Method and apparatus for making reclosable bags in a form, fill and seal machine
AssigneeMinigrip, Inc.
InventorSteven Ausnit
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for forming a vertical tubular form fill package feeding the film vertically downwardly over a spout, pressing the outer lateral edges of the film together between pressure rollers, feeding joined strips of plastic zipper consisting of interlocking elements and attaching webs between the outer edges of the film and the spout, positioning guide bars on either side of the zipper between the zipper webs and sealing bars outwardly of the guide bars with the sealing bars simultaneously forming a fin seal at the outer edge and joining the zipper webs to the inner surfaces of the film between the fin seal and the spout and thereafter cross-cutting and sealing to form packages enclosing contents dropped through the spout.
Claims19
The method of forming a vertical tubular form fill reclosable package from a sheet of plastic film comprising the steps:
- continuously feeding a supply of thin thermoplastic film from a supply means;
- wrapping the film into tubular shape over a filling spout bringing the lateral edges of the film together in abutting face-to-face relationship to form a tube;
- attaching the faces of said edges together at a seal location to form a fin seal;
- feeding a continuous supply of plastic zipper strip having first and second interlocking members each with a web on either side of said interlocking member into a space between said spout and said seal location;
- and attaching said members along their webs to the inner surface of the film between said seal location and said spout to provide a reopenable closure between the fin seal and contents of the tube supplied through the filling spout.
An apparatus for forming a vertical tubular form fill reclosable package from a sheet of plastic film comprising in combination:
- means for continuously feeding a supply of thermoplastic film to form a tube;
- a supply spout for vertically dropping contents into the tube;
- means guiding and wrapping said supply of film about the tube as the film moves downwardly;
- first guide means positioned relative to the spout for bringing the lateral edges of the film together in confronting relationship;
- first attaching means joining the edges of the film to form a fin seal at a seal location;
- zipper feed means feeding first and second continuous zipper interlocking members each having a web on either side of said interlocking member into a space between said spout and seal location;
- and second attaching means joining the zipper webs to the inner surface of the film between said fin seal and spout to provide a reclosable closure inside the fin seal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.