Patent ID: 9309059
Filing Date: 2016-04-12
CPC Classification: B65B,B65G,B65H,Y10S

Claim Text:
1. A card feeding system comprising: a frame and a housing mounted to the frame; a feed conveyor that delivers a product to be placed on a card to a card delivery area; an outfeed conveyor adapted to receive the card with the product located thereon; a card feed path having the card delivery area located at a delivery end thereof arranged between the feed conveyor and the outfeed conveyor, the card feed path further including an intake end with a fixed feed pinch roll and a pivot arm with a pivoting pinch roll, the pivot arm is movable between an open, card receiving position, and a feed position in which the pivoting pinch roll is pressed against the fixed feed pinch roll, and a pair of delivery rolls located in proximity to the delivery end; a card stack receiving platform located beneath the picker arm that holds a stack of the cards to be fed, and an elevator for raising card stack; a picker arm with a support bar that supports at least one suction cup, the picker arm is pivotable from a first, card pick-up position to a second, feed position in which a leading edge of the card is positioned between the pivoting pinch roll and the fixed pinch roll when the pivoting pinch roll is in the open, card receiving position; a controller that controls actuation of the elevator, the picker arm, the pivot arm, the fixed feed pinch roll and the delivery pinch rolls to deliver single ones of the cards to the card delivery area as product to be placed on the card transitions from the feed conveyor to the outfeed conveyor; the controller includes a conveyor speed control that runs the outfeed conveyor at a slower speed than the feed conveyor as product is delivered to bunch the product as it is placed on the card; and the feed conveyor includes an infeed conveyor that is generally horizontal and an angled drop conveyor that is angled down from horizontal by about 5 to 25 degrees and delivers the product to the card delivery area, and the card feed path is angled up from horizontal by about 5 to 25 degrees.