Bag presenter for a packaging machine

Abstract

A bag presenter for moving a bag from a bag supply toward a packaging machine filling station, the bag presenter comprising: a bag supply holding area, a gripper for holding a bag in the filling station and a bag handler for moving the bag from the holding area toward the gripper, the bag handler including a bag feeder and a bag conveyor, the bag feeder being operable to pull a bag from a bottom of the bag supply holding area and to pass the bag to the bag conveyor. The bag handler can include a bag opening mechanism and a means for maintaining the bag in an open configuration, once the bag has been opened. The bag presenter is useful for handling non-wicketed bags and can be used to convert a packaging machine from reliance on wicketed bags to use of non-wicketed bags.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.