Patent Application
20130105004
The present disclosure relates generally to systems for dispensing hot melt adhesive.
Hot melt dispensing systems are typically used in manufacturing assembly lines to automatically disperse an adhesive used in the construction of packaging materials such as boxes, cartons and the like. Hot melt dispensing systems conventionally comprise a material tank, heating elements, a pump and a dispenser. Solid polymer pellets are melted in the tank using a heating element before being supplied to the dispenser by the pump. Because the melted pellets will re-solidify into solid form if permitted to cool, the melted pellets must be maintained at temperature from the tank to the dispenser. This typically requires placement of heating elements in the tank, the pump and the dispenser, as well as heating any tubing or hoses that connect those components. Furthermore, conventional hot melt dispensing systems typically utilize tanks having large volumes so that extended periods of dispensing can occur after the pellets contained therein are melted. However, the large volume of pellets within the tank requires a lengthy period of time to completely melt, which increases start-up times for the system. For example, a typical tank includes a plurality of heating elements lining the walls of a rectangular, gravity-fed tank such that melted pellets along the walls prevents the heating elements from efficiently melting pellets in the center of the container. The extended time required to melt the pellets in these tanks increases the likelihood of “charring” or darkening of the adhesive due to prolonged heat exposure.
An accumulator for a hot melt dispensing system includes an accumulator body; a flow passage through which hot melt adhesive flows to a dispenser; an energy storage device for storing energy based on pressure of the hot melt adhesive in the flow passage and using stored energy to apply pressure to the hot melt adhesive when pressure in the flow passage decreases; and a heating element for heating the hot melt adhesive in the accumulator.
A method of initiating a hot melt dispensing system after a period of downtime includes initiating a melter to heat hot melt pellets into a liquid adhesive; activating a heating element in an accumulator to heat solid adhesive present within the accumulator at the same time as the melter is heating the hot melt pellets; and activating a dispensing system including a pump, a dispenser and the accumulator to uniformly dispense liquid adhesive from the system.
Components of cold section 12 can be operated at room temperature, without being heated. Container 20 can be a hopper for containing a quantity of solid adhesive pellets for use by system 10. Suitable adhesives can include, for example, a thermoplastic polymer glue such as ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) or metallocene. Feed assembly 22 connects container 20 to hot section 14 for delivering the solid adhesive pellets from container 20 to hot section 14. Feed assembly 22 includes vacuum assembly 24 and feed hose 26. Vacuum assembly 24 is positioned in container 20. Compressed air from air source 16 and air control valve 17 is delivered to vacuum assembly 24 to create a vacuum, inducing flow of solid adhesive pellets into inlet 28 of vacuum assembly 24 and then through feed hose 26 to hot section 14. Feed hose 26 is a tube or other passage sized with a diameter substantially larger than that of the solid adhesive pellets to allow the solid adhesive pellets to flow freely through feed hose 26. Feed hose 26 connects vacuum assembly 24 to hot section 14.
Solid adhesive pellets are delivered from feed hose 26 to melt system 30. Melt system 30 can include a container (not shown) and resistive heating elements (not shown) for melting the solid adhesive pellets to form a hot melt adhesive in liquid form. Melt system 30 can be sized to have a relatively small adhesive volume, for example about 0.5 liters, and configured to melt solid adhesive pellets in a relatively short period of time. Pump 32 is driven by motor 36 to pump hot melt adhesive from melt system 30, through supply hose 38, and deliver it to dispenser 34. Motor 36 can be an air motor driven by pulses of compressed air from air source 16 and air control valve 17. Pump 32 can be a linear displacement pump driven by motor 36. In the illustrated embodiment, dispenser 34 includes manifold 40 and dispensing module 42. Heated accumulator 33 is connected to a flow passage for hot melt adhesive between pump 32 and dispenser 34. Hot melt adhesive from pump 32 and heated accumulator 33 is received in manifold 40 and dispensed via module 42. Dispenser 34 can selectively discharge hot melt adhesive whereby the hot melt adhesive is sprayed out outlet 44 of module 42 onto an object, such as a package, a case, or another object benefiting from hot melt adhesive dispensed by system 10. Module 42 can be one of multiple modules that are part of dispenser 34. In an alternative embodiment, dispenser 34 can have a different configuration, such as a handheld gun-type dispenser. Some or all of the components in hot section 14, including melt system 30, supply hose 38, pump 32, dispenser 34 and accumulator 33, can be heated to keep the hot melt adhesive in a liquid state throughout hot section 14 during the dispensing process.
System 10 can be part of an industrial process, for example, for packaging and sealing cardboard packages and/or cases of packages. In alternative embodiments, system 10 can be modified as necessary for a particular industrial process application. For example, in one embodiment (not shown), pump 32 can be separated from dispenser 34 and instead attached to melt system 30. Supply hose 38 can then connect pump 32 to dispenser 34.
Pump 32 is a double-acting reciprocating piston pump which is driven by air motor 36 and operates by moving a piston in one direction to pressurize fluid on one side of the piston and then “changes over” to move the piston in the other direction to pressurize fluid on the other side. The pressurized liquid melt flows to dispenser 34. Dispenser 34 is then able to dispense liquid at the proper rate. At the “change over” point, when movement of the piston in pump 32 changes direction, the pressure drops significantly. If dispenser 34 is set to dispense at that point, the pressure of the liquid to dispenser 34 will be much less, resulting in less liquid dispensed at points when pump 32 is turning over. Heated accumulator 33 includes an energy storage medium and uses that stored energy to maintain consistent pressure levels in liquid flowing from pump 32 to dispenser 34. The energy stored in heated accumulator 33 is a function of the pressure of adhesive flowing from pump 32 to dispenser 34, and therefore when the pressure of adhesive flowing from pump 32 decreases, the stored energy is used to increase pressure of the adhesive flowing to dispenser 34. This acts to stabilize the pressure of liquid adhesive provided to dispenser 34, thereby stabilizing the output from dispenser 34 no matter the position of the piston in pump 32.
