Pivoted wicket bag opening dispenser
United States Patent 3918589
A packaging bag dispenser for wicket-holed stacked bags, having a platen and a pair of wicket supports mounted thereon, the supports being disposed to mount a stack of bags to be dispensed, and to hold the wicket-holed portions of the stacked bags elevated from the platen surface in a position to form troughs between the wicket holes in the stacked bags.
US Patent References:
Flexible bags and bagging means
Million - April 1967 - 3312339
BAG HOLDER AND DISPENSER
Dinges - July 1969 - 3454166
ARTICLE PACKAGING SYSTEM
Kupcikevicius - October 1973 - 3763627
OUTBOARD SPANNING SHOULDERED WICKETS
Kupcikevicius - November 1973 - 3770134
SHOULDERED WICKETS
Ericson - December 1973 - 3777930
Flexible bags and bagging means
Million - April 1967 - 3312339
BAG HOLDER AND DISPENSER
Dinges - July 1969 - 3454166
ARTICLE PACKAGING SYSTEM
Kupcikevicius - October 1973 - 3763627
OUTBOARD SPANNING SHOULDERED WICKETS
Kupcikevicius - November 1973 - 3770134
SHOULDERED WICKETS
Ericson - December 1973 - 3777930
Application Number:
05/520834
Publication Date:
11/11/1975
Filing Date:
11/04/1974
View Patent Images:
Export Citation:
Assignee:
Union Carbide Corporation (New York, NY)
Primary Class:
Other Classes:
206/526, 221/26
International Classes:
A47F13/08; B65D33/00; A47F13/00; A47F7/00
Field of Search:
221/26,312A 312/189 248/95,97 211/59,57 206/526,801 53/189
Primary Examiner:
Knowles, Allen N.
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
Ryan, Maurice W.
Claims:
What is claimed is
1. Apparatus for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, for one at a time dispensing, comprising, in combination,
2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said platen means is arranged and disposed in planar orientation and attitude closer to horizontal than to vertical.
3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said wicket post means are attached to and extend from said platen means.
4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said wicket post means are moveable between
5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said wicket post means extend from respective arms mounted pivotally on said platen means to move the wicket post means between and into said first and said second positions.
6. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the means to hold the wicket holed portion of the multiplicity of articles elevated relative to the platen means comprises a washer arranged and disposed on each of the pair of wicket post means to effect bearing contact with the underside of the stacked array of articles at the loci of the wicket holes therethrough.
7. Apparatus for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, comprising, in combination,
8. A method for holding a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, comprising the steps of
9. A method for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, comprising the steps of,
1. Apparatus for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, for one at a time dispensing, comprising, in combination,
2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said platen means is arranged and disposed in planar orientation and attitude closer to horizontal than to vertical.
3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said wicket post means are attached to and extend from said platen means.
4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said wicket post means are moveable between
5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said wicket post means extend from respective arms mounted pivotally on said platen means to move the wicket post means between and into said first and said second positions.
6. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the means to hold the wicket holed portion of the multiplicity of articles elevated relative to the platen means comprises a washer arranged and disposed on each of the pair of wicket post means to effect bearing contact with the underside of the stacked array of articles at the loci of the wicket holes therethrough.
7. Apparatus for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, comprising, in combination,
8. A method for holding a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, comprising the steps of
9. A method for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, comprising the steps of,
Description:
This invention relates to a wrapping sheet or packaging bag dispenser and more particularly to a dispenser-holder and dispensing technique uniquely suitable for wicket-holed flexible plastic film packaging station. While, for the sake of simplification, the present invention will be described in connection with particular embodiments relating to plastic film bags used in the rapid packaging of meat articles, it should be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to such embodiments and utilizations, but may also be practiced and enjoyed in a variety of other ways.
Packaging operations in industry are of significant import and interest towards promoting the rapid, efficient and economical packaging of products for the market. Food packaging generally and the meat packing industry in particular require additionally the strict maintenance of sanitary conditions. Automatic or semiautomatic packaging techniques have been developed towards achievement of these desired goals. Semiautomatic packing techniques, that is to say those requiring the cooperation of a human operator with a machine, are uniquely of interest to the meat packing industry since the products being packaged frequently are not exactly alike as to size, shape and weight, a circumstance militating against fully automatic packing.
