05/342177

05/13/1975

03/16/1973

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Kinderman, Abraham S. (Philadelphia, PA)

53/116

242/533.400, 242/472.700, 83/175, 53/117, 242/470, 53/522, 242/487.500, 242/474.900, 242/537, 83/171, 242/488, 83/168

B65B63/04; B65H54/68; B65B63/00; B65H54/24; B65B63/04; B65H54/14

53/118,119,123,116,197,372 242/50,61 83/98,99,175,18,168,171

3508378	PACKAGING MACHINE AND PACKAGE FORMED THEREBY	April 1970	Fehr et al.
3673905	CUTTER DEVICE OF ROLLED COPY PAPER FOR ELECTRONIC COPYING MACHINES	July 1972	Kono

Mcgehee, Travis S.

Culver, Horace M.

Ostrolenk, Faber, Gerb & Soffen

1. Apparatus for wrapping lengths of elongated filamentary material from a source of indeterminate length upon a stiff insert comprising:

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising second roller means comprised of a second pair of rollers positioned beneath said cutting means for receiving said material therebetween and being constantly rotated to maintain said material under tension when rotation of said first roller means is halted, to facilitate the cutting operation.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising means for directing a jet of air upon said cutting means to clean said cutting means during and after each cutting operation.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each of said winding assemblies comprises a shaft rotatably mounted upon said turntable;

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising motor means having a first output shaft;

6. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising a second pair of roller means positioned beneath said cutting means for receiving said material therebetween and being constantly rotated to maintain said material uner tension when rotation of said first roller means is halted, to facilitate the cutting operation.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means directly coupling said first shaft to said second roller means for constantly operating said second roller means.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said cutting means comprises a heated wire.

9. Apparatus for winding elongated filamentary material of indeterminate length comprising:

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the aforesaid opposite parallel ends extend beyond said receiving means to cause the material wrapped about said insert to remain wrapped about said insert when the insert is slidably removed from the receiving means.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said opposite parallel ends each have saw-tooth peripheries to facilitate retention of the material wrapped about said insert when the insert is removed from said receiving means.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said receiving means comprises first and second pairs of resilient arms arranged in spaced fashion for slidably receiving an insert therebetween.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising means for deactivating said dispensing means at predetermined intervals and means for severing said material when said dispensing means is deactivated.

The present invention relates to feeding, cutting and wrapping a length of elongated material from a supply of indeterminate length and more particularly to novel apparatus for feeding, accurately measuring, cutting and wrapping tinsel garland and the like about combined wrapping and display boards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There exist a wide variety of applications wherein it is desirable to wrap a strip of elongated material of a predetermined length about a support member for subsequent storage, dispensing and/or display purposes. As one example, tinsel garland, which is typically employed for decorative purposes is conventionally made by twisting a plurality of strands in helical fashion with tinsel strips arranged transverse to the twisted strands being entwined within the strands so as to form a decorative garland. The tinsel garland is manufactured in a substantially continuous process whereby the garland is produced in extremely long lengths and is typically wound about a takeup roll usually having a capacity for receiving an extremely large amount of the garland. The take-up roll is then typically removed to a remote location and due to the face that it is somewhat fragile it is unwound from the supply reel, by hand, and wrapped about stiff members, such as, for example, cardboard inserts, until a suitable amount of the tinsel garland its wound about the cardboard insert at which point the tinsel garland is severed or cut and the cardboard insert with the wrapped tinsel garland wound about it is inserted into a box or other package. Such manual operations are both tedious and time consuming and add quite significantly to the cost of such tinsel garland to the consumer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND OBJECTS

The present invention is characterized by providing an automatic apparatus for measuring and cutting tinsel garland and the like from a supply roll or other source, and for winding and wrapping the tinsel garland as it is being measured and cut so as to quite significantly reduce the amount of manual activity presently being employed in such operations.

The present invention is comprised of an automatic feeding, measuring and cutting apparatus for feeding the tinsel garland to a winding and wrapping station, measuring the tinsel and automatically cutting the tinsel to the desired length.

