HEAT TUNNEL FOR PACKAGING PRODUCTS IN HEAT-SHRINK FILM AND METHOD OF PACKAGING PRODUCTS Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC B65B53/06 

FIELD: packaging industry.

SUBSTANCE: heat tunnel comprises a housing 1 in the form of a box "П"-shaped in cross-section, which duct is closed from the bottom with a conveyor 4 located in the chamber 5 of the heat tunnel. At the upper part of the heat tunnel a hot air blower 7, is mounted, having an impeller 15 with a drive, and connected to the cavity of the blower 7 vertically arranged air ducts 11 mounted in the chamber 5 on the opposite sides of the heat tunnel. Each air duct 11 is provided with a hot air flow disperser 13 into separate streams 14. At the outlet of the heat tunnel a fan 16 is mounted for cooling the film 2 with the actuator. The heat tunnel housing 1 has an outer 18 and an inner 19 casings, between which a thermal insulator 20 is located. On the inner casing 19 the air ducts 11 are fixed and each disperser 13 is made in the form of a metal plate with a plurality of slits 21 made in it, arranged on the height of the disperser. Each slit 21 is formed with the punching in the metal to form a canopy 22 over the slit 21, inclined to the longitudinal axis of the heat tunnel. On the frame 25 of the conveyor 4 a heat insulator 26 is mounted covering the opening of the "П"-shaped box housing 1, and between the disperser 13 and the inner casing 19 the electric air heaters 27 are located. The method of packing the products is that the products wrapped in heat-shrink film 2 by the conveyor 4 is placed in the air chamber 5 of the heat tunnel, continuously heated by the heater 27, and using the conveyor 4 the products are removed from the heat tunnel. At its outlet the film 2 is cooled, and simultaneously with heating the air in the chamber 5 and replacement of the products on the conveyor 4 during the operation the uniformity of heating the film surface is regulated. At that the hot air blower 7 installed in the heat tunnel is actuated, and at first, using the blower the hot air heated in chamber 5 is collected in the upper part of the chamber, and then using it the hot air is separated into separate flows. Then, each hot air flow is injected down back into the chamber 5 through a vertically disposed air duct 11. Moreover, during the movement of each flow through the air duct 11 the flow is separated by the flow disperser 13 into separate flows of hot air, which are released on the film 2 of the products under pressure. Then, using the air heaters 27 the hot air temperature is adjusted, using the air blower 7 the hot air jet velocity is adjusted, using the conveyor 4 the speed of motion of the products in the chamber 5 is adjusted, and at the output of the heat tunnel using the fan 16 the cooling rate of the film 2 is adjusted.

EFFECT: group of inventions enhances the quality of packaging and performance due to uniformity of heating the film and speed of motion of the products.

2 cl, 1 dwg