US3693369A - Packaging of liquids - Google Patents

Abstract

THE INVENTION CONCERNS A METHOD FOR PACKAGING A LIQUID THE LIQUID IS FED PORTIONWISE THROUGH COOLING MEANS TO PROCE FROZEN SOLID ENTITIES WHICH ARE TRANSFERRED TO APPARATUS WHICH APPLIES A SUBSTANTIALLY EVEN LAYER OF COATING MATERIAL OVER THE SURFACE OF THE ENTITIES, THE COATING MATERIAL BBEING THEREAFTER INDUCED OR ALLOWED TO SOLIDIFY AND THE FROZEN CONTENTS TO MELT, WHEREBY SEALED CONTAINERS WITH LIQUID CONTENTS ARE PRODUCED.

Description

United States Patent Horsewell et al.

154] PACKAGING OF LIQUIDS [72] Inventors: Henry George Horsewell; Arthur John Terry, both of Hampshire, En-

gland [73] Assignee: Brown. and Williamson Tobacco Corporation, Louisville, Ky.

22 Filed: 1 Mar-ch31, 1970 21 Appl. No.:22,354

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data- March 24, 1969 Great Britain ..15318 [52'] US. Cl. .62/60, 53/25, 62/66, 99/138, 117/100 B, 264/28 [51] Int. Cl. ..B65b 63/08 [58] Field of Search ..141/82; 117/100 B; 264/28; 99/138; 53/25; 62/1, 66, 60, 75, 120, 123,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 1,434,397 11/1922 Mock ..264/28 X [151 3,693,369 [451 Sept. 26, 1972 2,800,456 7/1957 Shepherd ..62/1 X 3,171,174 3/1965 Mellen, Jr. et al ..264/28 X 3,350,296 10/1967 Torobin ..62/123 X Primary Examiner-Meyer Perlin Assistant ExaminerRonald C. Capossela AttorneyKane, Dalsirner, Kane, Sullivan & Kurucz [5 7] ABSTRACT The invention concerns a method for packaging a liquidaThe liquid is fedportionwisethrough cooling meansto produce frozen solid entities which are transferred to apparatus which applies a substantially even layer of coating material over the surface of the entities, the coating material being thereafter induced or allowed to solidify and the frozen contents to melt,

whereby sealed containers with liquid contents are produced.

2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PAIENTED8P26 m2 7 3,693,369

SHEET 1 BF 4 INVENTORS HENRY GEORGE HOQSEWELL ARTHUR JOHN TERRY SHEET 2 BF 4 PATENTED SEP 26 I512 INVENTORS HENRY GEORGE HOESEWELL. ARTHUR JOHN TERRY ATTORNEY5 7 BY 544D PATENTEDSms m2 SHEET 0F 4 FIGS.

In 2 illilltiawlil Flee.

- mvEmoRs HENRY GEORGE. HorzsEwEu. ARTHUR JOHN W'ERRYY m ,ag ATTORNEYS v PACKAGING F LIQUIDS A This invention concerns the packaging of liquids,

Sealed containers, such as glass ampoules or plasm tics sachets, which protect their contents against spillage and deterioration, can be used for aqueous.

liquids, but have the disadvantage that they may be difficult to open in circumstances where ready opening by digital pressure alone is required. Also, the material of such containers may be inherently unsuitable for some purposes, for instance if they are required as components to be used in moistenable tobacco-smoke An object of the present invention is to provide a method whereby liquids can readily and easily be totally enclosed in packages which are rupturable under digital pressure.

According to the invention, a liquid which is required to be packaged is fed portion-wise through cooling means, to produce frozen solid entities, possibly of substantially spherical shape, which, after removal from the cooling means, are transferred to apparatus which applies a layer of coating material substantially evenly over the-surface of the solid entities, the coating material being thereafter induced or allowed to solidify and the frozen contents to melt, whereby sealed containers with liquid contents are produced.

