Multi-Hopper Flavouring Dispensing for Compact Dose Throughput
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems struggle to quickly and efficiently dispense compact doses of flavouring for individual batches of food products like potato chips or crisps, as the compacting time required for flavouring to coalesce and adhere uniformly becomes a limiting factor in high-throughput processing.
Innovation Solution
A flavouring dispenser with a flavouring dosage unit and a plurality of compacting hoppers, where the dosage unit gradually supplies flavouring to each hopper over a longer period, allowing for dwell time to form compact doses, and the hoppers are sequentially filled and moved to ensure continuous throughput.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If flavouring is dispensed quickly to maintain high throughput, then productivity is improved, but the flavouring cannot coalesce and compact properly, resulting in poor coating quality
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the flavouring dispensing process into multiple stages using a multi-position rotary dispenser with separate compartments. Each compartment can receive, compact, and dispense flavouring independently, allowing simultaneous processing of multiple batches. This segmentation enables continuous operation while ensuring each dose receives adequate compacting time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary compacting of flavouring in dedicated compacting chambers before the actual dispensing stage. Vibration mechanisms are applied in advance to coalesce and compact the flavouring particles, ensuring proper coating quality is achieved before the flavouring is transferred to food products. This preliminary action resolves the conflict between speed and quality.
2Ease of manufacture
If small doses of flavouring are dispensed for individual batches, then cleaning between flavouring changes is minimized, but the flavouring dose is insufficient time to coalesce and compact
Solution Approach 1:
The rotary dispenser maintains continuous operation by having multiple compartments in different stages of the process simultaneously. While one compartment is being filled with a small dose of flavouring, another is compacting, and a third is dispensing. This continuous cycle ensures that even though individual doses are small and processed quickly, each dose receives the necessary compacting time in its dedicated chamber before being dispensed.
3Productivity
If flavouring is delivered in a compact dose for fast coating, then productivity is improved, but flavouring requires time to coalesce and compact which limits throughput
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the compacting function from the dispensing function using separate compacting chambers and dispenser compartments. This allows compacting to occur in parallel with other operations, eliminating it as a sequential bottleneck. Multiple compartments can be compacting and dispensing at the same time, effectively reducing the overall time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
Vibration mechanisms are integrated into the compacting chambers to accelerate the coalescence and compacting of flavouring particles. By applying mechanical vibration, the system achieves proper compacting in a shorter time period, thereby reducing the time loss while still delivering adequately compacted doses for fast coating application.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A flavouring dispenser for dispensing compacted doses of flavouring comprises a flavouring dosage unit configured to dispense a dose of flavouring and a plurality of compacting hoppers, each configured to receive and hold a dose of flavouring dispensed from the flavouring dosage unit and to subsequently dispense the dose of flavouring to a dispense position. The flavouring dosage unit and the plurality of compacting hoppers are configured such that the flavouring dosage unit sequentially supplies a dose of flavouring to each of the plurality of compacting hoppers.