Packaging material quality compensation
AssigneeLantech.com, LLC
InventorPatrick R. Lancaster, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, apparatus and program product may utilize packaging material quality compensation to sense changes in certain characteristics of a packaging material that can be associated with increased risks of film breaks, and automatically make certain changes in machine settings to mitigate the impact of those enhanced risks.
Claims23
A method of controlling a load wrapping apparatus of the type configured to wrap a load with packaging material dispensed from a packaging material dispenser through relative rotation between the packaging material dispenser and the load, the method comprising:
- sensing one or more indications of changes in packaging material characteristics during one or more wrap operations, wherein the one or more indications of changes in packaging material characteristics are indicative of a change in packaging material quality associated with a risk of film breaks;
- and
- changing one or more wrap parameters used to wrap the load in response to sensing the one or more indications.
An apparatus for wrapping a load with packaging material, the apparatus comprising:
- a packaging material dispenser for dispensing packaging material to the load;
- a rotational drive configured to generate relative rotation between the packaging material dispenser and the load about a center of rotation;
- and
- a controller coupled to the packaging material dispenser and the rotational drive and configured to sense one or more indications of changes in packaging material characteristics during one or more wrap operations, change one or more wrap parameters used to wrap the load in response to sensing the one or more indications, and wrap the load using the changed one or more wrap parameters, wherein the one or more indications of changes in packaging material characteristics are indicative of a change in packaging material quality associated with a risk of film breaks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.