Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – With conveying means to supply successive receivers – Sampler type
Patent
1999-04-08
2000-11-28
Jacyna, J. Casimer
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
With conveying means to supply successive receivers
Sampler type
141 1, 422400, 417472, G01F 1100, B65B 330, B01L 302
Patent
active
061521949
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a method and an equipment for portioning liquid consignments of specific amounts. In addition, the invention comprises the use of the equipment in packaging of small liquid consignments.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Liquids which are sold in small consignments, such as pharmaceutical products and reagents, have been packed in tubes, bottles, or other similar containers with an equipment, which automatically fills and closes the container and attaches an etiquette to it. On the packaging lines concerned, the liquid to be packed is typically led through a portioner or a part of the portioner, while the portioning space is full of the liquid concerned. Peristaltic pumps and rotating piston pumps, among others, have been used as portioners with liquid consignments of the magnitude of few milliliters.
The patent document U.S. Pat No. 4,987,726 features a certain packaging line of pharmaceutical liquids in accordance with the prior art, where the liquid, driven by the hydrostatic pressure, flows from an upper container to bottles which are preceding on the packaging line.
The above described technique is severely inadequate in the respect that, if the equipment is used in packaging several products, then due to the risk of contamination the portioning spaces and tubes have to be emptied and cleaned thoroughly every time a change is made from one product to the next. These difficult and time consuming manouvers present a serous impediment especially when the consignments are small, typically in the range of 100-5000 packages, and the product repertuare is diverse.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The objective of the invention is to establish a solution, which removes the disadvantages associated with cleaning problems in accordance with the prior art, and makes it possible to switch quickly from packaging or portioning one liquid to packaging or portioning the next liquid. The method in accordance with the invention is characterised by the portioning being executed with a bellows, which establishes the suction and the injection of the liquid with an air stream, and the air space defined by the bellows is in conjunction with a suction tip, which contains a liquid space limited by a filter permeable to the air stream but impermeable to the liquid, and when in suction phase the movement of the bellows is being used in sucking the liquid to the suction tip, and when in the injection phase an opposite movement of the bellows is being used in injecting the liquid consignment to be portioned from the suction tip, and the injection is being based on a change in volume of the air space of the bellows, corresponding to the volume of the liquid consignment, established by an equipment controlling the bellows.
The relevant advantage of the invention in comparison to the prior art is that, the liquid to be portioned is taken only in the suction tip, from which during portioning it is injected by a change of direction in the air stream. The suction tip may be a simple tube equipped with a filter, where the filter prevents the liquid from entering the bellows, while allowing the air stream of the bellows to pass through at the same time for establishing the suction and injection of the liquid. By this the contamination of the bellows acting as a portioner is prevented, and the need for cleaning the bellows ceases to exist.
With regards to the the equipment controlling the bellows, a reference is made to a former application FI 94675 of the applicant. In this document, which relates to the accurate portioning of small liquid batches, and where the bellows acts as a liquid filled portioning space, the establishment of small volume changes with a calibrated equipment such as a stepper motor, pietzorod or servomotor has been described in detail. In the case of the invention concerned, any special calibration is usually unnecessary, because while the bellows functions with air instead of liquid the accuracy of the portioning with liquid consignments of 1 milliliter or smaller is despite the c
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Ronka Pekka
Tenkanen Tuomas
Fluilogic Systems Oy
Jacyna J. Casimer
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