Face sealing valve applicator

An apparatus for forming and applying a flap valve to an end closure of a pressurized dispenser, the flap valve serving in a pressurized dispenser to permit the gassing of the dispenser with a propellant through a gassing hole in the end closure and the prevention of propellant escape thereafter, the flap valve being generally thin and flat, having a backing layer of relatively resilient material and an adhesive layer coextensive with the backing layer, the flap valve also having a vent slot through both layers to prevent spreading of a solvent activator for the adhesive, the apparatus comprising:

• a. means for advancing a length of tape stock along a tape path in the apparatus;
• b. means for periodically stopping the advance of the tape stock;
• c. means for forming the vent slot in the tape stock while the stock is stopped;
• d. means for cutting to valve length the end of the tape stock while the stock is stopped to form a valve, such cutting means acting serially downstream from the slot formation means and at a cutting zone;
• e. wheel means having at least three receivers lying on a common circle, the circle having a center at an axis of rotation of the wheel, each receiver being angularly displaced from the adjacent receivers by a displacement angle, all displacement angles being equal to one another, and at least one port to each of the receivers;
• f. means to rotate the wheel in steps an amount equal to the displacement angle, the wheel rotation means presenting simultaneously a motionless receiver in the cutting zone to receive the end of the tape stock from which a valve is cut, a motionless receiver at one displacement angle from the cutting zone at an activation zone, and a motionless receiver at a transfer zone one displacement angle from the activation zone, the wheel rotation means also being operable to advance each receiver in turn from the cutting zone, to the activation zone, and to the transfer zone;
• g. vacuum manifold means axially adjacent the wheel means and having slot means communicable with the ports in the wheel means over substantially two of the displacement angles, and means to provide a vacuum to the slot means to provide a vacuum through the ports at the receivers and to hold valves on the receivers;
• h. means to oscillate the manifold with respect to the wheel to initiate vacuum at the cutting zone after receipt of the tape stock but prior to the cutting of the tape while terminating vacuum at the transfer zone to thereby hold the end of the tape on the receiver at the cutting zone after the end of the tape has advanced onto the receiver, to continue to hold the tape thereafter during the cutting of the end of the tape stock into a valve, to hold this valve during its rotation into the activation zone, and to hold this valve during its subsequent rotation into the transfer zone where the termination of vacuum at the transfer zone releases the valve from the wheel;
• i. means to activate adhesive on the valve at the activation zone in a preselected area of the valve on one side of the vent slot;
• and
• j. means to transfer the valve to an end closure at the transfer zone after release of the valve there through the oscillating means, such transfer including bonding the valve in the area thereof where the adhesive is activated to an inside surface of the end closure proximate the gassing hole.