Package making – Methods – With contents treating
Patent
1981-12-29
1985-04-16
Spruill, Robert L.
Package making
Methods
With contents treating
53436, 53480, 53512, 53526, 53370, 53570, B65B 3100
Patent
active
045107335
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for closing sales bag packings of slaughtered chickens or other poultry. For the production of such packings it is a condition that the chickens be compacted prior to the final closing of the bags, viz. by forcing the leg ends of the chicken forwardly towards the head end of the chicken for reducing the length of the chicken and causing the thighs to be bent, whereby the packing is made compact and yet ample. This compacting operation should be effected just prior to the closing of the bag, for fixing the final shape of the chicken by means of the closed bag itself, and trained packers may effect the desired compaction in an easy and rapid manner in direct connection with a manual closing of the bags. However, the same operations have been very difficult to effect in an automatic manner without damaging the chickens.
The bags should fit rather closely about the chickens, and the leg ends should be pressed forwardly already when the chicken is introduced--headwise--into the bag. As illustrated, for example, in British Patent Specification No. 1,525,559, methods already have been developed for automatically filling the chickens into the bag members, but so far it has not been possible to develop a satisfactory bag closing method for practical use in direct connection with the chicken being introduced into the bag. The result is that in general the vast amount of bag chickens as produced all over the world have been closed manually, irrespectively of the bags having been filled manually or automatically.
The purpose of this invention is to provide a method and an apparatus usable for closing the bags in a simple and advantageous manner once the chickens have been placed in the bags.
The basic principle of the invention is that the open plastic bag with the chicken is placed in a holder with the leg ends of the chicken and the open end portion of the bag member located or collected in a relatively narrow tubular portion of the holder, whereafter a piston is introduced into this portion for compacting the chicken as required. The piston is then replaced by or even converted into a vacuum tube which sucks the bag mouth portion straight outwardly from the bag member, and the mouth portion is clamped by or to a surrounding, rotatable twisting member, which may even be constituted by a clamping device on the vacuum tube, and which is rotated so as to cause the bag mouth portion to be twisted just outside the rump end of the compacted chicken. Thereafter the twisted and constricted bag portion is fixed e.g. by means of adhesive tape.
Various details of the method and system according to the invention may be designed so as to enable a given apparatus to handle chickens of various sizes in the required effective and lenient manner and with high capacity.
The invention is described in more detail in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the main steps of a method according to the invention,
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the lower end of a piston element as used therein,
FIG. 3 is a schematic lateral view illustrating the various steps of the method in more detail,
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a preferred bag holder,
FIG. 5 is a top view of the closed bag holder,
FIG. 6 is a lateral sectional view of the same bag holder shown in an open receiving position,
FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the bag holder and its associated piston arrangement, and
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the piston arrangement according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 1 shows a bag holder generally designated by the reference numeral 2 in various positions during the operation cycle of an apparatus according the invention, starting from the upper right hand corner of the figure (position A). The bag holder comprises a vertical rear plate member 4 which, at a top side thereof, is provided with a pair of forwardly protruding jaw members 6 slidably held by horizontal slide tracks 8 in the pla
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patent: 4141194 (1979-02-01), Rochman
patent: 4352263 (1982-10-01), Andrews
Hansen Erik
Lambach Heinrich W.
Brdr. Schur International A/S
Spruill Robert L.
Weihrouch Steven P.
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