APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND PUNCHING CARDBOARDS DESTINED TO PACKING PILES OF CERAMIC TILES.

The present invention relates to an apparatus (set of various devices and machinery assembled and coordinated in a single functional structure) for cutting and blanking cardboard sheets for packing stacks of ceramic tiles, starting from unprocessed cardboard in sheets such as are generally to be found for generic uses (typically for pallets with dimensions of about 100 x 130 cm).

The type of wrap-around packing with such blanks is characterized in that these wrap around the perimeter sides of the stack of tiles, leaving the upper and lower faces partly exposed; the blanks are generally used for medium-large sizes, currently the most in demand.

LIMITS OF THE PRIOR ART

The present invention achieves very important conditions that make it possible to introduce one or more of these apparatus inside ceramics factories, whereas the current practice is to rely on outsourcing companies specialized in this sector for the supply of packing materials; to minimize the costs of the blanks, ceramics manufacturers are generally obliged to order minimum lots of several thousand pieces or more.

This situation is highly penalizing from a cost-effectiveness and operational viewpoint, since the production of tiles in small series results in oversized stocks of blanks that will remain unused for relatively long periods; in addition to the logistical costs, there is also the problem of deterioration of blanks stored for a long time (humidity, etc..) and consequent waste of unused materials.

Moreover, the previously mentioned companies specialized in packaging materials have machinery and equipment in which the manufacturing process is based on the prior art with die cutters where the cutting tool consists of a cutting profile having the shape of the finished blank suitable for producing large lots without machine stops for the replacement of cutting parts and restarts.

Said machines are obviously not convenient for ceramics manufacturers, as it would also be necessary to have a large number of blades to cover every type of packing and the costs would not be sustainable.

The problems described will become increasingly pressing in the future, as the present tendency is to produce only based on the amount sold and due to market demands products will be increasingly customized and divided into medium/small lots.

OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES

The invention aims to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks by providing an apparatus for blanking cardboard sheets whose cutting devices consist of a certain number of movable blades with a series of operations along the perimeter of cardboard sheets previously cut in the same machine; said apparatus will be easily adaptable to any type and size of tiles without there being any need to replace parts and with completely automatic operation; a further advantage will be the complete use of virgin cardboard sheets without scraps or waste.

One part of the present invention comprises (albeit with various modifications) devices and means as already described in the B.M.U. document of the same applicant with a fi!ing date of 20 March 2013, No. MO2013U000008 and entitled APPARATUS FOR PACKING TILES IN CONTINUOUS OPERATIONS,

Taken from the preceding document, in particular, are mainly some cutting devices and the part comprising the cardboard sheets lifting device; however, for the sake of clarity, all of the details of the present one will be described in a complete and autonomous manner.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

The present invention and the advantages thereof will be better described and illustrated with the aid of the following figures, which show a typical and non-exclusive embodiment.

FIG.1A: simplified plan view from above of the entire apparatus of the present invention;

FIG.1 B: simplified side view of the preceding figure from (V1);

FIG. C: detail of an accumulation of finished blanks on a pallet;

FIG.2A: simplified front view of FIG.1A from (V2);

FIG.2B: enlarged front view of a detail of F1G.2A;

FIG.2C and FIG, 2D: detail of two glued overlapping blanks; FIG.3A: simplified perspective view, not in scale, of the blanking station of the present invention;

FIG.3B: front view of some devices in FIG.3A;

FIG.3C: enlarged detail of FIG.3B;

FIG.4A to FIG.4G: types of blanks and packing produced with the apparatus of the present invention;

FIG.5A, FIG.5B and FIG.5C: plan view and details of a possible embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE APPARATUS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

In FIG.1A the apparatus of the present invention is shown divided into different parts, in each of which specific operations are performed, in particular:

- part (A): device for accumulating and lifting virgin cardboard sheets;

- part (B): cutting and positioning of cardboard sheets to be blanked;

- part (C): station with blanking devices;

- part (D): conveyor for conveying blanks to the pallet for finished products;

- part (E): storage stations for the finished blanks.

