This invention relates generally to case loading machines of the type which include a grid assembly for handling groups of articles to be loaded into upwardly open packing cases fed to a loading station below the grid. The invention deals more particularly with an improved article guiding funnel or finger assembly arrangement for such a grid, and to an improved plastic finger for use in such a finger assembly.
In a typical case loading machine of this type, slugs of articles of uniform size and shape are grouped, and the groups or slugs are drop packed into upwardly open packing cases or cartons. Each slug of articles is accumulated in a grid assembly, which includes means for discharging the entire slug of articles for gravity fall downwardly into the upwardly open case. Finger assemblies or clusters are generally mounted to parallel rails in the grid assembly, either at the sides of individual passages for these articles, or at the corners of generally square passageways for such articles. These finger assemblies are supported below the shifting grid frame, which frame serves to control the pace of the charge or slug as it drops from the frame into the case. See for example prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,722. That patent discloses a finger assembly so designed that a single screw or fastener is provided to hold four fingers at the corners of each of four adjacent article passageways in the grid assembly. This patent also shows a convenient means for permiting these fingers to be readily removed for replacement or repair.
In the above-identified copending U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,009 there is disclosed a unique upper pivoted end for each finger wherein a concave downwardly facing contour at the upper inturned end of the finger slidably engages a convex portion of a retaining member to pendulously support each finger for movement inwardly toward and outwardly away from a single centrally located fastener. The means for so biasing the fingers so that they cooperate with the fingers of other adjacent finger assemblies in each passageway comprises a single compression spring provided on the fastener and acting on a retainer to urge the retainer upwardly against a holder which supports the finger assembly from one of the parallel rails in the grid assembly itself.
The present invention seeks to carry forward the advantages of the disclosure in said patent, and to provide an improved finger assembly so designed that each of the four fingers in the finger assembly can be individually biased toward normal positions for guiding the free falling articles, and wherein an improved plastic finger is adapted to be itself resiliently deformable in one direction only, that is which finger is so configured that when it engages a part of the case or case contents during mating of the fingers with the upwardly open packing case during the machine cycle, such finger will deform in a direction which does not cause damage to the article being handled or to the components of the machine itself. These advantages are achieved in a finger assembly which is also capable of providing for limited lateral movement of the fingers to accommodate misalignment between the grid assembly and the case partitions such as might be expected to lead to interference between the depending fingers and a cell or partition within the packing case to be loaded.