CA1058582A - Bag filling machine for powdery material - Google Patents
Bag filling machine for powdery materialInfo
- Publication number
- CA1058582A CA1058582A CA308,641A CA308641A CA1058582A CA 1058582 A CA1058582 A CA 1058582A CA 308641 A CA308641 A CA 308641A CA 1058582 A CA1058582 A CA 1058582A
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- bag
- powdery material
- filling
- bags
- filled
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Abstract
BAG FILLING MACHINE FOR POWDERY MATERIAL
Abstract of the Disclosure A machine is disclosed to bag powdery material wherein primary and secondary preconditioning chambers are used, having a volume sufficient to give enough time for the powdery material to become de-aerated. This de-aerated powdery material is then supplied to a bulk filling station and a dribble filling station. Bags spouted at the bulk filling station are filled to about 90 percent of their normal capacity and are then moved laterally to the dribble filling station whereat the bags are rapidly filled to a weight close to the desired exact weight and by automatic speed changing means filled to exact weight at a slower rate. The bags are supported at the top by grippers at both filling stations with the calibrated weight scale being actuated by weight on the grippers at the dribble filling station. An auger at the bulk filling station forces the powdery material down into a generally closed bag to force the bag open by the incoming material to thus keep air out of the bag as much as possible. This saves time in the filling of the bags because time need not be spent waiting for the air to escape out of the powdery material in the bag before the bag can be closed and sealed. A vacuum probe may be inserted into the bag while being filled to help this de-aeration.
Abstract of the Disclosure A machine is disclosed to bag powdery material wherein primary and secondary preconditioning chambers are used, having a volume sufficient to give enough time for the powdery material to become de-aerated. This de-aerated powdery material is then supplied to a bulk filling station and a dribble filling station. Bags spouted at the bulk filling station are filled to about 90 percent of their normal capacity and are then moved laterally to the dribble filling station whereat the bags are rapidly filled to a weight close to the desired exact weight and by automatic speed changing means filled to exact weight at a slower rate. The bags are supported at the top by grippers at both filling stations with the calibrated weight scale being actuated by weight on the grippers at the dribble filling station. An auger at the bulk filling station forces the powdery material down into a generally closed bag to force the bag open by the incoming material to thus keep air out of the bag as much as possible. This saves time in the filling of the bags because time need not be spent waiting for the air to escape out of the powdery material in the bag before the bag can be closed and sealed. A vacuum probe may be inserted into the bag while being filled to help this de-aeration.
Description
¢ ( ( ( ~05~58;~
1 Background of the Invention Bag filling machines have been used for many years to avoia the high labor costs in bagging flowable material.
In the bagging of powdery material such as flour, the first bags used were burlap or cotton bags. These were permeabie to air and hence as the baqs were filled air could escape through the pores and of course some of the flour also escaped ~` through the pores. A standard method of filling powdery material into such bags was by the method of filling from the bottom up. A long spout was used and the bag was raised over the entire length of the spout so that the bottom of the spout was near the bottom of the bag~ Then as the bag was filled, the bag was lowered more or less in unison with the filling theoretically to flll the bag from the bottom up without much aeration of the powdery materlal during filling. The industry more recently has gone away from cloth bags to paper kraft bags which are less permeable to air passage but still somewhat permeable. Even more recently barrier bags have been used and these are the ~pe with a plastic liner within the kraft paper outer bag. Such plastic liner does not let the air escape during filling so that it has been difficult to fill bags with powdery material such as powdered milk. Another problem is that with powdered milk or flour, strict sanitary precautions must be observed. With many prior bag filling machines using a barrier bag, after the plastic liner was filled on the machine, a man had to separately twist together the top of the plastic bag, put a twist tie on it and then tuck this fastened top of the plastic liner down inside the kraft bag. The man's hands would touch the inside of the bag and therefore this was not particularly sanitary. Also it took about four or five men to ~k - "` 105~3582 1 operate such a bag machine, yet only about two to four 50~pound bags could be filled per minute. One reason for the slow filling procedure was because the 50-pound slug of powdered material would drop through the air and become aerated, and it took time for the air to escape. A certain amount of time had to elapse after the bag was filled to allow the powdered material to settle before the bag could be closed. This limited the productivity of the men and machine.
In some cases with the old machines a sufficient ; 10 volume of air became entrained in 'the powdery material so that the bag did not have sufficient capacity to lnitially contain the 50-pound slug of material and the bag would overflow.
Another problem with the prior art bag machine filling systems was that in many cases a 50 thousand pound storage bin ,, was filled so full that the powdery material could not be - de-aerated until the level of the powdery material in ~he bin ' had dropped to perhaps, one quarter full. This is because there , was so much weight of material on the material at the bottom~
that the air could not escape, As a result the material augered from the bottom of this large bin into the funnel shaped bag filling station in the machine woul~ definitely be aerated and hence was aerated as it went lnto the bags. This aeration was further caused by the dropping from the auger into the funnel which would re-aerate the powdery material even if it was de-aerated at the large storage bin.
Accordingly the problem to be solved is how t~
increase the productivity of a bag machine and how to prevent as much aeration as possible and also to de-aerate the powdery material before and during the time that it goes into the bags.
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Summary of the Invention The invention may he incorporated in a bag filling machine co~prising in combination, a base, a bag filling station on said base, gripper means carried on said base,-actuator means to move said gripper means, said gripper means movable by said actuator means to grip near the top of a bag, a hopper adapted to contain a powdery material and having an outlet, an auger ln said hopper, mean~ to control said actuator means to raise said gripper means and any said bag to have an opening of the bag received on said outlet o~ said hopper, fill control means to control the filling of~a bag on said hopper outlet, weighing means responsive to the~welght on said -~ gripper means relative to said basej dr1ve means ta rotate - said auger to move material in said hopper to said outlet, and first responsive means responsive to a predetermined weight of said filled bag on said gripper mean~s to~aotuate said f control~means to stop the fl11ing of~any said bag.
An ob~ect of the~invention is to~provide;a bag - filling machine with a capability of ~illing a large number of ; 20 ~bags per man hour.~
nother ob~ect of~the invention is ~o provide a bag filling machine wherein the powdery material is adequately de-aerated before~it~moves~to a~bag fllling statlon and is kept in this de-aerated condition.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bag~
filling machine wherein powdery material~is filled into a bag from the top down forolng the bag open to eliminate aerating the powdery material.~
Anotherobject of the inventlon is to provide a bag filling machine wherein a bag is accurately filled to a ~058S82 1 predetermined weight by a scale connected to grippers supporting the top of the bag.
Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention ~ay be had by referring to the following description and claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.
, Brief Description of the Drawin~
FIG. 1 is a ~ront elevational view of a machine incorporating the invention;
~, 10 FIG. 2 is a plan view of the machine of FIG. l;
FIG. 3 is an end vlew of the machine of FIG. l;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view on line 4-4 of :~- FIG. l;
, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the front of ' the machine; and :i . FIG. 6 is a closer perspecti~e~view of ~the front ' ~ - of the machine. ~
~ ' Description of the Prbferred Embodiment .. ..
The fig~res of the drawing show a bag filling machine 11 incorporating the invention, This machine has a frame 12 on which are mounted generally an alignment station 13, a first bulk filling station 14, a second dribble filling station 15, and a sealîng and closing station 16. A magazine 17 is connected to supply bags sequentially to the machine 11. ~
bulk storage bin~18 may be on the frame 12 or separate therefrom and is connected to supply powdery material to a primary conditioning station 19 which in turn supplies a secondary conditioning station 20 which supplies the powdery material :to the first and second filling stations 14 and lS.
