Patent Grant
10040678
This application is a National Phase Application of PCT International Application No. PCT/IB2014/060699, International Filing Date, Apr. 14, 2014, claiming priority to Italian Patent Application No. TO2013A000302, filed Apr. 15, 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates in general to a filling machine for filling bottles with food liquids, such as in particular wine and beer, and more specifically to a filling device intended to be installed on such a machine.
The filling of bottles is generally classified in two categories, i.e. level filling and volumetric filling, depending on the technology used to detect when the right amount of liquid supplied has been reached. In turn, level filling differs depending on the liquid to be processed. In the case of non-gaseous liquids filling is performed at atmospheric pressure or under a slight vacuum, in the case of gaseous liquids an isobaric filling is performed and in the case of viscous liquids filling is performed under conditions where there is a pressure difference, obtained by creation of high vacuum or by overpressure.
The filling device according to the present invention falls within the category of level-filling devices and allows filling with all the three above-mentioned categories of liquids (non-gaseous liquids, gaseous liquids and viscous liquids). In the following description reference will be made in particular to the operation of the filling device with gaseous liquids, and therefore to the isobaric filling mode.
The filling device 10 further comprises a closure member 36 (referred to below as first closure member) which is provided with a seal member 38 and is fixed to the inner tube 26, coaxially therewith, to cooperate with a conical surface portion 40 of the inner cavity 18 of the body 12. The inner tube 26, and together therewith the first closure member 36, is movable with respect to the assembly formed by the body 12 and by the outer tube 24 between a lowered position (shown in
The filling device 10 also comprises a further closure member 66 (referred to below as second closure member) which is positioned coaxially with the inner tube 26, above the latter, and is movable axially with respect to the inner tube 26 between an open position (position shown in
In the case of gaseous liquids, and more particularly in the case of sparkling wine, the bottle filling cycle with a filling device such as the known one shown in
First of all, the bottle to be filled is raised by means of a pneumatic piston so as to be pressed against the seal member 30 of the centring cone 28 until the centring cone 30 comes into abutment against the body 12 around the outlet section of the nozzle 20, so as to provide a perfect seal between the body and the bottle in order to contain the filling pressure.
This is followed by a deaeration step, during which the air contained inside the bottle is forced out of it by means of a liquid-ring vacuum pump (not shown).
Then the bottle is put in communication with the portion of the vessel 16 positioned above the level L of the liquid through the inner tube 26 (with the second closure member 66 in the open position) in order to carry out the pressure compensation step, during which the gas under pressure contained in the vessel passes from the latter into the bottle until the gas contained in the vessel and the gas contained in the bottle are at the same pressure.
Once a balance between the pressure of the gas in the vessel 16 and the pressure of the gas in the bottle is reached, the spring 46 causes raising of the inner tube 26, and together therewith of the first closure member 36, thus allowing the liquid contained in the vessel to fill the bottle passing through the annular passage defined between the nozzle 20 and the inner tube 26 (filling step). During filling of the bottle with the liquid, the gas previously introduced into the bottle returns into the top portion of the vessel 16 flowing inside the inner tube 26 and leaving this tube from the top end thereof, with the second closure member 66 remaining in the open position. When the level of the liquid in the bottle has reached a given predefined value, the assembly formed by the inner tube 26 and by the first closure member 36 is moved into the lowered position so as to interrupt the flow of the fluid from the vessel into the bottle.
The filling step is then followed by a levelling step, during which gas under a slight overpressure (about 0.2 bar greater than the pressure in the bottle) is introduced into the bottle through the annular passage defined between the nozzle 20 and the inner tube 26, with the first closure member 36 remaining in the lowered position, whereby the excess liquid contained in the bottle, i.e. the liquid which is situated above the bottom end of the inner tube 26, is conveyed back into the vessel 16 through this tube.
This is followed by a degassing step, during which the inside of the bottle is put in communication with the outside so as to eliminate slowly the overpressure produced during the previous step.
Finally, the pneumatic piston is lowered so as to allow removal of the bottle which has now been filled.