The copending application of Kupcikevicus, Ser. No. 345,933, filed Mar. 29, 1973 discloses an apparatus for the semiautomatic continual bagging of primal meat cuts varying in size, shape and weight. Such an apparatus in use requires an adjacent supply of packing bags in an assortment of sizes and these bags must be arranged for facile one at a time removal from their respective supply stacks for use in the bagging operation. Bagging operations of this type, it is important to note, are usually carried out in cold rooms at temperatures only slightly above freezing. It is important then that the bag holding and dispensing technique be consistently reliable in assuring easy one at a time bag availability to the packaging operator. Heretofore the bags have been loosely stacked in trays or bins, or have been held flat and stacked by spring loaded hold down leash bars or the like, or have been held stacked flat on wicket posts passing through wicket holes in the bags. None of these arrangements has been found in experience to be completely suitable. With loosely stacked bags the top bag being removed tends to pull the bag beneath it into disarray and the stack soon becomes a disorderly pile. The hold down and the other bag restraining arrangements require significant and bothersome pulling action by the operator and, if they malfunction, also cause bag stack disarray and sometime bag straining and tearing. The wicketed arrangements have been found to be preferable to loose stacking and to leash bag hold downs on the bags but, up to the tiem of the present invention it has always been found difficult for the packaging operator to grasp the topmost bag in a wicketed stack without finger grip slippage or grabbing more than one bag.
With this then being the state of the art, the present invention was conceived and developed to provide a bag holding and dispensing technique for wicket-holed bags wicket mounted so as to provide a single easily graspable bag ply of the uppermost bag on a wicketed stack and insure consistently reproduceable one at a time removal of bags from the stack, each in an opened condition, ready to be placed on an article to be packaged.
The invention also provides a bag holding and dispensing apparatus and method uniquely suitable to meat packing cold room operations.
A still further and important attribute of the invention is that it permits the ready availability of a wide assortment of bag sizes at semi-automatic packaging stations.
Another important feature of the invention is its adaptability for use with a wide variety of styles of wicket-holed bags.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will be the more fully understood and appreciated from the insuing detailed description and from the drawings herein:
FIG. 1 is a isometric view showing a stack of wicket-holed bags mounted on an embodiment of apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is an end view of a stack of wicket-hold bags mounted on apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 3 is a isometric view of apparatus according to the invention but without a bag stack in place thereon; and
FIG. 4 is a detailed sectional view of a pivoted wicket mounting post of an embodiment of apparatus according to the invention.
In general, the invention comprehends an apparatus for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, for one at a time dispensing, comprising, in combination, platen means disposed to hold the articles in stacked array, a pair of wicket post means extending upwardly relative to the platen means locateable on spaced centers apart a distance less than the distance between the spaced wicket holes in the sheet articles, and means to hold the wicket holed portion of the multiplicity of articles elevated relative to the platen means.
In normal usages the platen is arranged and disposed in planar orientation and attitude closer to horizontal than to vertical, and the wicket posts are attached to and extend from the platen by means of arms mounted pivotally on the platen to move the wicket post between a first position at spaced centers apart a distance at least as great as the distance between the spaced wicket holes in the sheet articles and a second position at spaced centers apart a distance less than the distance between the spaced wicket holes in the sheet articles. Bushings or washer type elements may be advantageously mounted on the wicket posts to effect bearing contact with the underside of the stacked array of articles at the loci of the wicket holes therethrough, thereby raising the stacked array of articles above the platen elevation.
The essentials of the invention as a method for holding a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, are comprised in disposing the articles in stacked array on a preselected reference plane in a planar orientation closer to horizontal than to vertical, maintaining the wicket holes therethrough in substantial registration through the stacked array at centerlines apart a distance less than the distance between centerlines of the wicket holes with the articles flattened, and holding the stacked array of articles elevated from the preselected reference plane at the loci of the wicket holes therethrough.
With reference to the drawings, there is shown generally a bundle or stack 6 of flattened flexible plastic packaging bags 4, each having a closed bottom end 5, an open mouth end 7, and wicket holes 9 through the flattened plies adjacent the edge of the open mouth end 7. The wicket holes 9 through the bags 4 are in substantial registration throughout the stack 6, being imposed on flexible binding member 10 elements of plastic tubing for instance.
