Bag Filling Machine Handling Mechanism for Sterile Packaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current bag filling machines for packaging foodstuffs like liquid or semi-liquid products are complex and require intricate setups to ensure sterility, making them costly and difficult to maintain.
Innovation Solution
A simplified handling mechanism using two flexible transmission parts with grab plates, creating a sterile environment through sanitization and air injection, and a compartmentalized system for isolation and sterilization, ensuring the bag openings are safely grasped and released.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional handling mechanism is used to feed bags to the dispenser head, then the filling process can be completed, but the mechanism becomes complicated and requires complex setups to ensure sterility
Solution Approach 1:
The handling mechanism is segmented into two independent flexible transmission parts (first and second flexible transmission parts) that operate separately but coordinate to hold and transport bag openings. Each transmission part carries its own set of grab plates, creating modular, independent units that are easier to design, manufacture, and maintain while ensuring sterile handling through their dedicated paths
Solution Approach 2:
The grab plates serve as intermediary elements between the flexible transmission parts and the bag openings. These grab plates with shaped side profiles create holders that securely grasp the rigid openings of bags, allowing the transmission parts to transport the bags without direct contact, thereby maintaining sterility while simplifying the overall mechanism design
2Reliability
If complex setups are implemented to ensure sterile filling, then contamination is prevented, but the cost and difficulty of maintenance increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sterile filling environment is extracted and confined to a dedicated filling chamber that is at least partially delimited by grab plates. This isolation allows the sterile process to be maintained in a controlled space while the rest of the handling mechanism can be simpler and easier to manufacture and maintain. The filling chamber acts as a separate, self-contained sterile zone
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible transmission parts use flexible belts or chains that can be easily manufactured, replaced, and maintained. These flexible elements provide reliable bag handling while their simple construction reduces manufacturing complexity and maintenance costs compared to rigid mechanical systems
3Device complexity
If a simplified handling mechanism is used, then cost and complexity are reduced, but the ability to maintain sterility may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The route of each flexible transmission part lies in a plane that is tilted with respect to the plane in which the grab plates lie along the operational section. This dimensional change allows the transmission parts to move in a different spatial plane, reducing lateral dimensions of the machine while maintaining sterile separation between the transmission paths and the filling chamber
Data Source
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AI summary
Description of a filling machine (100) for bags (S) with an opening (B), comprising: a dispensing head (240) for a product to be packaged, and a handling mechanism (105) to feed the bags and stop them one at a time in a filling position (P5) with the opening (B) in line with the dispensing head (240);whereby this handling mechanism (105) comprises: a first and second flexible transmission part (110A, 110B), each of which runs inside a closed circuit along a route that comprises an operational section (120A, 120B) and a return section (125A, 125B), whereby the operational section (120A, 120B) for each of these first and second flexible transmission parts (110A, 110B) is substantially straight and parallel with the operational section (120A, 120B) of the other flexible transmission part, and two sets of grab plates (140) secured in sequence with the first (110A) and second flexible transmission part (110B) respectively, whereby the grab plates (140) are each fitted with a shaped side profile (150) and arranged such that, along the operational section (120A, 120B) of the flexible transmission parts (110A, 110B), the grab plates (140) secured to the first flexible transmission part (110A) are adjacent to the grab plates (140) secured to the second flexible transmission part (110B), and the shaped side profile (150) of each grab plate (140) secured to the first flexible transmission part (110A) defines, with the shaped side profile (150) of at least one grab plate (140) secured to the second flexible transmission part (110B), a holder (155) for the opening (B) on a bag (S).