Tom Martin owned a company called “Condes Corporation” which among other things built egg carton printers. These machines would allow egg producers to print over a hundred egg cartons per minute on the inside cover, outside cover and outside edge of the carton.
Condes had a near-monopoly on egg carton printers in the 1970s and 80s. At one time, nearly 90% of the cartons for eggs sold in the United States were printed on a Condes machine.
One reason Condes was so successful in this business is that no competitor machines could come close to printing egg cartons as quickly as the Condes machine. And much of that speed was due to two of Tom’s inventions, for which he received U.S. Patents.
Egg Carton Denester
One of Tom’s inventions is the “egg carton denester,” pronounced dee-NESS-ter. This mechanism fed egg cartons into the printer at high speeds. Tom received Patent 4,048,915 for his invention on April 4, 1976.
The machine operator would drop a stack of egg cartons between two plastic screws. The screws would spin rapidly, grabbing the lip around the egg carton, separating the carton from the stack above it, then dropping the carton onto a conveyor belt, which carried the carton into the machine for printing.
The patent drawing below gives you an idea of what an egg carton printer looked like. The machine was 6-10 feet tall and 50+ feet long.
The secret to making this printer work at high speed is that the distance between the threads at the top of the screws was narrow, so it would slowly peel the carton away from the stack. This was important because egg cartons tend to stick together due to the natural vacuum between stacked cartons. The distance between the threads at the bottom of the screws were much wider, however, so this whisked the carton away from the stack and dropped it onto the moving conveyor belt.
Patent Abstract
A method and apparatus for denesting cartons including a carton denester for receiving a stack of cartons, such as pulp egg cartons, and for separating the cartons so that they can be conveyed to carton handling apparatus. The carton denester includes a relief plate which is supported at an inclined relationship and which receives a stack of cartons against its inclined surface. The carton denester further includes a feed screw assembly connected to the lower end of the relief plate and generally perpendicular to it to support the bottom of the stack of cartons. The feed screw assembly includes a pair of rotatable feed screws which are received on opposite sides of the stack of cartons and which include helical grooves to receive the flanges of the bottom carton of the stack and to cause the bottom carton to be pulled away from the remainder of the stack upon rotation of the feed screws. The feed screws are positioned generally below the lower edge of the relief plate and such that the cartons move past the end of the relief plate before they are received in the helical grooves of the feed screws. As the bottom carton moves past the end of the relief plate, its weight is no longer supported by the relief plate and it tends to snap free of the remainder of the stack of cartons still supported by the relief plate. The feed screws can then easily pull the bottom carton downwardly away from the remainder of the stack.
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We’re glad Dad isn’t suffering anymore, but a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about him. Besides the “father-daughter” relationship, I felt fortunate to be able to relate to him on so many levels. We realized and respected each others strengths and weaknesses. I could tell him exactly what I thought; he solicited those ideas and he listened! He always encouraged me to do the best I could do and there never a dream that was criticized or put down. He was my cheering section; he kept me going and strong. When he became so sick he just had energy to maintain, my heart sank realizing how much I would miss our “lunches” talking politics, religion, ideas. I realized how he, Ralph, Bapa R.O., were great influences in my life in the business world. I soaked up their thought processes and people skills. The “how can I make this work” vs “I can’t do it because …” problem solving rationale was instilled in me. There was never a gender bias either. Hey, a Martin is a Martin! Anyway, I miss my “Daddy” very much but know he’s in a better place right now.
I could be way off base, but I seem to recall the ECP’s could print
100 pulp and 300 foam cartons. Whichever the number or material of
the carton, it was exciting to see the printer in action!