Abstract: A egg belt comprises a belt extending in a conveying direction for conveying eggs in the conveying direction. The belt is provided with a plurality of openings, each being triangular in shape.

Abstract: The invention is to accumulate the bottles in a nested formation at a high speed on a moving conveyor and the reduction or elimination of gaps between the nested bottles that are caused by missing bottles. The is done by oscillating the conveyor belt Another objective of the invention is to accumulate a predetermined number of bottles in rows to be bundled by establishing a first barrier to retain the bottles on the conveyor and using second barrier to control the number of rows to be included in the bundle.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a transfer line for the transfer of identical filled two-piece capsules between two successive processing stations comprising a and on unloading area, a plurality of identical transfer units each comprising a plurality of cavities each adapted to receive a capsule at the loading area and to let such capsule being unloaded at the unloading area, said plurality of cavities of each transfer unit being designed so as to receive in a first relative configuration the groups of filled two-piece capsules when located at a loading position in the loading area and so as to discharge these groups when located at an unloading position in the unloading area, a conveyor device adapted to temporarily and individually support the transfer units so as to transfer them from the loading position to the unloading position and vice-versa, while keeping them substantially in a same orientation in the loading and unloading positions, and at least from the loading position to the unloading position.

Abstract: The invention relates to a weighing device for a packaging machine. Empty capsules that are still closed are removed from a capsule holder, weighed on a gravimetric scale, placed back into an empty capsule holder, and then taken apart. The device makes it possible to remove empty capsules and replace them at full machine speed, without a loss of any consequence in output. It is possible to use a gravimetric measurement method to carry out a tare weighing of the capsules. An additional weighing device for filled capsules is integrated into a capsule transport device to determine the net weight based on the tare weight and the weight of the full capsules. Such a combination of a gravimetric tare weighing and a gross weighing to statistically determine the net weight is particularly well-suited to an intermediate capsule filling device.

Abstract: A packaging machine includes a grouper section having changeable lane sizes and a dual servo grouper that separates product into product sets and allow the product sets to accelerate to the lane chain speed in a controlled manner. The grouper section further includes disappearing lugs that pivot into the lanes via a cam surface provided in the lanes. The product rides upon a raised surface of the cam surface as the lug pushes the product set together down the lane, thus ensuring that no gaps are provided between product set members. A gripper/grid section of the packaging machine includes a bars that travel about a carousel with a gripper head assembly and a grid assembly pair moving up and down the bars as defined by cam surfaces within the gripper/grid section. The grid section is presented below the product set such that the product set is fed through the grid section in a one-way trip into a case. The gripper head assembly cam device and the case feed section both include height adjustment assemblies.

Abstract: A product packaging system is provided having a series of selector wedges that engage the lower portions of a series of products moving along a product infeed conveyor. The selector wedges separate the products into product groups for loading into product cartons moving adjacent the product infeed conveyor. At approximately the same time the selector wedges are engaging the products, a series of lugs are conveyed by an overhead lug system into engagement with each of the products being engaged so as to help stabilize the products and prevent tipping of the products as they are separated and loaded into their corresponding product cartons.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for uniformly filling a relatively large container (5) with relatively delicate products, wherein the products are supplied at a first level using a feed conveyor (17), and these products are transferred by means of a guiding device which guides the products in restrained manner from the first level to a second level, wherein at the second level the products are released into a distributing device (3) for distribution in the container. The invention further relates to a guiding device (2) for guiding products from a feed conveyor, comprising: —at least one transfer member (11) comprising means for receiving the products at a speed which can be adjusted to the speed of the feed conveyor, —a guide member (12) which is arranged substantially along a part of the outside of the transfer member for guiding the products in the transfer member.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of packaging or a device for packaging an electronic component, such as semiconductor device, whereby the component is positioned in a cavity of a foil by tweezers and is supported by means of a further foil which is attached to the foil at one side thereof. According to an example embodiment, the component is first placed into the cavity of the foil by the tweezers, and only after that is the further foil positioned adjacent thereto and attached to the foil. The tweezers are moved through the foil to pick up the component, hold it, and move it into the cavity. A feature of this embodiment is that the component may be temporarily supported by a supporting means after being positioned in the cavity and before being attached to the further foil and the foil with the component is moved in a longitudinal direction of the foil.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for packaging a non-contact printed edible substrate as well as the resultant packaged product. The packaging apparatus may include a non-contact printer, a carrier, and a package located at a discharge position. The carrier may be constructed and arranged to transport the edible substrate from the print position to the package and orient same in the package so that the printed ink indicia is visible through at least a portion of a panel of the package. At a print position, the non-contact printer is constructed and arranged to apply an edible ink indicia to an edible substrate. The packaging apparatus may form a packaged product having a plurality of compartments where at least one compartment at least partially defined by a panel. The interior of the compartment contains at least one edible substrate comprising a surface and a printed edible ink indicia on the surface so that the ink indicia is visible through at least a portion of the panel.

