Apparatus for bagging product units
AssigneeTransfresh Corporation
InventorsKevin J. Bolejack, Frederick Forgnone, Christopher McCoy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus is disclosed for sealing pallets of fresh produce inside plastic bags and furnishing the interiors of the sealed bags with a modified gaseous atmosphere. Conventional pallets loaded with cooled fresh produce are moved one at a time to an in-line squeeze station. The produce load of a pallet positioned at the squeeze station is squeezed between opposed vertical walls to suspend it above the pallet base as a downwardly movable floorplate descends to allow the deposition of a plastic sheet lining on the pallet. The floorplate is raised to its former level to bear the weight of the loaded pallet as the produce load is unsqueezed and the loaded pallet is moved by conveyor to a bagging station.
Claims16
An apparatus for temporarily supporting a load over a pallet, comprising a pair of opposed vertical, substantially planar sidewalls including a plurality of ridges which are shaped so as to not substantially penetrate the load, at least one of said sidewalls being movable independently of the other to control the distance there between, said ridges having longitudinal axes which are vertically oriented on said sidewalls, said sidewalls having a gripping surface wherein the outer surfaces of the ridges on said sidewalls are positioned to engage said load substantially only at desired locations on said load that are sufficiently strong to resist damage from said sidewalls when said sidewalls are moved into contact with said load.
An apparatus for temporarily supporting a load comprising two opposed, substantially planar vertical sidewalls comprising a plurality of ridges which are shaped so as to not substantially penetrate the load, at least one of the sidewalls being movable independently of the other to control the distance between said sidewalls, said ridges having longitudinal axes which are vertically oriented on said sidewalls, each of said sidewalls having a gripping surface wherein the outer surfaces of the ridges on said sidewalls are positioned to engage said load substantially only at predetermined, desired locations on said load that are sufficiently strong to resist damage form said sidewalls, when said sidewalls are moved into contact with said load.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.