Abstract: Method and apparatus for manufacturing spout-equipped bags in which the lateral sides of a bag are gripped by a pair of grippers, the bag is conveyed along a conveying path, and a spout is attached to the bag mouth during the conveyance. Unloading suction members adheres by suction to a bag in a horizontal orientation and takes out the bag; and then bag suction members adheres to the bag and changes the bag into a vertical orientation, the bag is then rotated through a predetermined angle, making the bag mouth horizontal. A transfer chuck grips the bag and conveys it towards grippers, and the bag is displaced a predetermined distance horizontally and supplied to the grippers. The horizontal displacement distance of the transfer chuck is set in advance such that gripping margins on the bag for the grippers are made substantially equal on the left and right of the bag.

Abstract: A method for sealing-in a gas in a bag that has therein a gas filling compartment, including the steps of: placing a blow-out port of a nozzle, which is connected to a pressurized gas supply source, against a cut-in or a hole of the bag and holding the back surface side of the bag with a backing member; blowing a gas from the nozzle into the gas filling compartment of the bag through the cut-in or the hole; gripping and thus closing the gas flow path in sealed portions surrounding the periphery of the cut-in or the hole by a blocking gripper while the gas blow-in continues, thus cutting off the flow of the gas between the cut-in or the hole and the inside of the gas filling compartment; and then sealing the cut-in or the hole, thus allowing the gas to be sealed in the gas filling compartment.

Abstract: A method for sealing-in a gas in a bag that has therein a gas filling compartment, including the steps of: placing a blow-out port of a nozzle, which is connected to a pressurized gas supply source, against a cut-in or a hole of the bag and holding the back surface side of the bag with a backing member; blowing a gas from the nozzle into the gas filling compartment of the bag through the cut-in or the hole; gripping and thus closing the gas flow path in sealed portions surrounding the periphery of the cut-in or the hole by a blocking gripper while the gas blow-in continues, thus cutting off the flow of the gas between the cut-in or the hole and the inside of the gas filling compartment; and then sealing the cut-in or the hole, thus allowing the gas to be sealed in the gas filling compartment.

Abstract: A bag opening method and apparatus for use in bag filling and packaging in which a bag B is gripped at its laterally opposite side edges with a pair of gripping members and moved along a predetermined path. A pair of suction cups 23 disposed facing each other at respective mutually spaced standby positions are moved to respective closest positions at which a vacuum is applied to the suction cups to cause them to adhere to the outer surfaces of the opposite side walls of the bag. The suction cups are retracted away from each other to respective intermediate positions between the closest and standby positions. The suction cups having reached the intermediate positions are stopped there for a predetermined period of time. Thereafter, the suction cups are retracted from the intermediate positions to the standby positions, respectively.

Abstract: A bag opening method and apparatus for use in bag filling and packaging in which a bag B is gripped at its laterally opposite side edges with a pair of gripping members and moved along a predetermined path. A pair of suction cups 23 disposed facing each other at respective mutually spaced standby positions are moved to respective closest positions at which a vacuum is applied to the suction cups to cause them to adhere to the outer surfaces of the opposite side walls of the bag. The suction cups are retracted away from each other to respective intermediate positions between the closest and standby positions. The suction cups having reached the intermediate positions are stopped there for a predetermined period of time. Thereafter, the suction cups are retracted from the intermediate positions to the standby positions, respectively.

Abstract: Steam from a steam supply source is heated in a heating device, supplied to a nozzle through a secondary steam supply passage and injected from a spout. The temperature of steam at the outlet of the heating device is measured by a first sensor, and a cartridge heater constituting the heating device is controlled on the basis of the difference between the measured temperature and a target value. Steam temperature at the nozzle spout is measured by a second sensor, and a difference between the measured temperature and a target value is obtained. The target value of steam temperature at the heating device outlet is changed to a set value predetermined according to the magnitude of the difference obtained.

Abstract: A method for sealing-in a gas in a gas filling compartment 5 of a bag having a cut-in 6 formed near the upper edge of the gas filling compartment. In the method, two edges of the bag with the contents inserted therein are gripped by grippers and suspended, the blow-in port of a gas (air) blow-in nozzle is brought to contact the cut-in, the back surface side of the bag is supported by a backing member, gas (air) is blown into the gas filling compartment, and the position below the cut-in is held from both sides of the bag by a gas cut-off grippers while the gas blow-in continues, so that the gas inside the gas filling compartment is not allowed to escape from the cut-in, and then the entire bag mouth, including the cut-in, is sealed.

Abstract: Steam from a steam supply source is heated in a heating device, supplied to a nozzle through a secondary steam supply passage and injected from a spout. The temperature of steam at the outlet of the heating device is measured by a first sensor, and a cartridge heater constituting the heating device is controlled on the basis of the difference between the measured temperature and a target value. Steam temperature at the nozzle spout is measured by a second sensor, and a difference between the measured temperature and a target value is obtained. The target value of steam temperature at the heating device outlet is changed to a set value predetermined according to the magnitude of the difference obtained.

