HFFS PACKAGING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REFRIGERATED

DOUGH

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention pertains to the art of packaging and, more particularly, to packaging refrigerated dough in a horizontal form, fill and seal (HFFS) system utilizing direct vertical product loading. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is common to package a refrigerated dough product in a canister of a fixed volume formed from composite paperboard which is spirally wound into a cylinder, with the refrigerated dough product being further proofed in the canister. In one known system, a packer is used to cut hexagonal shaped dough pieces, such as biscuits, from a sheet of dough and direct the dough pieces into respective canisters traveling below the packer. This overall process can be used to effectively stack multiple dough pieces, such as 4-10 biscuits, in a single, substantially continuously indexed container at a high rate. However, packaging products in cardboard is actually, relatively expensive and, at least in connection with products having a small profit margin, can be cost prohibitive.

Mainly because of cost efficiencies and packaging versatility, vertical and horizontal form, fill and seal packaging systems have become increasingly popular, particularly in the food industry. While vertical form, fill and seal systems have mainly been limited for use in connection with making sealed bags, such as potato chip and other types of snack bags, horizontal form, fill and seal packaging systems are considered to be much more versatile, yet scarcely employed. By way of example, it is known to utilize a horizontal form, fill and seal (HFFS) system to create product cavities or pouches in a lower film, fill the pouches with frozen dough products and seal the products in the pouches with an upper film. Prior to fully sealing the pouches, a vacuum is typically drawn in order to reduce the available headspace of the package. Although evacuating the headspace is appropriate for frozen dough products, employing a vacuum on a refrigerated dough product would inherently destroy nucleation sites for leavener in the dough and, consequently, the overall product. Although the above discussion exemplifies disadvantages with utilizing an HFFS system with refrigerated dough products, HFFS systems have been employed in packaging other types of food products, including a single package containing a meal of meat, cheese and crackers. At least one major problem associated with the known uses of HFFS systems in packing refrigerated products is that the products are fully formed at one process location and loaded into the package at another process location in a non-continuous fashion. Using the product example given above, each of the meat, cheese and cracker products are formed at distinct locations and often shipped separately to a packing plant. There, a receiving package is formed and directed to distinct operating stations for loading. After each product loading has been completed, the package can be sealed.

Certainly, the many advantages of utilizing HFFS systems make them enticing to employ. However, these advantages have mostly been outweighed by their disadvantages, at least with respect to particular products and loading constrictions. In particular, there has not heretofore been proposed a way to integrate a HFFS system to be used in efficiently mass producing and concurrently, vertically packaging refrigerated dough products. To this end, there is seen to still exist a need for new ways of packaging refrigerated dough products that can take advantage of the benefits of HFFS systems while avoiding known system drawbacks. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed to a method for packaging refrigerated dough products utilizing a horizontal form, fill and seal (HFFS) system wherein the products are cut and directly stacked into flexible pouches. According to the invention, the packaging method includes creating product receiving cavities in a lower film, directly vertically stacking products in the product receiving cavities and then sealing the vertically stacked products in the cavities with an upper film to form product pouches. In one embodiment of the invention, a product fill station of the HFFS system is advantageously defined by a hexagonal or other shaped packer including a stamping unit for both cutting and directly vertically stacking the products in one operation. In another embodiment, a vertical lift and feed mechanism is employed to vertically stack the products in the receiving cavities.

Additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 schematically illustrates a horizontal form, fill and seal (HFFS) system in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2A is a top view of a packaging strip produced in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2B is side view of the packaging strip of Figure 2A.

Figure 3 A is a top view of a single package cut from the packaging strip of Figure 2A.

Figure 3 B is a side view of the package of Figure 3 A.

