1300279 Wrapping-up articles F G SHANKLIN 10 April 1970 [10 April 1969] 17284/70 Heading B8C Articles P are wrapped in longitudinally folded thermoplastic film F by means comprising an inverting head 38 having arms 75, 76 arranged horizontally one above the other and directed at an angle to the path of travel of the film with a curved end 77 of the heads aligned with the folded edge, the film being passed over the head so that the inside of the folded film passes over the outside of the head whereafter the film is turned inside out and back through the inside of the head at an angle to its initial path, an article P to be packaged being inserted through the inside of the head so that it is surrounded by the film which is then sealed. As shown, articles P are fed on to an infeed conveyer 26 with adjustable guides 32, 33 from which they pass singly on to a table 41. Movement of an article on the table 41 operates a switch (92), Fig. 3 (not shown), to stop conveyer 26 and actuate a relay which operates an arm 42 which pushes the article across the table 41, through the head 38 and on to a table 101, of a heat cooling section 25 which is operated as the arm 42 reverses its movement and returns to its original position at the discharge and of conveyer 26, when the conveyer is restarted to feed the next article on to table 41. The pre-folded film F is drawn from a roll 45 which is cradled in a pair of rollers 43, 44 and the roll is motor driven to unwind the film over idler rollers 48, 57 and a dancer roller 49 carried on a carrier 52. As film is pulled through the head 38 by the passage of an article, the carrier pivots to actuate a switch 54 controlling the motor drive 55 for the roll 45. The inverting head 38 lies at an angle of 45 degrees, with its arms 75, 76 respectively above and below the table 41 and the folded edge of the film passes over the curved end 77 before being drawn between each arm and the respective surface of the table 41. The position of the head is adjustable by means of support means 79 to cater for articles of different widths. The sealing section comprises pairs of transverse sealing jaws 93, 94, and longitudinal jaws 95, 96 joined together to form an L-shaped structure and pivotally mounted at 97, 98 so that when the forward end of an article contacts the transverse seal formed by the preceding sealing operation and the arm 42 has moved towards the infeed conveyer 26 the sealing jaws are closed to heat seal and sever folded film which surrounds the articles. After sealing the package is moved off the table 101 which is a conveyer belt to a heat shrinking tunnel (not shown) of known construction. A scrap removal system is provided including a vacuum hose (125), Fig. 2 (not shown), for removing scrap film cut from the package by jaws 95, 96. In a modification, Fig. 6 (not shown), in which flat film is used, a pro-folding section (61) is employed in which film is drawn from a vertically positioned roll through a folding head before passing to the head 38 as above. The apparatus may be entirely automatic in operation, or the inverting head 38 may be fed manually.
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