Frank Norman Moncrief
Engineering in Acworth, GA

5564894, Oct 15, 1996

Apr 6, 1995

8/418101

Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
John P. Arena - Marietta GA

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

B65G 5908

4147989

A partition inserter has a vacuum assembly which pivots out to contact an end partition in a stack, pivots back to remove the partition, and then moves downwardly to release the partition. The positioning of the vacuum assembly is controlled by a set of cams and a cam follower for controlling the horizontal position of the vacuum assembly and a third cam and cam follower for controlling the vertical position of the vacuum assembly. The vacuum assembly has an upper set of cups which move down with the assembly to lower the partition. The upper vacuum cups are also adjustably mounted to the assembly so that the same assembly may be used for partitions of various sizes. When the partition is released from the vacuum cups, the partition is guided downwardly by a pair of conveyors to a set of shooter wheels. The conveyor and shooter wheels are mounted to a set of plates which are adjustably mounted to the frame of the apparatus. The distance between the conveyors and shooter wheels can be adjusted to equal the width of the partition.

5585568, Dec 17, 1996

Mar 15, 1995

8/404225

Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
David R. Bacco - Canton GA

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

G01N 300

73788

A force sensing assembly measures a magnitude of a force generated at the tabs in a product delivery system. The product delivery system can be one in which a force is produced at the tabs by the weight of the stack, by a paddle pushing an end of the stack, or by another similar type of advancing mechanism. In a preferred embodiment, the force sensing assembly has a pair of tabs connected to a cross-bar which extends across the stack and which is connected to the frame of the feeder through a bell crank at one end and a lever at the other end. The bell crank has one arm connected to the cross-bar and a second arm connected to a load cell. The force at the tabs causes the lever and bell crank to rotate, with the force being transmitted through the bell crank, through a spring, and then to the load cell. The load cell generates a force signal which is supplied to a controller for adjusting the amount of force at the tabs. The controller adjusts the force by adding more products to the stack or by advancing the stack closer to the tabs.

5558489, Sep 24, 1996

Apr 6, 1995

8/418100

Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
David R. Bacco - Canton GA
Charles McNamara - Tucson AZ
Dwight L. Smith - Kennesaw GA
Colin Ford - Woodstock GA

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

B65H 2936

4147937

A partition feeder has a multi-rack assembly for holding more than one reserve stack of partitions. The partition feeder has a main stack of partitions which is forced against a set of tabs and which has its partitions removed by a selecting apparatus. When the main stack has been reduced down past a certain amount, one of the reserve stacks is automatically moved into alignment with the main stack and the partitions in the reserve stack are added to the main stack. The partition feeder has guide rails that are received in notched sides of the partitions, thereby suspending the partitions on the guide rails. An inner frame, upon which the guide rails are mounted, is adjustably mounted to a middle frame to thereby permit the adjustment of the distance between the guide rails. The middle frame is adjustably mounted to an outer frame to permit the vertical adjustment of the mass feeder. The partition feeder can therefore be easily adjusted for partitions of different sizes.

5660263, Aug 26, 1997

Feb 3, 1995

8/383344

Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
Bobby Lee Miller - Marietta GA
Gary J. Vulgamore - Marietta GA

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

B65G 4712

198445

An infeed system for a packaging machine directs a nested mass of articles in a downstream direction between two side rails. A locating-wedge affixed to one of the side rails moves the nested mass of articles to a position where a segment line of the nested mass is aligned with a lane divider. As a result, a group of articles in the nested mass is gently separated into a first group which moves along one side of the lane divider in a first lane and a second group which moves along the other side of the lane divider. The articles in the second group are directed into other lanes sequentially formed from the one side rail to the other side rail and are positioned relative to the lane dividers with locating wedges affixed to the lane dividers. Each of the locating wedges has a ramped surface for laterally moving a nested mass of articles into the proper position relative to an associated lane divider and has a side surface for allowing a group of the articles in the nested mass to move along the one side of the lane divider. The locating wedges may also have a plateau area for maintaining a nested mass of articles at the proper position as the articles travel in the downstream direction toward the lane divider.

