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An apparatus and method for producing and bagging decorative grass, such as Easter grass. The apparatus includes an extruder, a godet, a slitter, a cutter, a bagging assembly and a programmable logic controller. The extruder produces a continuous sheet of material, which is fed by the godet into the

An apparatus and method for producing and bagging decorative grass, such as Easter grass. The apparatus includes an extruder, a godet, a slitter, a cutter, a bagging assembly and a programmable logic controller. The extruder produces a continuous sheet of material, which is fed by the godet into the slitter and cutter. A thickness gauge is provided between the extruder and slitter to measure the thickness of the sheet of material. The slitter has a row of blades which slit the sheet into a continuous length of slitted material. The cutter includes a rotatable blade which transversely cuts the slitted material into a number of individual filaments. The sheet of material is urged through the slitter and cutter by the godet and an air flow produced by a blower. The blower then forces the filaments to the bagging assembly, which has a rotatable turret, an inserter and a bag handler. The turret has a number of magazines for receiving from the cutter and for discharging the filaments into bags. The programmable logic controller is operatively connected to the components of the apparatus to coordinate the production and bagging of the filaments. Utilizing computations from the width, density and thickness of the sheet, the programmable logic controller rotates the turret and actuates the inserter in response to the number of revolutions of the cutter blade to deposit a uniform weight of filaments into each magazine of the turret and, in turn, into each bag.

대표청구항 ▼

A method for continuously producing and bagging uniform quantities of filaments of material, the method comprising: a. providing a plurality of magazines selectively movable between a filament-receiving position and a filament-discharging position; b. providing a continuous sheet of material having

A method for continuously producing and bagging uniform quantities of filaments of material, the method comprising: a. providing a plurality of magazines selectively movable between a filament-receiving position and a filament-discharging position; b. providing a continuous sheet of material having a thickness, a width, a density and a predetermined travel speed; c. slitting the continuous sheet of material to produce continuous strands of material having a predetermined width; and d. cutting the continuous strands of material into filaments wherein filaments of material are produced continuously at a predetermined rate; e. transferring a substantially uniform quantity of filaments continuously into a magazine positioned in the filament-receiving position; f. moving the magazine filled with the substantially uniform quantity of filaments to the filament-discharging position and another one of the magazines into the filament-receiving position at a rate corresponding to the predetermined rate that the filaments are being produced; g. positioning a bag to receive filaments discharged from the magazine filled with the substantially uniform quantity of filaments and positioned in the filament-discharging position; h. discharging filaments from the magazine filled with the substantially uniform quantity of filaments and positioned in the filament-discharging position so that the substantially uniform quantity of filaments are discharged into the bag; i. removing the bag containing the substantially uniform quantity of filaments; and j. repeating steps c, d, e, f, g, h, i and j.