초록 ▼

For filling successive spouted bags with a beverage or like fluid product to a prescribed weight, a filling valve assembly and a cap remover assembly are immovably mounted side by side in a germfree chamber formed over a weighing platform. After the germfree chamber and the interior of a filling hea

For filling successive spouted bags with a beverage or like fluid product to a prescribed weight, a filling valve assembly and a cap remover assembly are immovably mounted side by side in a germfree chamber formed over a weighing platform. After the germfree chamber and the interior of a filling head forming a part of the filling valve assembly have been sterilized, a bag is placed on or over the weighing platform, with its capped spout caught by a spout carrier arm, which is supported on the weighing platform for both linear up-and-down motion and pivotal motion about a vertical axis. Following the removal of the cap from the spout by the cap remover assembly, the arm carries the spout to a position under the filling valve assembly and holds the spout against the filling head. The fluid is first charged into the bag at a high rate to an extent slightly less than the prescribed weight and then, with the spout separated and held at a slight distance from the filling head, at a reduced rate to the prescribed weight as ascertained by the weighing platform. Sterilized air under pressure is introduced into the germfree chamber throughout the progress of the filling operation to maintain the chamber at a higher-than-atmospheric pressure.

대표청구항 ▼

A contamination-free method of filling bags with a fluid product to a prescribed weight, each bag having a spout openably closed with a cap, which method comprises: (a) providing a filling valve assembly and a cap remover assembly in fixed positions and in side-by-side relation in a germfree chamber

A contamination-free method of filling bags with a fluid product to a prescribed weight, each bag having a spout openably closed with a cap, which method comprises: (a) providing a filling valve assembly and a cap remover assembly in fixed positions and in side-by-side relation in a germfree chamber, the filling valve assembly having a filling head for downwardly dispensing the fluid product through an opening in the bottom of the chamber; (b) providing a weighing platform under the germfree chamber; (c) sterilizing at least the germfree chamber and the interior of the filling head; (d) supporting a bag on said weighing platform while holding the spout of a bag in a first position substantially within the chamber; (e) removing the cap from the spout of the bag in the first position by the cap remover assembly; (f) carrying the open spout of the bag to a second position substantially within the chamber and under the filling head while the bag is supported on the weighing platform; (g) raising the spout into engagement with the filliing head located above the spout and charging the fluid product into the bag from the filling head through the open spout to an extent less than the prescribed weight while the spout of the bag is being held against the filling head; (h) lowering the spout of the bag from the filling head to said second position to disengage the spout from the filling head and to freely rest the bag on the weighing platform; (i) further charging the fluid product into the bag from the filling head to the prescribed weight, as ascertained by the weighing platform, while the spout of the bag is being held at a slight distance from the filling head; (j) carrying the spout of the filled bag back to the first position; (k) reclosing the spout of the bag with the cap by the cap remover assembly; and (l) introducing sterilized air under pressure into the germfree chamber at least throughout the steps (d) through (k), inclusive, to maintain the chamber at a higher-than-atmospheric pressure.