Abstract: A device for positioning products in succession and equally spaced on a conveyor belt comprises: a first rotor which rotates about a fixed horizontal axis of rotation, with a radial pusher which, when the first rotor rotates, intercepts the back of a product, accelerating it along a feed line towards the conveyor belt; and a second rotor which rotates about a fixed axis of rotation parallel with the axis of the first rotor and has a stop which, when the second rotor rotates, periodically intercepts the product feed line. The second rotor is located above the conveyor belt and rotates in such a way that, when it intercepts the feed line, it causes the stop to rotate at a peripheral speed identical to the belt feed speed. The stop on the second rotor intercepts the products accelerated by the first rotor, slowing them and depositing them on the belt in succession and spaced equally apart.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for a packaging machine to form groups of products and insert them into cartons at a cartoning station. The device comprises a stacking line equipped with a controlled outfeed hopper in which an alternating product presser operates. The stacking line comprises a container located at the bottom of the hopper and having a tongue inside it designed to retain the products forming the group which thus grows downwards towards an endwall of the container. The container moves alternately from a position in which it is connected with the hopper to a position in which it is connected with the cartoning station where the group is extracted from the container and transferred to the carton. The tongue is actuated by linear actuating means synchronized with the packaging machine by programmable control means and providing the enable signal to cut off the hopper to allow the container to move to the cartoning station.

Abstract: A machine and process for making complete tea bags comprising a filter bag and thread for holding the filter bag. The machine comprises a continuously turning wheel, whose lateral surface has pins which can move from a rest position, where they are retracted into the lateral surface, to a working position where they protrude from the wheel; the wheel assembles a strip of porous material with the thread, with a pickup tag and with the infusable product in such a way as to form tea bags where the thread is arranged in a closed loop inside the filter bag, together with the infusable product, and is attached to the edges of the filter bag to form a particularly resistant fastening during infusion.

Abstract: Filter bags containing a substance from which to prepare an infusion are fashioned from tubular blanks of filter paper having an elongated appearance, each one filled with measured and separate quantities of the substance distributed along its length, which are doubled up and made secure, then provided with a label attached by a length of thread. A machine for automating the manufacture of such bags includes a wheel carrying grippers with radial arms, around which the thread is drawn peripherally as the grippers are indexed in turn through a station where the blank is folded double initially, a forming station at which the two joined ends are folded together to effect a closure, a cutting station at which the thread is divided into single lengths, a feed station supplying the labels, and a fastening station at which the length of thread is knotted both to the label and to the closure.

Abstract: A tubular blank of filter paper containing measured and separate quantities of tea, or a similar infusionable substance, is pleated and folded so as to obtain a bag with two envelopes by a method that includes the steps of advancing blanks singly and in succession along a feed direction tangential to an indexing wheel with radial grippers, taking up each blank in a position above three bearing elements ordered along the feed direction, forming a pleat in an intermediate portion of the blank, then pinching the two ends of the blank by use of movable pressure elements interacting with two of the bearing elements so as to prevent the escape of the contents from the envelopes while at the same time drawing the tubular blank toward the wheel to bring the two envelopes together and give the filter bag its final shape.

Abstract: Between a machine that manufactures bags of variable volume containing cohesionless material (exemplified by tea bags), and a packing machine which packs the bags as stacks, an indexing rotor with pockets in its outer periphery acts, in cooperation with a loading mechanism and an unloading mechanism at respective angularly distributed stations, at which each bag is respectively oriented bottom down and bottom up, to tend to redistribute the cohesionless material away from each bag bottom and to cause individual bags to be generally equally thick relative to one another.

Abstract: A method for attaching a tag to a tea bag, where the bag and the tag both have at least one border with reduced thickness, includes the following steps: hooking of a first end or leader of the thread by an eye of a needle and running the thread into the border through to the opposite side of the border so as to make a loop in the thread; widening the loop in such a way as to form an aperture through which the thread can be inserted; inserting the leader into the aperture in the loop and releasing the thread from the needle, the thread being pulled in such a way as to tighten the resulting knot.