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1 Bags are supplied sequentially from the magazine 17 to the alignment station 13 whereat the top edge of each bag is aligned at a reference line 26. Each bag is then moved laterally along the ~ertical plane of each bag to the bulk filling station 14 whereat the bag receives a major portion of its capacity of powdery material. It then is again shifted laterally to the dribble filling station 15 whereat it receives a minor portion of its capacity to fill the bag to a predetermined calibrated weight as determined by a weight scale operated from the hands or grippers supporting the bag at this dribble filling station - 10 lS. m e bag next moves to-the sealing and closlng station 16 to seal and close the bag.
The magazine 17 is adapted to receive the bags standing vertically on their bottom edges with the openable end at the top. A removal machanism 23 having vacuum cups 24 moves against the end most bag 25 in the magazine 17 and pulls it from the end of the magazine to the vertical plane of the a~ignment station 13~ The removal mechanism 23 then moves the bag upwardly to the horizontal reference line 26 to :
orient the top openable edge of the bag at thi5 reference line 26. Before said vacuum cups release the bag, the bag is clamped by clamps 27 in the aligned position at reference line 26.
Front and rear movable frames 28 and 29 are shown in FIG. 3 with the front movable frame 28 shown in more aetail in FIGS. 5 and 6. These frames are similar and only the front frame 28 will be described. This front frame is supported on four arms 30 which are keyed to a shaft 31 pivoted on the frame 12. The movable frame 28 is mounted on the lower end of these arms 30 ana carries movable sprockets and a chain or, as shown, pulleys 32 and a V-belt 33. One or more motors 34, such as - <
` ` - 10585t3Z
1 expansible fluid motors are connected to the arms 30 to swing the movable frame 28 between the closed position of FIG. 3 and 6 and an open position as shown in FIG. 5. In the closed position t~e inboard runs of the V-belts 33 of the front and rear frames will engage the front and rear faces of the bags 25 near the top openable end thereof and maintain alignment of the top of the bag at reerence line 26. When the belts of the movable frames 28 and 29 are closed.on the bags, as shown in FIGS~ 3 and 6, then the clamp~ 27 are released. A
motor 35 acts throu~h a clutch 36 shafts and universal joints to drive the two belts 33 in synchronism so that when the inner runs of the belts are closed on the bag 25, the bag will be moved from the alignment station 13 to the first filling station 14.
The powdery material may be contained in a bulk storage bin 18 which for example may be quite large, 50,000 pounds as~an example. The primary conditioning station 19 includes a container 39 which may be immeaiately below bulk storage bin 18 with an openable valve therebetween which will separate the welght of the material in the bin 18 from the weight of the material in the container 19. Alternatively, as shown, a delivery screw:40 may be connected to deliver the powdery material from the bin 18 to the container 39. The lever of material in container 39 is regulated by a level control 38.
A second delivery screw 42 is connecte~ to deliver the powdery material from the bottom of the primary conditioning container 39 to the bottom of a secondary conditioning container 43 at the secondary conditioning station 20.. This forces the powdery material upwardly into container 43 until a level control 44 is actuated to deactivate the drive 45 of the delivery screw 42.
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l The lower end of the container 43 is connected by conduits 46 and 47, respectively, to first and second bag filling hoppers 48 and 49 at the first and second filling stations 14 and 15, ; respectively. Both of these hoppers 48 and 49 are funnel ; shaped with clam shell valves 64 and 65 on the respective lower ends of these hoppers at the discharge outlets, and outer clam shell spouts 50 and 51 surrounding the valves 64 and 65, respectively. Augers S2 and 53 are provided in the hoppers 48 and 49, respectively, and driven by auger motQrs 54 and 55, respectively. Agitators 56 and 57 are disposed in the ` hoppers 48 and 49, respectively, and are in the form of stirring ; rods disposed closely adjacent the conical inside surface of the hoppers. These agitators are driven by agitator motors 58 and S9, respectively. The filling of the container 43 up the level control 44 means that the conduits 46 ana 47 and hoppers 48 and 49 are all full completely to the covers 60 and 61 on the hoppers 48 ~nd 49, respectively. A vacuum line 62 may optionally be connected to the upper portion of the container 39 and 43 through a vacuum break 63 so as to~ maintain a partial vacuum at the upper volume of these containers 39 and 43. A vacuum probe 66 may be raised and lowered by a motor 68 to extend downwardly through the hollow stem of the auger 52 and into any bag 25 being filled at the first bag filling station 14.
Gripper means are provided to support the bags 25 from a position near the top of the bag. These may be one set of grippers but as shown are two sets of grippers, one set at each of the filling stations. Grippers 72 may be closea by a motor 73 and are supported on arms 74 which have an elbow pivot 75 for horizontal movement and a shoulder pivot 76 for vertical 3C movement with the shoulder pivot 76 being supported on the frame -12. An air cylinder motor 77 extends horizontally between the arms 74 to move the grippers horizontally toward and away from i ,, ` 105~358Z
1 each other. A cylinder motor 78 reacts against the frame 12 to raise and lower the arms 74 and hence raise and lower the grippers 72.
The grippers at the second filling station 15 have an arrangement similar to that at the first filling station 14 but include a scale 81. FIG. 4 shows the gripper arrangement for the second filling station 15 as including grippers 82 which may be opened and closed by a motor 83 and are carried on arms 84 which have an elbow pivot 85 for horizontal movement of the forearm and are supported on a shoulder pivot 86 for vertical movement of the arms 84 and grlppers 82. A
motor such as an air cylinder~motor 87 is connected between the forearms to move these arms 84 toward and away from each other. A motor~such as an air cylinder motor 88 is connected to raise and lower the arms 84. The motor 88 reacts against a movable frame 89 which is pivoted at 90 to a beam gl, pivoted ` at 92 to the frame 12. A loaa cell may act as the scale 81 - and connects the ~rear of the~beam 9i to the fixed frame 12.
~ Thus as a bag 25,~carried by the grippers 82, is filled with , :
powaery material, the beam 91 tends to tip counter clockwise as viewed in FIG. 4 and this is resisted by the load cell 81 to weigh the bag and its contents.
At the first filling station 14, the outer clam shell spout 50 has front and rear halves 94 and 95 which may be closed - to facilitate spouting of the bag and opened to open the bag top and to allow material to flow into the bag 25. Bag sensors 96 pivote~ relative to the front and rear clam shell halves 94 and 95 determine whether or not a bag has been positioned on the spout 50 so that material will not be discharged with a bag being absent or improperly spouted. The second filling _g_ 585~3Z
1 station 15 has a similar arran~ement with an outer front clam shell 98 and outer rear clam sh~ll 99 being also openable and closeable to facilitate respouting of the bag, and front and rear sensor~s 100 are pivoted relative to the outer front and rear clam shell halves to detect the presence or absence of a bag or an improperly spouted bag.
A split belt conveyor 103 has belts 104 and 105 spaced slightly apart and this conveyor is positioned below the first and second filling stations 14 and 15. The space between the belts 104 and 105 is to permit the empty, flat bag to move from the alignment station 13 to the first filling station 14 with the bag in this space between the belts. Later the bags may be liftea onto the spout 50 as shown in FIG. 5 and then filled and after filling they will be lowered onto both belts 104 and 105 to be supported thereby.
The sealing and closing station 16 has a conveyor 108 which is a single belt conveyor on the same level as the conveyor belts 104, 105. All of these conveyors may be raised and lowered as shown in the~phantom position of FIG. 3 in order to ZO accommodate bags of different dimensions, for example bags of from 25 to 110 pound capacity. The sealing and closing station 16 also has a supporting V-belt 109 at the front and a V-belt 110 at the rear riding on pulleys 111 and driven by a motor 35.
These V belts provide support to hold the bag in a vertical -position so it will not tip over and to maintain the top edge of the bag at the reference line 26~ The motor 35 drives all bag transport means in synchronism so that bags are conveyed throughou~ at a constant rate.
