subject: Fillling Machine Help Us Work More Efficient [print this page] In a filling machine, the combination with a filling head provided with a product nozzle and a container support, so arranged as to enable positioning the nozzle within the open top of the container during the filling operation and separating the nozzle and container from each other following the filling operation of means associated with the filling machine nozzle operable when the latter is separated from the container to clear the external surface of the nozzle of product adhering to said external surface, said means comprising a manifold block positioned about the nozzle in axially fixed relation thereto, said manifold block defining an annular chamber closed at the top and an axially-elongate annular passage extending downwardly from the bottom of the chamber about the nozzle, in concentric relation thereto, the annular passage defining a second nozzle surrounding the product nozzle through which the scavenging fluid delivered under pressure to the chamber is projected forcibly and exclusively downwardly on the external surface of the nozzle and means defining a port in the manifold which enters the manifold radially with respect to the vertical axis of the product nozzle through which a scavenging agent can be delivered under pressure into the chamber.
It is the purpose of this invention to provide for removing the product from the exterior surface of the nozzle during a period when the nozzle is withdrawn from the container and/or the container is withdrawn from the nozzle to clear the exterior surface of the nozzle. If the filling machine is of the rotary type wherein there is means for loading empty containers into the machine for filling and means for discharging filled containers from the machine after filling, the means for clearing the exterior surface of the nozzles are desirably brought into operation during the interval that each filling head is traveling from the place of discharge to the place of loading.
While the invention has been described with reference to a rotary filling machine, it is quite clear that it could be used in conjunction with a single filling head or double filling machine with equally good results by moving the filled container away from the lower end of the nozzle after the nozzle has been separated from the container or the container from the nozzle and thereafter projecting gas downwardly against the external surface of the nozzle.
