Patent ID: 11905126
Assignee: GRAPHIC PACKAGING INTERNATIONAL, LLC
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 14:
15. A lane combiner, comprising:
a first plurality of articles comprising a first article;
a second plurality of articles comprising a second article;
a first combiner wheel; and
a second combiner wheel that is out of phase with the first combiner wheel;
the lane combiner is positioned downstream from a first input lane and a second input lane such that the first combiner wheel is positioned to engage a first article from the first plurality of articles in the first input lane and the second combiner wheel is positioned to engage a second article from the second plurality of articles in the second input lane, the first article for being received in the first input lane at an upstream end of a system for conveying articles in an inverted orientation relative to the second article, the second article for being received in the second input lane at the upstream end of the system for conveying articles,
upon out of phase rotation of the first combiner wheel and the second combiner wheel, the first article is moved into the output lane and the second article is moved into the output lane after the first article to form a combined plurality of articles that comprises the first article and second article in sequence.