R. A. Jones Co., Inc.

Richard E Radigan

William A Huening

A cartoner for loading products into cartons and for sealing the ends of product cartons as the cartons move along a carton path therein comprises a tuck module located at a position on the cartoner along the carton path for engaging an end flap of the product carton and tucking a portion of the end flap into the carton to seal the carton end and a glue module, selectively interchangeable with the tuck module at the position along the carton path, for engaging an end flap of a product carton and gluing the end flap to a portion of the carton such that a single cartoner may be used to seal cartons by selectively tucking or gluing the end flaps.

Cartoner with selectively interchangeable tucking and gluing modules

An improved leaflet inserter includes a series of adjacent leaflet trays carried by a conveyor along side of a cartoner and each tray includes a leaflet pusher movable in a slot transverse to the direction of the conveyor to push a leaflet placed in the tray out the side of the tray and into a synchronized carton or into a product bucket which is moving along side of the tray. In an embodiment of a leaflet tray, the leaflet pusher includes a downwardly extending cam pin which engages an adjustable cam positioned beneath the trays which urges the cam pin to slide the leaflet pusher transversely across the tray. In another aspect of the present invention, an integrated product bucket loader includes a plurality of product load receiving buckets mounted on a conveyor and each bucket has an integral, movable end wall which is slidably mounted on the bucket for movement across the width of the bucket. The end wall moves to one end and expands the bucket capacity to allow sequential loading of a plurality of products, and once filled, moves to the other end to push the product load out of the bucket and into a carton.

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Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Richard E Radigan