Packaging Machine and Packaging Method

Abstract

A packing machine and a packing method which can prevent the knife in a cutter from having adverse effect on induction heating, and control a packing/filling machine by monitoring trouble with the knife and leakage of content due to that trouble. The packing machine, comprising a heat sealer for sealing packing materials to each other, and a cutter for cutting the packing materials by means of a conductive knife, is further provided with an arrangement for detecting an output from an induction heater generating a high frequency current being applied to a conductive material layer as a monitored phase angle, and a knife monitor for monitoring the cutter based on the detected phase angle data.

1 . A packaging machine comprising: 
 a heat sealer for laying a lengthy packaging material in which a thermoplastic material sealant layer, a conductive material layer, and a fiber material supporting layer are laminated on a top of another packaging material and sealing the packaging materials to each other at prespecified intervals by applying a high-frequency current from a seal jaw to the conductive material layer to heat and fuse the thermoplastic material sealant layer; and    a cutter for cutting the sealed packaging materials at the prespecified intervals with a knife;    wherein the knife of the cutter is a conductive knife for cutting sealed portions of the packaging materials, and the knife comprises:    a phase angle detecting means for detecting output from a induction heater for generating a high frequency current to be applied to the conductive material layer as a monitored phase angle; and    a knife monitor for monitoring the cutter based on the detected phase angle data.    
     
     
         2 . A packaging method comprising the steps of: 
 laying a lengthy packaging material in which a thermoplastic material sealant layer, a conductive material layer, and a fiber material supporting layer are laminated on a top of another packaging material;    heating and fusing the thermoplastic material sealant layer by applying a high frequency current to the conductive material layer from the seal jaw to seal the packaging materials to each other at prespecified intervals; and    cutting the sealed packaging materials at the prespecified intervals with a knife of the cutter,    the method furthermore comprising the steps of:    cutting a sealed portion of the packaging materials with a conductive knife of the cutter;    detecting output from a induction heater for generating a high frequency current to be applied to the conductive material layer as a monitored phase angle; and    monitoring the cutter with the knife monitor based on the detected phase angle data.