Preferably, the 'cooling means may comprise a cold liquid or mixture of liquids through which the liquid to be packaged is passed and which is substantially immiscible with, and of substantially lower freezing point than, the liquid to be packaged. Additionally, the cooling means should not only be of viscosity such that undue turbulence is minimised in the portions of the liquid to be packaged, but also of greater density than this liquid. The combination of these two physical properties may be used to control the rate of movement of the portions through the cooling means.

Advantageously, the coating material is applied rotating in the same direction above a bath of the coating material into which at least one of the rollers dips, the frozen entities being supplied to the upper bight between the said rollers. One of these rollers may be helically grooved around its periphery, while the periphery of the other may be provided with shallow grooves substantially parallel to the axis of rotation. Portions of the material are picked up by the shallow grooves and deposited on the frozen entities in the aforesaid bight. The coating material may be a synthetic or natural wax, such for instance as paraffin wax, or a plastics material or a mixture thereof, which will form over the frozen liquid a continuous even coating which can be hardened to form a rupturable or friable sealed container. It may be applied as a solution, suspension or emulsion, or in molten form.

One manner of carrying the invention into effect upon a small-production scale will now be more fully described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of an, apparatus for producing small balls of ice,

modification, and

FIG. 2 a perspective view of an apparatus for wax coating the said balls,

FIG. 3 a plan view of a part of the latter apparatus,

FIG. 4 a part-section on the line IV-IV in FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating a FIG. 6 a transverse vertical section thereof.

The apparatus for producing ice balls shown in FIG. 1 comprises a column or tower 1 formed by a thermally insulated vertical glass tube, 4 inches in diameter and 8 feet high, filled with a mixture of 1,1,1-trichloroethane (approx; and n-hexane (approx. 40%) having a specific gravity of 1.09 at 25 C. The evaporator coil 2 of a cooling system comprising a condensing unit 3 is located on the inside of the wall of the column 1, where it is immersed in the mixture. The condensing unit operates with F mon- 22 and has a rating of 1 horse power. The system maintains the temperature of the mixture in the column 1 substantially constant at 25 C.

Water containing l /2% glycerine is injected in drops through a jet or nozzle 5 of 1.2 mm. dia. in the base of the column 1 under a head in excess of the pressure of the mixture there. For this purpose, the water is supplied from tank 6 mounted approximately 11 feet above the said base. A needle valve 7 regulates the flow of water into the column 1, the rate of flow being measured by a standard flow-meter 8. The jet 5 is screwed, so as to be replaceable, into a block 9 which can be maintained at a temperature of approximately 50C by means of a small electrical heating element 10, whereby the water is prevented from freezing in the jet. This heater can also be used for initially unfreezing water in the jet 5 after an inoperative period. A gate valve 11 is also incorporated in the 7 block 9, so that the jet can be removed without draining the column. Due to their lower specific gravity, the water drops leaving the jet 5 pass up through the mixture in the column 1 and become frozen into ice balls 12. These ice balls 12 pass into an overflow pipe 13 at the top of the column 1 and are removed with the assistance of a second circulatory system. In this system, the mixture of solvents is cooled in a heat exchanger tank 14 to approximately -30 C. the cooling being effected by a second evaporator coil 15 supplied from the condensing unit 3. The cooled solvent mixture is drawn from the tank 14 by a pump 16,

passed through a filter 17, to remove any frozen water particles, and injected at 18 into the top of the column 1. The mixture flows through the overflow pipe 13, which is provided with a cock 19, into a small header 20 connected to the tank 14. The ice balls 12 from the column 1 are carried through the pipe 13 with the solvent mixture, but are retained in a collecting pan 21 above the header 20. Periodically, the ice balls are removed from the pan 21 and hardened off in a deep freeze cabinet maintained at a temperature of about 2() C.

The diameter of the ice balls thus produced is consistent and, with an internal jet diameter of 1.2 mm., is approximately 6.0 mm. Ice balls of smaller or larger diameter can be obtained by using a smaller or larger jet diameter, generally within a range of 1.0 to 1.5 mm.

