PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCTION OF A CONTAINER

1,253,311. Sachets with drinking tubes. VERPACKUNGS-UND SCHOKOLADENMASCHINEN DRESDEN VEB. 9 July, 1969, No. 34631/69. Heading B8C. A process, for the production of sachets for beverages in a machine which forms a strip of material into a tube over a shaping shoulder and introduces liquid into the sachets through a filling tube after they have been successively partly formed by transverse seams produced in their bases, is characterized in that the filled sachets are removed from the machine before the upper sealing seam has been produced each sachet then being clamped adjacent its upper end, somewhat below the upper edges, by a pair of clamping bars 5, 5, and having its upper ends, which project beyond the bars, spread apart by a suction device 22 arid provided with a drinking tube the upper end then being sealed by two transverse welded seams which enclose the drinking tube between them. As the base of a sachet is seamed by welding tools 6, Fig. 3, separating tools 7 cut off the preceding sachet S which is gripped by one pair of clamp'bars 5 below its upper edge. Rotation of the rotor 1 through 90 degrees presents the sachet S at a drinking-tube insertion station 2 where the upper projecting ends of the sachet are drawn apart in V-formation by the suction bars 22 and an insertion plate 23 is moved, by a driving shaft 27 and a toggle joint 26, to cause a drinking tube, lodged in a slot in the plate 23, to fall into the open V-shaped portion of the sachet S, suction through the bars 22 at the same time being stopped. The plate 23 is then retracted to its original position beneath a feed hopper 21 to pick up another drinking tube in its slot. Further rotation of the rotor 1 through 90 degrees moves the sachet to a welding station 3 where a pair of heated welding bars 31, operated by a lever drive 32, are brought to gether to enclose the drinking tube between upper and lower seams. The lower branches of the welding bars 31 may be interrupted to provide a gap in the lower seam which provides communication between main body of the sachet and the space between the upper seams which houses the drinking tube. In this manner the contents of the sachet are accessible by push ing one end of the drinking tube outwards through the package. The welding bars 31 are moved apart and the rotor 1 is again turned through 90 degrees to a fourth position where the clamping bars 5 are opened and the sachet is delivered, by way of a shoot 42, to a delivery belt 41. The rotor has a