A further known example of a filling device, that forms the subject-matter of Italian patent application No. ITTO20120869 in the Applicant's name, is shown in the axially sectioned view of
With reference to
An annular conduit 44 is therefore defined between the outer tube 24 and the inner tube 26 and extends up to the bottom end of the outer tube, the liquid contained in the vessel 16 being able to flow through the annular conduit downwards to fill a bottle. The liquid flow along the annular conduit 44 is controlled by a first closure member 36 provided with a seal member 38. The first closure member 36 is fixed to the inner tube 26, coaxially therewith, at a bottom end portion thereof which projects downwards from the outer tube 24, in order to cooperate with the bottom end of the outer tube 24. The inner tube 26, along with the first closure member 36, is movable with respect to the outer tube 24 between a raised position (shown in
The centring cone 28 is mounted on a support plate 54 which is fixed to the bottom end of a pair of rods 56 (only one of which is visible in the cross-sectional view of
The filling device 10 further comprises an actuation unit 62 which is associated with the top end of the inner tube 26 to control the vertical movement of the latter, as well as that of the first closure member 36 with the associated seal member 38, between the lowered position and raised position defined above and to control the flow of the gas through this tube. The actuation unit 62 is mounted on a cover 64 of the vessel 16 and comprises a first linear actuator and a second linear actuator which are mounted in series with each other, wherein the first linear actuator is able to control the vertical movement of the inner tube 26 and the second linear actuator is able to control the vertical movement of a second closure member 66 to open or close the top end of the inner tube 26. The first linear actuator is preferably formed as a double-acting pneumatic cylinder and comprises a cylinder 68 fixed to the cover 64 of the vessel 16 coaxially with the inner tube 26 and a piston 70 mounted slidably in the cylinder 68. The piston 70 has a stem 72 which projects downwards from the cylinder 68 and is fixed to the top end of the inner tube 26 so as to be drivingly connected therewith during its vertical translational movement. The second linear actuator is also preferably formed as a double-acting pneumatic cylinder and comprises a cylinder 74, which is connected to the piston 70 of the first linear actuator so as to be drivingly connected with the latter during its vertical translational movement, and a piston 76 mounted slidably in the cylinder 74. The piston 76 has a stem 78 which projects downwards from the cylinder 74 and extends through a coaxial cylindrical cavity 80 formed in the stem 72 of the piston 70 of the first linear actuator. The closure member 66 is fixed to the bottom end of the stem 78 and is therefore drivingly connected with the stem 78 in its vertical translational movement.
The operation of the filling device 10 of
First of all the bottle to be filled is raised by means of a pneumatic piston (not shown) to be urged against the seal member 30 of the centring cone 28 until the centring cone 30 comes into abutment against the bottom side of the body 12, so as to provide a perfect seal between the body and the bottle to limit the filling pressure. The proximity sensor 60 detects the presence of the bottle underneath the filling device 10 and starts the filling process.
The pneumatically operated valve 34a is then operated to put the inside of the bottle in communication with a vacuum circuit 82a and thus start a deaeration step, during which the air contained inside the bottle is expelled therefrom. Once the deaeration step has been completed, the pneumatically operated valve 34a is operated to close the vacuum circuit 82a.
This is followed by a pressure compensation step, during which the gas present in the vessel 16 and the gas present in the bottle are set to the same pressure. For this purpose, the pneumatically operated valve 34b is operated to put the inside of the bottle in communication with the top part of the vessel 16, i.e. the part of the vessel situated above the level L of the liquid, by means of a circuit 82b. During the pressure compensation step, the pressure sensor 84 measures the pressure reached inside the bottle. In the event of bottle breaking or bursting, the pressure sensor 84 indicates that the compensation pressure has not been reached and the machine interrupts the filling cycle. Once the pressure compensation step has been completed, the pneumatically operated valve 34b is operated to close the circuit 82b.
