OPTIMUM CARTON HOLD-DOWN ELEMENT FOR ROTARY FEEDERS

摘要

A hold-down element (40) for a ro-tary feeder has a curved elongated memberfor continuously contacting an article duringrotation of a rotary head (20). The curva-ture of the hold-down element is selected sothat the distance from the elongated mem-ber to the rotary head increases from thepoint of initial contact to the final contactpoint on the elongated member. The hold-down element preferably maintains contactfor at least 20° of rotation of the rotaryhead, and thus maintains contact with thearticle for an extended period of time. Thehold-down element is attached to a vacuumshaft (48) on the rotary head, and is pre-vented from rotating relative to the vacuumshaft by a keyway (43) on the hold-down el-ement and a key on the vacuum shaft. Thehold-down element, however, is permittedto travel transversely along a longitudinalaxis of the vacuum shaft in order to accom-modate different shaped articles.