Patent ID: 7175738

Claim:
A folding and sealing apparatus comprising: a housing; the housing accommodating a plurality of rollers; the housing accommodating a motor for driving at least one of the plurality of rollers via a drive mechanism; a feed surface, supported by the housing, for feeding a supply of pre-glued forms to the folding and sealing apparatus; at least two nips formed by the plurality of rollers each nip having a nip clearance and the two nips provide a sufficient sealing pressure to the folded pre-glued form, as the pre-glued form passes through the two nips, to facilitate both folding and sealing of the pre-glued form as the folded pre-glued form passes through the two nips; at least one of the plurality of rollers comprises an intermediate resilient layer and an outer layer to facilitate passage of an object mounted to the pre-glued form through the at least two nips; the intermediated resilient layer elastically supports at least a section of the outer layer to define a variable size nip enabling the passage of a thicker article relative to the pre-glued form; and wherein the outer layer extends flush along the length of the roller and the intermediate resilient layer comprises a plurality of immediately adjacent resilient O-rings at least partially supporting the outer layer along the length of the roller.