Disclosed in an assembly for forming bags, having a belt drive for feeding a film at a film speed to a former shoulder to form a tubular film, a set of jaws movable at a jaw speed to engage and seal a tubular film to form a closed bag, and a sensor assembly to provide a volume signal indicative of a volume of the closed bag, wherein the controller is configured to adjust at least one of the film speed and the jaw speed in response to the volume signal.

An apparatus for handling three-dimensionally curved snack food chips. The apparatus includes a first conveyor for conveying a series of the snack food chips on a conveying surface and an inverting station located at an output end of the first conveyor. The inverting station includes an inverter configured for transferring the snack food chips from an output end of the first conveyor into contact with an internal concave surface of the inverter. A drive system for the inverter is configured to move the internal concave surface downwardly to cause movement of the snack food chips downward from an upper portion to a lower portion of the internal concave surface. A depositing station is located and configured for depositing the snack food chips from the lower portion of the internal concave surface onto a second conveyor configured for receiving snack food chips from the depositing station and conveying them away.

A method of packaging snack food chips, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of snack food chips as a shingled assembly of the snack food chips; (b) enclosing the shingled assembly within an elongate packaging container; (c) vibrating the shingled assembly supported so as to cause the snack food chips sequentially to fall from a free output end into the elongate packaging container while progressively translationally separating a closed end and the free output end to form a shingled stack extending away from the closed end; and (d) during at least a part of step (c), rotating the elongate packaging container so that the closed end while decreasing an angle of inclination such that the shingled stack is being progressively formed.

The disclosure relates to a method and to a device for portion packaging of flat products, such as potato chips, in which the products are conveyed as product portions along a plurality of product conveying sections, which are disposed adjacent to each other, to a product transfer device for transferring the product portions into packaging containers, wherein, between each product conveying section and two transfer conveyors of the product transfer device, which are disposed adjacent next to each other, the product portions delivered via the product conveying section are distributed to the transfer conveyors by means of a redistributing device in such a manner that during occurrence of a conveying gap between two product portions conveyed on the product conveying section, the redistributing device is switched from a first connection configuration for establishing a conveying connection between the product conveying section and the first transfer conveyor and a second connection configuration for establishing a conveying connection between the product conveying section and the second transfer conveyor, the speed of the product portions on conveying sections of different lengths of the transfer conveyors being influenced by means of a synchronizer in such a manner that at the end of a feed cycle of a packaging unit, which comprises packaging containers disposed in columns and rows of a packaging container matrix of the packaging unit and is moved forward in a clocked manner along a packaging conveying section perpendicular to the product conveying sections, the product portions are transferred from a transfer position into the packaging containers.

An apparatus for handling three-dimensionally curved snack food chips. The apparatus includes a first conveyor for conveying a series of the snack food chips on a conveying surface and an inverting station located at an output end of the first conveyor. The inverting station includes an inverter configured for transferring the snack food chips from an output end of the first conveyor into contact with an internal concave surface of the inverter. A drive system for the inverter is configured to move the internal concave surface downwardly to cause movement of the snack food chips downward from an upper portion to a lower portion of the internal concave surface. A depositing station is located and configured for depositing the snack food chips from the lower portion of the internal concave surface onto a second conveyor configured for receiving snack food chips from the depositing station and conveying them away.

A bag-making and packaging machine works with a weighing machine installed upstream to manufacture bags containing article discharged from the weighing machine. The bag-making and packaging machine includes a forming unit, a transverse sealing unit, a conveyance unit, a communication unit, and a control unit. The communication unit receives from the weighing machine a signal relating to weighing and discharge of the article. The control unit has a disposal mode for disposing of the article in the weighing machine. When changing from a normal production mode to the disposal mode, the control unit performs control to skip, among operations in the normal production mode, the operation of the transverse sealing unit implemented in conjunction with the signal received by the communication unit from the weighing machine.

Provided is a boxing device to restrain productivity decreases and cost increases. A boxing device has a stocking section to form a stocking space in which a plurality of cardboard boxes made from a box-making sheet can be stocked, a packing section in which the cardboard boxes sent from the stocking space are placed, a boxing section, and a controller. The boxing section performs a boxing action of packing a plurality of products discharged from a bag-making and packaging machine into the cardboard boxes placed in the packing section. The controller, on the basis of weighing machine information and user-set information, executes a stocking number deciding process to decide a numerical quantity (stocking number) of cardboard boxes stocked in the stocking space. The weighing machine information is information relating to an operating condition of the packaging machine (packaging-machine-related information). The user-set information is information set by a user.

A flow wrapping apparatus displaces a number of packs from a first location where the packs are self-standing on their lower region to a second location where the packs are on edge to form a substantially horizontal stack. The apparatus includes first and second conveyors with a number of individually displaceable hands. The hands of the first conveyor displace packs from a first location where the packs are self-standing on their lower region to a second location where the packs are on edge. At least one of the hands of the second conveyor cooperates with at least one of the hands of the first conveyor to hold packs on their edge to form a substantially horizontal stack. A pair of individually displaceable hands of the second conveyor displace the stack towards a flow wrapping station.

The invention relates to a turning unit for turning a, preferably dish-shaped, open container (19) with a portion of flat products, in particular of potato chips or the like, received in the container, the turning unit comprising at least one turning device (15) which is set up to turn the container by transferring it from a first orientation of the container, in which an opening (20) of the container is oriented in a first direction, to a second orientation, in which the opening is oriented in a second direction, by rotating the container about an axis of the container.