machine for packaging products in trays, rigid or semi-rigid, closed superiormente was with a thermoplastic film, particularly for producing packaging in modified atmosphere.

摘要

The invention relates to a machine with a series of three operating stations (S1, S2, S3), of which the first station (S1) arranges the full trays in a predetermined pattern in one or two parallel rows, while the intermediate station (S2) closes the full trays with a cover of film heat-sealed onto their top edge, optionally after conditioning the atmosphere inside said trays, to preserve the products packed inside them and also performs the operation of cutting off the sealed trays from the continuous web from which said closing cover is taken, and in which the final station (S3) discharges the full trays, closed and separated, as they come from said intermediate station. Said stations are equidistant from each other in the horizontal direction and said transfer means are composed of moving and lifting combs (16, 16') that operate alongside said stations, that have a length such as to occupy simultaneously two consecutive such stations and that are provided with any means such that the teeth of the combs can be inserted under the front, rear and free space of the groups of the row or rows of trays, without substantially interfering with them, then be raised so as to lift said groups of trays and remove them from the surface they were resting on, then move longitudinally to transfer the groups of trays from one station (S1, S2) to the station immediately following (S2, S3), then be lowered to deposit the groups of trays in the new stations and no longer interfere with the trays, then be withdrawn from said groups of trays, and finally be returned, by a longitudinal movement the reverse of the previous movement, to the start-of-cycle condition.