Package-conveying apparatus comprising endless member conveyor and pushers

A package-conveying apparatus useful with a wrapping machine of a type capable of wrapping a package with stretch film from a roll moving in an annular path, the package-conveying apparatus comprising

• (a) an elongate table having a back end and a front end, at least one elongate ledge mounted to the elongate table so as to extend frontwardly from the front end, the at least one elongate ledge having a front end spaced frontwardly from the front end of the table,
• (b) a package conveyor mounted operatively to the elongate table and including at least one endless member adapted to receive a package on the at least one endless member, near the back end of the elongate table, the package conveyor including means for driving the at least one endless member so as to convey a package thereon frontwardly toward the front end of the elongate table,
• (c) a pair of package pushers mounted operatively to the elongate table in side-to-side relation to each other, each package pusher including a longitudinally extending leg with a front end and means for driving the leg frontwardly from a retracted position wherein the front end of the leg is spaced backwardly from the output end of the elongate table, through an intermediate position wherein the front end of the leg is near the output end of the elongate table, to an extended position wherein the front end of the leg is near the front end of the at least one elongate ledge and for driving the leg backwardly from the extended position, through the intermediate position, to the retracted position,
• the package pushers being operable in such manner that the leg of one such pusher is driven frontwardly as the leg of the other pusher is driven backwardly and that the leg of whichever of the package pushers is driven frontwardly at any given time is capable of pushing a package from the at least one endless member onto the at least one elongate ledge as the leg being driven frontwardly is driven from the retracted position to the intermediate position and of pushing a package from the at least one elongate ledge as the leg being driven frontwardly is driven from the intermediate position to the extended position.