Riverwood International Corporation

Bobby Lee Miller, Jr

Frank N Moncrief

Gerald O Irvine

Gary J Vulgamore

Matthew V Sundquist

A tape perforating head assembly for scoring a perforated tear line in a piece of packaging tape joining article carriers together includes a headpiece, a plurality of perforating blades supported on the headpiece parallel to and adjacent one another, each perforating blade having a series of serrated teeth constructed and arranged to score the perforated tear line in the packaging tape. Each perforating blade is supported on the headpiece for reciprocal movement with respect to one another into a normally extended position away from the headpiece, and into a retracted position on the headpiece. The tape perforating head assembly also includes a spring positioned within a bore in which a guide pin is received, a pair of guide pins, and a pair of bores being provided for each perforating blade. The tape perforating head assembly scores a perforated tear line in the packaging tape by moving the headpiece in timed relationship with the movement of the carrier along a path of travel extending through a packaging machine, moving the perforating blades into contact with the packaging tape, and scoring the perforated tear line in the packaging tape with at least one of the perforating blades as the carriers move along the path of travel.

Tape perforating head assembly and method

An infeed system for a packaging machine directs a nested mass of articles in a downstream direction between two side rails. A locating-wedge affixed to one of the side rails moves the nested mass of articles to a position where a segment line of the nested mass is aligned with a lane divider. As a result, a group of articles in the nested mass is gently separated into a first group which moves along one side of the lane divider in a first lane and a second group which moves along the other side of the lane divider. The articles in the second group are directed into other lanes sequentially formed from the one side rail to the other side rail and are positioned relative to the lane dividers with locating wedges affixed to the lane dividers. Each of the locating wedges has a ramped surface for laterally moving a nested mass of articles into the proper position relative to an associated lane divider and has a side surface for allowing a group of the articles in the nested mass to move along the one side of the lane divider. The locating wedges may also have a plateau area for maintaining a nested mass of articles at the proper position as the articles travel in the downstream direction toward the lane divider.

Growing community of inventors

Marietta, GA, United States of America

Bobby Lee Miller, Jr