Plug pad inserting apparatus for carton forming machines

Abstract

An apparatus for inserting a plug pad into a recess formed between opposed bottom flaps of a semirigid folded carton. The pad inserting apparatus is designed to be utilized in conjunction with a carton forming machine. It can be integral with the forming machine or separate from it. It includes a magazine for receiving and supporting a horizontal stack of plug pads. A biasing assembly is utilized to force the stack toward a magazine discharge end. Adjacent the discharge end is a pad stripping mechanism. It operates to take pads one at a time from the magazine and move them to a remote mandrel loading station to be received by a movable mandrel. The pads toward the inside end of the stack are elevationally offset by an inclined surface as they are indexed toward the pad stripping mechanism. The stripping mechanism further includes a positioning feature whereby the end pad is first moved laterally of the remainder of the stack to a preselected position before being shifted to the loading station. This is done as the pad previously located at the inside end of the stack is moved to the mandrel loading station. The mandrel is operated to move the successive pads into the open end of a waiting container. A pad ejecting mechanism is included on the mandrel that is responsive to engagement of the mandrel with a carton bottom to force a pad forwardly into the recess between flaps along the carton bottom.