Packaging method and apparatus
AssigneeIlapak, Inc.
InventorRobert E. Mayersbeth
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Improved reliability of packaging metered batches of difficult-to-pack products is achieved by a method which includes pushing the trailing end of each metered batch of product out of the bottom of a hopper by an extendible member operating in synchronism with a form-fill-and-seal packaging machine. The extendible member comprises a double-acting rodless cylinder moving a support for a double-acting rod cylinder along the slideway, the cylinder rod carrying the head of a compacting member. The extendible member is thus made small enough to be located in the upper part of the hopper, yet has sufficient stroke length to cause the compacting head to reach down through the lower end of the hopper.
Claims7
A product compactor in a packaging machine, comprising:
- a base;
- a hopper mounted to said base, said hopper standing vertically and having a product receiving mouth at the top, side walls convergent in the downward direction, and a discharge opening at the bottom;
- an extendible member affixed to said base and mounted substantially within said hopper above said discharge opening, said member having a vertical stroke movable between retracted and extended positions;
- a compacting head affixed to the bottom end of said extendible member;
- a dispensing duct affixed to the bottom of said hopper and positioned such that said compacting head moves into and through said dispensing duct as said extendible member moves between said retracted and extended positions such that product entering the mouth of said hopper which falls by gravity into said dispensing duct is then forced downward through said duct and compressed by the action of said extendible member;
- and
- said extendible member comprising two serially actuated cylinders, a double-acting rodless cylinder moving a support for a double-acting rod cylinder along a slideway, the cylinder rod carrying said compacting head.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.