Flexible Container Positioning Station for Orientation Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Packaging machines face challenges in ensuring flexible containers, such as pouches, are conveyed in a predetermined specific orientation within a vertical plane, leading to defective operations and increased rejection rates due to variations in container formats and orientations.
Innovation Solution
A packaging machine equipped with a positioning station featuring grasping means, detection means, and driving mechanisms that can adjust the vertical and horizontal position of the container to align it with a target orientation, allowing for versatile handling of different pouch formats, including those with central or corner spouts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional conveying means are used to transport containers along working stations, then the packaging machine can perform basic operations, but containers may be conveyed in incorrect orientation leading to defective operations and increased rejection rates
Solution Approach 1:
The grasping means are made independently movable along the vertical direction, allowing dynamic adjustment of their positions. This enables the system to adapt to different container formats and orientations by changing the vertical distance between grasping points, thereby maintaining reliable operations across various container types without increasing device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the vertical position parameter of the grasping means to correct container orientation. By independently moving the first and second grasping means along the vertical direction, the system can adjust the container's vertical distance and orientation, ensuring proper alignment for subsequent operations and reducing rejection rates
2Adaptability or versatility
If magazines are equipped with moveable walls to accommodate different pouch formats, then storage versatility is improved, but the complexity of preparing and transferring containers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality adjustment by allowing only the grasping means to be independently movable, while other parts of the system remain fixed. This localized adaptability simplifies the overall system compared to making entire magazines or transfer mechanisms complex and adjustable, reducing device complexity while maintaining versatility
Solution Approach 2:
The positioning station acts as an intermediary between the magazine and the conveying means. It receives containers from the magazine and performs orientation correction before transferring to the conveying means, simplifying the transfer process by handling format variations at a dedicated intermediate stage rather than requiring complex adjustments throughout the entire system
3Reliability
If detection means are added to detect container orientation, then defective operations are reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the container's own physical features (edges, spouts) as reference points for detection and positioning. The detection means identify these inherent features, and the grasping means use them directly for alignment, allowing the container to essentially position itself rather than requiring complex external positioning mechanisms, thereby reducing device complexity while improving orientation accuracy
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a~3b
Figure 4a~5
AI summary
A packaging machine (100) having a conveyor means to convey flexible containers along a working path; and a series of working stations arranged along the said working path wherein one these working station is a positioning station (103) equipped with a first and a second grasping means (3, 4) able to collectively hold a container in a suspended fashion and in a vertical plane, detection means (31, 41) configured to detect the vertical level and tilt of an edge (1a) of the held container that extends between the first and the second grasping means when the said grasping means hold the container; and driving means able to move the first and the second grasping means (3, 4), specifically to change at least their vertical distance while they collectively hold the container to arrange the said container's edge (1a) at a target vertical level and tilt.