Method of folding a rectangular sheet of packing material about a parallelepipied-shaped article to form a tubular wrapping with an open end

A method of folding a sheet of packing material about an article to form a tubular wrapping with an open end wherein

• the sheet of packing material is in the form of an elongated rectangle with two opposite parallel long sides and two opposite parallel short sides;
• the article is substantially parallelepiped-shaped with a rectangular cross section, and comprises first and second major lateral walls, first and second minor lateral walls that are smaller than the major lateral walls, and first and second end walls that are smaller than the minor lateral walls and the major lateral walls;
• four longitudinal edges are defined between the two major lateral walls and the two minor lateral walls, four major transverse edges are defined between the two major lateral walls and the two end walls, and four minor transverse edges are defined between the two minor lateral walls and the two end walls;
• the method comprising the steps of:
• bringing the first end wall of the parallelepiped-shaped article into contact with the flat sheet of packing material, so that the major transverse edges of the article are parallel to the short sides of the sheet of packing material, and the minor transverse edges of the article are parallel to the long sides of the sheet of packing material;
• folding the sheet of packing material into a U about the major transverse edges of the first end wall, so that the sheet of packing material completely covers both the major lateral walls;
• and
• folding the sheet of packing material about the longitudinal edges of a first major lateral wall onto the minor lateral walls, before folding the sheet of packing material about the minor transverse edges of the first end wall.