WO2000029320A1

WO2000029320A1 - Linear filling device

Info

Publication number: WO2000029320A1
Application number: PCT/FR1999/002720
Authority: WO
Inventors: Christophe Quibel
Original assignee: Hema Technologies (Sa)
Priority date: 1998-11-12
Filing date: 1999-11-08
Publication date: 2000-05-25
Also published as: FR2785893B1; FR2785893A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a device comprising a filling assembly operating above a rectilinear conveying section, on a travel accompanying the containers to be filled. The device is characterised in that it comprises two rectilinear conveying sections (S1, S2) parallel and circulating in opposite directions, and in the filling assembly (E), filling members (8) are arranged in two lines (L1, L2) respectively associated with one and the other section (S1, S2) such that the filling assembly performs two metering operations for each displacement cycle: one on its outward travel and the other on its return travel.

Description

LINEAR FILLING DEVICE

The present invention relates to the field of filling liquid or viscous products (homogeneous or heterogeneous) in their packaging containers, and more particularly a type of so-called linear metering devices or machines because the metering operations are carried out along 'a straight section for conveying the containers to be filled.

Such devices are generally intended to be integrated into a line for conveying containers whose advance is continuous. They therefore include a conveying path which is inserted into said conveying line, which conveying path comprises a rectilinear section where the containers are placed at a precise pitch, and above which operates a filling assembly embedded on a carriage . The filling assembly comprises a series of n filling members, each associated with a metering device, which are in action simultaneously during a stroke of the carriage accompanying the containers to be filled. From the start of dosing, a carriage operating cycle therefore includes the dosing stroke, deceleration and stopping of the carriage at the end of its stroke, its return stroke with starting acceleration, stopping after deceleration and restarting. to reach line speed again. It is clear that this cycle time excluding dosing represents a significant fraction of the total cycle time, this being the running time of the conveyor line over n.

As a general rule, the number n chosen by the manufacturers is not more than six. But in all in cases, the duration of an operating cycle of the filling assembly is almost incompressible and therefore constitutes a limit to the rate of these devices. The invention results from a reflection on this problem of limiting the rate of linear metering devices, and it consists of a solution constituting from this point of view a very significant improvement, although requiring only very few additional means.

A linear metering device according to the invention, comprising a filling assembly movable back and forth in longitudinal translation and carrying a plurality of filling members, intended to simultaneously fill a plurality of containers arranged in line on a straight section conveyor, during a stroke of said filling assembly accompanying said containers to be filled, is characterized in that it comprises two rectilinear conveying sections in opposite directions, and in that said filling members of said filling assembly are arranged in two lines, associated respectively with one and the other of the two straight conveying sections, so that a metering operation is carried out on the first straight conveying section during a forward stroke of said set of filling, and a metering operation on the second straight conveying section during the return stroke of said e filling unit.

With such a device, on a complete cycle of back and forth movement of the filling assembly, only the deceleration, stop times and acceleration are not used for dosing. Advantageously, if the metering means associated with the filling members are flow disconnectors (flow meters or positive displacement pumps), each of these metering means can be associated with two filling members respectively assigned to one and the other of the two linear conveying sections, to operate alternately with one and the other of these two filling members. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the two linear conveying sections are part of the same conveying path and succeed one another by means of a 180 ° change of direction bend. According to other characteristics of the invention relating to said filling assembly:

- It may include clamping means associated with each of the two lines of filling members, to secure the necks of the containers to be filled during the dosing operations;

- It may include a carriage on which are mounted two platforms having the ability to move back and forth vertically and respectively carrying each of said lines of filling members, in particular for cases where these are level spouts, or well carry out filling from the bottom of the containers.

These characteristics and advantages of the invention, as well as others, will appear clearly in the following description, given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a machine according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view of the dosing station of the machine of FIG. 1; Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view, on an enlarged scale, of a part of the machine of FIG. 1; Fig. 4 is a schematic plan view, similar to FIG. 2, illustrating a variant of the filling assembly of the machine; and Fig. 5 is a diagram representing the different phases of a dosing cycle with the filling assembly of FIG. 4.

First considering Fig. 1, it represents a device according to the invention in the form of a metering and capping machine M intended to be integrated in a line for conveying containers R with continuously scrolling.

To this end, the machine M comprises a table T on which is mounted a conveying path C serving firstly a metering or filling station D, then downstream of this a capping station B. The latter is a type known per se and, not being directly concerned by the present invention, it will not be described below.

The conveying path C conventionally consists, in its rectilinear parts, of pallet conveyors 1. On the other hand, we see at

Fig. 1 that path C is shaped so that its entry and exit are in line.

