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US 12,415,639 B2Granted
Capsule filling lines
AssigneeKoninklijke Douwe Egberts B.V.
InventorsNeil Rogers, Kornelius Waechter, Sven Jaetzlau
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Abstract
Apparatus and methods of cleaning a sealing head (23) of a capsule filling line, comprising operating an ablation unit (10) to irradiate the sealing head (23) to ablate a residue off the sealing head (23).
Claims16
A method of cleaning a sealing head of a capsule filling line comprising:
- providing a sealing head unit comprising a plurality of sealing heads that form a sealing head array;
- and
- operating an ablation unit to irradiate the sealing head array to ablate a residue off the plurality of sealing heads;
- the method further comprising engaging the ablation unit with the plurality of sealing heads prior to operating the ablation unit to irradiate the plurality of sealing heads such that a housing of the ablation unit is engaged over or against the plurality of sealing heads;
- and
- disengaging the ablation unit from the plurality of sealing heads after operating the ablation unit to irradiate the plurality of sealing heads.
3 more elements
A method of operating a capsule filling line, comprising:
- i) supplying the capsule filling line with a supply of capsule bodies and a supply of comestible product;
- ii) operating the capsule filling line such that a plurality of filled capsules are produced by at least partially filling each capsule body with the comestible product and operating a sealing head unit of the capsule filling line that comprises a plurality of sealing heads that form a sealing head array to seal each capsule body with a capsule lid;
- and
- iii) intermittently cleaning the plurality of sealing heads of the capsule filling line;
- wherein cleaning the plurality of sealing heads comprises:
- engaging an ablation unit with the plurality of sealing heads such that a housing of the ablation unit is engaged over or against the plurality of sealing heads;
- operating the ablation unit of the capsule filling line to irradiate the plurality of sealing heads to ablate a residue off the plurality of sealing heads;
- and
- disengaging the ablation unit from the plurality of sealing heads.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.