Paper Converting Machine Company

Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC

Corteva Agriscience LLC

The Procter & Gamble

Larry D Wierschke

Scott A Adler

Gary R Wunderlich

Tod Wesley Heleniak

Mark Ervin Malenke

Brian Adamski

Gary S Rusch

Robert Ray Burch

James E Hertel

Joseph A Blume

Marios Avgousti

Lawrence D Mikulsky

Gerry W Buxton

Brian L Christman

Rajeev L Gorowara

Jihua Zhang

Richard J Moss

Robert Alan Lewis

Charles A Sample

Jeremy J M Papadopoulos

James D BaDour, Jr

Mark E Malenke

Tod W Heleniak

Carriers are disclosed for supporting a plurality of agricultural cores on a plurality of core supports for coating by a flexible film. The plurality of core supports may include a pedestal for supporting a respective agricultural core and a core periphery region having a plurality of bridge elements which couple the pedestal to the connecting structure between the plurality of core supports. The carriers may include a vacuum system that independently communicates a partial vacuum to an aperture in each respective pedestal and a plurality of apertures in the core periphery region of a respective core support between the bridge elements.

Systems and methods for manufacture of controlled release of agricultural cores

An apparatus for handling food products comprises an alignment trough disposed at an incline for holding a stack of the food products at an incline. The alignment trough defines a portion of a passage upon which the food products travel. The stack defines a bottom food product. At least one movable member extends into the passage to control the separation of the bottom food product from the remainder of the stack by moving to provide clearance fro the food product to pass.

Apparatus for stacking, singulating, and dispensing pliable food products and methods therefor

An apparatus for handling food products comprises an alignment trough disposed at an incline for holding a stack of the food products at an incline. The alignment trough defines a portion of a passage upon which the food products travel. The stack defines a bottom food product. At least one movable member extends into the passage to control the separation of the bottom food product from the remainder of the stack by moving to provide clearance for the food product to pass.

A wrapping machine for wrapping products is provided with a product diverter for producing package formats which are greater in width than the number of lanes which deliver product to the wrapper machine. A plurality of metering belts advance product from an infeed conveyor along a plurality of infeed lanes. The metering belts are independently driven so that product can be advanced in each lane independently of the product in the other lanes. The metering belts deliver product to accelerator belts which speed up the product to create a gap between successive products in a lane. A first flighted conveyor advances product from the accelerator belts to a plurality of pivotally mounted diverting gates, corresponding in number to the number of infeed lanes. Each of the diverting gates direct the product to one of a plurality of output lanes. The number of output lanes is equal to, less than, or greater than the number of infeed lanes. The diverting gates are independently controlled so that each diverting gate can be pivoted independently of the other gates. A second flighted conveyor advances product from the discharge end of the diverter gates along the output lanes.

Product diverter and method

The cutting blade of a continuous motion saw is mounted on a skew arm which rotates about an axis which is skewed relative to the path along which the product to be cut is advanced. The blade rotates about an axis which is parallel to the path. The blade orbits in a planetary manner to compensate for the skew angle and to ensure that the blade remains perpendicular to the path. Grinding stones for the blade are mounted radially inwardly of the blade throughout the entire orbit of the blade.

Apparatus for transverse cutting

An apparatus for supporting an elongated circular product during cutting includes a fixed lower support frame and a movable upper support frame. Right and left bottom support links include a lower end which is pivotally connected to the lower frame. Right and left side support links include a lower end which is slidably supported by a slot in the lower frame, an intermediate pivot point which is pivotally connected to the upper end of one of the bottom support links, and an upper end which is engageable with the product. The upper frame includes right and left guide surfaces which are engageable with the product. When the upper frame is moved downwardly toward the lower frame, the guide surfaces of the upper frame move the upper ends of the side support links closer to the center of the product.

Apparatus for supporting product during cutting

A transport apparatus for handling rows of units of multi-ply material such as rolls of bathroom tissue or paper toweling and stacks of folding facial tissue or toweling includes a pair of movable shuttles which can be moved together to provide a bridge for conveying the units over an opening and which can be moved apart to provide a gap so that trim pieces or selected units can fall through the opening. When the shuttles are moved to an upstream position, the shuttles bridge the opening, and units can be moved over the shuttles and over the opening. When a trim piece or selected unit is positioned just upstream of the downstream shuttle, the downstream shuttle is moved in a downstream direction away from the upstream shuttle to provide a gap between the shuttles so that the trim piece or selected unit falls through the gap and the opening. The upstream shuttle can then be moved in a downstream direction toward the downstream shuttle to close the gap.

