Sterile Gas Cushion for Hydrostatic Pressure in Packaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing packaging apparatuses for pourable food products require a significant vertical extension to maintain the necessary hydrostatic pressure for forming sealed packages, which is costly and time-consuming to modify when production parameters change.
Innovation Solution
A packaging apparatus that uses a sterile gas cushion within the packaging tube to maintain hydrostatic pressure, reducing the need for an extended pourable product column and allowing for more compact design and easier adjustments during format changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stress or pressure
If an extended pourable product column is used to maintain hydrostatic pressure, then the required pressure for package formation is achieved, but the vertical extension of the isolation chamber increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gas cushion as an intermediary substance between the pourable product and the package forming unit. This gas cushion transmits the necessary hydrostatic pressure to the package formation process without requiring the product column to extend the full vertical distance, thereby resolving the contradiction between maintaining pressure and reducing chamber height
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies pneumatic principles by using a compressible gas cushion to transmit pressure. The gas cushion can be compressed to provide the necessary hydrostatic pressure for package formation while occupying minimal vertical space, eliminating the need for an extended product column
2Ease of manufacture
If the vertical extension of the isolation chamber is reduced, then the apparatus becomes more compact and easier to maintain, but the hydrostatic pressure for package formation may be insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The gas cushion acts as a mediator that decouples the relationship between chamber height and pressure generation. It allows the system to maintain adequate hydrostatic pressure in a compact chamber configuration, facilitating easier maintenance and format changes without pressure loss
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical state and properties of the pressure transmission medium from liquid (pourable product) to gas. This parameter change allows pressure to be transmitted effectively in a shorter vertical distance, enabling compact design while maintaining sufficient hydrostatic pressure
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
The gas cushion effectively replaces the extended product column, reducing the vertical extension of the isolation chamber, simplifying maintenance, sterilization, and format changes, while minimizing sterile gas consumption and loss.
Implementation Method 1
maintain the necessary hydrostatic pressure for forming sealed packages
Implementation Method 2
uses a sterile gas cushion within the packaging tube to maintain hydrostatic pressure
Data Source
AI summary
A method for forming sealed packages filled with a pourable product comprises at least the steps of forming a tube from a web of packaging material, filling the pourable product into the tube for forming a product column within the tube and directing, during the step of forming and the step of filling, a sterile gas into the product column for forming and/or maintaining a gas cushion within the product column.