Bag filling apparatus having dust-tight spout

Claim 1

In a bag filling machine for filling a product into a bag having an interior region and a generally open top and a top edge, said bag filling machine being of a type having a hopper, a spout suspended beneath said hopper onto which said bag is mounted, a bag gripping assembly for maintaining said bag on said spout, and at least one dust collector disposed between said bag gripping assembly and said spout, said bag gripping assembly having a pair of bag gripping arms including a pair of bag gripping members for gripping said top edge of said bag, said pair of bag gripping arms being mounted for pivotal movement in a lateral direction toward and away from said spout, said dust collector having an outer surface disposed opposing said spout, the improvement comprising: at least one cushion, said cushion being connected to at least one of the pair of bag gripping arms and oriented such that said cushion contacts the outer surface of the dust collector when the pair of bag gripping arms are moved laterally toward the spout, whereby the contact between the cushion and the outer surface of the dust collector controls and limits a maximum extent of the lateral movement of the pair of bag gripping arms toward the spout, wherein the at least one cushion is mounted for movement relative to the bag gripping arms such that the bag gripping arms are displaced a predetermined distance from the outer surface of the dust collector when the pair of bag gripping arms are moved the maximum extent laterally toward the spout, and such that said predetermined distance may be selectively adjusted by moving the at least one cushion relative to the bag gripping arms.