Flat sided forming tube for a form-fill-seal machine
AssigneeTriangle Package Machinery Company
InventorsMaynard J. Zoromski, Kraig L. Klopfenstein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A form-fill-seal machine, for converting a continuous sheet of sealable film into bags, filling and then sealing the bags, in which the vertical forming tube is fabricated from a rectangular sheet of stainless steel material by making a plurality of equal angle and equal spaced bends in the stainless steel material and joining the ends together with a butt weld such that the vertical forming tube has a regular polygon cross section
Claims30
In an apparatus for forming, filling and sealing a series of bags, said apparatus including a vertical forming tube, having an upper and a lower end portion, about which a film can be wrapped to form a sleeve, an advancing mechanism for pulling the film along the length of said vertical forming tube from its upper end portion to its lower end portion, product for filling each bag being dispensed through the interior of said vertical forming tube, a vertical sealing means located adjacent said vertical forming tube for forming a longitudinal seam along the sleeve, end sealing means located adjacent the lower end portion of said vertical forming tube for closing the tops of filled bags and the bottoms of bags to be filled, wherein the improvement comprises:
- the vertical forming tube is fabricated from stainless steel sheet material, having a uniform thickness, with a plurality of equally spaced parallel bends formed by bending said sheet material and joined together such that said vertical forming tube has a regular polygon cross section and includes at least three pairs of parallel longitudinal extending flat surfaces one pair of which is formed to cooperate with said advancing mechanism.
The invention as set forth in clam 5, wherein said flat mounting surfaces to facilitate mounting attachments are internally of said vertical forming tube.
A machine for converting a sheet of sealable film into a sealable film sleeve comprising:
- a machine frame;
- a roll containing a continuous sheet of sealable film mounted on said frame;
- a forming shoulder, mounted on said frame, for shaping the sealable film into a generally tubular shape with overlapped edges;
- a vertical forming tube, said vertical forming tube being mounted on said frame relative to said forming shoulder such that said generally tubular shaped sealable film surrounds said vertical forming tube as it moves off said forming shoulder and said vertical forming tube being fabricated from a generally rectangular shaped sheet of stainless steel material that has a plurality of parallel and equal bends formed by bending said sheet material, resulting in a tube with a regular polygon cross section and a minimum of three pairs of parallel longitudinal extending flat surfaces;
- vertical sealing means, mounted on said frame, for forming a seam along the said overlapped edges;
- and
- advancing means for pulling said sealable film down said vertical forming tube, over said forming shoulder and unwinding it from said roll.
A tube spreading attachment for a form-fill-seal machine, of the type that has a stainless steel sheet metal vertical forming tube with a flat internal mounting surface and an attachment mounting aperture and a spreading finger attached to said base member converging side walls formed in the stainless steel sheet metal, the invention comprising:
- said attachment including a base member having an attachment flat surface formed through the mounting surface and having longitudinally,
- a mounting wedge, adapted to extend into said mounting aperture, said mounting wedge having longitudinally converging side walls that protrude outwardly from said attachment flat surface and are aligned with said longitudinally converging side walls formed in the stainless steel sheet metal when said mounting wedge is located in said mounting aperture,
- said mounting wedge including a base connected to said attachment flat surface and a free end,
- said longitudinally converging side walls of said mounting wedge being inclined relative to a line that is perpendicular to said attachment flat surface, such that said mounting wedge has a larger footprint at its free end than at its base.
A machine for forming a sheet of sealable film into a bag, filling and then sealing the bag comprising:
- a machine frame;
- a roll, containing a continuous sheet of sealable film, mounted on said frame;
- a forming shoulder, mounted on said frame, for shaping the sealable film into a generally tubular shape with overlapped edges;
- a vertical forming tube including an upper end portion, said vertical forming tube being mounted on said frame relative to said forming shoulder such that said generally tubular shaped sealable film surrounds said upper end portion of the vertical forming tube as it moves off said forming shoulder, said vertical forming tube being fabricated from a generally rectangular shaped sheet of material that has a plurality of parallel bends formed therein, resulting in a vertical forming tube with a polygon cross section and a minimum of five longitudinal extending flat surfaces;
- vertical sealing means formed to produce a seam along the overlapped edges of said sealable film;
- advancing means formed to cooperate with at least one of said longitudinal extending flat surfaces for pulling said sealable film down said vertical forming tube and over said forming shoulder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.