Machine for forming and inserting paper wadding in containers

June 23, 1964 e. e. lakso 3,137,979

MACHINE FOR FORMING AND INSERTING

PAPER WADDING IN CONTAINERS

Filed April 4, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 1

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ATTORNEY

June 23, 1964 _E. e. lakso 3,137,979

MACHINE FOR FORMING AND INSERTING

PAPER WADDING IN CONTAINERS

Filed April 4, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 2

ΙΙΐΠίΤΐιιΙΙ

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ATTORNEY

June 23, 1964 e. e. lakso 3,137,979

MACHINE FOR FORMING AND INSERTING , PAPER WADDING IN CONTAINERS

Filed April 4, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 3

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ATTORNEY

United States Patent Office _Palente(1,

3,137,979

MACHINE FOR FORMING AND INSERTING PAPER WADDING IN CONTAINERS

Eino E. Lakso, Fitchburg, Mass., assignor to The Lakso Company, Inc., Fitchburg, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts

Filed Apr. 4, 1962, Ser. No. 185,498 14 Claims. (Cl. 53—115)

This invention relates to a new and improved machine for forming paper wadding from sheet material and inserting the formed paper wad into the neck of a filled container in such a manner as to cause the wadding to impinge upon the contents of the container without damage thereto and hold the contents substantially immovable during transportation, etc., so as to prevent shifting. Particularly in the pharmaceutical industry but not limited to such use, it has long been the custom to wad containers with cotton, the cotton being intended to- prevent shifting of the tablets during storage and transfer, etc. There are many advantages in the use of crumpled paper wadding instead of cotton and reference is made to my copending patent application Serial No. 39,963 filed June 30, 1960 now Patent 3,066,460 dated December 4, 1962 which describes the advantages of using paper sheet stock or other kinds of sheet material for the intended purpose.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of means for supplying sheets of material to a turret in which the sheet of material is folded in a forming tube by a reciprocating mandrel forming a tube-like member of folded paper having a closed end formed by the forward end of the mandrel, the folds of the paper extending down along the mandrel more or less in conformance therewith, thus providing the paper tube with an open end including edges and corners of the sheet; together with means for rotating the turret in intermittent steps, the paper tube being held in and of itself in its forming tube so that it is stored therein until it is indexed to the wadding position over a bottle or container of small objects, whereupon the folded paper tube is expelled from the forming tube, down into the neck of the container so that the edges of the sheet material are lightly pressed onto the contents of the container, tending to hold the same in position.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a combination of a turret device for forming the paper wads as above described with means for cutting sheets of paper-like material from an advancing web and including a substantially simultaneous operation between the folding means and the cut-off means so that just as the sheet is separated from the advancing web, it is thrust by a mandrel into the forming tube; and the provision of means for adjusting the severing means and the drive means therefor to vary the size of the sheet severed and also at the same time to vary the speed of operation of the feeding means for the web to conform thereto, including means for operating the severing means at the required interval.

The invention further relates to arrangements and combinations of parts which will be hereinafter described and more particularly set forth in the appended claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation showing the general setup of the machine, parts being omitted for clarity of illustration;

FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof with parts in section, looking in the direction of arrow 2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section through the machine, parts being omitted for clarity of illustration;

FIG. 4 is a plan view partly in section, taken on the line 4—4 of FIG. 3 slightly enlarged as viewed from the front of the machine;

FIG. 5 is an elevational view, looking in the direction of arrow 5 in FIG. 2, showing especially the cut5 off apparatus, parts being in section and parts being omitted;

FIG. 6 is a view looking in the direction of arrow 6 of FIG. 5, parts being in section and parts being omitted for clarity;

FIG. 7 is a view in side elevation with parts in section showing a modification, and

FIG. 8 is a bottom plan view, looking in the direction of arrow 8 in FIG. 7.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the machine in general may 15 be set on any base or framework desired as indicated by the reference numeral 10. A main driving motor 12 is provided and this motor by means of a chain or belt 14 drives the main drive shaft 16. These parts may all be contained in appropriate housings such as 20 at 18 and this housing can be utilized to support the turret which is indicated generally at 20. As shown, the turret has four stations and is driven intermittently so as to position these stations one at a time over a container C which can be traveled on a conveyor on a 25 support at 22 or the container may be placed in position by hand if desired. At 180° opposite the wadding station at C, there is provided a mandrel 24 which has a vertical reciprocatory motion to cooperate with a formtube 26 of which there are four, one at each station of 30 the turret. The mandrel 24 operates simultaneously with severing means which cuts a sheet 28 at 30 and simultaneously impinges upon it centrally thereof, thrusting it up into the forming tube 26 (FIG. 3).

