An Automatic Bagging Machine is a mechanism that automates the packaging process in production. The packaging machine automatically inserts the product in a bag or a pouch and seals it. By installing Automatic Bagging Machines in a company’s packaging operations, companies have several advantages on expenses and productivity. Businesses, large or small, are always looking for ways to maximize time and labour while reducing their production cost. Choosing the right type of Automatic Bagging Machines that suit business needs can help fulfill these objectives. There will be increased productivity, enhanced consistency, reduction in quality issues, and reduced workstations. Moreover, you will notice the improvement in packaging accuracy and the safety of both products and workers. You can install Automatic Bagging Machines in almost any production facility and use them to pack products such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, mechanic parts, food, and beverages.

Benefits of Installing Automatic Bagging Machines

There are numerous benefits associated with the installation of an Automatic Bagging System in production facilities. Here are some of the main advantages.

Enhanced Efficiency

Integrating Automatic Bagging Machines will help improve the efficiency of operations and your warehouse and reduce potential quality issues.

Customisable Automatic Bagging Machines

The Automatic Bagging Machines are customisable mainly to the production line requirement. With automated bagging, you can pack individual parts of a product. Automatic Bagging Machines are also suitable to be used with different packaging materials. Customize the colouring and size of the bags and preprinted styles.

Product Safety

In many instances, insufficient packaging may adversely affect the lifespan of goods. This is a common occurrence with products packaged through manual operations. An Automatic Bagging Machine will prevent mistakes. Automation will improve the quality of your Paper box packing machine and eliminate the chances of damage to goods or reduced shelf life.

Improved Productivity

Automatic Bagging Machines will reduce the chances of errors in the production line. Compared with manual labour, the productivity level will show improvement due to the speed and consistency associated with automatic bagging systems. Whether you use semi or fully Automated Bagging Machines, there will still be substantially more quantity produced than hand-packaging operations. The Automatic Bagging Machines involve loading a film roll or bagging on the system and pack one product after another quickly. Only when the bagging material runs out will it need someone to refill, saving time and money.

Financial Benefits of Automatic Bagging Machines

Cost savings and coming up with new solutions are always one of the top priorities of businesses. Automatic Bagging Machines can be a cost-effective investment in the long term. Not only will it improve production volumes but significantly reduce the workforce requirements. Reduce the cost of labour for sorting, processing, folding, and banding the products. For instance, if 20 employees currently working on your production lines handling the packaging and deploying an automatic bagging infrastructure will save you money by reducing the need to have 20 employees working on packaging and increasing production volume translating into increased revenue.

Improved Sustainability

One of the best ways is to reduce the need for transportation in your production process. Automatic Bagging Machines produce uniform packaging that allows more products to fit fewer trucks than hand-made inconsistent bagging. The packaging method helps you ship more items with a lower carbon footprint. Save cost on fuel budget while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Saving on Material Costs

Most companies have packaging requirements ranging from different bagging sizes. Instead of investing in purchasing and inventory various bags, Automatic Bagging Machines allow you to buy film rolls to make bags of different sizes. Moreover, using thinner gauge packaging film, there can be some additional savings on material cost.

How to Evaluate Best Automatic Bagging Machines for Your Company

Not only is it an effective method, but it also simplifies your packaging operations while saving money on many fronts. However, you must pay due diligence when looking for the right automatic bagging equipment for your company. Speak to the manufacturer about your specific needs and ways to improve the system’s efficiency. Moreover, you will always need employees to operate the machinery. Thus, make sure you pick something easy to use that requires minimal training.

