ARTICLE SELECTION AND PLACEMENT ASSEMBLY AND METHOD

摘要

An apparatus is disclosed for applying tags with attached elastic anchor bands onto the tops of objects such as bottles in a high speed packaging application. The apparatus includes an infeed assembly for feeding a web in which multitudes of tags and bands are defined by score lines along which the tags and bands are detachable from the web. A conveyor assembly receives the web and conveys it along a path in an upstream direction. A rotating selector wheel bearing peripheral vacuum cups is disposed above the path and a rotating placing assembly is disposed below the path. The placement assembly includes an array of radially arrayed openable and closable jaw assemblies having extendable and retractable pins at their distal ends. As the web approaches the selector wheel and placing assembly, the adjacent pins of a pair of adjacent closed jaw assembles rotate up through the elastic band of each tag to capture the elastic band. A vacuum cup of the selector wheel then engages each tag and pushes down on the tag to detach it and its elastic band from the web. The detached tags are then carried around the placing assembly on the pins and, at the same time, the adjacent jaw assemblies are opened and their ends spread apart by respective cam mechanisms to spread the pins and thus stretch the elastic band. The rotating jaw assemblies then move the stretched elastic bands over the tops of respective bottles being conveyed along a path below the placing assembly and the pins are retracted by a cam mechanism to release the elastic bands. The elastic bands then snap onto the tops of their respective bottles to secure the tags to the bottles.