WO1999052775A1 - A filling apparatus - Google Patents
A filling apparatus Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO1999052775A1 WO1999052775A1 PCT/AU1999/000266 AU9900266W WO9952775A1 WO 1999052775 A1 WO1999052775 A1 WO 1999052775A1 AU 9900266 W AU9900266 W AU 9900266W WO 9952775 A1 WO9952775 A1 WO 9952775A1
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- container
- flowable material
- containers
- material input
- movable guide
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
- B65G47/00—Article or material-handling devices associated with conveyors; Methods employing such devices
- B65G47/02—Devices for feeding articles or materials to conveyors
- B65G47/16—Devices for feeding articles or materials to conveyors for feeding materials in bulk
- B65G47/18—Arrangements or applications of hoppers or chutes
- B65G47/20—Arrangements or applications of hoppers or chutes the hoppers or chutes being movable
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
- B65B39/00—Nozzles, funnels or guides for introducing articles or materials into containers or wrappers
- B65B39/12—Nozzles, funnels or guides for introducing articles or materials into containers or wrappers movable towards or away from container or wrapper during filling or depositing
Definitions
- the present invention relates to a filling apparatus and more particularly to a filling apparatus adapted to continuous, sequential filling of a first and a second 5 container.
- Apparatus of this type are used for filling containers, such as bags, with a predetermined weight of flowable material such as, for example cereals, grains or rice.
- a disadvantage of this prior art apparatus is that the speed of the flowable s material must be limited so that the weighing apparatus can terminate the flow of material entering a container upon reaching its predetermined weight, with reasonable accuracy, notwithstanding inflight material and flow rate variations.
- the present invention provides an apparatus for filling a plurality of containers with flowable material, the apparatus including a movable material guide which receives an input of flowable material, the movable 5 guide being adapted to be selectively moved between:
- the apparatus is preferably configured to continuously sequentially fill the first and second containers and further containers substituted therefor until a predetermined number of containers is filled or the material input is exhausted.
- the portion of flowable material input directed to the first container increases as the movable material guide nears the first container and vice-versa.
- the material guide is half way between the two end positions the material input is split substantially equally between the two containers.
- the material guide is a chute adapted to pivot about a substantially vertical axis between the two end positions.
- the chute preferably includes an inclined base and two substantially vertical side walls.
- the base is preferably upwardly convex and includes corrugations for spreading the material flow across the width of the base.
- the material guide is a vibrating tray, or an auger fed nozzle which pivots in a substantially horizontal plane, or a gravity fed nozzle mounted beneath a flexible tube for pivoting in a substantially vertical plane.
- the apparatus preferably includes weighing devices to weigh the amount of material in each of the containers.
- the apparatus preferably also includes a control system adapted to cause moving of the material guide between the first end, intermediate and second end positions. In a sophisticated version of the invention, the control system causes such movement in response to the weight of material in each of the containers.
- the control system may be pneumatically driven. It also preferably includes fine adjustment means capable of adjusting the portion of flowable material input into the first or second container to a fine degree. For example, in one embodiment, the fine adjustment may cause the input to be divided so that 99% flows into one container while 1 % flows into the other.
- the fine adjustment means preferably takes the form of a wheel adapted to cause the chute to move in small increments towards the first or second container.
- the present invention provides a method for filling a plurality of containers, said method including the steps of:
- steps (1 ) to (6) are repeated to continuously fill a plurality of containers until a predetermined number of containers is filled or the flowable material input is exhausted.
- the first and second predetermined weights are preferably substantially equal.
- the flow at step (2) is directed 10% to the first container and 90% to the second container.
- the flow at step (5) is desirably directed 90%, 10% to the third and second containers respectively.
- Fig. 1 is a side view of a filling apparatus according to a first embodiment of the invention with the material guide in the first end positions;
- Fig. 2 is a front view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 ;
- Fig. 3 is a side view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 with the material guide at an intermediate position between the first and second end positions;
- Fig. 4 is a front view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3;
- Fig. 5 is a side view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 with the material guide in the second end position;
- Fig. 6 is a front view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 5;
- Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a material guide chute
- Fig. 8 is a partial end view of the chute of Fig. 7 along line 8-8;
- Fig. 9 is a schematic view of a pneumatic circuit used to control the position of the chute shown in Figs. 1 to 7;
- Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the load cell arrangement of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 ;
- Fig. 11 is a perspective view of a filling apparatus according to a second embodiment of the invention
- Figs. 12a to 12f are plan views of the apparatus of Fig. 11 with the material guide in various filling positions;
- Fig. 13 is a perspective view of a filling apparatus according to a third embodiment of the invention.