Abstract: A steam-replacement deaeration method uses a nozzle having a double-tube structure of an inner first nozzle member and an outer second nozzle member. An insert part of the first nozzle member that is to be inserted into a bag has a flat cross-sectional configuration. The body of the second nozzle member has a circular cross-section and surrounds the insert part of the first nozzle member. At a first stage of steam injection, both the first and second nozzle members are inserted into the bag, and steam is injected from the spouts of both of them. Next, only the second nozzle member is removed from the bag, and the steam injection therefrom is stopped. While the steam injection from the first nozzle member being continued, the bag mouth is brought into a tensed state. Next, the first nozzle member is removed from the bag, and the bag is moved to the subsequent step with the bag mouth kept in the tensed state.

Abstract: A method for sealing-in a gas in a gas filling compartment 5 of a bag having a cut-in 6 formed near the upper edge of the gas filling compartment. In the method, two edges of the bag with the contents inserted therein are gripped by grippers and suspended, the blow-in port of a gas (air) blow-in nozzle is brought to contact the cut-in, the back surface side of the bag is supported by a backing member, gas (air) is blown into the gas filling compartment, and the position below the cut-in is held from both sides of the bag by a gas cut-off grippers while the gas blow-in continues, so that the gas inside the gas filling compartment is not allowed to escape from the cut-in, and then the entire bag mouth, including the cut-in, is sealed.

Abstract: A bag made of an outer bag 3 and an inner bag 2. The inner bag, inside the outer bag, has an opening in the upper edge, and the inner and outer bags are sealed along the upper edges, on either side of the respective bags, to form sealed portions 8 and 9, and the inner bag and outer bag are further sealed together at two lateral side edges and lower edge to form sealed portions 11 and 12 and sealed portion 13, thus forming gas filling compartments 14 and 15. Cut-ins 18 and 19 are formed in the upper comers of the outer bag, and supplemental sealed portions 16 and 17 connected to the sealed portions 8 and 9 are formed. Air (gas) is blown into the gas filling compartments 14 and 15 through the cut-ins and then the overall bag mouth including the cut-ins is sealed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for supplying empty-bag group including a belt conveyor which conveys empty bags manufactured by a bag-making machine, a slide conveyor which conveys empty bags that are supplied from the belt conveyor at a specified pitch with the bag bottoms facing forward and which releases these bags from the front end of slide conveyor, and a stacking conveyor which receives the empty bags that are released from the slide conveyor; the front end position of the slide conveyor being movable and caused to move toward the bag mouths intermittently by a specified distance at a time at the above-described pitch, resulting in that an empty-bag group in which empty bags are stacked with the upper empty bags being successively shifted toward the bag mouths by a specified distance at a time is formed on the stacking conveyor.

Abstract: A deaerating method and deaerating apparatus in a bag-filling packaging machine, using a pair of press-holding members with one of them having a main body and a slide element that fits in the main body. A vacuum passage is formed between the upper portion of the slide element and the main body, and a groove is formed on a press-holding surface side when the slide element is moved backward; and with this groove, a passage leading from the inside to the outside of a bag is formed. Air and excess liquid matter inside the bag are sucked out of the bag through the passage and are removed through the vacuum passage. When the slide element is moved forward and press-holds the portion of the mouth that corresponds to the passage, the liquid matter inside such portion is pushed and is removed through the vacuum passage.

Abstract: An empty-bag group supply system in which at a bag maker, a plurality of empty bags are placed in a stacked state in which these bags are shifted in the direction of length of a bag in a bag accommodation tray whose width is substantially the same as the width of the empty bags and whose length is sufficiently longer than the length of the empty bags, and this bag accommodation tray is sent to a package maker; and at the package maker, the stacked empty bags are removed from the bag accommodation tray and placed “as is” on the conveyor of a conveyor magazine type empty-bag supply apparatus. The bag accommodation tray is formed with a rectangular hole in the bottom plate; and upon taking out the empty-bags, an extraction member is raised from below via the hole and lifts the empty bags from the bag accommodation tray.

Abstract: An area where a liquid substance, for instance, is present inside a bag, that is, the area where the liquid substance adheres to the inner surface of the bag, is ultrasonically sealed (thus forming an ultrasonically sealed area), and then an area that is separated from the ultrasonically sealed area by a predetermined distance toward the edge of the mouth of the bag is heat-sealed (thus forming a heat-sealed area), so that the a portion of the liquid substance, that is separated and is present above the ultrasonically sealed area, is sealed inside the space between the two sealed areas.

Abstract: A deaerating method and deaerating apparatus in a bag-filling packaging machine, using a pair of press-holding members with one of them having a main body and a slide element that fits in the main body. A vacuum passage is formed between the upper portion of the slide element and the main body, and a groove is formed on a press-holding surface side when the slide element is moved backward; and with this groove, a passage leading from the inside to the outside of a bag is formed. Air and excess liquid matter inside the bag are sucked out of the bag through the passage and are removed through the vacuum passage. When the slide element is moved forward and press-holds the portion of the mouth that corresponds to the passage, the liquid matter inside such portion is pushed and is removed through the vacuum passage.

Abstract: An area where a liquid substance, for instance, is present inside a bag, that is, the area where the liquid substance adheres to the inner surface of the bag, is ultrasonically sealed (thus forming an ultrasonically sealed area), and then an area that is separated from the ultrasonically sealed area by a predetermined distance toward the edge of the mouth of the bag is heat-sealed (thus forming a heat-sealed area), so that the a portion of the liquid substance, that is separated and is present above the ultrasonically sealed area, is sealed inside the space between the two sealed areas.