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US 12,545,449 B2Granted
Rapid bag filling system
AssigneeAutomated Systems of Tacoma, LLC
InventorsSteven Ng, Michael Moore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments are directed toward an aseptic bag filling system. In some embodiments, the aseptic bag filling system selectively and aseptically fills sterilized bags with a fluid. The bags are dispensed from a magazine that stores the bags while the bags are fluidly coupled to a fluid manifold via respective fluid pathways. The bags define a closed system, the interior of which, after sterilization, is not exposed to the external environment through filling of the bags with the fluid, sealing such filled bags, and separating or cutting such sealed bags from the manifold.
Claims22
An aseptic bag filling system comprising:
- a bag filling station that is sized, dimensioned, and arranged to fill a first bag with fluid while the first bag is located at a filling position;
- a bag feeder system that is sized, dimensioned, and arranged to transport an unfilled second bag from a magazine storing a plurality of unfilled, sterilized bags to the bag filling station,
- wherein the bag filling station is sized, dimensioned, and arranged to selectively fill each of the plurality of bags with the fluid,
- wherein each of the bags in the magazine are fluidly coupled to a fluid manifold via respective fluid pathways,
- wherein each of the plurality of bags are arranged along the fluid manifold and are separated from each other by a predefined length, and
- wherein the bags define a closed system, the interior of which, after sterilization, is not exposed to the external environment through filling of the bags with the fluid, sealing such filled bags, and separating or cutting such sealed bags from the fluid manifold after filling of each bag;
- and
- a processor system controllably coupled to the bag filling station and the bag feeder system, the processor system having memory and one or more processors, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;
- cause the bag filling station to fill the first bag and to separate the first bag from the fluid manifold after the first bag is filled,
- cause the bag feeder system to transport the second bag to the bag filling station after the first bag is separated from the fluid manifold by advancing the position of the second bag by the predefined length towards the bag filling station,
- cause a motor coupled to the magazine to transport, in synchronization with the bag feeder system transportation of the second bag, a third bag out from and toward the bag filling station by advancing the position of the third bag by the predefined length, wherein the magazine rotates the stored plurality of unfilled, sterilized bags by an angular amount that corresponds to the predefined length, and
- cause the bag filling station to fill the second bag after the second bag has been transported by the bag feeder system to the bag filling station.
9 more elements
An aseptic bag filling system comprising:
- a magazine that stores a plurality of unfilled, sterilized bags separated from each other by a protection layer, the magazine having a body that protects the bags, the magazine being sized and dimensioned to facilitate serially dispensing the bags from the magazine to a bag filling station that is sized, dimensioned, and arranged to selectively aseptically fill the bags with fluid,
- wherein each of the bags in the magazine are each arranged along and are fluidly coupled to a fluid manifold via respective fluid pathways,
- wherein each of the bags coupled to the fluid manifold are each separated from each other by a predefined length:
- wherein the manifold is defined by a distal end portion that precedes a first one of the bags,
- wherein an aseptic barrier that has one or more filters is located on the distal end portion of the manifold prior to use while the plurality of unfilled, sterilized bags reside within the magazine,
- wherein the aseptic barrier is configured to couple to a fluid path coupling system that receives the fluid from a fluid source,
- wherein the protection layer is arranged to couple to a protection layer reel that is outside of the magazine, wherein the protection layer reel is sized, dimensioned, and arranged to receive the protection layer spooling onto the protection layer reel while the unfilled bags are dispensed from the magazine body to the bag filling station,
- wherein the bags define a closed system, the interior of which, after sterilization, is not exposed to the external environment after initially coupling the aseptic barrier to the fluid path coupling system, through subsequent filling of the bags with the fluid, sealing such filled bags, and separating or cutting such sealed bags from the fluid manifold after filling of each bag, and
- whereby the magazine facilitates automated dispensing of the sterilized bags during a process of aseptically filling the sterilized bags.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.