Dosing Device Cuff Seals Scale for Accurate Bulk Filling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dosing systems for filling containers or sacks with pourable products face challenges in achieving precise filling weights while preventing product leakage into the environment, leading to inaccuracies and contamination issues, especially with toxic or high-purity products.
Innovation Solution
A dosing device with a closed system that uses a cuff to seal the area between the dosing device and the scale, and a controller that adjusts air discharge based on pressure measurements to maintain ambient pressure, ensuring accurate weight determination by matching the air suction volume to the product flow and using filters to prevent contamination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the area between the outlet of the dosing device and the bag or container to be filled is closed off from the environment with a seal, then product leakage into the environment is prevented, but the weight determination becomes inaccurate due to overpressure effects
Solution Approach 1:
Air is continuously discharged from the closed area before, during, and after dosing through a suction device. This preliminary and continuous air removal prevents overpressure buildup that would otherwise occur when product is added to the sealed space, thereby maintaining accurate weight measurements on the scale throughout the dosing process
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a pressure sensor to continuously monitor the pressure in the closed area and feeds this information back to control the suction device. This feedback mechanism allows the system to dynamically adjust air discharge to maintain pressure equilibrium, ensuring both sealing effectiveness and measurement accuracy
2Measurement precision
If air is continuously discharged from the closed area to maintain pressure equilibrium, then weight measurement accuracy is improved, but product may escape into the environment through the air discharge path
Solution Approach 1:
A filter is positioned in the air discharge path between the closed area and the environment. This intermediary component allows air to pass through while blocking product particles, enabling continuous pressure equalization without risking product escape into the environment
Solution Approach 2:
The suction device selectively removes only air from the closed area while leaving the product inside. By extracting only the harmful element (excess air causing overpressure) and not the valuable product, the system maintains both measurement accuracy and product containment
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a seal is used to close the dosing area, then contamination of filled product is prevented, but the filling time increases due to pressure equalization requirements
Solution Approach 1:
Air discharge is performed continuously throughout the dosing process rather than in discrete steps. This continuous action maintains pressure equilibrium at all times, allowing the dosing operation to proceed without interruption or delays for pressure equalization, thereby maintaining high filling speed while ensuring contamination prevention through sealing
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution achieves precise filling weights with minimal environmental leakage and contamination, allowing for fast and accurate dosing with an accuracy of ±20g for 50kg, significantly improving upon previous methods by maintaining pressure equilibrium and reducing weight measurement errors.
Implementation Method 1
air is discharged from the closed area during dosing so that at least in a phase with a large product flow, the power of the fan is higher than in at least one further phase with a smaller product flow
Implementation Method 2
air is discharged from the closed area through at least one filter
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~4
AI summary
In the method and dosing device (1) for filling bulk products into bags (2) or containers (2a), the device comprises a product feed (5), a dosing unit (6), a scale (7) with a connection area (8) for the bag (2) or container (2a) to be filled, a control unit (17) which controls the dosing unit (6) depending on a predetermined filling weight and a filling weight measured by the scale (7), a flexible connection (11) between the dosing unit (6) and the connection area (8) of the scale (7), which flexible connection (11) tightly seals an enclosed area (12) with the interior spaces of the dosing unit (6), the connection area (8) of the scale (7) and the bag (2) or container (2a). An extraction line (13) is connected to the enclosed area (12), which makes it possible to remove air or gas from the enclosed area (12) via a cleaning filter (14), an extraction valve (15) and a fan (16).The control unit (17) variably adjusts the discharge of air or gas from the enclosed area (12) during dosing over time to the product flow changed by the dosing element.