Wrap-around carton forming machine

Claim 1

In a wrap-around carton forming machine of the type having a carton wrapping station in which carton blanks are wrapped around forming mandrels which are driven continuously through a wrapping station in a wrapping path, the carton blanks each having a back wall panel and top and bottom wall panels each hingedly connected to the back wall panel, and a front wall panel, and a side closure flap hingedly connected to the top or bottom wall panels, and end flaps attached to said panels for closing the ends of the carton, the improvement of; a. a storage magazine adapted to support a plurality of carton blanks in a vertically oriented face-to-face relationship, said magazine having a discharge end through which cartons may be removed one at a time from the magazine, said discharge end of said magazine being transversely spaced from said wrapping path, and b. transfer means comprising i. a frame, ii. carton blank conveyor means mounted on said frame and extending between said magazine and said wrapping station in a carton blank shooting plane which is perpendicular to said wrapping path, said conveyor means being arranged to engage said back wall of a blank and support said back wall in said shooting plane during its movement therealong, said conveyor means having an input end disposed adjacent said discharge end of said magazine and an output end disposed adjacent said wrapping path, iii. drive means for driving said conveyor to move a carton from the input end thereof into the wrapping path, iv. dispenser means mounted on said frame and operable to remove carton blanks one at a time from said dispenser through said discharge end and to locate said carton blanks in said input end of said conveyor means, v. plow blade means mounted on said frame above and below said conveyor means, said plow blade means extending obliquely with respect to said shooting plane of said conveyor means from adjacent said input end of said conveyor means to the discharge end of said conveyor means in a folding plane which is inclined in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the mandrels through the wrapping station, said plow blade means engaging said top and bottom wall panels of said carton so as to fold them along their hinged connection with said back wall, as said carton blank travels from said input end of said conveyor to the discharge end thereof, to a generally U-shaped configuration opening in a direction to receive a mandrel travelling along said wrapping path.