The bags are arranged in stacked array on a platen 20 which is held disposed in a planar orientation closer to the horizontal than to the vertical by a rear support 22 and a front support 24 extending upwardly from a base 26, with the wicket holes 9, as shown in FIG. 4, imposed by means of the binding member 10 elements on a pair of wicket post pins 32 extending upwardly from wicket post cups 34. The pins 32 and cups 32 are comprised in a pair of wicket sockets indicated generally at 30. The sockets shown generally at 30 are pivotally mounted adjacent the outboard end of platen 20. Each socket 30 comprises an arm or swing plate 36 pivotally secured by pivot 38 to platen 20, and mounts a cup 34 and pin 32 as shown outboard of its pivot 38. Each pin 32 is coaxially aligned with a respective cup 34 and extends outwardly therefrom to serve as a pilot or guide means for threading tubing such as a binding member 10 element onto the wicket sockets 30 assembly to mount the bag stack 6 thereon.
The sockets 30 may be limited in pivotal movement by means other than and in addition to the limited movement inherent in their full pivotal swings, but in any case, it is only necessary in the illustrated embodiment that they be pivotally moveable between a first position wherein the distance between pin 32 centerlines is at least as great as, preferably equal to, the distance between centerlines of the wicket holes in the flattened bags, and a second position wherein the distance between the pin 32 centerlines is less than the distance between centerlines of the wicket holes in the flattened bags.
Washers 16 are provided on the binding member 10 elements as shown and serve to hold the bag stack elevated at the wicket hole loci above the platen.
In use, the bag stack 6 is arrayed on platen 20, the wicket sockets are positioned for wicket post alignment with the bag stack wicket holes with the bags in flattened position, and the bags are imposed by means of their wicket holes on the wicket post assemblies to rest thereon with the bag mouth edge of the stack 6 elevated from the platen 20 by means of the washers 16. At this point, if the pivotal movement of the wicket socket assemblies is sufficiently free, the weight of the bags will cause the stack 6 to assume the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, that is to form a trough-like depression with the stack bag material developed as the wicket sockets move towards and into their second position. If necessary, the wicket socket assemblies can be pivoted to the second position to produce the desired trough configuration. When so disposed, the upper ply of the topmost bag of the stacked array will tend to lift from the lower ply thereof, scuffing upwardly and inwardly to some extent towards the bag back and presenting a readily graspable area at the bag mouth which permits facile removal of the topmost bag in an opened condition ready for use in a packaging operation.
FIG. 3 shows an apparatus embodiment according to the invention without a bag stack in place thereon.
While, in the described and illustrated embodiment, certain specific structures are discussed and treated, alternatives within the spirit of the invention are possible. For instance, it is not essential that the wicket post or socket assemblies pivot at all, it being quite possible, but perhaps not too convenient, to load wicket holed bags onto fixed wicket posts. It is necessary to this invention only that the trough configuration be formed at the wicket holed edge of the bag stack, and this is done quite simply with any suitable arrangement of wicket posts at a centerline spacing distance less than the centerline flat spacing distance between the wicket holes in the bags being mounted, in combination with means to hold the bags being so mounted elevated above the platen surface on which the main portion of the bags in the bag stack rests.
In the described and illustrated embodiments the bags involved are bags mounted on a flexible wicket binding according to the invention covered in the copending application of Nausedas et al., Ser. No. 516,240, filed Oct. 18, 1974 and assigned to the same assignee as is the application. These inventions have been found to work together advantageously.
Other alternatives modes of practicing this invention, but well within its spirit, will, in the light of this disclosure, undoubtedly occur to persons conversant with the art. The disclosure herein is thus intended as illustrative only and should not be construed in any limiting sense, the scope and measure of the invention being defined in the appended claims.
Packaging operations in industry are of significant import and interest towards promoting the rapid, efficient and economical packaging of products for the market. Food packaging generally and the meat packing industry in particular require additionally the strict maintenance of sanitary conditions. Automatic or semiautomatic packaging techniques have been developed towards achievement of these desired goals. Semiautomatic packing techniques, that is to say those requiring the cooperation of a human operator with a machine, are uniquely of interest to the meat packing industry since the products being packaged frequently are not exactly alike as to size, shape and weight, a circumstance militating against fully automatic packing.