Abstract: An apparatus that loads horizontally oriented slugs of edible, edge-standing items into trays includes a tray delivery mechanism having a tray infeed for receiving trays, a tray outfeed from which filled trays can be removed from the apparatus and a tray conveyor that moves the trays from the tray infeed to the tray outfeed. An over head transfer mechanism is disposed above the tray conveyor. The over head transfer mechanism includes a pusher flight and a retainer flight. The pusher flight and retainer flight are configured to cooperate to transfer a pre-selected number of edge-standing items forming the slug from a counting conveyor to a tray loading area. The overhead transfer mechanism includes a flight adjustment system that adjusts a distance between the retainer flight and the pusher flight to change the pre-selected number of edge-standing items transferred by the over head transfer mechanism from the counting conveyor to the tray loading area.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming a stack of food products in a storage container, and a method therefor. The apparatus comprises a first gate moveable between an open and a closed position that drops a row of food products onto a second gate moveable between an open and a closed position. The second gate receives multiple rows of food products and once a predetermined number of rows have been received, the second gate opens to release the rows of food products into the storage container below it. As the first gate shifts from the open to the closed position, it can advance, at least in part, a subsequent row of food products onto the first gate for later release onto the second gate. The area defined by the second gate and the first gate is a temporary staging area which can increase in height after receiving subsequent rows of food products.

Abstract: An apparatus, system and method in which containers are packed with articles for shipping, handling, and storage purposes. The apparatus includes a rotating disc having arms, which carry packing heads. A conveyor system provides articles and empty containers for packing. The method is further described as being of an un-interrupted nature and therefore the apparatus and method will be referred to as a continuous motion case packing machine.

Abstract: An apparatus that loads horizontally oriented slugs of edible, edge-standing items into trays includes a tray delivery mechanism having a tray infeed for receiving trays, a tray outfeed from which filled trays can be removed from the apparatus and a tray conveyor that moves the trays from the tray infeed to the tray outfeed. An over head transfer mechanism is disposed above the tray conveyor. The over head transfer mechanism includes a pusher flight and a retainer flight. The pusher flight and retainer flight are configured to cooperate to transfer a pre-selected number of edge-standing items forming the slug from a counting conveyor to a tray loading area. The overhead transfer mechanism includes a flight adjustment system that adjusts a distance between the retainer flight and the pusher flight to change the pre-selected number of edge-standing items transferred by the over head transfer mechanism from the counting conveyor to the tray loading area.

Abstract: An input device delivers objects one at a time to a transfer station next to a conveyor extending in a transport direction. A cassette defines an upwardly open stack well shaped to receive the objects and has a floor. The cassette is held in an upstream stack-forming position underneath the input device while the input device drops the objects one at a time into the well, and the floor of the cassette is stepped downward each time an object is dropped into the well by a distance generally equal to a vertical height of the object. When a predetermined number of the objects has been dropped into the well, the cassette is displaced downstream out of the upstream stack-forming position synchronously with the conveyor at the transport speed while the stack of objects in the well is pushed transversely of the direction out of the well into the conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus for packaging small identical objects in respective blisters of a package strip has at least two separate but substantially identical plates each formed with an array of pockets. An upper conveyor shifts the plates one behind the other horizontally at an upper level from an upstream loading station where objects are fed to the pockets to a downstream transfer station where the objects are transferred to a package strip. A lower conveyor has a single drive motor for dropping the plates at the transfer station from the upper level to a lower return level, then shifting the lowered plates upstream at the lower level against the travel direction to the loading station, and then shifting the plates back up to the upper level.

