Package making – Apparatus for forming or partially forming receptacle and... – Forming a receptacle around a mandrel or former and removing...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-16
2001-03-13
Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)
Package making
Apparatus for forming or partially forming receptacle and...
Forming a receptacle around a mandrel or former and removing...
C053S570000, C053S386100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06199351
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a packaging machine and, more particularly, to a machine for packaging snack products (e.g. potato crisps) and other low density materials. A typical use would be to package 30 g portions of crisps in bags 127 mm wide and 178 mm long.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
There is a limit to the speed at which a conventional vertical, form, fill and seal machine can package snacks and other lightweight products. The speed is limited by the maximum rate at which the product can fall and the length of time needed to heat seal the film.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention uses a method in which the packs preferably travel round on a carousel. Hence much more time is available for the processes involved in forming and filling the bag and the machine operations are less interdependent.
Filling by means of a rotating carousel is already widely used with rigid containers such as in the canning industry, and to a lesser extent with flexible packaging.
Two particular instances of machines which have carousels for the filling of flexible packaging are:
a) A machine produced by Jones & Co. Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio 45201, USA. In this machine, a reel of flat film is folded longitudinally and then divided into sections by sealing. The pouches so formed have three closed edges and are still joined to one another. The string of pouches passes round a carousel, where product is introduced from a number of chutes. The top seal is then made and the pouches are cut from each other. This type of filling is suited to heavier products such as soups, rice or confectionery, and is in use elsewhere.
b) A machine produced by Thurlings Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH, of D-41749 Viersen, Germany. With this machine, the film is made into bags by conventional vertical, form, fill and seal means (film unwind, tubeformer, vertical seal and jaws). Only one end of each bag is sealed and the open bags already separated from one another, are then transferred to a rotating turret by means of vacuum operating suckers. The turret has a number of stations, each with a number of fingers, which project into each bag and open to hold it in position. The turret indexes round and product is introduced by a chute. After the bag has left the carousel, its top seal is made.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a packaging machine for forming, filling and sealing bags with a product, which comprises means for forming a film into an elongate, side-sealed tube as it travels in a first direction, means for severing the elongate tube into individual, open-ended, bag-length elements, means for transporting the said elements in a second direction transverse to the first direction, means for forming a bottom seal on said elements to convert them into open-topped bags, a carousel arranged to carry the open-topped bags, and means for introducing product into each of the open-topped bags and for forming a top seal on each of the bags to convert them into filled, sealed bags, as the bags travel round the carousel.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a machine for forming a film of heat-sealable film into an elongate, side-sealed tube, comprising a tubeformer for forming the film into shape of a tube with overlapping longitudinal edge portions as it travels from a film supply, inner and outer pressure members which engage the inside and outside of the said edge portions and travel with them, and means for applying heat to the said edge portions.
According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a device for use in filling open-topped bags with a product, comprising fingers adapted to enter and hold the open top of each bag, and a chute formed of a plurality of members which are movable with respect to one another from a configuration in which the chute can enter the open bag top to an expanded configuration in which product can enter the bag therethrough.
Other aspects of the invention appear from the claims.
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Darby & Darby
Kim Eugene
Wright Machinery Limited
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