Post Machinery, Inc.

Post Machinery Company, Inc.

Chet Zak

A trailing panel folding system for use in a blank folding machine. The system includes a rotatable shaft mounted below the pass path of the blanks and transverse thereto. A motor is connected to drive this shaft and an arm assembly is mounted on the shaft and includes an arm extending away from the shaft and a folding head for folding a trailing panel of a blank. An encoder is interconnected with the drive means to provide a pulsed output related to the velocity at which the blanks are moving along the path, and a blank sensor provides a trailing edge signal when the trailing edge of the sensed blank leaves the location. A programmable motor controller moves the arm assembly to a predetermined start position in which the folding head is disposed upstream of the shaft, causes the folding head to move to an up position wherein it overlies the folded trailing panel at a speed sufficiently fast to overtake and fold the panel, causes the folding head to dwell in the up position, and causes the arm means to move to a start position after the folded panel has moved from under the folding head. A method of folding a trailing panel of a carton blank is also disclosed.

Trailing panel folder

Control apparatus controls the operation of a trailing edge folder in a carton blank folding machine. The folding machine has conveyor means for continuously advancing blanks in a predetermined direction in untimed relationship to one another along a generally horizontal path. The trailing edge folder has a rotatable shaft mounted below and transverse to the path. The shaft has mounted thereon for rotation therewith one or more arms which extend outwardly from the axis of the shaft. Folding heads extend from the distal ends of the arms. The control apparatus has a sensor which produces a trailing edge signal indicating the departure of the trailing edge of a blank from a first location along the path upstream of the folder. At the end of a determined interval after the trailing edge signal the shaft is rotated in the direction in which the carton is travelling so that a head on the shaft comes into contact with the trailing panel of the blank, and folds it over about 180.degree.. The shaft is stopped there until the carton panel slides out from under and out of the path of travel of the head. The shaft is then rotated further to a dwell position beneath the path and stopped at that point until the next blank is sensed. The control apparatus may be adjusted for different machine speeds, and differently sized cartons. Circuitry for monitoring operation, for making adjustments, and for detecting and diagnosing malfunctions is also provided.

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Newbury, MA, United States of America

Chet Zak