An apparatus is disclosed for erecting folded cartons having top and bottom flaps. The apparatus comprises a carton track with a carton magazine disposed at one end thereof. First track movement means moves a folded carton on the track from the carton magazine to a first position. A top flap folder folds the top flaps of the carton to be substantially parallel to the sides of the carton. A second track movement means intermittently moves the cartons from the first station to the second end of the track. A carton erector is disposed at a position on the second track for erecting the folded carton. A bottom flap folding means is disposed at a third position on the track for folding the bottom flaps of the carton. A sealer is disposed at a fourth position on the track for sealing the bottom flaps of the erected rigid structure.

Apparatus for opening flattened cartons having a pair of minor flaps and a pair of major flaps. A constant speed conveyor carries a horizontally disposed flattened carton across an actuator having a cam surface. The cam surface moves upward to fold one pair of major and minor flaps upward and then downward to fold the other pair of major and minor flaps downward. A clamp grasps the upward folded major flap and draws it upward as the conveyor moves the carton forward causing the carton to open. The clamp releases the major flap and the carton moves past a glue gun which applies glue to the minor flaps. A pair of curl bars folds the major flaps against the glue coated minor flaps. An extending platen presses the flaps against a roller bank permitting the glue to set. The platen retracts and the opened and bottom-sealed carton is completed.

An apparatus and method for erecting a rectangular carton from a flat blank. The apparatus features: a pair of parallel guide rails, one of which is elevated above the other; a hopper, located at one end of the guide rails, for holding a stack of blanks between the guide rails, so that the bottom blank of the stack is on the guide rails and is upwardly inclined in the cross-direction of the guide rails with the foldably connected edges of its side panels extending in a direction parallel to the guide rails; and a pair of suction cups that are located adjacent the other end of the guide rails and that can fold an upwardly inclined blank on the guide rails; the suctions cups being adapted to hold by suction two adjacent side panels of the blank, that are contiguous to the lower guide rail and on vertically opposite sides of the blank, and to rotate in opposite directions about the lower guide rail until the suction cups are 90.degree. apart, so that the two adjacent side panels are folded 90.degree. apart about the lower guide rail and thereby the blank is folded into a rectangular tube.

The invention is embodied in a high-speed case-erecting machine characterized by a bottom-feed hopper, a pneumatic picker and a pair of live transfer rollers for transferring from the hopper flattened, knocked-down cases to be received at a case-squaring station equipped with vertically separable pneumatic cups for squaring the cases, a chain-driven, reciprocating conveyor of adjustable modular construction for transferring squared cases through a series of flap-manipulating stations at which the flaps located at one end of each case are closed and sealed, thus to provide a series of erected cases.

Disclosed herein is an apparatus that comprises grasping suction pads designed to grip the bottom blank in a pile and, in cooperation first of all with second grasping suction pads, then with an intermediate arm, and finally with third grasping suction pads, to open the blank while it is held stably in a forming station through the contemporaneous gripping of two lateral walls that are maintained orthogonal by the first and second grasping suction pads. At the forming station, first folding devices attend to the folding of the flaps that define the bottom of the container, subsequently to which a pile of articles is placed inside the container. Once this has been done, second folding devices attend to the folding of the flaps that define the cover of the container. Then with the synchronous movement of two frames, each of which is provided with three of the four folding members belonging both to the first and second folding devices, the transfer of the container takes place towards the movement devices connected to a banding group.