Importance

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Abstract

A machine for applying tax stamps or like adhesive labels to articles such as cigarette packages arranged in two or more rows in a carton, including mechanism for advancing the carton lengthwise with exposed ends of the packages facing upwardly, and a head disposed above the path of carton advance for transporting a corresponding number of rows of spaced-apart labels into contact with the advancing package ends while the labels and packages are moving in the same direction and at the same velocity. The head, which is movable vertically to accommodate packages of different heights, carries a supply of the labels in the form of an adhesive-backed web bearing spaced longitudinal rows of label imprints; a device for advancing the web lengthwise; a slicer for removing from the advancing web a longitudinal strip portion between the rows of imprints; a knife for cutting the separated rows of imprints into individual labels; and vacuum means for receiving the cut labels and transporting them, lengthwise of the rows, into contact with the package ends. The vacuum means may include a drum, having a preforate periphery on which the spaced rows of labels are held by suction, mounted for rotation in a plane containing the path of carton advance and positioned for tangential contact with the exposed package ends. Each time a carton is advanced, the web is intermittently advanced and the requisite number of labels for one carton are cut and transferred to the drum periphery, which applies them to the ends of the packages in the carton.

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First Claim