High speed carton casing apparatus

Claim 1

In an apparatus for casing cartons within a case including a loading table onto which a row of cartons are fed, a reciprocable horizontal carrier adjacent thereto for receiving rows of cartons from said loading table, a pusher adjacent said loading table and means for reciprocating said pusher to push a plurality of cartons in a row from said loading table transversely of said row and onto said horizontal carrier, means adjacent said carrier for placing cartons into a case and means supporting said case to be filled, the improvement comprising retaining means on the opposite side of the row of cartons being pushed onto said carrier, said retaining means having means connected thereto to oppose the force exerted by said pusher against said cartons as the cartons are pushed so as to retain said cartons in their upright position on the horizontal carrier, and means for disengaging said retaining means from said cartons by moving said retaining means upwardly and away from said cartons when a predetermined number of cartons have been pushed upon said horizontal carrier, so that said carrier can then move the marshalled cartons to a further position preparatory to casing.