Abstract: A device for opening an end region of a bag body, which end region extends between an open tube body end and a bottom central line, having a transporting device, on which the bag body is transportable with adjacent tube walls at a transport rate (V) in a transporting direction, and suction devices arranged on both sides of the bottom central line, which are driven so as to be moveable transversely back and forth to the transporting direction, wherein the suction devices are movable in addition in the transporting direction back and forth. The suction devices are mounted at first articulated joints, wherein at each first articulated joint there are hinged two pivoting arms pivoting relative to one other, wherein each pivoting arm is pivotingly connected to a positioning pivoting arm by means of a second articulated joint and wherein each positioning pivoting arm is movably driven.

Abstract: A station (S) of application of segments of opening/closing strip on plastic web films suitable to form bags, comprising punching means (U14, U22) of predefined areas of the plastic film for the access to areas of the segments through the film, and welding means (U15, U23) of the strip segments at intervals on the plastic film, wherein the punching means (U14, U22) and the welding means (U15, U23) are positioned along the flow path of the film to act in sequence on the same area in order to, respectively, punch the film and weld the segments in the predetermined points of the plastic film.

Abstract: A bag-making packaging machine includes a bag-producing part, a bag receiving part, and a bottom forming part. The bag-producing part is configured and arranged to transversely seal a tubular packaging material to produce a bag having a top seal part and a bottom seal part formed above and below a product-enclosing main body of the bag. The bag receiving part is configured and arranged to receive and hold the bottom seal part and a part of the main body of the bag, which has been dropped from the bag-producing part. The bottom-forming part is configured and arranged to deform the bag in contact with the bag receiving part to form a bottom portion of the bag into a prescribed shape.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for forming sleeve-like foil envelopes from a continuous flat strip of a sleeve-like foil material, comprising supply means (12) for supplying the continuous flat strip of sleeve-like foil material (1), cutting means for making a cut in this strip of sleeve-like foil material over the full width thereof so as to obtain the individual sleeve-like foil envelopes, as well as discharge means (20a-20b) for discharging the individual sleeve-like foil envelopes from the device. The device of the invention is characterised in that the device comprises rotational element means (20?) arranged for imparting a rotary motion during operation to the sleeve-like envelope to be discharged from the device. By imparting a rotary motion to an individually formed sleeve-like foil envelope while it is being discharged from the device it is achieved that the foil envelope will remain open, making it possible to place the envelope round a container in a simple and effective manner.

Abstract: In a method and apparatus for mechanically fastening an absorbent undergarment during the initial manufacturing thereof, the undergarment is transported in a transport direction and folded longitudinally by a folding device such that first and second end regions of the undergarment are in generally opposed relationship with each other while transporting the partially assembled garment in the transport direction to fastenably engaged first and second fastening portions of the undergarment. A central region of the absorbent undergarment is held by a holding device, separate from the folding device, against bunching between the end regions of the undergarment during longitudinal folding of the undergarment. In another embodiment, the transverse position of the second fastening portion is adjusted relative to the first fastening portion to facilitate fastening engagement therebetween upon folding the absorbent garment longitudinally.

Abstract: A vertical stand-up pouch, flat bottom bag, or flexible package, and method for manufacturing same, constructed with a quick change module modification to existing vertical form and fill packaging machines. The invention involves producing a vertical stand-up pouch or flat bottom bag from a single sheet of packaging film by creating one or two vertical creases along the packaging film tube prior to forming a transverse seal on the tube. Such creases are formed using fixed or stationary modifications to prior art vertical form, fill, and seal machines comprising, in part, a quick change module that easily installs on the base of a forming tube.

Abstract: A smoothing device includes guide surface sections for a flat printing material whose leading edge is pulled in a direction of travel over the guide surface sections. The guide surface sections have openings which communicate with throttling ducts that are pressurized with compressed air during operation. The guide surface sections form a smoothing notch and have air passage openings which communicate with a flow duct. The air passage openings are configured to cause pressure conditions when there is an air throughflow during operation such that the flat printing material forms a bead projecting into the smoothing notch.

Abstract: In an apparatus for bonding window pieces to envelope blanks having window cut-outs, window pieces are cut from a transparent material web and then the window pieces and envelope blanks are brought together by a suction roller serving as a bonding cylinder and joined to one another by adhesive applied onto the window pieces by a gluing mechanism while the window piece is on the suction roller before being joined to the envelope blank. A suction belt conveyor device is provided, at least in the region of the joining location, as a carrier for the envelope blanks and as a counter-tool for the suction roller serving as a bonding cylinder.

