DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0036] The numeral 10 refers to a bagging machine such as manufactured by Versa Corporation, Astoria, Oreg. The bagging machine is intended to bag organic material such as compost, silage, grain, sawdust, etc., within a conventional bag. The machine 10 may also be used to bag dirt or sand to create temporary dikes during flooding. Machine 10 is seen to include a wheeled frame 12 having a forwardly extending tongue or hitch 14 adapted to be connected to a prime mover such as a tractor, truck, etc. Gear box 16 is provided on frame 12 and is driven by a PTO shaft 18 connected to the PTO on the tractor. Although frame 12 shown in the drawings is wheeled, it is possible that the wheels could be omitted. Further, the machine 10 could be truck-mounted such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,784,865. Additionally, the machine 10 could be self-propelled such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,472. For purposes of description, machine 10 will be described as having a forward end 20 and a rearward end 22. Machine 10 is provided with a material receiving means 24 at its forward end which may be in the form of: (1) a feed table such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,377; (2) a hopper such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,736; (3) a feed mechanism such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,763; (4) a feed mechanism such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,860; or (5) a hopper such as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,140,802; 5,419,102; and 5,724,793. The purpose of the material receiving means is to receive the material to be bagged and deliver the same to a material packing means 26 positioned at the forward end of a material shaping or forming means. The material packing means may be: (1) a rotor such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,396,753; 5,297,377; 5,799,472; 5,295,554; (2) a screw conveyor such as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,140,802 or 5,419,102; (3) a plunger such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,793; or (4) the packing fingers described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,061.

[0037] The material forming or shaping means is preferably a tunnel 28. The size (diameter) of the tunnel 28 will depend on the desired bag diameter. A face plate 30 is normally secured to the forward end of the tunnel with the face plate 30 being secured to the frame of the machine. In some machines, the face plate is permanently mounted on the machine with the tunnel being secured to the face plate. Various tunnels are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,899,247; 5,396,753; 5,297,377; 5,799,472; 5,398,736; 5,355,659; 5,295,554; 5,140,802; 5,419,102; 5,421,142; 5,724,793; 5,894,713. Normally, the tunnel 28 will include a top wall 32, side walls 34 and 36, and at least a partial bottom wall 38. Face plate 30 includes an opening 40 through which the material passes to the interior of the tunnel when a rotor is utilized as the packing means. If plungers, screw conveyors, etc., are utilized as the packing means, the face plate may or may not be included and opening 40 will be omitted. The design of the material receiving means, packing means, frame and forming means do not form a part of the instant invention. The purpose of the instant invention is to pull plastic sheet material from a roll or container mounted on the machine and to wrap that sheet material at least partially around the forming means to form a bag or bag-like enclosure for the material being bagged as the machine moves forward during the bagging operation.

[0038] As seen in the drawings, a support 42 is secured to the machine 10 and extends upwardly therefrom adjacent the forward end of the tunnel 28 for rotatably supporting a roll 44 of plastic sheet material 46 thereon. Although the roll 44 is preferably positioned as shown in the drawings, the roll could be positioned at other locations on the machine 10. It is preferred that the roll 44 be enclosed in a housing or canister for cosmetic purposes. The sheet material 46 will normally be folded in a tube-like shape such as seen in FIGS. 4 and 5. The sheet material 46 in FIG. 4 is what would be termed a single fold including a front layer 48 and a back layer 50. Preferably, the front layer is slit at 52 at the factory to form front layer portions 48a and 48b. If front layer 48 is not pre-slit at the factory, a slitting device 53 will be provided on the support 42 or machine 10 to slit the front layer 48 into front layer or sheet portions 48a and 48b (FIG. 6).

[0039] Usually, the sheet material 46 on roll 44 will be multi-layered, such as seen in FIG. 5, with a front layer 54, back layer 56, and side gusset layers 58 and 60 therebetween. Preferably, front layer 54 is slit at 62 at the factory to form front layers 54a and 54b. If the layer 54 is not pre-slit, the slitting device 53 will be utilized to slit the front layer 54 into front layer portions 54a and 54b as the sheet material is pulled from the roll 44. The invention will be described as if the sheet material 46 on roll 44 is multilayered. Although it is preferred that the sheet material is dispensed from a roll, the sheet material could be dispensed from a box or container much like garbage bags are dispensed.

