Patent Application
20190060960
The present application relates to a cleaning device and, more particularly, to a device for cleaning rollers of a mill and a related method of use.
Milling technology is used across various industries, wherever there is need to crush particles. For example, mills may be used in industries such as pharmaceutical compounding, cosmetics, food processing, electronics and nano-materials. One example of a mill is an ointment mill which may be used by compounding pharmacists to reduce particle size of an active pharmaceutical ingredient and create a more homogeneous and effective preparation in the form of an ointment, cream, gel or paste.
A mill often includes a set of parallel rollers. When a milling cycle is finished, residue remains on the rollers. A problem arises with cleaning the rollers, especially rollers that are permanently fixed to the mill. In particular, present techniques for cleaning the rollers are unsatisfactory.
Thus, a solution to this problem would be welcomed by the industry.
Embodiments of the presently described device may provide a user with an easy-to-use, fast, and affordable way of cleaning rollers of a mill, in particular fixed rollers. The device may clean all rollers simultaneously, while applying little force. Contact with the rollers is made by a cleaning element such as a microfiber cloth under a cleaning tool. The cleaning element may be releasably attached to the cleaning tool and may in some cases be machine washable and reusable.
Thus, according to a first aspect, there is provided a cleaning tool for cleaning rollers of a mill, comprising: a body with an underside defining a plurality of curved channels; and an attachment assembly to releasably secure a cleaning element to the body so as to cover the underside thereof when secured.
According to a second aspect, there is provided a device for cleaning rollers of a mill, comprising: a cleaning tool comprising a body; a cleaning element configured to conform to a shape of a top portion of the rollers; and an attachment assembly to releasably secure the cleaning element to the body so as to cover an underside thereof when secured.
According to a third aspect, there is provided a method of cleaning a plurality of rollers of an ointment mill, comprising: attaching a cleaning element to a cleaning tool with an underside having curved channels conforming to a surface of the rollers; pressing the cleaning tool against the rollers to cause the cleaning element to capture residue from the rollers; removing the cleaning element from the cleaning tool; and attaching a new cleaning element to the cleaning tool for re-use of the cleaning tool.
According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a device for cleaning rollers of a mill, comprising: a cleaning tool comprising a body with an underside; a cleaning element with an upper surface and a lower surface; and an attachment assembly to releasably secure the upper surface of the cleaning element against the underside of the body; wherein the lower surface of the cleaning element defines a plurality of curved channels when the upper surface of the cleaning element is secured against the underside of the body.
According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a kit, comprising: a mill comprising a plurality of parallel rollers with an exposed portion; and a cleaning tool with a releasably securable cleaning element, the cleaning element having a lower portion with a shape corresponding to a shape of the exposed portion of the rollers.
A non-limiting example of an ointment mill that may be suitable for use in certain embodiments is the T50 ointment mill from Torrey Hills Technologies, LLC of San Diego, Calif. Certain parameters of the T50 ointment mill are as follows:
However, it should be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the use of this ointment mill in particular or even ointment mills in general, as they can be used with mills in a variety of industries where the rollers may be made of different materials (e.g., steel, ceramic) for different applications.
To clean rollers of a mill, such as the rollers 930 of the ointment mill 900 of
Reference is now made to
Reference is also made to
The cleaning tool 100 comprises an attachment assembly 110 to releasably secure the cleaning element 700 to the body 102. A more detailed explanation of the attachment assembly 110 is now provided. In this regard, it is noted that the attachment assembly 110 may comprise at least one component that is affixed to the body 102, such as to the upper side 108 of the body 102. In the present embodiment, the at least one component comprises a plurality of spaced pegs 112 on the upper side 108 of the body 102. The pegs 112 cooperate with holes 702 in the cleaning element 700 that are formed near certain edges of the cleaning element 700, as best seen in
Since the cleaning element 700 is largely underneath the body 102, and so long as the cleaning element 700 is relatively snugly fitting when the holes 702 receive the pegs 112 of the cleaning element 700, the pegs 112 keep the cleaning element 700 in place during use. In some embodiments, there may be four (4) holes 702 in the cleaning element 700 with four (4) matching pegs 112 on the body 102, or six (6) holes 702 in the cleaning element 700 with six (6) matching pegs 112 on the body 102, although there may be a differing number of holes and pegs. Also, the pegs 112 may be distributed in such a way that if the upper side 108 of the body 102 were divided into a matrix of 4×4 parts of equal area, each of the four extreme corners of the matrix would include one, or at least one, of the pegs 112.
