Abstract
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Acartoning machine is a type of packaging machine that uses a robot and a control system to select cartonsthat are filled with a product, s uch as a food, supplement, pharmaceutical, consumer item, or other goods.A conv entional machine includes a magazine station that is positioned within a staging area or holdingarea that stores flat carton blanks, which are of the same size and/or configuration. The conventionalcartoning machine selects a carton blank from a stack of carton blanks (e.g., in a collapsed state, such asin a flat st ate, or the like), whereupon the machine opens the carton blank to form or erect a carton. Thiscarton formation process can include assembling a portion of the carton-for example, the bottom or topflaps-to partially erect the carton. Many conventional cartoning machines operate in-line, pulling cartonblanks from a s ingle magazine and sending the carton blanks through opening and flap folding se ctions ofthe machine. These machines can only handle processing of a single con figuration of a carton blank a23ta time and must be re-arranged off-line to han dle a different configuration of a carton blank for cartoning.This process is i nherently inefficient and time-consuming.”
NETL
NSTL