Abstract: Direct-flame apparatus for drying coatings applied to the outer surface of metal cans. The apparatus includes a conveyor adapted to advance the cans in a continuous train through a tunnel having a series of direct-flame assemblies mounted therein, whereby each can in the course of its advance is progressively heated by the assemblies to cause the cans to emerge from the tunnel in a dried state. Each assembly is constituted by a gas-fed burner element and a hood placed thereover, the element emitting a sheet of flame which impinges on the coated surface and is flanked by curtains of air issuing from the hood at a velocity serving to confine the applied heat within a limited sector of the can and to prevent flashing of the coating despite the high temperature of the flame impinging thereon.

Abstract: An automatic carton sealing system in which sealing is effected by the direct application of a gaseous flame to the surfaces to be sealed. In the system, an unsealed carton formed of paperboard stock coated with a thermoplastic layer and having a flap which extends outwardly with respect to a folded-in flap to define an open shed, is conveyed past a gas burner whose flam is projected into the shed to soften the layers on the flaps, the carton then passing through compression rollers which press the flaps together as the overlapping layers cool and harden to effect a bond therebetween. Included in the system is a conveyor-failure interlock acting to shut off the fuel mixture to the burner should conveyor movement be arrested, and a flame-failure interlock acting to arrest the conveyor should the flame be extinguished.