NZ226613A - Method and apparatus for filling the compartments of a duvet or sleeping bag - Google Patents

Description

2286 Patents Form 5 After Provisional No. 226613 18 October 1988 "A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FILLING DUVETS AND THE LIKE" WE, WOOL RESEARCH ORGANISATION OF NEW ZEALAND INC of Springs Road, Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand, being a Society incorporated under the Incorporated Socieites Act 1909, do hereby declare this invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- / n / 10 15 © vj ° O ►? c- ■ (t- O U A. .

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for filling duvets and the like and more particularly to the filling of duvet compartments and the like with particulate padding and fill materials. The term "duvets and the like" as used herein means bedding of the type normally having elongate compartments formed by sewing together two sheets of material either directly or through wall sections. The term includes both duvets, sleeping bags and the like. The method is also suitable for filling pillows and other articles.

At present duvets, sleeping bags and the like items which are constructed with elongate compartments are filled with a normally particulate material like, down, feathers, wool and more recently the soft knops invented by the applicants and the subject of New Zealand Patent Specification No. 214555/217094. The particulate material in the compartments forms a mass which acts as a padding material.

A problem with these padding materials is that it is difficult to fill the compartments evenly. At present the compartments are often filled unevenly, then smoothed out by hand. This is particularly difficult for soft knops which are not always free flowing as they have a tendency to form clumps when they are forced along elongate compartments.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a method and apparatus for filling compartments in duvets and the like with particulate padding materials.

Further objection of the invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a method of filling a duvet and the like, the method including the steps of: (1) holding in a substantially horizontal plane a compartmented case for a duvet and the like; (2) placing a supply of particulate fill material in a dram; (3) placing in at least some of the compartments of the case an elongate hollow member with the open end of the hollow members adjacent to closed ends of the compartments; (4) connecting to each elongate hollow member a separate outlet from the drum; (5) fluidising the supply of fill material in the drum; (6) withdrawing from the drum in a pulsed manner discrete amounts of the fill material; (7) forcing, under pulsed air pressure, the discrete amounts of fill material through the elongate members to the closed ends of the compartments so that the compartments are filled incrementally with the fill material to have a bulk density in the duvet or the like of less than 30 cubic centimetres per gram as the elongate members and the compartmented case are moved relative to each other.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for filling a duvet and the like, the apparatus including a means for holding a compartmented case of a duvet and the like in a substantially horizontal plane, a drum for a supply of particulate fill material, means connected to outlets of the drum, each means being connected to an individual elongate hollow member, the elongate members and the means for holding the case being movable relative to each other, means for fluidising a fill material in the drum, means for pulsing the fluidised fill material from the outlets to the hollow individual members to fill the closed ends of the compartments, the hollow individual members being, in use, initially within the compartments of the case and are gradually withdrawn as the compartments are filled by the fill material from the elongate hollow members to a bulk density of less than 30 cubic centimetres per gram.

The apparatus can include any number of elongate members, typically up to ten, which extend horizontally at equal spacings from a support frame. The number of elongate members is chosen so that in one or two operations of the apparatus duvets which have up to 20 compartments are filled.

The drum can fluidise the fill material therein by rotating paddles which spread the fill material evenly around the drum so that they can be drawn therefore pneumatically by pulsed jets of air which use a venturi effect to withdraw the fill material and direct same along the elongate hollow members.

The drum can be filled automatically from a hopper in which a supply of the fill material is kept. The supply of C< C; (~i rt o f-J K' 0 t' J_ fill in the hopper can also be fluidised to assist its transportation to the drum.

Further aspects of the invention which should be considered in all its novel aspects will become apparent C"*) 5 from the following description.

Examples of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1: shows a schematic plan view of a first apparatus according to the present invention with the 10 elongate hollow members in their retracted position; Figure 2: shows an end view of the apparatus shown in Figure 1 wherein the elongate members are in their stop position; Figure 3: shows a side view of part of one of the elongate hollow members in their retracted position; Figure 4: shows a cross-section through a drum in which a supply of fill material is maintained; Figure 5: shows a plan view of the drum shown in Figure 4; Figure 6: shows a detailed section on an enlarged scale through the drum shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Figure 7: shows a side view of a preferred example of apparatus according to the present invention; Figure 8: shows a schematic plan view of the 25 apparatus shown in Figure 7; Figure 9: shows a vertical section through a supply drum of the apparatus shown in Figures 7 and 8. r' o o & 6 j Figure 10: shows a section through the supply drum in the direction of arrows x-x in Figure 9; and Figure 11: shows a section at B (Figure 9) through an outlet from the supply drum.

