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US 4,619,635 AGranted
Automatic feed circuit for dunnage converter
AssigneeRanpak Corp.
InventorGary W. Ottaviano
Life of this patent
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AssigneeRanpak Corp.
InventorGary W. Ottaviano
Estimating the term…
A dunnage converter mechanism for producing relatively low density pad-like cushioning dunnage product from flexible sheet-like stock material in roll form. The converter includes means for pulling the sheet-like stock material from a supply roll thereof into the mechanism while causing inward rolling of the lateral edges of the sheet-like stock material, resulting in a pad-like cushioning product emitted from the machine, with the product having lateral relatively resilient pillow-like portions and a central connecting section holding the pillow-like portions together in generally side-by-side attached relation. A settable control means is provided in an associated control circuit coupled to the electric drive motor for the converter mechanism, for selectively providing for programming the motor for actuation thereof during selected predetermined periods of time, whereby the pad-like dunnage product can be produced by the mechanism for a selected period of time of a plurality of time periods without any further action being needed on the part of a machine operator, after which the mechanism automatically shuts down production of the cushioning product. The settable control includes a selector module for selecting one of a plurality of time periods (e.g. seconds, minutes or hours) together with means for selecting ranges of said selected one time period, so that various lengths or runs of the produced cushioning product can be automatically provided.
In a mechanism for producing relatively low density pad-like cushioning dunnage product in strip form from flexible sheet-like stock material comprising a support frame, means on said support frame for pulling sheet-like stock material from a supply roll thereof into said mechanism and causing inward rolling of the lateral edges of the sheet-like stock material to form a pad-like product having lateral relatively resilient pillow-like sections and a central connecting section holding the pillow-like sections together in generally side-by-side relation and running generally lengthwise of the product, said means being also operable to emit the produced pad-like product from said mechanism, said means including an electric motor and settable control means operatively coupled to said motor and providing for selectively programming said motor for actuation thereof for a selected one period of time of a predetermined plurality of periods of time, whereby the pad-like product can be automatically produced by said mechanism for said selected one period without any further action on the part of a machine operator.
In a mechanism for producing relatively low density pad-like cushioning dunnage product in strip form from flexible sheet-like stock material such as paper, comprising a support frame, means on said support frame for pulling sheet-like stock material from a supply roll thereof into said mechanism and causing inward rolling of the lateral edges of the sheet-like stock material to form a pad-like product having lateral relatively resilient pillow-like sections and a central connecting section holding the pillow-like sections together in generally side-by-side relation and running generally lengthwise of the product, said means being also operable to emit the produced pad-like product from said mechanism, said means including an electric motor for powering said mechanism, and a control circuit for controlling operation of said motor, said circuit including a settable control module providing for selectively programming said motor for actuation thereof for a selected one period of time of a plurality of periods of time, whereby the pad-like product can be automatically produced by said mechanism for said selected one period without any further required action on the part of a machine operator, said control circuit including manual control means operative to deactivate said control module and provide for manually controlling operation of said motor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.