In the case where there are six holes 702, and with particular reference to
Alternative realizations of the attachment assembly 110 may include fewer components attached to the body 102. For example, an alternative attachment assembly could be a connector that attaches different parts of the cleaning element 700 together and over the body 102 of the cleaning tool 100, without being attached to the body 102 of the cleaning tool 100 at all. Still other embodiments involve the use of hooks, clips, a location on the body 102 configured to pinch the cleaning element 700 when it is inserted therein, an insert guard rail, as well as other configurations. An example of a connector could be a safety pin or a device having two components attaching to respective parts of the cleaning element 700.
It should be appreciated that to minimize potential damage to the rollers 930, the attachment assembly 110 may be free from any component protruding from the underside 104 of the body 102.
To facilitate use of the cleaning tool 100, a handle 130 may be attached to the body 102, in particular to the upper side 108 of the body 102. The handle 130 is best seen in
Clearly, for use with rollers that are all in the same plane, the channels 106 on the underside 104 of the body 102 may all be in the same plane, as well as being parallel to one another. Also, for use with identically sized rollers, each of the channels may have a common radius of curvature R. Moreover, the radius of curvature R of the channels 106 may be equal or greater than the radius of curvature of the rollers 930 they are configured to fit to. As for a depth D of a particular one or more of the channels 106, measured in a height direction, this may be anywhere from a quarter of the radius of curvature R (of the respective channel) to half the radius of curvature R, all the way to close to the radius of curvature R itself, such as 95% of the radius of curvature R or even more. A full half-circle may thus be used in some embodiments, but in other embodiments the channels may cover only a small fraction of a circular underside 104 of the body 102. In some cases, at least part of the body 102 may have a sinusoidal cross section, as seen in
In other instances, the rollers need not be parallel, and need not be of the same radius. As such, in some embodiments, the channels 106 on the underside 104 of the body 102 might not all be in the same plane, might not be parallel to one another, and might not all have the same radius of curvature.
Adjacent ones of the channels 106, which correspond to adjacent ones of the rollers 930, are spaced by a certain distance L which, when measured in terms relative to a common radius of curvature R of the channels, may correspond to more than twice the radius of curvature R (i.e., more than 200% of the radius of curvature R, denoting an inter-roller gap of close to zero), and may be greater, such as 3 times or even possibly 4 times the radius of curvature R (when the rollers 930 have a gap of almost a full roller between them). For vastly separated channels 106, the mill could be designed with a gap adjustment mechanism so that the rollers 930 can be separated to a suitable distance for cleaning using the cleaning tool 100.
It is noted that materials can transfer from one roller to another during operation, particularly when the roller gap is small. In other cases, material may remain on a roller than is not contacted. As such, in an embodiment, the cleaning tool 100 is designed to cover all rollers of the mill simultaneously. Thus, for the 3-roller ointment mill 900, a 3-channel cleaning tool could be used to minimize the time it takes to clean the rollers of the mill. However, this is not a requirement, and a smaller number of channels may be used.
In the present non-limiting embodiment, and as best seen in
In this regard, the cleaning element 700 may be a cloth, as in the illustrated embodiments of
The cloth 700 may have any suitable thickness so as to be thick enough to perform the intent of cleaning and not get stuck or pinched between the rollers 930. A suitable thickness may be, for example, between 2 mm and 10 mm or more, including 4 mm. In various non-limiting embodiments, the cloth 700 may have a grammage of between 100 and 400 gsm (grams per square meter), including 270 gsm, for example.
A method of using the device 800 (including the cleaning tool 100 and the cleaning element 700) to perform a cycle of cleaning the rollers of a mill, such as the ointment mill 900, is now described with reference to the flowchart in
Firstly, a user prepares the mill for cleaning, which in the case of the ointment mill 900 could involve removing the hopper from the mill 900. The mill 900 can then be run at a medium to low speed with minimum gap settings (i.e., front=0, rear=0) in order to recover residual cream on the apron 920. Water or 70% IPA can be used to wet the rollers 930 during this process. The end roller guides (not shown) and the apron 920 are then removed. The mill 900 can then be set to maximum gap and low speed. As persons skilled in the art will know, not all mills have adjustable speed settings, and so it should be understood that it is still possible for the cleaning tool to function with different speeds and gap settings (e.g., higher speeds and lower gap settings).
