Automatic bundling machine

An automatic bundling apparatus for bundling selected number of articles in bundles with sheet material for use in combination with a conveyer means for feeding horizontally disposed rows of articles to said apparatus, said apparatus comprising:

• a wrapping stage having a sheet material supply reel, a hollow mandril having an entrance at one end and an exit at the opposite end, and a means for folding said sheet material around the outside of said mandril for forming a tubular first wrapper having one open end generally aligned with said entrance and one sealed end adjacently beyond said exit;
• a main ram disposed in front of said entrance of said mandril and adjacent said open end of said wrapper;
• a collating stage for receiving a selected plurality of stacked rows of said articles from said conveyer means;
• a compressing stage for receiving said articles from said collating stage, said compressing stage having means for, in sequence, transporting said stack of rows to a position between said main ram and said mandril entrance and for simultaneously compressing the height and the width of said stack of rows;
• a control means for actuating said ram for pushing said stack of rows through said entrance and the inside of said mandril such that said stack of rows advances through said mandril and out of said exit and pushes against said sealed end of said wrapper and moves on beyond said exit and advances said wrapper off of said mandril and simultaneously advances a discrete amount of sheet material from said supply reel around the outside of said mandril for forming a next wrapper for a next stack of rows;
• and
• a cutting and sealing stage disposed adjacently beyond said exit for receiving thereby said first wrapper with said stacks of rows in said first wrapper from said wrapping stage, said cutting and sealing stage having means for simultaneously sealing the open end of said first wrapper, between said exit and the trailing end of the advanced stack of rows in said first wrapper, and forming the sealed end of said next wrapper, and separating said first wrapper from said next wrapper.