System to form, fill and seal flexible bags

Abstract

A system to form, fill and seal (FFS) flexible bags including the steps of: a total printing of the film as it winds off the supply reel; a dry cleaning; a gimballed aligning for the folding of the printed and washed film; a hot-bar welding of the folded film; a valve welding controlled by an algorithm; a humidification treatment of the valve cavity; a shaping of the bags by hot tools also controlled by an algorithm; and a high precision dosage of the filling liquid.

1 . A system for the forming and filling of flexible plastic-material containers, in particular sterilizable bags containing solutions for administration, infusion type solutions, including at least the phases of:—feeding a film or pellicle, preferably multilayer, from at least one reel;—printing, washing, winding the said printed material;—aligning and folding the said printed and washed film;—welding the film folded first in one direction, typically longitudinally or vertically;—supplying and applying valves onto the surface of the folded and welded film;—filling the bag;—effecting a second welding in a second direction, typically transverse or horizontal;—cooling and cutting the bags for sending to overwrapping and sterilization; the system being characterized by the fact that the number of steps or abovementioned phases is reduced, carrying out in particular:—a total printing (TP=total print) of the film as it winds off the supplying reel(s);—a dry cleaning of the printed film;—a gimballed aligning of the printed and washed film to be folded; —a hot-bar longitudinal welding (vertical) of the folded film;—application of the valve(s) by welding, controlling, by means of algorithm, the speed and position of the welding head during its approach to the anvil, the said valve(s) having undergone a humidification treatment of the cavity;—shaping the bags using algorithm-regulated hot tools; high precision dosage of the filling liquid  
     
     
         2 . System according to    claim 1   , characterized by the fact that to subject the cavities (outside the bag and having no contact with the filling solution) to humidification use was made of a means to dose the liquid as a function of the cavity volumes themselves, and tools ( 5   b   3 ) to ascertain the wetting taking place, making it possible to sterilize the cavities of the valve(s) in times and with procedures substantially equal to those of the bag sterilization  
     
     
         3 . System according to    claim 2   , characterized by the fact that the wetting is effected downstream from a vibrator ( 5   b   1 ) associated with feeding the valves to the station ( 5   b ) for their welding onto the body of the bag, the means ( 5   b   3 ) for controlling the wetting of the cavities of the said valves being placed downstream from the wetting tools  
     
     
         4 . System according to claims  2  and  3 , characterized by the fact that the wetting liquid is chosen from among distilled water, physiological solutions and hydrogen peroxide  
     
     
         5 . System according to    claim 4   , characterized by the fact that use is made of hydrogen peroxide to sanitize and detect the electric conductability in the cavities  
     
     
         6 . System according to the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the humidification apparatus ( 5   b   2 ) includes, in addition to the source of sterile liquid, a dosing valve ( 70 ) and a flusstate ( 71 ), outside a means that includes a nozzle that is moved by a double-effect piston controlled by a sensor, and that is supplied with a lance for penetration into the valve cavities, the discharged sterile liquid being detected by a circuit with electric bridging  
     
     
         7 . System according to    claim 1   , characterized by the fact that the total stamp (total print, TP) in line on the film as it unwinds from the feeding reel(s) is made with a hot printer that uses as the impression means a hot press, depositing onto the bag, due to a pigmented film, the characters put on a cliché 
     
     
         8 . System according to claims  1  and  7 , characterized by the fact that the film, stamped/printed in line, is dry cleaned with purified air and, after accumulation, undergoes a gimballed alignment  
     
     
         9 . System according to    claim 7   , characterized by the fact that a ring for suspension is welded onto the bag or, as an alternative, a suspension hole (FOS) is made  
     
     
         10 . System according to the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the liquid filling the bag is dosed with great precision in a station that includes in the inlet a contribution regulation valve ( 51 ), a constant pressure valve ( 52 ), a turbine flowmeter ( 53 ), that feeds the valve ( 54 ) a with true and proper washing of the solution inside the bag, still not welded transversely, the said valve having a double electropneumatic boost and the control being carried out by the number of impulses coming from a lobed flowmeter of Hall effect.  
     
     
         11 . System according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that contemporary shaping at the transversal welding of the bags is carried out with two mobile bars heated by electric resistances of high output with temperature control on many points, preferably twelve interconnecting points, the cooling being effected by two mobile cold bars that, as well as cooling and blocking the folding process of the welding, contain means for the cutting and separation of the bags  
     
     
         12 . System according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the blocking of the valve welding is done with a means that includes substantially a transducer of position, a cylinder, a slide, a sonotrode and a piezoelectric transducer.