Pouch containment and carton loading
A stack of products such as pouches is formed in a product bucket, pushed into a stack guide bucket and from there into a carton. A stack tamp descends over the stack, engages and confines it downwardly during stack pushing from product bucket and through stack guide bucket into a carton. Multiple product buckets, stack guide buckets and cartons move downstream during cartoning, and are respectively aligned in a cartoning station. Reciprocal containment blades hold the stack in respective cartons prior to flap closing.
1 . A method of loading a stack of products into a carton moveable in a machine direction and comprising steps of:
depositing a stack of product in a moveable product bucket;
interposing a static stack guide across a discharge end of said product bucket;
moving said product bucket and a stack guide bucket in the machine direction past an end of said static stack guide for accommodating passage of the product stack into said stack guide bucket;
pushing the product stack into said stack guide bucket from said product bucket;
tamping the product stack in said product bucket and in said stack guide bucket;
pushing the tamped product stack from the stack guide bucket into the carton through a first end thereof;
vertically moving a stack containment blade to a position on a side of the pushed product stack in the carton, wherein the stack containment blade extends in a vertical direction;
closing first minor carton flaps toward the side of the product stack and the stack containment blade;
after the closing, withdrawing the stack containment blade from the stack; and
moving the loaded carton in the machine direction.
2 . The method as in claim 1 including a step of moving second minor carton flaps of a second end of said carton to a position partially closing said second end of said carton before pushing the product stack into the carton.
3 . The method as in claim 1 including a step of moving a stack pusher, the product bucket and the stack guide bucket downstream in the machine direction when the product stack has been disposed in the carton.
4 . The method as in claim 1 including a step of stacking asymmetric products in said moveable product bucket.
5 . A method of cartoning a plurality of asymmetric products in a stack from a product bucket into a carton including steps of:
depositing said stack into the product bucket;
conveying the product bucket, containing said stack and having a discharge end, in a machine direction;
aligning a moveable stack guide bucket with said discharge end;
disposing an elongated static guide between said discharge end and said stack guide bucket and holding said stack in said product bucket;
moving said product bucket and said stack guide bucket in the machine direction downstream beyond said static guide;
tamping a top of said stack in said product bucket and in said stack guide bucket;
pushing the tamped stack from said product bucket into said stack guide bucket;
pushing said stack from said stack guide bucket into an open end of the carton;
vertically moving a stack containment blade to position the containment blade against the stack pushed into said carton, wherein the stack containment blade extends in a vertical direction;
moving carton flaps toward said stack and said containment blade; and
after moving the carton flaps, withdrawing said containment blade from said stack.