Cut and seal method and apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018281997-A1
Application number	US-201715473351-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 29, 2017
Priority date	Mar 29, 2017
Publication date	Oct 4, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an apparatus for forming a stream of individual packets, comprising a folder arranged to form a tubular web structure, a feeder arranged to feed the formed tubular web structure to a nip; a first rotor comprising a first sealing jaw and a knife, a second rotor comprising a second sealing jaw and an anvil, the sealing jaws, the knife and anvil rotating into opposing relation at the nip so as to form a severed, completed packet beyond the nip. The apparatus includes an open ended packet catcher adjacent the first and second rotors, which is arranged to catch the severed, completed packets beyond the nip whereby a stream of packets is established. The packet catcher includes a stripper disposed in a proximal location to at least one of the anvil, the knife and the sealing jaws when the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaws are rotated beyond the nip, whereby, should a completed packet stick to any of the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaws, the stripper is operative to free the stuck packet from the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaw. The present disclosure provides a fin sealer and method to seal a radially outwardly directed fin of a tubular web structure by directing the fin through a nip between a first and a second fin sealing rollers while communicating heat to the fin through at least one of the fin sealing rollers, the fin sealer being further arranged to maintain a nominal face-to-face relation between an outer annulus of the first fin sealing roller and an outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller with a flexible connection between a hub element of the second fin sealing roller with the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller. A cooling system is also provided, which is operative upon one of the rotors of a cut and seal station.

First claim

We claim:

1 . An apparatus for forming a stream of individual packets, comprising:
a folder arranged to form a tubular web structure from a continuous ribbon of web; a feeder arranged to feed the formed tubular web structure along a path to a nip; a first rotor comprising a first sealing jaw and a knife adjacent the first sealing jaw; a second rotor comprising a second sealing jaw and an anvil adjacent the second sealing jaw; the first and second rotors mutually arranged so that upon rotation of the first and second rotors:
the first and second sealing jaws rotate into opposing relation at the nip so as to seal a transverse portion of the tubular web structure;
the knife and the anvil rotate into an opposing relation at the nip to sever the transversely sealed portion so as to form a severed, completed packet beyond the nip; and
an open ended packet catcher adjacent the first and second rotors and arranged to catch the severed, completed packets beyond the nip whereby a stream of packets is established, the packet catcher including a stripper disposed in a proximal location to at least one of the anvil, the knife and the sealing jaws when the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaws are rotated beyond the nip, whereby, should a completed packet stick to any of the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaws, the stripper is operative to free the stuck packet from the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaw.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an arrangement to control rotation of the first and second rotors such that the sealing jaws, the anvil and the knife are rotated at a constant speed, including rotation through the nip and wherein at least one of the knife and the anvil are spring loaded and at least one of the first and second sealing jaws are spring loaded and wherein the knife, the anvil and the first and second sealing jaws are constructed from a hardened metal, whereby the hardened metal, the constant speed of rotor rotation and the spring loading facilitate a higher speed of the sealing and severing at the nip than an operation lacking the hardened metal, the constant speed of rotor rotation and the spring loading.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the severing includes severing with a scissoring action wherein the severing initiates on a side of the sealed portion of the tubular web structure and progresses across the sealed portion to an opposite side as the knife is rotated through the nip.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the packet catcher further comprises an arrangement to discharge a stream of gas downwardly into the packet catcher, whereby the packet catcher is cleared of completed packets through an open end of the catcher below the nip.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the packet catcher further comprises a side wall having an arcuate upper wall portion configured to prevent a completed packet from escaping sideways.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sealing and severing also forms a partially closed packet structure adjacent the nip, the folder arranged to form a tubular web structure about a feed tube, the apparatus further comprising a material feeder arranged to feed through the feed tube a charge of flowable material into the partially closed packet structure concertedly with the sealing of the sealing jaws and severing of the knife and anvil;
the apparatus further comprising:
a pivotable sampling funnel positioned to receive the stream of completed packets and controllable pivot operative to pivot the sampling funnel to and from a first position and a second position, when at the first position the sampling funnel operative to direct the stream of completed packets in a first direction toward a packet receiving location for a container and when at the second position the sampling funnel operative to divert the stream of completed packets in a second direction away from the packet receiving location;
a gated transfer funnel positioned to receive the stream of completed packets, the gated transfer funnel including a hold-back gate operative to retain members of the stream of completed packets within the gated transfer funnel upon closure of the gate when a container is positioned other than at the packet receiving location and the gate being controllably opened when a container is positioned at the packet receiving location.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
a counter arranged to count packets passing by a location along a path to the packet receiving location and a controller configured to controllably operate at least one of the sampling funnel and the hold-back gate of the gated transfer funnel to control delivery of completed packets to a container at the packet receiving location in accordance with a predetermined number of packets, upon delivering completed packets to a container at the packet receiving location in accordance with a predetermined number of packets, the apparatus thereafter controllably moving the container from the packet receiving location to a second location and tamping the delivered completed packets at the second container location; and a weight check operative upon the container at a third container location beyond the second location, and an arrangement to adjust the feeding of the flowable material responsively to output of the weight check so as to maintain consistency of the feeding.

8 . A system comprising an array of packet producing lanes, each lane comprising the apparatus of claim 6 , the system further comprising a conveyor arrangement controllably operative to repetitively move sets of containers to a corresponding set of the packet receiving locations at the lanes whereupon the lanes deliver a counted stream of completed packets to each container of the container set simultaneously, and thereafter the conveyor controllably moves the set of containers from the set of the packet receiving locations to a corresponding set of the second container locations whereupon the delivered completed packets of the container set are simultaneously tamped.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the folder is configured to superimpose longitudinal edge portions of the web to form a radially outwardly directed fin, the apparatus further comprising a fin sealer arranged to seal the radially outwardly directed fin by directing the fin through a nip between first and second fin sealing rollers while communicating heat to the fin through at least one of the fin sealing rollers, wherein the fin sealer is arranged further to maintain a nominal face-to-face relation between an outer annulus of the first fin sealing roller and an outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller with a flexible connection between the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller and a hub component of the second fin sealing roller, whereby consistent sealing of the fin is enhanced.

10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the flexible connection comprises one of the following: a floating roller and a flexible drive pin connection between the floating roller and the hub component; a resilient metallic disc operatively disposed between the hub component and the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller; and a body of elastic material operatively disposed between the hub component and the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a cooling system arranged to cool at least one of the first and second rotors.

12 . A method of forming a stream of individual packets comprising:
rotating a knife, an anvil and sealing jaws into opposing relation at a nip; continuously forming a tubular web structure and drawing the continuous

Assignees

• Altria Client Services Llc

Inventors

• Chalkley Jarrod W
• Evans James D
• Nguyen Thien Hoang
• Mcelhinney Patrick S

Classifications

• B65B1/02 Primary

  Machines characterised by the incorporation of means for making the containers or receptacles (from flat, folded, or tubular webs of flexible sheet material B65B9/00) · CPC title

• B65B61/06 Primary

  by cutting · CPC title

• B65B65/08

  Devices for counting or registering the number of articles handled, or the number of packages produced by the machine · CPC title

• B65B9/20

  the webs being formed into tubes in situ around the filling nozzles · CPC title

• B65B57/14

  and operating to control, or stop, the feed of articles or material to be packaged · CPC title