Fmc Corporation

Steven W Mory

Ronald L Lotto

Jeffrey L Ross

Donald C Crawford

Gary P Strike

The horizontal wrapping machine of the type wherein a succession of articles are fed into a traveling tube of web material which is sealed longitudinally and severed and sealed between the articles to produce individual hermetically sealed packages. A variable speed motor drives a conveyor which may be provided with article feeding flights and a switch, actuated once each revolution of a timing shaft, provides a pulse corresponding to each flight on the article feeding conveyor. In addition an encoder driven by the variable speed drive motor shaft provides a digital velocity signal used as a reference signal for servo motors that may be coupled, in combination or individually, to drive web feed rolls, longitudinal sealing wheels and one or more sealing and severing heads. A delivery conveyor transporting individual packages may, through a suitable drive train, be driven by the variable speed drive motor. The velocity and position of the servo motors is established and controlled through an industrial computer, at a percentage of the velocity of the variable speed drive motor. Thus, the digital velocity and position signal input to the computer by the encoder driven by the variable speed drive motor establishes a reference velocity and position the servo motors.

Computer controlled horizontal wrapper

Disclosed is a method and apparatus, associated with a rotary transfer device having a plurality of radially extending circumferentially spaced arms, for flattening and maintaining thermoplastic web segments or bags in a flat condition at a pick-up or transfer station so that successive segments or bags are being engaged and transferred by the arms of the transfer device are free of folds or wrinkles and thus insure proper stacking on one or more upwardly extending posts at a stacking station.

Growing community of inventors

Green Bay, WI, United States of America

Steven W Mory