Figure 4 is a partial perspective view of a shaped packer employed in the HFFS system of Figure 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

With initial reference to Figure 1 , a horizontal form, fill and seal (HFFS) system employed in connection with the packaging method of the invention is generally indicated at 2. As shown, system 2 has associated therewith a first or lower film 5 which runs from a payout reel 7 in the direction of arrow A to a take-up reel 8. As will become more fully evident below, the majority of film 5 is used in connection with packaging products in accordance with the invention and take-up reel 8 receives the left over or scrap film. In one form of the invention, take-up reel 8 merely receives lateral edge portions of lower film 5, such as an inch (approximately 2.54 cm) or less of either side of film 5 while the remainder of the film 5 is employed in the final package. In any case, lower film 5 is first directed to a heating station 10 and is directed between upper and lower heating units 12 and 13. In general, heating station 10 can employ various types of heater units 12, 13 known in the art, such as radiant and/or convection heaters. Basically, it is simply desired to heat lower film 5 for delivery to thermoforming station 18. In thermoforming station 18, a thermoforming unit 19 is employed to produce product cavities 20 in lower film 5. To this end, thermoforming unit 19 includes a lower cavity mold 21 having a main body 22 formed with recessed cavities 23. A linear actuator 24 is connected to main body 22 and designed to vertically shift main body 22 during the forming of product cavities 20. For use in connection with the forming process, fluid communication lines, such as that indicated at 25, extend through main body 22 to recessed cavities 23. In conjunction with lower cavity mold 21, thermoforming unit 19 includes an upper cavity mold 30 which also includes a main body 31 from which extend various projection molds 32 that conform to recessed cavities 23. In a manner similar to lower cavity mold 21, upper cavity mold 30 is connected to a linear actuator 33 used to vertically shift upper cavity mold 30 during a thermoforming operation.

In general, thermoforming devices such as that employed in connection with forming station 18 are widely known in the art such that details thereof need not be presented here. However, for the sake of completeness, it should at least be understood that the function of forming station 18 is to receive heated lower film 5 between lower cavity mold 21 and upper cavity mold 30, at which time the movement of lower film 5 is temporarily stopped and projection molds 32 are mated with recessed cavities 23 in order to reshape lower film 5 to include product cavities 20. To aid in this shaping operation, fluid communication lines 25 can be hooked to a vacuum source (not shown) in order to draw lower film 5 against recessed cavities 23, as well as to subsequently apply a positive pressure to aid in removing the formed product cavities 20 from lower cavity mold 21 after the thermoforming process is complete.

Once product cavities 20 are formed in lower film 5, lower film 5 advances to a loading or filling station generally indicated at 40. At this point, it should be noted that the invention is particularly concerned with employing a vertical loading system for filling product cavities 20. To this end, although filling station 40 can take various forms without departing from the invention, filling station 40 includes a vertical loading unit, such as vertical loading unit 42 including a platform 43 from which extend various loading arms 44 used to transport products, such as that indicated at 46, into the individual product cavities 20. As the vertical loading is an important part of the invention, further details thereof will be presented below after discussing other overall aspect of HFFS system 2.

After products 46 are loaded into product cavities 20, lower film 5 is advanced to a sealing station 52. In general, the invention is not concerned with the specific manner in which products 46 are sealed within product cavities 20. However, as is widely known in connection with standard HFFS systems, a second or upper film 56 is drawn from a payout reel 57. After following various guide rollers 63 to sealing station 52, the remainder of upper film 56 is directed to a take-up reel 65. At sealing station 52, upper film 56 is sealed to lower film 5 across product cavities 20 in order to create an overall product package in the form of a flexible pouch as indicated at 68. Figure 2 A and 2B illustrate a product strip 69, shown constituted by adjacent, connected packages 68 each containing two stacked products 46, as present in HFFS system 2 after sealing station 52. Thereafter, in referring back to Figure 1 , package 68 is directed to a cutter station 72 wherein a blade element 73 is shifted vertically through the use of a linear actuator 74 against an anvil member 75 in order to cut each package 68 from the overall web defined by the mated lower film 5 and upper film 56. After cutter station 72, each package takes the form shown in Figures 3A and 3B. At this point, it should be understood that the exact shape of package 68, as well as product 46, can vary from that shown in these figures. Instead, it is only important that each product receiving cavity 20 is formed, filled and sealed in an HFFS system and that products 46 are vertically loaded.

