Packaging machine with inflated bag printer and method

Abstract

A method and device for imprinting indicia on a product bag in cooperation with a product bagging machine in which the imprinting operation does not hinder or interfere with an accelerated packaging operation, including the steps of first continuously moving products to be bagged along a conveying surface in a spaced and generally aligned end-to-end relationship, second inflating a product bag by an air jet in order to receive the product, third prior to filling the inflated bag shifting it laterally into contact with a printer head of an imprinter device which is disposed off to the side of the moving stream of aligned and spaced products, and fourth imprinting the inflated bag during the interval of time that the space between adjacent moving products is adjoining the imprinter device. The apparatus provides means for moving aligned and spaced products along a conveying surface past a laterally disposed imprinter device and utilizing an air jet to inflate a product bag to raise an imprint surface thereon into proximity of the imprinter device, thereafter using a shifting means to laterally move the bag imprint surface into contact with a printer head of the imprinter device and providing a timing means to accommodate imprinting the inflated bag immediately prior to filling the bag with the product.