METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOADING TEA BAGS INTO CARTONS

摘要

Apparatus for loading predetermined numbers of tea bags into cartons of a predetermined length comprising a rotor on which there are mounted back-to-back longitudinally extending buckets open at their opposite ends for rotation about a horizontal axis to alternately move the buckets from the upper side of the axis to the lower side thereof, and vibrators on the rotor associated with the respective buckets operable when the buckets are moved to the lower side to effect their vibration. At one end of the rotor at the level of the bucket at the upper side there is a reciprocable transfer assembly for pushing a predetermined number of packets under light pressure into the bucket at the upper side and a conveyor including selector elements for selecting a predetermined number of packets from the supply of packets and presenting them to the transfer assembly. At the other end of the rotor at the level of the bucket at the lower side there is a support for an empty open-ended carton for supporting the carton with an open end in registration with the open end of the bucket at the lower side and a reciprocable loader assembly for discharging the inverted packets from the bucket into the carton. The loader assembly comprises a back-up member and a pusher member located at opposite ends of the bucket at the lower side of the axis, between which the packets are held, which are movable in unison to push the packets from the bucket into the carton and during such movement the pusher member is reciprocated relative to the back-up member to repeatedly squeeze the packets between the back-up member and the pusher member as the loader assembly moves the packets into the carton. Motors and limit switches provide for cyclical and sequential operation of the several components so as simultaneously to advance a selected number of packets into a bucket on the rotor at the upper side and discharge a compacted column of packets from the bucket at the lower side.