Horizontal form-fill-seal packaging machines
First Claim
1. A horizontal form-fill-seal packaging machine including a series of mechanically separate modules, each said module including a stepper motor, conveyor means having an inlet and an outlet, which conveyor means is operatively connected to said stepper motor, and electrical plug and socket input means operatively connected to said stepper motor,said modules being arranged together in abutting relation in order to define a product travel path along which products to be packaged are conveyed, said product travel path being defined by said conveyor means with the outlet of the conveyor means of one module abutting the inlet of said conveyor means of the adjacent module,said machine including:
- an infeed conveyor defined by at least two said modules,a web tube former including an inlet for packaging web, means operative to form said web into an inverted U-shaped tube with two spaced free edge portions, and an outlet for supplying said tube,a said module for web infeed, said conveyor means of said web infeed module being operatively associated with said tube outlet from said web tube former such that the products on said conveyor means are entubed,a first sealing module downstream of said web infeed module, and including means for bringing said two spaced free edge portions of the tube together into a fin beneath each said entubed product and for sealing said edge portions together,a second sealing module downstream of said first sealing module including a seal head for producing a transverse seal across said tube between products, anda control unit having an electrical output means operative to provide a respective control signal for input to said plug and socket input means of each said module to control a respective said stepper motor of said module.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to a horizontal form-fill-seal packaging machine in which a horizontal form-fill-seal packaging machine is provided a plurality of modules for carrying out successive stages of form-fill-seal packaging process, the modules being mechanically separate from one another and including at least one stepper motor drive, the stepper motors all being controlled and synchronized by a microprocessor. This results in a packaging machine which can be efficiently fabricated, installed and maintained and which can perform highly accurate, synchronized, high speed automatic wrapping.
74 Citations
9 Claims
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1. A horizontal form-fill-seal packaging machine including a series of mechanically separate modules, each said module including a stepper motor, conveyor means having an inlet and an outlet, which conveyor means is operatively connected to said stepper motor, and electrical plug and socket input means operatively connected to said stepper motor,
said modules being arranged together in abutting relation in order to define a product travel path along which products to be packaged are conveyed, said product travel path being defined by said conveyor means with the outlet of the conveyor means of one module abutting the inlet of said conveyor means of the adjacent module, said machine including: -
an infeed conveyor defined by at least two said modules, a web tube former including an inlet for packaging web, means operative to form said web into an inverted U-shaped tube with two spaced free edge portions, and an outlet for supplying said tube, a said module for web infeed, said conveyor means of said web infeed module being operatively associated with said tube outlet from said web tube former such that the products on said conveyor means are entubed, a first sealing module downstream of said web infeed module, and including means for bringing said two spaced free edge portions of the tube together into a fin beneath each said entubed product and for sealing said edge portions together, a second sealing module downstream of said first sealing module including a seal head for producing a transverse seal across said tube between products, and a control unit having an electrical output means operative to provide a respective control signal for input to said plug and socket input means of each said module to control a respective said stepper motor of said module. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification