Abstract:
A hot water shrink tunnel includes a heat chamber that has no flue or vent into the heat chamber, an inlet opening and spaced therefrom an outlet opening. Each opening is closed by an end closing device, such as a curtain. A conveyor carries a product through the heat chamber from the inlet opening to the outlet opening. A duct is mounted adjacent each end opening, where the duct includes a shroud of a size and design to capture hot water vapor that issues from the heat chamber when a product passes through the end closing device of the non-flued/unvented tunnel.
Abstract:
An apparatus for shrinking a heat-shrinkable film around a product. The apparatus has a first heating stage which heats a portion of the underside of the package to properly position the shrink film and a second heating stage which further shrinks the film. Side heating jets can optionally be used to heat the sides of the package between the first and second heating stages. The top of the package can also be heated after the second heating stage.
Abstract:
An apparatus for heat shrinking an envelope of heat shrinkable film into close conformity to a product enclosed within the film envelope includes a housing; a first assembly disposed within the housing for directed heated air to at least a first portion of the film envelope; a second assembly disposed with the housing and operable subsequent to the first assembly for directing heated water onto at least a second portion of the envelope, both causing the envelope to shrink into conformity with the product; an arrangement for drying the product after water has been applied thereto; and an arrangement for circulating the hot water into heat transfer relation with a moving stream of the hot air for enhanced water heating prior to its application to the product.
Abstract:
Articles--e.g. foodstuffs wrapped in polyethylene bags--to be subjected to heat treatment in a bath of hot water are dropped from an input conveyor into an elongate tank at an inlet end for entrainment by a circulating flow toward an outlet end. A perforated extraction conveyor partly immersed in the water intercepts the entrained articles and lifts them out of the flow onto an output conveyor for drying and subsequent storage. The entering water may be set in vortical motion by convoluted baffles, converging in the flow direction, for insuring full submersion of the articles to be treated.
Abstract:
A packaging process includes providing a semi-sealed package containing a product to be packaged, providing a vacuum chamber, adjusting a spacing between members of the vacuum chamber to open the vacuum chamber, relatively positioning the package and the vacuum chamber such that a terminal portion of an end of the package is positioned within the vacuum chamber and a non-terminal portion of the end is positioned outside the vacuum chamber, an intermediate portion of the end passing through the opening, adjusting the spacing to bring the members substantially sealingly in contact with one another, the intermediate portion being received in the opening, creating, within the vacuum chamber, an internal vacuum pressure to determine a gas flow through the opening causing opposing layers of the film at the second end to maintain a substantially spaced-apart configuration, and to aspirate both gas from inside the package and gas through the opening.