Apparatus for making bags of thin synthetic-resin film

An apparatus for making bags from an elongated synthetic-resin tube, said apparatus comprising:

• an endless conveyor having a stretch defining a transport path extending in a transport direction from an upstream cutting/welding station through a stacking station and a flattening station, to a downstream punching station, said conveyor having an endless support element and a plurality of groups of transverse rigid bars forming along said path a plurality of respective platforms having predetermined lengths in said direction and spaced apart by gaps, the bars of each platform engaging one another in said direction;
• means for feeding said tube generally continuously in said direction to said upstream cutting/welding station;
• cutting/welding means in said cutting/welding station for periodically transversely cutting through said tube and generally simultaneously forming upstream of each cut a transversely throughgoing weld for subdividing said tube into a succession of bag blanks;
• stacking means in said stacking station including a transversely reciprocal needle bar provided with a plurality of needles including at least one blocking needle, and a transversely reciprocal stripper bar through which said needles engage;
• control means for synchronously operating said conveyor, cutting/welding means, and stacking means for piercing said needles through the upstream edge of each of said bag blanks as same is cut free from said tube while supporting each said bag blanks as same are cut free from said tube on a one of said platforms and for, after a predetermined number of operations of said cutting/welding means, stripping said bag blanks off said needles with said stripper bar and operating said conveyor to displace the stack of bag blanks stripped from said needles downstream to said punching station;
• flattening means in said flattening station having a plurality of flattening elements for engaging each of said bag blanks as same is cut free from said tube and pressing same flatly down against the platform supporting it;
• a gripper carriage displaceable in and against said direction and having a holding element displaceable vertically toward and away from said stretch, said control means being connected to said carriage to press said holding element down against said stack of bags blanks as same are stripped from said needle bar and for thereafter displacing said carriage synchronously and codirectionally with the platform supporting said stack downstream to said punching station;
• punching means at said punching station for punching said stacks of bag blanks as same arrive, said punching station being spaced in said direction downstream of said welding/cutting station by a distance substantially greater than said predetermined length of said;
• and
• a deflecting plate at said stacking station, said control means being connected to said plate for pivoting said plate by and deflecting a new tube end over a stack when same is engaged by said gripper element.