The free end of the tinsel garland is fed downwardly from the feeding, measuring and cutting apparatus to one winding apparatus of which a plurality are provided on an indexable turntable. Each winding apparatus is mounted in a free-wheeling fashion at discrete intervals about the truntable and is provided with a pair of arms, each arm, in turn, being comprised of a pair of fingers of a springy metallic material adapted to receive a cardboard insert therebetween. The center of the cardboard insert is provided with a large opening enabling the free end of the tinsel garland being fed to pass therebetween. Upon receipt of an appropriate signal, the winding device positioned beneath the feed end of the feeding device is caused to rotate whereupon the center of the tinsel garland passes through the opening in the cardboard insert and is automatically caused to be wound about the cardboard insert. After a predetermined time interval the tinsel garland is held substantially taut between two pairs of rollers maintained at spaced intervals above the aforementioned turntable whereupon the garland is severed by a cutting apparatus. A predetermined short time delay thereafter, the winding apparatus is decoupled from the source of rotation and the turntable is indexed to remove the winding apparatus having tinsel garland wrapped therearound away from the feed point of the tinsel garland and moving a second winding apparatus into the winding location. Each cardboard insert wrapped with tinsel garland may then be removed at a location which does not interfere with the next winding operation and replaced with a new cardboard insert thus significantly reducing the number of manual operations required for the feeding, measuring, cutting and winding operations. The tinsel garland wound on the cardboard inserts may then be inserted into a combined storage and display box or any other suitable package either as the tinsel garland has been wrapped about the cardboard inserts or at a second station remote from the aforementioned apparatus.

It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a novel apparatus for automatically feeding, measuring, cutting and wrapping tinsel garland and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The above as well as other objects of the present invention will become apparent when reading the accompanying description and drawing in which:

FIGS. 1a and 1b are side and front elevational views of the automatic feeding, measuring and cutting apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 1c is a block diagram showing the electrical controls for the apparatus.

FIG. 2a is a top view of the automatic winding and wrapping table which cooperates with the automatic feeding, measuring and cutting apparatus of FIGS. 1a and 1b.

FIGS. 2b and 2c are side and end views, respectively, of the automatic wrapping table of FIG. 2a looking in the direction of arrows 2b--2b and 2c--2c, respectively.

FIG. 2d is a perspective view showing a portion of one of the winding arm assemblies of FIGS. 2a-2c in greater detail.

FIG. 2e is a perspective view showing the cardboard insert mounted within a display box.

FIG. 3 shows an alternative arrangement for the cutting device of FIGS. 1a and 1b.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIGS. 1a and 1b show the automatic feeding, measuring and cutting mechanism 10 of the present invention which is comprised of an apparatus framework including a pair of rearwardly mounted uprights 11a and 11b secured to one another at their bottom ends by a lower bracing member 12. A similar pair of uprights is provided at spaced parallel fashion relative to uprights 11a and 11b, one such upright 13 being shown in FIG. 1a. A third pair of spaced parallel uprights only one of which is shown in FIG. 1a and designated by numeral 14, is positioned in spaced parallel fashion relative to the pair of uprights adjacent thereto and represented by upright 13 (its companion upright being hidden from view in FIG. 1a). The uprights 11a, 13 and 14 are secured near their bottom ends by a bracing member 15. It should be understood that the uprights on the opposite side of the framework are secured by a similar brace located at 15a, shown best in FIG. 1b. It should be further understood that a bracing member located at 12a and similar to the bracing member 12 shown in FIG. 1d is provided at the forward or left-hand end of the framework structure.

A support member 17 is secured to uprights 13 and 14 at its right-hand end as shown at 17a in FIG. 1b and a pair of supporting arms 18a and 18b (note especially FIG. 1b) secured at their lower ends to uprights 13 and 14 and at their upper ends to platform 17 at 17b serve to provide a suitable platform 17 for positioning and supporting drive motor 20. Drive motor 20 is provided with an output shaft 21 upon which is mounted a pulley 22 and a clutch mechanism 23 which joins drive shaft 21 to driven shaft 21a which is mounted within two free wheeling bearings 24 and 25, and has its left-hand end coupled to clutch 23 and has a pulley 26 mounted near its right-hand end.

The rear or right-hand end of the feeding, measuring and cutting apparatus 10 (relative to FIG. 1a) is provided with a pair of outwardly extending arms 27a and 27b secured to a cross-arm 28 extending between arms 11a and 11b. The free ends of arms 27a and 27b receive the ends of a shaft 29 upon which is mounted a free-wheeling guide roller 30 having rims 30a and 30b extending beyond, i.e., of greater diameter than the central portion of roller 30. Guide roller 30 serves as the means for guiding tinsel garland 31 into the feeding, measuring and cutting apparatus 10, which tinsel garland may be taken from a supply reel 32, preferably mounted in free-wheeling fashion upon a pair of support arms 33 freewheeling receiving and rotatably supporting a shaft 34 upon which the supply reel 32 is mounted. Guide roller 30 is mounted in a free-wheeling fashion.