The sealing and closing station has means to open the top of the bags to expose inner heat-sealable material areas for ~OS~S~2 1 air-blast cleaning of such areas in preparation for heat-sealing of bags. A wire 124 pushes back the lon,ger rear lip 115 of bag 25 above the part of the bag held closed by belts 109, 110 and a downstre~m air jet 125 and an upstream air jet 126 blow on the inside of the front lip and rear lip 115 to clean them of any powdery residue. Ey this aix-blast cleaning of the front and rear lips of bags prior to sealing, the bag top is closed securely. Also the sealing and closing station has means to heat-seal inner heat-sealable materials~of such bags for protection of bag contents from~deleterious effects caused by absorption of moisture, etc~ during storage.
The sealing and closing station 16 aIso~has means 114 to fold over the longer rear lip 115 of the bag 25 which carries a heat sensitive adhesive and which is then carried over a vented plenum chamber where controllea, heated air is impinged on the adhesive to activate it after which the folding of the ' flap is completed by means which bring it in contact with the adjacent area of~the bag, to which it seals itself under influence , ~ of c-o~pres-s'i~ belts 117 which impress on the folded top securing the folded flap. Control means 120 i5 provided including a control panel mounted so as to be accessible to a machine attendant and which contains all controls necessary for proper functioning of the machine. ~he various ~control and limit switches such as ~the bag sensors 96 and 100 are connected into this control means and control the various motors in a sequence of operation.
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m e bag filling machine 11 is usable with most any solid particulate or flowable material ana is particularly aavantageous with powdery material of the nature of foodstuffs ~8582 1 such as dried ~ilk~ o~ fl~'u~ 'or''o't~er powde~y ~aterials such a~
may' be ~anu~act~re~d ~y va'rious ~industries. m e powdery material will be present in the bulk storage bin 18 and supplied by the deli~ery screw 40 to the primary conditioning station 19 equip~ed ~ith level controls 38. Container 39 has sides converging toward delivery screw 42 which further conveys material to hoppers 48 and 49 and the secondary conditioning station 20 which is thus filled from the bottom ~p and the proauct level therein is controlled b~ level controls 44. It can be~ seen that when the level of product in the secondary conaitioning station 20 reaches a preset maximum as determined by level control 4~, screw 4~ will be stopped allawing screw 40 to fill the primary conditioning station 39 until stopped by its level control 38. The ~ntire system thus filled contains sufficient product so as to allow time for air to be dissipated from the powdery material even while material is being withdrawn at the bulk and dribble auger stations during operatione Dissipation of air is aided by the partial vacuum established by the vàcuum line 62 above both conai*i~nin-g con-tainers.
This is also aided by the agitators 56 and 57 to make certain that no pockets of air might be trapped inside these hoppers 48 and 4g. The amount of powdery material thus stored within this conditioning system has a definite advantage~ The advantage being that time is permitted in this conditioning system to substantially completely ae-aerate the powdery material.
The height of thenaterial in the container 39 to the level set by ~he level control 38 is in the order of the height of a bag being filled and is approximately one to two times the height of such bag. It has been aiscovered that material in a ` ` ~OS85~2 1 bulk 5torage bin such a9 the bin 18 often may be stored in such a large vertical dimension that the sheer weight and compaction of the material prevents air from escaping from the powdery material néar the bottom. Thus when it was delivered as by a mechanism such as a delivery screw 40, it still was in an aerated condition. If it was supplied directly to bag filling hoppers similar to hoppers 48 and 49 and then supplied into the-bags, these prior art machines often delivered aerated powdery material. Thus the primary conditioning system gives time for 1~ the air to escape from this powdery material by the temporary storage in a relatively small quantity at a relatively small vertical height of material. In the prior art machines with the aerated powde~y material delivered to the bags, time was necessary for the material to settle in the bag and let the air out of the material before the bag could be sealed and closed.
This severely restricted the productivity of the prior art bag machines. In severe cases it was often found that the delivery of the material to the bags had to be slowed or left uncompleted because the bag simply did not have enough capacity to contain all the material, it might overflow before it had reached the required weight~
Bags 25 are supplied by the magazine 17. me ' removal mechanism 23 pulls off one bag at a time from the rear end of the magazine 17 and moves it to the vertical plane - beneath ~he horizontal reference line 26. The removal mechanism 23 then moves the bag upwardly until the top openable edge of the bag is at this reference line 26. Provided the bag top is le~el with respect to reference line 26 as determined by two cooperating sensors, which must both engage the bag top, the bag is then clamped in this attitude by clamps 27~ At this time the 1 vacuum cups 24 may release their hold QD the bag~ At this time the control means 120 actuates the motors 34 to close the V-belts on the bag 25 in the position 25A at the alignment station 13,tsee FIG. 6. The control means 120 then actuates a clutch 36 to move the belts and advance the bag from the alignment position 25A to a position 25B at'the first or bulk filling station 14. In this advancing movement the bottom of the bag moves into the space between the belts 104 and 105, also dri~en thru clutch 36. Motors 73 are actuated so that the grippers 72 grip over the top corners o~ the bag 25. The bag has been maintained with the top edge in the horizontal reference line 26 by the V-belts 33 so that the ~ grippers 72 grasp successive bags at the same horizontal ; reference line position. The motors 34 then swing the belts .33 away from the bag because it is now being held by the grippers 72. The bag is in a position similar to the position 25B
shown in FIG. 6, except the bag is not filled at this point in time.
Next ~he front and rear outer clam shells 94 and 95 are closed and because the front outer clam shell 94 is longer it strikes the upwardly extending rear lip 115 of the bag and : pushes it backwardly despite the urging of the air cylinder 77 which urges apart the arms 74. This creates a positive opening between the front and rear faces of the bag 25. Next .the air pressure is released on motor 77 and motor 78 lifts the arms 74 and hence a closed outer clam shell spout 50 penetrates between : the front and rear faces of the bag. The grippers 72 are lifted sufficiently to positively spout the bag 25 on the outer clam shell spout 50 to the position 25C shown in FIG. S.
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1 The released air pressure on air motor 77 during this upward movement of the bag permits the arms 74 to move together slightly as necessary to permit the bag to be raised upwardly on the outer clam shell spout without stressing the bag.
When the bag is thus raised onto the outer clam shell spout air motor 122 causes the two halves of the outer clam shell spout to open in preparation for filling the bag.
At this time, also, sensors 96 are either engaged or not depending on whether or not the bag has been properly positioned and is ready to receive a charge of material. The bag thus spouted remains almost completely closed because it is a side gusseted bag and because the grippers 72, clamped on these gussets, prevent the opening of the gussets at the top and hence restrain the opening of the entire bag. This opening of the bag top around the outer clam shell spout 50 is the extent to which the bag is open, thus there is a minimum of air volume insiae the bag ~t this time.
Next the auger 52 is driven by the motor 54 and the clam shell valve 64 opens to bulk fill the bag in the position 25C as supported by the grippers 72. A major portion of the nominal capacity of the bag is forced downwardly into the bag at this bulk filling station 14. The auger 52 may be a ; large diameter single pitch thread auger to rapidly fill the - bag to about 90 percent of its nominal capacity, for example.
The substantially completely de-aerated powder material is forced downwardly into the bag and this is what opens the bag, thus precluding the entrance of practically all air into the bag. m us the bag is filled from the top down by being forced thereinto by the auger 52. This auger may be a large diameter 1~5~358Z
1 for example appro~imating 1/3 the width of the bag. In one machine constructed in accordance with the invention the auger was five inches in diameter for a bag of about lS inches in width w~ich might hold 50 pounds of material. As an option, the vacuum probe 66 may be lowered into the bag through the hollow stem of the auger 52. This vacuum probe is a tube with a porous material along its length so that it will evacuate any air which might tend to be within the material in the bag.
