Patent ID: 6932751

Claim:
An apparatus for making bags of varying sizes from thermoplastic material for packaging products of irregular size in a moving product stream, comprising means for machine assessing and acquiring information on one or more characteristics of size of products in the moving product stream, wherein the means for machine assessing and acquiring information comprises a remote sensing means; a first film source for supplying thermoplastic film in the form of a lay-flat film tube of a first width; a second film source for supplying thermoplastic film in the form of a lay-flat film tube of a second width; a printer; heat sealing means for making bags from the film sources by heat sealing across one or the other of the film sources near the end of the respective lay-flat film tube to form each bag; control means arranged to select one of the film sources based on the acquired size information related to each product, and to cause a bag to be made for each product to a length selected based on the acquired size information related to each product; and a printer shuttle which enables the printer to move to the selected lay-flat film tube.