Patent ID: 8061274

Claim:
A method of producing a less than lethal projectile comprising: loading shot into a vertical form, fill, and seal machine; forming a pouch using polymeric film sheet on a pouch former and filler on said vertical form, fill, and seal machine; partially sealing said pouch; filling said pouch with said shot from said pouch former and filler forming a filled sealed pouch; feeding said filled sealed pouch onto a conveyor be loaded onto an ammunition loading machine; feeding empty shell casings into said ammunition loading machine, said empty shell casing including a projectile compartment within a radial wall; automatically loading said empty shell casing with a pre-determined quantity of wad and gun powder; automatically moving said filled sealed pouch into said projectile compartment of said empty shell casing; and producing a fully-loaded shell casing adapted to be loaded into a barrel of a firearm, wherein said forming a pouch includes continuously drawing said polymeric film sheet about said pouch former and filler on said vertical form, fill, and seal machine with said polymeric film sheet being wrapped about said pouch former and filler to form an overlapped polymeric film having an overlapping free edge, and wherein said partially sealing said pouch includes heat sealing said overlapping free edge of said overlapped polymeric film sheet together with a heat sealing means on said vertical form, fill, and seal machine to form a vertical seal producing a hollow sleeve having a top portion defining an opening between said overlapped polymeric film and a bottom portion defining an opening between said overlapped polymeric film; and concurrently therewith heat sealing said bottom portion of said hollow sleeve to form a traverse seam across said bottom portion of said hollow sleeve, and wherein said feeding said filled sealed pouch onto a conveyor further includes a collator station which properly positions said filled seal pouch such that a tail end is leading entering into said ammunition loading machine.