This vacuum probe is lowered by the motor 68 and is withdrawn just before the inner clam shell valve 64 is closed. After the slug of material filling the major portion of the capacity of the bag has been forced into the bag, the auger 52 is stopped and the inner clam shell valve 64 is closed. The grippers 72 are lowered by the motor 78 so that the nearly fillad bag rests on the two belts 104 and 105 in position 25B shown in FIG. 6, - ; with the top edge of the bag aligned with respect to reference 7 line 26. The motor 34 for the arms 30 are actuated to close the V-belts on the top portion of the bag maintaining the top of the bag on reference 1ine 26 and then the motor 73 releases the grippers 72. The V-belts 33 then may be actuated at the same time that the conveyor 104, 105 is actuated to move the nearly filled bag from the first to the seco~d filling station.
At the second filling station 15, the motors 83 are actuated so that the grippers grip over the top corners of the bag in a position 25D, see FIG. 6. The grippers grip the gussets to keep these gussets closed and to maintain the top edge of the bag at this same reference line 26. The V-belts 33 are then actuated to move away from the bag. The outer clam shell spout 51 is then actuated closed so that the outer front clam shell 98 engages and pushes rearwardly the upwardly .. .... . . .. . . . . _ . . .. . . . .. .. . . .
;
1051~582 1 extending rear lip 115 of the bag to slightly open the bag.
The motor 87 is then deactivated to remove the outwardly urging force between the two arms 84. Motor 88 is actuated to raise t~e arms 84, grippers 82 and the nearly filled bag upwardly to the position 25E shown in FIG. 5. This is the position with the openable end of the bag received on the outer clam shell spout 51.
The auger motor 55 is a two speed motor and it is started in the high speed position to drive auger 53 at the same time that the inner clam shell valve 6S opens. This is a dribble fill or secondary fill of the bag which will relatively rapidIy fill the bag to a predetermined calibrated value, in ` this case the value îs the weight of the bag and contents.
When the bag reacbes a predetermined value, for example, about 99 percent full, then the motor 55 is actuated to a second slower ~ spee~ condition for a final topping off of the contents within `~ the bag. W~hen the load cell or scale 81 reaches the predeter , mined value, this stops the auger drive motor 55 and closes ' the inner clam shell valve 65 to maintain this precise weight of the bag and contents. This final filling of the bag at the position 25E takes place at approximately the same time as the ' ~ ~ bulk filling of the next sequential bag at the first filling station 14, so that a continuous process of filling bags is being achieved by the machine 11.
The motor 88 then lowers-the arms 84 and grippers 82 so that the completely filled bag rests on the conveyor bel~ts 104 and 105 with the top edge of the bag aligned with respect to reference line 26. This will be the position as shown in FIG. 6. Next the V-belts 33 are moved inwardly by the motors 34 so as to maintain the top edge of the bags at the reference ` ` 105~58Z
1 line 26~ The motors 83 release the grippers 82 and the conveyor 103 is actuated along with the arive of the V-belts 33 to move the completely filled bag off the end of the conveyor 103 onto the conveyor 108. This conveyor 108 is driven continuously by motor 35 so as to transport the now filled bag throughout the sealing and closing device. Also belts 109, 110 are being driven, continuously and in synchronism to receive and movingly support the top of the bag at reference line 26. The filled bag then moves into the bag cleaning and sealing means 114 whereat the top of the bag is partially opened and sub}ect to a "scrubbing" action by high pressure air jets directed onto the inner heat-sealable areas of the bag and the top rear llp, having thereon a heat sensitive adhesive, for the purpose of removing excess dust ; which might impair the security of heat-seals and/or secure bag closure. Next, in sequence, the bag passes through a series of spring-loaded heated platens where the inner heat-sealable material is sealed and a set of compression rolls the purpose of which is to set the seal. Continued movement of the bag on conveyor 108 moves the bag through the bag closing means 116 whereat the longer rear lip 115 is partially folded ; over, the adhesive thereon is activated by heat, the lip folding completed and the resulting bag closure secured by the compression belts 117~
The pre~sent machine is considerably superior to the prior art machines which took a long time and considerable man hours in order to fill powdery material into bags. The prior art machines were attempting to fill bags with powdery material which was aerated and hence a considerable amount of time was required for the powdery material to settle within the bag 10~35~2 1 before the bag could be closed. In the present case the amount of air entrained in the powdery material is kept to a minimum because of the primary ana secondary conditioning stations 19 and 20. A~so by forcing the powdery material down into the nearly completely closed bag at the bulk filling station 14, a minimum of air is intrvduced into the bag at this time.
The prior art machines attempted to fill from the bottom up, but in order to fill from the bottom up, the bag had to be completely opened a~d inserted upwaxdly over a long spout which reached to the bottom o~ the bag. This meant that the bag was substantially completely open and full of air. Then when the powdery material was dropped into the bottom of the bag, ; it was aerated by this dropping in addition to having possibly ; also been aerated before or during the time that it was introduced into the bag filling hopper. The present inven,~ion eliminates this nuisance of having aerated material in the bag and thus achieves a considerably greater productivity per i machine and per man hour.
,~ ~ Many diferent types o~ bags may be used on this machine. Pinch bottom bags are shown. These are bags which have gussets along the full length of the sides caused by a folding of the material hence are termed folded-side-gusseted bags. S~uare bottom bags may also be used which are side gusseted or flat-type bags may also be used which are not side gusseted because in each case the grippers 72 and 82 grip over the sides of the bag to maintain them closed and thus form restraining means to restrain the opening movement of the bag until the bag is forced open by the entrance of the powdery material. Barrier bags may also be used namely those of a kraft paper outer bag with a plastic liner as a barrier to ~os~s~z 1 moisture and entrance of vermin and the like where foodstuffs are being bagged, The barrier or plastic liner may be of many types either permanently, semipermanently, or partially attachèd W the interior of the kraft outer bag.
The V-belts 33 and V-belts 109, 110 act as clamping conveyor means engaging the flat faces of the bags just below the level of the grippers 72 and 82 to maintain the bag upright during the lateral shifting and to maintain the top lip of the bag always in alignment at the reference line 26. This lateral shifting is effected by the first shifting means or conveyor 103 as the primary supporting and conveying means of the bags. The grippers 72 and 82 of course grasp the bag above the level of these V-belts 33 and 109, 110. It will also be noted that the motor 78 is an actuator means to relatively ; bring together the bag and the outer clam shell spout at the bag filling station. In the preferred embodiment illustrated this relative movement is caused by a raising of the bag onto the outer clam shell spout. Several forms o powered supply means supplying the powdery material to the bags may be provided, and in the preferred embodiment this powered supply means are the a~gers 52 and 53.
The actuator means also lncludes the grippers 72 and 82 and because these grippers grasp the side gussets of the bags they act as restraining means restraining opening of the bag against the forced opening by the entry of the powdery material.
The primary and secondaxy conditioning stations 19 and 20 comprise a de-aeration meanc to substantially de-aerate the powdery material. The material is supplied to and stays for a sufficiently long time period in each of the containers 39 and 43 and at a sufficiently small vertical height of material so .
~20-.. ... . . .. . . . . ~ . . ~ . .. ...
11)5858Z
1 that any air therein is permitted to gradually escapa rom this material~ Also the delivery screw 42 once hoppers 48 and 49 are initially filled, forces ~he powdered material upwardly from the bottom up into the container 43 and thus it does not - have a chance to fall downwardly out of the end of this ` delivery screw, as in the prior art machinesl and hence the .
powdery material does not become again aerated.
While we have ~llustrated and described a preferred embodiment of our invention, it will be understood that this j 10 is by way of example only and not to be construed as limiting.
':~
.: : :
; :
~ 20 .~: : `
.~ ' ' ` .
. 30
1 Background of the Invention Bag filling machines have been used for many years to avoia the high labor costs in bagging flowable material.