Abstract: A packaging machine includes a grouper section having changeable lane sizes and a dual servo grouper that separates product into product sets and allow the product sets to accelerate to the lane chain speed in a controlled manner. The grouper section further includes disappearing lugs that pivot into the lanes via a cam surface provided in the lanes. The product rides upon a raised surface of the cam surface as the lug pushes the product set together down the lane, thus ensuring that no gaps are provided between product set members. A gripper/grid section of the packaging machine includes a bars that travel about a carousel with a gripper head assembly and a grid assembly pair moving up and down the bars as defined by cam surfaces within the gripper/grid section. The grid section is presented below the product set such that the product set is fed through the grid section in a one-way trip into a case. The gripper head assembly cam device and the case feed section both include height adjustment assemblies.

Abstract: An article packaging machine includes a trailing article pusher assembly for pushing the trailing articles of a packaging production run down infeed conveyer lanes and through workstations of the packaging machine so that the trailing articles can be packaged. The pusher assembly comprises a pusher chain that is flexible in one direction to allow the chain to be coiled upon itself and generally inflexible in the other direction beyond a substantially straight configuration of the chain. A pusher block is attached to a free end of the pusher chain. The pusher chain is normally stowed on a take-up magazine beside its associated infeed lane during a packaging operation. When the trailing articles of a production run approach the workstations of the packaging machine, a gate opens to allow the pusher chain and its pusher block to be extended into the infeed lane behind the last trailing article.

Abstract: A packaging machine (10) includes a lane assembly (12) that includes one or more lanes (L) which guide cylindrical articles (B), such as cans or bottles, across a series of substantially parallel conveyors. The lane assembly (12) includes an adjustable guide bar (34) which defines an adjustable portion (V) of the lane (L) that can be adjusted to adapt to the diameter of articles (B). The lane assembly (12) also includes lane extensions (70) that can be adjusted to control the position of rows of articles (B) as the articles (B) exit the lanes (L) onto a conveyor (20).

Abstract: A device for filling a container with a plurality of objects standing substantially upright on a floor portion of the container includes: a depositing cavity temporarily created and maintained in the container for receiving one of the plurality of objects; a first moveable planar restraining member having a first anterior surface facing the depositing cavity and a first posterior surface, the first posterior surface restraining a previously deposited object against movement; and a second moveable planar restraining member having a second anterior surface facing the depositing cavity and a second posterior surface. The first and second restraining members are operationally arranged to be removably insertable into and between the opposing side walls of the container.

Abstract: A blister packaging machine comprises a forming station in which a plurality of cup-shaped depressions can be formed into a bottom sheet, a filing station, in which a product can be filled into the cup-shaped depressions, and a downstream sealing station, in which a cover sheet can be sealed onto the bottom sheet. The filling station comprises a brush box disposed above the bottom sheet, in which several rotatably driven roller brushes are disposed parallel to each other. The roller brushes are connected to a rotary drive which is received in a drive gearbox disposed next to the brush box. A magnetic coupling is thereby provided for transmitting a drive motion of the rotary drive to the roller brushes through a wall of the drive gearbox.

Abstract: A machine for packing products having a first packing unit for producing a succession of first packed groups of products and a second packing unit for grouping the first packed groups into second packed groups, each presenting a number of the first packed groups. A flat support serves for supporting the first packed groups and is interposed between the two packing units. A step-conveying device extends over the flat support and has a succession of pockets for receiving respective first packed groups, and provides an output portion whose pockets are detachable from the first packed groups to release the first packed groups on the flat support.