An overpressure step is then carried out, during which a certain overpressure is created in the bottle. For this purpose, the pneumatically operated valve 34c is operated to open a circuit 82c through which the inside of the bottle is brought to a pressure which is slightly higher (for example, about 0.2 bar higher) than the pressure present in the vessel. Then the pneumatically operated valve 34c is closed and the closure member 66 is raised by means of the second pneumatic cylinder (cylinder 74 and piston 76) so as to put the inner tube 26 in communication with the part of the vessel 16 above the level L of the liquid contained therein. As a result of the overpressure present inside the bottle, any liquid droplets remaining on the inner wall of the inner tube 26 are conveyed into the vessel 16. In this way, these droplets are prevented from falling into the bottle and therefore giving rise to the possible formation of foam. The overpressure step may be omitted should foam formation conditions not exist.
At this point a filling step is performed, during which the liquid contained in the vessel 16 is introduced into the bottle up to a predetermined level. For this purpose the first pneumatic cylinder (cylinder 68 and piston 70) is operated to cause the displacement of the assembly formed by the inner tube 26 and by the first closure member 36 into the lowered position and therefore allow the liquid to fall by gravity from the vessel 16 into the bottle via the annular conduit 44. During the filling step, as the liquid gradually fills the bottle, the gas already present in the bottle returns back into the vessel 16 via the hole 52 and the inner tube 26. The filling step ends when the liquid in the bottle reaches a level such as to obstruct the hole 52 provided in the first closure member 36. It will be noted in this connection that in the filling device 10 according to the invention the final level of the liquid in the bottle is defined by the vertical position of the first closure member 36 inside the bottle. In order to vary the filling level, it is therefore sufficient to vary the position of the body 12. This position defines in fact the stop position of the centring cone 28 when the bottle is urged upwards against said centring cone at the start of the filling cycle, and therefore a variation in this position results in a corresponding variation in the relative position of the first closure member 36 with respect to the bottle. Since the body 12 is preferably mounted on the support flange 86, which is common to all the filling devices of the machine, the adjustment of the filling level is carried out simultaneously for all the filling devices installed on the machine. Moreover, the adjustment of the filling level may be carried out while the machine is in operation.
Once the predefined filling level has been reached, the first pneumatic cylinder 68, 70 is operated to cause the displacement of the assembly formed by the inner tube 26 and the first closure member 36 into the raised position, so as to close the annular conduit 44 at the bottom. At this point an emptying step is performed, during which the liquid present in the inner tube 26 is conveyed back into the vessel 16. For this purpose, the pneumatically operated valve 34c is opened and by means of the circuit 82c causes the pressure inside the bottle to become slighter higher than the pressure present in the vessel (about 0.2 bar higher) so as to convey the liquid present in the inner tube 26 into the vessel 16. Depending on the liquid used, this emptying step may also be omitted. Once the emptying step has been completed or, in case this step is not carried out, once the filling step has been completed, the second pneumatic cylinder 74, 76 is operated to cause lowering of the second closure member 66 and therefore closure of the inner tube 26 also at its top end.
Finally, a degassing step is carried out, during which the pneumatically operated valve 34d is opened and closed in succession, thus putting alternately the inside of the bottle in communication with a circuit 82d which is at atmospheric pressure in order to eliminate gradually the pressure present in the bottle and therefore limit the formation of foam.
By virtue of the fact that the first closure member is provided at the bottom end of the inner tube and cooperates with the bottom end of the outer tube, with the known filling device shown in
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved filling device for level filling of bottles with respect to the prior art described above.
This and other objects are fully achieved according to the present invention by filling devices as described and claimed herein.
In short, the invention is based on the idea of providing a filling device in which the second closure member is arranged in the vicinity of the bottom end of the inner tube so as to open/close this tube at the bottom, instead of at the top.
By virtue of this arrangement of the second closure member, the filling device of the invention allows to obtain a high degree of precision in the filling level without having to carry out a step for emptying the inner tube by which, in the known filling devices, the liquid present in the inner tube is conveyed back into the vessel. In fact, as will result more clearly from the description below, once the inner tube has been closed at the bottom by means of the second closure member, any liquid contained inside the tube itself at the end of the filling step cannot return into the bottle and therefore cannot modify the (correct) filling level reached. Since the aforementioned emptying step can be avoided, an (albeit minimum) amount of liquid is not conveyed back into the vessel and therefore the risk of contamination of the product in the vessel is further reduced.
