Improved apparatus and method for packaging articles.

摘要

An improved tray packer-shrink wrapper is provided in a preferred embodiment with a computer control to permit relatively efficient changeover from processing a batch of one product size to a batch of another product size. A servocontrolled pin grouper is provided wherein at least two sets of pins such as pins A and B are mounted on corresponding endless chains such as chains A and B, which endless chains are independently cyclable by corresponding independently controlled servomotors A and B. The pin sets are inserted into a row of articles positioned on a stationary deadplate (224), with one pin set leading a trailing pin set, and the leading pin set is accelerated with respect to the trailing pin set to separate articles downstream of the leading pin set into an article group, which separation operation is continuously carried out in a cyclical fashion to group articles from said row. The computer control (118) can be readily reprogrammed to control servomotors A and B differently for different sized articles and articles groups. Also, a servocontrolled film feed device and a servocontrolled wrapping device (114) resposive to the same computer control are provided.