Apparatus for opening bags lying flat

An apparatus for opening bags lying flat, the apparatus comprising

• at least one bag magazine for receiving bags kept on hand in the form of blanks lying flat;
• a bag extracting device that has suction devices for extracting the bag that is frontmost in the bag magazine;
• a gripper device for grasping the bag in the region of its top, for taking over the bag from the bag extracting device;
• an opening device having suction devices for opening the blank lying flat into a bag for a filling device that plunges into the opening in the bag,
• a conveyor system movable along a conveyor path past the at least one bag magazine, the extracting device, the gripping device, and the opening device,
• the gripper device being movable, parallel to and spaced apart from the conveyor path between a takeover position in the region of the bag magazine and a transfer position to the opening device spaced apart from the bag magazine along the conveyor path;
• for each bag, the opening device having one retaining device, which has two suction devices, and which acts from diametrically opposite sides each on a respective side wall of the bag;
• and the suction devices, associated with one bag being movable transversely to the conveyor path of the conveyor system between a position for takeover of the bag from the gripper device and a position for transferring the bag to a receptacle of the conveyor system.