A packaging machine for penny carton box packing machine, such as bagels, bread, donuts, in pre-made plastic bags includes an endless chain carrying a plurality of regularly spaced bag grippers, the chain being entrained about sprocket wheels to define first and second flights. The bag grippers pick up a topmost bag from a stack while traversing the first flight and carry it to a bag filling station aligned with the second flight. An infeed conveyor has a plurality of transversely extending product trays containing the articles to be packaged which are transported with intermittent motion to the bag filling station in synchronism with the bag grippers. While the tray is stationary, movement of the bag gripper along the second flight draws the bag over the product-filled tray present at the bag filling station. A product pusher, synchronized with movement of the bag grippers and with the infeed conveyor, pushes the bagged products off the infeed conveyor onto a take-away conveyor.

This invention relates generally to high-speed packaging equipment, and more particularly to a machine for bagging a stack of articles oriented in side-by-side relation into pre-made bags.

II. Discussion of the Prior Art

Certain articles or products are of a size and shape that may make it difficult to package on a high-speed basis. For example, bagels or donuts, because of their size and shape, make them somewhat difficult to mechanically manipulate so that they can be placed in polyethylene bags in a stacked relationship. This is referred to in the industry as "penny packing" because of the similarity to the way in which coins are loaded into paper coin wrappers. While loaves of sliced bread have been successfully wrapped by machines such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,807 and manufactured by Foremost Packaging Machine Company of Woodinville, Wash., efforts to mechanize the penny paper box packing machines, donuts, and the like, at high speeds have proven to be a challenge because of their more irregular shape.

While the present invention has been devised to penny pack food items, like bagels and donuts, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the machine to be described hereinbelow can also be used for packaging other food items, e.g., bread, as well as non-food items, by merely making minor modifications to the shape and size of various machine parts.

OBJECTS

It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus and method for inserting products in stacked relation within pre-formed plastic or paper bags.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved packaging machine for placing articles, such as bagels, in plastic or paper bags on a continuous basis with very low machine down-time for cleaning, adjustment, maintenance and repair.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a high-speed packaging machine for face masks multiple pieces plastic bags packing machine in pre-made bags that is simple in construction and which can be manufactured at a relatively low cost.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved packaging machine operating with a cycle time capable of producing bagged articles of a predetermined number of items per bag at a rate exceeding one per second.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing objects and advantages of the invention are achieved by constructing a packaging machine that includes a frame with an endless chain disposed about sprocket wheels mounted on the frame so that the chain defines first and second flights. The chain is adapted to be driven by an electric motor, and secured to the chain are a plurality of bag grippers that are designed to pick up a topmost bag from a stack of pre-formed bags as the gripper traverses one or the other of the first and second flights and then carries the bag to a bag filling station located in the other of the first and second flights. A product infeed conveyor transports trays of products to be packaged to the bag filling station where the products are temporarily held stationary and are oriented in a horizontally stacked relation. A bag carried by a bag gripper is drawn over a tray of products disposed in the bag filling station as the bag gripper moves in the other of the first and second flights.

The packaging machine further includes a product take-away conveyor whose head end is positioned adjacent the bag filling station. A product pusher synchronized with the movement of the bag gripper and the product infeed conveyor is used to displace bag covered products from the bag filling station onto the product take-away conveyor. The desired synchronization is achieved by providing a rotatable indexing cam that is coupled to the electric motor driving the endless chain to which the bag grippers are affixed. The indexing cam has a cam profile thereon that cooperates with a cam follower that is operatively coupled to the infeed conveyor for controlling acceleration and deceleration thereof in a controlled fashion that reduces the effects of inertia on the products being carried. The product pusher is driven in a timed, reciprocating fashion through the bag filling station by means of a chain driven roller that periodically engages a shuttle mechanism to which the pusher is attached.

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is indicated generally by numeral 10 the packaging machine comprising a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It is seen to include a structural frame, portions of which are identified by numeral 12. It may be fabricated out of steel tubes having a generally rectangular cross-section. The frame 12 is covered by sheet metal panels configured to shield the internal working mechanism of the packaging machine 12. Specifically, a top panel 14 is affixed to the frame 12 as are left and right end panels 16 and 18, respectively. A front panel 20 is partially broken away to better reveal certain internal working mechanism which will be described in greater detail hereinbelow.