Abstract: An apparatus for supplying individual blanks stacked sideways in a store with an inclined conveyor channel comprises a divider with a conveyor for receiving, under control, a divided sequence of blanks from this conveyor channel, two oppositely inclined planes following closely on from the conveyor channel and above this divider and an oscillating device with a reciprocating movement provided with suction cups for taking up the blanks in individual sequence from the divided sequence and depositing them in a horizontal position on a production line.

Abstract: A machine for packaging products by producing boxes of the hinged-lid type which can be closed over a collar with a guarantee seal starting from individual flat blanks with multiple component parts formed by three operationally independent machine sections of modular structure interconnected in the overall machine in an operationally interdependent manner. A first machine section includes an apparatus utilizing a static separation for the supply of the individual blanks in individual sequence to the second machine section comprising a closed-loop conveyor provided with gripper members for supplying the individual blanks to successive stations so that they can be made up in a tubular shape and for transferring them to the third machine section for the operations to fill them with the product to be packaged and their closure with the guarantee seal.

Abstract: A blank for producing a box with an opening has longitudinal and transverse folding lines to provide a box with a hinged lid. An upper breakable line in the blank allows a strip to be detached and glued to the blank while erecting the box in order to form a flange fixed to an inner border of the box opening. A lower breakable line in the blank keeps the hinged lid closed with a guarantee seal closure.

Abstract: A sealing device with multiple differential action is provided for machines producing dual-use filter sachets for infusion products. In such machines a continuously moving strip of thermally weldable filter paper, fed with equidistantly spaced fractional doses of the infusion product, is progressively folded longitudinally into a flattened tubular shape with adjacent folded-back longitudinal edges forming a longitudinal crest. The device is constituted by two blocks having respective pairs of mirror-image stepped overlapping edges extending to the opposite sides of the adjacent folded back edges of the strip forming the longitudinal crest. The mirror-image edges of the upper overlap have bores connected to a fluid-dynamic heat source. The mirror-image edges of the lower step have a lamellar structure.

Abstract: A method of producing packaging boxes starting from pallets of sheets of board each having stamped therein a plurality of plane blanks joined in adjacent transverse and longitudinal strips by connections which can be broken and are provided with notches, fold lines and break lines defining the members for producing and closing the boxes. The method involves a sequence of steps consisting in the sequential take-up of the sheets from the pallet and the sequential separation of these sheets into strips and the separation of the strips into individual plane blanks which are supplied in individual succession to a box production line along which a respective portion defined by one of the break lines is separated and reapplied in order to obtain boxes of the flanged type after they have been folded internally around the fold lines and the production and closure members have been glued.

Abstract: An apparatus for collating dual-use filter sachets obtained from a flattened tube of thermally weldable filter paper comprising multiple bags or pouches defined by transverse thermal welds in continuously operating production machines and provided with labels, threads and tabs for attachment of the matter. The apparatus has a cutter for cutting up the tube, into portions having at least two pouches, across the attachment tabs. A device then folds in bellows-shape, these portions along the intermediate transverse thermal weld and operates in combination with a device having conveying pincers for conveying the folded bags to a pickup and transfer device through a fixed folder so as to set up the pouches back to back transferring them as thus folded to a welder for welding together the thus adjoining extremists thereof.

Abstract: A volumetric dosing unit with doser cells or chambers of adjustable volume for continuously operating machines producing dual-use filter sachets for infusion products. The metering unit has a doser with a cylindrical drum rotatable about a horizontal axis and with radial bores opening on its external cylindrical surface. A feeding hopper for the product to be dosed is located above the drum. A compacting element extends from its hopper to the lower deadpoint of the drum tangentially relative to a strip of paper for filter sachets onto which are discharged fractional doses for processing by means of piston elements sliding in the bores. The piston elements are linked to cam control means having an actuator track of adjustable width.