Whereas the tinsel garland 31 is shown as being taken from a supply reel 32, it should be understood that the tinsel garland may be derived from any other source such as directly from a tinsel forming apparatus enabling the apparatus of the present invention to be used directly at the output of such tinsel forming machinery if desired.

The tinsel garland 31 is fed in the direction shown by arrow 35 (by means to be more fully described) whereupon the tinsel garland is entrained or draped over a free-wheeling guide roller 36 mounted upon a shaft 37 secured between the arms 38a and 38b whose right-hand ends (relative to FIG 1a) are pivotally secured in any suitable fashion to a cross-arm 39 secured to arm 13 and its companion arm not shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b for purposes of simplicity.

The tinsel garland 31 passes between roller 36 and a second roller 41 arranged a spaced distance from roller 36 and mounted in a free-wheeling fashion, by means of shaft 40, between arms 38a and 38b. The surface of driven roller 41 engages the surface of a drive roller 42 mounted on shaft 43. The left and right-hand ends of shaft 43 are journalled within bearings 44 and 45. The shaft is fitted with a pulley 46, A belt 47 is entrained about pulleys 26 and 46 for the purpose of driving roller 42 under control of motor 20 when clutch 23 is engaged. If desired, spring means 48 may be employed to urge roller 41 against roller 42 provide adequate driving force for feeding the tinsel garland 31 passing between rollers 41 and 42. Alternatively, the weight of the arms 38a and 38b and rollers 41 and 36 may be sufficient to provide adequate driving force for the tinsel garland 31 in the region between rollers 41 and 42.

A pair of arms 49 and 50 (note especially FIG. 1b) extend outwardly from uprights 14. The free ends of arms 49 and 50 are fitted with bearings 51 and 52, respectively, which free-wheelingly mount a shaft 53 having a roller 54 secured thereto. Also provided on shaft 53 and to the left of roller 54 is a pulley 55. A belt 56 is entrained about pulley 55 and the pulley 22 mounted upon the output shaft 21 of motor 20.

Another pair of arms 57 and 58 extend outwardly from upright 14 (and its cooperating upright not shown in the figures for the purpose of simplicity) upon which are mounted near the left-hand ends thereof a pair of downwardly depending arms 59 and 60 which support a shaft 61 or 62 mounted thereon. The tinsel garland 31 passes between rollers 54 and 62. Roller 54, being driven by motor 20 through shaft 21, pulley 22, belt 56, pulley 55 and shaft 53, rotates in a direction shown by arrow 64 to urge the tinsel garland downwardly, as shown by the arrow 35 adjacent rollers 54 and 62.

Also mounted upon arms 57 and 58 is an elongated member 66 at the center of which is mounted a backing block 67 which cooperates with a cutter blade 68. The cutter blade is mounted at the free end of a piston 69 reciprocally operated by an air cylinder 70. The air pressure fed to air cylinder 70 has a portion thereof fed through tube 71 whose free end is positioned adjacent the aluminum block 67 (so as to be free of the reciprocating movement of blade 68) for the purpose of blowing air upon the surface of the aluminum block 67 to clean it prior to and during each cutting operation.

The operation of the feeding, measuring and cutting mechanism 10 of FIGS. 1aand 1b is as follows:

An adjustable timer 74 is coupled across a source of electrical power (see FIG. 1c) and has its output coupled to electromagnetic clutch 23. Switch 75 may be selectively operated to energize motor 20. Assuming the closure of switch 74, motor 20 is energized and timer 74 is energized to engage clutch 23. The energization of motor 20 and the engagement of clutch 23 drives roller 42 into rotation causing the tinsel garland to be driven downwardly and to pass between rollers 54 and 62. At this time roller 54 is driven through the output shaft 21 of motor 20 further serving to cause the tinsel garland to be driven downwardly (toward the winding and wrapping station as will become evident from the ensuing description). Upon timeout of timer 74, clutch 23 becomes disengaged to stop the rotation of rollers 40 and 42. This abruptly terminates the feeding of tinsel garland between rollers 41 and 42. However, since pulley 22 is positioned to the left of clutch 23 (note FIG. 1b) roller 54 continues to rotate causing the tinsel garland extending between rollers 41-42 and 54-62 to be maintained under tension. The time-out of timer 74 further provides a signal to valve 72 shown in FIG. 1c which opens to couple the pressure source through valve 72 to air cylinder 70 so as to simultaneously drive cutter blade 68 against aluminum block 67 thereby serving the tinsel garland at this point and further to provide a jet of air under pressure against the aluminum block immediately prior to and subsequent to cutting for keeping the cutting block surface clean.

