Abstract: A machine for filling cups 42 with a food product has a conveyor formed from slats 40. The machine includes a loading station 10, a sterilizing station 12, a drying station 14, a filling station 16, a gassing station 18, a sealing station 20 and an unloading station. At the sealing station 20, closures cut from foil 84 are heat sealed onto the cups 42. The foil 84 is guided to the sealing station 20 by a series of rollers including a final roller 88 positioned above the conveyor. The function of the gassing station 18 is to create an atmosphere of nitrogen in the unfilled parts of the containers. The gassing station 18 has a gassing chamber formed partly by a casing member 70 and partly by the foil 84 as it passes downwardly to the final roller 88. The upper surface of the gassing chamber is above the rotational axis of the final roller 88. Nitrogen is injected into the gassing chamber by an injection tube 82 formed from sintered stainless steel, the pores in the steel acting as injection holes.

Abstract: The present invention provides a wall for a package, which wall comprises, or includes a layer comprising, a composition comprising a polymer and capable of scavenging oxygen through the metal-catalysed oxidation of an oxidisable organic component thereof. The oxidisable organic component is preferably itself a polymer, and may be the only polymer in the composition. Preferred compositions include a blend of 96% polyethylene terephthalate and 4% poly (m-xylyleneadipamide) containing 200 ppm cobalt as catalyst, with good permeance-versus-time performance (3) when formed into a bottle.

Abstract: A vending system for hot food comprises stacks of food-containing trays of a standard size, a microwave oven whose horizontal dimensions are similar to those of the trays and whose vertical dimension is preferably such as to produce a resonant cavity for the wavelength used, and means for feeding a selected one of the trays into the microwave oven on demand. The radiation is preferably introduced through a waveguide into the top of the tray. Each tray preferably carries heating instructions in machine readable code, e.g. as apertures on lateral extensions of a horizontal flange, and a reading head reads the instructions and adjusts the microwave oven accordingly. The stacks of trays may be held in a rotary magazine and selected by push-buttons.

Abstract: In a laminated material comprising a polyolefin-based film bonded to a metal sheet (M), the polyolefin-based film is a multi-layer co-extruded film comprising an inner layer (B2) of a bonding resin which is an acid-modified polyolefin resin containing carboxyl or anhydride groups and an outer layer (B1) of a polyolefin or polyamide containing 0.15% to 0.5% by weight of a finely divided non-reactive low-opacity synthetic silica having an average particle size on the range 0.5 to 5 microns. Another thermoplastic film (A1,A2), such as a biaxially oriented polyester film, may be simultaneously laminated to the other surface of the metal sheet. The lamination process involves heating the laminated material to effect bonding and then quenching the laminated material rapidly and uniformly from above the melting point of the polyolefin to below its softening point.

Abstract: A process for producing by simultaneous lamination a polymer/metal/polymer laminate, which process comprises laminating to one of the major surfaces of a metal sheet a composite polyester film (A) comprising an inner layer (A1) of a substantially non-crystalline linear polyester having a softening point below 150.degree. C. and a melting point above 150.degree. C. but below 240.degree. C. and an outer layer (A2) of a linear polyester having a melting point above 220.degree. C., and simultaneously laminating to the other major surface of the metal sheet a polyolefin-containing film (B) comprising a bonding resin which is an acid modified polyolefin-resin containing carboxyl or anhydride groups, the metal sheet having been heated to a temperature T.sub.1 sufficient to cause softening of the polymer films and intimate contact with the metal sheet, the temperature T.sub.