Abstract: A device for packing flat articles in transport containers, particularly folded-flat folding boxes in casing cartons, includes a feeder for feeding the flat articles in imbricated form. A conveyor is disposed downstream of the feeder and has an end for discharging the articles into the transport containers at a filling location. Equipment is provided for further conveying the transport containers at the filling location. A transition is provided between the feeder for the flat articles and the downstream conveyor. The transition is an accumulating and transfer device and has an imbricating roller adjustably secured on the conveyor and a height-adjustable hold-down bar fastened to the conveyor. The hold-down bar and the imbricating roller are adjustable in position for coupling with one another.

Abstract: A case packing and case flap separation apparatus is disclosed for packing articles into cases and closing the cases. The cases typically have first and second major and minor flaps interconnected by tab-locks and held in folded positions adjacent vertical ends and sides of the cases. The apparatus includes a conveyor having a radial transport path adapted to transport successive cases through an article insertion section, first and second tab slitting sections, and a case exit section. Tab slitters are associated with the first and second slitting sections adapted to sever the tab-locks so that the major and minor flaps can be separated. First and second flap guides are associated with the first and second slitting section adapted to engage and elevate the separated major flaps away from the vertical walls after the tab-locks have been severed.

Abstract: A machine for palletizing elements having a head, a shank and a tip. An auger has a first portion having a variable pitch and a second portion having a constant pitch. A plurality of the elements are directed onto the auger and retained on the auger. A transfer arm moves the plurality of elements from the auger and introduces the plurality of elements to a tray having rows of holes therein. Several embodiments are disclosed.

Abstract: Apparatus and a packaging machine comprising apparatus for placing packaging material in a pre-determined position relative to an array of articles for example bottles to be packaged, comprising a conveyor for conveying an array of articles, feed means for feeding the packaging material from a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel of the articles. The feed means accelerates the packaging material to a sufficient velocity relative to the velocity of the articles such that the packaging material is placed in the pre-determined position whilst continuous forward motion of the articles is maintained.

Abstract: A cartoner has an intermediate transfer disposed between each article infeed area and an adjacent bucket conveyor to transfer separate rows of select article count into buckets on the adjacent bucket conveyor. The intermediate transfer runs only the length necessary to feed rows into a bucket for one tier or group of articles. Row selecting and forming devices on, or extending from, buckets or bucket walls are eliminated. A sheet feeder feeds partitions over the upstream end of a group receiving bucket conveyor for deposit on a lower group of articles on which an upper group is to be formed.

Abstract: The invention relates to a facility and method for filling product receptacles (1), especially cartons, with a predetermined amount of products (2), especially flexible bag packaging, which are individually fed at regular or irregular intervals and assembled to form a group of products (11) and which are subsequently fed to an available product receptacle (1). The products (2) in the group of products (11) can be selectively placed on or under the preceding product. The group of products (11) can be selectively fed to the product receptacles (1) vertically or horizontally.

Abstract: An apparatus for sorting and packaging articles includes: a pair of distributing conveyors which are respectively translated and convey articles; a pair of primary accommodating mechanisms each adapted to accommodate in a row articles distributed and released from each of the distributing conveyors; a pair of standby accommodating mechanisms each adapted to accommodate by types of groups of transferred articles in one or more groups those groups of articles which are each transferred collectively from each of the primary accommodating mechanisms; a pair of transferring mechanisms each adapted to receive the group of articles from each of the standby accommodating mechanisms; and a common filling mechanism for filling the groups of articles received from each of the transferring mechanisms into a predetermined container.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring a component that can carry out processes such as visual inspection, characteristic measurement, screening, and taping efficiently while transporting the electronic component at high speed. In order to transport the electronic components to the index table where the processes such as characteristic measurement, screening, and taping is carried out, a component transporting device is used in which the electronic component delivered from the component delivery section 10 is transported to the component intake port 23 based on negative pressure, transported with the airflow through the transportation path 25, and discharged from the part discharging port 24. The transporting device includes a gas discharging port 33 in the vicinity of the component discharging port, which serves to decrease the transport speed of the electronic component before transporting it to the index table.

