Prepackaged Container Filling System with RFID Traceability
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Solution Overview
Problem
The growing global popularity of electronic vapor delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes, faces challenges in regulation, standardization, and quality control, particularly in filling vaporizers with consumables like cannabis and nicotine, where manufacturing and filling processes are often disjointed and lack traceability of components and substances.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for standardizing the filling of prepackaged containers with consumables using a filler station that includes encoding information on the package, securing structures, and a filling assembly with RFID tags or QR codes for traceability, allowing for the secure and efficient filling of vaporizers and cartridges with consumables while ensuring regulatory compliance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional disjointed filling processes are used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but traceability of components and substances is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system encodes traceability information (RFID tags, QR codes, data matrices) on packages and components before the filling process begins. This preliminary encoding ensures that traceability data is captured and stored in advance, allowing complete tracking of components and substances through the filling process without adding complexity during the actual filling operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary filling station system that acts as a bridge between manufacturing and distribution. This intermediary captures, processes, and stores traceability information from multiple sources (packages, components, substances) and maintains the connections between them, enabling end-to-end traceability without requiring direct integration of all system components.
2Reliability
If standardized filling processes with encoding are implemented, then regulatory compliance is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The filling station is designed as a universal platform that can handle multiple types of packages, components, and substances simultaneously. The system encodes various types of traceability information (RFID tags, QR codes, data matrices) using the same fundamental process, allowing the system to comply with different regulatory requirements for different products without requiring separate specialized equipment for each product type.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows for flexible adjustment of encoding parameters (type of code, amount of information encoded, placement location) to match specific regulatory requirements for different products and jurisdictions. This parameter flexibility enables compliance with varying regulations while maintaining the same core manufacturing process.
3Manufacturing precision
If secure structures and encoding systems are added, then quality control is enhanced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Quality control measures are implemented preliminarily through the encoding process itself. The securing structures and encoding systems capture critical quality information (traceability data, component identification, substance information) before the filling process begins, allowing quality verification to be integrated into the standard workflow rather than requiring separate complex inspection systems.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a housing and a mount. The housing includes a cover portion and a base portion. The cover portion and the base portion define an interior. The housing defines an opening via which the interior can be accessed from a region external to the housing. The mount is coupled to the base portion and configured to maintain a position of a fillable component within the interior of the housing such that an elastomeric membrane of the fillable component is aligned with the opening defined by the housing and a reservoir of the fillable component is accessible by a needle via the opening and the elastomeric membrane.