Carton forming apparatus with servo control

Abstract

An apparatus for forming paperboard cartons from flat blanks is provided. The carton blanks are fed from a magazine to the face of a forming die, a reciprocating plunger is provided to push the blank through the die forming the carton, and an endless conveyor receives the carton after being stripped from the bottom of the die. A servo drive means for the plunger, blank feeder and conveyor are each independently driven by an infinitely variable speed electric motor. A programmable logic controller operates the servo drive means, whereby the plunger, feeder and conveyor can be infinitely varied to fit the forming action desired. The servo drive means preferably takes the form of a variable speed, electronic servo motor including an encoder and a tachometer feedback. Product sensor means detect product availability and carton sensor means detects carton availability with both sensor means also being controlled by the programmable logic controller.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.