In the first example as shown in Figures 1 to 6 the invention utilizes (as shown in detail in Figures 4 to 6) a drum 1 in which a supply of fill material is retained in a fluidised state. During operation the fill material (not shown) is fed to the drum 1 whenever a sensor 2 indicates that the fill level is below a predetermined level. The fill is supplied from a hopper (not shown in Figures 1 to 6).

In this example the fill material is fluidised by the incorporation of a pair of paddle blades 3, 4 which are shaped to rotate in the same direction and produce an airflow as shown by arrows in Figure 6. The drum 1 includes baffles 5 which ensure that an even distribution of the fill material is in feed out zones 7 of the drum 1.

The drum 1 has in the periphery of the feed out zone 7 at least one and preferably as shown up to eight outlets 8. Each outlet has a venturi injection zone 9 (only two of which are indicated in Figure 5) into which air is pulsed.

The paddle blades 3r 4 are driven by an electric motor 10 via a drive belt 11. The drive shaft 12 on which the blades 3, 4 are mounted is itself mounted by bearings 13 in the base 14 of the drum 1. 228613 The venturi injection zone 9 has an air inlet via line 14. The venturi is created by air under pressure passing through jets into a connecting hose 15.

The filling apparatus additionally includes means for 5 supporting a duvet case 16 as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The means is preferably in a horizontal plane. The apparatus includes a series of elongate members 17 supported by a frame 18. The members 17 are initially extended to within the compartments in the duvet case 16. The elongate members 10 17 are extended by including tubular members 19 thereon.

The tubular members 19 assist in lining up and placement of the elongate members 17 into the closed end 20 of the compartments 21 of the duvet case. The tubular members 19 are movable relative to the elongate members 17 as either 15 they are withdrawn or the support carrying the duvet case 16 is withdrawn. In this example the tubular members 19 are withdrawn by a movable frame 22 which is moved by hand or automatically to the position A shown in Figure 1. The movement is assisted by the stops 23 at one end of the 20 tubular members 19. The frame is then moved by hand or automatically to the position shown in Figure 1 as the compartments 21 are filled.

The outlets 9 from the drum 1 are connected by flexible hoses 15 or the like to the end of the elongate 25 members 17 so that in operation material from the drum 1 is forced by air pressure through the elongate members to the ends of the compartments in the duvet case 16. r' 9 A f-j fj o The applicants experiments have shown that pulses of air of from 0.04 to 0.3 seconds and 3 bar guage pressure at 3 sec intervals will fill the duvet case in less than 6 minutes. In practice a control system (not shown) is utilized which pulses air to the regions 9 at the same time so that the compartments are filled evenly. The paddles are rotated at 300 rpm in this prototype. In a practical apparatus the machine will either automatically or manually allow for adjustment in the air pressure. At the end of filling the first eight compartments the elongate members 17 or the frame 24 supporting the duvet case 16 can be moved to the side to allow the elongate members to be inserted into the next series of compartments so that they can be filled.

In the preferred embodiment shown in Figures 7 to 11 the apparatus will be described with similar parts from the first example referenced by the same numerals.

In this example the drum 1 is mounted with its axis vertical. The drum 1 is supported beneath a feed or intermediate hopper 25 which is supplied with soft knops from a main hopper 26 rotating at approx 1 rev per min, counterclockwise as is shown in the plan view Figure 8. The main hopper 26 can hold a minimum of 75 kg of soft knops. On command from a level sensor 27 of the feed hopper 25 a fan 28 sucks up through trailing hose 29 soft knops at a rate of 2-3 kg/min, and blows it into the intermediate hopper 25.

Intermediate hopper 25 holds l-2kg of soft knops and on command from level sensor 2 a fan 30 dribbles soft knops down into the distributor drum 1. The fan 30 is driven by a motor 10 through a clutch 31. Distributor drum 1 holds approximately I/2 Kg of soft knops. The drum 1 has two rotors 3, 4 driven directly by motor 10 in an anticlockwise direction as shown in plan view in Figure 10 at approx 275rpm. The rotors 3, 4 keep the soft knops in a fluidised loosely packed mass with the aid of the constraints of the distributor drum 1 itself and baffle plates 5.