[0040] A pan 64 or other suitable support is positioned below the forward end of the tunnel 28 and has rollers 66, 68, 70 and 72 rotatably mounted thereon. Although four rollers are illustrated, more or less rollers could be utilized. Rollers 74, 76, 78 and 80 are rotatably mounted on the underside of floor 38 of tunnel 28 or other suitable support above rollers 66, 68, 70 and 72, respectively, with the peripheries thereof being in engagement with each other. Although four rollers are illustrated, more or less rollers could be utilized. The number of rollers on the underside of floor 38 will correspond to the number of rollers on pan 64. Preferably the rollers 74, 76, 78 and 80 are angled inwardly somewhat with respect to the centerline of the tunnel so as to guide the sheet material 46 inwardly towards the centerline of the tunnel as will be described in greater detail hereinafter.

[0041] A second embodiment for guiding the sheet material 46 beneath the tunnel 28 towards the centerline of the tunnel 28 is illustrated in FIGS. 11-12. In the embodiment of FIGS. 11-12, a protective tongue or shield 82 extends rearwardly from bottom wall 38 of tunnel 28. Elongated rollers 84 and 86 are rotatably mounted beneath tongue 82 with the peripheries thereof being in engagement with each other. As viewed in FIG. 12, rollers 84 and 86 are driven in a counterclockwise direction by any suitable means. A pair of elongated rollers 88 and 90 are also rotatably mounted beneath tongue 82 with the peripheries thereof being in engagement with each other. As viewed in FIG. 12, rollers 88 and 90 are rotated or driven in a clockwise direction by any suitable means.

[0042] A third embodiment for guiding the sheet material 46 beneath the tunnel towards the centerline of the tunnel 28 is illustrated in FIGS. 15 and 16. In the embodiment of FIGS. 15 and 16, rotatable wheels replace the rollers such as seen in FIGS. 7-9. A pair of small wheels 92 and 94 replace the rollers 74 and 66 and a pair of small wheels 96 and 98 replace the rollers 76 and 68. Similarly, a pair of small wheels 92′ and 94′ replace the rollers 80 and 82 and a pair of small wheels 96′ and 98′ replace the rollers 78 and 70. Although four pairs of small wheels are shown, any number of pairs of wheels could be utilized. Wheels 92, 96 and 92′, 96′ are rotatably secured to floor 38 while wheels 94, 98 and 94′, 98′ are rotatably secured to pan 64 or other suitable support. Wheels 92, 94 are in engagement with one another, as viewed in FIG. 16, with driven wheel 92 being in engagement with wheel 94. Wheel 92 is rotatably driven by any convenient means so that rotation of wheel 92 also causes wheel 94 to be rotatably driven. The peripheries of wheels 96 and 98 are in engagement with one another in the same manner as wheels 92 and 94 with wheel 96 being driven thereby also causing wheel 98 to rotate. Wheels 92′, 94′, 96′ and 98′ are similarly mounted and driven.

[0043] FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate a means for “sizing” the sheet material as it passes over the tunnel. FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrate a means for “smoothing out” the sheet material as it passes over the tunnel. In FIGS. 13A and 13B, a substantially U-shaped member 100 having a shroud 101 secured thereto extends around the tunnel with the sheet material passing thereover. The member 100 and the rearward end of shroud 101 are selectively vertically adjusted by an adjustment means 101A (FIG. 13B) to adjust the size of the shroud and the bag passing thereover. In FIGS. 14A and 14B, a plurality of balls or rollers 102 are rotatably mounted on a flexible cable 104 or the like with the balls or rollers 102 being in engagement with the exterior surface of tunnel 28. The rotation of the balls smoothes out the sheet material as the sheet material passes between the balls and the tunnel.

[0044] To summarize somewhat, it can be seen that a novel means has been provided for dispensing plastic sheet material from a roll mounted on a bagging machine so that the sheet material is at least partially wrapped around the material being bagged as the bagging machine moves ahead during packing and filling. The plastic sheet material is pulled from the roll and is positioned around the tunnel and at least partially beneath the tunnel so that the sheet material forms a bag-like enclosure which either completely encloses the material, as illustrated in FIG. 18, by overlapping the edges of the sheet material or which partially encloses the material as illustrated in FIG. 17. The rollers or wheels provided beneath the tunnel ensures that the sheet material will be pulled beneath the material being bagged so that the sheet material will form the bag-like enclosures of FIGS. 17 an 18. The instant invention eliminates the need for purchasing folded bags which extremely expensive, heavy and difficult to mount on the tunnel as noted in the description of the related art hereinabove.

[0045] Thus it can be seen that the invention accomplishes at least all of its stated objectives.