Claims
- 1. A method of packaging a potted plant comprising the steps of:
- providing a sleeving station having automatic sleeving means for automatically applying a preformed sleeve;
- automatically opening the preformed sleeve and disposing a decorative cover into the opened preformed sleeve;
- providing a plurality of potted plants, each having an exterior surface;
- sequentially conveying each potted plant to the sleeving station via conveying means having a distal end near the sleeving station; and
- sequentially delivering each potted plant to guiding means arranged at the distal end of the conveying means through which guiding means each potted plant is automatically passed downwardly and then automatically oriented and maintained in an upright orientation for placement into an opened sleeve and placing each such uprightly oriented potted plant into the opened sleeve and into the cover therein forming a sleeved covered potted plant.
- 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:
- sequentially sorting each potted plant at a sorting station into one of at least two grades in accordance with a predetermined grading criterion.
- 3. A method of packaging a potted plant comprising the steps of:
- providing a plurality of potted plants, each having an exterior surface;
- applying a decorative cover about the exterior surface of each potted plant to form a covered potted plant; and
- sequentially delivering each potted plant via conveying means to guiding means arranged near an end of the conveying means through which guiding means each covered potted plant is automatically passed downwardly and thereby automatically oriented and maintained in an upright orientation for placement into an opened sleeve and placing each such uprightly oriented covered potted plant into an opened sleeve forming a sleeved covered potted plant.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein in the step of providing a potted plant, the potted plant further comprises a living potted plant.
- 5. A method of packaging a potted plant comprising the steps of:
- providing a plurality of potted plants, each having an exterior surface;
- sorting each potted plant into one of at least two grades in accordance with a predetermined grading criterion;
- applying a decorative cover about the exterior surface of each potted plant to form a covered potted plant; and
- sequentially delivering each covered potted plant via conveying means to guiding means arranged near an end of the conveying means through which guiding means each covered potted plant is automatically passed downwardly and thereby automatically oriented and maintained in an upright orientation for placement into an automatically opened sleeve and placing each such uprightly oriented covered potted plant into an opened sleeve forming a sleeved covered potted plant.
- 6. A method of packaging potted plants comprising the steps of:
- providing a covering station having automatic covering means for automatically applying a decorative cover;
- providing a plurality of potted plants, each having an exterior surface;
- sequentially moving each potted plant toward the covering station via conveying means;
- automatically transferring the potted plant from the conveying means to the covering station by gripping the potted plant via gripping means at a position on the conveying means and automatically delivering the gripped potted plant in an upright position to the covering station where a decorative cover is automatically applied about the exterior surface of each potted plant to form a covered potted plant;
- automatically removing the covered potted plant from the covering station; and
- automatically moving the covered potted plant to a sleeving station where a sleeve is automatically applied about the covered potted plant.
- 7. A method of packaging potted plants comprising the steps of:
- providing a covering station having automatic covering means for automatically applying a decorative cover;
- providing a sleeving station having automatic sleeving means for automatically applying a preformed sleeve;
- providing a plurality of potted plants, each having an exterior surface;
- sequentially moving each potted plant toward the covering station via conveying means;
- automatically delivering the potted plant from the conveying means in an about upright position to the covering station;
- automatically applying the decorative cover about the exterior surface of each potted plant at the covering station to form a covered potted plant;
- automatically opening the preformed sleeve;
- sequentially conveying each potted plant to the sleeving station via second conveying means; and
- sequentially delivering each potted plant to the sleeving station oriented and maintained in an about upright orientation for placement into the opened sleeve and placing each such uprightly oriented potted plant into the opened sleeve forming a sleeved covered potted plant.
- 8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of:
- sequentially sorting each potted plant at a sorting station into one of at least two grades in accordance with a predetermined grading criterion.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/417,477, filed Apr. 5, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,425 entitled ARTICLE PACKAGING SYSTEM, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 07/954,635, filed Sep. 30, 1992, entitled ARTICLE PACKAGING SYSTEM, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (39)
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
417477 |
Apr 1995 |
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Parent |
954635 |
Sep 1992 |
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