Abstract:
A compact form-fill-seal machine capable of the high speed production, collation and loading into cartons of a variety of small dispensing packages with instant opening features including fault lines in the lower containment formation. It can make a variety of formations in the upper cover member as well as fault lines. It also produces simple cups and tubs. The machine operates at extremely high efficiency with practically every known thermoformable plastic film.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/626,562, filed Jul. 27, 2000, now abandoned which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/145,646, filed Jul. 27, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 

   RELATED PATENTS 
   On Apr. 11, 1989 U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,406, which is hereby incorporated by reference, was issued to applicant for a Compact Form-Fill-Seal Machine for producing sealed cups and other package structures including dispenser packages for flowable substances having a fault line extending over a stress concentrating protrusion member. The stress concentrating protrusion member was formed into a relatively stiff flat upper plastic film cover member of a lower product containment member. The dispenser package being the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,493,574, 4,611,715 and 4,724,982, all invented by applicant. 

   
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an elevational side view of an embodiment of the machine of the present invention, 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a side elevational view of the hot score assembly, the platen contact heater assembly, the forming station assembly and the filler station; 
       FIG. 3   a  illustrates a front elevational view of the hot score assembly, 
       FIG. 3   b  illustrates a side elevational view of the hot score assembly, 
       FIG. 3   c  illustrates an enlarged view of a section of the hot score assembly, 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a side view of the platen contact heater assembly and the forming station assembly; 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a perspective view of the nozzle fillers; 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a rear view of the machine showing the forming station assembly and the filler station; 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a perspective view of the heat sealer die assembly; 
       FIG. 8   a  illustrates a perspective view of the longitudinal chop assembly showing tapered blades; 
       FIG. 8   b  illustrates another perspective view of the longitudinal chop assembly with tapered blades; 
       FIG. 8   c  illustrates a perspective view of the longitudinal chop assembly in a tipped over position; 
       FIG. 8   d  illustrates a side view of a clamp screw with blade; 
       FIG. 8   e  illustrates a top view of the clamp screw with blade; 
       FIG. 9   a  illustrates a side view of the transport assembly; and 
       FIG. 9   b  illustrates a side view of the transport plate with a sheet of packages in position over a carton; 
       FIG. 9   c  illustrates a side view of the transport plate returning to a loading position after having been sharply accelerated and slipped out from beneath the collated sheet of packages, with the sheet of packages in a free fall into the carton; and 
       FIG. 10  illustrates a top web forming system. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
   A new dispenser package having significant cost and other benefits and advantages beyond those of U.S. Patent Nos. 4,493,574, 4,611,715 and 4,724,982, which are hereby incorporated by reference, has been invented by the applicant. The new dispenser package includes the stress concentrating protrusion with fault line traversing it in the lower containment member of the new package, thereby eliminating the necessity for the costly relatively stiff, flat, upper plastic film cover. The stiff, flat, upper plastic film cover is replaced by a very thin, easily printed, low cost, flexible membrane like film. In the view of the fact that the space about and surrounding the lower forming die was not only crowded but involved a variety of accurately controlled temperatures for thermoforming and scoring, each of which must be independently maintained and isolated from the others, a more sophisticated scoring system had to be devised as compared to original method of scoring the upper web with a fixed blade. In addition, the scores for each package are not necessarily straight line scores in alignment, or even in a single linear orientation with each other, as would be scores made by drawing film past a fixed blade. Heated blades are embodied in this upgraded and improved machine. The blades are maintained within a narrow temperature range. (A typical temperature might be 365° F. +/−3°). These blades create score lines which are made to a selected depth in increments of 0.0002″. This is accomplished by maintaining the blades in a fixed position approximately ⅛″ beneath the plane of the film to be scored. 