- Fig. 14 is a perspective view of a filling apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the invention.
- Fig. 15 is a cross-sectional side view of the auger of the embodiment of Fig. 14.
- FIGs. 1 to 6 there is shown a first embodiment of an apparatus 10 for filling a first container 12 and a second container 14 with flowable material leaving the outlet 15 of, for example, an overhead hopper gravity feeding through a pneumatic gate valve, an auger driven by a variable speed electric motor or a vibratory feeder.
- the apparatus 10 includes a movable material guide in the form of chute 16 which has a generally U-shaped cross section.
- the chute is best seen in Figs. 7 and 8 and includes an inclined upwardly convex corrugated base 18 between two side walls 20.
- the corrugations and convexity of the base 18 facilitate spreading of the flowable material evenly across the width of the base 18.
- the chute 16 is mounted at the top of a shaft 22 which is rotatable about a vertical axis 24.
- Each of the containers 12 and 14 is releasably mounted to respective weighing and bagging devices 26 and 28 respectively.
- respective weighing and bagging devices 26 and 28 there is a pair of respective fixed material guides 30 and 32.
- the guides 30 and 32 are attached to each other along a vertical edge 34 which is at the apex of two inner inclined side walls 36 and 38 respectively.
- the chute 16 and the guides 30 and 32 are desirably manufactured from stainless steel for ease of cleaning and corrosion resistance.
- the chute 16 is adapted to be movable between a first end position in which it directs all of the material input from the hopper through the first fixed guide 30 and into the first container 12, as shown in Fig. 2, and a second end position in which it directs all of the material through the second fixed guide 32 into the second container 14, as shown in Fig 6.
- the flowable material input is incident on the edge 34 and is partially directed through both the fixed guides 30 and 32 and thus divided between the first and second containers 12 and 14 respectively, as shown in Fig. 4.
- Fig. 4 approximately indicates, the closer the chute 16 is to an end position, the greater proportion of the total available material flow is directed to the adjacent container 12 or 14. This allows a very slow flow rate of material to be directed into a container which is nearly full for accurate final filling and weighing off whilst the larger remaining flow of material can be simultaneously filling another container, thereby increasing accuracy and reducing overall filling times.
- the apparatus 10 can be configured such that the chute 16 will initially direct all of the material flow to the first container 12 until the weighing and bagging device 26 indicates that the container 12 is approximately 85% full. At this point, the chute 16 is pivoted towards the second end position to an intermediate position above the edge 34 where 10% of the overall material flow continues to fill the first container 12 and the remaining 90% of the flow commences to fill the second container 14. When the first container 12 is 100% full, the chute 16 is moved to the second end position and directs all of the material flow to the second container 14. As the second container reaches 85% full, the chute 16 is pivoted to another intermediate position directing 10% of the flow to the second container 14 and the remaining 90% to a new and empty first container 12.
- the chute 16 is continuously moved between end-intermediate-end positions until a predetermined number of containers has been filled or the material flow is exhausted.
- Fig. 9 shows a pivotable link 40 which is attached to the shaft 22 such that movement of end 42 of link 40 causes the link 40 to pivot about axis 24 and thereby pivot the chute 16 between the end-intermediate-end positions.
- the weighing and bagging devices 26 and 28 each includes an air switch (not shown) to sense whether or not a container 12, 14 has been mounted in respect thereto.
- the circuit 48 also includes flow control valves 44 and 46, air cylinders 50, 52, 54 and 56 and control valves 58, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68 which are all controlled by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) (not shown).
- PLC Programmable Logic Controller
- adjustment mechanisms 108 and 110 can provide fine adjustment of the flow from chute 16 into container 12 or 14.
- rotation of wheel 112 or 114 will enable arm 116 or 118 respectively to make small adjustments in movement of end 42 of link 40, thus making fine adjustments in the position of chute 16.