Part (A) mainly comprises (see also FIG. B and FIG.2A):

- a device (A1) for lifting a stack of cardboard sheets (PC) of commercial dimensions;

- a second carriage-mounted lifting device (A2), typically with suction cups, for lifting the single cardboard sheets (SC); - two guides (A4) for centring the accumulated cardboard sheets,

part (B) mainly comprises (see also FIG.2A):

- a weight-bearing frame (B1) for supporting the various devices of parts (A) and (B);

- a pair of idle pressing rollers (B2) for feeding the cardboard sheet (SC) and keeping it stationary during the cutting step;

- a pair of blades (B3), the upper one of which endowed with vertical movement for cutting;

- a conveyor (B4), typically with belts, for positioning the cut cardboard sheets (FL) in the positions determined by mechanical stops (B5);

- a pair of pressing rollers (B12) for compressing the ends of the cut cardboard sheets;

- a pair of carriage-mounted lifting devices (B6), typically with suction cups, for positioning the cut cardboard sheets (FL) on decks (B7) pending the blanking operations;

- a pair of heads (B10) for applying glue on the cut cardboard sheets.

Part (C) mainly comprises (see also FIG.3A and FIG.3B):

- a pair of pressing rollers (C1 ), of which the upper one has the possibility of vertical movements and the lower one is motorized;

- a pair of idle toothed wheels (C3) for the creasing operation, operating on the lower part of the cardboard sheets;

- a pair of motorized wheels with a central groove (C2) as opposing counterparts of the preceding ones, operating on the upper part of the cardboard sheet; for the sake of clarity, in FIG.3A only two of the four wheels (C2) are shown;

- a central blade (C4) endowed with vertical movement for blanking the central facing flaps of the cardboard sheets (FL) being processed;

- a pair of outer blades (C5) for blanking the outer flaps of the cardboard sheets, endowed with scissor-like movements and aligned with the preceding one (C4);

- a series of lower counter-blades (C6) and (C11), of which the two outer ones are adjustable in width;

- a second series of blades (C7) and (C8), of which the upper one is vertically movable so as to cut the pair of blanks (FU).

Part (D) mainly comprises:

- a conveyor system (D1), typically a belt for the blanks being processed; the supporting frame thereof is not shown in the figure for the sake of clarity;

- a printing system (D2) for characterizing the type of packing (brand, aesthetics, commercial codes , etc.);

- a pair of carriage-mounted blank pickup devices (D3), typically with suction cups, endowed with vertical and horizontal movements;

- a frame with sliding guides (D4) for the devices (D3), not shown in FIG.1 B.

Part (E) mainly comprises:

- a first station with a motorized roller conveyor for empty pallets (E1); - a second station with a motorized roller conveyor for accumulating pallets (E2), endowed with a pick-up device (E4);

- a third station with a roller conveyor (E3) for receiving the full pallets from the preceding one.

DESCRIPTION OF THE OPERATION OF THE APPARATUS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION.

The blank forming process starts in the part (A) and ends in (D); following this order, the various steps and processing operations can thus be listed:

- introduction of a stack of virgin cardboard sheets on the deck (A1), taking care to ensure that the internal corrugations are oriented as per the detail in FIG.2A (correct positioning of the cardboard sheet for subsequent folding operations);

- insertion of the cardboard sheet between the spaced pressing rollers (B2) by means of the lifting device (A2) with forward feed such as to make it adhere to the lowered upper blade (B3); in this manner there will be a perfect alignment of the cardboard sheet during cutting;

- lowering of the upper roller and rotation of the lower one (B2) for step-by- step forward feed by an amount (AF) corresponding to the width of the blank to be cut;

- cutting of the cardboard by means of the blades (B3);

- further forward feed of the cut cardboard sheet by means of the conveyor system (B4); - compression of the terminal parts of the cardboard sheets by an amount (SC), see also FIG.2B; this operation minimizes the surface discontinuity of the blanks that will be glued together, as also shown by FIG.2C and FIG.2D .

- conveyance of the cut cardboard sheets (FL) by means of the conveyor (B4) into three positions determined by mechanical stops (B5); the first and last are pick-up positions, whilst the intermediate one is only of transit;

- pick-up of a pair of cut cardboard sheets (from the first and third position) by means of the suction cup devices (B6) and positioning of the same on the decks (B7); during this transfer, indicated with the line (BV) in FIG.2, the front part of the cardboard sheets passes over the heads (B10) which spray the glue; said cardboard sheets are positioned between the pressing rollers (C1), see also FIG.3A.