   An example of a machine in accordance with the invention is shown in FIG.  1 . The machine is capable of automatic continuous high speed production of formed, filled, sealed packages. The machine comprises drive means to intermittently advance a pair of parallel transport chains having means to secure and pull bottom web material  50  from an intermittently braked roll of web of thermoformable plastic. The transport chains advance the bottom web material  50  past a series of stations. At a scoring station  110 , the bottom web  50  is accurately scored, as described in more detail below. At a heating station  120 , the bottom web  50  is controllably heated to thermoforming temperatures. At a forming station  130 , the heated bottom web  50  is formed. The forming station  130  including forming die means which can form a series of spaced pocket formations. At a filler station  140 , each pocket formation is filled with an equal amount of a product.  FIG. 2  shows the scoring station  110 , the heating station  120 , the forming station  130 , and the filler station  140 .  FIG. 6  shows a rear view of a similar area, while  FIG. 5  shows the filler station  140  having a  12  nozzle filler. 
   As shown in  FIG. 1 , the machine further comprises driven roller means intermittently advancing a top web material in timed relationship with the intermittent advance of said bottom web  50 . The driven roller means transports the top web in substantially parallel, closely adjacent proximity to and above the filled pocket formations to a sealing station  160  where the top web is sealed to the bottom web  50 .  FIG. 7  shows the sealing station  160 , with a heat sealer die  710  and a chill die  730 . 
   The transport chains next advance the sealed bottom web and top web combination to a further series of stations. At a punch station  170 , shaped apertures are punched in the unformed sealed web areas which rim the pocket formations. The punched apertures are formed in straight lines, with a punched hole at each end of the line of pocket formations and one between each pocket formation. At a longitudinal cutting station  180 , the films are sheared longitudinally in a cut which travels between the punched holes to create longitudinal rims along the pocket formations. A transverse cutting station  190  transversely slits the sealed areas between the pocket formation to create transverse rims and to completely separate the pocket formations, thereby producing individual generally rectangular finished packages with sealed rims and punched corners. 
   A detailed depiction of the scoring station  110  is shown in  FIGS. 3   a - 3   c . Situated above the film  50  and located directly over each blade  300  is a vertically reciprocating anvil  310 . These anvils  310  each extend from an independent anvil adjustment mechanism  320  (one for each blade) which in turn is mounted on a common anvil mounting bar  330  which vertically reciprocates and which, at the bottom of its downward stroke, meets a solid stop  340  (the extent of this reciprocation can be adjusted with adjusting screws  335 ). The individual stop points of each anvil  310  are each independently adjusted by each anvil&#39;s own anvil adjustment mechanism  320  in increments of 0.0002″ (two ten thousandths of an inch). Thus, the movement of the anvils  310  on their down stroke extends to a location such that, after each anvil contacts the film, presses it downward to the fixed heated scoring blade  300  and compresses the film onto the blade to the precisely controlled correct score depth. 
   It will be realized that the heat from the blades  300  and the heated blade holders  350  radiates and rises upward to the film  50  causing problems when the machine is stopped for any period significantly greater that the normal cycling stops of the intermittent drive. This heat is accommodated in the scoring and dissipated by an automatic jet of cooling air in the lower surface of the film when the machine is stopped for purpose other than its normal intermittent indexing rest cycle. 
   The blades  300  in a typical instance are oriented at a 45° angle to the axis of each package along its centerline. The need for this accuracy of depth and temperatures is that when the stress concentrator is in the containment portion of the package we are working with a heated, stretched and thus thin walled film. Mating male and female dies are generally required to produce accurately formed stress concentrators in addition to plug means. The upper plug has an accurately machined male die mounted to it to mesh with an accurately machined female die in the lower containment forming portion of the lower forming die. The overall forming die temperature must be maintained accurately at a temperature which is warm enough to allow formation of the film yet cool enough to not create a temperature buildup, the typical range might be 165°-175°. This is accomplished by bringing coolant fluid to this temperature. 
     FIG. 4  shows a detailed view of the film preheat assembly  120  and the forming station  130 . As shown there, the forming station  130  has a forming die  460 , a forming die cavity  465 , a plug  455 , a plug mounted stress concentrator die (male)  450 , and a pressure frame  475 . In the heating station  120 , the use of upper and lower contact platen heaters  410 ,  420  is required all in the crowded space about the forming and scoring system. In some instances the line of packages may be increased from a single row to multiple rows, always maintaining a short index overall, relative to the width of the line of packages in order to keep the machine compact and to take advantage of the theory of a number of rapid short indexes rather than large index at slower rates as described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,406. 
