US2038406A - Mechanism for producing cartons - Google Patents

Description

L. BENOIT ET AL MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING CARTONS April 21, 1936.

Original Fi1 ed March 1, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet l April 21, 1936.- BE'NolT ETAL 2,038,406

MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING CARTONS Original Filed March' 1, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 April 21, 1936. E o T ET AL 2,038,406

MECHANISM FOR PRODU CING CARTONS Original Filed March 1, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 W .HMIQ- Registered Apr. 21, 1936 PATENT OFFICE MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING CARTONS Leon Benoit, New York, and E. Joseph Kanabay, Nyack, N. Y.; said Kanabay assignor to said Benoit Original application March 1, 1933, Serial No.

Patent No. 1,970,550, dated August 21, 1935. Divided and'this application June 21,

1934, Serial No. 731,617

7 Claims. (01. 164

The mechanism of the present invention, (heretofore disclosed in an application filed March 1, 1933, under Serial No. 659,128 of which this case is a division) is designed primarily for the purpose of die-cutting once folded blanks forming the body of an egg carton of the general kind set forth and described in Letters Patent No. 1,768,023, issued June 24, 1930, to Leon Benoit.

In cartons of this character it is customary to construct the body of the carton from a single sheet of paper board which is folded upon itself along a medial score line forming a blank of double thickness; the blank so folded is then slotted and punched to provide openings through whichcross partitions are inserted.- Inasmuch as the folded blank is of double thickness, a single operation of punching will suflice to produce in the-two thicknesses openings which are aligned and identical.

The present invention also has todo with the folding of the two halves of the blank about the medial line of fold while being fed into the die mechanism, as well as means for centering and properly locating the once folded blank with reference to the cutting blades of the die-cutting mechanism.

Further details will appear from the description of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of the machine in its entirety;

V Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an assembled carton made from a blank which has been diecut in the present machine;

Fig. 3 is a view of the blank, folded upon itself and die-cut in accordance with the present in-' vention;

Fig. 4 is a partial plan view of the machine as viewed on line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation view, the section being taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a view of the face of the die as shown on line 6-6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary view in section taken on line 1--l of Fig. 6; and

1 Fig. 8 is a view in perspective showing the relation between the die-cutting heads, the diverging guides and the feeding arm The various operations involved in the present mechanism have to do with thefolding and dieing of carton blanks p made desirably of suitable paper material, in preparation for the reception of the cross walls in conformity with ascheme of assembly not here shown. The carton blanks in'flat unfolded form are first introduced into. the mechanism in the form of a vertical stack arranged within a hopper A. It is customary to.

first print the carton blanks with the intended designations and provide them with a series of longitudinal score lines or ribs, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3. The carton blanks in flatwise position are fed forward through rollers B into a bender C in the nature of a press which breaks down the blank along the score lines.

The mechanisms just referred to are shown and described in detail in Letters Patent No.

1,970,950, issued under date of August 21, 1934,.

and need not be described again in detail, inasmuch as we are here concerned particularly with the die-mechanism D.

The blank is first folded to V-form along a medial score line a. Each of the halves of the blank lying on opposite sides of the medial line of fold a. is alsobent along similar score lines I), c, d. When erected tofinal position, each half of the blank is in the form of a trough with the score line b constituting the inverted ridge of the carton, with the section 2 subtended between the score lines o and c, constituting an oblique outer wall, with the section I subtended between the score lines 0 and d constituting the top, and with the marginal section beyond the score line (1 constituting a flap to tuck in for the purpose of closing the carton.

. While being acted upon by the breaker mechanism C, the carton blank is medially folded and thereafter advanced to the die-punching mechanism.D. Here it is subjected to the action of dies that cutv outcertain vertical slots g which traverse the score lines I) so that each of the two opposite sections of the carton blank will be similarly punched. Simultaneously, the medial score line a is died to cut out half-circular notches h which appear as circular holes in the flattened blank. 7

From the die-punching mechanism," the carton blanks are fed forwardly in 'edgewise relation to a stacker E within which the carton blanks are compressed into a horizontally extending stack with the folded carton blanks standing on their folded edges, as indicated at the right of Figs. 1.

pendicular to the drive shaft I2, is driven therefrom as by means of beveled gears l6 and I1.

