Vertical Packaging Machine Supply Conduit Bifurcation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vertical packaging machines face challenges with products like spinach leaves and lettuce, which have low unitary weight and large surface area, resulting in a slow rate of fall and high risk of jamming due to gravity, especially in areas with reduced passage width.
Innovation Solution
The machine incorporates a supply conduit divided into two passage conduits with bifurcation zones, featuring injection openings at different heights and angles, allowing for gaseous fluid injection to accelerate product fall through the Venturi effect, reducing jamming risks by creating multiple paths and utilizing the Coandă effect for targeted air stream distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the supply conduit uses a single passage for product fall, then the structure is simple, but the product (low weight, large surface area) falls slowly and jams frequently in reduced passage areas
Solution Approach 1:
The supply conduit is divided into multiple separate passage conduits (first passage conduit and second passage conduit) that are separated in the bifurcation zone. This segmentation allows products to fall through multiple independent paths, increasing fall speed and reducing jamming risks by distributing the product flow across different channels.
Solution Approach 2:
The passage conduits are arranged in different spatial dimensions and angular positions around the central axis. This three-dimensional arrangement creates multiple fall paths at different orientations, enabling products to navigate through the supply conduit more efficiently and reducing the likelihood of jamming in any single plane.
2Speed
If gaseous fluid is injected into the supply conduit, then the product fall is accelerated, but the device complexity increases due to injection openings and fluid control systems
Solution Approach 1:
A gaseous fluid is injected through injection openings in the passage conduits to accelerate product fall. The pneumatic injection system creates upward air streams that interact with falling products, increasing their descent speed and reducing jamming risks without requiring complex mechanical moving parts.
Solution Approach 2:
Injection openings are positioned at specific locations within the passage conduits to create localized air streams where needed. This targeted injection approach accelerates product fall in critical zones while maintaining simplicity in other areas of the device.
3Reliability
If the tube diameter is increased to reduce jamming, then the passage area increases, but the film consumption increases and package dimensions change
Solution Approach 1:
By dividing the supply conduit into multiple smaller passage conduits, the system achieves jamming reduction through distributed flow paths without requiring a single large-diameter tube. This segmentation allows each passage to maintain a smaller effective diameter while collectively handling the same product volume, thus reducing film consumption.
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 design accelerates product fall, reduces jamming, enables faster packaging, and allows for larger tube diameters, resulting in wider and shorter packages with reduced film consumption, enhancing packaging efficiency and versatility.
Implementation Method 1
the injection device and/or injection openings are configured for the gaseous fluid to enter the supply conduit in a downward direction... causing at least part of the air present in the corresponding passage conduit above each injection opening to follow such injected fluid and to increase its rate of fall, due to the effect known as the Venturi effect
Implementation Method 2
the falling of the product through the supply conduit is accelerated while at the same time the risk of said product, or part of it, becoming jammed in said supply conduit is reduced
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a vertical packaging machine configured for packaging a product. The machine may include a supply conduit formed by at least one hopper through which the product to be packaged is introduced in the supply conduit. A tube is arranged downstream the hopper. The supply conduit includes at least a first passage conduit and a second passage conduit which are separated from one another such that each of the first and passage conduits offers a different path for the product to be packaged. Each of the first and second passage conduits includes a first injection opening and a second injection opening, the first injection openings being located at different heights and in different angular positions in reference to the second injection openings. The machine also includes one or more injection devices and that are configured to inject gas into the first and second gas injection openings.