Package making – Methods – Filling preformed receptacle and closing
Patent
1986-05-05
1987-06-09
Culver, Horace M.
Package making
Methods
Filling preformed receptacle and closing
53469, 53477, 53481, 53570, 53266R, 53373, 141 10, 141114, B65B 4334, B65B 908, B65B 706, B65B 5114
Patent
active
046710442
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a method of, and apparatus for, filling bag containers with a flowable material.
A number of prior art proposals relate to the filling of bag containers provided in a continuous chain of containers connected in side-by-side relation. Such prior art includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,492,783; 3,618,286; 3,699,746 and 3,813,845 and International Patent applications Nos. PCT/SE81/00187 (WO 82/00129) and PCT/SE83/00335 (WO 84/01351).
Each of those prior art proposals is subject to a number of disadvantages. In the case of U.S. Pat. No. 3,492,783, the chain of bags to be filled is essentially unsupported, either laterally or at its upper edges, over substantially the full length of the apparatus. There thus is little overall control in the event of collapsing or lateral displacement of a bag, such as can occur due to a loss of tension along the chain or due to asymmetrical filling of a bag.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,286, the bags are supported on a mandrel means which is received through a continuous or discontinuous sleeve or loop menas defined along the upper edge of the chain of bags. In a first arrangement, the mandrel means comprises two lengths of a pipe which, over a major portion of their length to each side of a filling hopper, are in close side-by-side relation but which, below the hopper, are more widely spaced to spread the top of each bag in turn for filling. In that first arrangement, the sleeve or loop means comprises a respective loop between each successive pair of bags, or a sleeve which is slit immediately prior to the filling hopper to provide such respective loops. In a second arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,286, the mandrel is a solid bar which terminates short of the feed hopper, with the sleeve or loop means being a sleeve which is fully slit along each bag as the latter is presented to the hopper. In the first arrangement, support for each bag when filled is provided solely by a respective loop at each end of its upper edges; with rupture of the loops being likely where the pipe lengths are spaced more widely below the feed hopper. In the second arrangement, the disadvantages are essentially the same as for U.S. Pat. No. 3,492,783.
The arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,746 is somewhat akin to the second arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,286. That is, a chain of bags which are closed, but define a sleeve along the upper edge thereof. The sleeve is received onto a mandrel which terminates short of a hopper; the sleeve being continuously cut as presented to a knife adjacent the hopper and the resultant free-edges of successive bags are gripped against the hopper by a first pair of endless belts. After filling, the bag tops are gripped between a second pair of endless belts which move the bags at an increased speed and so separate successive filled bags prior to them being presented to a sealing station.
The first and second pairs of endless belts by which the tops of successive bags are gripped in the arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,746, particularly given the provision of respective endless belts supporting the bags during and after filling, largely overcome the problems of supporting the bags as detailed in relation to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,492,783 and 3,618,286. However, this is at the expense of the need for several endless belt systems which add to the complexity and cost of the apparatus. Also, in the case of U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,746 there is the problem of providing a respective drive for the belt system and in synchronising these. Additionally, in all three of those U.S. specifications, the arrangements disclosed principally are suitable for packaging solids of a non-flowable nature, rather than liquids and flowable pastes, or readily flowable particulate or powdery materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,845 is concerned with an arrangement for packaging liquids, but which is less well suited to the packaging of pastes and even less so to the packaging of flowable particulate or powdery material. This arrangement has some similarity to that of U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,746 and th
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ACI Australia Limited
Culver Horace M.
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