Patent ID: 7856792

Claim:
A bag filling and packaging apparatus comprising: an endless chain that travels along a racetrack-shaped annular track, and a plurality of pairs of grippers that are provided on said endless chain at equal intervals along a length of said endless chain and moved together with said endless chain, and further, a bag supply device, a bag mouth opening device, a filling device and a sealing device that are among others disposed along said annular track; wherein said filling device has a plurality of ascending/descending hoppers that are provided above one of arc-shaped sections of said annular track and are moved, in synchronism with said grippers, along its own circular track which is concentric to said one of said arc-shaped sections, and during a movement of said grippers, a packaging operation is performed including, among others, supply of bags to said grippers by said bag supply device, holding of edges of the bags by said grippers, opening of a bag mouth by said bag mouth opening device, filling of the bag with product by each one of said hoppers by said filling device, and sealing of the bag mouth by said sealing device; wherein a guide member that is hollow inside and guides product dropping from said hopper into the bag is provided under each one of said hoppers; said guide member is comprised of a pair of guide frames, which are disposed to face each other and able to open and close, and is moved and raised/lowered together with said each one of said hoppers, and when said pair of guide frames are closed, said guide member narrows at a bottom thereof and a lower end thereof can thus be inserted into the bag mouth, and when said guide frames are opened, said guide member widens at its lower end; a guide frame actuating means that opens and closes said pair of guide frames is provided; said pair of guide frames are repeatedly opened/closed by said guide frame actuating means in an arc-shaped non-filling region of a circular track of said guide member; and a receiving member that receives a product that drops from said guide member is provided at a position directly below said guide member in said non-filling region.