초록 ▼

A sealing wheel having a plurality of radially outwardly opening pockets is rotatably indexed through loading and discharging positions. Each pocket, formed by a pair of stationary jaws, receives an article and its wrapper at the loading position and forms the wrapper to a U-fold about the article.

A sealing wheel having a plurality of radially outwardly opening pockets is rotatably indexed through loading and discharging positions. Each pocket, formed by a pair of stationary jaws, receives an article and its wrapper at the loading position and forms the wrapper to a U-fold about the article. Movable heat sealing jaws associated with each pair of stationary jaws have U-shaped sealing surfaces which engage marginal portions of the wrapper outwardly of the stationary jaws to form a U-shaped fin seal around three sides of the package, a fourth side being formed by the wrapper fold. A jaw opening mechanism opens each set of sealing jaws as it approaches the discharging position, where the wrapped and sealed package is ejected. The jaw opening mechanism is also arranged to simultaneously open all jaws in closed position in response to a predetermined condition, such as machine shut-down.

대표청구항 ▼

A sealing wheel comprising a wheel body, drive means for rotatably indexing said wheel body, means on said wheel body defining a plurality of angular spaced radially outwardly opening pockets for receiving articles and wrappers therein, a plurality of sets of opposing sealing jaws supported on said

A sealing wheel comprising a wheel body, drive means for rotatably indexing said wheel body, means on said wheel body defining a plurality of angular spaced radially outwardly opening pockets for receiving articles and wrappers therein, a plurality of sets of opposing sealing jaws supported on said wheel body, the jaws of each of said sets being supported on said wheel body in association with one of said pockets for movement between open and closed positions, means for heating at least one of the jaws of each of said sets, means for moving said jaws between open and closed positions in response to said indexing movement of said wheel body, said jaws in said closed positions being engageable with marginal portions of wrappers disposed within said pockets to seal said marginal portions, sensing means for detecting an interruption of predetermined duration in the cyclical movement of said wheel body, and shut-down means for simultaneously moving all of said jaws in said closed position to said open position and including a shut-down member operably associated with said jaws and supported for coaxial angular movement with and relative to said wheel body and means for angularly moving said shut-down member relative to said wheel body to open said jaws in response to the detection of an interruption of a predetermined duration by said sensing means.