Abstract: A continuous motion apparatus for depacking and packing articles in cases which includes a carriage which carries a plurality of transfer arms; a plurality of article pick-up heads carried by the transfer arms for picking up a group of the articles at a pick-up station to transfer the articles to a release station. In a case packing configuration of the invention, a slug metering section includes a slug feeder continuously receiving articles from an infeed conveyor. A revolving pin bar mechanism is carried in the slug metering section having a plurality of revolving pin bar assemblies to assist in forming the articles into successive groups or slugs of articles. The pin bar assemblies include spaced upstanding pins which are received in crevices between rear articles in a first slug and front articles in a second slug of articles to separate the articles for processing.

Abstract: This device includes a single enclosure (7) containing and carrying the reservoir (A), the dispenser (B), and the distributor (C) made of cylindrical and rotary brushes (39a to 39c), and the dispenser (B) having two parallel flaps (15, 16) which come into closure contact against the upstream transverse wall (12a) of the enclosure (7), near to the blister sheet (5), and are linked, by their posterior ends, to independent motors (18, 19) able to move the flaps in one direction or the reverse, the control of the opening and closing of each flap (15 and 16) reacting, in respect of the upper flap (15), to a volumetric sensor (34) detecting the quantity of tablets accumulated in the buffer bay (40) and, in respect of the lower flap, to a sensor (38) disposed above the blister sheet (5), upstream of the first brush (39a).

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding items of pharmaceutical product to pockets in a continuously travelling web for the production of blister packs has a plurality of product delivery chutes mounted on a moving carriage having delivery gates for releasing product from the delivery chutes. The carriage cycles the delivery chutes from a stationary position under stationary metering chutes, where product is transferred into the delivery chutes, accelerating and lowering them into alignment with pockets in the travelling web, where product is released, and raising and returning the delivery chutes to the stationary position to repeat the cycle.

Abstract: A system and method for packaging oriented containers in a container carrier wherein a plurality of containers are fed into an orientation wheel including one or more chucks. Each chuck engages one end of the container and rotates the container into an oriented position. A transfer belt having a plurality of tactile fingers is operatively connected to the orientation wheel and transfers an oriented container nested within the tactile fingers in a fixed rotational position from the orientation wheel to a packaging machine. In a method of packaging containers according to this invention, multiple containers are positioned within the carrier in one or more rotational positions based upon the desired appearance of the package.

Abstract: A tagging apparatus for placing tags into a container includes a support surface for holding at least one container, a tag insert assembly frame, a tag holder, and a tag handler mounted to the tag insert assembly frame. The tag handler includes an arm and a guide. The arm is configured for reciprocal movement between a first position in which the arm is positioned for grabbing a tag from the tag holder and a second position in which the arm is positioned for inserting the tag into a container supported on the support surface. The guide provides lateral support to the arm when the arm is moved between its first and second positions and, further, defines a path of movement for the arm between its first and second positions. The tagging apparatus also includes a driver for moving the arm between its first and second positions.

Abstract: A tag placement apparatus useful for placing a tag or label into communication with a container. The tag placement apparatus includes at least one tagging head having a linear slot in which a cam portion of a tag placement arm assembly reciprocally travels in response to a cylinder stroke to which it is attached. The tagging apparatus further includes an encoder for translating the roller rotation of a conveyor assembly into belt position and travel which in turn regulates the speed in which the reciprocal movement of the tag placement arm operates during use.

Abstract: For handling elongate and flat workpieces flowing in a manufacturing line, two arrangements are disclosed, one being an arrangement including a workpiece posture changing device which changes the posture of each workpiece at the time when the workpiece is transmitted from a first conveyer to a second conveyer, and the other being an arrangement for bundling the workpiece flowing in the manufacturing line.

Abstract: A loader arm assembly for use in a packaging system, comprising an arm, a housing, and a load jam detector. The housing is operably connected to at least one motive mechanism, and is adapted for moving the arm to load product into a package. The arm has both a latched state and a released state with respect to the housing. The arm normally is in the latched state to load product into the package, and enters the released state to relieve pressure upon detecting the load jam condition. The arm includes a base plate and a loading head. The housing is formed with a guide passage that is adapted for receiving the base plate. The load jam detector preferably includes at least one detent adapted for holding the base plate with respect to the housing in the latched state. The detent preferably is formed by a tip of at least one plug extending through the housing to the guide passage. The tip is adapted for applying a holding force against the base plate.

