A system and method for inflating airbags includes a series of pulleys arranged in two parallel rows. Each pulley has its periphery defined as a semicircular concave groove that extends between two edges, wherein the semicircular concave grooves form a tunnel. Each pulley in the first row can rotate clockwise, while each pulley in the second row rotates anticlockwise. A cylindrical air tube can be positioned in the tunnel wherein the air tube is connected to a compressed air source at an end. The air tube has spaced apertures along its length and an airbag with two flaps can be mounted on the inflation system, wherein the two flaps are pressed over the air tube by the pair of pulleys and each pair of pulleys can drag the flaps on the air tube.

A dunnage conversion machine includes a bunching assembly that randomly crumples at least two plies of sheet stock material into modified plies having a relatively thicker three-dimensional shape, and a feeding assembly that advances and connects together longitudinally-extending portions of the modified plies to form a dunnage strip. A diverter minimizes overlap of and encourages separation of lateral edges of the modified plies from one another, and a severing assembly severs distinct dunnage products from the strip. An exemplary resultant dunnage product includes two or more plies of crumpled sheet material interconnected along a longitudinally-extending portion having interconnected overlapped portions of each of the plies and a longitudinally-extending line of connection. Each ply may extend laterally outwardly along randomly crumpled edge portions having a crumpled lateral width greater than a lateral width of the longitudinally-extending portion, the edge portions extending from the line of connection to opposed, laterally-extending free edges.

A dunnage product has a length dimension with a first end and a second end opposite the first end. A plurality of segments are distributed along the length dimension between the first end and the second end, including an uncrumpled segment of uncrumpled sheet stock material. The uncrumpled segment is positioned between at least one randomly-crumpled segment of randomly-crumpled sheet stock material on each side of the uncrumpled segment. The uncrumpled segment facilitates easier insertion of the dunnage product into a container and allows for layering a crossing dunnage product without increasing the thickness of the products in the area of overlap.

A device for machine-making a dunnage product from a single- or multi-ply continuous paper web may include a delivery conveyor configured to draw the paper web into the device in a conveying direction; a cutter configured to separate the dunnage product from a three-dimensional strand of dunnage material formed from the paper web within the device; and a removal conveyor positioned after the cutter in the conveying direction and configured to remove the separated dunnage product from the cutter.

A conversion assembly for a dunnage conversion machine includes both a downstream pair of rotatable members and an upstream pair of rotatable members upstream of the downstream rotatable members. The downstream rotatable members include a pair of gears, and each gear has a plurality of teeth and is rotatable about a respective axis. The gears are positioned so that the teeth of one gear are sequentially interlaced with the teeth of the other gear as the gears rotate. The upstream rotatable members include a pair of feed wheels, and the gears and the feed wheels define a path for a sheet stock material from between the upstream pair of feed wheels to between the downstream pair of gears. The rate at which the sheet stock material is advanced by the feed wheels is the same as the rate at which the sheet stock material is advanced by the gears.

A machine for pulling paper off of a roll and crumpling the paper increasing the surface area and bulk of the compressible crumpled paper. The crumpled paper is used as packing material, cushioning packaged parts and filling package voids.

A dunnage conversion system for expanding an unexpanded slit sheet stock material to form an expanded dunnage product. The dunnage conversion system includes a converging chute to inwardly gather laterally-extending edges of sheet stock material towards one another, causing random crumpling of the sheet stock material to form a modified ply. The conversion system also includes feed wheels that advance the modified ply through the converging chute and pinch rollers that cooperate with the feed wheels to expand the modified ply traveling between the feed wheels and the pinch rollers to form a dunnage product. The expanded dunnage product is expanded both in a longitudinal feed direction and in thickness as compared to the unexpanded slit sheet stock material, and thus is a three-dimensional product having increased volume and lower density per unit of length as compared to the unexpanded slit sheet stock material.

A packing material including a plurality of discrete cushioning elements and methods for making the same. The discrete cushioning elements may be cellulosic cushioning elements. A flexible linkage may connect the plurality of discrete cushioning elements in the packing material. The packing material may also include a bottom cellulosic sheet connected to a top cellulosic sheet with the plurality of cellulosic cushioning elements positioned between the top cellulosic sheet and the bottom cellulosic sheet. The packing material may also be a molded packing material that includes bonds comprising adhesive and cellulosic fibers. The adhesive and cellulosic fibers of the bonds may be dispersed between the folds of each of the cellulosic cushioning elements.

An inflatable web is disclosed. The web includes first and second film plies sealed together via a plurality of generally transverse seals to define a first and second inflatable chambers and an inflation region. The chambers are inflatable with a fluid and operable to contain the fluid. The sealed plies have a first longitudinal edge and a second longitudinal edge. The web defines a separation region extending at least partially transversely across the web between the first and second inflatable chambers and is configured to facilitate separation thereof. The separation region includes a tear propagation line extending transversely across at least a portion of the web with an end of the tear propagation line terminating proximal to the first longitudinal edge of the web. The separation region includes a tear initiation feature including edges spaced apart from one another longitudinally to form a permanent opening in the web.

The present disclosure relates generally to an inflation and sealing machine and in particular to a method for modifying one or more parameters of the machine. The method includes identifying a configuration of a supply material to be used with the inflation and sealing machine, such as by receiving a user input, automatically detecting characteristics of the material, and/or receiving data such as from a sensor regarding the characteristics of the material. Once the configuration of the supply material is identified, the method includes receiving a selection of a prestored recipe according to a configuration of the supply material, where the recipe determines or sets the value for one or more operating parameters of the machine.