Device for the single-sided closure of packaging sleeves for the production of composite packages

Abstract

A device is depicted and described for the single-sided closure of packaging sleeves for the production of composite packages, in particular carton/plastic-composite packages, by forming by means of a mandrel wheel with a plurality of mandrels arranged distributed uniformly over the circumference and directed radially outwards, which pass successively through several processing stations in the circumferential direction of the mandrel wheel, wherein each mandrel has a head on its free end, on which the folding sections to be closed of the packaging sleeve slid onto the mandrel are folded and sealed in the closed position, and wherein the head of the mandrel is designed to be variable in its outer dimensions. In order to reliably ensure a reliable and in particular a pocket-free sealing of the end area of the packaging sleeve on the mandrel, it is provided that at least two corner segments of the head are variable in their position, that the mandrel in its interior has at least one axially movable tappet for the adjustment of the head geometry and that the corner segments of the head are designed as pivot elements, which can be brought from a sealing position into a retracted position.

Claims

1. A device for a single-sided closure of packaging sleeves for a production of composite packages, in particular carton/plastic-composite packages, comprising: a mandrel wheel, and a plurality of mandrels, wherein the mandrels are arranged uniformly over a circumference of the mandrel wheel and directed radially outwards, passing successively through several processing stations in a circumferential direction of the mandrel wheel, each mandrel has a head on a free end of the mandrel, on which a folding section of a packaging sleeve slides onto the mandrel and are folded and sealed in a closed position, the head of each mandrel is designed to be variable in an outer dimension, and has at least two corner segments that are variable in a position of the head, and an interior of the mandrel comprises at least one axially movable tappet for an adjustment of the head and the corner segments of the head are pivot elements, capable of transitioning between a sealing position and a retracted position.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one tappet is connected to a segment of the head, which is designed as a lifting segment and is movable through a movement of the at least one tappet into the interior of the mandrel.

3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the pivot elements are spring-loaded in such a manner that the pivot elements pivot back again into the sealing position after being forcibly actuated into the retracted position.

4. The device according to claim 2, wherein the lifting segment lies between two adjacent corner segments.

5. The device according to claim 2, wherein the mandrel has at least four corner segments and at least two lifting segments lying in each case between two adjacent corner segments.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein a force transmission takes place from the tappet to the at least two corner segments by means of a cam gear.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein a force transmission takes place from the tappet to the at least two corner segments by means of a toggle lever.

8. The device of claim 2, wherein the tappet on a mandrel-wheel side is movable by means of a slotted guide arranged in a stationary manner on the outer circumference of the mandrel wheel.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein the slotted guide is arranged on or in a guide sleeve and the guide sleeve is arranged in a rotationally fixed manner on the mandrel wheel or a drive shaft of the mandrel wheel.

10. The device according to claim 8, wherein a guide element is provided with a cam gear for the transmission of a control movement of the guide element running parallel to a shaft of the mandrel wheel to the tappet movable radially to the shaft of the mandrel wheel.

11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the guide element on a side facing the tappet has a guideway and the tappet has a roller on an end of a mandrel wheel side for rolling on the guideway of the guide element.

12. The device according to claim 1, wherein the length of the tappet is adjustable.

13. The device according to claim 1, wherein the mandrel is at least partially hollow.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein the mandrel comprises at least one open area with at least one cover.

15. The device according to claim 1, wherein the mandrel comprises at least one spring element acting on a longitudinal side, which fixes the packaging sleeve in the closed position.

16. The device according to claim 1, wherein the mandrel comprises lines for cooling water in a solid interior.

17. The device according to claim 1, wherein the mandrel comprises at least one end stop for a mechanical limitation of a sliding path of the packaging sleeve.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention is elucidated in detail below by means of a drawing depicting only preferred embodiments.

