Keith L Macdonald

US Patent:

53850033, Jan 31, 1995

Filed:

Sep 8, 1993

Appl. No.:

8/118414

Inventors:

Henry M. Nixon - Wayne NJ
Frank Schell - Towaco NJ
Keith MacDonald - New York NY

Assignee:

Mahaffy & Harder Engineering Co. - Fairfield NJ

International Classification:

B65B 4352
B65B 4348
B65B 6502

US Classification:

53471

Abstract:

In order to prevent spilling the contents or fracturing a package being filled, a rigid tray is moved into a filling area by pushers in which the pusher is advanced under controlled acceleration and then deceleration for gently stopping the pusher in contact with or in close proximity to a filled tray. A short time delay in movement of the tray is provided and then the pusher is advanced along with the tray moved thereby under a controlled acceleration into a sealing station. The tray is brought under controlled deceleration to stop in the sealing station at a predetermined position where another short time delay is provided in the stop position of the pusher. The pusher is then retracted to a safe position out of the way in order to permit the sealing of the tray without the interference of the pusher while the tray is sealed. The sealed tray is then transferred to an outfeed area and the sequence is repeated for filling and sealing a following tray. The machine includes a digital indexer which is programmed for index length, acceleration/deceleration time and other associated scaling constants.