Rotary Packaging Machine Segmentation for Contamination Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic packaging machines for filling bags with loose products face issues with quality, waste percentage, space usage, maintenance accessibility, and efficiency due to complex mechanisms and contamination risks during the filling and sealing process.
Innovation Solution
The design of an automatic packaging machine with a rotating drum supporting pick-up heads that move along a circular path, featuring separate and close proximity of filling and sealing devices to minimize contamination and ensure precise positioning, along with a stabilizing conveyor for efficient sealing and waste management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a complex packaging path with multiple sprockets is used to advance pick-up heads, then the packaging machine can complete filling and sealing operations, but the device complexity increases and maintenance accessibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging machine is divided into independent modular units: pick-up heads, filling devices, sealing devices, and stabilizing conveyors. Each module operates independently and can be maintained separately, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
Stabilizing conveyors are introduced as intermediary elements between pick-up heads and filling/sealing devices. These conveyors stabilize bags before processing, simplifying the interaction between components and reducing the need for complex positioning mechanisms.
2Ease of repair
If pick-up heads are positioned far from filling and sealing devices, then maintenance accessibility improves, but processing precision and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The machine layout transitions from a linear arrangement to a three-dimensional configuration with vertical stacking. Pick-up heads, filling devices, and sealing devices are arranged in different vertical levels, allowing close proximity for precision while maintaining horizontal separation for accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
Stabilizing conveyors act as intermediaries that bridge the gap between pick-up heads and filling/sealing devices. They ensure precise bag positioning and stabilization, enabling close component placement without compromising processing precision.
3Device complexity
If filling and sealing operations are performed with bags in various positions, then device complexity is reduced, but product quality and contamination control deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates equipotential conditions by stabilizing bags at standardized positions using stabilizing conveyors before filling and sealing operations. This eliminates position variations that could lead to contamination while avoiding complex active position control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
Bags are stabilized and positioned in standardized configurations before entering filling and sealing operations. This preliminary stabilization action ensures consistent positioning, preventing contamination without requiring complex real-time position control during processing.
4Device complexity
If a linear packaging path is used, then device complexity is reduced, but space efficiency and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The packaging path is reconfigured from a linear structure to a circular arrangement with pick-up heads rotating around a central axis. This curved/circular layout increases space efficiency and allows multiple processing stations to operate simultaneously, boosting productivity without significantly increasing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The circular packaging path design allows multiple pick-up heads and processing devices to share a common structural framework. This multi-functional arrangement increases productivity by enabling parallel operations while avoiding the need for separate linear paths for each function.
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 solution enhances the quality of packaged products by reducing contamination and inert gas consumption, decreases waste, optimizes space, improves maintenance accessibility, and increases productivity by ensuring precise processing and efficient operation.
Implementation Method 1
a sealing clamp, which squeezes the bag at the open upper end in order to apply pressure and heat and determines locally the melting, and thus the sealing, of the plastic material
Implementation Method 2
one or more nozzles, which inject an inert gas into the bag (typically nitrogen) at the same time as the feeding of the food product to reduce the content of oxygen inside the bag
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Automatic packaging machine (3) for filling a bag (1) made of heat-sealable material, having an open upper end (2) with a dose of loose product; the packaging machine (3) has: a packaging conveyor (4); a pick-up head (7), which is supported by the packaging conveyor (4) to advance along a packaging path (P1); an input station (S1) where the empty bag (1) is grabbed by the pick-up head (7); an output station (S2) where the full, sealed bag (1) leaves the pick-up head (7); a filling device (18) that is mounted on the packaging conveyor (4) to move together with the pick-up head (7) along the entire packaging path (P1) and is adapted to supply the dose of product inside the bag (1) through the upper open end (2); and a sealing device (19) that is mounted on the packaging conveyor (4) to move together with the pick-up head (7) along the entire packaging path (P1) and is adapted to seal the full bag (1) through a heat-seal at the open upper end (2).