PACK OPENING APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

The invention relates to the packing of products in flexible packaging and in particular bags or similar formed from a plastics material, and to the packing of irregularly sized products such as meat cuts in bags or similar. The invention comprises apparatus for packing products comprising: a product information acquisition stage arranged to acquire information relating to one or more characteristics of products on a product packing line, and a pack opener arranged to open a mouth of each pack to a controlled extent based on information relating to products being packed acquired at the upstream product information acquisition stage. The apparatus may also include two or more generally parallel conveyors arranged to deliver or load products of different sizes to the packing stage, by a lesser number of the conveyors for smaller products and a greater number of the conveyors for larger products.