There is described a forming assembly (10a, 10b) for forming a plurality of sealed packs (3) starting from a tube (2) of packaging material, comprising: a track (13a, 13b); a first element (15a, 15b), which is cyclically movable along the track (13a, 13b) and comprises, in turn, one of a sealing element (22b) or a counter-sealing element (22a) adapted to seal the pack (3); and a second element (14a, 14b), which is cyclically movable along the track (13a, 13b) and comprises, in turn, a first half-shell (21a, 21b; 21a′, 21b′) adapted, in use, contact the tube (2) so as to bound at least part of a respective pack (3) and control the shape of the pack (3) during the formation thereof; the first element (15a, 15b) and the second element (14a, 14b) are self-movable along the track (13a, 13b) independently of one another.

A cup sealing apparatus with a shaft, a heating element, an alignment plate, and a spring biasing the alignment plate into engagement with the alignment cone. The shaft extends has an alignment cone at an end thereof, the alignment cone having a modified cone taper surface centered about a longitudinal axis. The heating element includes a heating surface operable to adhere a seal to a cup presented to the heating surface. The alignment plate is spaced from the opposite axial surface, and has a profile corresponding with the taper surface so that the profile and the taper surface form a non-circular interface between the alignment cone and the alignment plate. With deflection of the spring, the alignment plate and the heating element are free to deviate from a prescribed orientation and out of coaxial alignment to match a cup axis of a cup presented to the heating surface.

A system for assembling a container and closure comprising an expanding collet which has a plurality of pivoting collet segments, each configured to simultaneously pivot radially outward about a pivot point and comprising. The collet comprises a lip that is engagable with the rim of the open end of the container and an angled tip positioned radially inward from the lip and shaped to press a countersink portion of the closure against an interior wall of the container as the collet segments pivot radially outward. As the container and the chuck are brought together, the rim engages with the lips of the collet segments and causes the angled tips of the collet segments to pivot outward toward the interior wall of the container, thereby pushing the countersink portion of the closure against the interior wall of the container.

The invention concerns an apparatus for manufacturing of containers from blanks of a cardboard based material, said apparatus comprising: a container body forming unit configured to form a cylindrical container body from a substantially plane blank of a multilayer material comprising at least a supporting cardboard layer and a weldable layer; a welding unit configured to fasten an end closure to the container body, said welding unit comprising an inductive welding energy generator for melting of the weldable layer; and transporting means configured to transport a flow of body blanks to the container body forming unit, to transport a flow of container bodies from the container body forming unit to the welding unit, and to transport a flow of container bodies provided with end closures from the welding unit. The invention is characterized in that the transporting means comprises: a first movable gripping arrangement configured to grip at least two container bodies and move these container bodies simultaneously to the welding unit; and a transferring and positioning arrangement configured to transfer container bodies from the container body forming unit to the first movable gripping arrangement and to position the container bodies in a controlled manner to ensure that the first movable gripping arrangement can grip the at least two container bodies properly, wherein the welding unit is configured to simultaneously fasten an end closure to each of the at least two container bodies. The invention also concerns a method for operating an apparatus of the above type.

A process for packaging a product arranged on a support comprising unrolling a film, moving the film to a packaging assembly defining at its inside a packaging chamber, progressively moving a number of supports inside the packaging chamber of the packaging assembly, closing the packaging chamber with the film sheets held above the respective support, optionally causing one or both of: a gas withdrawal from the hermetically closed packaging chamber and gas injection of a gas mixture of controlled composition, heat sealing the film to said support, wherein the heat sealing uses one or more heaters having heating surfaces which are heated for discrete and short time periods only. An apparatus for performing the above process is also disclosed.

A process for packaging a product arranged on a support comprising unrolling a film, moving the film to a packaging assembly defining at its inside a packaging chamber, progressively moving a number of supports inside the packaging chamber of the packaging assembly, closing the packaging chamber with the film sheets held above the respective support, optionally causing one or both of: a gas withdrawal from the hermetically closed packaging chamber and gas injection of a gas mixture of controlled composition, heat sealing the film to said support, wherein the heat sealing uses one or more heaters having heating surfaces which are heated for discrete and short time periods only. An apparatus for performing the above process is also disclosed.

A protective wrap material enclosing a stack of cut sheets of paper is folded so that overlapping flaps of the wrap material cover opposite ends of the stack. The overlapping flaps are secured and sealed together only at selected areas that comprise a minor portion of the overlapped flaps, wherein the sealed areas have sufficient burst strength to avoid inadvertent opening of the wrap but at the same time are relatively easy to separate when it is desired to open the wrap to gain access to the cut sheets of paper. In a preferred embodiment the wrap material is heat sealable, and a modified heat plate for applying heat only to the selected areas has a grooved front surface defining heat focusing bars that concentrate heat sufficient to fuse the wrap material only in the selected areas.

A vertical form fill and seal system supports a sheet of material having material segments and a tube sized for drawing edges of the elongated sheet of material together in an overlapping configuration to form the sheet into a substantially tube shape. The VFFS also includes a sealer that seals the edges of the material to one another and a gusseting mechanism sized for forming a gusseted tuck in each of a left panel portion of the material and a right panel portion of the material. A cutting mechanism removes a first portion and a second portion of a first segment of the material segments in order to form a first cut and a second cut in the first segment and a sealing mechanism folds and seals the first segment at the first cut and at the second cut to provide an end wall with a substantially flat, rectangular-shaped footprint.

The present disclosure provides a method for detecting thermal sealing defects of a container during its transportation along a process line. The method is particularly suitable for containers caped with a cap liner and sealed with an inner seal. The method makes use of a high frequency heat (e.g. by a high frequency heat induction unit) to cause eddy current in the inner seal after which there is sensing by an IR imager of radiation emitted from the conductive innerseal to generate sensed IR image data indicative of the sensed radiation. The sensing is characterized by at least one of (i) a time window of a sensing session of between 50 msec to 300 msec during which said container is being transported through the FOV; and (ii) a sensing range of a wavelength spectrum region from 2 μm to 6 μm. The IR data is then processed so as to generate output data indicative of the presence or absence of at least one defect in the sealing of the container by said innerseal.

There is described a unit for applying at least one pre-formed opening device onto a hole of a web of a packaging material, unit comprises an advancing means device for advancing the web along a path; and at least one application station, which is fed, in use, with pre-formed opening device and seals, in use, pre-formed opening device on the hole of web.