AU723028B2

AU723028B2 - Improvements to a method of filling a bag and/or apparatus for loading a bag and/or a bag article

Info

Publication number: AU723028B2
Application number: AU55818/96A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Neill Peter Gillespie; John Charles Welton Hogg
Original assignee: Minigrip Flexible Packaging Ltd
Current assignee: CHEQUER Corp Ltd
Priority date: 1995-06-06
Filing date: 1996-06-06
Publication date: 2000-08-17
Anticipated expiration: 2016-06-06
Also published as: AU5581896A; NZ272288A

Description

'I '1 46532 HKS:MG P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: MINIGRIP FLEXIBLE PACKAGING LIMITED Name of inventors: NEILL PETER GILLESPIE JOHN CHARLES WELTON HOGG Address for Service: COLLISON CO., 117 King William Street, Adelaide, S.A. 5000 Invention Title: IMPROVEMENTS TO A METHOD OF FILLING A BAG AND/OR APPARATUS FOR S: LOADING A BAG AND/OR A BAG ARTICLE Details of Associated Provisional Applications: NZ 272288 Dated 6th June 1995 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 21/06/2000 21/062000 09:32 COLLISON CO AIDELAIDE 0262853593NO31 NO.301 9005 2 This invention relates to a method of filling a bag and/or apparatus for loading a bag and/or a bagged article and has been devised particularly though not necessarily solely for use in placing articles in the form of blocks or a set of articles which together form an assembly in the nature of a block such as, for example, blocks of cheese into a bag.

It is known to make and fill on site and at substantially the same time bags formed of plastics material and techniques for achieving this are often known by the term form-fill.

10 Items packaged in this way have the disadvantage that there is a substantial risk of sea leakage in the formed bag. This risk is particularly serious where the bag has been evacuated and gas flushed, for example, with carbon dioxide, as part of the assembly process, as any seam leakage may allow air into the package which in turn ~.may have detrimental effects on the materials packed.

To date we have been unaware of any alternative method of preparing packages in the form of plastic bags particularly where the article to be packaged is in the form of a block such as, for example, a block of cheese.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of filling a bag, apparatus for loading a bag and/or a bagged article or set of articles which will go at least some way towards overcoming the foregoing difficulties in a simple yet effective manner or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.

Accordingly, in one aspect the invention consists in a method of filling a bag having a pair of side walls and a mouth, comprising the steps of providing a chain of interconnected preformed bags, conveying the chain of interconnected preformed bags past a filling station, at said filling station opening or holding open the mouth of a bag and supporting that bag in a substantially horizontal plane, so that the mouth of the bag can accept an article or set of articles moving in a substantially horizontal plane, moving the article or set of articles to be packed substantially horizontally into that bag, conveying said chain of still interconnected preformed bags until a further bag is positioned at said filling station, and at a suitable point closing the first mentioned bag.

Preferably said method further includes the steps of evacuating and/or gas flushing said bag prior to sealing.

Preferably said step of gas flushing comprises the step of flushing the volume of said bag with carbon dioxide.

21/06 '00 WED 10:02 [TX/RX NO 9458] Preferably said step of moving an article or set of articles to be packed substantially horizontally into said bag comprises the step of mounting said article or set of articles on a substantially horizontal plate, moving said plate and article or set of articles into said bag and removing said plate while said article or set of articles is or are held within said bag.

In a further aspect the invention consists in apparatus for filling a bag comprising a conveying means to convey a chain of interconnected preformed bags past a filling station, said conveying means supporting a bag, when positioned at said filling station, in a substantially horizontal plane, and so that the mouth of the bag is able to accept an article or set of articles moving in a substantially horizontal plane, means to open or hold open the mouth of a bag at said filling station, insertion means to move an article or set of articles in a substantially horizontal plane into said open bag, and sealing means to close said bag.

Preferably said insertion means comprises a movable substantially horizontal plate able to move into said open bag and be retracted therefrom, and a push bar movable with respect to said plate to hold aid article within said bag whilst said plate is withdrawn.