Transport apparatus for handling cut products

An apparatus and method for sharpening a disc blade includes a grinding wheel mounted on a housing. The housing is mounted on a drive shaft so that the housing rotates with the drive shaft but can move axially relative to the drive shaft. A transversely extending projection on the housing extends into a space between two axially spaced spacers on the drive shaft. A spring is positioned between each spacer and the projection for resiliently biasing the housing in an axial direction.

Apparatus and method for sharpening a disc blade

A method of operating an orbital saw to transversely sever superposed elongated web plies into shorter length products which includes advancing along a linear path superposed elongated web plies having a cross sectional area of at least about 3.5 square inches (2200 mm.sup.2), providing a 4-bar linkage including first and second bars extending generally parallel to each other and third and fourth bars connecting the first and second bar means adjacent the ends thereof, further providing a disc blade rotatably mounted on each of the third and fourth bars, rotating the first bar about a first axis to orbit the blades with the blade orbit intersecting the linear path with the centers of said disc blades being at least 30 inches (750 mm) apart while skewing the first axis at a minor acute angle to the linear path, connecting the first and the second bar with the third and fourth bar to provide at least one degree of pivotal freedom of the third and fourth bars relative to the first and second bars, and rotating the second bar about a second axis different from the first axis to compensate for the skewing and to orient the disc blades perpendicular to the web plies in the linear path when severing the web plies.

Method and apparatus for transverse cutting

A stack of folded sheets includes right and left Z folded sheets and right and left V folded sheets which are arranged and interfolded so that the stack is balanced and has uniform bulk across its width. Withdrawal of the top sheet of the stack lifts the next sheet into position for withdrawal.

Stack comprising V-Z folded sheets

A method of operating an orbital saw for transversely severing elongated, superposed, multi-ply web material which includes advancing the web material along a path into a cutting station having a skew arm adjacent said path, rotating said arm about an axis skewed with respect to the path, the skew arm having a disc blade coupling means, such as a 4-bar linkage, mounted thereon and carrying a rotating disc blade with the blade axis spaced from the arm axis to cause the blade to intersect the path and cut the web material during the blade orbit, maintaining the blade axis at an angle skewed relative to the arm axis to position the disc blade continually perpendicular to the path whereby the disc blade makes a square cut through the web material, providing the coupling means with a grinding stone for the blade and a control for contacting the grinding stone and blade, and positioning the grinding stone radially inwardly throughout the entirety of the blade orbit whereby centrifugal forces are reduced and cyclic loading is substantially eliminated.

A compensating linkage for a continuous motion saw for elongated web plies wherein a skew arm is pivotally connected at its ends to a drive arm and where the drive arm at its ends carries disc blades and sharpening grinding stones for the blades, the ends of the drive arm being pivotally connected for two degrees of freedom with brackets which in turn are connected to an eccentrically mounted control arm, the linkage resulting in compensation for the skew angle to provide a cut perpendicular to the movement of the web plies and reduction of centrifugal forces and elimination of cyclic centrifugal loading on the blade grinding systems.

A method of cutting an elongated multi-ply flat surfaced ribbon of web material which includes advancing the ribbon along a linear path while rotating a pair of cantilever-mounted drums on opposite sides of the path to flank the ribbon flat surfaces, the drums each having a plurality of axially extending slots in the periphery thereof. A saw blade is adjacent the path and orbits through the path so as to have the blade orbit intersect the drum slot orbits to transversely cut the ribbon while the saw is advancing parallel to the linear path.

Method and apparatus for cutting superposed webs

Trim eliminator for log saw and method in connection with the rewinding of webs into logs and rolls or toilet tissue and toweling wherein two independently adjustable suspensions systems are employed for each log/roll lane so as to suspend rolls over a cull area but not the trim annuli generated from cutting the log ends.

Growing community of inventors

Green Bay, WI, United States of America

Larry D Wierschke