Title of Invention

A METHOD FOR POSITION CONTROLLING IN A PACKAGING MACHINE AND A PACKAGING MACHINE THEREOF

Abstract

A method for position controlling in a packaging machine for packaging pourable food products comprising the steps of: feeding a continuous web of packaging material, foffi1ing the web into a tube, sealing the tube longitudinally, filling the tube with a pourable food product, detecting equidistantly provided markings or serving means on the web, when establishing deviations in position of the markings in relation to a predetermined positions, determining in a control unit, based on the detection of markings/serving means whether the path the web travels needs to be adjusted, characterised in that it comprises the steps of: automatically adjusting the distance the web travels before performing a transversal at clamping/sealing operation to form a separate package, by activating actuation means acting on a folding ruler displacably mounted with respect to a sealing jaw to increase/reduce its length thus adjusting the path length of the material web before clamping/sealing transversally. FIGURE 7A

Full Text

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for position controlling in a packaging machine and a packaging machine thereof. A method for position controlling in a packaging machine for packaging pourable food products of the above mentioned kind including the steps of; feeding a continuous web of packaging material; forming the web into a tube; sealing the tube longitudinally; filling the tube with a pourable food product; detecting equidistantly provided markings or similar on the web. A packaging machine for packaging pourable food products comprises means for longitudinally sealing a web of continuous packaging material to form a tube. A number of pairwise cooperating sealing jaws are provided which operate in a reciprocating manner for clamping and sealing there between the product filled tube at regularly spaced intervals. Position controlling means are provided to ensure that serving means provided on the web are positioned correctly on finished, sealed packages. Serving means are here taken to mean designs, perforations, straw holes etc. The invention also describes an arrangement for position controlling in a packaging machine. Particularly the invention relates to design correction. STATE OF THE ART It is well known to produce packages for liquid or pourable food products from a roll of packaging material which comprise layers of fibrous material, such as paper, which is covered on both sides with a thermo-plastic material e.g.. polyethylene. The side of the packaging material that may be in contact with the food product in the package also comprises a layer of barrier material, e.g. an aluminium foil which is coated witha thermoplastic material To produce packages of the above mentioned kind, packaging machines are fed from a roll of packaging material in web form as referred to above. The packaging material is sterilized preferably in the packaging machine through the WE CLAIM : 1. A method for position controlling in a packaging machine for packaging pourable food products comprising the steps of: feeding a continuous web of packaging material, forming the web into a tube, sealing the tube longitudinally, filling the tube with a pourable food product, detecting equidistantly provided markings or serving means on the web, when establishing deviations in position of the markings in relation to a predetermined positions, determining in a control unit, based on the detection of markings/serving means whether the path the web travels needs to be adjusted, characterised in that it comprises the steps of: automatically adjusting the distance the web travels before performing a transversal at clamping/sealing operation to form a separate package, by activating actuation means acting on a folding ruler displacably mounted with respect to a sealing jaw to increase/reduce its length thus adjusting the path length of the material web before clamping/sealing transversally. 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one sealing jaw in each pair comprises a folding ruler which is slidably mounted therein to act on the material web. 3. The method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, comprising the step of: driving the actuating means using a stepping motor, an air cylinder arrangement or similar. 4. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the serving means comprised design patterns, straw holes, perforations or similar. 5. The method as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 3, comprising the step of: acting on a ball bearing connected to the folding ruler which ball bearing contacts a cam surface of the actuating means. 6. A packaging machine (100) for carrying out the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising means for longitudinally sealing a web (101) of continuous packaging material to form a tube, a number of pairwise cooperating pealing jaws (1, 1'; 10) for clamping and sealing the product filled tube at regularly spaced intervals, and position controlling means (40, 20; 400, 20), whereby position controlling means (40, 20; 400, 20) comprises means for automatically adjusting the length of the path of the packaging material web (101) before transversal clamping and sealing such that the position of serving means provided on the material web is controlled to have a predetermined position on finished, sealed packages, the position controlling means (40, 20; 400, 20) being arranged to act upstream of the respective sealing jaws (1, T; 10), characterized in that the position controlling means comprises folding rulers (20) and actuating means (40; 400) operable to adjust the length of the folding rulers (20). 7. The machine as claimed in claim 6, wherein one of the sealing jaws (1; 10) in each pair of sealing jaws comprises a folding ruler (5; 20) which is slidably mounted with respect to said sealing jaw. 8. The machine as claimed in claim 7, wherein the folding ruler (20) comprises a ruler part (21) for acting on the material web (101) and a rear part (22) on which is actuated to slidably move the folding ruler (20) with respect to the sealing jaw (10) in which it is mounted. 9. The machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein retaining means (25) are connected to the folding ruler (20) associated with the sealing jaw (10). 10. The machine as claimed in claim 7, wherein the retaining means (25) are spring (23) biased towards the folding ruler and on the opposite end carries a rotable ball bearing (26). 11. The machine as claimed in claim 10, wherein the actuating means comprises a pivotably mounted cam element (60; 420) actuating on the ball bearing (26) and a driving means (41; 410) controlling the cam element (60; 420). 12. The machine as claimed in claim 11, wherein the driving means comprises an air cylinder arrangement (41) driving a link system (65) connected to the cam element. 13. The machine as claimed in claim 12, where in the air cylinder arrangement (41) comprises three air cylinders connected in series with cylinder strokes of 2 mm, 1 mm and 0.5 mm respectively such that the folding ruler (20) is controlled to take any of seven different positions with respect to the sealing jaw (10) in which it is mounted. 14. The machine as claimed in claim 11, wherein the driving means comprises a stepping motor (410). 15. The machine as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the web (101) is provided with equidistantly spaced markings. 16. The machine as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the position controlling means comprises detecting means (105) for detecting the position of the markings or serving means and in that said detecting means (105) is connected to a control unit (107) controlling the actuating means. 17. The machine as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the serving means comprises design patterns and in that the position controlling means comprises design correction means. 18. The machine as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the serving means are straw holes, perforations, e.g. perforated corners etc. 19. The machine as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the sealing jaws are arranged on endless chains such that in operation consecutive seals are provided which form an acute angle of substantially 90° with respect to each other such that tetrahedrally shaped packages are produced. 20. The machine as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 19, wherein the folding rulers (5; 20) are slidably arranged with respect to each sealing jaw provided on an endless chain for co-operating with sealing the jaws on an oppositely directed endless chain and actuating means (40; 400) operable to adjust the length of the folding rulers (5; 20). 21. The machine as claimed in claim 20, wherein said machine comprises driving means (41; 410) connected to a control unit (107) driving the actuating means (40; 400), which control unit (107) receives signals from detecting means (105) arranged to detect the position of serving means are marking means, on the material web.

Documents:

abs-in-pct-2002-1701-che.jpg

in-pct-che-2002-1701-abstract.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-claims duplicate.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-claims original.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-correspondance others.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-correspondance po .pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-description complete duplicate.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-description complete original.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-drawings.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-form 1.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-form 18.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-form 26.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-form 3.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-form 5.pdf

in-pct-che-2002-1701-pct.pdf