The copending application of Kupcikevicus, Ser. No. 345,933, filed Mar. 29, 1973 discloses an apparatus for the semiautomatic continual bagging of primal meat cuts varying in size, shape and weight. Such an apparatus in use requires an adjacent supply of packing bags in an assortment of sizes and these bags must be arranged for facile one at a time removal from their respective supply stacks for use in the bagging operation. Bagging operations of this type, it is important to note, are usually carried out in cold rooms at temperatures only slightly above freezing. It is important then that the bag holding and dispensing technique be consistently reliable in assuring easy one at a time bag availability to the packaging operator. Heretofore the bags have been loosely stacked in trays or bins, or have been held flat and stacked by spring loaded hold down leash bars or the like, or have been held stacked flat on wicket posts passing through wicket holes in the bags. None of these arrangements has been found in experience to be completely suitable. With loosely stacked bags the top bag being removed tends to pull the bag beneath it into disarray and the stack soon becomes a disorderly pile. The hold down and the other bag restraining arrangements require significant and bothersome pulling action by the operator and, if they malfunction, also cause bag stack disarray and sometime bag straining and tearing. The wicketed arrangements have been found to be preferable to loose stacking and to leash bag hold downs on the bags but, up to the tiem of the present invention it has always been found difficult for the packaging operator to grasp the topmost bag in a wicketed stack without finger grip slippage or grabbing more than one bag.
With this then being the state of the art, the present invention was conceived and developed to provide a bag holding and dispensing technique for wicket-holed bags wicket mounted so as to provide a single easily graspable bag ply of the uppermost bag on a wicketed stack and insure consistently reproduceable one at a time removal of bags from the stack, each in an opened condition, ready to be placed on an article to be packaged.
The invention also provides a bag holding and dispensing apparatus and method uniquely suitable to meat packing cold room operations.
A still further and important attribute of the invention is that it permits the ready availability of a wide assortment of bag sizes at semi-automatic packaging stations.
Another important feature of the invention is its adaptability for use with a wide variety of styles of wicket-holed bags.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will be the more fully understood and appreciated from the insuing detailed description and from the drawings herein:
FIG. 1 is a isometric view showing a stack of wicket-holed bags mounted on an embodiment of apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is an end view of a stack of wicket-hold bags mounted on apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 3 is a isometric view of apparatus according to the invention but without a bag stack in place thereon; and
FIG. 4 is a detailed sectional view of a pivoted wicket mounting post of an embodiment of apparatus according to the invention.
In general, the invention comprehends an apparatus for mounting a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, for one at a time dispensing, comprising, in combination, platen means disposed to hold the articles in stacked array, a pair of wicket post means extending upwardly relative to the platen means locateable on spaced centers apart a distance less than the distance between the spaced wicket holes in the sheet articles, and means to hold the wicket holed portion of the multiplicity of articles elevated relative to the platen means.
In normal usages the platen is arranged and disposed in planar orientation and attitude closer to horizontal than to vertical, and the wicket posts are attached to and extend from the platen by means of arms mounted pivotally on the platen to move the wicket post between a first position at spaced centers apart a distance at least as great as the distance between the spaced wicket holes in the sheet articles and a second position at spaced centers apart a distance less than the distance between the spaced wicket holes in the sheet articles. Bushings or washer type elements may be advantageously mounted on the wicket posts to effect bearing contact with the underside of the stacked array of articles at the loci of the wicket holes therethrough, thereby raising the stacked array of articles above the platen elevation.
The essentials of the invention as a method for holding a multiplicity of wicket holed flexible plastic film sheet articles, each having two wicket holes on spaced centers adjacent one edge thereof, are comprised in disposing the articles in stacked array on a preselected reference plane in a planar orientation closer to horizontal than to vertical, maintaining the wicket holes therethrough in substantial registration through the stacked array at centerlines apart a distance less than the distance between centerlines of the wicket holes with the articles flattened, and holding the stacked array of articles elevated from the preselected reference plane at the loci of the wicket holes therethrough.