Abstract: In a method for the production of mailing bags, including envelopes, from material in web form, the material is processed in numerous ways and at least two separately prepared parts are transported to a joining station and there joined to one another with an adhesive. The two parts, at least one of which is already provided with the necessary adhesive, are placed one upon the other during an arcuate movement and joined to one another, in order to increase the speed of production. Particularly, at least one of the two parts (6, 7) and/or its carrier, performs an undulating movement in the region of the joining station (5).

Abstract: A device for separating two webs of material which are arranged on top of each other. The webs of material are to be separated while they are being transported on a conveying device, the first of the webs of material being detachably fixed to the conveying device. The device includes a suction device which is moveable in relation to the second web of material and by which means it is able to temporarily draw the second web of material by suction and separate it from the first web of material. Two cranks are set apart, each crank rotates about a first pivot pin and is rotationally connected to the suction device by a second pivot pin. A drive device with an engaging element is connected to an engaging element configured on one of the cranks. The paths of revolution of the drive device engaging element and the crank engaging element do not coincide and are nonparallel, and the engaging elements engage with each other in such a way that they can be displaced in relation to each other.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for manufacturing a pad wherein a rotatable forming screen which has a generally cylindrical surface and at least one outwardly projecting nob is employed. The nob is positioned on the forming screen whereby the nob is circumscribed by the material, e.g., cellulosic fluff, deposited on the forming screen to form the pad. The pad is transferred from the forming screen to a moveable transfer surface. The transfer surface may be either flat or round and moves at a velocity which is at least as great as the velocity of the forming screen. The nob located on the forming screen includes a thrust surface disposed on a trailing edge of the nob. The thrust surface imparts a compressive force on the pad during the release of the pad from the forming screen. The compressive force is at least partially directed towards the transfer surface and thereby assists in the release and transfer of the pad. A vacuum may also be used to attract the pad to the transfer surface.

Abstract: The apparatus for forming a container is situated in a container-forming unit comprising different processing stations. The apparatus for forming a container includes a wrapping mandrel attached to a moving structure, which is arranged to move the wrapping mandrel between different processing stations, and the members for feeding the blank to the wrapping mandrel. The apparatus for forming the container also has members to wrap the blank around the wrapping mandrel in order to form a structure that is closed in the horizontal cross-section perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The wrapping mandrel is equipped with suction openings distributed on its perimeter, which openings are connected to the air duct in order to wrap the blank around the wrapping mandrel with the aid of suction.

Abstract: A bag for packing powder, permeable for gases and comprising a plurality of inwards protrudent hole-forming portions. Preferably, the bag comprises a film having holes (B) of predetermined thickness (d) furnished with protrudent hole-forming portions of predetermined height (h), the height (h) of the protrudent hole-forming portions being in the range of 2 to 200, still preferably 5 to 100, times the thickness (d) of the film having holes (B). By virtue of this structure, the soaring of powder at the time of powder filling can be prevented to thereby facilitate the filling operation. Furthermore, not only is the sticking of powder to seal portion reduced at the time of sealing the mouth of the bag to thereby ensure obtaining satisfactory seal strength but also the environmental pollution by the soaring of powder can be avoided.

Abstract: A system (10) for producing folded articles includes a cutting station (58) operable to segment a fabric web (42) into a continuous stream of individual web segments (86). The system also includes a rotary folder (96) comprising a plurality of folding rollers (104, 106). The rotary folder (96) rotates about an axis spaced apart from axes of the folding rollers (104, 106). The rotary folder (96) is operable to receive the web segments (86) at a first location and fold the web segments one or more times while rotating from the first location to a second location about the rotary folder (96) axis. The system further includes a transfer station (62) operable to receive the folded web segments (86) from the rotary folder (96) at the second location and deliver the folded web segments (86) to a third location.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for manufacturing a pad wherein a rotatable forming screen which has a generally cylindrical surface and at least one outwardly projecting nob is employed. The nob is positioned on the forming screen whereby the nob is circumscribed by the material, e.g., cellulosic fluff, deposited on the forming screen to form the pad. The pad is transferred from the forming screen to a moveable transfer surface. The transfer surface may be either flat or round and moves at a velocity which is at least as great as the velocity of the forming screen. The nob located on the forming screen includes a thrust surface disposed on a trailing edge of the nob. The thrust surface imparts a compressive force on the pad during the release of the pad from the forming screen. The compressive force is at least partially directed towards the transfer surface and thereby assists in the release and transfer of the pad. A vacuum may also be used to attract the pad to the transfer surface.