In addition, the user attaches the cleaning element 700 (e.g., the cloth) to the body 102 of the cleaning tool 100. For example, as shown in
Then, the user presses the device 800 against the rollers 930 to cause the cleaning element 700 to capture residue from the rollers 930. Residue may include cream, gels, aggregates, solid particles, ointment, liquids and mixtures of base and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). Before re-use of the device 800 during a new cleaning cycle, a new cleaning element 700 is attached to the cleaning tool 100.
In some embodiments, the ointment mill 900 may have projections 901 that the user may use to stabilize the device 800. The user may thus insert the device 800 so that the projections 901 occupy one of the troughs/valleys 142.
During the cleaning process, cleaning fluid may be applied to the cleaning element 700 through the vertically extending apertures 142 in the body 102 of the cleaning tool 100. The cleaning fluid may be a solvent such as water or alcohol (e.g., 70% IPA), depending on the recommendations of the manufacturer of the rollers being cleaned. The cleaning fluid may be dispensed in any suitable way, including using laboratory glassware (beakers, flasks, bottles, jars, test tubes, cups, pipettes, funnels, etc.), a rubber bulb, a measured transfer device (syringe, pumps, etc.), laboratory wash bottles, etc.
It should also be appreciated that the solvent may be pre-applied to the rollers 930 before use of the device 800, although adding solvent through the apertures 142 in the body 102 of the cleaning tool 100 may be done at a faster rate and without interrupting the cleaning process.
The required amount of time for cleaning the rollers 930 may vary depending on the type of material, and the size, of the rollers 930. In some cases, one (1) minute of cleaning may be adequate, while in other cases, less than one minute and down to 30 seconds or less may suffice and in other cases, more than one (1) minute and up to two (2) minutes or more may be required to achieve adequate cleaning.
It should be appreciated that the device 800 has a length which may be less than or equal to a length of the rollers 930. When it is less than the length of the rollers, the device 800 may be manually slid across the length of the rollers 930 during cleaning so as to ensure that residue is picked up along the length span of the rollers 930.
After use, the device 800 is removed from the rollers 930. In the case where the projections 901 were placed into the troughs/valleys 142, some user manipulation may be needed to remove the device 800 from the stabilizing hold of the projections 901.
After use, the user removes the cleaning element 700 from the body 102 of the cleaning tool 100. This can be done by, for example, raising the cloth 700 vertically until one or more of the pegs 112 slip out of their respective holes 702. At this point, the cloth 700 will be loose enough to remove from the body of the cleaning tool 100.
The spent cleaning element 700 may be discarded or washed, depending on a type of the residue collected. For example, in the case of a hazardous residue, the cloth 700 may be discarded. In the case of a non-hazardous residue, the cloth 700 may be washed and re-used. The maximum number of re-uses may depend on the quality of the cloth 700 and may be up to 20 or more.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in other applications, the body of the cleaning tool 100 may have any shape, not necessarily one that projects to a substantially rectangular shape as in
Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that in an alternative embodiment, and as seen in
The underside of the body 1120 may have a certain shape that does not include a plurality of parallel channels (e.g., it may be flat); rather, the block 1140 may have an upper surface that is complementary to the shape of the underside of the body 1120 (e.g., flat), and a lower surface that has the plurality of parallel channels. In this alternative embodiment, the wings 1150 of the cleaning element amount to the portions of the cleaning element 700 that fold over the edges of the body of the cleaning tool and are secured to each other or to the body (e.g., via pegs 1130). In an embodiment, the block 1140 may be made of a sponge-like absorbent material.
The device 800 (or 1100) may be included with the mill 900 when the mill 900 is sold. Alternatively, the device 800 (or 1100) may be sold separately. In that regard, it should be appreciated that the cleaning tool 100 may be sold or distributed separately from or together with the cleaning element 700, and the cleaning element 700 may itself be sold or distributed in packages of 5, 10 or more.
Different colored cleaning tools 100 and/or handles 130 may be provided so that a pharmacist or other user can color code which tool to use with a specific compound or type of compound.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the use of the device 800 (or 1100) described above to clean rollers of a mill may have safety advantages, such as potentially helping to avoid workplace injuries resulting from body parts or clothing being caught in between the rollers while the mill is turning.
Those skilled in the art should appreciate that further realizations and variants are possible, and that certain embodiments may omit certain elements described above, all within the scope of the invention, which is defined by the claims appended hereto.
The present application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/548714, filed on Aug. 22, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62548714 | Aug 2017 | US |