With reference to the drawings, there is shown generally a bundle or stack 6 of flattened flexible plastic packaging bags 4, each having a closed bottom end 5, an open mouth end 7, and wicket holes 9 through the flattened plies adjacent the edge of the open mouth end 7. The wicket holes 9 through the bags 4 are in substantial registration throughout the stack 6, being imposed on flexible binding member 10 elements of plastic tubing for instance.
The bags are arranged in stacked array on a platen 20 which is held disposed in a planar orientation closer to the horizontal than to the vertical by a rear support 22 and a front support 24 extending upwardly from a base 26, with the wicket holes 9, as shown in FIG. 4, imposed by means of the binding member 10 elements on a pair of wicket post pins 32 extending upwardly from wicket post cups 34. The pins 32 and cups 32 are comprised in a pair of wicket sockets indicated generally at 30. The sockets shown generally at 30 are pivotally mounted adjacent the outboard end of platen 20. Each socket 30 comprises an arm or swing plate 36 pivotally secured by pivot 38 to platen 20, and mounts a cup 34 and pin 32 as shown outboard of its pivot 38. Each pin 32 is coaxially aligned with a respective cup 34 and extends outwardly therefrom to serve as a pilot or guide means for threading tubing such as a binding member 10 element onto the wicket sockets 30 assembly to mount the bag stack 6 thereon.
The sockets 30 may be limited in pivotal movement by means other than and in addition to the limited movement inherent in their full pivotal swings, but in any case, it is only necessary in the illustrated embodiment that they be pivotally moveable between a first position wherein the distance between pin 32 centerlines is at least as great as, preferably equal to, the distance between centerlines of the wicket holes in the flattened bags, and a second position wherein the distance between the pin 32 centerlines is less than the distance between centerlines of the wicket holes in the flattened bags.
Washers 16 are provided on the binding member 10 elements as shown and serve to hold the bag stack elevated at the wicket hole loci above the platen.
In use, the bag stack 6 is arrayed on platen 20, the wicket sockets are positioned for wicket post alignment with the bag stack wicket holes with the bags in flattened position, and the bags are imposed by means of their wicket holes on the wicket post assemblies to rest thereon with the bag mouth edge of the stack 6 elevated from the platen 20 by means of the washers 16. At this point, if the pivotal movement of the wicket socket assemblies is sufficiently free, the weight of the bags will cause the stack 6 to assume the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, that is to form a trough-like depression with the stack bag material developed as the wicket sockets move towards and into their second position. If necessary, the wicket socket assemblies can be pivoted to the second position to produce the desired trough configuration. When so disposed, the upper ply of the topmost bag of the stacked array will tend to lift from the lower ply thereof, scuffing upwardly and inwardly to some extent towards the bag back and presenting a readily graspable area at the bag mouth which permits facile removal of the topmost bag in an opened condition ready for use in a packaging operation.
FIG. 3 shows an apparatus embodiment according to the invention without a bag stack in place thereon.
While, in the described and illustrated embodiment, certain specific structures are discussed and treated, alternatives within the spirit of the invention are possible. For instance, it is not essential that the wicket post or socket assemblies pivot at all, it being quite possible, but perhaps not too convenient, to load wicket holed bags onto fixed wicket posts. It is necessary to this invention only that the trough configuration be formed at the wicket holed edge of the bag stack, and this is done quite simply with any suitable arrangement of wicket posts at a centerline spacing distance less than the centerline flat spacing distance between the wicket holes in the bags being mounted, in combination with means to hold the bags being so mounted elevated above the platen surface on which the main portion of the bags in the bag stack rests.
In the described and illustrated embodiments the bags involved are bags mounted on a flexible wicket binding according to the invention covered in the copending application of Nausedas et al., Ser. No. 516,240, filed Oct. 18, 1974 and assigned to the same assignee as is the application. These inventions have been found to work together advantageously.
Other alternatives modes of practicing this invention, but well within its spirit, will, in the light of this disclosure, undoubtedly occur to persons conversant with the art. The disclosure herein is thus intended as illustrative only and should not be construed in any limiting sense, the scope and measure of the invention being defined in the appended claims.