Apparatus for packaging pasty material

A machine for packaging pasty materials such as cheese in individual packages comprising an elongated continuous conveyor system, means for feeding a substantially endless thin flexible film to an end of said conveyor system, a plurality of work stations spaced successively along said conveyor system, each of said work stations having a plurality of identical tools for performing a single operation on said film, the tools of each station being longitudinally aligned with those of the other stations to provide a plurality of parallel processing lines, said work stations being divided into at least two groups arranged along said conveyor system, the first group functioning to successively cut the leading end of said film and shape said film into individual flexible shells arranged in successive ranks with respect to said conveyor system and a second group functioning to simultaneously fill said flexible shells in each successive rank and to close said filled flexible shells to form the packages, said conveyor system including conveyor means associated with said second group for carrying said flexible shells between the successive work stations comprising a plurality of spaced transverse transfer bars, each having receiving supports for each shell in each rank, said supports being aligned in rank and means for synchronously indexing said conveyor through said successive work stations and operating each of said tools simultaneously at each of said work stations on completion of each index, said conveyor system including a common driving means connected to the ends of said bars and actuating means which reciprocably indexes said transfer bars with respect to each of the work stations along said conveyor means.