Abstract: This invention involves a tapered vacuum bag sealer that can be used to seal conventional plastic bags and to vacuum canning jars or other food containers. The rear of the sealer housing has a connection for a PVC tube or other flexible tube that will extend to the jar or container being vacuumed to remove air therefrom. This rear connection avoids the necessity of the housing lid being opened before this vacuum procedure could be accomplished.

Abstract: An apparatus for manufacturing cross bottom sacks from laid-flat tubular sections consists of a frame having:- a table, means for holding the tubular section thereon in a processing station where the ends of the tubular section become opened out into a bottom square or rectangle, a suction gap arranged in the table in the zone of one of the ends of the tubular section, and suction means mounted in the frame above the suction gap and which is able to be raised and lowered for opening one end of the tubular section. Above the plane of the tubular section situated in the processing station, a slide can be extended and retracted over the table in the direction of the median line of the tubular section, the median line of the slide defining with the median line of the tubular section a plane perpendicular to the plane of the tubular section. The width of the slide is less than the interspacing of the hypotenuses of the two opened-out corner folds from each other.

Abstract: A device for pulling open continuously cross-conveyed tube sections for the purpose of forming bottoms in the manufacture of sacks has support tubes provided in pairs and connected to vacuum sources by lines. Each of the support tubes forms the coupler of two parallel connecting rods housed in a machine frame so as to rotate and is equipped with a row of radial suction units. A crank is connected to a shaft of a parallel connecting rod. A crank pin, supporting a slide ring or a roll, slides in a radial guide attached to a shaft. The shaft of the guide is offset relative to the parallel connecting rod shaft such that an essentially translational movement corresponding to the conveyance speed is superimposed on the opening movement of the row of suction units. In order to achieve a better opening of the tube section ends even at higher conveyance speeds, the radial guide is formed in a curved shape such that the time of uniform motion of the suction units and the tube section is lengthened.

Abstract: A flap opening apparatus wherein envelopes are sequentially conveyed past a jet nozzle, which delivers timed blasts of air to open the flaps of each envelope. A computer controller tracks the position of the envelopes by a shaft encoder, and activates the jet nozzle when each envelope is correctly positioned. The opened flaps of the envelopes are held in an open position by a plate so that mail materials may be inserted into the envelopes.

Abstract: A method is disclosed of constructing a flat bottom in a plastic film tube having an open upper end, a closed lower end formed by a transverse seal, forward and rearward sides and a pair of opposing pleated sides that interconnect the forward and rearward sides. The method includes the steps of releasably engaging a lower vacuum and a lower clamp with a transverse section of the rearward side of the tube to provisionally hold the transverse section. A lateral section of the forward side is gripped and raised by an upper vacuum and an upper clamp to expose a portion of the pleated sides such that first and second pockets are formed, respectively, in the sides.

Abstract: A method for making block of side-gussetted, bottom-weld bags. Each bag has an opening on one side to fascilitate the removal of individual bags from the block.

Abstract: The invention provides an apparatus and method for automatically opening a plastic bag-type liner as part of a container lining process. The apparatus comprises at least one movable jaw assembly disposed on each side of the liner to be opened and a tongue on the other side of the liner opposing each jaw assembly. To open the bag, the jaws are opened and the jaw assemblies are moved toward and contact the liner and the opposing tongue pushes the liner between the gripping surfaces of the jaws of the opposing jaw assembly as the jaw assemblies begin to move apart, the jaws close, gripping and retaining the layer of liner in direct contact with the gripping surfaces of each jaw, the tongues slide out from between the layers of the liner, separating the sides of the unsealed end of the liner. A stream of air may then be directed into the open end of the bag for completely blowing the bag open prior to placing the bag over the open end of the container to be lined and forcing the liner into the container.

Abstract: Bags are manufactured from a tubular web of thermoplastic film. An air injector periodically inflates the film whereupon it contacts cooperating vacuum plates. One of the plates has a cutting die which cuts a tab in the film which in turn provides an ingress for the injected air. The film is then sealed and severed to form the bags, which are then formed into a block. The tab then serves as an opening to facilitate the removal of individual bags from the block.

