Production of cases

Claim 1

A method of converting box blanks into formed but collapsed cases in a system wherein tall vertical stacks of said blanks each of an appreciable height corresponding substantially to the height of a worker are successively conveyed from corrugating machinery to a line of casemaking machinery, comprising providing an elevated line of casemaking machinery, introducing at the commencement of the line one of said tall vertical stacks of box blanks arising from a support, said line having a working path extending at a level above the top of said stack, elevating the support to raise the stack continuously towards a suitable feed mechanism disposed at the level of said path which engages with the top blank of the stack, and actuating the feed mechanism to horizontally feed said blanks one at a time in timed sequence from the top of the rising stack individually and directly into the line of casemaking machinery, and wherein after the residual rising stack is depleted to a relatively short vertical dimension, said residual rising stack is separated from the support and temporarily supported and continues to be elevated by means which engage the bottom of the stack, returning the support down to its initial position and placing thereupon a further tall vertical stack of blanks of said appreciable height in the space below said short stack, elevating said support until the top blank of the further stack is at the base of said shorter stack and withdrawing said engaging means so that the short stack becomes supported by the rising further stack and both stacks are now continuously elevated as one towards the feeding mechanism, thereby to provide substantially uninterupted supply of blanks to said casemaking machinery.

Claim 2

A method of converting box blanks into formed but collapsed cases in a system wherein tall vertical stacks of said blanks each of an appreciable height corresponding substantially to the height of a worker are successively conveyed from corrugating machinery to a line of casemaking machinery, comprising providing an elevated line of casemaking machinery, introducing at the commencement of the line one of said tall vertical stacks of box blanks arising from a support, said line having a working path extending at a level above the top of said stack, elevating the support to raise the stack continuously towards a suitable feed mechanism disposed at the level of said path which engages with the top blank of the stack, and actuating the feed mechanism to horizontally feed said blanks one at a time in timed sequence from the top of the rising stack individually and directly into the line of casemaking machinery, and wherein after the residual rising stack is depleted to a relatively short vertical dimension, said residual rising stack is separated from the support and temporarily supported and continues to be elevated by means which engage the bottom of the stack, returning the support down to its initial position and placing thereupon a further tall vertical stack of blanks of said appreciable height in the space below said short stack, elevating said support until the top blank of the further stack is at the base of said shorter stack and withdrawing said engaging means so that the short stack becomes supported by the rising further stack and both stacks are now continuously elevated as one towards the feeding mechanism, thereby to provide substantially uninterupted supply of blanks to said casemaking machinery.