System for loading packages into a box

Abstract

A system for packing a plurality of packages into a container has an input conveyor for delivering the packages one at a time at regular intervals and at a constant input speed to a transfer station and an output conveyor having a perforated lower belt and an upper belt together defining a path extending from an upstream end at the transfer station to a vertically displaceable downstream end at a loading station. A container conveyor extends past the loading station for displacing a succession of the containers through the station. A controller connected to all of the drives operates the output conveyor at a low stacking speed to form an overlapped group of the packages on the output conveyor. It periodically switches the output conveyor from the low stacking speed to a high gapping speed when a predetermined number of the packages have been deposited on the output conveyor by the input conveyor to form a space on the output conveyor between succeeding groups of packages. It operates the container conveyor at the low speed and simultaneously moves the output-conveyor downstream end into the lower position dipped into a one of the containers in the loading station to deposit the group of the packages into the container in the loading station. The container conveyor is subsequently operated at the high speed and simultaneously the output-conveyor downstream end is moved into the upper position clear of the container to displace a full container out of the loading station.