Patent ID: 8176959

Claim:
A tape applicator for applying a closing tape ribbon to a carton in the form of a pair of spaced L-clips as a leading L-clip positioned on a leading face and a trailing L-clip at a trailing face of said carton comprising a frame, a source of tape mounted on said frame, an application roll assembly including an applicator to apply a leading end of a tape from said source to said leading face and around an edge and an adjacent face of a carton moving relative to said tape applicator pivotably mounted on said frame, a wipe down assembly including a wipe down to wipe a tape applied to said carton along said trailing face of said carton remote from said leading face pivotably mounted on said frame, a push bar link interconnecting said application roll assembly and said wipe down assembly for movement together, an over-travel system for moving said applicator from said adjacent face of said carton to an over-travel position spaced from said adjacent face, said over-travel system including an actuator to move said applicator roll assembly and thereby move-said applicator to said over-travel position and a cutting assembly including a cut off knife positioned to engage said tape when said a over-travel system moves said applicator to said over-travel position and wherein said over-travel system moves said applicator back to said carton from said over-travel position to apply said trailing L-clip.