When the ice balls have been hardened arr, theyare transferred to the apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 2 to 4, in which they are coated with wax. The coating apparatus comprises a roller 22, 4 inches in diameter and 3 inches wide, which has shallow axial grooves and dips into a heated bath 23 of hot molten wax and a second roller 24, 3 inches in diameter and 3 inches wide, which has a helical groove of semi-circular cross-section capable of accommodating the ice balls. Suitably the helical groove has a diameter of about 8 mm. and comprises four or more full turns in the roller 24. The two parallel horizontal rollers 22, 24 are driven in the same direction (clockwise in FIG. 2) by electric motors 25, 26 whose speeds (up to 200 r.p.m.) are separately controllable by controllers 27, 28. The rollers may alternatively be driven from a single motor through a gearbox.

The ice balls are placed in a lagged refrigerated hopper 29 which has stirring means (not seen) driven by a motor 30. From the hopper 29, the ice balls pass down a feed tube 31 from the lower end of which they are fed singly and intermittently to a point above the bight between the rollers 22, 24 by a slidable dispenser rod 32 which is moved in the operative direction by a cam 33 on a disc 34 driven in synchronism with the roller 24 by the motor 26 and is returned by a restoring spring 35. A baffle plate 36 (not shown in FIG. 2)

ensures that each ice ball falls into the starting point.

of the helical groove. It is then carried by the latter, in the bight between the rollers, across the face of the roller 22, whose grooves serve not only to carry wax and deposit it on the surface of the ice ball, but also to cause the ice ball to rotate and thus to become well ocated with the wax all over its surface.

- of holes 40. The balls fall in turn into the holes 40 but a preventedffifiipassing atonce throughfhe holes by a fixed plate 41. They fall from the disc 39 into the helical groove of the roller 24 at the point 42, where the plate is cut away.

When an ice ball 12 thus coated has progressed to the outer end of the helical groove it falls over a lip 36' or down a guide into a shallow trough 37, through which cold water from inlets 38 is flowing. As illusfated, there ma be a second such t r5u gh 39 to which he ice bans falldown a chute 40. Finally the ice balls pass down a further chute 4l'for collection and storage,

the water being carried away by a drain 42. By this' stage, the wax coating has solidified and hardened, so that it is immaterial if the ice balls have already reverted to the liquid state.

With the above-described apparatus, spherical wax capsules of consistent size can be obtained at a rate of 120 per minute with the rollers 22, 24 rotating at 120 r.p.m. The coating material used is a mixture consisting of 25% of a wax-resin known by the trade name Surfowax 220H (produced by Campbell Technical Waxes Limited) and or normal paraffin wax having a melting point of 65 to 68 C.

As an alternative for the solvent mixture referred to above, use may be made of other homogeneous mixtures of solvents, such as carbon tetrachloride and petroleum ether, having a specific gravity within the range of 1.02-1.20 at room temperature, these mixtures being maintained at a substantially constant temperature which is below the melting point of the liquid to be encapsulated. In place of the heatexchanger l4, 15, the solvent mixture may be circulated through a cooling coil which may itself be cooled by solid carbon dioxide. The frozen liquid balls may be separated from the solvent mixture by a filtering screen preceeding the cooling element of the circuit for that mixture.

The invention can be employed for the encapsulation of liquids other than water, for example solutions of salts and other substances, and for the production of capsules serving a variety of purposes, for example smoke-filtration, smoke-flavour improvement and the like.

We claim:

1. A method for encapsulating a liquid composition comprising:

(a) feeding said liquid portion-wise into a cooling means adapted to form solid entities of said liquid to be encapsulated, said cooling means including a cold liquid which is substantially immiscible with and of substantially lower melting point and of greater density than the liquid to be encapsulated;

(b) passing said portion-wise liquid upwardly through the cooling liquid to form solid entities; and

(c) coating the surfaces of the solid entities with a layer of material which when hardened forms an encapsulated rupturable container.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said layer of coating material is applied to the solid entities by transferring the solid entities from a cooling liquid to a coating station then simultaneously applying a film of coating material from opposite sides while conveying the solid e ngties from the coating station.

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