Abstract: A vertical packaging machine having a supply of film folded upon itself, the film passing between two jaws pivoted at their lower ends. One of the jaws has a thin, L-shaped knife which is resistance-heated. The jaws clamp the film and the knife cuts and seals the film transversely and vertically along the free edges of the film to enclose an article within the package.

Abstract: A packing machine having a film former for converting a flat, unfolded web of thermoplastic film material into a relatively flat rectangular tube with one major surface of the flat tube having an inwardly turned edge and the other major surface of the flat tube overlapping the turned-in edge. In one embodiment, the former itself comprises a single piece of rigid sheet material which has a generally rectangular portion with an isosceles right triangle integrally formed thereon, the two legs of that triangle being aligned, respectively, with an end edge and an adjacent side edge of the rectangular piece. The sheet material is then folded over or otherwise formed such that the end edge and its extension, i.e., one leg of the isosceles triangle, are parallel to the adjacent side edge with the plane of the folded portion being generally parallel to the plane of the rectangular portion.