Apparatus and methods for inserting premium items

摘要

A bandolier (20) of serially connected premium items (18) are fed by a vacuum conveyor (26) to a rotary cutter (14), with the bandolier (20) being sandwiched against the vacuum conveyor (26) by an overhead conveyor (32). The shaft (40) of the rotary cutter (14) is rotated by a servo-motor (42) such that its blade (46) engages the bandolier (20) with a linear speed which cuts the initial item (18) from the bandolier (20) and pushes and accelerates the cut item (18) into a carton (52) moving in a carton path (53). The linear speed of the bandolier (20) in the feed path (27) is tied to the linear speed of the cartons (52) in the carton path (53) while rotation of the shaft (40) is controlled by an optical sensor (38) which senses movement of the bandolier (20) by the vacuum conveyor (26). If movement of the bandolier (20) slows or is stopped, the shaft (40) is held in a control position so that the servo-motor (42) is able to accelerate the shaft (40) so that it reaches the linear speed required to accelerate the cut item (18) when the blade (46) reaches the cutting position independent of the linear speed of the bandolier (20).