Valve bag placer

Abstract

A bag placer apparatus for placing a valve bag upon a filler spout through which the bag is to be filled with a flowable material. The apparatus comprises three principal components, namely, a magazine for stacking the bags, a registration and indexing apparatus for removing one bag at a time from the stack and aligning the bag with the valve portion thereof in a precise location, and a picker-spouter apparatus which picks up the aligned bag, opens the valve and places it upon a filler spout. The magazine has means for supporting a plurality of vertical stacks of bags with each stack comprising a plurality of bags in horizontal position. The magazine also includes means for sensing when the last bag of a stack has been withdrawn for positioning another stack in appropriate location for being received by the registration and indexing apparatus. The registration and indexing apparatus includes means for automatically registering each bag in precise position and alignment relative to the picker-spouter apparatus thereby relieving the machine operator of the need to carefully align the bags in precise positions in the magazine stacking operation. The picker-spouter apparatus includes an advantageous combination of clamp mechanism, suction cups, and a push rod, for greater reliability in opening the valve of a bag and placing it securely on a filling spout.