Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Plural materials – material supplies or charges in a receiver – Selectively utilized sources
Patent
1986-06-11
1987-11-10
Recla, Henry J.
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Plural materials, material supplies or charges in a receiver
Selectively utilized sources
141 83, 141 1, 141 98, 364479, 366605, 366142, 366161, B65B 130
Patent
active
047050837
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and machine for batching coloring agents into paints and varnishes by volume, and to a machine which will dispense said coloring agents accurately.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art embraces machines which are manually operated, semiautomatic or fully automatic plunger types featuring a set of vertically disposed dispensers with respective cylinders, equal in number to the colors to be batched into the medium. Each cylinder contains and supplies a single color. The accuracy of such machines, particularly questionable in the case of manual operation because of human error, improves with automation. Nevertheless, the hydraulic cylinders used to control reciprocating motion of the plungers in such machines are expensive and include additional drawbacks. There is always considerable downtime due to the return stroke of the plunger which refills the dispenser cylinder with coloring agent. In addition, such machines are characterized by low efficiency, especially in the conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy.
The prior art also contains automated machines which utilize positive displacement pumps and solenoid valves with individual direct current motors and couplers, one for each color to be dispensed. Such machines recirculate excess color via a closed circuit. Although this machine is more desirable than the above described machines, this type is also economically inefficient because of the need for a large number of direct current motors, which require setting, attendant servicing, and the like.
When automated, machines in the prior art also become noticeably large and cumbersome.
There is an every increasing requirement for a greater number of shades in each color manufactured and this ever increasing need accentuates the problem of batching accurately. The prior art machines tend to be accurate only on an order of 5 to 10%. This accuracy does not permit obtaining all shades currently demanded and mixes often do not correspond to the actual shade called for and shades themselves become confused with each other.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above described prior art it is highly desirable to provide a means for batching single colors with the maximum possible volumetric accuracy. This then would achieve the maximum possible extension of a number of shades which could be batched while ensuring that one shade remains distinguishable from another. This would also increase the range of samples of shades which would be available without confusion. It would then be desirable to limit the error in batching of coloring agents to a bare minimum of say plus or minus 1% or even less, regardless of the viscosity of the coloring agent. It would also be desirable to provide such a machine which is simple, compact, and cost effective.
It has now been discovered that the problem can be resolved according to the method of the instant invention wherein lower n pumps, serving n solenoid valves dispense one or more of the n coloring agents into the medium. All of said pumps are operated by a single electric motor, and more particularly a microprocessor controlled stepping motor such that coloring agents are dispensed in portions equivalent to a proper or improper fraction, or to the integer (that is less than or greater than or equal to 1) of a given droplet, equal to 1/m of the volumetric unit of measure, e.g. fluid ounces, and definable as a quantity the admixture of which marks the distinction between single shades. The droplet in question is defined p, a nominal value reflecting the number of half-steps that must be completed by the rotor of the electric motor, according to pump flow rate per revolution of the motor itself. The droplet delivered by the pump is weighed upstream of the respective solenoid valve, and the effective weight thus registered is compared with a nominal weight, computed by multiplying the specific weight of the coloring agent by the volume obtainable from the pump with p ha
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patent: 2923438 (1960-02-01), Logan et al.
patent: 3670785 (1972-06-01), Heiss et al.
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patent: 4314653 (1982-02-01), Sindoni
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patent: 4403866 (1983-09-01), Falcoff et al.
Feinwerktechnik and Messtechnik, vol. 91, No. 3, 5/1983 pp. 111, 112.
AufbereitungStechnik, vol. 23, No. 1, 1/1982 pp. 1-7.
Corob S.R.L. Automatic Machinery Project
Cusick Ernest G.
Recla Henry J.
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