The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 06, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 27, 1999
Riccardo Evangelisti, Milan, IT;
Joel Caillier, Cham, CH;
Riccardo Evangelisti, Milan, IT;
Joel Caillier, Cham, CH;
Cryovac, Inc., Duncan, SC (US);
Abstract
A vacuum packaging machine for performing a vacuum sealing operation on product packages, comprises a vertical stack of vacuum chamberswhich each manage to receive at least one unsealed product packageand are operable to perform an independent vacuum sealing operation on the least one product package. A conveyor arrangementis operable to load and unload a selected vacuum chamberwith the at least one product package, and the machine is arranged to operate the respective vacuum chambersto perform the vacuum sealing operation while the conveyor arrangement is operated to load and unload another vacuum chamber. The conveyor arrangement loads and unloads the vacuum chambers in sequence, and the vacuum chambers are synchronously operated to perform the vacuum sealing operation to allow the conveyor arrangement to operate continuously. The conveyor arrangement comprises at least one in-feed conveyorand at least one out-feed conveyorwhich are independently movable to select the vacuum chamber to be loaded and unloaded. There may be a plurality of in-feed conveyorsand a plurality of out-feed conveyors. The vacuum chambers each have a sealing bar arranged along one side for sealing the product packages