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US 12,533,864 B2Granted
Case-handling system with independently movable flap-suppressing devices
AssigneeSignode Industrial Group LLC
InventorsBryce J. Fox, Robert Thane Rickard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various embodiments provide a case-handling system including multiple flap-suppressing devices that can be vertically moved independently of one another to, when processing a case, enable the case-handling system to prepare for and receive the next case to-be-processed while the case-handling system is still folding the upper major flaps of the current case, which increases throughput.
Claims12
A method of operating a case-handling system, the method comprising:
- closing, via a minor flap closer, upper minor flaps of a first case;
- engaging, via a first flap-suppressing device at a first flap-suppressing position, the closed upper minor flaps of the first case;
- while the first flap-suppressing device is engaging the closed upper minor flaps of the first case, vertically moving a second flap-suppressing device to a second flap-suppressing position different from the first flap-suppressing position in preparation for processing a second case;
- closing upper major flaps of the first case;
- after closing the upper major flaps of the first case, moving the first case in a downstream direction toward a case sealer;
- and
- applying, via the case sealer, tape to the upper major flaps of the first case to seal the upper major flaps of the first case closed.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.