Patent ID: 8740541

Claim:
A card dispensing system for use with a conveying surface which conveys sliced products in a conveying direction along the conveying surface downstream of a slicing machine to package the sliced products with the card, comprising: a hopper for containing a plurality of vertically stacked cards supported within the hopper by support fingers which releaseably hold the cards; a mechanism disposed beneath the hopper for withdrawing the bottom card from the hopper past the support fingers and moving the bottom card into a receiving position; a card transportation mechanism located below the conveying surface which receives the card at the receiving position and transfers the card to a staging position; a delivery mechanism located below the conveying surface and adjacent to the card when the card is in its staging position, the delivery mechanism feeds the card from its staging position towards a junction in the conveying surface as sliced product passes over the junction; wherein the card transportation mechanism comprises a card clamp with a top plate and a bottom plate each connected to a clamp carriage moveable along clamp carriage guide arms in a lateral direction relative to the conveying direction.