When a system for dispensing hot melt, such as the one shown in
Heater cartridges 58 can be electrical resistance heaters connected to a power source. Heater cartridges 58 fit into heater cartridge cavities 60 in thermally conductive block 50 and are located near hot melt chamber 57. Thermally conductive block 50 can be any type of thermally conductive material, including aluminum and/or other metals. Piston 68 connects to spring 72, which connects to plate 74. Plate 74 engages screw 76, which engages housing 78 at threaded connection to housing 78. Inlet 52 could connect directly or indirectly (through a hose or fitting, for example) to an outlet at pump 32. Outlets 54, 56 connect to dispenser 34, either directly or indirectly. While two outlets 54, 56 and one inlet 52 are shown, chamber 57 could include any number of inlets and/or outlets.
Screw 76 can be adjusted by tightening or loosening it to move plate 74, therefore adjusting pre-load on spring 72, which controls movement of piston 68. Piston 68 moves up and down within housing based on opposing forces applied to piston 68 by spring 72 and pressure from hot melt adhesive within passage 57. O-ring 70 seals between piston 68 and thermally conductive block 50 to ensure liquid adhesive cannot travel along the sides of piston 68 into housing 78. Flange 69 limits movement of piston 68 within housing 78
As discussed above, accumulator 33 acts to stabilize pressure fluctuations from pump 32 to dispenser 42 (see
Hot melt systems must be shut down at various times, resulting in the liquid adhesive solidifying at room temperatures within the system. This happens in chamber 57 of accumulator 33. For accumulator 33 to function properly in stabilizing liquid adhesive, adhesive must be able to flow freely into and out of accumulator 33. Heated accumulator 33 uses heat cartridges 58 to melt adhesive in chamber 57, resulting in a system that can dispense consistent liquid adhesive shots soon after upon starting up. Temperature probe 62 sits in temperature probe port 77 and can be used to ensure that thermally conductive block 50 reaches the proper temperature for adhesive to liquefy within chamber 57. Heating cartridges 58 can stay activated for as long as it takes to liquefy in chamber 57, for example 5-10 minutes. Once hot melt adhesive within system 10 has liquefied, heating cartridges 58 may be turned off, as they are no longer needed to keep the hot melt adhesive liquefied.
The use of two outlets 54 and 56 in accumulator 33 provides more fluid movement through accumulator chamber 57 as well. When liquid adhesive stays heated in one place, it can start to experience undesirable charring. The number and placement of inlets and/or outlets to passage 57 can encourage liquid movement through passage 57, for example, by placing outlet 54 directly downstream from inlet 52 and placing outlet 56 directly downstream from where piston 68 will be imparting pressure to hot melt in passage 57. This helps hot melt to move through passage 57, avoiding dwelling and thus charring. Outlets 54 and 56 can be connected to form one stream to dispenser 34 or could go to multiple dispensers 34.
As can be seen, pressure PP ranges from P1 psi to P2 psi. It fluctuates based on the piston position of reciprocating piston pump 32. Shots from dispenser 34 are not coordinated with pump 32, so shots occur randomly with respect to pump 32 piston position. When pump 32 “changes over” (i.e., reverses piston direction) pressure drops to P2 psi. At that time, if liquid adhesive is being dispensed, the shot is Gs smaller than a normal size shot G. Fluctuations vary due to pump 34 having the different change over points when configured as a double-acting piston pump.
The use of accumulator 33 levels out pressure fluctuations in liquid adhesive delivered to dispenser 42. This flow of liquid with stabilized pressure results in glue shots G which are consistently the same size, not varying with pump cycling.
Port 84 is connected to flow passage 81 through which liquid adhesive travels from pump 32 to dispenser 42. In the embodiment shown in
By including heating element 86 with accumulator 33A, system 10 can begin dispensing liquid adhesive with consistent shot sizes beginning at start up. Accumulator 33A with heating elements 86 eliminates the need to either wait for accumulator to gradually warm up to liquefy adhesive within accumulator bottle 82 or to run system 10 without accumulator and endure varying pressures and thus shot sizes until adhesive within an accumulator is heated through convection from other heated parts of system 10.
Accumulators 33, 33A with heating elements 58, 86 additionally can remove the need for long hoses of past systems, allowing dispenser to be placed right next to pump 32, thereby reducing overall footprint of system 10. Reduction in hose length also reduces the amount of adhesive that needs to be reheated when restarting system 10. Past systems sometimes used long hoses to help level out the pressure fluctuations caused by pump 32 change over. These long hoses required heating wires, which reduced hose flexibility and often resulted in kinks that caused a burn out of the wires and failure points in hoses. Heated accumulator 33, 33A allow dispenser 34 to be placed at or near pump 32, though they can still be used with hoses. When used with hoses, they can minimize the length of hose required (as length is no longer needed to reduce pressure fluctuations), and thus minimize failure points.
While the invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61552221 | Oct 2011 | US |
