Device for automatically opening and filling boxes

Device for conveying one at a time boxes in folded condition, said boxes being of the type having a quadrangular bottom which folds-back between side walls thereof when said side walls are brought together two by two relative to a plane at a right angle to the bottom and passing through a diagonal thereof, said boxes being transferred from a magazine wherein said boxes are stacked in folded condition to a station where said boxes are opened, the boxes being automatically opened during transfer thereof, said device comprising means inside the magazine to retain the boxes aligned in a stack in folded condition, in such a way that the side walls of said boxes bear on one another, means to exert a pressure towards one stack end, and means arranged at said stack end to allow the movement of a box in folded condition and cross-wise to the stack, said device comprising on the one hand, means to convey a box from said magazine to said station, said means bearing on the side walls of that box lying at said stack end and driving said box cross-wise to the stack over a distance at least equal to the box length in folded condition, and on the other hand, in the station where the boxes are opened, means to prevent the box being moved cross-wise to the stack, to insure the automatic opening thereof, said latter means being arranged at a distance, as considered in parallel relationship with the box movement from the magazine, which is at the most slightly larger than the length of a diagonal of the box bottom.