US Patent 10179666 Packaging machine with phased split-pitch barrel loader

A barrel loader for a carton packaging machine for packaging articles, including a leading pusher arm assembly and a trailing pusher arm assembly, the pusher arm assemblies positioned adjacent to a carton conveyor that move along a longitudinal path and cooperate to push an article group into a carton. Each pusher arm assembly has a pusher arm that carries a face on one end and also is extendable and retractable on guide rails transverse to the longitudinal path. The pusher arm assemblies are driven in a downstream direction along the longitudinal path by endless chains. One of the endless chains can be advanced or retarded in phase relative to the other endless chain to move the loader arms and associated faces further apart or closer together parallel to the longitudinal.