Apparatus and method for forming and wrapping material

摘要

The invention provides a forming and wrapping unit (2) for forming material into a continuous bar (20) and wrapping said material the unit comprising: a forming chamber (6) for forming material into a continuous bar; sheet wrapping means (4) for wrapping said continuous bar; and control means operating on said sheet wrapping means, wherein said sheet wrapping means and said control means are adapted to be operable independently of a rate of feeding bulk material into the forming chamber. The invention also relates to a method for forming and wrapping material into a continuous bar, comprising feeding said material to a wrapping position while forming said material; wrapping sheet around said material such that said sheet at least partly overlaps a previously wrapped round of sheet; and transferring the wrapped material from said wrapping position to a storage ready position. The step of feeding the material to a wrapping position and said step of wrapping sheet around the material are separately operable. The method and the apparatus of the invention are versatile and cost-efficient, allowing optimal forming and wrapping of different materials for a variety of purposes.