A device for mounting, holding, and unspooling a packaging film roll, used in a horizontal, form, fill, and seal packaging machine, comprising:
- (A) a shaft, having a shaft first end, a shaft roll section, a shaft bearing section, a shaft second end and a threaded hole disposed in the shaft first end;
- (B) a sleeve subassembly, tubular in shape, for holding and adjusting horizontally location of the packaging film roll, having a sleeve first end, a sleeve midsection, a sleeve second end, and a stopper disc;
- (C) an adjuster subassembly, attached to the threaded hole, for adjusting positioning and for locking in place the sleeve subassembly and the packaging film roll attached thereto, having a threaded rod, a bearing ring, an adjustment knob, and a locking knob;
- (D) an internal housing subassembly, inserted onto the shaft bearing section, for housing an internal housing bearing;
- said internal housing bearing is configured to enable rotation of the shaft;
- (E) an external housing subassembly, inserted onto the shaft bearing section, for housing an external housing bearing;
- said external housing bearing is configured to enable rotation of the shaft;
- (F) a brake, fixedly-attached to the external housing subassembly and controllably coupled to the shaft second end, configured to stop at predetermined situations rotation of the shaft;
- (G) a film roller subassembly, fixedly-located on a machine wall of a horizontal, form, fill, and seal packaging machine, for tensioning a packaging film being pulled by a conveying chain and by doing so unspooling the packing film from the packaging film roll;
- (H) wherein the internal housing subassembly is fixedly-located on a conveyer side machine wall and the external housing subassembly is fixedly-located on an external side machine wall, thereby substantially separating the internal housing bearing from the external housing bearing;
- (I) wherein the machine wall has an opening configured to allow the shaft to be inserted through said opening, so that the shaft bearing section is protruding in from the internal housing bearing and the shaft second end is protruding out from the external housing bearing;
- (J) wherein the sleeve subassembly is inserted onto the shaft covering the shaft first end and the shaft roll section;
- (K) wherein the sleeve subassembly is coupled to the shaft such that the sleeve subassembly rotates in unison with the shaft around the shaft axis and moves linearly predetermined distance along the shaft longitudinal axis;
- (L) a chuck, is inserted onto the sleeve subassembly and the packaging film roll is inserted onto the chuck and pushed until the packaging film roll is urging upon the stopper disc;
- (M) wherein said chuck upon application of an external power expands in diameter thereby releasably-locking the packaging film roll to the sleeve subassembly, enabling the packaging film roll to rotate in unison with the shaft around the shaft axis;
- (N) wherein the adjustment knob is configured to threadably move by rotating the adjustment knob, and by doing so move the packaging film roll along the shaft longitudinal axis;
- and
- (O) wherein the locking knob is configured to threadably move and upon contact with the adjustment knob lock the sleeve subassembly in place along with the packaging film roll attached thereto;
- whereby by using the adjuster subassembly the packaging film roll position will be adjusted and aligned with the conveying chain, the conveying chain will continuously pull the packaging film causing unspooling of the packaging film from the packaging film roll, the brake will stop and restart the unspooling allowing the film roller subassembly to keep the packaging film tensioned and flat when entering the horizontal, form, fill, and seal packaging machine.