Timer 74 automatically resets itself and repeats the same operation set forth hereinabove so as to continually feed, measure and cut a predetermined length of tinsel garland. Experimentation has shown that any garland length from as little as 10 feet to lengths of as great as 100 feet may be accurately cut by adjusting the time interval for timeout of timer 74. Whereas the description set forth hereinabove indicates the advantageous use of the apparatus for tinsel garland, it should be understood that any other material of similar characteristics may be fed, measured and cut with equal success.

FIG. 3 shows an alternative cutting arrangement which may be substituted for that shown in FIG. 1a wherein like elements as between FIGS. 1a and 3 are designated by like numerals.

Upright 18a is provided with a cutoff backing plate 66 having a pair of outwardly extending projections 66a and 66b forming a groove or indent 66c therebetween. The downwardly moving garland is designated by numeral 31. A slow acting cylinder 70' is provided with a piston rod 69' having its free end mounted to a pin 91 which is adapted to fit within an elongated slot 92a provided in a pivotally mounted arm 92 whose lower end is pivoted to upright 18 by pivot pin 93. Pin 91 which rides an elongated slot 92a is held within the slot 92a by an end fastening means 94. Obviously, another such fastening member will be provided at the opposite end of arm 92.

The free end of arm 92 is provided with a face 92b having two upwardly extending projections 95 with a hot wire 96 coupled thereto. Although not shown for purposes of simplicity, the hot wire 96 is coupled to a suitable electrical source to heat wire 96. The timer 74 of FIG. 1c operates in the same manner as was previously described in connection with the description of FIG. 1c so as to activate the slow acting piston cylinder 70' urging piston rod 69' in the direction of arrow A and causing the heated wire 96 to move into the indentation 66c capturing the tinsel garland 31 therebetween and "cutting" the tinsel garland by a heating operation. If desired, the air blast nozzle may be utilized in the embodiment of FIG. 3 to clear any material which may adhere to the indentation 66c.

Turning now to a consideration of FIGS. 2a-2c, there is shown therein the automatic winding and wrapping apparatus 100 comprised of a table framework having four upright legs 101a-101d secured at their upper ends by horizontally aligned bracing members such as the members 103 and 1'shown in FIGS. 2b and 2c, respectively, it being understood that similar members are provided along the opposite parallel sides thereof. Similar bracing members are provided such as, for example, those designated as 104, 105, 106 and 107, to provide a firm support for the turntable and wrapping mechanisms to be more fully described.

Secured to the top of the table framework is an air table mechanism comprised of a base portion 108 having an upwardly extending shaft 109 rotatably supporting a turntable member 110. The air talbe base member 104 is coupled to an air line 111 and air control valve 112 and an adjustable air pressure control device 113 to an air line (not shown for purposes of simplicity). The turntable member 110 which can best be seen in FIG. 2a is a disc-shaped member having four winding and wrapping assemblies 114a-114d rotatably mounted thereto. Since each of these structures are substantially identical to one another in both design and operation, the description of one such assembly will be given herein for purposes of simplicity. As shown best in FIG. 2a, the winding and wrapping assembly 114a is comprised of an elongated shaft 115a free-wheelingly journalled within bearings 116a and 117a, respectively. The left-hand end of shaft 115a (relative to FIGS. 2a) has secured thereto an arm 118a which positions and supports at its free end springly arm pairs 119a and 120a, respectively, a more detailed description thereof being set forth hereinbelow in connection with FIG. 2d. Each of the shafts 115a-115d are further provided with roller members 121a-121d which are rigidly locked to their associated shafts 115a-115d for imparting rotational movement to the winding and wrapping assemblies 114a-114d in a manner to be more fully described.

