LINING, PACKAGING, AND SEALING CONTAINERS

摘要

A method is described for automatically packaging articles, such as food articles (11). In the method, substantially rigid preformed containers (1) of porous material are fed by conveyor means (4) and lined with a superimposed web of plastics material (7) at a thermo-forming station (5) so that the plastics material is united with and coherently bonded to the interior of the containers and so as to connect the containers. The containers are then filled and sealed with a second web of plastics material (12) whereafter the containers are separated. The sealing of the containers is conveniently effected by a so-called modified atmosphere packaging system. The use of the preformed containers (1) enables the packaging operation to be operated more efficiently and economically and with less downtime than previously proposed automatic packaging systems.