Abstract: A packaging machine is disclosed including transport elements adapted to receive articles, namely goods to be packed, packaging materials and auxiliaries and/or packages, said transport elements being movable along an endless conveying path past stationary work stations. The work stations act upon the articles in at least two different work directions. At each location where the working direction changes a turn station is provided in order to turn the transport elements in a position in which the articles may suitably be acted upon by said work stations. In a preferred embodiment the transport elements are formed by containers which abut each other by their side portions and are transported by a common push drive means reciprocating stepwise in the conveying direction by an extent each which corresponds to a dimension of the container.

Abstract: In a method of automatically packing articles produced in at least two machine units and filled by means of a cartoning machine into cartons or boxes the following steps are provided: the articles are piled up in the machine units to form stacks of articles, the stacks of articles are transferred to a conveyor means operating in cycles, conveyed to the cartoning machine and finally pushed into a carton or box transversely of the direction of transport.In a preferred installation for carrying out the method a stacking device forming stacks of articles and a transverse pusher are associated with each machine unit. The machine units are interconnected by a common compartmental conveyor moved in cycles and having compartments of the length of a stack of articles. At the end of the compartmental conveyor a cartoning machine is arranged with which another transverse pusher is coordinated so as to be aligned with the compartments of the compartmental conveyor at standstill.