5502950, Apr 2, 1996

Oct 28, 1994

8/330497

Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
Charles McNamara - Tucson AZ

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

B65B 506, B65B 3544, B65B 3546, B65B 3554

53448

A packaging machine adapted to meter and load various size groups of articles into receptacles to form a package. Star wheels are used to meter the articles into groups, each star wheel functioning as a single unit in conjunction with an infeed conveyor and a conveyor that feeds the metered groups downstream to a packaging station. Star wheels carrying different numbers of lugs are interchangeable in order to create different size packages on the same machine. The lugs which move the groups of articles and the article receptacles may be relocated as necessary to accommodate different size packages.

7645113, Jan 12, 2010

Mar 19, 2008

12/051384

Timothy W. Hendricks - Acworth GA, US
Jeff Disrud - Acworth GA, US
Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA, US

Graphic Packaging International, Inc. - Marietta GA

B65H 31/32, B65G 57/09, B65H 29/00

4147908, 4147903, 414790, 4147944

A system for automatically forming stacks of cartons for feeding a magazine for supplying cartons to a packaging machine includes a primary support on which the stacks of cartons are formed, and a secondary support for temporarily receiving a series of the cartons thereon as a previously formed stack of cartons is removed from the primary support. The stack of cartons collected on the primary support is moved onto a transport conveyor for transport to a loader for the magazine for feeding into the packaging machine.

5501064, Mar 26, 1996

Oct 28, 1994

8/330496

Steve Ingram - Woodstock GA
Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
Charles McNamara - Tucson AZ

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

B65B 2108, B65B 3540, B65B 3544, B65B 3914

53473

A beverage container packaging machine which employs a series of pusher plates to move groups of containers into open-ended carrier sleeves. The plates are pivotally attached to two continuous chains which are arranged so as to maintain the plates parallel to the downstream direction of travel of the containers and sleeves. The chains move the plates in a diagonal run toward the loading station wherein the downstream component of movement is at a speed similar to the speed of travel of the containers and sleeves, and the right angle component causes the plates to push the containers into the sleeves.

7648322, Jan 19, 2010

Dec 27, 2005

11/318847

Frank N. Moncrief - Acworth GA, US
Timothy W. Hendricks - Acworth GA, US
Jeff Disrud - Acworth GA, US

Graphic Packaging International, Inc. - Marietta GA

B65B 21/02, B65G 57/00, H01L 21/68

414419, 4147902, 4147892, 4147952, 414783, 4147896, 294 65

A magazine loader for automatically loading stacks of cartons onto a magazine of a mass feeder for supplying cartons to a packaging machine, includes a loader in which stacks of cartons are received and held, and a carriage on which the loader is pivotally mounted. The cartons are received loaded in the loader, after which the loader is pivoted from a loading position to a stacking position. The loader is then moved along a feeder conveyor for the packaging machine toward a magazine or supply of previously stacked cartons, until the stack of cartons is received and stacked against the previously loaded cartons to maintain a supply of cartons for feeding into the packaging machine.

5706633, Jan 13, 1998

Apr 18, 1996

8/634199

Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA
Kelly W. Ziegler - Crosby MN
Michael Hiney - Atlanta GA
Dennis Grimm - Marietta GA

Riverwood International Corporation - Atlanta GA

B65B 3530

53448

A continuous motion, end loading packaging machine forms article groups of a predetermined number and configuration using a flight type article selector. The packaging machine is flexible in its ability to package articles of different heights and diameters in various product configurations. The packaging machine includes adjustable guide rails to selectively change product infeed lane widths. The machine also includes phase adjusts the selector flights, and allows for easy selector flight replacement.

7780396, Aug 24, 2010

Oct 27, 2005

11/260347

Timothy W. Hendricks - Acworth GA, US
Jeff Disrud - Acworth GA, US
Frank Moncrief - Acworth GA, US

Graphic Packaging International, Inc. - Marietta GA

A01D 90/08, B65H 31/30

414802, 414790, 4147903, 4147894, 4147886

A system for automatically forming stacks of cartons for feeding a magazine for supplying cartons to a packaging machine includes a primary support on which the stacks of cartons are formed, and a secondary support for temporarily receiving a series of the cartons thereon as a previously formed stack of cartons is removed from the primary support. The stack of cartons collected on the primary support is moved onto a transport conveyor for transport to a loader for the magazine for feeding into the packaging machine.