Method and apparatus for product packaging

Abstract

A method and apparatus for packaging items, such as meat, non-meat products and non-food products, using ultrasound or heat is disclosed herein. In a preferred embodiment, a continuous thermoplastic tubular mesh material is used to package multiple meat products. The preferred packaging method does not use metal clips as in conventional packaging, and instead uses thermal energy, ultrasonic energy, or other types of energy to create seals in the packaging material itself. The method advantageously causes one seal to be formed between each pair of adjacently packaged products. This single seal can be cut in half thereby creating two seals, one seal for each adjacently packaged product.

Description

[0001] Not applicable.[0002] Not applicable.[0003] 1. Field of the Invention[0004] The present invention relates to the packaging industry. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for packaging meat products and other foods, but may apply to other non-food items as well.[0005] 2. Description of the Related Art[0006] Almost everything consumers purchase is packaged in some way or another. Accordingly, there are many packaging methods in use today. Choosing a packaging method often depends on many variables such as size of the item to be packaged, whether the item is perishable, cost, and other considerations. For example, one ubiquitous type of packaging technique for a meat product (e.g., turkey, ham, chicken) includes enclosing the product in a mesh material or plastic, and sealing either end with metal clips or some other type of "foreign object" (i.e., an object or material different from the material that encloses the product).[0007] Although g...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

0011] By not using foreign objects, the problems discussed above regarding such objects are avoided. Further, being able to effectively create two seals at a time (i.e., one seal that is severed in two) permits the packaging process to occur more

Problems solved by technology

Although generally satisfactory, the meat packaging technique described above is not problem free.

For example, occasionally, metal clips may dislodge and become embedded in the meat product itself.

Visual inspection usually catches this problem.

Such metal detectors are expensive and require maintenance.

Another disadvantage of using metal clips is that each meat item requires at least two clips, with one clip on either side of the packaged product.

When packaging tens of thousands of items, or more, the cost of the clips becomes significant and th

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