Bagging machine and method

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BAGGING MACHINE AND METHOD

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to bagging machines and methods and more particularly to methods and apparatus which are especially suited for bagging foodstuffs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Batches of otherwise essentially bulk foodstuffs are frequently placed in plastic bags for transportation and storage. As an example, the machine described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 32,963 entitled Packaging Apparatus and Method, issued Mar. 24, 1987 and assigned to the assignee of this patent, (here the Chicken Machine Patent), has had wide acceptance for bagging parts of cut up chickens for transportation to, and storage at, fast food chicken restaurants. The machine of the Chicken Machine Patent has also enjoyed commercial success for packaging bulk quantities of such products as candy and dog food when used in combination with the shuttle and seal mechanism described and claimed in the same assignee's Patent No. 5,077,958, entitled Packaging Machine and Method, issued Jan. 7,

1992, (here the Bulk Packager Patent). The machine has also been used successfully in combination with an improved version of the Bulk Packager as taught and claimed in commonly owned Patent No. 5,259,172, issued Nov. 9,

1993, entitled Packaging Machine and Method, (here the Briquetting Patent). With the machine of the Briquetting Patent bulk foodstuffs such as lettuce are packaged after the bag has been compacted to expel air and compress the package contents.

While the bagging machine of the referenced patents, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, has enjoyed commercial success, it has its limitations. First and foremost it is relatively complex and therefor expensive. Secondly its cycle rate is relatively slow, such that it is unsuited for truly high volume chicken and other foodstuff proces sing facilities. Because of its relatively slow cycle rate, when used with a supply conveyor, the conveyor must operate intermittently to avoid mixing one product batch with the next. When product batches are mixed, one can, for example with a ten piece chicken cut-up, end up with eleven chicken parts in one bag and nine in the next Moreover, even if but ten parts are in a given bag, there may be parts from two chickens, such that, for example, one bag has three legs and perhaps the next bag has but one leg and three wings. Since many chicken processing plants operate with continuous conveyor feed of chicken parts to handle the throughput of a chicken processing line, the Chicken Bagger is not susceptible to satisfactory use in such a processing plant.

With the machine of the referenced patents, webs of preopened interconnected bags are used. The bags are open at the front and interconnected along the back. As a consequence an end bag has a tendency to swing rearwardly, especially when it is loaded, but also as it is being fed along a path of travel to a load station. Accordingly, the machine is constructed such that components are positioned behind the loading station, which components provide resistance to bags swinging rearwardly. With some food products, such as chickens, these components become coated when in use with food substances such as chicken fat. Accordingly, provisions must be made to facilitate the feed of bags to the load station without sticking to the components. To that end, the machine of the Chicken Bagger patent utilizes a number of belts which have downwardly movable reaches that

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engage bags as they are being fed to the load station. These belts are referred to in the Chicken Bagger patent as 0 ring like belts. This belt arrangement is both unduly complex and difficult to clean and sterilize effectively as is necessary in a

5 food processing environment.

Another limitation of the machine of the referenced patents is that foodstuffs being deposited in the bag are gravity fed into bags which are generally vertically oriented at the load station. While this is quite satisfactory for many

10 foodstuffs, it is unsatisfactory, for example, for bagging a number of bagels delivered to the machine on a tray. Gravity feed of a quantity of such products is apt to damage the products.

Machines have been constructed in which products are

15 inserted into horizontally supported bags. Others have provided for angular adjustment of the orientation of a bagging machine. However most prior machines have lacked the ability to position a load station assembly such that bags being loaded may be horizontally or vertically oriented or at

20 selected orientations between the horizontal and the vertical. Under regulations of the Food and Drug Administration, where two metal members abut, welds must be provided to avoid the presence of crevices where foodstuffs can collect. The obvious reason is that such collected foodstuffs can

25 become an environment for germ cultures. Because of these regulations, machines of the referenced patents have welds which are not needed for structural integrity of the machine, but rather are provided only for the purpose of complying with FDA regulations.

30 In many applications it is desirable to imprint information about a product being packaged, the date of packaging and/or instructions as to its handling as a part of the machine bagging operation. The machine of the referenced patents is lacking in provision for the presence of such an imprinter

35 and, should an imprinter be present, there is no provision for the protection of such an imprinter during a machine cleaning operation. As a consequence such information is often hand stamped on bags after loading.

Another shortcoming of the machine of the referenced

40 patents is that its configuration is such that if conveyor fed, the conveyor often must be positioned as a side loader, rather than inline which militates against the provision of a linear path of food processing travel through a food processing facility.

45 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With a machine made in accordance with this invention the shortcomings of the prior machine are overcome and other advantages are provided as well. With the improved

50 machine substantially increased throughput is provided by a machine that is simpler to clean, simpler in construction and utilizable for a larger variety of products.

A generally "Y" shaped upright section is mounted at the forward part of a base. The upright section has an upstanding

55 leg and two downwardly extending divergent arms which are fixed to the base. A generally horizontal "Y" shaped section has a leg fixed to the leg of the upright section and a pair of diverging arms extending rearwardly. Supports are interposed between the arms of the horizontal section and

60 the base.

The upright section arms and the supports each have cutouts adjacent their lower ends which together with the base define triangular openings. These openings both facilitate cleaning and sterilization of the machine and avoid 65 welds that are not needed for structural integrity but which, but for the cutouts, would be necessary to avoid crevices where foreign matter can collect.

