Patent ID: 11866273
Assignee: BARTELT PACKAGING LLC
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 14:
15. A pouch handling system, comprising:
a carriage mounted for movement along a continuous conveyor track;
a magnetic pouch clamp assembly, including:
a first clamping arm having a first clamping surface;
a second clamping arm having a second clamping surface opposed to the first clamping surface;
wherein the first clamping arm and the second clamping arm are slidably connected together for relative movement between an open position and a closed position, the first and second clamping surfaces being spaced apart in the open position and the first and second clamping surfaces being engaged in the closed position;
a magnet assembly including a first magnet having a first polarity carried by the first clamping arm and a second magnet having a second polarity carried by the second clamping arm, the first and second polarities being oriented such that a closing attractive force therebetween holds the first and second clamping arms in the closed position;

wherein the magnetic pouch clamp assembly is mounted to the carriage for movement therewith;
a first assembly actuator positioned at a pouch drop location along the continuous conveyor track, the first assembly actuator configured to interact with the magnetic pouch clamp assembly to shift the first and second clamping arms to the open position for pouch dropping;
a second assembly actuator positioned at a pouch receive location along the continuous conveyor track, the second assembly actuator configured to interact with the magnetic pouch clamp assembly to shift the first and second clamping arms to the closed position for pouch holding;
wherein the system is configured such that the magnetic pouch clamp assembly (i) receives a pouch at the pouch receive location, (ii) drops the pouch at the pouch drop location and (iii) remains in the open position while traversing along the continuous conveyor track from the pouch drop location back to the pouch receive location to receive another pouch.