In a continuous cycle the apparatus denests stacked plant pots and plant flats and fills the flats with the pots. Two piston mounted vacuum grippers employing arrays of suction cups are mounted to a frame. The flat gripper moves vertically to destack an array of plant flats or trays, and the pot gripper moves vertically to destack an array of plant pots. Both grippers are moveable between a retracted position, an unloading position, and a multiplicity of loading positions. A carriage is reciprocated on wheels between a first position beneath the flat gripper in its unloading position and a second position beneath the pot gripper in its unloading position. Stacks of nested plant flats and arrays of stacks of nested pot--both of which may be contained in their original shipping containers--are positioned beneath their respective grippers and aligned with the flat and pot grippers by means of adjustable alignment flanges. The pot gripper deposits an array of pots into a flat conveyed by the carriage which is then removed from the carriage by an ejecting mechanism. Pneumatic vibrators vibrate the grippers to prevent lifting of multiple units.
Disclosed are adjustable size dies for use in case making systems. Also disclosed are methods of adjustment, alignment and of use of the adjustable size dies in case making systems which are especially well suited for use in the practice of book binding. Appropriate practice of the present invention provides a very user friendly approach to accommodating the binding of books of different sizes without the need to rebuild dies in standard book binding case making machines, as is presently the common practice.
A cartoning machine to arrange a predetermined number of objects fed on one or more rows by a belt conveyer in boxlike containers, able to operate in unison with production machines running at very high speed and having a simple, reliable construction comprising several heads (55) to grip the objects which are arranged on at least one working station and are put into rotation to take the objects from the feeding rows and to lay them down into cartons carried on a second belt conveyer placed at 180 DEG from the first conveyer.
A carton pulling assembly pulls a partially formed carton from a mandrel on a form, fill and seal packaging machine. The machine has a vacuum source for providing a vacuum and includes a machine controller. The partially formed carton has a sealed bottom wall. The carton pulling assembly includes a carton puller element movable in a reciprocating manner toward and away from the mandrel. A vacuum head assembly is mounted to the carton puller element for reciprocating movement therewith. The vacuum head assembly includes a cylinder and a finger configured for reciprocating movement within the cylinder having a suction element mounted thereto. The finger has a vacuum channel for communicating vacuum from the cylinder to the suction element. The finger is movable between an extended position in which the suction element contacts and engages the partially formed carton sealed bottom wall and a retracted position in which the reciprocating finger pulls the carton from the mandrel. The reciprocating finger moves toward the extended position by application of the vacuum to the vacuum head assembly while communicating vacuum to the suction element. A method for pulling a partially formed carton from a mandrel is also disclosed.
An apparatus for transferring a plurality of objects from a pickup station to blisters of an adjacent passing foil has a stationary support adjacent the foil and pickup station and defining a support axis and an arm pivotal on the support about the support axis and extending radially from the support axis. A slide shiftable on the arm radially of the support axis defines a slide axis about which a suction grab can pivot. The suction grab is adapted to pick up and drop a plurality of the objects. First and second drives have motors on the support and serve for pivoting the arm about the support axis between a pickup position with the grab over the pickup station and a deposit position with the grab over the passing foil and for shifting the slide along the arm.
A method and apparatus are disclosed for applying wrapped packages to each cup associated with a nested stack of cups. The stack of cups is continuously fed through a channel defined by a conveyor belt assembly and a pair of rotatable cylindrical rollers having helical continuous grooves formed therein along a fixed path without rotating the cups. The cups are partially denested by the rollers to expose a package receiving surface of each cup. A rotatable applicator assembly retrieves a wrapped packages from a holding bin and applies the package to then exposed package receiving surface of each cup. The packages are removably secured to the cups by an adhesive applied between the package and the package receiving surface of each cup prior to the application of the package to the cup. The wrapped package is urged into engagement with the package receiving surface of each cup by a package compression device. The cups are renested as the cups exit the channel such that the package is held in compressive communication the cup. The nested cups are then packaged and shipped to the desired location.