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The machine includes a pair of mirror image supply stations located behind the upright section and on either side of the leg of the horizontal section. Because the horizontal section is "Y" shaped with its leg between the supply stations, ready access to the supply stations is available to 5 facilitate, for example, placing of cartons of bag webs in the supply stations and removal of empty cartons.

The load stations are defined by mirror image assemblies supported by the upright section on either side of its leg. Each of the load station assemblies is vertically adjustable 10 and rotatably mounted on the upright section for selective positioning for loading bags in horizontal or vertical orientations or at any desired angular relationship between the horizontal and vertical. The load stations include mirror image pairs of web feed nip rolls. The nip rolls of each pair 15 are counter rotatable for feeding a respective web from each pair's associated supply station to an associated load station.

Each of the load station assemblies includes a flat backing plate. An air knife is positioned near and downstream along the path of travel from the feed rolls. The air knife emits air as a web is being fed to establish a lubricating air film between the web and the plate. This air film maintains the web in spaced relationship with the plate thus providing the feed assist function of the. O ring belts of the prior machine with a simplified machine that is more readily cleaned and 25 sterilized.

A product receiver in the form of an accumulator/diverter is mounted above and in front of the leg of the upstanding section. The diverter has a top opening inlet and a laterally 3Q spaced pair of outlets each oriented for gravity delivery of products to be bagged to an associated one of the load stations. The diverter is configured to receive the discharge end of an inline conveyor. The "Y" shaped configuration of the horizontal section facilitates a semi-nested orientation of such a conveyor, facilitating an inline flow path of the product being packaged. Such a flow path is especially facilitated if the bagging machine of this invention is used in conjunction with either of the transporting and sealing structures taught and claimed in the Bulk Packager and Briquetting Patents.

One of the features of the present machine is provision for operation with a continuously operating supply conveyor while coacting with that conveyor to establish and maintain spacing between successive product quantities to be bagged. 45 The spacing is achieved through utilization of a belt or chain conveyor of the type that has dividers or separators delineating individual product receiving spaces. Abaffle, which is preferably curved, is carried by and forms a part of the diverter. The baffle is positioned near the inlet opening. The 50 conveyor and machine are positioned such that the separators and the baffle coact to prevent a successive product being dropped into the diverter until a preceding product has been discharged into a bag positioned at one of the load stations.

Another feature of the diverter is that it has two internal discharge doors. Each of the doors is positioned to enable an accumulated product in the accumulator/diverter to escape through an associated one of the discharge openings and thence drop into a bag positioned at an associated one of the 60 bag end stations. The doors are alternately opened such that products are discharged into the bagger at one station and then the other as bags are alternately positioned at their respective load stations for receiving products to be bagged.

Another unique feature of the machine of this invention is 65 the provision of supports for programmable imprinters above the supply stations. The imprinters are selectively

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utilizable to permit print information on the bags, such as identification of a product in a bag, date of packaging, and instructions for use.

Aprinter enclosure is supported by the frame at a location rearwardly of the supply stations. The enclosure has doors at its opposite ends accessible from opposite sides of the machine. When the machine is to be cleaned and sterilized, the programmable imprinters are removed from their supports and placed within the enclosure. Once the doors of the enclosure are closed, the imprinters are within a fluid tight enveloping enclosure, so that the machine can be cleaned and sterilized without damage to the imprinters.

Accordingly the objects of the invention are to provide a novel and improved bagging machine for bagging portions of bulk materials, particularly foodstuffs, and a method of bagging such materials.

EST THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the machine;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the machine;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the machine;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of a load station assembly on an enlarged scale with respect to FIGS. 1-3; and,

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of a load station assembly on the scale of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION Of PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings and to FIGS. 1-3 in particular, a packaging machine including the frame structure shown generally at 10 is provided. As is best understood by reference to FIGS. 1 and 3, the machine is a dual bagget having mirror image feed and load station assemblies 12,13 supported by the frame 10. The frame delineates mirror image supply stations 14,15, FIGS. 2 and 3.

In use, webs of interconnected, preopened bags 17 are fed along respective paths of travel indicated at 18, to respective load stations delineated by the assemblies 12, 13. An accumulator/diverter shown generally at 20 is positioned to receive products from a conveyor 21. The accumulator/ diverter guides gravity fed products sequentially and alternately to bags positioned in the load station assemblies 12, 13.

The Frame Structure 10

The frame structure 10 includes a generally rectangular base 23. An upright section 24 is mounted on the forward, or left hand portion as viewed in FIG. 2, of the base 23. The upstanding section includes an upstanding post or leg 25 and a pair of downwardly diverging arms 27,28 as are best seen in FIG. 1. Thus the upstanding section 24 is in the shape of an inverted "Y" having a leg 25 and diverging arms 27,28.

A horizontal section shown generally at 30 projects rearwardly from the upstanding section 24. The horizontal section, is as is best seen in FIG. 3, in the shape of a truncated "Y" having a short leg portion 31 and rearwardly diverging arms 33,34. The leg section 31 is connected to the leg 25 of the upstanding section, while the arms 33, 34 are connected to supports 35 which in turn are mounted on the base 23.

The provision of a truncated "Y" horizontal section 30 has several advantages. A first advantage is semi-triangulation for strength. A second advantage is that the supply stations 14,15 are readily accessible because of the open clearance