- Fig. 10 shows one of the weighing and bagging devices 26, 28, each of which includes a filling head 41 to which one of the container 12, 14 respectively, such as a bag, may be clamped.
- a flexible shroud 43 ensures material leaving the fixed guides 30, 32 does not spill whilst entering the filling head 41.
- Each of the filling heads 41 extends horizontally at right angles from a beam 45 which is mounted to the chassis of the apparatus 10 by two load cells 47A, 47B.
- the signals generated by each pair of the load cells 47A, 47B are calibrated to indicate the weight in each of the container 12, 14 in one of the respective pair of displays 49.
- the circuit 48 receives control signals from the PLC in response to signals issued by the displays 49 through lines 51 indicating their respective container are, for example, 70%, 85% or 100% of the total predetermined desired "full" container weight (known as set points one, two and three respectively).
- the displays 49 can be manually reset to provide other weight set-points.
- the PLC checks the state of the associated air valve to sense if a container 12 is clamped to the weighing device 26. If the container 12 is sensed to be present, the PLC energises the mechanism supplying the outlet 15 with flowable material, for example, an auger driven by a variable speed electric motor, and drives the motor at a speed inducing material flow at its highest possible rate.
- the chute 16 is in the first end position of Fig. 2 and directs all of the material flow into the first container 12. If the container 12 is not sensed to be present, the motor is not energised.
- the PLC checks to see if the other air valve is indicating whether the second container 14 is present at the second weighing and bagging device 28. If the container 14 is not present, the material flow is stopped. If the container 14 is sensed to be attached to the second weighing and bagging device 28, then the first set point is ignored and flow continues into the first container 12.
- the PLC slows the motor to a speed inducing medium material flow and the cylinder 52 is extended to pivot the chute 16 to an intermediate position above the edge 34 so as to direct 10% of the material flow into the first container 12 and the remaining 90% of the material flow into the second container 14.
- cylinders 54 and 56 are retracted so that the chute 16 is pivoted to the second end position directing all of the material flow into the second container 14.
- the PLC releases the container 12 from the (left hand side) filling head 41 so another empty container 12 can be attached for filling. The above process is then repeated in relation to the second container 14 and so on.
- the cylinders 50 and 56 do not use such a valve so they pivot the chute from an intermediate position to an end position as quickly as possible.
- the first set point may be set at approximately 16 kilograms, the second set point approximately 19 kilograms and the third set point 19.95 kilograms (to allow for 0.05kg of inflight material).
- the apparatus 100 in Fig. 11 includes a vibrating tray 102 gravity fed directly from a hopper 104 to supply flowable material to the first and second fixed guides 30 and 32.
- the position of the outlet edge 106 of the tray 102 over the edge 34 of the guides determines the division of the material flow.
- Adjustment mechanisms 108 and 110 allow the tray position in each of the two intermediate positions to be varied to a fine degree, as discussed above.
- the PLC can be programmed to check whether the other container is in place before pivoting chute 16 to an intermediate position as described above.
- Fig. 12a shows the tray 102 in the first end position directing all the material flow to the first container.
- Fig. 12b shows the tray 102 in the first intermediate position directing the majority of the flow to the second container.
- Fig. 12c shows the tray 102 pivoting to the second end position.
- Fig. 12d shows the tray 102 directing all the flow to the second container.
- Fig. 12e shows the tray 102 in the second intermediate position directing the majority of the flow to the first container.
- Fig. 12f shows the tray 102 back in the first end position.
- Fig. 13 shows a further embodiment of a filling apparatus 120 having a substantially vertical nozzle 122 connected to a hopper 124 by a flexible tube 126.
- a gate valve 128 controls flow from the hopper 124 to the tube 126.
- the cylinders 50, 52, 54 and 56 are connected to the nozzle 122 by yoke 130 and pivot the nozzle 122 in a substantially vertical plane to adjust its position relative to the edge 34 between the first and second guides 30 and 32 respectively.
- Figs. 14 and 15 show yet a further embodiment of a filling apparatus 150 having a substantially horizontal nozzle 152 fed by an auger 154.
- the auger 154 is pivoted in a substantially horizontal plane to vary its position relative to the edge 34 of the guides 30 and 32.