The dosing station D comprises a filling assembly E which operates during an accompanying stroke of the containers to be filled, on a straight section of the conveying path C. And according to the invention, this filling assembly E is twofold, namely that it comprises two longitudinal lines or suites L1, L2 of filling members arranged in parallel, respectively above an upstream rectilinear conveying section SI and a downstream rectilinear conveying section S2, FIG. 2, the sections SI and S2 being arranged parallel side-by-side and succeeding each other by means of a 180 ° direction change elbow S3, according to a hairpin arrangement.

As shown more clearly in FIG. 2, all of the sections SI, S2 and of the elbow S3 are provided with means for bringing the transported containers to a precise pitch: these are for the sections SI and S2 side worms 2, which cooperate with side guides opposite 3, and for the bend S3, a star wheel 4 cooperating with an external guide 5. In the assembly shown, the bend S3 thus has five pitches, corresponding to five indentations 40 of the wheel 4 on a half-circumference.

The filling assembly E comprises a carriage 6 movable back and forth on a slide 7 arranged parallel between the sections SI and S2. The carriage 6 carries the two lines L1, L2 of n bodies or filling heads 8, with n here equal to four. In each line, the filling heads are spaced at the pitch P between the containers R. Thus, the line L1 comprises from upstream to downstream the heads 8a to 8d, above the section SI, and the line L2, also from upstream to downstream, heads 8e to 8h, above section S2.

As will be explained in more detail below, the filling assembly E therefore performs at each displacement cycle a metering operation on the section SI during its forward stroke according to arrow f, and a metering operation on section S2 during its return stroke.

The filling members can each be associated with a metering means, itself on board or not on the carriage 6, and connected to a filling product storage tank 9, FIG. 1.

However, an important advantage of the invention is that it allows a single metering device to be associated with two filling heads 8 disposed respectively in one and the other of the lines L1 and L2, and therefore always operating alternately. This arrangement is possible as long as the metering units are able to link dosing operations without dead time, for example in the case of flow disconnectors such as positive displacement pumps or flow meters. With these metering means, it then suffices to associate opening / closing valves to cut off the supply of filling product alternately to each of the filling heads of the same pair. Preferably, the metering units are mounted fixed in the machine M and connected to the filling assembly E by flexible pipes shown in broken lines in FIGS. 1 and 3.

In the embodiment shown, more clearly visible in FIG. 3, the metering and filling members 8 are level spouts (and which could equally well be, as a variant, filling spouts from the bottom). Each line L1, L2 is mounted on a platform 10 movable back and forth vertically on the carriage 6. The line L2 on the same side as the storage tank 9 includes elements for the product inlet pipe, identified 11, which are connected to the tank 9 by flexible pipes, and have a double outlet to also supply the other line L1, also by means of flexible pipes. Each line L1, L2 is advantageously associated with clamping means for perfectly securing the necks of the containers R during the dosing operations, which clamping means are here a longitudinal bar 12 having externally clamping indentations 120 and movable in va- back and forth across the side of the carriage 6. A complete operating cycle of the filling assembly will now be described with reference to FIG. 2 where the filling assembly E comprises twice four filling heads, all aligned transversely in pairs, and where the elbow S3 has a length of five steps, corresponding to the five indentations 40 on the half-circumference of the wheel 4. The filled containers are symbolized by circles with a dark central part.

The starting point considered of the cycle, which will therefore last the scrolling time of eight steps, is the start of a dosing operation on SI. At this instant, the carriage 6, after starting in the direction of the arrow F from its left end-of-travel position in FIG. 2, has reached the speed of movement of the containers R in the section SI, the filling heads 8a to 8d being suitably positioned above the containers R to be filled. These are precisely controlled in position by means of the screw 2, and optionally the collar clamping bar 12, not shown here, which can then come into action. The head 8a of line L1 is located at the location of container RI. The dosing operation will take place in two steps, until the filling head 8d reaches the container position R2. In the drawing, the assembly E is therefore represented in the middle of the metering operation. Then, in a time corresponding to the scrolling of two steps, the carriage 6 decelerates, stops at the end of the race to the right, then restarts in the direction of section S2, to reach the scrolling speed thereof while the filling head 8e is in the container position R3 located opposite

R2, eleven paces apart. Then begins with the dosing operation on four containers in section S2, separated by eight containers from those which have just been filled in section SI, the second half-cycle of operation of assembly E which takes place exactly as the first, the container location

R4 opposite RI being the position of the head 8h at the end of dosing on S2. Advantageously, the synchronism between the displacements of the assembly E and those of the containers R in the sections SI and S2 is achieved by using drive means using so-called "brushless" motors with electronic switching.

