Advanced ultrasonic welding components of Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 8,376,016 are readily incorporated into new form-fill-seal machines, but owners of existing machines utilizing heat-seal stations were unsuccessful at swapping the sealing packages. Retrofit kits to a replace heat sealing stations with an advanced ultrasonic sonotrode and anvil comprise: a housing; a linear rail fixed thereto; first and second bearing carriages being slidable upon the rail; and first and second fluidic muscles. Each of the fluidic muscles is mounted with a first end fixed to a respective housing wall, and a second end fixed to a respective bearing carriage, permitting actuation of each carriage through pressurization/depressurization of the muscles. The advanced anvil and sonotrode may be secured to respective carriages. In-line arrangements of anvil/sonotrode, bearing carriages, the first fluidic and second fluidic muscles provides a narrow profile, permitting side-by-side kit installations for retrofits accomplishing duplex sealing on a horizontal machine.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to manufacturing balloon envelopes for use in high-altitude mesh networks for packet-data communications. As an example, a gore portion may be placed on a table such that the gore portion overlies a groove within the table. A tendon may be placed on the gore portion and within the groove. A portion of tubing may be placed over the tendon. The tubing may have one or more surface openings. Restraining tape is applied over the one or more surface openings in the tubing. A constant force roller is applied to secure the tendon to the gore portion and to secure the tendon to the tubing. As an alternative or in addition to the surface openings, double-sided restraining tape may be placed between the tendon and the tubing. The tubing and restraining tape may prevent undesired lateral and longitudinal movement of the tendon during deployment.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to systems and techniques for inspecting seals for high altitude balloons. In one example, a system may include a reflective surface, a translucent material on the reflective surface, and a movable light source configured to move along the reflective surface and provide light to the reflective surface. The light is provided such that it is reflected from the reflective surface and through the translucent material in order to backlight a balloon envelope seal for inspection. A method for inspecting a balloon envelope seal may include placing balloon envelope material on a table, forming a seal between portions of the material, moving a light over the seal, shining light onto a reflective portion of the table below the seal to backlight the seal, and inspecting the seal using the backlighting of the seal.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to techniques for manufacturing a balloon envelope including a duct for high altitude balloons. In one example, a first sheet of material may be provided. A premade duct may be arranged at least partially on the first sheet of material. The duct may include a first substance on an internal surface. A second sheet of material may be arranged over at least a portion of the duct. A heat sealing device may be applied to the second sheet of material to heat seal the first sheet of material to the second sheet of material. The heat sealing device may be applied over at least a portion of the duct in order to seal external surfaces of the duct to each of the first and second sheets of material and form a balloon gore. The first substance may keep the duct from being sealed to itself.

Advanced ultrasonic welding components of co-pending application Ser. No. 12/925,652 are readily incorporated into new form-fill-seal machines, but owners of existing machines utilizing heat-seal stations were unsuccessful at swapping the sealing packages. Retrofit kits to a replace heat sealing station with an advanced ultrasonic sonotrode and anvil comprise: a housing; a linear rail fixed thereto; first and second bearing carriages being slidable upon the rail; and first and second fluidic muscles. Each of the fluidic muscles is mounted with a first end fixed to a respective housing wall, and a second end fixed to a respective bearing carriage, permitting actuation of each carriage through pressurization and depressurization of the muscles. The advanced anvil and sonotrode may be secured to respective carriages. In-line arrangements of anvil/sonotrode, bearing carriages, the first fluidic muscle, and the second fluidic muscle provides a narrow profile, permitting side-by-side kit installations for retrofits accomplishing duplex sealing on a horizontal machine.

The invention relates to a horizontal transverse sealing station (10a-b), in particular for a horizontal tubular bag machine (12a-b), for producing transverse sealing seams (14a-b) on at least one film tube (18a-b) transported in a continuous, at least essentially horizontal transport direction (16a-b), comprising a transverse sealing station base (20a-b) fixedly connected to a packing machine (22a-b), a transverse sealing unit (24a-b), and at least one sealing jaw pair (28a-b) movably mounted on the transverse sealing unit (24a-b) and formed by two sealing jaws (26a-b), the sealing surfaces (30a-b) of which come closer to each other during a sealing process in a sealing movement (32a-b), which relative to the transverse sealing unit (24a-b) is provided with at least one movement component (34a-b) in the transport direction (16a-b), in order to seal material layers (36a-b) of the film tube (18a-b) between the sealing surfaces (30a-b) by way of heating and/or applying pressure, and to remove again at the end of the sealing process. According to the invention the transverse sealing unit (24a-b) is driveably mounted on the transverse sealing station base (20a-b) in a displacement movement (38a-b) that is at least substantially parallel to the transport direction (16a-b).

The sonotrode and anvil of copending application Ser. No. 12/925,652, for advanced ultrasonic welding of work pieces, are readily incorporated into new form-fill-seal machines, but existing machines with heat-seal stations pose difficult problems for swapping of the sealing packages. Kits enabling heat station replacement, with the further improved sonotrode and anvil disclosed herein, comprise: a housing; a linear rail fixed thereto; anvil and sonotrode support members; and a parallel gripper. Each of the anvil and sonotrode support members is slidably attached to the rail(s) and are also connected to a respective piston of the gripper, permitting actuation of each through cycling of the gripper pistons. The improved sonotrode/anvil combination each comprise a corresponding plurality of energy directors arranged into a three-dimensional grid pattern to produce a narrower weld region, but one exhibiting greater durability, thereby permitting use of less packaging material, and which may also weld a company logo into the workpieces.

The sonotrode and anvil of co-pending application Ser. No. 12/925,652, for advanced ultrasonic welding of work pieces, are readily incorporated into new form-fill-seal machines, but existing machines with heat-seal stations pose difficult problems for swapping of the sealing packages. Kits enabling heat station replacement, with the further improved sonotrode and anvil disclosed herein, comprise: a housing; a linear rail fixed thereto; anvil and sonotrode support members; and a parallel gripper. Each of the anvil and sonotrode support members is slidably attached to the rail(s) and are also connected to a respective piston of the gripper, permitting actuation of each through cycling of the gripper pistons. The improved sonotrode/anvil combination each comprise a corresponding plurality of energy directors arranged into a three-dimensional grid pattern to produce a narrower weld region, but one exhibiting greater durability; thereby permitting use of less packaging material, and which may also weld a company logo into the workpieces.

Advanced ultrasonic welding components of co-pending application Ser. No. 12/925,652 are readily incorporated into new form-fill-seal machines, but owners of existing machines utilizing heat-seal stations were unsuccessful at swapping the sealing packages. Retrofit kits to a replace heat sealing station with an advanced ultrasonic sonotrode and anvil comprise: a housing; a linear rail fixed thereto; first and second bearing carriages being slidable upon the rail; and first and second fluidic muscles. Each of the fluidic muscles is mounted with a first end fixed to a respective housing wall, and a second end fixed to a respective bearing carriage, permitting actuation of each carriage through pressurization and depressurization of the muscles. The advanced anvil and sonotrode may be secured to respective carriages. In-line arrangements of anvil/sonotrode, bearing carriages, the first fluidic muscle, and the second fluidic muscle provides a narrow profile, permitting side-by-side kit installations for retrofits accomplishing duplex sealing on a horizontal machine.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to manufacturing a balloon envelope for use in a stratospheric balloon system. For instance, a stream of polyethylene mixture is extruded through an extruder in order to orient molecules of polymer chains of polyethylene and to provide an oriented film. The oriented film is passed through an electron beam and thereby crosslinking the polymer chains to provide a cross-linked film. The cross-linked film is heat sealed to form the balloon envelope.