The table framework of FIGS. 2a-2c is further provided with a supporting arm 122 upon which is mounted an air cylinder 123 having a reciprocating piston member 124 whose free end has pivotally mounted thereto a pulley member 125 shown best in FIG. 2c. Mounted to one side of the table framework is a motor 126 whose output shaft 127 has a pulley 128 mounted thereto. Entrained around pulleys 125 and 129 is a pulley belt 129. When one of the rotatable assemblies is indexed into position, for example, as shown in FIG. 2b, its roller member 121a is positioned adjacent to, but spaced from pulley belt 129 as shown best in FIG. 2c. By energization of air control valve 112, air under pressure a-passed through air line 131 to air cylinder 123 causing the piston 124 to move in a direction shown by arrow 133 in FIG. 2c, thereby urging the belt 129 against the surface of roller 121a to drive the winding and wrapping apparatus into rotation. The structure of one such winding apparatus is shown best in the perspective view of FIG. 2d wherein arm 118a is shown as being fitted with two pairs of springy metallic arms 119a and 120a, each being comprised of the individual arm members 119a-1 and 119a-2 and 120a-1 and 120a-2, respectively. These arms are in engagement along substantially their entire lengths except for their free ends which are bent outwardly as shown to permit the insertion of a cardboard or other stiff insert member 136 having a large central opening 137. The left and right-hand ends of insert 136 are provided with sawtooth like edges 138a and 138b to facilitate the wrapping operation, as will be more fully described. The insert is mounted to the winding and wrapping assembly simply by aligning the right-hand edge 136a thereof with the outwardly turned ends of the arm pairs 119a and 120a and urging the cardboard insert in the direction shown by arrow 139 until edge 136a abuts against the adjacent surface of arm 118a.

The winding operation is performed in the following manner:

A timer 80 shown in FIG. 1c which operates substantially in cooperation with timer 70, has its output coupled to the air control valve 112 whereby air under pressure is fed through the two conduits 111 and 131. Air under pressure flowing through conduit 111 causes the turntable 110 to be indexed (i.e. rotated through an angle of 90°) to position the next winding and wrapping assembly 114a immediately beneath the tinsel garland 31 being fed downwardly (note especially FIGS. 2a and 2b). Timer 90 couples the air line source to conduit 122 a predetermined time after the turntable has been appropriately indexed to operate air cylinder 123 and thereby urge pulley belt 129 into engagement with roller 121a.

The tinsel garland begins to feed in the downward vertical direction and passes through the opening 137 provided in the cardboard insert mounted within the arms of the winding and wrapping assembly. Once the free (i.e. bottom) end of the tinsel garland passes through opening 137 it then begins to automatically wind about the cardboard insert 136 and continues to do so until the tinsel garland is cut to the proper length in the manner previously described. Thereafter the timing of timer 90 causes disengagement of pulley belt 129 from roller 121a after completion of the cutting and feeding operation, but prior to the performance of the indexing operation as was previously described. The operation set forth hereinabove continues in an automatic fashion with the completed cardboard inserts wrapped with tinsel garland being easily removable at the position occupied by winding and wrapping apparatus 114b whereby replacement cardboard inserts may be inserted upon removal of each of the cardboard inserts which have been wrapped. The length of the cardboard inserts 136 is made greater than the distance between the arms 119a and 120a so as to facilitate removal of the wrapped tinsel garland and to thereby prevent the tinsel garland from being wrapped about the arm pairs 119a and 120a. To further facilitate removal of the cardboard inserts 136 and the wrapped tinsel garland, the edges are cut in a sawtooth fashion so as to prevent the tinsel garland from slipping off of the cardboard insert.

It should further be noted that the angle of orientation of the winding assembly is immaterial insofar as the automatic winding and wrapping operation is concerned. For example, if the cardboard insert is oriented at or in the horizontal plane, the tinsel garland is free to pass through the central opening 137. Any deviation from this amgle will also permit the tinsel garland to pass freely through the central opening 137. The worst possible orientation would be that in which the cardboard insert is at or in the vertical plane. However, as soon as rotation begins the free end of the tinsel garland will be caused to pass through the central opening 137 and the automatic winding and wrapping will immediately occur as the free end of the tinsel garland falls through the central opening.

It can be seen from the foregoing description that the present invention provides a device for automatically feeding, measuring, cutting, winding and wrapping tinsel garland and the like at an efficiency and at speeds not heretofore possible through conventional techniques. It should further be noted that the cardboard insert 136 wrapped with tinsel garland may be directly employed in display boxes such as that shown in FIG. 2e. The box 150 is provided with an oblong opening 151 and has a flap 152 which may be opened for insertion of the cardboard insert 136 (shown in dotted fashion) with the tinsel garland whereby the oblong opening 151 exposes the tinsel garland so as to enable the tinsel garland 31 to form an effective part of the actual display. The oblong window 151 may be completely opened or may be sealed with a clear plastic sheet, if desired.

Although there has been described a preferred embodiment of this novel invention, many variations and modifications will now be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, this invention is to be limited, not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appending claims.