In the bagging of powdery material such as flour, the first bags used were burlap or cotton bags. These were permeabie to air and hence as the baqs were filled air could escape through the pores and of course some of the flour also escaped ~` through the pores. A standard method of filling powdery material into such bags was by the method of filling from the bottom up. A long spout was used and the bag was raised over the entire length of the spout so that the bottom of the spout was near the bottom of the bag~ Then as the bag was filled, the bag was lowered more or less in unison with the filling theoretically to flll the bag from the bottom up without much aeration of the powdery materlal during filling. The industry more recently has gone away from cloth bags to paper kraft bags which are less permeable to air passage but still somewhat permeable. Even more recently barrier bags have been used and these are the ~pe with a plastic liner within the kraft paper outer bag. Such plastic liner does not let the air escape during filling so that it has been difficult to fill bags with powdery material such as powdered milk. Another problem is that with powdered milk or flour, strict sanitary precautions must be observed. With many prior bag filling machines using a barrier bag, after the plastic liner was filled on the machine, a man had to separately twist together the top of the plastic bag, put a twist tie on it and then tuck this fastened top of the plastic liner down inside the kraft bag. The man's hands would touch the inside of the bag and therefore this was not particularly sanitary. Also it took about four or five men to ~k - "` 105~3582 1 operate such a bag machine, yet only about two to four 50~pound bags could be filled per minute. One reason for the slow filling procedure was because the 50-pound slug of powdered material would drop through the air and become aerated, and it took time for the air to escape. A certain amount of time had to elapse after the bag was filled to allow the powdered material to settle before the bag could be closed. This limited the productivity of the men and machine.
In some cases with the old machines a sufficient ; 10 volume of air became entrained in 'the powdery material so that the bag did not have sufficient capacity to lnitially contain the 50-pound slug of material and the bag would overflow.
Another problem with the prior art bag machine filling systems was that in many cases a 50 thousand pound storage bin ,, was filled so full that the powdery material could not be - de-aerated until the level of the powdery material in ~he bin ' had dropped to perhaps, one quarter full. This is because there , was so much weight of material on the material at the bottom~
that the air could not escape, As a result the material augered from the bottom of this large bin into the funnel shaped bag filling station in the machine woul~ definitely be aerated and hence was aerated as it went lnto the bags. This aeration was further caused by the dropping from the auger into the funnel which would re-aerate the powdery material even if it was de-aerated at the large storage bin.
Accordingly the problem to be solved is how t~
increase the productivity of a bag machine and how to prevent as much aeration as possible and also to de-aerate the powdery material before and during the time that it goes into the bags.
` `` ~OS8582 .
Summary of the Invention The invention may he incorporated in a bag filling machine co~prising in combination, a base, a bag filling station on said base, gripper means carried on said base,-actuator means to move said gripper means, said gripper means movable by said actuator means to grip near the top of a bag, a hopper adapted to contain a powdery material and having an outlet, an auger ln said hopper, mean~ to control said actuator means to raise said gripper means and any said bag to have an opening of the bag received on said outlet o~ said hopper, fill control means to control the filling of~a bag on said hopper outlet, weighing means responsive to the~welght on said -~ gripper means relative to said basej dr1ve means ta rotate - said auger to move material in said hopper to said outlet, and first responsive means responsive to a predetermined weight of said filled bag on said gripper mean~s to~aotuate said f control~means to stop the fl11ing of~any said bag.
An ob~ect of the~invention is to~provide;a bag - filling machine with a capability of ~illing a large number of ; 20 ~bags per man hour.~
nother ob~ect of~the invention is ~o provide a bag filling machine wherein the powdery material is adequately de-aerated before~it~moves~to a~bag fllling statlon and is kept in this de-aerated condition.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bag~
filling machine wherein powdery material~is filled into a bag from the top down forolng the bag open to eliminate aerating the powdery material.~
Anotherobject of the inventlon is to provide a bag filling machine wherein a bag is accurately filled to a ~058S82 1 predetermined weight by a scale connected to grippers supporting the top of the bag.
Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention ~ay be had by referring to the following description and claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.
, Brief Description of the Drawin~
FIG. 1 is a ~ront elevational view of a machine incorporating the invention;
~, 10 FIG. 2 is a plan view of the machine of FIG. l;
FIG. 3 is an end vlew of the machine of FIG. l;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view on line 4-4 of :~- FIG. l;
, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the front of ' the machine; and :i . FIG. 6 is a closer perspecti~e~view of ~the front ' ~ - of the machine. ~
~ ' Description of the Prbferred Embodiment .. ..
The fig~res of the drawing show a bag filling machine 11 incorporating the invention, This machine has a frame 12 on which are mounted generally an alignment station 13, a first bulk filling station 14, a second dribble filling station 15, and a sealîng and closing station 16. A magazine 17 is connected to supply bags sequentially to the machine 11. ~
bulk storage bin~18 may be on the frame 12 or separate therefrom and is connected to supply powdery material to a primary conditioning station 19 which in turn supplies a secondary conditioning station 20 which supplies the powdery material :to the first and second filling stations 14 and lS.
- ( 1~5858Z
1 Bags are supplied sequentially from the magazine 17 to the alignment station 13 whereat the top edge of each bag is aligned at a reference line 26. Each bag is then moved laterally along the ~ertical plane of each bag to the bulk filling station 14 whereat the bag receives a major portion of its capacity of powdery material. It then is again shifted laterally to the dribble filling station 15 whereat it receives a minor portion of its capacity to fill the bag to a predetermined calibrated weight as determined by a weight scale operated from the hands or grippers supporting the bag at this dribble filling station - 10 lS. m e bag next moves to-the sealing and closlng station 16 to seal and close the bag.
The magazine 17 is adapted to receive the bags standing vertically on their bottom edges with the openable end at the top. A removal machanism 23 having vacuum cups 24 moves against the end most bag 25 in the magazine 17 and pulls it from the end of the magazine to the vertical plane of the a~ignment station 13~ The removal mechanism 23 then moves the bag upwardly to the horizontal reference line 26 to :
orient the top openable edge of the bag at thi5 reference line 26. Before said vacuum cups release the bag, the bag is clamped by clamps 27 in the aligned position at reference line 26.
Front and rear movable frames 28 and 29 are shown in FIG. 3 with the front movable frame 28 shown in more aetail in FIGS. 5 and 6. These frames are similar and only the front frame 28 will be described. This front frame is supported on four arms 30 which are keyed to a shaft 31 pivoted on the frame 12. The movable frame 28 is mounted on the lower end of these arms 30 ana carries movable sprockets and a chain or, as shown, pulleys 32 and a V-belt 33. One or more motors 34, such as - <
` ` - 10585t3Z
1 expansible fluid motors are connected to the arms 30 to swing the movable frame 28 between the closed position of FIG. 3 and 6 and an open position as shown in FIG. 5. In the closed position t~e inboard runs of the V-belts 33 of the front and rear frames will engage the front and rear faces of the bags 25 near the top openable end thereof and maintain alignment of the top of the bag at reerence line 26. When the belts of the movable frames 28 and 29 are closed.on the bags, as shown in FIGS~ 3 and 6, then the clamp~ 27 are released. A
motor 35 acts throu~h a clutch 36 shafts and universal joints to drive the two belts 33 in synchronism so that when the inner runs of the belts are closed on the bag 25, the bag will be moved from the alignment station 13 to the first filling station 14.
The powdery material may be contained in a bulk storage bin 18 which for example may be quite large, 50,000 pounds as~an example. The primary conditioning station 19 includes a container 39 which may be immeaiately below bulk storage bin 18 with an openable valve therebetween which will separate the welght of the material in the bin 18 from the weight of the material in the container 19. Alternatively, as shown, a delivery screw:40 may be connected to deliver the powdery material from the bin 18 to the container 39. The lever of material in container 39 is regulated by a level control 38.
A second delivery screw 42 is connecte~ to deliver the powdery material from the bottom of the primary conditioning container 39 to the bottom of a secondary conditioning container 43 at the secondary conditioning station 20.. This forces the powdery material upwardly into container 43 until a level control 44 is actuated to deactivate the drive 45 of the delivery screw 42.