(2) In the drawing:

(3) FIG. 1 shows a mandrel of a device according to the present invention in side view in retracted position,

(4) FIG. 2 shows the subject matter from FIG. 1 in a vertical section along the line II-II,

(5) FIG. 3 shows the subject matter from FIG. 1 in a vertical section along line III-III,

(6) FIG. 4 shows a mandrel of a device according to the present invention in side view in sealing position,

(7) FIG. 5 shows the subject matter from FIG. 4 in a vertical section along the line V-V,

(8) FIG. 6 shows a first embodiment of the head of a mandrel according to the present invention with two pivotable corner segments in perspective representation,

(9) FIG. 7 shows an alternative embodiment of the head of a mandrel according to the present invention with four pivotable corner segments in perspective representation,

(10) FIG. 8 shows the subject matter from FIG. 4 in perspective representation and

(11) FIG. 9 shows a device known from the prior art for filling open-top packages in schematic side view.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(12) FIG. 1 shows a mandrel 7 according to the present invention with an upturned head 25, wherein the mandrel 7 is fastened on a mandrel wheel shaft 26. In the area of the head 25 pivotable corner segments 27 can be clearly seen, which are not located in their extended sealing position, but rather in their retracted pivot position, in order to make it possible that the sliding of a (not shown) packaging sleeve from above onto the mandrel 7 is facilitated. Two pivot elements having the corner segments 27 are thereby movably mounted with correspondingly stably designed pivot axes 28 on the housing of the mandrel 7. A tappet 29 is used for the actuation of the pivot elements, which tappet is designed in two parts in the depicted and in this respect preferred embodiment and for this purpose comprises a lower tappet 29A and an upper tappet 29B. The tappets 29A and 29B are thereby mounted in an axially displaceable manner by means of bearing blocks 30. At the lower end of the lower tappet 29A a ball bearing 31 is located, the roller of which can be rolled on a guideway 32 of a guide element 33. The guide element 33 is thereby designed in a longitudinally displaceable manner in the direction of the shown double arrow via a corresponding guide parallel to the mandrel wheel shaft 26 and is controlled via a slotted guide. For this purpose, on its left end shown in FIG. 1 the guide element 33 has a ball bearing 34 acting as a sliding block, which ball bearing is guided in a guide groove 35 of a stationary guide sleeve 36. The guide groove 35 is designed in the depicted embodiment such that a pivoting of the mandrel wheel shaft 26 by 180 causes a movement of the guide element 33 from its shown position, in which the pivot elements 27 are folded, into a sealing position, in which the pivot elements 27 are folded out. For this purpose, the guide sleeve 36 is designed in a stationary manner; therefore, it does not rotate along with the rotation of the mandrel wheel shaft 26. The mandrel wheel shaft 26 is driven by a drive shaft 37 and candepending on the number of processing lines in the filling machineaccordingly contain further mandrels 7.

(13) The lower tappet 29A and upper tappet 29B are connected by means of a connection element 38 and ensure that upon actuation of the tappet 29A, 29B upwards a lifting segment 39 is moved axially upwards, in order to close the gap between the two pivotable corner segments 27 on the head surface. For this purpose, the upper tappet 29B is mounted in the area between the pivot elements having the corner segments 27 by means of a bearing 40 designed as a guide sleeve. The pivot movement of the pivot elements having the corner segments 27 thereby occurs by means of a guide element 41, which has cam paths 42 running toward the two pivot elements. The pivot elements themselves in this area have rotatable ball bearings 43, which roll on the cam paths 42 of the guide element 41. It is not discernible, that to realize this cam control the two corner segments 27 are operatively connected with each other by means of a compression spring arranged between them such that the two corner segments 27 can only be moved against the pressure of the spring from their sealing position into the folded position. The compression spring is located for this purpose in the not further specified groove, which is discernible in FIG. 3 on the left next to the lifting segment 39 in the head 25 of the mandrel 7.

(14) Further compression springs 44 ensure that the tappet 29a, 29B by means of its ball bearing 31 is constantly in contact with the guideway 32 of the guide element 33.

(15) The upper tappet 29B is designed longitudinally adjustable in the area of its connection element 38 with the lower tappet 29A by means of an adjusting nut 45 for the adjustment of the total length. In this way, a fine adjustment of the upper dead centre of the lifting segment 39 can also be reliably and easily achieved when the mandrel 7 is fully set up.

(16) The adjustment of the upper tappet 29B by means of the nut 45 can be learned, in particular, also from the rotated side view in FIG. 2, in which the lower tappet 29B is not visible. The exact design only results from FIG. 3, in which the upper part of the mandrel 7 is also depicted cut along the line III-III in FIG. 1. It can also be learned from FIGS. 2 and 3, that the mandrel 7 is screwed onto the mandrel wheel shaft 26 by means of screws 46. There, the longitudinal displaceability of the guide element 33 by means of a guide rail 33 is also clearly discernible.