Soft knops are removed from the drum 1 by air Venturis 9 of which there are 10 around the drum 1. Each air venturi is the same and an example is shown in more detail in Figure 11. Each simultaneously uses approx 0.2 litres free air at approx 4 bar gauge pressure for approximately 1/20 sec from high pressure inlet 14 through a venturi element 33. This causes a pulse of air and soft-knops to be sucked through drum outlet 32 and blown down a flexible tube 15 (not shown in Figures 7 and 8), and from there via an elongate hollow member 17, supported by frame 18, tube 38 (Figures 7 & 8) into a duvet case (not shown) located on a movable table 34.

Typically four pulses occur every second, each pulse carrying 1 gram of soft knops. Hence the combined 10 members 17 are capable of delivering approximately 2400g of soft knops per minute.

The specific action of the rotors 3, 4 and their fluidizing effect on the soft knops within the distributor 22661" drum 1 combined with the effect of the venturi injection zone 9 to suck the soft knops out in discrete pulses is the key to this invention.

The movable table 34 is driven by a motor 35 (Figure 5 8) via a chain 36 which is automatically controlled so that an empty duvet shell on the table 34 is threaded over the elongate hollow members 17 until the open ends 37 of the members 17 are close to the closed end of the empty duvet shell. 1° The moveable table 34 is then driven in such a way that the duvet compartments are filled evenly from one end to the other needing only a sewing up procedure to complete the product.

Also shown in the drawings is a control panel 38, and 15 a fixed table 39, which is used for preparing the duvet shells prior to attaching them to the movable table 34.

Thus by this invention there is provided an apparatus for filling a duvet and the like with particulate fill or padding material.

Particular examples of the invention have been described and it is envisaged that improvements and modifications can take place without departing from the scope of the appended claims. ■) _ i n _ Q n O r '<

Claims (9)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS;

1. A method of filling a duvet and the like, the method including the steps of: (1) holding in a substantially horizontal plane a compartmented case for a duvet and the like; (2) placing a supply of particulate fill material in a drum; (3) placing in at least some of the compartments of the case an elongate hollow member with the open end of the hollow members adjacent to closed ends of the compartments; (4) connecting to each elongate hollow member a separate outlet from the drum; (5) fluidising the supply of fill material in the drum; (6) withdrawing from the drum in a pulsed manner discrete amounts of the fill material; (7) forcing, under pulsed air pressure, the discrete amounts of fill material through the elongate members to the closed ends of the compartments so that the compartments are filled incrementally with the fill material to have a bulk density in the duvet or the like of less than 30 cubic centimetres per gram as the elongate members and the compartmented case are moved relative to each other.

2. A method of filling a duvet or the like substantially as described.

3. An apparatus for filling a duvet and the like, the apparatus including a means for holding a compartmented case of a duvet and the like in a substantially horizontal plane, a drum for a supply of particulate fill material, means connected to outlets of the drum, each means being connected to an individual elongate hollow member, the elongate members and the means for holding the case being movable relative to each other, means for fluidising a fill material in the drum, means for pulsing the fluidised fill material from the outlets to the hollow individual members to fill the closed ends of the compartments, the hollow individual members being, in use, initially within the compartments of the case and are gradually withdrawn as the compartments are filled by the fill material from the elongate hollow members to a bulk density of less than 30 cubic centimetres per gram.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 which includes a plurality of said elongate hollow members which extend horizontally at equal spacings from a support frame.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 in which up to ten said elongate hollow members are mounted on the support frame.

6. Apparatus according to any of claims 3 to 5 in which the drum fluidises the fill material therein by rotating paddles which spread the fill material evenly around the drum so that it can be drawn therefrom pneumatically by pulsed jets of air which use a venturi effect to withdraw the fill material and direct same along the elongate hollow members.

7. Apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 6 in which the drum is filled automatically from a hopper in which a supply of the fill material is kept.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7 in which the supply of fill material in the hopper is also fluidised to assist its transportation to the drum.

9. Apparatus according to claim 3 and substantially as described with reference to the drawings. WOOL RESEARCH ORGANISATION OF NEW ZEALAND (INC. ) By Their Attorneys BALDWIN SON & CAREY 13 I