The web of the paper or similar material which is 35 indicated at 32 is driven in the appropriate direction by means of drive rolls 34 which may derive their power from the main drive shaft as will be explained hereinafter. This web is derived from a roll 36 appropriately mounted on an adjustable pedestal 38 in any desired 40 manner and having a take-up member 40 in order to keep the web reasonably taut and properly feeding in the direction of the arrows in FIG. 3 and the arrow 42 in FIG. 1.

Generally centrally of the turret 20 there is. a. ver45 tically reciprocating member 44 which carries an offset wadding implement or plunger 46. . The forming tubes 26 are tubular and are open from end-to-end thereof and the plunger 46 in descending expels the folded paper wad downwardly out of the tube and into the con50 tainer C.

The various parts of the machine are driven from the main shaft 16 and looking at FIGS. 3 and 4 it will be seen that there are a series of cams mounted on this shaft. One of these cams indicated at 50 is a cross-over 55 cam, i.e., it is in spiral form, and it has a channeled edge as seen in FIG. 4 which engages a series of rollers 52 mounted on vertical axes on a rotary indexing gear 54 so as to turn the latter at a greatly reduced speed of rotation. In turn the indexing gear meshes with turret 60 gear 57 which is fixed to the hollow sleeve 84 rotating turret 20 in step by step relation. Tubular forming members 26 are thus intermittently driven 90° between each step and then stopped at the proper locations.

The main shaft 16 also carries a pair of cams 59 and 65 60, one of which is provided with a cam follower at 62 mounted on a lever 64 pivoted at 66 and mounting at its opposite end a link 68 vertically reciprocating member 44 which is appropriately provided with slide bearings, etc. as shown in FIG. 3.

The cam 60 acts on a cam follower or roll 70 mounted on a yoke 72 and having its opposite end connected to a lever 74. The lever 74 is pivotally connected as at 76 with

3,137,979 the forming station and the wadding station stores the pre-folded paper wadding member, whereas the forming tube at 180° to the storage tube is empty and is the next one to be provided with the paper wad by mandrel 24 as above explained.

It is possible by conventional means to interrupt the feed of the rollers at the instant of cut by the shear but this forms no part of the present invention and as a matter of fact the shear operates satisfactorily without such interruption to the feed.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is shown a modification of the present invention which is hand operated rather than power operated and while not as rapid in operation forms an extremely inexpensive form of the invention. There is a table 150 mounted in any suitable manner. On this table there is a bracket 152 upon which is mounted a forming tube 154 provided with the inverted funnel 156 at the lower end thereof. There is a wadding plunger 158 normally held upwardly in the position shown in FIG. 7 by a spring or the like 160. This wadding plunger may be merely depressed manually against the action of the spring or may be provided with means such as a lever 162 mounted on a bracket 164 so that the plunger 158 is easily brought down to provide the paper wadding in a container under tube 154 and located on the table.

Below the bench there is a forming mandrel 165 which is adapted to extend through a hole 166 in the bench axially in line with the forming tube 154. This mandrel is arranged to be foot operated in any desired way as by a foot treadle 168 and linkage 170.

In this case, the operator merely takes a sheet of paper and applies it to the wide end of the funnel, stepping on the treadle to cause the forming mandrel 165 to rise into the tube 154 and fold the paper as before, whereupon the mandrel is allowed to descend to the position shown. A container is then placed on the table at the location of the hole 166, and the operator lowers the plunger 158 to cause the folded wad to be expelled from the forming tube 154 into the neck of the container which is then removed.

In both forms of the invention the inverted funnel is preferably provided with some kind of arrangement for holding the paper against falling, and this can take the form of a rake having teeth which extend in any way desired and mounted as desired as for instance see FIG. 7 where spaced wire teeth at 172 will form a holding means for the paper sheet. The same teeth can be applied to the power operated device also, the teeth of the comb being more or less fixed but resilient and spaced so as to avoid the folding mandrel as shown in FIG. 8.