Abstract: An automatic machine for placing a plastic bag into a larger feedstuff bag. The plastic bag and feedstuff bag to open by the action of two vacuum holders connected to the upper and lower vacuum tanks. A push rod is then introduced, via the opening of the plastic bag to push the plastic bag into the feedstuff bag.

Abstract: A pinch bottom open mouth ("PBOM") bag having a pinch bottom flap folded over upon and adhered to one wall of the bag, with a tab for tearing the flap open inserted at its inner end between the walls of the bag, folded to overlie the flap and the outside of the other wall and releasably adhered to the other wall. A method of and apparatus for manufacturing the bags with the tabs from bag tubes wherein the tubes are continuously fed forward, one after another, tabs are applied to the tubes as the tubes travel forward and folded to overlie the other wall before the pinch closure flap is folded over. Each tab is inserted between the walls of a tube by bringing the tab into a position overlapping the one wall and separating the one wall from the other to the point where the end of the tab slips off the one wall and becomes disposed between the walls.

Abstract: A packaging machine for forming pouches from a continuous web having confronting sections adapted to provide opposed walls of the formed pouches. The machine includes sealing means for sealing the opposed bag walls together in longitudinally spaced-apart regions to provide the side seals of the formed pouches, and a cutting section for cutting the discrete pouches from the sealed continuous web. The machine has positively driven feed means for directing the continuous web material through the cutting means, and the feed means is adjustable in the machine-direction of movement of the web material for controlling the width of the pouches to be formed. Drive means are associated with the driven feed means and include elements movable with the feed means when the feed means is adjusted to thereby automatically change the speed of the feed means to direct the desired amount, or length of sealed web material past the cutting means between operating strokes of the cutting means.

Abstract: In apparatus for pulling tube ends open to form base squares in the production of large cross-bottom sacks, table plates are disposed parallel to the plane of the pulled open bases and separated from another by a gap through which a tubular web is feedable in a plane substantially perpendicular to the table plates. Suckers at both sides of the web pull the edges of the web end apart. The suckers are secured to carriages which are movable in parallel guides from a position in which they are pushed together to the pulled open position of the base.

Abstract: A method of making bags of the automatic or self-opening satchel-bottom type having an outer sheet of paper and a plastic inner liner in which a tab portion is formed with a portion of the inner liner removed so that when the bag bottom is formed a paper surface of the tab portion can be adhered to a paper portion of a diamond fold when the bag bottom is completed.

Abstract: When two sheets of slack material, for example the two sides of a paper or plastics bag, are to be separated by means of a pointed tool, problems arise because the two sheets can easily bend over, both in the same direction. If moreover these sheets are formed from smooth material, they also adhere together by vacuum sealing or by electrostatical forces. The solution for these problems is to enclose the sheets into a positioning block, in which a hollow space is recessed or saved for receiving the volume of the pointed tool to be driven thereinbetween. This driving-in of the pointed tool can be combined with the issuance of pressurized air between the sheets. To this end the pointed tool is provided with grooves for guiding the pressurized air or with a separate blow-pipe slidable over the pointed tool.

Abstract: An apparatus for opening and folding the end of a flattened tubular sheet to define the rectangular base of a bag or sack to be made from the sheet comprises a table having a slot through which the flattened sheet projects, the projection being formed into a bag base by suckers locating the projection in a pre-opened condition and grippers which engage opposed margins of the projection, one of the grippers being fixed and the other being secured to a pivotable arm.

Abstract: A flat-bottom bag is produced from a heat sealable tubular material having gusseted sides by clamping front and back walls in a central longitudinal region, flaring the gussets outward to about 180.degree. to provide a corner gusset tuck and refolding the gussets to their original position with the corner tucks in position between the gussets.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for making printed gusset bags from tubular bag material, which may be extruded film plastic with integral interlocking fastener profiles along the edges of panels of the material which have been collapsed into face-to-face relation, and in which each of the panels will provide a succession of separate finished bags, comprising the step of and means for imprinting on each of the panels indicia on bag wall areas and on a gusset area intermediate the wall areas, the step of and means for manipulating the imprinted bag material from the originally collapsed condition to fold the wall areas of each of the panels together into face-to-face relation and to infold the gusset area of each of said panels into position between the folded bag wall areas of each of the panels, and the step of and means for separating the gusseted panels into individual gusset bags.