APPARATUS FOR FOLDING A TRAILING PANEL ON CARTON BLANKS

Apparatus, for a paper box folding machine for folding the trailing panels of carton blanks about fold lines as the blanks travel individually and successively along a paper line (20) has a servomotor (50) running continuously at a relatively constant nominal angular velocity which drives an input shaft (57) to an indexer (51) that controls, for each position of its input shaft (57), the angular position of an output shaft (24). The indexer (51) converts continuous input from the servomotor (50) to discontinuous motion of its output shaft (24). The output shaft (24) lies below and transverse to the paper line (20). Radially extending fingers (25) mounted on the output shaft (24) are positioned below a trailing panel as the carton blank passes. The indexer output shaft (24) and fingers (25) rotate rapidly so the fingers engage and fold the trailing panel and then dwell to allow the blank to exit the apparatus. Then the shaft (24) and fingers (25) move below the paper lines (20) to allow another blank to enter and rotate to engage a next blank in sequence. A specific embodiment includes two folding stations and a control system for operating these stations independently.