Abstract: A vacuum packaging machine and a conveyor to deliver a product package from an upstream station to a position adjacent a vacuum chamber. The conveyor has a longitudinal direction defined by the direction of travel of the product package. The vacuum chamber has a heat sealing and cutting assembly oriented transversely to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor and in a position with sufficient spacing between end walls of the vacuum chamber and the assembly for the product package containing two or more products to be loaded into the vacuum chamber with at least one product located in front of the heat sealing and cutting assembly and at least one other product located behind the heat sealing and cutting assembly. The heat sealing and cutting assembly seals and cuts between two products to form two separate evacuated packages.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 22, 2003
Date of Patent:
December 16, 2008
Assignee:
Sealed Air Corporation, New Zealand
Inventors:
John Paul Koke, Jacob Brinkman, Ron Whitehead, David Stevens