Abstract: Two-piece cups formed, e.g., from a thermoformable plastics material, include a bottom wall disc which is bonded to an inwardly turned annular bottom flange of the side wall by an upwardly and inwardly sloped transition wall. The transition wall allows the bottom wall disc to be bonded to the sidewall flange in such a manner that the annular bottom edge is substantially unaffected by the heat and pressures during the bonding process. The bottom wall disc may be in the form of multiple concentrically disposed, annular bottom wall segments which are connected to one another by respective ones of a plurality of transition walls.

Abstract: A film cover is heat-sealed to the open end of containers and cut from a film stock by a cam-actuated, orbitally moving knife blade which severs the film stock along a circumferential region closely adjacent the container's open end. A major extent of the orbital movement of the cam-actuated knife blade about the open-ended container is preferably substantially circular (to closely conform to the circular cross-sectional geometry of open-ended containers to be film-covered). However, a minor segment of the knife blade's orbital movement is cam-actuated so as to follow a segment of an arcuate non-circular (e.g., elliptical) path to form a protruding tab on the film cover so as to allow a consumer to more easily grasp and remove the same. The film is preferably continuously supplied to the sealing and cutting zone, while the waste web (i.e., the film remaining after the film cover has been cut from the film stock) is continuously retrieved from the sealig and cutting zone at substantially constant rates.