Preferably said plate comprises a loading part and an insertion part, said loading part 20 in use receiving an article or set of articles, and a second push bar being provided to move said article or set of articles across said plate to said insertion part.

Preferably, second conveying means are provided to convey said article or set of articles to said loading part.

Preferably said apparatus further includes evacuation means and/or gas flushing 25 means.

In a still further aspect the invention consists in a bagged article or bagged set of articles when bagged by a method according to any one of the preceding °.paragraphs and/or bagged on apparatus according to any one of the preceding paragraphs.

To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the description herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

-4- One preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which; Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of part of apparatus to bag an article according to one preferred form of the invention, Figure 2 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a plate for use in bagging articles according to the invention, and Figure 3 is a plan view of an alternative apparatus for bagging articles according to the invention.

Referring to the drawings and in particular to figures 1 and 2, apparatus is provided which comprises a means to support an interconnected chain of bags particularly bags of plastics material. Such bags would ordinarily have two faces or sides being sealed down the side edges and open at one end. The open end may be, for example, the end which ultimately is to form the bottom of the bag and the top of the bag may be closed and include, for example, recloseable elements which take the form, for example, of a narrow mouthed groove and a bulbous rib which can be snapped into the groove or pulled therefrom to allow the bag to be opened and closed on a number of occasions. A suitable bag for use with the invention is, for example, the bag described in our co-pending New Zealand patent application 260544 but other interconnected chains of bags may be suitable for use with the invention. By preforming the bags substantially more secure seams are able to be provided so that the bag provides i substantial resistance to tearing during insertion of the block, or other articles, and is "less susceptible to seam leakage.

The bags are supported on a bed 1 which lies in a substantially horizontal plane so that 30 the bags lie in a substantially horizontal plane or alternatively the bags may be vertically suspended and a bag may be moved to a substantially horizontal plane when it reaches a filling station 2. Where bags of the type described in our New Zealand specification 260544 are used the support rails thereon may be held in a conveyor 3 in S-the manner described in that patent specification.

June 1996/86411AUC.696/CW/iv Suitable apparatus is provided at the filling station 2 to open the mouth of the bags and these may comprise gripping devices which grip the edge of the bag and move the bag into an open configuration before releasing the edges once the bag has been filled.

Filling is able to be achieved, for example, by means of a plate 6 which has a loading area 7 and an insertion area 8. The loading area 7 receives the article or set of articles which may comprise, for example, articles placed on a tray or block articles such as, for example, a block of cheese or what could be described as "floppy" articles such as bacon or the like again placed on a tray for insertion. These are represented by the block 9 in figure 2. The articles may be moved onto the plate, for example, by means of conveyor 10 in figure 1 entering in the direction of arrow 11 in figure 2. The article 9 once on the loading area 7 is pushed to the insertion area 8, for example, by means of a movable push bar 12 which moves in the direction of arrow 13, for example, by means of a suitable piston and cylinder assembly. The insertion area 8 may be placed a little lower than the loading area 7 but this will depend on the precise construction and arrangement of the total machine.

The plate 6 is then moved forwardly, for example, by means of piston and cylinder assembly 18 so that at least the insertion area 8 enters the open bag carrying with it the article 9. The plate is then withdrawn whilst the article 9 is held within the bag and this can be achieved, for example, by providing a push bar 19 again operated, for example, by a piston and cylinder assembly which as the plate 6 withdraws moves with respect to 0. o..the plate 6 in a forward direction so as to hold the block 9 within the bag. That is to say *the push bar 19 remains virtually stationary with respect to the bag but moves with respect to the plate 6. Once the plate 6 has been withdrawn the push bar 19 is again withdrawn substantially to the position shown in figure 2.

At this time if desired the bag can be evacuated and/or gas flushed, for example, with S:carbon dioxide if desired and in substantially the known manner. The bag is then 30 sealed and moves on so that the next bag in the chain is presented to the filling station 2.

