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US 4,071,999 AGranted
Machine for bag closing and sealing
OwnerJean-Yves Noletinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerJean-Yves Noletinventor
Estimating the term…
A machine for closing and sealing a plastic bag filled with material, such as, for instance, peat moss. The machine includes a carriage which moves around the top open end of the filled bag, hook-shaped fingers carried by the carriage, pivot down into the open mouth of the bag to catch the four corners of the same, oppositely disposed pusher fingers engage opposite walls of the bag, each intermediate a set of two hooking fingers to tension the bag wall horizontally. Then the hooking fingers gradually move down at an angle to converge in pairs at the two opposite sides of the bag mouth and, simultaneously, the pusher fingers continue to push intermediate wall portions inwardly to, all the time, maintain the bag mouth wall taut and to form opposite folds in the mouth, thereby closing the mouth. The hooking and pushing fingers are then moved in an out-of-the-way position and, immediately thereafter, a heat sealer, provided with a fixed and a pivoted jaw, clamps the closed mouth and heat-seals the same and, simultaneously, cuts off the surplus wall material above the seal. Then the machine retracts to clear the sealed bag which can be removed and replaced by another filled bag to be closed and sealed. The entire closing and sealing operation is effected while the bag is in upright position. Thus peat moss, or other material, does not become trapped between the mouth walls during the closing and sealing operation and a completely air-tight and liquid-tight seal is obtained.
A machine for closing the open mouth of a bag filled with material and supported in an upright position at a bag-closing station, with the walls of the bag mouth extending upwardly from the material filling the bag and defining two opposite end walls and two opposite side walls, said machine comprising a carriage movable in a substantially horizontal path towards and away from the bag-closing station between an advanced and a retracted position, respectively, and including two spaced substantially parallel supports positioned on opposite sides of an upstanding bag at said bag-closing station in the advanced position of said carriage, a pair of hooking means and a pushing means carried by each of said supports, with the pushing means located intermediate the hooking means of the pair and all located on opposite sides of the bag in the advanced position of the carriage and clearing said bag in the retracted position of said carriage, means operable when said carriage is in advanced position to cause said hooking means to engage the four corners of the bag mouth, said pushing means operable to engage the opposite end walls of the bag mouth intermediate the hooking means of each pair to form center folding of said end walls, and means to move the hooking means of each pair downwardly along converging inclined paths in a vertical plane substantially parallel to the associated end wall of the bag mouth to thus lower said hooking means and simultaneously approach the same towards the respective pushing means to allow said side walls to overlie the material filling the bag and to bring said side walls together in bag-closing position while allowing said pushing means to lengthen said center folds as said side walls approach each other.
A machine for closing the open mouth of a bag filled with material and supported in upright position at a bag-closing station with the walls of the bag mouth upstanding from the material filling the bag and defining two opposite end walls and two opposite side walls, said machine comprising a pair of spaced supports positioned along and horizontally spaced outwardly from the respective end walls, a pair of fluid-operated cylinder and piston units carried by each support, the cylinder of each of said units being secured to the respective support in an inclined position in a substantially vertical plane substantially parallel with the respective end walls of said bag mouth, the two cylinders of the pair being equally inclined to the vertical, but in opposite directions, said units each having a piston rod, a bracket secured to the outer end of each piston rod, an L-shaped hooking finger pivotally mounted on each bracket for pivotal movement in a vertical plane, the four hooking fingers mutually converging in a horizontal plane and aligned with the respective four corners of the walls of the bag mouth, an actuator mounted on each bracket for pivoting the associated hooking finger between an upwardly extending out-of-the-way position clearing a bag at said bag-closing station and a lowered position extending over the top edge of the bag and downwardly inside one of the four corners of the walls of the bag, a pusher finger mounted on each support intermediate the hooking fingers and directed inwardly towards an end wall of a bag at said bag-closing station, an actuator to cause said pusher finger to move horizontally and engage said bag end wall and form center folding of said bag end wall, said cylinder and piston units lowering said hooking fingers while said pusher fingers move towards said end walls to allow said side walls to overlie the material-filling bag and to bring said side walls together in bag-closing position, said machine further including a carriage substantially horizontally movable towards and away from said side walls, a bag mouth wall securing means mounted on said carriage, an actuator to move said carriage to an advanced position with said bag wall securing means overlying and registering with the closed bag walls and a retracted position with said securing means clearing the bag, and actuator means to actuate said bag mouth walls securing means while said carriage is in advanced position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.