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US 4,244,158 AGranted
Package forming method and apparatus
AssigneeR. Nelham & Associates Incorporated
InventorRoy W. Nelham
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Ice cream sandwich packages, containing an ice cream block and two wafers in separate adjacent compartments of a flat flexible polymeric material wrapper comprised of overlying layers of material heat sealed together at the marginal edges thereof, to separate the two compartments and at each end thereof, are continuously formed in apparatus consisting of rotary sealing elements to seal films together around the items to be packaged and rotary cutting elements to separate individual packages.
Claims7
A method of forming a packaging structure, which comprises:
- feeding items to be packaged in pairs serially onto a substantially horizontally-moving band of heat sealable flexible polymeric material in accordance with the desired horizontal spacing on said band, and engaging said items with a parallely-moving upper band of heat sealable flexible polymeric material,
- continuously heat sealing said upper band to said horizontally-moving band at the marginal edges thereof to provide permanent longitudinal seals thereat and between said marginal edges to provide a longitudinal pealable seal thereat to separate said pair of items,
- intermittently heat sealing said upper band to said horizontally-moving band at longitudinally-spaced locations thereof to provide closely-spaced transverse pairs of pealable seals extending between said marginal edges,
- transversely severing the heat sealed layers between said closely spaced transverse pair of pealable seals to successively form individual heat sealed packages containing said pair of items,
- each said individual heat sealed packages thereby having permanent heat seals at each side edge thereof, pealable seals at each end thereof and an additional pealable seal extending continuously from the one end edge to the other to separate the interior of the package into separate compartments each containing one of said items, whereby, upon separation of the overlying layers along the pealable seal at one of said end edges, the overlying layers also separate along said additional pealable seal to permit simultaneous access to the items in the package and to form a single interior compartment without otherwise damaging the integrity of the remainder of the package.
2 more elements
An apparatus for forming packaging structures, comprising:
- feeding and loading station means comprising means for simultaneous feeding two separate items to be packaged side-by-side between generally horizontally-moving overlying films of heat sealable polymeric material,
- heat sealing station means comprising rotary heat sealing means and rotary backing means cooperating to heat seal said overlying films around said items and to form a continuous band of packages,
- said rotary heat sealing means comprising first radially-projecting continuously circumferentially-extending sealing elements spaced relative to each other and each located substantially at the axial extremities of said sealing means, a second radially-projecting continuously circumferentially-extending sealing element located between said first heating elements, and axially-extending circumferentially-spaced sealing elements constituted by circumferentially-spaced pairs of closely-spaced heating elements,
- said second sealing element and said axially-extending sealing element radially projecting to a lesser degree than said first sealing elements whereby said first sealing elements are capable of producing permanent heat seals at each side edge of the overlying films while said second sealing element and said axially-extending sealing element are capable of producing only pealable seals located at the longitudinal extremity of each package and extending between the longitudinal extremities to locate the separate items in separate internal compartments of the package,
- cutting station means including cutting elements for severing individual packages from said continuous band thereof, and
- discharge means for discharging from the apparatus said individual packages having permanent seals at each side edge thereof, pealable seals at each end edge thereof and an additional pealable seal extending continuously from one end edge to the other to separate the interior of the package into separate compartments each containing one of said side-by-side items, whereby, upon separation of the overlying layers along the pealable seal at one of said end edges, the overlying layers also separate along said additional pealable seal to permit simultaneous access to the items in the package and to form a single interior compartment without otherwise damaging the integrity of the remainder of the package.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.