With the operations described, one has the completion of the first step, i.e. cut cardboard sheets arranged in pairs and ready to enter the blanking station, with the inside edges side by side at a distance (DC) and parallel; this distance between the inside edges will be maintained irrespective of the size of the cardboard sheets being processed.

The blanking operations in the station (C) are performed as follows, see also FIG.3A:

- the front part of the previously described pair of cardboard sheets (FL) is positioned on the terminal part of the two partly processed cardboard sheets already present (FU), with a predetermined overlap (SC) as shown in FIG.2C; in this manner the glue compressed between the two faces by the pressing rollers (C1) will join them in a permanent manner.

At this point the most important part of the process can start, i.e. the blank forming, which will take place according to the following steps:

- the first operation performed is creasing by means of the lower toothed wheels (C3), which press the cardboard sheets into the groove of the upper ones (C2) in order to make a series of small aligned holes which facilitate the folding of the outer flaps by other machines in the final packing step, see also FIG.3B;

- the second operation is blanking, performed through the simultaneous action of the pair of upper blades (C5) and (C4) and lower ones (C6) and (C1 1), as shown by the detail in FIG.3A and by the various figures of the series 4; the outer blades (upper and lower) are adjustable in width so as to be adapted to various sizes of blanks;

- the last operation is the simultaneous cutting of the pair of blanks performed by the pair of blades (C7) and (C8).

The cardboard sheets that leave the blanking station have thus been transformed into finished blanks as shown for the two types in FIG.4B and FIG.4E.

The pairs of blanks are then conveyed by the belt (D1) into a suitable pickup position; during this movement, the printing device (D2) will apply (if required) wording and decorations identifying the product.

Completion of the processing will take place as follows: - wiih suitable movements, the suction cup devices (D3) will deposit the pairs of blanks on a pallet placed on the roller conveyor in (E2); the roller conveyor is endowed with vertical step-by-step movements performed by means of the lifting device (E4) so as to maintain the unloading level of the devices at a constant height (D3); the various levels of blanks will be offset as shown in FIG.1C to give stability to the accumulation;

- the completed pallet will be evacuated in the station (E3) by means of the motorized roller conveyor of the station (E2);

- a new empty pallet will arrive from the roller conveyor of the station (E1) to the station (E2), to start a new loading cycle.

FIG.4B and FIG.4E show the two types of blanks possible with the apparatus of the present patent: the one in FIG.4B is for medium-small sizes, where the packing (SM) can be obtained with a single blank; the ones in FIG.4E are medium-large sizes, where the packing (SG) is composed of two blanks.

This series of figures shows:

- FIG.4A: a generic cut cardboard sheet (FL) whose dimension (LC) is that of the virgin cardboard sheet, see also FIG.1 B; the dimension (AF) corresponds to the transverse dimension of the blank;

- FIG.4B: a finished blank (F ) typical for medium-small formats of length (LF1); the two fold lines (CD) are also indicated, as is the amount (SC) of overlap of the two cardboard sheets making it up and shown separately in FIG.4C and FIG.4D; - FIG.4D: the first cardboard sheet completed in the processing operations (blanking and creasing); the dimensions (L1) and (L2) refer to the flaps to be folded and (HP) corresponds to the height of the stack of tiles to be packed;

- FIG.4C: the second cardboard sheet completing the blank (together with the one in FIG.4D) with an indication of the position of the glue (CL); the dimension (F2) corresponds to the piece of leftover cardboard (second cut) that will form the first part of the subsequent blank;

- FIG.4E: a finished blank of length (LF2) for packing large formats with a width (AF1); in this case it may be noted that there are two blanking points per side rather than four as in the previous case.

As already described, different processing devices of the apparatus have suitable adjustments, which can be automated, in order to prepare a whole variety of types of blanks compatible with any packaging machine present on the market and already present in ceramics factories; this is the inventive concept: not blank forming machines with a die cutting blade of a shape like the finished blank (fixed and not modifiable), but rather processing with different adjustable tools (blades, fold line forming wheels, glue applicators, etc ..) assembled in a single apparatus for quantities in lots envisaged for production.

FIG.5A shows a plan view of the entire apparatus of the present invention according to a possible embodiment; FIG.5B and FIG.5C show two enlarged details of the blanking station in which the blades (in FIG.5B) and creasing wheels (in FIG.5C) are evident.

The invention thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications or variants, all falling within the scope of the inventive concept; furthermore, all of the details can be replaced by other technically equivalent elements.