Gusseter board with retractable nose

An arrangement for producing extruded plastic film which may be provided either with or without gusset folds, in which an extruded tube of a softened plastic material rises on a tube axis and is inflated, and passes between a pair of collapsing frames as an extrusion and through an opening in a mezzanine to a set of nip rollers to flatten the extrusion for rolling up onto a mandrel or arbor, and in which a pair of gusseters are provided on opposite sides of the tube axis to extend upward between the collapsing frames and through the opening in the mezzanine, and are adapted for forming gusset folds in the extruded film before the film reaches said nip rollers;

• wherein each of said gusseters comprises:
• a base portion including a generally planar gusset forming board having a truncated triangular shape with a narrow distal end defining a distal limit of the base portion, and a wide proximal end, and having a transverse tilt axis at said proximal end to permit the gusset forming board to be rocked towards and away from said tube axis;
• left and right generally triangular side walls that extend along side edges of the gusset forming board of said base portion and disposed on a side thereof away from said tube axis, the triangular side walls having wide ends that meet at the distal end of said gusset forming board and gradually reducing in width towards the proximal wide end of the gusset forming board;
• and
• a nose that is slidably movable in a proximal-distal direction on the planar gusset forming board of said base portion and extendable and retractable through a passage defined between distal ends of said left and right triangular side walls, such that when the gusset forming board is be rocked in the direction away from the film axis, said nose can be retracted proximally of said distal limit and positioned beneath any obstructions that are located above said distal limit.