Moreover, with the filling device according to the invention the degassing step (i.e. the step of the filling cycle during which the inside of the bottle is put into communication alternately with the atmospheric pressure in order to gradually eliminate the pressure present in the bottle and therefore reduce the formation of foam) can be carried out in a better way than in the prior art on difficult products such as for example sparkling wine, beer, etc., by virtue of the fact that providing the second closure member at the bottom end of the inner tube allows to exclude the volume of gas contained in the inner tube from the degassing step, whereby the volume of gas to be degassed with the filling device of the invention is nearly half the volume of gas to be degassed with the known filling devices in which the second closure member is placed at the top end of the inner tube.
With the second closure member being placed in the vicinity of the bottom end of the inner tube, the first closure member, i.e. the closure member that controls opening and closing of the annular conduit defined between the inner tube and the outer tube, may be indifferently arranged also at the bottom end of the inner tube, as in the known embodiment shown in
Further features and advantages of the present invention will result more clearly from the following detailed description provided purely by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the attached drawings.
The embodiment of the filling device for filling machines according to the present invention, as shown in
With reference to
According to the embodiment of
According to this variant of embodiment, the filling machine comprises, in addition to the above-described vessel 16, hereinafter referred to as primary vessel, a further vessel 96, hereinafter referred to as secondary vessel. The primary vessel 16 has the function of containing the liquid to be bottled, whereas the secondary vessel 96 has the function of collecting the recovered liquid, as will be explained better further on. In the example shown in
In view of the above description, the advantages already mentioned above that are offered by a filling device for filling machines according to the present invention, namely the higher precision in the filling level obtained even without the emptying step, and the possibility to carry out more efficiently the degassing step with products difficult to work with, such as for example sparkling wine, beer, etc, are apparent.
Moreover, the use of a filling device according to the invention in combination with a filling machine provided with a primary vessel and a secondary vessel as described above by way of example with reference to
First of all, the gas that is present inside the bottle and is expelled from the bottle during the filling step to leave space to the liquid to be bottled is not conveyed back into the primary vessel 16, but flows through the annular conduit 90 and the connecting tube 98 into the secondary vessel 96. The liquid droplets that during the filling step are sometimes swept along the annular conduit 90 by the gas flowing out of the bottle and, in a much more evident way, the small quantity of liquid that is present inside the annular conduit 90 at the end of the filling step and is expelled during the above-described emptying step, do not return back into the primary vessel 16 but are collected in the secondary vessel 96 to be used as the user prefers. Since these droplets or small amounts of liquid expelled from the bottle are collected in a special vessel separate from the primary vessel containing the liquid to be bottled, it is possible to reduce oxidation and improve sterility of the liquid to be bottled.
Secondly, by suitably managing the pressures in the primary and secondary vessels it is possible to carry out the classical isobaric filling, be it at a slight pressure or at high pressure (in other words, the two vessels are kept exactly at the same pressure and the liquid falls into the bottle by gravity), or the filling with a pressure difference. The pressure difference allows to increase the filling speed, and hence the performance of the machine, and to bottle viscous liquids as well.
Naturally, the principle of the invention remaining unchanged, the embodiments and the constructional details may be modified with respect to those described and illustrated purely by way of non-limiting examples, without thereby departing from the scope of the invention as described and claimed herein.
For example, even though the invention has been described with reference to an embodiment in which not only the second closure member, but also the first closure member, are placed in the vicinity of the bottom end of the inner tube, it is also applicable to a filling device such as the one of
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| TO2013A0302 | Apr 2013 | IT | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2014/060699 | 4/14/2014 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2014/170812 | 10/23/2014 | WO | A |
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| 20160023877 A1 | Jan 2016 | US |
