Tube Holder Ovality Correction for Filling Machines
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Solution Overview
Problem
Tube filling machines face challenges due to tube ovality, which can exceed 10% during transportation, leading to deformation and interference with filling operations, limiting the selection of tube materials and processes.
Innovation Solution
A tube holder with a retractable tube shaping device that engages the tube near the open end to restore a circular cross-sectional shape within acceptable ovality tolerances, ensuring proper filling and nozzle insertion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If tubes are packaged and transported in bulk to the filling machine, then transportation efficiency is improved, but tube deformation and ovality increase beyond acceptable limits
Solution Approach 1:
The tube holder restores the circular shape of the tube at the filling station before the filling operation begins. This preliminary action corrects the ovality that developed during transportation, ensuring the tube is properly shaped for filling without requiring changes to the transportation process itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube holder acts as an intermediary device between the transportation system and the filling machine. It receives deformed tubes from bulk transportation, restores their circular shape, and presents them to the filling machine in the correct form, thus mediating between the conflicting requirements of efficient transportation and shape maintenance.
2Stability of the object's composition
If rigid tube materials are selected to maintain circularity during transportation, then tube shape stability is improved, but material selection and manufacturing flexibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The tube holder enables the tube to restore its own circular shape through the mechanical action of the holder's shaping elements. Instead of relying on the tube's inherent rigidity to maintain shape, the system provides self-correction service, allowing flexible materials to be used while maintaining shape stability during filling operations.
3Ease of operation
If tube ovality is allowed to exceed 10% during transportation, then handling and transportation ease is improved, but filling operation reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The tube holder performs preliminary shape restoration before the filling operation, correcting ovality that developed during easy handling and transportation. This ensures that even though tubes may become deformed during handling, they are restored to acceptable circularity right before filling, maintaining filling reliability.
Data Source
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Figure 3
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AI summary
A tube holder is disclosed for carrying a tube to multiple processing stations of a tube filling machine. In one non-limiting embodiment, the tube holder includes a body comprising a receptacle configured for retaining a tube. The tube includes a dispensing end and an opposite open end for filling a cavity therein with a product. A retractable tube shaping device is movably disposed in the tube holder. The shaping device is movable between an extended position and a retracted position. When the shaping device is in the extended position, the shaping device engages the tube proximate to the open end and removes ovality which might interfere with the tube filling operation. In various embodiments, the shaping device comprises a plurality of vertically retractable straightening elements that engage the sidewalls of the tube to ensure circularity of the open tube end.