Apparatus and method for sealing foil material

An apparatus for sealing together selected portions of at least a first web of a foil material and a second web of the foil material to produce a plurality of foil bags, the apparatus comprising:

• a foil conveying means for feeding the first and second webs of the foil material to a sealing location at which portions of the first and second webs of foil material can be sealed together;
• and
• a sealing device having a sealing heated to a sealing temperature, the sealing temperature being sufficiently hot to seal together the first and second webs of foil material when the sealing head approaches one of the first and second webs, the sealing head being coupled to the sealing device by at least a first actuator controllable to move the sealing head with respect to the sealing device and the sealing location and to stop the sealing head in two distinct positions, the two distinct positions being a sealing position in which the sealing head approaches the foil material to seal together the first and second webs, and an intermediate position in which the sealing head is spaced apart from the foil material by a first distance, the first actuator being coupled to the sealing device by at least a second actuator controllable to move both the sealing head and the first actuator to an inoperative position in which the sealing head is spaced apart from the foil material by at least a second distance, the first distance being selected such that the sealing head is too far from the foil material to seal the foil material, but close enough to the foil material to melt the foil material after an extended period of time, the second distance being greater than the first distance and being selected such that the sealing head can be retained in the inoperative position for an extended length of time without damaging the foil material.

A method for rapidly sealing together portions of a first web of a foil material and a second web of the foil material for making a plurality of foil bags, and for allowing the system to be stopped for extended periods of time without damaging the foil material, the method comprising:

• providing the first web of foil material layered with the second web of foil material along a path passing a sealing location;
• providing a sealing device having a sealing head movably coupled thereto;
• heating the sealing head to a temperature at which the first foil web is sealed to the second foil web when the sealing head approaches one of the first and second foil webs;
• repeatedly moving the sealing head with a first actuator between a sealing position in which the sealing head approaches one of the first and second webs, and an intermediate position in which the sealing head is spaced apart from the first and second webs by a first distance sufficient to allow the foil material to be advanced to move a new portion of foil web to the sealing location, to rapidly seal a plurality of portions of the first and second foil webs;
• and
• selectively moving both the first actuator and the sealing head with a second actuator from one of the sealing position and the intermediate position to an inoperative position in which the sealing head is spaced apart from the foil webs by a second distance greater than the first distance and sufficient to prevent the foil material from being damaged over an extended period of time.