Today in 1962, US Patent 3037431 A was issued, an invention of Leonard McGihon of San Leandro, California, assigned to the King-O-Matic Equipment Corp., for his “Carton Feeding, Erecting And Filling Mechanism” There’s no Abstract, although there’s a paragraph in the description that summarizes it nicely.

The present invention relates to mechanism for taking respective folded cartons, successively from a stack, opening these cartons to a box-like form with open sides, feeding cans or other containers in groups into the carton through the open sides thereof, and then closing the cartons so as to provide a carry-home pack of the containers in the carton. The various operations take place in sequence and continuously to provide a rapid and efficient method of packing containers in cartons, for example beer cans packed in the familiar six-pack cartons as now commonly on the market. More particularly, the instant mechanism is designed to operate on a carton of a character having a closed rectangular shape with partially open sides, the open sides being provided with connected or continuous side flap portions, the respective adjacent side flaps of each corner being connected by a gusset type fold. In this type of carton, the folding of the flaps attached to the end panels of the carton tucks these flaps behind the containers or cans in the carton and effectively holds the carton closed during shipment and handling, but provides for easy opening by the user.