (Figure 1), after which the cycle shown in Figures 2A-2F may be repeated.