As indicated above, filling station 40 can take various forms without departing from the invention. In a simple form, vertical loading unit 42 can be constituted by a robot unit which can be shifted into or out of the page of Figure 1 to pick-up products 46, such as through the use of a suction system (not shown), and then shifts vertically over product cavities 20 prior to vertically depositing products 46 into cavities 20. In a more advanced form employed in connection with mass producing packages 68, vertically loading unit 42 is constituted by a hexagonal or other product shaped packer assembly for both cutting and directly vertically stacking refrigerated dough products 46. For details of this

embodiment, reference is made to Figure 4 which illustrates a shaped packer 100 employed in HFFS system 2. As shown, a series of adjacent product strips 69 are conveyed in a first direction X and under a transport cutter plate 102. A sheet 104 of dough is directed along a conveyor 108, beneath a roller 110 and upon transport cutter plate 102 that moves in a second direction Y which is angled, more specifically

perpendicular in the embodiment shown, relative to the first direction X. Transport cutter plate 102 is shown to take a generally honeycomb form, defining various openings 112 established by interconnected dough cutting edges 116 arranged in a hexagonal shape. This shape is desirable as it virtually eliminates any residual dough, except perhaps at the lateral edges of dough sheet 104. However, other shapes, such as circular or various polygon-shaped openings, could be employed. In any case, roller 110 forces the dough sheet 104 into openings 112 to create various products 46 prior to packer 100 as clearly shown in this figure. Upon reaching packer 100 (shown as a stamping unit), vertical shifting of loading unit 42 causes loading arms 44, which are aligned with respective openings 112, to push or stamp products 46 directly vertically into respective ones of the product cavities 20. Thereafter, the products 46 will be re-directed to travel in the first direction with product strips 69.

Depending on various factors, such as the size of the individual products 46, the dimensions of transport cutter plate 102, the number of adjacent product strips 69 and the indexing time for first film 5 (which is basically governed by the required formation time at forming station 18), the travel speed for dough sheet 104 on transport cutter plate 102 and the operation cycle for loading unit 42 can be readily established to provide for a generally continuous production line. By way of example, a hexagonal packer designed to generate eighty products during each cycle utilizing a cutter plate having 204 openings is operated as an intermittent machine with a consistent cycle even though dough is fed to the packer unit at a constant speed. In this instance, accommodations are made for the periodic accumulation of dough between the sheeting line and the packer 100. This loading system is used with a HFFS system which is 24" wide and has a 24" index distance. The HFFS system has a dwell time of approximately 60% of a cycle for the thermoforming operation and requires approximately 40% of the cycle to advance the film. At thirty cycles per minute, one cycle would occur in two seconds, requiring 1.2 seconds to form pouches and 0.8 seconds to advance the film in preparation of the next cycle. In a main embodiment, the pouches are loaded during the dwell period. Certainly, maximizing the index distance will increase the output. That is, additional pouches can be filled during each stroke of the loader unit by increasing the width and/or length of the cutter bar in combination with adjusting the number of pouches presented for loading in each cycle.

Although described with reference to certain embodiments of the invention, it should be readily understood that various changes and/or modifications can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit thereof. For instance, the shape of the products, the configuration of the packaging and the number of vertically arranged products can be altered. In particular, a generally peanut-shaped dual product package having adjoining cavities can be advantageously employed with minimal product spacing, or a twin stack/single cavity packaging can be established. In addition, other alternatives could also be employed to increase production rate, such as directing a second, offset array of product pouches to the loading station. In general, the invention is only intended to be limited by the scope of the following claims.