Patent ID: 7690174

Claim:
A method for conveying an article within a hot air chamber of a shrink packaging machine, comprising both: (a) carrying an article on an endless conveyor that is driven in a direction of travel of the article through a hot air chamber of the shrink packaging machine, the conveyor comprising a plurality of parallel rollers disposed in side-by-side relation and interconnected together at the ends thereof, the article being engaged by the surfaces of the rollers of the conveyor; and (b) concurrently rotating the rollers of the conveyor having surfaces in engagement with the article such that the article is further propelled in the direction of travel of the article through the hot air chamber of the shrink packaging machine, the article thereby being conveyed through the shrink packaging machine at a speed greater than a speed of the conveyor in the direction of travel of the article through the hot air chamber of the shrink packaging machine; and (c) compressing the article while conveying the article through the shrink packaging machine; (d) wherein, during carrying of the article through the hot air chamber, a roller of the plurality of parallel rollers simultaneously contacts both the article and a track.