Abstract: A welding device has two mutually engaging welding wheels, together with a separating device having a blade with a cutting edge. Two film webs can be welded together in conventional manner using the welding device. The blade is able to separate a projecting length from the welded film, the blade being heated. Heating takes place by a heat bridge, which connects the blade to a heater of the welding device. This economizes a separate heater for the blade.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a packing machine for packing articles (4) in a film (5), with a tube shaping device (1) for shaping a tube from a film which is substantially flat prior to tube shaping and a transporting device (2) for transporting the articles into the tube, the tube shaping device having several pairs of shaping edges (12, 17, 18) for deflecting or reversing the film. The packing machine is characterized in that the shaping edges (12, 17, 18) are positioned relative to one another in such a way that the path over the shaping edges along lines parallel to the borders (11) of the film (5) from an entrance of the film into the tube shaping device (1) up to its exit therefrom, is shorter in the vicinity of the film borders than in a central region of the film.

Abstract: The welding frame (3) of a film-welding device (2) is at the start of its pivoting movement motor-driven in positive manner over a few radians and is then released from the drive, so that only on the basis of its flywheel energy and weight force is it moved on to the locked closed position. Thus, accident risks can be avoided without separate control means, because for stopping the welding frame (5) it is essentially only necessary to dissipate the relatively low flywheel energy.

Abstract: A shrinkage tunnel (11) for heat treatment of shrinkable films has a hot air unit, which can be inserted as a standard unit in a tunnel wall and contains a radial fan (22), which is surrounded by a fan casing (26) formed from two sheet metal half-shells (27, 28). Between them they form a ring nozzle (30) with an axial outflow direction with respect to fan shaft (25), while air return flow opening (32) is centrally and directly positioned below the fan wheel (22). The heating system is integrated into the fan casing, so that the complete hot air unit (20) is an independently functional and preassemblable component.