摘要:
Apparatus for feeding items (10) such as flattened carton blanks from a magazine (12) for subsequent handling and treatment, comprises a transfer turret (16) mounted for continuous rotation adjacent the mouth (14) of the magazine, transfer stations (50) on the turret positioned to pass the mouth of the magazine and comprising means (6, 54, 56) for removing a said item (10) from the mouth of the magazine (12), erecting the item if it is a blank, and ior carrying the said item as the turret rotates, an endless pocket conveyor (30), for receiving said items from said turret, positioned adjacent said turret so as to be passed by the or each said transfer station as the turret rotates so as to produce a sequence of transfer station/conveyor interactions, and a globoidal cam indexing box (37) for driving said conveyor around an endless path in an intermittent motion in which said conveyor is halted for a period and is restarted in motion during intervals between at least selected sequential ones of said transfer station/conveyor interactions such that the distance travelled by the conveyor during decelerating to a stop and accelerating back to normal running speed is equal to the length of one pocket (32) on the conveyor.