Abstract: A bacon board dispenser (10) deposits predetermined quantities of sliced bacon in a shingled condition on bacon boards. The dispenser (10) includes a frame having a support side (12) and an operating side (11). The output conveyor (172), bacon board dispenser mechanism (193), and feeding mechanism (146) are cantilevered from the support side of the frame to provide for an open operating side for ease of bacon board loading, cleaning and maintenance. The dispenser (10) includes a multi-positioned bacon board magazine (43). The dispenser mechanism utilizes two sets of vacuum cups (210, 211) to provide for an easy changeover between different size boards.

Abstract: The invention relates to a package filled with individually foil wrapped, rectangular, in particular square, flexible slices of a highly perishable food, wherein a large number of wrapped slices are disposed, standing substantially upright, as a stack in a container that is open at the top, wherein the stack is enclosed by the four vertical outer walls of the container and the wrapped slices stand on the container bottom, which is preferably ribbed. The entire container can be sealed in a transparent plastic wrapping. A lower front sidewall of the container facilitates removal of individual slices from the container.

Abstract: A conveyor indexing mechanism for a bakery production line includes a variable speed motor, a conveyor, a number of baking pans, a dough packet drop mechanism, a sensor, and a timing generator. The conveyor moves the baking pans under the dough packet drop mechanism at a base speed and a ramp-up speed based on input from the sensor and timing generator. The sensor senses pan pockets in the baking pans which causes the motor to assume the base speed. The timing generator periodically causes the motor to assume the ramp-up speed. The indexing mechanism ensures that a row of pan pockets will be below the dough packet drop mechanism so that a row of dough packets will consistently fall therein with maximum throughput. The absence of any clutch or brake reduces wear, as does the continuous motion of the drive train, which prevents backlash in the gear components. A programmable controller receives system inputs and instructs an inverter to change the motor speed.

Abstract: An apparatus for placing tags into communication with a container. The apparatus includes a frame having a ground engaging end and an upright free end extending from the ground engaging end and at least one tagging head attached to the upright free end. The tagging head further includes a picker arm assembly configured for reciprocal movement between a first tag picking position and a second tag placement position. A cylinder is provided to position the picker arm in either of the first or second positions as the picker arm reciprocates within a J-shaped channel of a cam plate. The apparatus further includes at least one tag reservoir supported by the upright free end of the frame wherein the at least one tag reservoir is configured to hold a tag in substantially the first tag picking position enabling the placement arm assembly to contact and take possession of the tag during use.

Abstract: An automatic packaging machine includes a first conveyor which carries a batch of small items along a path extending in a first direction. A second conveyor carries boxes in a second direction which is perpendicular to the first direction. A depositing structure in the form of a twisted funnel rotates the products from the first direction to the second direction before inserting them into a box. An oscillating plate carrying the funnel moves back and forth to fill the box while traveling in a first half of back and forth motion. Then, in the second half of that motion, returns to fill the next box. The oscillating plate may carry a plurality of funnels on each of its opposite sides. A memory of the type of small item carried by each funnel enables a single box to be loaded with different products.

Abstract: The objects (6) fall into a well (10) where their fall is slowed down by slanted blades (13) covered by a damping layer and situated in front of a counter-wall (14) from which they are separated by a gap (16). The counter-wall (14) is elastic so as to make the objects falling onto it rebound towards the lower blade. An outgoing track of the well (26) having a round shape is covered with a damping layer which absorbs the free fall energy at the outlet of the device. The invention can be applied to the continuous bulk carrying of fragile objects, such as pellets.