Each blank is ejected from the bending mechanism C, its lower edge is caught by rollers l8 which are driven by the shaft 12 through suitably entrained driving connections, not shown, and fed forward to the die press D. Rollers I 8 cooperate with rollers I8 in feeding forward the carton, which, it will be noted, is folded so that the wing portions lie adjacent each. other during its advance forward by the pairs of rollers I8 and I9. It is necessary in feeding the. blanks forward that the wing portions or the carton blanks be lifted as they are advanced into the die press, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1,. and to effect this result apair of convergingv obliquely disposed guide bars 211 are provided. These guide bars extend obliquely upward to a plane above the level of the die press and terminate in horizontally extending guide portions 2I', which are closely spaced and extendiin parallel relation and are upturned at their. forwardends at. 22.. The-advancing. blanks are: thus' folded into flatwise relation as they enter the die press and stand vertically upon the medial score line a. which constitutes the folding line: of. the blank. The rollers l8 and I9 serve to impart. the-necessary impetus tocarrythe'.foldedblanks forwardly to substantially the position; indicated. in Fig. 6,. but this impetus. has a tendency to. slightly tilt each blank obliquely, as in Fig- 6. In order to accurately position the blanks to receive the die: cuts, the following mechanism is provided;

A. stop block- 23 is located in position. to. engage the folded blank near its forward. lower corner when projected upwardly into the full line position shown in Fig. 6, and. to release the blank when. the block is depressed to the dotted line. position. The. stop block 23 is carried by a vertical bar'24, the lower end of which is actuated by a cam 25 on the longitudinally extending cam shaft I5.

The stop block 23. coacts with a swinging arm 2.6. carried by a head 21 mounted upon the upper.

end of a vertical shaft 28 which extends through.

a stationary journal. standard 29, which standard is. provided near its upper endv with an out.- standing. bracket segment 30, which. affords a. guide rest for the arm 25 which swings from the; full line position to the broken line position shown. in Fig; 4.

The swinging arm 26 at. its free. end carriersa finger 3| (see Fig. '7) of channel formation! which embraces the tip end of the arm and is pivotally mounted upon a pintle 32. The finger extends. beyond the arm, and its-.inner end ter-' minates in a tail piece 33 to which. secured a coil spring. 34 which normally serves to hold the channel shaped finger rearwardly into contact with a plunger 35 backed by a spring 36 (see Fig. '7). The finger is positioned to ride upon the horizontal guide barsZl, and on its advancing movement to ride upwardly 'upon a pair of. elevated shoes 31, and the amplitude of movement imparted to the arm is sufiicient to carry the finger 3|. beyond the shoes 31', after which sufficient freedom of movement is afforded in the mounting for the arm 26 topermit the spring pressed draw pin 31 to draw down the arm sufficiently to bring the finger below the level of'the proximate shoe, so that on the return movement of the parts the finger will rideagainst the proximate. side wall of the shoe, as-indicated in dotted lines in Fig. '7, thereby permitting the finger to return. without bridging across the slot. between.

the guide bars 2|, so that, although the finger is positioned to assist, on its forward movement, in advancing a carton blank to position within the die press, it will not thereafter, on its return movement, interfere with the progress of the next oncoming blank between the guide bars 20-2I.

As shown in Fig. 8, the guide finger 3| is provided with a prong 38 which on the forward movement overlies the upper exposed edge of the carton blank (see Fig. 6) at the same time that the finger presses against the rear edge, and these two contacts in unison serve toimpart a downward and forward thrust at the upper rear corner of the car-ton blank, and this thrust together with the downward movement of the block 23' causes the carton blank to settle down from the tilted position shown in Fig. 6 into the levelposition occupied during the die-cutting operation. While the blank is being punched, the block 23' is further moved downwardly to occupy a position below the line of movement of. the blank after the'same has been punched.

