R. A. Jones Co., Inc.

Other

Joseph D Greenwell

Eric W Scarpa

Robert M Kalany

Jerome M Brugger

Michael E Myers

Charles C Hughes

John M Paselsky

Wesley J Rece

Mark R Nease

William A Huening

Steven F Mustain

Wickliffe Jones, Deceased

Christopher B Gilmore

Richard A Schaeffer

Robert W Kinney

A pouch filling apparatus for filling pouches with product as the pouches travel around a filler wheel includes a hopper wheel carrying a plurality of hoppers over a sector of the filler wheel empty of pouches. The filler wheel carries a plurality of product dispensing units having an upper accumulation chamber. The hopper wheel and the filler wheel counter-rotate in timed relation so that individual product dispensing units and hoppers cross paths at a product transfer station to allow product to be dropped from a hopper into the accumulation chamber of a product dispensing unit. The filler wheel then rotates to a filling station and the product is released from the accumulation chamber into a pouch travelling along the pouch conveyor. In one embodiment, the product dispensing unit includes a lower expandable cone assembly which is lowered into the pouch at the filling station and expanded before the product is released from the accumulation chamber to form the pouch mouth into a substantially circular configuration. Alternative pouch expanders and product accumulation apparatus are described, as well as methods.

Product holding hopper and pouch expander for filling pouches and methods

An end effector for a robot for material handling of a stack of carton blanks or other items is disclosed. The end effector includes a pair of movable abutment members which engage opposing side edges of the blanks to thereby lift, transfer or manipulate the carton blanks for transfer to another material handling operation or station. Even though the individual blanks may be flexible, the end effector according to this invention grasps the stack of blanks on opposing side edges thereof to lift the stack of blanks without the need for inverting or otherwise repositioning the stack as required by prior art end effectors. A tab or other feature on the blanks may be utilized by the abutment members when engaging the blanks in order to assist the lifting of the stack.

Edge lifting end effector

An end flap sealer for a cartoning machine for performing the step of closing and sealing at least one of the end flaps of each carton travelling along the conveyor of the cartoning machine. The cartoning machine includes a movable closer plow mounted adjacent the conveyor and having a top edge that slopes downwardly toward the approaching cartons on the conveyor of the cartoning machine. The closer plow is attached to a sliding member that is reciprocated to extend the closer plow above the conveyor of the cartoning machine as the carton moves adjacent the closer plow to fold the outermost end flap into a closed position against the other end flaps of the carton. The sliding rod is preferably angled toward the approaching cartons on the conveyor, such that the plow has components of motion both toward and away from entering cartons. The plow can be extended earlier and retracted sooner, providing increased compression duration and increasing cartoning speeds.

Carton flap closing apparatus

A quick-disconnect lug for transporting cartons along the conveyor of a cartoning machine. The lug includes a base member for attachment to studs extending from the endless chain of the conveyor. The base member preferably has a pair of slots or recesses extending upwardly from its bottom edge for receiving the studs. A latch member is pivotally attached to the base member and includes a hooked end that acts to firmly engage one of the studs in a slot to lock the lug onto the conveyor chain. A spring member on the latch arm keeps the hooked end in a normally closed position to retain the hooked stud in a locked position. The pivot point of the latch member is positioned between the lever end and the hooked end of the spring member. The lever end may be moved downwardly to pivot the hooked end of the spring member out of the recess to allow a stud to be engaged or disengaged from the recess during machine set-up or changeover. Lugs are reset quickly and without tools. The quick disconnect apparatus can be used to secure various devices onto chains with extending studs.

Quick-disconnect lug for a cartoning machine

Apparatus for shifting particulate material from one end of a pouch toward the other. In pouch form, fill, seal apparatus, a web of pouches is filled, the material tending to lodge in the bottom portion of each pouch. A pair of twisted belts pass the web on an upper and lower run wherein the bottom of the pouch is elevated as it passes over the belts to cause a product within the pouches to redistribute itself uniformly throughout the pouch.

Apparatus for shifting particulate material in pouches

A web is folded upon itself and transversely sealed. The web is cut into individual pouches which are fed into gripper units, on an endless conveyor, each having a fixed leading jaw and a movable trailing jaw which grip the leading and trailing edges of the pouches. To open a pouch, the trailing jaw is moved toward the fixed jaw by a cam and held in position by friction. Each opened pouch is carried around a filler unit where it is filled. Thereafter, a cam causes said jaws to spread apart, stretching the mouth of the pouch, where it is sealed in a heat sealer.

Adjustable pouch form, fill, seal machine

A magazine for conveying cartons to a metering wheel. The magazine has a stack conveyor holding the bulk of the cartons in the magazine and a feed conveyor downstream from the stack conveyor. The two conveyors are separated by an upper inclined stop and lower ramp that keeps the cartons on the stack conveyor from applying pressure to the cartons on the feed conveyor.

Apparatus for feeding cartons

A cartoner having a main drive and elements such as transport lugs, product bucket elements that are adjustable to accommodate different sizes of cartons. The disclosure is directed to automatic means for varying the positions of those elements automatically using the power of the main drive to accomplish the adjustment.

Automatic changeover for cartoners

Apparatus for cartoning liquid-filled pouches. A horizontal intermittent motion cartoner conveys cartons in a vertical orientation. At a first station, a hole is formed in a lower major flap. At a second station, glue is applied in a circular pattern around the hole. The flaps are then closed with the glue exposed to the inside bottom of the carton. A liquid-filled pouch is deposited by gravity into the carton. The upper portion of the pouch is tamped within the carton and the upper flaps closed and sealed.

Intermittent motion cartoning apparatus for cartoning liquid-filled

In a cartoning machine, apparatus for erecting a carton. The apparatus includes a channel-shaped element having spaced parallel walls and suction cups between the walls of the channel-shaped element. The channel-shaped element engages a carton in a magazine. The suction cups draw the carton into the area between the walls of the channel-shaped element and in so doing cause the carton to open.

Carton feeder

Apparatus for feeding flat folded cartons from a stationary magazine to a continuously moving conveyor. The magazine has a choke at its discharge end formed from parallel guides which are spaced apart a distance less than the distance between the two folded edges of the cartons. A rotary carrier is located adjacent the magazine and the conveyor. A plurality of planetary members with attached suction cups are rotatably mounted on the carrier. A fixed cam cooperates with cam followers mounted on the planetary members to cause the planetary members to rotate on their own axes as the carrier rotates to pick up cartons from the magazine, open them and deposit them gently between transport lugs on the conveyor.

Orbital feeder

An apparatus transforms a single file of articles on a conveyor into separated batches of articles on the conveyor. The batches of articles are discharged into receptacles such as product buckets. The separation of the articles into batches provides sufficient time between the batch discharges to index successive receptacles into position at the discharge end of the single file conveyor.

Apparatus for transferring articles

A magazine and feeder for carton blanks. The magazine has two stages and a pair of independently-driven rollers located between the two stages, which rollers support the major portion of the stack of carton blanks. Below the lower stage is an ejector mechanism which has a suction cup for pulling blanks downwardly one at a time and cooperating pressure and feed rolls for driving each blank individually out of the magazine. Assist rolls are also provided to assure proper alignment of the blanks as they are thrust out of the magazine. The lower stage includes a detector finger which is operatively connected to the independent drives for the rollers to cause the rollers to rotate from time-to-time to drop carton blanks into the lower stage, thereby replenishing the supply as blanks are fed from the ejector mechanism into the magazine.

Growing community of inventors

Florence, KY, United States of America

Joseph D Greenwell