   In the &#39;406 patent longitudinal slitting is accomplished by drawing the web of completely formed, filled and sealed packages through fixed blades. This was adequate when the package strength (rigidity) was supported by a relatively stiff, flat, thick upper member. In the instance of the new style package the very thin membrane like upper member supplies no strength to the packages&#39; rigidity, and drawing the web of packages through those blades would case a drag which shows up as an are in the transverse alignment of the packages. A novel new means of slitting the package longitudinally is provided, an example of which is shown in  FIGS. 8   a - 8   e . A longitudinal cutting station  180  comprises a vertically reciprocating knife holder  810  holds a series of longitudinally parallel oriented blades  800  at an angle to the film plane of 20° to 30°. During the rest period of the intermittent index cycle, the knife holder  810  is lowered, with the lowest end of each knife blade  800  entering the punch hole at the trailing end of the package in its direction of index. The blades  800  are advanced vertically to longitudinally slit the packages during the rest period of the intermittent index cycle of the matrix of packages, between advances. 
   Subsequent to the longitudinal slitting, a vertically reciprocating chop station  190  makes the transverse cut during the rest period of the intermittent index cycle, creating independent packages for further processing. 
   As shown in  FIG. 9   a , in a preferred embodiment the chop station  190  has a pressure pad  905  which compresses the packages into a supply of adhesive paper of suitable tack as to lightly hold the packages in place while being handled and loaded into a shipping case yet permitting easy peeling from the paper for end use. The paper is drawn from a roll  925  mounted beneath the outfeed table by a suitable roll feed. The paper has a tacky surface  920  and a release surface  930 , and the formed, filled, sealed and cut packages adhere to the tacky surface  920 . The packages, now adhered to the adhesion paper, are lightly pressed downward by an adjustable floating pressure plate onto a high friction belt indexing conveyor which advances them to the cutoff station  200  where a flying blade  940  transversely cuts the adhesion paper on signal to supply a sheet of collated packages. 
   In a further preferred embodiment the yet to be cut sheet carries forward off the outfeed table onto a “flying” carrier member  900  which, at the instant after the transverse blade cuts the sheet of collated packages, rapidly advances the sheet of collated packages to a point directly over a waiting shipping carton. At the end of the forward advance of the carrier member  900 , it is sharply accelerated in the reverse direction, thereby slipping out from beneath the sheet of packages whose inertia holds it still, causing it to drop vertically downward into the carton. This operation is shown in  FIGS. 9   b  and  9   c , in which  FIG. 9   b  illustrates a side view of the transport plate  900  with a sheet of packages in position over a carton  910 , and  FIG. 9   c  illustrates a side view of the transport plate  900  returning to a loading position after having been sharply accelerated and slipped out from beneath the collated sheet of packages, with the sheet of packages in a free fall into the carton  910 . 
   The smooth release coated surface of the flying carrier member  900  may require vacuum means to hold the sheet in place on the carrier plate on which the collated sheet of packages rests. The carrier plate may be tilted with its trailing edge at the time of loading being higher than its leading edge when it first receives the sheet of packages just prior to its initial advance to transport the sheet of package to a point directly over the shipping carton. On the first leg of its cycle the vacuum draws and holds it on the smooth release coated surface of the carrier, and the angle aids in “pushing” the package assembly forward. On the sharp accelerated return, the vacuum is released, and the carrier plate tends to instantly draw away from the sheet of packages because of its sloped configuration. 
   It may also be seen that the top web may also be formed. An example of a top web forming station  150  is shown in FIG.  10 . As shown in that Figure, top web forming station  150  may comprise forming dies  1007 ,  1020 , a cartridge heater  1010 , a heated blade  1030 , and an anvil  1040 .