Rotating carton flap manipulator

Claim 1

A flap spreader for wholly removing all aligned flaps from the space intermediate transverse flaps of a carton as uniformly spaced cartons are columnarly advanced in a cartoning apparatus, said cartons being of the type having a rectangular tubular body having flap-formed end closures, each said end closure comprising a set of four integral flaps hinged to the sides of said body along proximal edges of the flaps, said flaps comprising said aligned flaps having their proximal edges aligned with the direction of carton advancement, said flaps further comprising two oppositely disposed said transverse flaps having their proximal edges perpendicular to the direction of carton advancement, said cartons being formed from cardboard having sufficient rigidity that the distal edges of said aligned flaps are always disposed on the same side of the middle plane of said caton as their respective said proximal edges while advancing through said cartoning apparatus unless acted upon by external forces, said spreader comprising: a. a shaft rotatably secured to the structure of said apparatus, said shaft being spaced outwardly of the outermost reach of said flaps with its axis extending generally parallel said proximal edges of said transverse flaps so that said shaft is transverse the ends of said advancing cartons; b. a right hand pitch sectorial spiral camming element; c. a left hand pitch sectorial spiral camming element; d. said sectorial spiral camming elements having wraps of about 180 degrees being configured so that when secured to said shaft they extend symmetrically in opposite directions from a central shaft plane; e. means for rotating said shaft in timed relation to said advancing cartons at a constant angular velocity relative to carton movement so that said flap spreader rotates an integral number of full revolutions for each carton that passes it; and f. said sectorial spiral camming elements and said shaft being configured, disposed and indexed with respect to said advancing cartons that said sectorial spiral camming elements will enter the space intermediate inwardly leaning said aligned flaps without obstructing the passage of said transverse flaps and impose outwardly acting forces on said aligned flaps so that said aligned flaps are rotated about their proximal edges until they are wholly removed from the space intermediate said transverse flaps as said cartons advance.