( ` ` ` ~05858Z
l The lower end of the container 43 is connected by conduits 46 and 47, respectively, to first and second bag filling hoppers 48 and 49 at the first and second filling stations 14 and 15, ; respectively. Both of these hoppers 48 and 49 are funnel ; shaped with clam shell valves 64 and 65 on the respective lower ends of these hoppers at the discharge outlets, and outer clam shell spouts 50 and 51 surrounding the valves 64 and 65, respectively. Augers S2 and 53 are provided in the hoppers 48 and 49, respectively, and driven by auger motQrs 54 and 55, respectively. Agitators 56 and 57 are disposed in the ` hoppers 48 and 49, respectively, and are in the form of stirring ; rods disposed closely adjacent the conical inside surface of the hoppers. These agitators are driven by agitator motors 58 and S9, respectively. The filling of the container 43 up the level control 44 means that the conduits 46 ana 47 and hoppers 48 and 49 are all full completely to the covers 60 and 61 on the hoppers 48 ~nd 49, respectively. A vacuum line 62 may optionally be connected to the upper portion of the container 39 and 43 through a vacuum break 63 so as to~ maintain a partial vacuum at the upper volume of these containers 39 and 43. A vacuum probe 66 may be raised and lowered by a motor 68 to extend downwardly through the hollow stem of the auger 52 and into any bag 25 being filled at the first bag filling station 14.
Gripper means are provided to support the bags 25 from a position near the top of the bag. These may be one set of grippers but as shown are two sets of grippers, one set at each of the filling stations. Grippers 72 may be closea by a motor 73 and are supported on arms 74 which have an elbow pivot 75 for horizontal movement and a shoulder pivot 76 for vertical 3C movement with the shoulder pivot 76 being supported on the frame -12. An air cylinder motor 77 extends horizontally between the arms 74 to move the grippers horizontally toward and away from i ,, ` 105~358Z
1 each other. A cylinder motor 78 reacts against the frame 12 to raise and lower the arms 74 and hence raise and lower the grippers 72.
The grippers at the second filling station 15 have an arrangement similar to that at the first filling station 14 but include a scale 81. FIG. 4 shows the gripper arrangement for the second filling station 15 as including grippers 82 which may be opened and closed by a motor 83 and are carried on arms 84 which have an elbow pivot 85 for horizontal movement of the forearm and are supported on a shoulder pivot 86 for vertical movement of the arms 84 and grlppers 82. A
motor such as an air cylinder~motor 87 is connected between the forearms to move these arms 84 toward and away from each other. A motor~such as an air cylinder motor 88 is connected to raise and lower the arms 84. The motor 88 reacts against a movable frame 89 which is pivoted at 90 to a beam gl, pivoted ` at 92 to the frame 12. A loaa cell may act as the scale 81 - and connects the ~rear of the~beam 9i to the fixed frame 12.
~ Thus as a bag 25,~carried by the grippers 82, is filled with , :
powaery material, the beam 91 tends to tip counter clockwise as viewed in FIG. 4 and this is resisted by the load cell 81 to weigh the bag and its contents.
At the first filling station 14, the outer clam shell spout 50 has front and rear halves 94 and 95 which may be closed - to facilitate spouting of the bag and opened to open the bag top and to allow material to flow into the bag 25. Bag sensors 96 pivote~ relative to the front and rear clam shell halves 94 and 95 determine whether or not a bag has been positioned on the spout 50 so that material will not be discharged with a bag being absent or improperly spouted. The second filling _g_ 585~3Z
1 station 15 has a similar arran~ement with an outer front clam shell 98 and outer rear clam sh~ll 99 being also openable and closeable to facilitate respouting of the bag, and front and rear sensor~s 100 are pivoted relative to the outer front and rear clam shell halves to detect the presence or absence of a bag or an improperly spouted bag.
A split belt conveyor 103 has belts 104 and 105 spaced slightly apart and this conveyor is positioned below the first and second filling stations 14 and 15. The space between the belts 104 and 105 is to permit the empty, flat bag to move from the alignment station 13 to the first filling station 14 with the bag in this space between the belts. Later the bags may be liftea onto the spout 50 as shown in FIG. 5 and then filled and after filling they will be lowered onto both belts 104 and 105 to be supported thereby.
The sealing and closing station 16 has a conveyor 108 which is a single belt conveyor on the same level as the conveyor belts 104, 105. All of these conveyors may be raised and lowered as shown in the~phantom position of FIG. 3 in order to ZO accommodate bags of different dimensions, for example bags of from 25 to 110 pound capacity. The sealing and closing station 16 also has a supporting V-belt 109 at the front and a V-belt 110 at the rear riding on pulleys 111 and driven by a motor 35.
These V belts provide support to hold the bag in a vertical -position so it will not tip over and to maintain the top edge of the bag at the reference line 26~ The motor 35 drives all bag transport means in synchronism so that bags are conveyed throughou~ at a constant rate.
The sealing and closing station has means to open the top of the bags to expose inner heat-sealable material areas for ~OS~S~2 1 air-blast cleaning of such areas in preparation for heat-sealing of bags. A wire 124 pushes back the lon,ger rear lip 115 of bag 25 above the part of the bag held closed by belts 109, 110 and a downstre~m air jet 125 and an upstream air jet 126 blow on the inside of the front lip and rear lip 115 to clean them of any powdery residue. Ey this aix-blast cleaning of the front and rear lips of bags prior to sealing, the bag top is closed securely. Also the sealing and closing station has means to heat-seal inner heat-sealable materials~of such bags for protection of bag contents from~deleterious effects caused by absorption of moisture, etc~ during storage.
The sealing and closing station 16 aIso~has means 114 to fold over the longer rear lip 115 of the bag 25 which carries a heat sensitive adhesive and which is then carried over a vented plenum chamber where controllea, heated air is impinged on the adhesive to activate it after which the folding of the ' flap is completed by means which bring it in contact with the adjacent area of~the bag, to which it seals itself under influence , ~ of c-o~pres-s'i~ belts 117 which impress on the folded top securing the folded flap. Control means 120 i5 provided including a control panel mounted so as to be accessible to a machine attendant and which contains all controls necessary for proper functioning of the machine. ~he various ~control and limit switches such as ~the bag sensors 96 and 100 are connected into this control means and control the various motors in a sequence of operation.
'~
m e bag filling machine 11 is usable with most any solid particulate or flowable material ana is particularly aavantageous with powdery material of the nature of foodstuffs ~8582 1 such as dried ~ilk~ o~ fl~'u~ 'or''o't~er powde~y ~aterials such a~
may' be ~anu~act~re~d ~y va'rious ~industries. m e powdery material will be present in the bulk storage bin 18 and supplied by the deli~ery screw 40 to the primary conditioning station 19 equip~ed ~ith level controls 38. Container 39 has sides converging toward delivery screw 42 which further conveys material to hoppers 48 and 49 and the secondary conditioning station 20 which is thus filled from the bottom ~p and the proauct level therein is controlled b~ level controls 44. It can be~ seen that when the level of product in the secondary conaitioning station 20 reaches a preset maximum as determined by level control 4~, screw 4~ will be stopped allawing screw 40 to fill the primary conditioning station 39 until stopped by its level control 38. The ~ntire system thus filled contains sufficient product so as to allow time for air to be dissipated from the powdery material even while material is being withdrawn at the bulk and dribble auger stations during operatione Dissipation of air is aided by the partial vacuum established by the vàcuum line 62 above both conai*i~nin-g con-tainers.
This is also aided by the agitators 56 and 57 to make certain that no pockets of air might be trapped inside these hoppers 48 and 4g. The amount of powdery material thus stored within this conditioning system has a definite advantage~ The advantage being that time is permitted in this conditioning system to substantially completely ae-aerate the powdery material.
