System for feeding portions of material to an injection molding machine
OwnerEli Margalitinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for feeding portions of material to an injection molding machine including a feeding device that can be a screw feeder, an external container, a material hopper with inclined and parallel walls located inside the container, a load cell that is coupled to the material hopper and a controller. The system dispenses accurate weight portions of material in a given time and for a given duration. The system controls the portion weight by weighing a number of dispensed portions using loss-in-weight of the hopper, divides the weight to the number of portion and, when needed, controls the spin of the screw feeder motor.
Claims32
A hopper for intermediate storage of material in a system for feeding the material to a manufacturing machine, said hopper comprising:
- a lower part provided with an outlet;
- an upper part provided with a fill opening and an inclined wall, wherein said inclined wall has a portion that is located above said outlet, and is delimited by a vertical projection of said outlet, and the entire said fill opening is located above said inclined wall portion, and is horizontally offset from said inclined wall portion;
- and
- control means coupled to said hopper for controlling the delivery of material to said hopper to maintain said hopper filled with material to the level at or above said portion of said inclined wall, thereby causing said hopper to remain filled with material to a level at or above said inclined wall portion as material is being dispensed via said outlet.
A hopper for intermediate storage of material in a system for feeding the material to a manufacturing machine, said hopper comprising:
- a lower part provided with an outlet having a periphery;
- an upper part provided with a fill opening, wherein said upper part has a wall that is located to form an upper boundary of a region enclosed by a vertical projection of said periphery and the entire said fill opening is located above, and is horizontally offset from, said upper boundary of said region such that said region is constantly filled with material as long as the level of material in said hopper is at or above said upper boundary;
- and
- control means coupled to said hopper for controlling the delivery of material to said hopper to maintain said hopper filled with material to the level at or above said upper boundary, thereby causing said hopper to remain filled with material to a level at or above said upper boundary as material is being dispensed via said outlet.
A system for feeding material to a manufacturing machine, comprising:
- a container having a first outlet;
- a feeder, disposed at said first outlet, that feeds the portions of material from said container to the machine;
- a material hopper having a fill opening for receiving material that is to be fed to the machine and a second outlet located above said first outlet for delivering material to said container, said material hopper being located inside said container;
- and
- a weighing device disposed in said container and coupled to said material hopper for weighing said hopper.
A method for calculating the average weight of each of a plurality of portions of material fed from a hopper, said method comprising:
- in a first weighing step, weighing said hopper;
- after said first weighing step, dispensing a plurality of portions of material, the plurality of portions being constituted by a given number of portions;
- in a second weighing step, after said dispensing step, weighing said hopper;
- calculating the difference between the weight of said hopper determined in said first weighing step and the weight of said hopper determined in said second weighing step, the difference constituting the loss of weight of said hopper;
- and
- dividing the loss of weight of said hopper by the said given number of said plurality of portions.
A system for feeding material to a manufacturing machine, comprising:
- a container having a first outlet;
- a material hopper having a fill opening for receiving material that is to be fed to the machine and a second outlet for delivering material to said container, said material hopper being located inside said container;
- and
- a weighing device disposed in said container and coupled to said material hopper for weighing said hopper.
A system for feeding portions of material to a manufacturing machine comprising:
- a container having a first outlet;
- feeding means disposed at said first outlet for feeding the portions of material from said container to the machine;
- a material hopper having a fill opening for receiving material that is to be fed to the machine and a second outlet for delivering material to said container, said material hopper being located inside said container;
- a weighing device disposed in said container and coupled to said material hopper for weighing said hopper;
- and
- a controller coupled to said weighing device for calculating the weight of material delivered from said hopper, using said weighing device and a loss-in-weight method, and for controlling said feeding means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.