Method of and apparatus for supplying blanks to a packing machine

Abstract

Successive collapsed cardboard blanks which can be erected to accommodate, for example, arrays of cigarette cartons are supplied from a source (such as a magazine for one or more piles of superimposed randomly distributed properly oriented and misoriented blanks) to a packing machine along a path wherein the orientations of successive blanks are monitored and the misoriented blanks are reoriented so that the packing machine receives blanks each of which is in an optimum orientation for erection and subsequent reception of arrays of commodities. The arrangement for monitoring and, if necessary, correcting the orientation of successive blanks can include pneumatic and/or other conveyors, mobile props, mobile pushers, an upright chute and a vertically movable supporting platform for stacks of monitored and (if necessary) reoriented blanks. One of the conveyors can serve to accumulate at least one pile of superimposed properly oriented (including reoriented) blanks prior to introduction of such blanks into the packing machine.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.