The die. press comprises a vertically standing. backing, frame 39-provided1 with a baseflange 40; and a top flange 4|, and the backing frame has secured thereto a face plate 42 which is provided. with a. level; shoulder 43'which furnishes a ledge upon which the base edge of the folded carton blank rests during the dieing operation. The. base portion of the plate has bolted: thereto an upstanding. front plate 44,,which above theshoulder 43 stands in spaced relation to the face plate 42- tov afford a deep narrow channel for the pas-' sage. of. the'carton' blanks, and to strip the blank fromthe dies; I

The dieing," out of the slots in the folded cartonf blanks is performed by a group of vertically disposedspaced saw toothed die members 45.- which. operate through slots 45 and 41,, respectively, in: the front plate 44 and the face plate 42:. The. resulting cutting is a shearing rather thani a punching operation. The half-circular notches inthe folded base edges of the carton blanks arecut by die members 48 operating through slots 49; and" 50;, respectively, in the front plate and the face plate. If desired, upper cuts in alignment with the slots may be formed by a die-memher 5 I. operating through-openings 52 and; 53, respectivelyg, in the: front plate and face plate (see Fig. 5).

In order to afford'sufticient amplitude'of movement to the die members, thebacking frame-32- is. likewise provided with openings; which register with and constitute continuations of the-openings in the face plate. The-die'membersrare carried by ablock. 54; secured to the inner'face of. a longitudinally extending rocking bar 55 providedwith brackets 56 mounted upon a shaft 5 1;, theaxisi'of: which lies within; the, plane occupied by the carton blanks? during the dieing operation. Asshown, the-die.- membersand slots through which they operate are arcua-tely configured to allowforv the slight arcuate' movement imparted by a, rocking of the bar 55 on its shaft 5-1.

The bar '55 has depending therefrom an arm 58, the lower end of: which has pivoted thereto therinner. end of a; pitman. 59., the outer endof which is pivoted to a' lever fifl'pivoted on apint-le 6| carried by a bracket 62' on the forwardside of the tablaand a rocking motion is imparted to the lever through the medium. of. a pitman 63-slotted: at: its inner end. to embrace the shaft I 5. The pitman 63 is provided with a roller 64- which engagesa cam 65 carried by the shaft I5, so'that rocking motions. are imparted; to thebar 55 at- 69 is provided (see Fig. 8), which members are carried by a post 10 upstanding from the backing frame 39. The post 10 also serves as a means for supporting the inner ends of. the guide bars 2!, one of the bars being supported directly by the post and the other being supported through a spacer pin H depending from the overhanging guide plate 68. r

Fig. 4 shows the die bar 55 swung back to expose the inner face .with the cutting die members 45 retracted sufficiently to permit the insertion of a carton blank. As the die closes, the bar 55 will swing from the oblique position indicated in Fig. 4 to the vertical position indicated in Fig. 5. During the dieing operation, the swinging arm 25 which carries the finger 3| occupies the intermediate position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4, but after the conclusion of the dieing operation, the arm 26 moves forwardly to the right hand dotted line position to feed the blank out of the dies. It will be noted that during this last feeding movement, the stop block 23 is at rest in a downward position indicated by the dotted line shown in Fig. 6. Thus the blank is permitted to move forwardly under the thrust of the swinging arm.

The movements of the arm 26 are controlled by the action of a cam 12 carried by the cam shaft l5 which operates on the lower end of the vertical rock shaft which carries the arm and imparts first a feeding movement into the die cutters,

and after a period of rest a short terminal movement to discharge the died blanks and move them forwardly into the bite of a pair of power rollers l3l3, which feed them forwardly into the stacker .E. The movement of the stop block 23 is likewise controlled by a cam 25 in timed relation to the feeding and discharging movements of the swinging arm (see Fig. 1).

The stacker E is horizontally arranged and comprises a pair of spaced rails 14 of angle formation, one of the rails being provided with a flared mouth 15 to receive the folded blanks standing edgewise in position to be actuated by aplunger 16 carried by guide rods 11 operating through guides 78. A cross head 79 connects the guide rods 11, and a p-itman 80 serves to reciprocate the cross head. The pitman is pivoted at the upper end of a lever 8| (see Figs. 1-4) which is pivoted on a pintle 82 and is operated by a cam 83. The initial reciprocation of the plunger carries it past a pair of swinging spring-pressed stops 84-434 which yield under the pressure of an incoming carton blank but prevent return thereof, so that by the repeated reciprocations of the plunger, a stack of cartons standing vertically edgewise is deposited within the guideway afforded by the rails 14.

In order to positively and evenly position the carton blanks delivered from the rollers 13, a swinging arm 85 is provided which is mounted upon a vertical rock shaft 86 and is actuated from the full line position shown in Fig. 4 to the dotted line position. The rock shaft 86 is actuated by a cam 81 on the cam shaft l5.

