A method and apparatus for making a structurally resilient package with a desired shape on a vertical form, fill, and seal machine. The method comprises sealing a film to form a back seal; forming a first end seal to form a partially formed first package; flattening a first side of the partially formed first package to form a flat first side; filling the partially formed first package with product; forming a second end seal on the partially formed first package to form a first package from the partially formed first package; flattening the second side of the first package to form a flat second side, wherein the flattening the first side and the flattening the second side occur on a first machine.

A vertical bag-making/filling/packaging machine (1) comprises: a film supplying portion (5) which lets out a film (F) from a roll (Fr); a bag-making guide (31) which folds the film (F) into a tubular shape and changes a conveying direction downward; a vertical sealing portion (60) which thermally seals side edges of the film (F) to each other in an up-down direction so as to make the film into a tubular shape; a film conveying portion (50) which conveys the film (F) downward; a filling portion (70) which loads a content (X) into an interior of the film (F); a lateral sealing portion (80) which thermally seals the film (F) in a left-right direction so as to make a bag body; a square-bottom sealing portion (90) which expands a bottom of the bag body to a rectangular shape from an inside and then thermally seals the bottom to form a rectangular bottom surface; and a cutter (89) which cuts off the bag body from the film (F).

A vertical bag-making/filling machine (1) comprises: a film-feeding unit (8) which intermittently feeds a film (F) formed into a tubular shape downward; a nozzle (10) supplying contents (X) into the film; a sealing-off unit (17) arranged below a lower end of the nozzle and forming a bag body (Fg) by heat-sealing the film in a transverse direction; a lower shaping unit (30) regulating swelling of the film on the lower side of the sealing-off unit; an upper shaping unit (40) regulating the swelling of the film on the upper side of the sealing-off unit; and a separating unit (25) for separating the bag body (G) fully filled with the contents by cutting the transverse seal (Y1, Y2) formed by the sealing-off unit.

The present disclosure provides an apparatus for forming a stream of individual packets, comprising a folder arranged to form a tubular web structure, a feeder arranged to feed the formed tubular web structure to a nip; a first rotor comprising a first sealing jaw and a knife, a second rotor comprising a second sealing jaw and an anvil, the sealing jaws, the knife and anvil rotating into opposing relation at the nip so as to form a severed, completed packet beyond the nip. The apparatus includes an open ended packet catcher adjacent the first and second rotors, which is arranged to catch the severed, completed packets beyond the nip whereby a stream of packets is established. The packet catcher includes a stripper disposed in a proximal location to at least one of the anvil, the knife and the sealing jaws when the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaws are rotated beyond the nip, whereby, should a completed packet stick to any of the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaws, the stripper is operative to free the stuck packet from the anvil, the knife and/or the sealing jaw. The present disclosure provides a fin sealer and method to seal a radially outwardly directed fin of a tubular web structure by directing the fin through a nip between a first and a second fin sealing rollers while communicating heat to the fin through at least one of the fin sealing rollers, the fin sealer being further arranged to maintain a nominal face-to-face relation between an outer annulus of the first fin sealing roller and an outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller with a flexible connection between a hub element of the second fin sealing roller with the outer annulus of the second fin sealing roller. A cooling system is also provided, which is operative upon one of the rotors of a cut and seal station.

A method and apparatus for pleating or otherwise shaping a web are described herein. The method and apparatus may have numerous applications. In some embodiments, the method and apparatus are used in the formation, filling, and sealing of unit dose packages for consumer products. A method and apparatus for forming sealing two moving webs together, which webs have portions that are non-planar are also described herein.

There is described a packaging apparatus (1) for forming a plurality of sealed packages (2) from a tube (3) of a web of packaging material (4) which is continuously filled with a pourable product. The packaging apparatus comprises an isolation chamber (10) separating an inner environment (11) containing a sterile gas from an outer environment (12). The packaging apparatus further comprises a delimiting element (48) arranged, in use, within the tube (3) and being designed to divide the tube (3), in use, into a first space (49) and a second space (50). The packaging apparatus (1) also comprises a pressurizing device (47) for pressurizing the second space (50) by means of a pressurized sterile gas. The delimiting element (48) is arranged within the isolation chamber (10).

A method and apparatus for settling a product in a package made on a form, fill and seal machine. In one aspect the invention comprises the steps: providing a package material on a product conduit of a form, fill and seal machine; forming a first end seal on the package material to form a partially formed package; filling the partially formed package with product; and settling the product in the partially formed package while continuously conveying the package material along the product conduit. In a second aspect, the invention comprises a product settler comprising a first object positioned to cause an impact against a package material. The impact agitates the package material and settles a product from an unsettled height to a settled height while the package material is continuously conveyed.

A sealing element for heat sealing packaging material for producing sealed packages comprises a heating element arranged to heat-seal the packaging material so as to form the sealed packages and a groove arranged to be engaged by a cutting element carried by a counter-sealing element interacting with the sealing element during a cutting operation in which a sealed package is separated from a portion of the packaging material, wherein the sealing element further comprises a resilient element received within the groove so as to prevent clogging particles from entering into the groove.

A stretching unit for clamping and stretching a tubular film in a flow-wrapper, the stretching unit includes: a gripping head; two coupling rods attached to a moving means; two gripping fingers, each of the gripping fingers is attached to the gripping head and to one of the coupling rods; the gripping fingers are moved from a remote position to a clamping position by a relative linear movement between the gripping head and the moving means parallel to a center axis of the moving means.

The invention relates to a tubular bag machine and to a method for operating a tubular bag machine (01) for the continuous production of tubular bags (20), which are filled with a mixture of liquid and solid filling components (29, 30). A formatting device (18), by means of which the bag shape of the tubular bag (20) open at the top seal is formatted, is disposed below the wiper device (16), the formatting device (18) comprising at least two formatting elements (19), which are contacted on the outer side of the film tube (34) and are displaced between an open position and a formatting position. The horizontal distance between the formatting elements (19) is larger in the open position than in the formatting position. The formatting elements (19) are moved to the open position before and/or while filling the tubular bag (20) with filling material (29, 30). The formatting elements (19) are moved to the formatting position while and/or after filling the tubular bag (20) with filling material (29, 30) and before producing the top seam to remove air from the air bubble (32) in the top area of the tubular bag (20) via filling material components (29, 30).