Continuous Filling Device Meandering Transport Path
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing filling devices for bulk goods, such as pharmaceutical capsules or tablets, experience issues with packaging integrity due to thrusting forces causing toppling or damage during transport and increased starts and stops, especially when expanding the device for higher discharge volumes.
Innovation Solution
A filling device with a conveying system using consecutive transport wheels and a transport wheel drive for opposite rotation, creating a meandering path that maintains continuous motion of packagings, allowing for adjustable dispensing units without compromising the integrity of the bulk goods, and includes features like packaging holders and guides for secure transfer and easy cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the conveyor stops and starts repeatedly to position packagings under counters, then the filling operation can be performed, but thrusting forces cause packagings to topple or bulk goods to get damaged
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of moving the conveyor back and forth to position packagings under counters, the invention inverts the approach by bringing the counters to the packagings through rotating transport wheels. The packagings remain stationary on the wheels while counters are positioned around them, eliminating the harmful stopping and starting motion of the conveyor.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveying system is segmented into multiple transport wheels that can rotate independently. Each wheel can be rotated to bring counters to the packaging holders, allowing the filling operation to proceed without moving the packagings themselves, thus avoiding thrusting forces.
2Productivity
If the filling device is expanded with several dispensers to increase discharge volume, then productivity increases, but the number of starts and stops increases causing more toppling and damage
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from linear conveyor motion to rotational motion of transport wheels. Multiple counters can be positioned around the rotating wheels in a circular arrangement, allowing several filling operations to occur simultaneously without requiring the conveyor to stop and start repeatedly. This dimensional change from linear to rotational motion enables increased productivity without increasing harmful stops and starts.
3Reliability
If transport wheels rotate oppositely to create meandering path, then continuous motion is maintained and packaging integrity is preserved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention combines multiple transport wheels into a single integrated rotating mechanism. The wheels are connected such that they rotate in opposite directions as a unified system, creating the meandering path through their coordinated motion. This merging reduces the overall complexity compared to having independent drive mechanisms for each wheel.
Data Source
AI summary
Filling device (1) for filling packagings with counted bulk goods, comprising a dispenser (74) having several dispensing units (33) provided with a counter for counted dispensation of the bulk goods to the packagings and a conveying device (73) for transport of the packagings with respect to the dispensing units, wherein the conveying device is provided with several consecutive transport wheels (5) and a transport wheel drive for mutual opposite rotation of the immediately consecutive transport wheels, wherein the transport wheels each have a first axis of rotation and several packaging holders spread around the circumference, wherein the transport wheels with the axes of rotation parallel to each other and at the location of the packaging holders (51) are positioned in each other's vicinity for the transfer of packagings between packaging holders at a mutual transfer position between the immediately consecutive transport wheels during the opposite rotation for obtaining a meandering conveyance path of the packagings with respect to the dispensing units, which path is constituted of opposite arch segments.