Patent ID: 7934361

Claim:
A packaging apparatus comprising: film supply means for joining the terminal end of a first film reeled out from a first film roll and the beginning end of a second film reeled out from a second film roll to each other, and for supplying said first and second films which are joined to each other as an elongate film; and packaging means for producing package bags of a given length by shaping said elongate film into a tubular form, vertically sealing the tubular form into a tubular film with a vertical sealing mechanism, horizontally sealing the tubular film with a horizontal sealing mechanism to produce a horizontally sealed portion at bottom of the tubular film, feeding a content into the tubular film, and thereafter horizontally sealing the bottomed tubular film again to produce a joined portion, thereby forming said package bags, filled with said content; wherein said packaging apparatus further comprises: distance adjusting means for changing the distance along said elongate film from a position, in which said first film and said second film are joined to each other to a position in which said tubular film is horizontally sealed, depending on the length of said package bag to be manufactured; and a stepping roller located prior to the packaging means, said stepping roller comprises a rod shaped member having one end pivotally supported and a guide roller supported on the distal end of the rod shaped end; wherein said distance adjusting means comprises a film accumulator disposed between said film supply means and said packaging means, for guiding and holding said elongate film in a meandering fashion with a plurality of guide rollers; and said guide rollers include movable guide rollers for changing the length of said elongate film held in said film accumulator; wherein said guide rollers include fixed guide rollers and said movable guide rollers which are movable toward and away from said fixed guide rollers; and said movable guide rollers automatically move to a preset position depending on the length of said package bag to be manufactured, wherein the distance Lx between the horizontally sealed portion and the joined portion is calculated as Lx=pn+c, where p is the length of the packaging bag, n is an integer corresponding to the number of package bags and c is a given length smaller than p.