Machine for loading open top style cartons at high speeds

A machine for drop loading bottles into open top cartons having upstanding side and end walls and a bottom wall provided with at least one aperture, the machine comprising

• a loading station,
• conveyor means for supplying a series of said cartons in end to end abutting relationship to said loading station,
• conveyor means including spaced apart parallel belts having a series of bottle engaging lugs for supplying two rows of bottles to said loading station,
• an endless chain disposed in a vertical plane and generally below said loading station, a plurality of upright studs mounted on said chain and arranged to enter through said aperture in said bottom wall of each carton,
• said bottle engaging lugs and said studs being synchronized and effective to register said cartons at said loading station and to guide said bottles as they drop into said cartons a rotatable vertically disposed disc provided above said loading station and arranged for partial entry into each carton from above and between the bottles of each pair of bottles, said disc having radial projections formed along the periphery thereof and a plurality of knobs formed on each of said projections on opposite sides of said disc, a plurality of pairs of knobs formed on said disc near the periphery of said disc with the knobs of each pair of knobs on opposite surfaces of said disc, radial projections formed about the periphery of said disc and wherein at least one pair of knobs is disposed on each side of each of said radial projections.