Cryovac, Inc.

Furukawa Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Gregory H Grossman

Gregory E McDonald

Joel Caillier

Shuichi Nakamoto

Peter Schmalz

Rod Hodgson

Silvio Rohrer

John L King, Jr

Joe A Price

Yoshitaka Nii

Drew V Speer

Csaba Frank Kiss

Paul D Spence

Charles C Zende

Jason G Verrett

Timothy S Dennison

John L King

Gregory E Mcdonald

An apparatus for vacuumizing and sealing a package includes a plurality of platens and vacuum chambers, each chamber adapted to mate with a dedicated one of the platens; a conveying system for conveying the platens and chambers along a generally angular path having a single axis of rotation; an automated loading assembly having a linear component and configured to load a package onto each of the platens; an automated unloading assembly having a linear portion and configured to unload a vacuumized, sealed package from each loaded platen onto an outfeed conveyor; and a vacuumizing/sealing system configured to cause relative movement of each chamber/platen pair, along a portion of the angular path, to form therebetween an air-tight enclosure accommodating the package and effect vacuumization and sealing of the package.

Apparatus and method for vacuumizing and sealing a package

An apparatus () for vacuumizing and sealing a package () includes a plurality of platens () and vacuum chambers (), each chamber () adapted to mate with a dedicated one of the platens (); a conveying system () for conveying the platens () and chambers () along a generally angular path having a single axis of rotation (); an automated loading assembly () having a linear component () and configured to load a package () onto each of the platens (); an automated unloading assembly () having a linear portion and configured to unload a vacuumized, sealed package () from each loaded platen () onto an outfeed conveyor (); and a vacuumizing/sealing system configured to cause relative movement of each chamber ()/platen () pair, along a portion of the angular path, to form therebetween an air-tight enclosure accommodating the package () and effect vacuumization and sealing of the package ().

The invention is a method, triggering unit, and system for activating an oxygen scavenging composition at high speeds. The triggering unit includes a plurality of UV lamps that can operate at increased temperatures and have high output intensites from about 10 to 35 mW/cm. The triggering unit can activate films at speeds from about 20 to 100 fps. Mercury amalgam lamps are useful in the practice of the invention. The invention also includes a UV dose management system and film tensioning system that facilitates triggering at high film speeds. The UV dose management system controls the amount of UV exposure that the film receives so that the oxygen scavenging rate of the activated composition can be controlled.

Method and apparatus for high speed activation of oxygen scavenging compositions

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Greenville, SC, United States of America

Gregory H Grossman