Means and methods of sealing lids on containers

摘要

Plastic portions of a container rim and mating lid (17) are fused together by an electrical conductor wire loop (19) positioned therebetween when electromagnetically coupled to an induction heating coil (18). The wire forms a tab (25) extending outside the closed container which may be manually manipulated to remove a lid fused in place to close the container. This container may be hermetically sealed with sanitized foodstuff (16) or the like by concurrently sterilizing with microwave energy (21) while fusing the lid in place.