The height of thenaterial in the container 39 to the level set by ~he level control 38 is in the order of the height of a bag being filled and is approximately one to two times the height of such bag. It has been aiscovered that material in a ` ` ~OS85~2 1 bulk 5torage bin such a9 the bin 18 often may be stored in such a large vertical dimension that the sheer weight and compaction of the material prevents air from escaping from the powdery material néar the bottom. Thus when it was delivered as by a mechanism such as a delivery screw 40, it still was in an aerated condition. If it was supplied directly to bag filling hoppers similar to hoppers 48 and 49 and then supplied into the-bags, these prior art machines often delivered aerated powdery material. Thus the primary conditioning system gives time for 1~ the air to escape from this powdery material by the temporary storage in a relatively small quantity at a relatively small vertical height of material. In the prior art machines with the aerated powde~y material delivered to the bags, time was necessary for the material to settle in the bag and let the air out of the material before the bag could be sealed and closed.
This severely restricted the productivity of the prior art bag machines. In severe cases it was often found that the delivery of the material to the bags had to be slowed or left uncompleted because the bag simply did not have enough capacity to contain all the material, it might overflow before it had reached the required weight~
Bags 25 are supplied by the magazine 17. me ' removal mechanism 23 pulls off one bag at a time from the rear end of the magazine 17 and moves it to the vertical plane - beneath ~he horizontal reference line 26. The removal mechanism 23 then moves the bag upwardly until the top openable edge of the bag is at this reference line 26. Provided the bag top is le~el with respect to reference line 26 as determined by two cooperating sensors, which must both engage the bag top, the bag is then clamped in this attitude by clamps 27~ At this time the 1 vacuum cups 24 may release their hold QD the bag~ At this time the control means 120 actuates the motors 34 to close the V-belts on the bag 25 in the position 25A at the alignment station 13,tsee FIG. 6. The control means 120 then actuates a clutch 36 to move the belts and advance the bag from the alignment position 25A to a position 25B at'the first or bulk filling station 14. In this advancing movement the bottom of the bag moves into the space between the belts 104 and 105, also dri~en thru clutch 36. Motors 73 are actuated so that the grippers 72 grip over the top corners o~ the bag 25. The bag has been maintained with the top edge in the horizontal reference line 26 by the V-belts 33 so that the ~ grippers 72 grasp successive bags at the same horizontal ; reference line position. The motors 34 then swing the belts .33 away from the bag because it is now being held by the grippers 72. The bag is in a position similar to the position 25B
shown in FIG. 6, except the bag is not filled at this point in time.
Next ~he front and rear outer clam shells 94 and 95 are closed and because the front outer clam shell 94 is longer it strikes the upwardly extending rear lip 115 of the bag and : pushes it backwardly despite the urging of the air cylinder 77 which urges apart the arms 74. This creates a positive opening between the front and rear faces of the bag 25. Next .the air pressure is released on motor 77 and motor 78 lifts the arms 74 and hence a closed outer clam shell spout 50 penetrates between : the front and rear faces of the bag. The grippers 72 are lifted sufficiently to positively spout the bag 25 on the outer clam shell spout 50 to the position 25C shown in FIG. S.
` ` ` 10585~3Z
1 The released air pressure on air motor 77 during this upward movement of the bag permits the arms 74 to move together slightly as necessary to permit the bag to be raised upwardly on the outer clam shell spout without stressing the bag.
When the bag is thus raised onto the outer clam shell spout air motor 122 causes the two halves of the outer clam shell spout to open in preparation for filling the bag.
At this time, also, sensors 96 are either engaged or not depending on whether or not the bag has been properly positioned and is ready to receive a charge of material. The bag thus spouted remains almost completely closed because it is a side gusseted bag and because the grippers 72, clamped on these gussets, prevent the opening of the gussets at the top and hence restrain the opening of the entire bag. This opening of the bag top around the outer clam shell spout 50 is the extent to which the bag is open, thus there is a minimum of air volume insiae the bag ~t this time.
Next the auger 52 is driven by the motor 54 and the clam shell valve 64 opens to bulk fill the bag in the position 25C as supported by the grippers 72. A major portion of the nominal capacity of the bag is forced downwardly into the bag at this bulk filling station 14. The auger 52 may be a ; large diameter single pitch thread auger to rapidly fill the - bag to about 90 percent of its nominal capacity, for example.
The substantially completely de-aerated powder material is forced downwardly into the bag and this is what opens the bag, thus precluding the entrance of practically all air into the bag. m us the bag is filled from the top down by being forced thereinto by the auger 52. This auger may be a large diameter 1~5~358Z
1 for example appro~imating 1/3 the width of the bag. In one machine constructed in accordance with the invention the auger was five inches in diameter for a bag of about lS inches in width w~ich might hold 50 pounds of material. As an option, the vacuum probe 66 may be lowered into the bag through the hollow stem of the auger 52. This vacuum probe is a tube with a porous material along its length so that it will evacuate any air which might tend to be within the material in the bag.
This vacuum probe is lowered by the motor 68 and is withdrawn just before the inner clam shell valve 64 is closed. After the slug of material filling the major portion of the capacity of the bag has been forced into the bag, the auger 52 is stopped and the inner clam shell valve 64 is closed. The grippers 72 are lowered by the motor 78 so that the nearly fillad bag rests on the two belts 104 and 105 in position 25B shown in FIG. 6, - ; with the top edge of the bag aligned with respect to reference 7 line 26. The motor 34 for the arms 30 are actuated to close the V-belts on the top portion of the bag maintaining the top of the bag on reference 1ine 26 and then the motor 73 releases the grippers 72. The V-belts 33 then may be actuated at the same time that the conveyor 104, 105 is actuated to move the nearly filled bag from the first to the seco~d filling station.
At the second filling station 15, the motors 83 are actuated so that the grippers grip over the top corners of the bag in a position 25D, see FIG. 6. The grippers grip the gussets to keep these gussets closed and to maintain the top edge of the bag at this same reference line 26. The V-belts 33 are then actuated to move away from the bag. The outer clam shell spout 51 is then actuated closed so that the outer front clam shell 98 engages and pushes rearwardly the upwardly .. .... . . .. . . . . _ . . .. . . . .. .. . . .
;
1051~582 1 extending rear lip 115 of the bag to slightly open the bag.
The motor 87 is then deactivated to remove the outwardly urging force between the two arms 84. Motor 88 is actuated to raise t~e arms 84, grippers 82 and the nearly filled bag upwardly to the position 25E shown in FIG. 5. This is the position with the openable end of the bag received on the outer clam shell spout 51.
The auger motor 55 is a two speed motor and it is started in the high speed position to drive auger 53 at the same time that the inner clam shell valve 6S opens. This is a dribble fill or secondary fill of the bag which will relatively rapidIy fill the bag to a predetermined calibrated value, in ` this case the value îs the weight of the bag and contents.
When the bag reacbes a predetermined value, for example, about 99 percent full, then the motor 55 is actuated to a second slower ~ spee~ condition for a final topping off of the contents within `~ the bag. W~hen the load cell or scale 81 reaches the predeter , mined value, this stops the auger drive motor 55 and closes ' the inner clam shell valve 65 to maintain this precise weight of the bag and contents. This final filling of the bag at the position 25E takes place at approximately the same time as the ' ~ ~ bulk filling of the next sequential bag at the first filling station 14, so that a continuous process of filling bags is being achieved by the machine 11.