Abstract: An adjustable height flight comprising a flight assembly and a cam mechanism. The flight assembly includes a flight base operationally connected to a rotational endless conveyance member, an adjustable flight bar slidably connected to the flight base, and an adjustment mechanism for adjusting and setting said flight bar at a desired height. The cam mechanism includes a cam frame, an adjustable cam track connected to the frame and operationally contacting the flight adjustment mechanism, a cam track adjustment mechanism attached to the frame and operationally contacting the cam track, and an engagement mechanism for selectively engaging and disengaging said cam mechanism from said flight assembly. The cam mechanism can be either engaged or disengaged from operational contact with the flight assembly. The cam track adjustment mechanism adjusts the position of the cam track to force the adjustable flight bar to a desired vertical position. The flight bar normally travels in a vertically locked position.

Abstract: An automatic packaging machine inserts small items, such as candy coated chewing gum, into a box with the small items arranged in a desired orientation. First, the small items are swept into a grid of individual pockets in plates on a conveyor. Then, the grid is inverted over an insertion tray having grooves which receive the small items without disturbing the desired orientation. The entire tray is inserted into a box and then withdrawn from the box. A ridge is formed adjacent said grooves for lifting a side of the box confronting the small items while the tray is inserted into the box so that there is almost no friction between the small item and the box, which might otherwise disturb the desired orientation. The small items are blocked during a withdrawal of the tray so that they are laid down in the desired orientation on the bottom of the box.

Abstract: A packer is provided with a continuous flow of side-by-side columns of plastic bottles that move down an inclined ramp and into a load station where groups or slugs of bottles are deposited into trays or cases. An overhead flight bar conveyor provides a gap between each such group and the cases move by line pressure through the load station. Neck ring guides are provided above the flight bar path to control the descent of the bottles into each case. The path of the flight bars assures that each slug or group is closely controlled, initially by the steep entry angle and as a result of the shallow V-shaped path defined by the angularly related linear active runs on the flight bars prior to entry into the load station and by a second active run forming an abrupt V at the entry to the load station and inclined toward the neck ring guides at the same angle defined by the first run.

Abstract: A pouch making machine has a pin conveyor which receives finished pouches from a knife and transfers them to a cartoner where they are stacked in a carton in a continuous motion. The cartoner indexes the carton after entry of each pouch, or group of pouches, so that an empty portion of the carton is aligned with the pin conveyor's discharge path to receive the next pouches released from the conveyor. When a carton is full the cartoner executes a long move to discharge the filled carton and position a succeeding carton for receipt of the next pouches. The cartons are held with the bottom wall angled or tilted from both the horizontal and vertical so that during filling pouches in the carton are neither standing on edge nor piled in a vertical stack.

Abstract: A film packaging system has a tubular casing arraying and conveying device for arraying and conveying tubular casings each housing a roll of unexposed photographic film, a packing device for inserting the tubular casings into respective first packaging cartons each having a packaging carton housing and a tongue-like hanger integral with the packaging carton housing, a packaging carton conveying device for successively conveying the first packaging cartons, and a charging device for picking up a desired number of first packaging cartons conveyed by the packaging carton conveying device, arraying the desired number of picked-up first packaging cartons and a desired number of second packaging cartons, each having a packaging carton housing and a tongue-like hanger integral with the packaging carton housing, such that the hangers are oriented in opposite directions, and placing the array of first and second packaging cartons into a box.

Abstract: A high speed multiple conveyor packaging system having product separating bars that separate a product into specific sized groups on moving opposing conveyors. Two product streams diverge to meet the separating bars, and subsequently reconverge after separation for loading into a carton or package. Separated conveyed product is channeled from opposing conveyors into another conveyed product carton from opposing carton ends. A tight package is formed by sets of formed guide bars which cause the package flaps to be stretched or formed to the position of maximum tightness about the product.

Abstract: A wedge for selecting articles to group on a cartoning machine where a wedge face that reacts infeed pressure has an outwardly curved surface. The curved face greatly reduces damage from infeed pressure to thin-walled cylindrical articles, such as beverage cans. In the preferred embodiment, the selector wedge is designed to attach to a flight bar on a selecting system of the cartoning machine. It has a recess to accept an end of a flight bar and holes through it for bolting the wedge to the flight bar.