The cuttings removed during This completes the series of operations performed in the mechanism which'finally stacks the cartons in form to be removed and delivered to the mechanism provided for inserting the cross walls through the slots and folding and delivering the cartons in a completed knock-down condition.

In operation, the'printed and. scored blanks are successively fed from the stack through the rollers B to the breaking mechanism C, and at this point are bent along the spaced parallel scoring lines to provide a' medial V-shaped body portion with outstanding wing portions on either side thereof. From the breaking mechanism the once folded blanks are fed by the rollers l8 and. I9 through the converging guide bars 20 where the wing portions will be engaged and progressively lifted or bent upwardly into fiatwiserelation to one another in preparation for the entry of the. blank into the die mechanism D, so that during the diecutting operation the blank will stand in once folded'relation to receive the corresponding die cuts. through the two plies of the blank, as well as the half-circular notches in the folded base edge thereof.

In preparation for the die-cutting operation, the blank will be properly positioned by the combined action of the stop block 23 and the springpressed finger 3 I, and after receiving the die cuts, the blank will be further advanced by the terminal swing of the arm 26 to bring the forward vertical edges of the blank into the bite of the rollers 73 which advance the folded and died blank to the stacker E within which it is positively positioned by the swing of the kicker arm 85.

We claim:

1. In a die-cutting mechanism for carton blanks, the combination of a fixed die having openings therein, a shoulder formed on the die for supporting the blank, a punching head hinged to the die and adapted to cooperate therewith in punching the blank, a movable stop positioned in the plane of the shoulder and normally positioned thereabove to stop the incoming blank, the stop being retractable below the level of the shoulder to position the blank thereon and to permit ejection of the blank across the top of the stop after the blank has been punched.

2. In a die-cutting mechanism for carton blanks, the combination of a fixed die, a punching head movable relative to the die, guide means for the incoming blank, an arm adapted to-move the blank to final position within the die-cutting mechanism, and a cam for deflecting the end of the arm out of the path of the next oncoming blank.

3. In a die-cutting mechanism for carton blanks, the combination of a fixed die, a punching head movable relative to the die, guide means for an incoming blank, an arm adapted to swing in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the blank, a finger pivoted to the end of the arm extending therebeyond into the plane traversed by the incoming blank, and a cam on the guide means positioned in the path of the finger which permits the latter to move the blank to dieing position and thereafter swing the finger out of the plane of the oncoming carton.

4. In a die-cutting mechanism for carton blanks, the combination of a fixed die, a punching head movable relative to the die, guide means for incoming blanks, an arm swingable in a horizontal plane traversing that of the incoming blank, the arm having an interrupted movement whereby it is first moved to advance the blank to position fordi-cutting and'thereafter'to move the die blank from die-cutting position;

5. In a die-cutting mechanism for" carton' blanks, the combination of a fixed die, a swingable head carrying a punch adapted to cooperate with the die in punching the blank, aniovable stop positioned between the punch and die and normally positioned in the path of an incoming swinging movement of the punching head;

6. In a die-cutting mechanism for carton blanks, the combinationof a fixed die, a swingable head carrying a punch adapted to-cooper ate with the die in punching the blank, a mov' able stop positioned between the punch and? die and-normally positioned in the path of an incoming blank, guide means by which the incoming blank is guided between the punch and die, feeding means including a swingable arm, a

yieldable finger pivoted to the end of the arm and adapted to engage the blank and feed it into the die-cutting mechanism and against the 'stop, the

advancingjthe' blank and a final movement for partially ejecting the blank after die-cutting, and

32151196; onzther guide 'means for lifting the finger during 'its' final movement, the shoe being of such a; length that the finger will be drawn down beyond; the ends thereof at the end of its final movem'entiso that'as the arm swings in the opposite direction-the finger will ride against the proximate: side wall of the shoe and out of the path ofrthenext oncoming blank.

'7. In mechanism of the class described, the combination of a fixed die having openings therethrough, a punching head pivotally connected to the die,- an arcuate punch secured to the punching'head in register with the opening in the die, the forwardiedge of the punch being notched to provide a shearing edge which cooperates with the: opening in the die, means for rocking the punching head wherebythe punch is alternately movedfrompunching to withdrawn position, and' means for feeding and centering a blank between the: punch and die in timed relation to the movement' thereof LEON BENOIT.

E. JOSEPH KANABAY.

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