It will be noted that with a wheel 4 having an even number of indentations on its half-circumference to form the bend S3, it is possible to save the time by one step for each dosing operation, provided that the phase of limitation is limited. braking-stopping-restarting of the carriage 6 in a single step. Fig. 4 illustrates another arrangement of the device according to the invention with which the decomposition of the operating cycle of a set of twice four filling heads into two half cycles each comprising three dosing steps is made possible by keeping an odd step length for the elbow S3, that is here five indentations 40 on the half-circumference of the wheel 4. As in FIG. 2, the filled containers are symbolized by a circle with a dark central part.

In this embodiment, the elements composing the set E 'are the same as in the set E, and therefore, they have been assigned the same references, only accompanied by the sign'. In reality, the assembly E 'is distinguished from the assembly E only in that its line of filling heads L'2 is offset by one step towards the elbow S3 relative to the line L'1. Thanks to this device, the dosing stroke of the assembly E 'on S2 is brought one step closer to the dosing stroke on SI, so that the container location R'3 (position of the head 8' e at the start of dosing on S2) can be separated from the adequate spacing of ten steps from the location of container R'2 (position of the head 8'd at the end of dosing on SI). R'1 and R'4, also offset by one step, are respectively the position of the head 8 'a at the start of dosing on SI and the position of the head 8' h at the end of dosing on S2. Fig. 5 comprises a series of five schematic expanses in rectilinear form, illustrating the series of containers R in the sections SI, S2 and the elbow 3 of the device of FIG. 4, at several successive instants of a cycle for filling the assembly E '. The light circles symbolize empty containers, the dark circles of full containers, and the dark center circles of containers being filled. The first line represents a situation dosing start (Dl) on the SI section, the second line the dosing end (FD1) on SI after three steps, the third line the dosing start (D2) on S2 one step later, the fourth line the end dosing (FD2) on S2 after three more steps, and the fifth line, returning to the initial situation, again after one step, for the start of the next cycle with a new dosing (ND1) on SI.

Claims

1) Linear dosing device, comprising a filling assembly (E or E') movable back and forth in longitudinal translation and carrying a plurality of filling members (8 or 8'), intended to simultaneously fill a plurality of containers (R) arranged in line on a rectilinear conveying section during a stroke of said filling assembly accompanying said containers to be filled, characterized in that it comprises two rectilinear container conveying sections parallel and in opposite directions ( SI, S2), and in that the filling members (8 or 8') of the filling assembly (E or E') are arranged in two lines (Ll, L2 or L'1, L'2), associated respectively with one and the other of the two rectilinear conveying sections (SI, S2), so that a dosing operation is carried out on the first rectilinear conveying section (SI) during the outward stroke of the 'filling assembly (E or E'), and a dosing operation on the second rectilinear conveying section (S2) during the return stroke of the assembly (E or E').

2) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the filling members (8 or

8 ') are associated with metering means of the flow switch type, and in that each metering means serves two filling members belonging respectively to one and the other of said lines (Ll, L2 or L'1 , L'2).

3) Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said filling assembly (E) comprises clamping means (12) associated with each lines (Ll, L2), to secure the necks of the containers (R) to be filled during dosing operations.

4) Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said filling assembly

(E) comprises a carriage (6) on which are mounted two platforms (10) having the ability to move vertically back and forth and respectively carrying each of the lines (Ll, L2). 5) Device according to claim 4, characterized in that said filling members

(8) are level nozzles.

6) Device according to claim 4, characterized in that said filling members (8) fill from the bottom.

7) Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the two linear conveying sections (SI, S2) are part of the same conveying path (C) and succeed one another via a 180° direction change elbow (S3) .

8) Device according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises means for placing the containers (R) at a precise pitch (P) along the sections (SI, S2) and the elbow (S3), with regard to endless screw (2) cooperating with an opposite guide (3) for the rectilinear sections (SI, S2), and a star wheel (4) cooperating with an external guide (5) for the elbow (S3).

9) Device according to claim 8, characterized in that said elbow (S3) has a length of five steps, corresponding to five indentations (40) on the half-circumference of the wheel (4), and in that in the filling assembly (E') the line (L'2) is offset by one step towards the elbow (C) relative to the line (L'1), so that each dosing operation can take place over three steps.

10) Device according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that it is part of a machine (M) further comprising means (B) for capping the containers (R) after filling.