The motor 88 then lowers-the arms 84 and grippers 82 so that the completely filled bag rests on the conveyor bel~ts 104 and 105 with the top edge of the bag aligned with respect to reference line 26. This will be the position as shown in FIG. 6. Next the V-belts 33 are moved inwardly by the motors 34 so as to maintain the top edge of the bags at the reference ` ` 105~58Z
1 line 26~ The motors 83 release the grippers 82 and the conveyor 103 is actuated along with the arive of the V-belts 33 to move the completely filled bag off the end of the conveyor 103 onto the conveyor 108. This conveyor 108 is driven continuously by motor 35 so as to transport the now filled bag throughout the sealing and closing device. Also belts 109, 110 are being driven, continuously and in synchronism to receive and movingly support the top of the bag at reference line 26. The filled bag then moves into the bag cleaning and sealing means 114 whereat the top of the bag is partially opened and sub}ect to a "scrubbing" action by high pressure air jets directed onto the inner heat-sealable areas of the bag and the top rear llp, having thereon a heat sensitive adhesive, for the purpose of removing excess dust ; which might impair the security of heat-seals and/or secure bag closure. Next, in sequence, the bag passes through a series of spring-loaded heated platens where the inner heat-sealable material is sealed and a set of compression rolls the purpose of which is to set the seal. Continued movement of the bag on conveyor 108 moves the bag through the bag closing means 116 whereat the longer rear lip 115 is partially folded ; over, the adhesive thereon is activated by heat, the lip folding completed and the resulting bag closure secured by the compression belts 117~
The pre~sent machine is considerably superior to the prior art machines which took a long time and considerable man hours in order to fill powdery material into bags. The prior art machines were attempting to fill bags with powdery material which was aerated and hence a considerable amount of time was required for the powdery material to settle within the bag 10~35~2 1 before the bag could be closed. In the present case the amount of air entrained in the powdery material is kept to a minimum because of the primary ana secondary conditioning stations 19 and 20. A~so by forcing the powdery material down into the nearly completely closed bag at the bulk filling station 14, a minimum of air is intrvduced into the bag at this time.
The prior art machines attempted to fill from the bottom up, but in order to fill from the bottom up, the bag had to be completely opened a~d inserted upwaxdly over a long spout which reached to the bottom o~ the bag. This meant that the bag was substantially completely open and full of air. Then when the powdery material was dropped into the bottom of the bag, ; it was aerated by this dropping in addition to having possibly ; also been aerated before or during the time that it was introduced into the bag filling hopper. The present inven,~ion eliminates this nuisance of having aerated material in the bag and thus achieves a considerably greater productivity per i machine and per man hour.
,~ ~ Many diferent types o~ bags may be used on this machine. Pinch bottom bags are shown. These are bags which have gussets along the full length of the sides caused by a folding of the material hence are termed folded-side-gusseted bags. S~uare bottom bags may also be used which are side gusseted or flat-type bags may also be used which are not side gusseted because in each case the grippers 72 and 82 grip over the sides of the bag to maintain them closed and thus form restraining means to restrain the opening movement of the bag until the bag is forced open by the entrance of the powdery material. Barrier bags may also be used namely those of a kraft paper outer bag with a plastic liner as a barrier to ~os~s~z 1 moisture and entrance of vermin and the like where foodstuffs are being bagged, The barrier or plastic liner may be of many types either permanently, semipermanently, or partially attachèd W the interior of the kraft outer bag.
The V-belts 33 and V-belts 109, 110 act as clamping conveyor means engaging the flat faces of the bags just below the level of the grippers 72 and 82 to maintain the bag upright during the lateral shifting and to maintain the top lip of the bag always in alignment at the reference line 26. This lateral shifting is effected by the first shifting means or conveyor 103 as the primary supporting and conveying means of the bags. The grippers 72 and 82 of course grasp the bag above the level of these V-belts 33 and 109, 110. It will also be noted that the motor 78 is an actuator means to relatively ; bring together the bag and the outer clam shell spout at the bag filling station. In the preferred embodiment illustrated this relative movement is caused by a raising of the bag onto the outer clam shell spout. Several forms o powered supply means supplying the powdery material to the bags may be provided, and in the preferred embodiment this powered supply means are the a~gers 52 and 53.
The actuator means also lncludes the grippers 72 and 82 and because these grippers grasp the side gussets of the bags they act as restraining means restraining opening of the bag against the forced opening by the entry of the powdery material.
The primary and secondaxy conditioning stations 19 and 20 comprise a de-aeration meanc to substantially de-aerate the powdery material. The material is supplied to and stays for a sufficiently long time period in each of the containers 39 and 43 and at a sufficiently small vertical height of material so .
~20-.. ... . . .. . . . . ~ . . ~ . .. ...
11)5858Z
1 that any air therein is permitted to gradually escapa rom this material~ Also the delivery screw 42 once hoppers 48 and 49 are initially filled, forces ~he powdered material upwardly from the bottom up into the container 43 and thus it does not - have a chance to fall downwardly out of the end of this ` delivery screw, as in the prior art machinesl and hence the .
powdery material does not become again aerated.
While we have ~llustrated and described a preferred embodiment of our invention, it will be understood that this j 10 is by way of example only and not to be construed as limiting.
':~
.: : :
; :
~ 20 .~: : `
.~ ' ' ` .
. 30
Claims (7)
1. A bag filling machine comprising in combination, a base, a bag filling station on said base, gripper means carried on said base, actuator means to move said gripper means, said gripper means movable by said actuator means to grip near the top of a bag, a hopper adapted to contain a powdery material and having an outlet, an auger in said hopper, means to control said actuator means to raise said gripper means and any said bag to have an opening of the bag received on said outlet of said hopper, fill control means to control the filling of a bag on said hopper outlet, weighing means responsive to the weight on said gripper means relative to said base, drive means to rotate said auger to move material in said hopper to said outlet, and first responsive means responsive to a predetermined weight of said filled bag on said gripper means to actuate said fill control means to stop the filling of any said bag.
2. A bag filling machine as set forth in Claim 1, including an initial bag filling station on said base, means at said initial filling station to fill a bag thereat with a powdery material to a major quantity of the maximum capacity of the bag, and means to shift the bag to said first mentioned bag filling station to fill said bag to said predetermined weight.
3. A bag filling machine as set forth in Claim 1, wherein said actuator means is controlled to have said gripper means grip over the sides of any said bag to hold said sides closed.
4. A bag filling machine as set forth in Claim 3, wherein said actuator means is controlled to have said gripper means grip over the top of any said bag at the top corners thereof.
5. A bag filling machine as set forth in Claim 1, including an inner clam shell valve on the bottom of said hopper and an outer clam shell surrounding said inner clam shell valve, and wherein said actuator means is controlled to raise said gripper means and raise any said bag therein over said outer clam shell spout.
6. A bag filling machine as set forth in Claim 1, wherein said drive means has a first higher speed and a second lower speed, and second responsive means responsive to a prede-termined weight of the bag being filled to change from said first to said second speed.
7. A bag filling machine as set forth in Claim 6, including said first mentioned means responsive to said prede-termined weight of the bag being filled controlling the change from said second lower speed to a stopped condition of said drive means.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA308,641A CA1058582A (en) | 1976-12-27 | 1978-08-03 | Bag filling machine for powdery material |
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US05/754,176 US4074507A (en) | 1976-12-27 | 1976-12-27 | Bag filling machine for powdery material |
| CA273,332A CA1046471A (en) | 1976-12-27 | 1977-03-07 | Bag filling machine for powdery material |
| CA308,641A CA1058582A (en) | 1976-12-27 | 1978-08-03 | Bag filling machine for powdery material |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1058582A true CA1058582A (en) | 1979-07-17 |
Family
ID=27164951
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA308,641A Expired CA1058582A (en) | 1976-12-27 | 1978-08-03 | Bag filling machine for powdery material |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1058582A (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN106742111A (en) * | 2017-01-10 | 2017-05-31 | 安徽永成电子机械技术有限公司 | A kind of taper discharging powder packing machine and discharging method |
-
1978
- 1978-08-03 CA CA308,641A patent/CA1058582A/en not_active Expired
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN106742111A (en) * | 2017-01-10 | 2017-05-31 | 安徽永成电子机械技术有限公司 | A kind of taper discharging powder packing machine and discharging method |
| CN106742111B (en) * | 2017-01-10 | 2023-03-14 | 安徽永成电子机械技术有限公司 | Conical discharging powder packaging machine and discharging method |
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