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US 4,063,403 AGranted
Carton closing and sealing apparatus
AssigneeBergstein Packaging Trust
InventorsFrank David Bergstein, Robert W. Nerenberg, James H. Shiverdecker
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AssigneeBergstein Packaging Trust
InventorsFrank David Bergstein, Robert W. Nerenberg, James H. Shiverdecker
Estimating the term…
Apparatus for automatically closing cartons having self-sealing reclosable top closures adapted, when closed, to lie within the confines of the carton bodies, the end closures having opposing pairs of sealing flaps adapted to be juxtaposed in face-to-face contacting relation, preferably with the mouths of carton liners interposed therebetween, the juxtaposed sealing flaps and liner mouths being displaceable downwardly to close the cartons and thereafter displaceable upwardly to reopen the cartons, the apparatus comprising a series of continuously moving carriages which receive and advance the openended cartons in a path of travel, the cartons being first acted upon by sets of folding fingers which concurrently infold the leading and trailing end closure flaps and the projecting ends of the liners, whereupon sweep means act to juxtapose the opposing pairs of sealing flaps with the liners interposed therebetween. If desired, heat sealing means may be provided to seal together the juxtaposed portions of the liners lying between the sealing flaps; and if the sealing flaps are provided with foldable extensions, additional sweep means are provided to infold the extensions. Thereafter the closed but extended sealing flaps are sequentially engaged by tucking heads mounted on a rotatable turret, the tucking heads engaging and displacing the extended sealing flaps downwardly within the carton bodies to complete the formation of the end closures.
Apparatus for closing cartons having enclosing body walls and an end closure comprising at least an opposing pair of end closure flaps having sealing flaps hingedly connected to their outermost side edges, means for advancing the cartons in a path of travel with their said end closure flaps initially projecting upwardly in prolongation of the body walls to which they are hingedly connected and with the said end closure flaps extending lengthwise with respect to the path of travel of the cartons, means for displacing the sealing flaps inwardly to juxtapose them in face-to-face relation, including means for maintaining the sealing flaps in juxtaposed relation as they are advanced, a tucking station, a tucking head at said tucking station, means mounting said tucking head above the path of travel of the cartons, said tucking head mounting a tucking bar having an elongated channel in its undersurface adapted, when the tucking bar is displaced downwardly, to engage the juxtaposed sealing flaps and deflect them downwardly within the confines of the carton bodies, means for displacing said tucking bar downwardly in timed relation to the movement of the cartons through said tucking station, and displaceable guide arms at the trailing end of the means for maintaining the sealing flaps in juxtaposed relation, said guide arms being positioned to guide the juxtaposed sealing flaps beneath said tucking head in alignment with said tucking bar, said guide arms being displaceable in the event the sealing flaps are flexed by the tucking bar as an incident of the engagement of the sealing flaps by the channel in the sealing bar.
The apparatus claimed in claimed 1 wherein the means for displacing said sealing flaps inwardly comprises an opposing pair of folding plates lying on opposite sides of the path of travel of the advancing cartons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.