Patent ID: 8257011

Claim:
A palletizer for arranging items on a pallet in plural rows, said palletizer including a frame and an infeed conveyer at a fixed height relative to the frame and configured for delivering items to the palletizer, comprising: a row conveyer vertically movable relative to the frame between a first row conveyer position in which the row conveyer is positioned to receive items from the infeed conveyer, and a second row conveyer position; a layer head defined by a platform having multiple edges including a receiving edge, said layer head-movable only vertically relative the frame independently from the row conveyer between a first layer head position in which the receiving edge of the layer head is positioned adjacent a facing side edge of said row conveyer to receive a row of items from the row conveyer, and a second layer head position; a puller bar mounted to the layer head, vertically movable therewith and configured to transfer items from the row conveyer to the layer head, said puller bar horizontally extendable away from the receiving edge of the layer head between a first puller bar position in which the puller bar extends beyond the receiving edge of the layer head over the row conveyer such that said items on the row conveyer are between the puller bar and the layer head, and a second puller bar position in which the puller bar is within the receiving edge of the layer head, said items being transferred from said row conveyer to said layer head by being pulled from the row conveyer onto the layer head by horizontal movement of the puller bar moving from the second to the first puller bar position and without horizontal movement of said layer head; wherein the layer head is reciprocally vertically movable past the row conveyer and the row conveyer is reciprocally vertically movable past the layer head when the puller bar is in the second puller bar position, and such that when the layer head moves vertically past the row conveyer the receiving edge of the layer head passes the facing side edge of the row conveyer.