Box inverting apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus for inverting boxes of different heights on a conveyor, comprising, a lower conveyor segment, a stop plate on the downstream end of said lower conveyor segment for stopping a box thereon, a rotary carrier plate for supporting said lower conveyor segment aligned with the upstream portion of a conveyor, an upper conveyor segment moveably supported on said carrier plate, said upper and lower conveyor segments each including a plurality of parallel rollers for supporting the boxes, a pneumatic cylinder coupled to said upper conveyor segment for moving same toward and away from said lower conveyor segment to clamp and release, respectively, a box therebetween and provide full support of its top and bottom flaps, and a rotary mechanism for rotating said carrier plate about 180* such that said upper and lower conveyor segments are inverted, said pneumatic cylinder being operated after the inversion of said segments to release the box with the then lower conveyor segment in alignment with the downstream portion of the conveyor, said rotarty mechanism being operable to reverse rotate said carrier plate about 180* after release of the box to restore said upper and lower conveyor segments to their initial positions.