Metal Box Corporation

The Metal Box Company Limited

Cmb Packaging (uk) Limited

Peter D Hardy

Ashley, Robert J

Keith D Jeffs

John D Miller

Bardhan, Nabendu

Filling packaging containers

Thermally processable plastics tubs (10) filled with a liquid or semi-liquid product so as to leave a headspace are closed by preformed lids (12) which are heat-sealed to their peripheral flanges when the headspace is filled with steam. In order to prevent the steam from affecting the heat-sealing operation, the lid flanges are wider than the container flanges, and their projecting annular parts (29) are engaged so as to form a barrier separating the steam from the heated heat-sealing head.

Closing plastics containers

Pouch-like bags for containing liquids

A conveyor handling system is described in which two endless belts are serially arranged along a predetermined path. The rollers supporting the two belts at adjacent ends of the belts are mounted on a common rotary shaft. The rotary shaft is supported upon a reciprocatable carriage which also supports the downstream belt and when activated, the carriage is arranged to reciprocate the downstream belt bodily. The upper run of the upstream belt is extendable to follow the reciprocation of the downstream belt. The upstream belt is driven at a constant speed.The downstream belt, which is coupled to the rotary shaft through a one way clutch, is initially driven at the same speed as the upstream belt, but when the carriage is reciprocated (at a speed greater than the upstream belt), the clutch locks and the downstream belt adopts the speed of the carriage.

Variable length reciprocating conveyor system for spacing articles

A conveyor handling system, includes three paths along which articles travel, and a diverter located in an intermediate portion of the paths and operative to effect transfer between the paths. Sensors located upstream and downstream of the diverter monitor the rate at which the articles arrive at and leave the diverter. A comparator is responsive to the downstream sensor to cause the diverter to direct the articles between the paths in such a sense as to maintain the rates of flow of articles along the three paths downstream of the diverter substantially equal. A control unit responds to the upstream sensor to determine whether there is sufficient space for each article to be transferred transversely of the direction of motion to an adjacent path without reducing a predetermined minimum spacing requirement for the articles in each path. If there is insufficient space to effect a transfer, the control unit acts to inhibit the diverter from performing such a transfer.

Conveyor systems

A packing machine is described having rollers respectively guiding first and second webs of flexible packing material along a horizontal path, and a conveyor for feeding a succession of articles onto the first web to be conveyed by the first web along the horizontal path. Two blocks are provided for forming a cavity around each article and through which the two webs pass. A pressure difference is provided to inelastically expand the two webs to conform to opposite halves of the cavity in which the article is housed and so form pockets therein. Two heat sealing blocks are located downstream of blocks to seal the perimeter of the pocket in the first web to the perimeter of the adjacent pocket in the second web.

Packaging machines and methods of packaging articles

A conveyor handling system for transporting articles from a first position to a second position is described. The system includes first and second conveyors extending in series between the two positions and arranged to convey articles at two respectively different speeds. A sensor is responsive to the approach of an article to the junction between the two conveyors at which the article is transferred from one conveyor to the other to displace the junction, without altering the speeds of the two conveyors, in a sense to accelerate the transfer of the articles between the two conveyors.

Growing community of inventors

Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom

Peter D Hardy