CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. National Phase under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application PCT/EP2018/057408, filed Mar. 23, 2018, which claims priority to EP Application No. 17167141.5, filed Apr. 19, 2017, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally relates to the field of filling systems and feeding systems thereof for feeding carton blanks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a feeding system having a rotary feeder with a pivotable linkage for transporting carton blanks from a magazine to a folding- and transportation unit. A filling system and a related method of feeding carton blanks with a rotary feeder are also provided.

BACKGROUND

In the field of carton based packaging for liquid food products, there are generally two main types of systems; roll fed systems and blanks fed systems. In the roll fed systems, a roll of packaging material is fed to the system where it is shaped into a tube, which in turn is filled with a liquid food product and then transversally sealed off into individual containers along the tube. In the carton blanks fed systems, the packaging material is prepared before being fed to the system by cutting the packaging material into pieces, wherein each piece corresponds to one package. Each piece is shaped into a sleeve-shaped body being longitudinally sealed, and possibly provided with weakening lines in order to facilitate further folding. The sleeve shaped packaging material pieces are usually referred to as blanks. In the filling machine these are stacked in a planar configuration in a magazine, i.e. in a configuration where the sleeve-shaped blanks has been collapsed into a flat shape, usually with the openings placed vertically. According to one way of operating a blank fed system, a blank is fetched from the magazine by a rotary feeder, and then manipulated so that the sleeve assumes a more or less rectangular cross-section. One end of the sleeve is closed and sealed such that a package with an open end is formed. Next, the package is filled with a liquid product via the open end, and finally the open end of the package is sealed and closed.

The blanks may be produced at one site, sometimes referred to as a converting factory, and transported to another site where the filling system is placed. During the transportation there is a risk that the blanks are squeezed together such that inner sides of the blanks stick to each other, or that close lying blanks stick to each other. Therefore, is a challenge to make sure that the blanks can be fetched, one-by-one, from the magazine at high speeds, e.g. fetching more than one blank per second, and in a robust way with few unwanted interruptions. Failure to provide a reliable feeding system will thus significantly impede the development of high-speed filling systems, and limit the throughput of the production line. A further problem stems from relative movement between the rotary feeder and the stationary magazine in such high-speed systems. The carton blanks must be extracted from their planar stacked configuration in the magazine to the rotary feeder with high accuracy, which is further challenged by the flexible nature of the planar blanks, meaning there will be an inherent delay of the momentaneous position thereof relative the rotary feeder. The arrangement of the trajectory of the feed paths of the carton blanks and the rotary feeder is thus critical to assure a reliable extraction of the blanks as the speed of the system is increased. Prior art systems have problems in achieving such reliability due to less optimal arrangement of such feed paths.

Hence, an improved feeding system would be advantageous and in particular allowing for avoiding more of the above mentioned problems and compromises, and providing for a more reliable extraction of carton blanks from a magazine in a rotary feeder in a high-speed production line.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, examples of the present invention preferably seeks to mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more deficiencies, disadvantages or issues in the art, such as the above-identified, singly or in any combination by providing a device according to the appended patent claims.

According to a first aspect a feeding system for carton blanks is provided. The feeding system comprises a rotary feeder comprising a pivotable linkage, and a gripper head connected to the pivotable linkage via a gripper arm, wherein the gripper arm is connected to an outer periphery of the pivotable linkage at a first rotational joint, whereby the gripper arm is rotatable around a first rotational axis thereof. The feeding system comprises a magazine configured to store a plurality of stacked carton blanks each having a planar configuration in a magazine plane of the magazine, when stored therein, the carton blanks being stacked in a stacking direction, parallel with a normal axis to the magazine plane. The pivotable linkage is configured to be movable along a general feed path such that the gripper head follows an approach path towards a picking position at which the gripper head engage with a carton blank in the magazine, and subsequently follows a delivery path, from the picking position to a delivery position. The magazine comprises a cassette in which the carton blanks are confined, when stored in the magazine, the cassette being dimensioned so that the carton blanks are confined to extend in said magazine plane between proximal and distal internal surfaces of the cassette along a cassette direction which is perpendicular to the stacking direction and said first rotational axis. The proximal internal surface is arranged to align proximal edges of the carton blanks in a proximal alignment plane being perpendicular to the cassette direction, the proximal alignment plane extending between the gripper head and said first rotational axis, at least when the gripper head is in the picking position, wherein, at least when the gripper head is in the picking position, the first rotational joint is positioned in relation to the magazine such that there is a separation distance between the proximal alignment plane and the first rotational axis, the separation distance extending in an off-set direction being parallel with the cassette direction.

