Viscous Product Packaging with Flow Restriction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vertical form-fill-and-seal machines struggle to produce packages of uniform weight for viscous products with viscosities above 100,000 centipoise, as these products do not flow under gravity, leading to air pockets and weight variations due to incomplete filling of the packaging tube.
Innovation Solution
A modified form-fill-and-seal apparatus and process that includes a cyclical process of forwarding flat film, forming it into a tubing, heat sealing, pumping viscous products through a supply pipe submerged in the tubing, and using restriction rollers or blockers to minimize upstream flow and air pockets, ensuring uniform filling and weight by converting the tubing into a lay-flat configuration and making transverse seals to separate packages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If viscous products are pumped into the tubing without flow restriction, then the filling speed increases, but air pockets form and weight uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by submerging the supply pipe downstream end in the viscous product before filling begins. This ensures that the pipe remains filled with product throughout the cyclical process, preventing air from entering the tubing during filling operations and eliminating air pockets that would cause weight variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic control through cyclical operation of the filling process. The supply pipe is periodically advanced to maintain submersion in the viscous product, and the system alternates between filling phases and sealing phases. This dynamic adjustment ensures continuous product flow without air pockets while maintaining weight uniformity across packages.
2Device complexity
If the supply pipe remains stationary, then the device complexity is reduced, but air pockets form in the tubing
Solution Approach 1:
The supply pipe is preliminarily positioned and then advanced periodically to maintain submersion in the viscous product. This preliminary positioning followed by periodic advancement ensures the pipe remains filled with product, preventing air pockets from forming in the tubing while avoiding the need for continuously complex positioning mechanisms.
3Reliability
If transverse heat seals are made across the tubing, then package sealing is achieved, but the tubing must be converted to lay-flat configuration
Solution Approach 1:
The tubing configuration changes dynamically during the packaging process. The tubing is held in a cylindrical configuration during filling to facilitate product entry, then converted to a lay-flat configuration before transverse heat sealing to enable proper seal formation. This dynamic reconfiguration ensures both filling efficiency and seal integrity without requiring permanently complex mechanisms.
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
The solution ensures the production of packages with uniform product weight and reduced air pockets, addressing the issue of weight variation and air inclusion in packages of viscous products by effectively filling and sealing the packaging tube.
Implementation Method 1
heat sealing together first and second portions of the flat film with a longitudinal heat sealer to form a longitudinally sealed tubing
Implementation Method 2
heat sealing across the longitudinally sealed film tubing with a transverse heat sealer, to make a package bottom transverse heat seal
Implementation Method 3
pumping the viscous product through a supply pipe extending through the first passageway
Data Source
AI summary
A cyclic packaging process, such as VFFS or HFFS, packages a product with a viscosity of ≥100,000 centipoise without leaving substantial air pockets in the package, by utilizing a means (38) for restricting upstream flow of viscous product in the strand of tubing (24). The result is that packages of uniform weight of the viscous product can be made without substantial air pockets therein, and without having to use metal clips. An apparatus (10) for carrying out the process is disclosed.