Individual packages are supposed to be stored well-organized in a storage box in order to be able, as well as possible, to utilize the space which is available in the storage box. Storage boxes are often constructed as display boxes in which the individual packages are stored standing up. Such boxes are set up on shelves in self-service stores for the purpose of having buyers remove the individual packages. The orderly positioning of the individual packages in the storage box has thus the additional purpose of rendering the goods visually attractive.
In a conventional packaging machine of the above-mentioned type (German OS No. 1 932 852), the magazine compartments are the lower ends of turning channels. Such lower ends are closed off by a plate. When the magazine has been filled, the plate is pulled away after which the individual packages fall from the channels into the storage box. In this situation, the storage box is in an elevational position so that its upper edges lie just below the plate. The individual packages must thus, after exiting the magazine, go through a free fall the distance of such fall approximately equaling the height of the storage box. This can result in the individual packages not reaching the bottom of the storage box in the desired organized arrangement.
Also known is a device for inserting tube bags which contain a liquid, for example drinkable milk, into a storage box (German OS No. 1 924 949). The bags, which are filled by and come from a tube-bag machine, are tilted into a horizontal position and fall at the same time into a magazine, which is closed off at the bottom of flaps. When the entire magazine is filled, the flaps are pulled away laterally and the bags, which are in the magazine and can be provided in several layers in the magazine, fall in the horizontal position into the storage box. Here too it is possible that, during the free fall of the bags, undesired position changes occur. In both conventional devices, the closing flaps for the magazine compartments and the operating mechanism therefor involve considerable structural expense.
Finally, a system for the automatic introduction of tiles into boxes is known (German OS No. 2 354 577). The box is moved step-by-step on an inclined conveyor belt. The tiles are guided by means of conveyor belts from a substantially horizontal position into a substantially vertical position and are released by the conveyor belts shortly before reaching the box. The remainder of the travel thereof is a free fall. A magazine does not exist in this device. With this conventional device, however, only things of a solid design, for example tiles can be packaged in an organized manner, since flexible packages such as tube bags would assume an unorganized arrangement in the storage box.
A purpose of the present invention is to provide a packaging machine of the above-mentioned type with which flexible bags having an unstable filling can be introduced into and fully utilize the capacity of the storage box without having the individual packages go through a free fall after having been moved into the magazine.