Metering Chamber Recirculation for Crystallization Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Packaging machines struggle with crystallization of sensitive pasty products during downtimes or start-ups, leading to erroneous meterings and product residue issues, which complicates cleaning and requires extensive flushing, hindering efficient operation and hygiene.
Innovation Solution
The product flows through the metering chamber in an axial direction, with inlets and outlets arranged oppositely, allowing for continuous or partial recirculation to prevent crystallization and enable efficient 'Cleaning In Place' (CIP) without disassembly, using a metering member positioned to create an annular gap for product flow around it, ensuring homogenization and minimizing residue formation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the packaging machine operates in a stopped state or during start-up, then the product has time to crystallize and separate, but this leads to erroneous meterings and defective product portions that require flushing and disposal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a recirculation line that allows product to continuously flow through the metering chamber even during stopped states and start-up periods. This continuous circulation prevents the product from crystallizing and separating, maintaining its homogeneous state and preventing defective portions without requiring flushing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The recirculation system is designed to activate before normal packaging operation begins, during start-up, and during stopped states. This preliminary circulation action ensures the product remains in a usable state before metering begins, preventing the need for subsequent flushing of crystallized product.
2Ease of manufacture
If the metering chamber is designed for complete disassembly and flushing, then cleaning is thorough, but this is complicated and leads to extensive downtimes
Solution Approach 1:
The recirculation line provides continuous product flow through the metering chamber during operation, which naturally prevents product residue accumulation and crystallization. This eliminates the need for frequent complete disassembly and manual flushing, reducing cleaning downtime while maintaining hygiene standards.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the product's own circulation to prevent contamination and residue buildup. The continuous flow through the recirculation line acts as a self-cleaning mechanism that prevents crystallization without requiring external intervention or complete disassembly for routine maintenance.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If slow metering is used to reduce mechanical forces on sensitive products, then product damage is reduced, but this causes the machine to be idle longer and increases crystallization risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the product flow into two paths: a metering path for actual packaging at controlled speeds, and a recirculation path for continuous circulation. This segmentation allows the metering process to proceed slowly to minimize mechanical stress while the recirculation path maintains continuous motion to prevent crystallization during idle periods.
Solution Approach 2:
The recirculation system ensures continuous product motion through the metering chamber even when metering operations are slow or paused. This continuous circulation prevents the product from crystallizing during extended idle periods while allowing the metering process to proceed at the slow speeds necessary to protect sensitive products.
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 configuration maintains product homogenization, reduces cleaning requirements, and allows for continuous operation during critical states, ensuring the packaging machine's efficiency and hygiene by preventing crystallization and enabling thorough CIP cleaning without disassembly.
Implementation Method 1
the product is guided past the at least one metering member through an annular gap formed between the at least one metering member located in the metering chamber and the inner circumferential wall of the metering chamber
Data Source
AI summary
A method for the portioned packaging of liquid or pasty products using a packaging machine. The product is fed via an inlet to a metering chamber, being metered in the metering chamber by a metering member to form a product portion, and the product portion being fed via a metering outlet to a package. In order to avoid impairments of products which are sensitive to crystallizing out in the inoperative state, the metering chamber is operated in continuous flow in at least one operating state of the packaging machine from the following group: downtimes of the packaging machine, start-up of the packaging machine and operation of the packaging machine, by the product—whether entirely or in a partial flow—being removed entirely or partially from the metering chamber past the metering member via an outlet provided in addition to the metering outlet and being recirculated.