Sealed Air Corporation, New Zealand

Diversey, Inc.

Sealed Air (nz) Limited

John Koke

Jacob Brinkman

David Stevens

Ron Whitehead

Charles R Sperry

Suzanne M Scott

Dennis F McNamara, Jr

Vincent A Piucci

Stephen D Smith

Clifford B Steele

An apparatus for shaping and holding a bag in an open condition, and holding the bag in this condition during loading of the bag with a product, includes an inner stationary ring; a plurality of finger assemblies, each finger assembly comprising a finger adapted to press against the interior of the bag mouth, and a force-transferring member to which the finger is operatively connected; an outer rotatable ring, concentric with the inner ring; a push rod operatively connected to each respective finger assembly; and a motive device adapted to cause rotation of the outer ring relative to the inner ring to effect coordinated radial movement of the fingers relative to the interior surface of the bag. A method of shaping and holding a bag in an open condition, and holding the bag in the shaped, open condition during loading of the bag with a product, is also disclosed.

Apparatus and method for shaping and holding a bag in an open condition

The presently disclosed subject matter is directed to an apparatus for the preparation of a cleaning, sanitizing, or sterilizing solution. In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises a modular component, such as a cartridge. The cartridge may contain chemical precursors to allow the generation of chlorine dioxide. The apparatus has a fluid inlet, and separates the fluid into a first flow path, which fills a reservoir. It also has a second flow path, which is heated before passing through the cartridge to create the desired gas. The fluid output from the cartridge is then fed into the reservoir.

Apparatus for the generation of cleaning and/or sanitizing solutions

An apparatus for packing products includes a product information acquisition stage arranged to acquire information relating to one or more characteristics of products on a product packing line; a bag supply system arranged to supply bags sequentially as individual products on a conveyor approach a packing apparatus; and a bag opener arranged to automatedly take up a bag from the bag supply system as each individual product approaches the bag opener, and to subsequently machine open a mouth of each bag to a controlled extent based on information relating to products being packed acquired at the upstream product information acquisition stage. An apparatus for packing products includes a product information acquisition stage arranged to acquire information relating to one or more characteristics of products on a product packing line; a product packing stage; and two or more generally parallel conveyors arranged to deliver products of different sizes to the packing stage.

Bag opening apparatus and method

A vacuum packaging machine and a conveyor to deliver a product package from an upstream station to a position adjacent a vacuum chamber. The conveyor has a longitudinal direction defined by the direction of travel of the product package. The vacuum chamber has a heat sealing and cutting assembly oriented transversely to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor and in a position with sufficient spacing between end walls of the vacuum chamber and the assembly for the product package containing two or more products to be loaded into the vacuum chamber with at least one product located in front of the heat sealing and cutting assembly and at least one other product located behind the heat sealing and cutting assembly. The heat sealing and cutting assembly seals and cuts between two products to form two separate evacuated packages.

Vacuum packaging machine for product packages with multiple products

Pack opening apparatus and method

A vacuum packaging machine includes a plurality of vacuum chambers () each arranged to receive at least one unsealed product package and operable to perform an independent vacuum sealing operation, each vacuum chamber having a longitudinal direction defined by a direction of travel of the respective product package through the chamber (), each chamber having a heat seal assembly () therein which extends transversely to the longitudinal direction. An infeed conveyor () can be provided with a telescoping portion () which can extend over the heat seal assembly or a part thereof. Each vacuum chamber can have a respective bed () and independently moveable hood (), and the beds () can be synchronously vertically moveable. The vacuum packaging machine can be used in combination with a suitable product bagging or wrapping machine.

Vacuum packaging machine having a plurality of vacuum chambers for performing a vacuum sealing operation on product packages

Apparatus for use in packing meat cuts including a machine vision system arranged to scan or view individual meat cuts and acquire dimensional, volume, shape, cut type, or meat quality or grading information or other information relating to the individual meat cuts, two or more meat cut packing stations arranged to receive the acquired information relating to individual meat cuts and to dispense to an operator or automatedly apply to the meat cuts a pack matched to each individual meat cut as meat cuts arrive at the packing stations, and a diversion stage arranged to direct individual meat cuts to one or other of the packing stations based on the acquired information relating to the individual meat cuts from the machine vision system.

Growing community of inventors

Duncan, SC, United States of America

John Koke