The construction shown in figure 3 is substantially similar having a bed 1 across which the bags move and a filling station 2 so that the plate is elongated providing two pathways 25 and 26 for articles to move along, for example, alternately. Articles are positioned at the loading part 27 and 28 of the plates which are elongated and the June 1996/8641IAUC.696/CW/iv -6articles are moved forwardly to the insertion part 29, for example, by piston and cylinder assemblies, chains, belts, conveyors or in any other suitable manner. Once at the part 29 the construction of figure 3 operates in substantially the same manner as above described. The bags which may be of the type described in our specification 260544 may move inwardly or be moved inwardly along a supporting rail 30 and move outwardly through area 31 which provides cutting, trimming and sealing parts of the apparatus.

It is also envisaged that one or both faces of the bag could be chambered so that the bag becomes shaped closely to the shape of the article to be packaged. That is to say a 3-dimensional effect is given to the bag.

In use a chain of bags is presented to the apparatus and these are filled with an article or set of articles as above described. Once sealed the bags may be separated from the chain and packaged as desired.

It is an advantage of at least the preferred form of the invention that block articles and indeed other articles if desired are able to be packaged in a simple yet effective manner in a robust bag. It is believed that the marginal cost of providing such a bag would be little above the cost of a form-fill type construction whilst the risk of seam leakage is minimised.

o a June 1996/8641IAUC.696/CW/iv

Claims

1. A method of filling a bag having a pair of side walls and a mouth, comprising the steps of providing a chain of interconnected preformed bags, conveying the chain of interconnected preformed bags past a filling station, at said filling station opening or holding open the mouth of a bag and supporting that bag in a substantially horizontal plane, so that the mouth of the bag can accept an article or set of articles moving in a substantially horizontal plane, moving the article or set of articles to be packed substantially horizontally into that bag, conveying said chain of still interconnected 10 preformed bags until a further bag is positioned at said filling station, and at a suitable point closing the first mentioned bag.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further including the steps of evacuating and/or gas flushing said bag prior to sealing. *oo

3. A method as claimed in either one of claims 1 and 2 wherein said step of gas flushing comprises the step of flushing the volume of said bag with carbon dioxide. S

4. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said step of S: moving an article or set of articles to be packed substantially horizontally into said bag comprises the step of mounting said article or set of articles on a substantially horizontal plate, moving said plate and article or set or articles into said bag and 20 removing said plate while said article or set of articles is or are held within said bag.

A method of filling a bag having a pair of side walls and a mouth, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. Apparatus for filling a bag comprising a conveying means to convey a chain of interconnected preformed bags past a filling station, said conveying means supporting a bag, when positioned at said filling station, in a substantially horizontal plane, and so that the mouth of the bag is able to accept an article or set of articles moving in a substantially horizontal plane, 21/06 '00 WED 10:02 [TX/RX NO 9458] 8 means to open or hold open the mouth of a bag at said filling station, insertion means to move an article or set of articles in a substantially horizontal plane into said open bag, and sealing means to close said bag.

7. Apparatus for loading a bag as claimed in claim 6, wherein said insertion means comprises a movable substantially horizontal plate able to move into said open bag and be retracted therefrom, and a push bar movable with respect to said plate to hold said article within said bag whilst said plate is withdrawn.

8. Apparatus for loading a bag as claimed in claim 7, wherein said plate comprises a loading part and an insertion part, said loading part in use receiving an article or set of articles, and a second push bar being provided to move said article or set of articles across said plate to said insertion part.

9. Apparatus for loading a bag as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 8 wherein second conveying means are provided to convey said articles or set of articles to said loading part. Apparatus for loading a bag as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 9 wherein said apparatus further includes evacuation means and/or gas flushing means. 8 i Apparatus for loading a bag substantially as herein described with reference to S°the accompanying drawings. 20 12. A bagged article or bagged set of articles when bagged by a method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and/or bagged on apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 11. Dated this 31st day of May 2000 25 MINIGRIP FLEXIBLE PACKAGING LIMITED De By their Patent Attorneys, S" COLLISON CO. a al