The partial perspective view of FIG. 3 is helpful in understanding the manner in which the bag grabber assemblies 28 are coupled to the parallel, spaced apart chains 30 and 32. Specifically, links of the two chains directly across from one another are replaced with specially shaped links 68 and 70 having an outwardly projecting stub with an aperture therethrough for receiving the cylindrical support arm member 26 therethrough. It can be appreciated that by virtue of this connection, the arm 26 at all times remains parallel to the shafts supporting the chain sprocket wheels throughout the entire orbital path defined by chains 30 and 32.

Affixed to the end portion 72 of the support arm 26 is a cam follower mounting block 74 to which a pair of cam rollers 76 and 78 are journaled. The cam rollers cooperate with an elongated cam member 80 that is divided into an ascending ramp portion 82 (FIG. 3), a horizontal cam portion 84 (FIG. 2) and a descending ramp portion 86 (FIG. 2). The cooperation between the cam rollers 76 and 78 and the cam member 80 insures that the support arms 26 will remain aligned with the orbital slot 24 formed in the front cover member 22 to maintain the orientation of the bag grabbers; also the chains 30 and 32 would otherwise sag between their support points at the several sprocket wheels.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, the mechanism used to assist the cam mounting block 74 in traversing the arcuate path about the sprocket wheels 46 and 56 will be described. Mounted to the frame proximate the pairs of end sprocket wheels 42, 54 and 46, 56 is a journal bearing 88 supporting a stub shaft 90 to which is affixed a lifter arm 92 and a chain sprocket wheel 94. A short, endless chain 93 is deployed over the sprocket wheel 94 and about a further sprocket wheel 96 affixed to and rotatable with the shaft 48. An identical assembly is associated with the end sprocket 42.

The axle 98 on which the cam roller 76 is mounted extends laterally outward and affixed to the end thereof is a further roller 100. This roller 100 is adapted to be received in a arcuate groove 102 formed in the end of the lifter arm 92 and it also cooperates with a semicircular recess 104 formed in a guide plate 106 also mounted to the frame.

When it is recognized that the bag grabbers 28 are spaced from one another by a predetermined distance equal to an integral number of revolutions of the end sprocket wheels 46 and 56, it can be appreciated how the arm 92 can be made to arrive at a precise time to engage the roller 100 so as to provide support to the cam follower mounting block 74 to maintain it in a horizontal disposition as it traverses the turn and again positions the elongated cam member 80 between the cam follower rollers 76 and 78.

FIG. 4 is a detailed drawing of one of the bag grabbing mechanisms forming part of the packaging machine 10 of FIG. 1. The bag grabbers 28 each comprise first and second curved sheet metal jaws 102 and 104 that are suspended from the arm 26 that projects laterally outwardly through the slot 24 formed in the front panel 22 of the paper box gluing machine. The lowermost jaw 102 is welded or otherwise positively affixed to a shaft 106 which passes through first and second clamping rings 108 and 110. The clamping ring 110 is welded at 112 to a similar clamping ring 114 assembled onto the end of arm 26. This allows the entire assembly 28 to be adjusted in the lateral or horizontal direction by loosening the cap screws 116 and sliding the ring 114 along the shaft 26 to a desired position and then retightening the screw 116. Likewise, vertical adjustment of the bag grabber can be achieved by loosening the cap screw 118 on the clamping ring 110 and shifting the shaft 106 before retightening that cap screw.

The clamping ring 108 has welded to it a bearing sleeve 120 and passing through the bearing sleeve is a cylindrical rod 122 to which the jaw 104 is attached. Secured to the other end of the rod 122 is a crank assembly including a hub 124 and a crank arm 126. Journaled to the end of the crank arm 126 opposite the hub 124 is a cam follower roller 128. A tension spring 130 is operatively coupled between the crank arm 126 and a pin 132 affixed to the shaft 106 to normally spread the jaws 102 and 104 apart from one another.