- the main advantage of the embodiments of the filling apparatus is that the material flow need not be stopped, as in a single head filling machine, so whilst one container is filling the other can be removed and replaced to achieve a more efficient filling operation.
- Another advantage is the effect on filling and weighing accuracy. Inaccuracies due to any change of flow rate, through surging or pulsing of the material flow, are greatly reduced because, during the final weighing off, only 10% of the actual maximum flow of the material is involved.
- a related advantage is that the overall filling rate is no longer limited to a rate giving acceptable weighing off accuracy.
- the filling flow rate for most of the container may be nine times the weighing off flow rate.
- the reduced rate of feed from the chute or the like in the intermediate position can be easily adjusted to give a desired degree of accuracy in relation to the type of product being weighed and filled.
- the load cells of the weighing and bagging devices can be linked to the visual displays so that the actual weight of the containers may be continually displayed to operators and through appropriate software can be linked to printers, data recorders or the like.
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Basic Packing Technique (AREA)
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU31315/99A AU739388B2 (en) | 1998-04-09 | 1999-04-09 | A filling apparatus |
US10/095,598 US6662832B2 (en) | 1998-04-09 | 2002-03-07 | Filling apparatus |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AUPP2937 | 1998-04-09 | ||
AUPP2937A AUPP293798A0 (en) | 1998-04-09 | 1998-04-09 | A filling apparatus |
Related Child Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
US10/095,598 Continuation-In-Part US6662832B2 (en) | 1998-04-09 | 2002-03-07 | Filling apparatus |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO1999052775A1 true WO1999052775A1 (en) | 1999-10-21 |
Family
ID=3807197
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/AU1999/000266 WO1999052775A1 (en) | 1998-04-09 | 1999-04-09 | A filling apparatus |
Country Status (2)
Country | Link |
---|---|
AU (1) | AUPP293798A0 (en) |
WO (1) | WO1999052775A1 (en) |
Cited By (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
WO2001079080A1 (en) * | 2000-04-13 | 2001-10-25 | Catalyst Handling Research & Engineering Limited | Particulate handling |
WO2009034351A1 (en) * | 2007-09-11 | 2009-03-19 | Bcb International Limited | Device for filling sandbags and the like |
CN102161433A (en) * | 2011-03-17 | 2011-08-24 | 铜陵天奇蓝天机械设备有限公司 | Mobile material separating hopper |
ES2390150A1 (en) * | 2011-03-08 | 2012-11-07 | Recuperación Medioambientales Industriales, S.L. | Eco installation for automatic filling of scrap containers and filling procedure. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) |
Citations (2)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US4522291A (en) * | 1983-06-27 | 1985-06-11 | Smick D Neal | Seed flow divider attachment for seed drills |
FR2674227A1 (en) * | 1991-03-22 | 1992-09-25 | Fcb | Device for dividing a stream of material in powder or grain form in an adjustable manner |
-
1998
- 1998-04-09 AU AUPP2937A patent/AUPP293798A0/en not_active Abandoned
-
1999
- 1999-04-09 WO PCT/AU1999/000266 patent/WO1999052775A1/en active IP Right Grant
Patent Citations (2)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US4522291A (en) * | 1983-06-27 | 1985-06-11 | Smick D Neal | Seed flow divider attachment for seed drills |
FR2674227A1 (en) * | 1991-03-22 | 1992-09-25 | Fcb | Device for dividing a stream of material in powder or grain form in an adjustable manner |
Cited By (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
WO2001079080A1 (en) * | 2000-04-13 | 2001-10-25 | Catalyst Handling Research & Engineering Limited | Particulate handling |
WO2009034351A1 (en) * | 2007-09-11 | 2009-03-19 | Bcb International Limited | Device for filling sandbags and the like |
ES2390150A1 (en) * | 2011-03-08 | 2012-11-07 | Recuperación Medioambientales Industriales, S.L. | Eco installation for automatic filling of scrap containers and filling procedure. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) |
CN102161433A (en) * | 2011-03-17 | 2011-08-24 | 铜陵天奇蓝天机械设备有限公司 | Mobile material separating hopper |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
AUPP293798A0 (en) | 1998-05-07 |
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