Lid loading and conveying assembly

A lid loading and conveying assembly includes a carousel having an indexing plate with a plurality of pairs of tubes connected therearound for holding a plurality of stacks of lids therein; a rotatable support for rotationally supporting the carousel plate so that the stacks of lids can be sequentially indexed to a removal position; a plurality of spin rods for holding at least one stack of lids removed from the carousel tubes; an optical sensor which senses when the amount of lids on the spin rods is below a predetermined level; and a pusher assembly for conveying a stack of lids from the tubes at the removal position to the spin rods in response to the optical sesnor, the pusher assembly including a constrainment assembly at opposite ends of each stack of lids at the removal position for holding the stack of lids together as a unit in a slightly compressed form during the pushing operation from the carousel tubes to the spin rods, the constrainment assembly including an actuable gate at the lower end of the stacks of lids at the removal position and a pusher mechanism at the upper ends of the stacks of lids at the removal position, for pushing against the lids so as to constrain the lids between the pusher mechanism and the gate in the slighly compressed form, and a movement assembly for moving the gate and pusher mechanism together in order to move the stacks of lids as a unit in at most a slightly compressed form during the pushing operation from the carousel tubes to the spin rods.