Cut and seal method and apparatus
AssigneeAltria Client Services LLC
InventorsJarrod W. Chalkley, James D. Evans, Thien Hoang Nguyen, Patrick S. McElhinney
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fin sealer and method to seal a radially outwardly directed fin of a tubular web structure by directing the fin through a nip between a first and a second fin sealing rollers while communicating heat to the fin through at least one of the fin sealing rollers is provided. The fin sealer is configured to maintain a nominal face-to-face relation between an outer annulus of the first fin sealing roller and an outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller with a flexible connection between a hub element of the second fin sealing roller with the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller.
Claims20
An apparatus for forming a stream of individual packets, comprising:
- a folder configured to form a tubular web structure from a continuous ribbon of web;
- a feeder configured to feed the tubular web structure along a path to a nip;
- a first rotor including a first sealing jaw and a knife adjacent the first sealing jaw;
- a second rotor including a second sealing jaw and an anvil adjacent the second sealing jaw, the first and second rotors configured to seal a transverse portion of the tubular web structure, and the knife and the anvil configured to sever the sealed transverse portion so as to form a severed, completed packet beyond the nip;
- and
- an open-ended packet catcher configured to catch the severed, completed packets beyond the nip, the packet catcher including,
- a front wall,
- a back wall,
- side walls, and
- a stripper, the stripper including,
- upper edges of the front wall, the back wall, and the side walls, the stripper configured to strip severed, completed packets from the anvil, the knife, or the first and second sealing jaws if stuck thereto, the upper edges of the side walls having arcuate edge portions converging at an apex and configured to reduce escape of the completed packets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.