(17) FIGS. 4 and 5 correspond to the representations of FIGS. 1 and 3, wherein, however, here the mandrel 7 is shown in its sealing position. For the sake of better comparability, the mandrel in FIGS. 4 and 5 also points upwards, even though, as already elucidated, in the depicted and in this respect preferred embodiment the sealing position is diametrically opposite the retracted position of the pivot elements, therefore, at downwardly pointing mandrel 7. Accordingly, the actually stationary guide sleeve 36 in FIG. 4 is depicted rotated by 180 in FIG. 4. It is initially recognised, that the guide element 33 is located in its end position by means of the slotted guide 34, 35, so that the lower tappet 29A is shown in its uppermost position. Thus, of course, also the upper tappet 29B is located in its uppermost position and thus also the guide element 41, so that the ball bearings 43 are moved towards each other along the guideway 42 of the guide element 41 and in this way have effected a pivoting of the corner segments 27 of the pivot elements into their outer sealing position. The lifting segment 39 is located finally also in its highest position in the sealing position.

(18) This sealing position and configuration of the head 25 of the mandrel 7 is depicted perspectively in FIG. 7 for better representation. It can be clearly discerned, that the entire end surface of the head 25 is now closed and that the two corner segments 27 are now located in theirunfoldedsealing position and the cavity located in between is filled by the lifting element 39. The unspecified cavities on the end surfacein the known mannerserve the purpose of receiving the accumulation of material forming on top of each other when the free lateral surfaces of the slid on packaging sleeve are folded, in particular, in the area of the folded transverse seam, so that when the package bottom, for example, is sealed, a flat surface is generated, which serves as the standing surface of the future package.

(19) From FIG. 6 it also clearly emerges that the pivot elements having the corner segments are equipped with relatively strongly designed pivot axes 28, in order to be able to withstand the pressure when being pressed.

(20) As already stated, the previously described embodiment is a mandrel 7, which only has two pivotable corner segments 27. However, it is readily possible in a further embodiment also to provide the already described design for the pivoting of the corner segments 27 on the other side of the mandrel. A corresponding design is depicted in FIG. 7. In this alternative mandrel 7, four corner segments 27 are arranged as pivotable segments on corresponding pivot elements, wherein a lifting segment 39 is located between in each case two corner segments 27.

(21) The drive for the pivoting of the corner segments 27 can thereby be designed, as in FIG. 6, however, it is depicted in FIG. 7, so that the transmission of the force of the tappet 29 to the corner segments 27 can alternatively also occur by means in each case of a toggle lever 47A or 47B, wherein each toggle lever is mounted by means of two axes 48, on the one hand, in the pivot element and, on the other hand, in the lifting segment 39. The pivot elements are thereby mounted pivotably on the mandrel 7 on corresponding pivot axes 38.

(22) In FIG. 8 it is depicted, that spring elements 49 can be arranged laterally on the mandrel, which spring elements reliably prevent a sliding of a once slid-on packaging sleeve (not shown) onto the mandrel 7. It can also be learned from FIG. 8, that the open part of the mandrel 7 is closed by means of a cover 50, the surface of which corresponds to the actual package design and in the embodiment shown has a round side wall and thus protects the inner mechanism of the mandrel 7.

(23) Finally, the mandrel 7 can have lines 51, 52 for conducting cooling water. As emerges from FIGS. 1 and 2, the mandrel wheel shaft 26 in such a case is designed hollow. In the interior of said cavity a distributor element, known per se, is arranged for the cooling water, which is rigidly designed and by means of appropriate circumferential grooves ensures that pressurised cooling water is pressed through the line 51 into the interior of the mandrel and is conducted from the discharge line 52 again into the distributor element. For this purpose, the two lines 51 and 52 are connected with each other in the upper area of the mandrel 7 and/or in the head 25 by means of a connecting groove 53. The distributor element is for this purpose arranged rigidly in the interior of the rotating mandrel wheel shaft and via the corresponding feed and discharge lines ensures that the mandrels 7 can be tempered at the desired stations or over specific distances during the rotation. Thus, a cooling can take place, as it were, automatically after the sealing process through the supply of cooling water due to the rotation of the mandrel wheel shaft 26.