Apparatus and method for making and bagging decorative grass

Abstract

An apparatus and method for producing and bagging decorative grass, comprising an extruder, a godet, a slitter, a cutter, a divider, a bagging assembly and a programmable logic controller. The extruder produces a sheet of flexible material, which is fed by the godet into the slitter, cutter and divider. The slitter slits the sheet into a web of strands of material. The cutter cuts the web of strands, producing a quantity of decorative grass, which is then divided into discrete aggregates and sent by ducts to bagging assemblies, each of which has a rotatable turret having magazines for receiving and discharging discrete aggregates, an inserter and a bag handler. A programmable logic controller coordinates the production and bagging of the decorative grass, based on the properties of the sheet and the divider, and the predetermined properties of the decorative grass.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 965,493, filed Oct. 14, 2004, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 649,995, filed Aug. 26, 2003, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 962,547, APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MAKING AND BAGGING DECORATIVE GRASS, filed Sep. 25, 2001, now abandoned. [0002] This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 375,868, filed Feb. 27, 2003; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 283,693, filed Oct. 29, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,274, issued May 25, 2004; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 060,836, filed Feb. 14, 2002, now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 288,186, filed Apr. 8, 1999, now abandoned; which claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of provisional application U.S. Ser. No. 60 / 081,370, filed Apr. 10, 1998. [0003] The entire contents of each of the above-referenced patents and patent ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020] Yet another object of the present invention is to increase efficiency and profitability by increasing the width, and therefore the overall quantity of grass continuously produced by a single machine, without sacrificing the accuracy of packaged material.

[0021] Still another object of the current invention is to more accurately package decorative grass by apportioning the grass into discrete aggregates in order to better manage the quantity of grass per charge.

Problems solved by technology

Weder '813 does not provide for dividing the uniform charges of decorative grass into discrete aggregates of decorative grass for packaging.

Images