Patent ID: 6865860

Claim:
A form-fill sealing machine for manufacturing resealable flexible packages, wherein each package includes a package body, a tearable line defined in the package body, an inner cover surrounded by the tearable line, and a re-stickable label attached to the package body in order to cover the tearable line, and when the label is peeled off, the inner cover is adapted to be pulled toward outside of the package, so that a take-out opening is formed in the package body, while a first end of the inner cover remains to be stuck onto the package body, comprising: film feeding means arranged and constructed to feed a film from a roll of the film; tearable line forming means arranged and constructed to form the tearable line in the film each time when the film is fed by the film feeding means by a distance that corresponds to a single package length, wherein the tearable line is configured such that the pulling direction of the inner cover becomes the same as the feeding direction of the film; labeling means arranged and constructed to stick the label onto the film so as to cover each tearable line formed therein; tube forming means arranged and constructed to form the film with the labels stuck thereto into a tubular film; lengthwise sealing means arranged and constructed to seal lapped edges of the tubular film so as to form a lengthwise sealed portion, wherein the lengthwise sealed portion extends along a lengthwise direction of the tubular film; and crosswise sealing means arranged and constructed to seal the tubular film to form first and second crosswise sealed portions for each package, wherein the first and second crosswise sealed portions extend along a crosswise direction at forward and rearward positions of an article or a group of articles that are charged into the tubular film, and the first crosswise sealed portion extends across the first end of each label in a position adjacent to or intersecting with both ends of each tearable line; wherein the crosswise sealing means is further arranged and constructed to clamp the first end of each label together with the tubular film in order to form the first crosswise sealed portion, so that the first end of the label is fixedly attached to the first crosswise sealed portion, and cutting means arranged and constructed to cut the tubular film with first and second sealed portions and the labels into separate packages, so that each package has a first edge on the side of the first crosswise sealed portion having the label attached thereto and a second edge on the side of the second crosswise sealed portion, wherein the first edge of each package is spaced from the first end of the label.