A drive system for driving an automatic welding machine for joining the edges of sealing sheets, comprising pressing/advancing rollers located vertically opposite one another and driven by a shared drive motor, downstream of which a transmission gear mechanism is connected, and an upper pressing/advancing roller is disposed rotatably about a roller rotational axis on a tensioning arm of the automatic welding machine, which is pivotable about a tensioning arm axis, and a lower pressing/advancing roller is disposed rotatably about a roller rotational axis on a frame of the automatic welding machine, which is supported by at least two drive rollers, wherein the drive motor and the transmission gear mechanism are rigidly attached to the frame, and the drive motor comprises a motor armature including a protruding rotational shaft, and the transmission gear mechanism comprises a rotatable protruding input shaft and output shaft.

A method for forming a geomembrane liner testable for leaks by securing adjacent panels together with the conductivity of the lower surface of an overlying panel broken along a line adjacent the panel overlapping edge, and the overlapping edges sealed along the line. A heat welder has slots for the overlapping panel edges, with a heated wedge between the slots and having a projection to break the conductivity of the overlying panel bottom surface as it passes the wedge. The slots merge to press the liner edges together to heat weld them along the line of broken conductivity as the welder is moved along the panel edges.

The present disclosure relates to an oral pouched snuff product and a method for its production. The oral pouched snuff product comprises a filling material and a saliva-permeable pouch enclosing the filling material, the saliva-permeable pouch comprising at least one elongated seal and the saliva-permeable pouch comprising a mesh material being elastic in at least one direction and comprising fibres of thermoplastic polyamide, wherein the at least one elongated seal has a seal strength of at least 0.10 N/mm as measured in dry state as well as in wet state. The at least one elongated seal may be an ultrasonically provided weld.

Apparatus and methods are provided for creating tubular devices, e.g., as components for catheters, sheaths, and or other devices sized for introduction into a patient. In one embodiment, a method is provided for making a tubular device using a sheet of material including a coated first surface. The sheet is rolled around a mandrel until longitudinal edges of the sheet are disposed near or adjacent one another, e.g., without attaching the longitudinal edges together. A tubular braid is positioned over the sheet-wrapped mandrel, one or more tubular segments are positioned over the tubular braid, and heat shrink tubing is positioned over the tubular segments. The resulting assembly is heated to cause the tubular segments to at least partially reflow and/or otherwise laminate the tubular segments to the tubular braid and sheet. The heat shrink tubing and mandrel are then removed to create the tubular device.

A method for forming a geomembrane liner testable for leaks by securing adjacent panels together with the conductivity of the lower surface of an overlying panel broken along a line adjacent the panel overlapping edge, and the overlapping edges sealed along the line. A heat welder has slots for the overlapping panel edges, with a heated wedge between the slots and having a projection to break the conductivity of the overlying panel bottom surface as it passes the wedge. The slots merge to press the liner edges together to heat weld them along the line of broken conductivity as the welder is moved along the panel edges.

Methods and devices for bonding a plurality of substrates in a nip provided between an anvil and a bonding device may involve preheating a portion of a first substrate for a preheating duration to impart a preheated temperature, and then conveying the plurality of substrates to the nip to form a bond. The portion of the first substrate may reach the nip at a final temperature that is within 0 C. to 40 C. of the preheated temperature. A time-in-nip to create the bond may be less than 20 milliseconds. The preheating duration may be at least 200% longer than the time-in-nip. Laminate materials formed via such methods and devices may include unbonded areas in the nonwoven material that may have at least 5 fibers per square inch that are fused at fiber-to-fiber intersections caused by preheating the nonwoven material.

The present invention is directed to a method forming a bottom-gusseted package, wherein each package includes an inwardly-extending, pleat-like gusset at the bottom of the package. To permit heat-sealing formation of each package, the sleeve from which each gusset is formed comprises a lamination of two differing polymeric materials, so that only an exterior surface of each sleeve exhibits the desired heat-sealing characteristics. To facilitate package formation, the sleeves from which the bottom gussets are formed are maintained in a temporarily closed or sealed configuration during package formation by providing a preferably frangible bond or seal at the edge of each sleeve. This result is preferably achieved by folding the laminate material, and temporarily sealing or joining an outer layer of the laminate material from which gusset is formed, while an inner layer is maintained in an unsealed condition.