According to a second aspect a filling system is provided comprising a feeding system according to the first aspect and carton blanks. The feeding system comprises a rotary feeder comprising a pivotable linkage, and a gripper head connected to the pivotable linkage via a gripper arm, wherein the gripper arm is connected to an outer periphery of the pivotable linkage at a first rotational joint, whereby the gripper arm is rotatable around a first rotational axis thereof. The feeding system comprises a magazine configured to store a plurality of stacked carton blanks each having a planar configuration in a magazine plane of the magazine, the carton blanks being stacked in a stacking direction, parallel with a normal axis to the magazine plane. The pivotable linkage is configured to be movable along a general feed path such that the gripper head follows an approach path towards a picking position at which the gripper head engage with a carton blank in the magazine, and subsequently follows a delivery path, from the picking position to a delivery position. The magazine comprises a cassette in which the carton blanks are confined, and the cassette being dimensioned so that the carton blanks are confined to extend in said magazine plane between proximal and distal internal surfaces of the cassette along a cassette direction which is perpendicular to the stacking direction and said first rotational axis. The proximal internal surface is arranged to align proximal edges of the carton blanks in a proximal alignment plane being perpendicular to the cassette direction, the proximal alignment plane extending between the gripper head and said first rotational axis, at least when the gripper head is in the picking position, wherein, at least when the gripper head is in the picking position, the first rotational joint is positioned in relation to the magazine such that there is a separation distance between the proximal alignment plane and the first rotational axis, the separation distance extending in an off-set direction being parallel with the cassette direction.

According to a third aspect a method of feeding carton blanks with a rotary feeder is disclosed. The rotary feeder comprises a pivotable linkage, the pivotable linkage being connected to a gripper head via a gripper arm at a first rotational joint, whereby the gripper arm is rotatable around a first rotational axis thereof. The method comprises moving the pivotable linkage along a general feed path such that the gripper head follows an approach path towards a picking position at which the gripper head engage with a carton blank in a magazine, and subsequently follows a delivery path, from the picking position to a delivery position. The magazine is configured to store a plurality of stacked carton blanks each having a planar configuration in a magazine plane of the magazine, when stored therein, the blanks being stacked in a stacking direction, parallel with a normal axis to the magazine plane. The magazine comprises a cassette in which the carton blanks are confined, when stored in the magazine. The cassette is dimensioned so that the carton blanks are confined to extend in the magazine plane between proximal and distal internal surfaces of the cassette along a cassette direction which is perpendicular to the stacking direction and said first rotational axis, and wherein the proximal internal surface is arranged to align proximal edges of the carton blanks in a proximal alignment plane being perpendicular to the cassette direction. The proximal alignment plane extends between the gripper head and said first rotational axis, at least when the gripper head is in the picking position. Moving the pivotable linkage along a general feed path comprises positioning the first rotational joint in relation to the magazine such that there is a separation distance between the proximal alignment plane and the first rotational axis, the separation distance extending in an off-set direction being parallel with the cassette direction.

Further examples of the invention are defined in the dependent claims, wherein features for the second and third aspects of the disclosure are as for the first aspect mutatis mutandis.

Some examples of the disclosure provide for a filling system that can operate at a higher speed to increase throughput.

Some examples of the disclosure provide for a feeding system in a filling machine that is more reliable at higher speeds.

Some examples of the disclosure provide for a feeding system that is more robust.

Some examples of the disclosure provide for a feeding system that can extract individual carton blanks from a stacked carton blank magazine with increased accuracy and at higher speed.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

