A carton manufacturing device. A push plate is provided for pushing down the bottom part of the carton located in the central portion of the blank, and guide members for bending the side walls and the end walls are positioned around the edges of the blank. The sequence of operation is such that pieces located at the ends of the end walls are bent upward before the side walls and end walls are bent upward. Guide rods are disposed outside the guide members for bending the end walls to bend pieces at the ends of the side walls upward before the side walls are bent upward. Parallel receiving plates are provided which support the lower surface of the bottom of the blank board while being lowered and raised during the bending operations. A plurality of turnable bending pieces are provided near the guide members to fold the side walls and end walls double by bending downwardly and inwardly the upper halves of the side walls and the end walls. A conveyor is provided for conveying the carton from the receiving members to the exit when the carton is completed after the bending operations as above described.

Below a stack of blanks in a receiving frame is arranged an upwardly and downwardly movable piston which engages and sucks in the bottom forming portion of the lowermost blank and moves it downwardly past stationary guide members which fold the side wall forming portions and cover upwardly. A control piston actuates pivotally mounted grippers which enter into corner slots at the bottom forming portion of the blank and clamp the bottom of the box against the suction piston during its downward movement.

Apparatus for adhesively bonding a clam-shell type carton formed from a paperboard blank includes a carton forming die for receiving the paperboard blank, a movable frame for transferring the carton blank from a stack into registration over the die and a reciprocating plunger mounted above the die for forcing the carton blank into the die to fold and erect the carton. The movable frame includes a number of vacuum assisted suction cups for lifting the carton blank from the stack and a plurality of spring-loaded adhesive applicators, connected to a pressurized source of adhesive, for applying a spot of adhesive to selected portions of the carton blank when the blank, carried by the movable frame, is pressed into registration over the forming die. A stacking cage is disposed beneath the carton forming die to receive and retain the erected and folded cartons in a vertically stacked, nested arrangement, with adjacent cartons bearing against one another so that the adhesive coated portions of each nested carton are retained in contact with adjacent panels of the carton for a time sufficient to allow an adhesive bond to form therebetween.

A machine for forming a variety of different sturdy, stackable three-part fiberboard containers having a depth dimension greater than their width dimension, and which are suitable for holding bags filled with liquid. The machine includes a slidable, removable mandrel which cycles between a fiberboard hopper area and a container forming compression area. Each of two side bins provides a fiberboard end panel which comes into contact with independently slidable edge picks on the mandrel. Just before the mandrel cycles forward, the edge picks push the fiberboard end panels forward where they are bent by the action of two folding elements. Meanwhile, a fiberboard body matt is brought into position in front of the retracted mandrel from an overhead feed unit. Adhesive material is sprayed onto selected parts of the body matt as it is placed into position in front of the mandrel. As the mandrel cycles forward, the body matt is bent over into a C-shape and the now-folded end panels are pushed into close association with the middle of the body matt. A set of guides and plows bends the body matt flaps over the end panels forming sturdy corners. The compression plates loosely surround the bent fiberboard pieces in order to avoid early adhesion until the mandrel is fully extended forward bringing the fiberboard pieces into proper position. Once positioned, the compression plates collapse around the fiberboard pieces forming a finished container. The finished container is then displaced as the machine cycles back to form another container.

Disclosed is a supply hopper apparatus for 3-part (Bliss) box forming machines having a vertical or substantially vertical orientation that is capable of holding a large supply of end panels. The trays of the hopper are open at the top and bottom, and may be adjusted to accommodate a wide range of differently sized end panels. A shuttle mechanism is provided at the bottom of each tray for removing the lowermost end panel from the tray, and an adjustable gate is provided to prevent more than one panel from being removed from the tray at a time. An elevating mechanism is provided adjacent to each tray to bring the lowermost panel from a generally horizontal position to a vertical position alongside the mandrel of the container forming machine. The mandrel then picks up the elevated end panels from each side, and takes them into the machine where they are used to form the three-part Bliss container. The vertically oriented trays of the present invention which use the shuttle, gate and elevating devices described herein allow for end panels to be stacked into the trays without the need for any special orientation, shuffling, stacking or monitoring of the end panels. Additional end panels may be stacked into the trays during operation of the machine without slowing or interrupting the progress of the machine.