Abstract: An apparatus with a rotary wheel for applying, to a flattened tube of thermally weldable filter paper forming dual-use filter sachets having multiple bags or pouches defined serially by transverse thermal welds in machines for continuously producing the filter sachets, labels spaced relative to the transverse median line of the alternate transverse thermal welds, as well as a longitudinal thread transversely on the labels and thermally weldable stickers or tabs across these alternate transverse therman welds. The rotary wheel had a plurality of equidistantly spaced heads comprising heating elements as well as pickup and infeed elements for the labels, the thread and the tabs, and further a plurality of devices with pincer elements interposed between the heads designed to fold the thread in a loop. Pressure pad elements cooperate in counter-rotation of the heads.

Abstract: An apparatus for the conditioning in envelopes of individual dual-use filter sachets, obtained from a flattened tube of thermally weldable filter paper, having multiple bags or pouches defined by transverse thermal welds in continuous production machines, with labels, thread and fastening tabs for same, cutting the tube into portions comprising at least two pouches across the fastening tabs, folding the portions in fan-shape along the intermediate transverse thermal weld and setting up these pouches adjacent to each other for joining the corresponding adjacent extremities. Such an apparatus has a device for feeding portions of packing paper located underneath said multiple pouches folded into fanshape between the folding and transfer unit capable of transferring the pouches through a fixed folder effecting a U-shaped fold between the prongs of pincers of an intermittently rotating pincer wheel for joining the aforesaid adjacent extremities and for peripherally sealing the envelope enclosing the sachet.

Abstract: An automatic machine for the continuous production of dual-use filter sachets for infusion products, the filter sachets being in the form of bags or pouches containing successive portions of the products. Along the production line there are a succession of devices designed to effect step by step the longitudinal folding and sealing of a strip of filter paper forming therefrom a horizontally extending flattened tube and for the transverse thermal welding of the tube in a manner such as to enclose said individual dosed fractions. A rotary wheel has pickup elements for applying to the flattened tube equidistantly spaced labels, a longitudinally continuous thread transversely contacting the labels, as well as stickers or tabs weldable by alternate transverse thermal welding partly to the back of the labels. The tube is then sectioned into portions comprising at least two bags and the bags are set back to back and sealed together at their extremities.

Abstract: A filter bag for insusion products is provided having multiple successive container pockets or lobes, each for infusing a corresponding dose or unit quantity of product. The bag structure permits two usage layouts. The flat layout form is for packaging in lots for sale with said lobes superimposed or folded one over the other or side by side. The other layout form has the lobes opened out or distended following the pick up and pull of the corresponding tag (label) ending in the thread for handling the filter bag at the time of usage. The thread has a length equal to that of the bag as laid out for use with the pockets or lobes distended. The thread is fixed to the opposing ends of said bag by means of a piece of heat weldable material together with the non heat weldable paper tag (label) adjacent to one of said opposing ends.

Abstract: In the case of a packaging machine, in particular for blister packs, a device for flexographic printing on a strip of packaging having a continuous movement comprises a roll supporting a printing block of resilient material in plate form which is detachably associated with the said roll and an ink tray with which there is associated a plurality of inking rollers and so-called anilox rollers which is movable with respect to the said printing block support roll in order to distance the said anilox roll from the support roll together with roller means for pressing the strip against the said printing block support roll by means of control means operated by the means for controlling and stopping the packaging machine, the said printing block support rolls, inking roller and anilox being maintained in a movement of rotation when the said packaging machine is stopped.

Abstract: A device for centering the printing of strip material, especially in apparatuses for feeding of such strip in the form of V-shaped labels capable of being associated with a continuous thread for use in machines for the automatic production of small filter bags for infusion products, in which said strip having printed motifs possesses, between said printed motifs, a recurring motif at a spacing equal to the length of the labels which are to be produced, and the feed means for such strip of said feed apparatus are constituted of two counter-rotating rollers having vertical axes, one of which is a following roller of resilient material and the other a driving roller of hard material having a driving surface of circular sector form for contact with the first roller.