Patent Publication Number: US-2022211095-A1

Title: Weigh station with a linear vibrating funnel and a linear vibrating, tapping mechanism to pack an article into a tapered cone using frictionless magnetic levitation

Description:
This application claims the benefit of provisional U.S. Patent Appl. Ser. No. 63/361,413, filed Dec. 21, 2021, and incorporated by reference herein. 
     This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/856,271, filed Apr. 23, 2020, also incorporated by reference herein, which claims the benefit of provisional U.S. Patent Appl. Ser. Nos. 62/922,056, filed Sep. 23, 2019, and 62/995,884, filed Feb. 19, 2020. 
    
    
     The present invention involved loading a power ground oily flower such as  cannabis  or hemp into a tapered paper cone. The difficulty with moving an oily power from point A to point B is the stickiness of the lose powder and static electric material that hold a capacitive charge it wants to stick to all surfaces. To overcome this problem, linear vibrator using eccentric drive bearing were used to focus the forces in the direction the powder was traveling. The problem with 3D vibrators the forces move in all directions that causes the produce to spiral down a funnel reducing the speed the powder travels through a funnel into the loading cone. Another problem to overcome is loading the powder into a smokable cone at a desired pack or density. The enclosed invention uses a novel linear piston drive by an eccentric drive mechanism to tap the bottom of the cone with programmable frequencies to achieve the desired pack rates at high speeds. By driving the single cone up and down in the cone holder and consistent pack rate was achieved. The novel invention used eccentric actuators to drive the power from the storage hopper to a linear vibrating feeder to a vibration bowl feeder to a weigh station that is dumped into a vibrating funnel that moved up and down with a lineal actuator to align the funned to a paper cone with a receiving tapered tube to fill a cone with power that is being vibrated by a cone vibrator to pack the cone during filling. One of the problems with a reciprocating motor-driven vibrator is the wear part with bearing operating at such a high rate of speeds. Piezoelectric vibrators can operate at high speeds but can not deliver the stroke needed to shake powers at high speeds into compaction. The enclosed invention improves the mechanical wear and tear with mechanical reciprocating shakers and the linear and rotating friction they produce with a high stroke pule by employing an electromagnetic levitating shaker that utilizes permanent magnetic suspended on three or more electromagnetic coils, permanent magnetic and or a radio frequency voice coil that works in synchronization using electromagnetic digital or analog pulse synchronization with the voice coil to driver the permanent magnetic in the same direction of the electromagnetic pulses. The invention levitating vibrator vibrated the  cannabis  or other products in a cone, bottle or bag to remove dust particles from a funnel to allow the product to travel through the funnel faster or it taps the bottom of a cone in  FIG. 28,29,30  to improve production speeds. The cone can be pre-made of from a roll of cone paper. The cone loading can be made from a rotating stack or linear stack. 
    
    
       FIG. 1 . Is a side transparent view of the filling, weighing and compacting cone loading station. The loading biomass bowl is  1  that travels on a linear bearing in the direction of  26  by motor  2 . The linear vibrating feeder  3  conveys the powder into a bowl feeder  4  that uses a diverting rotary valve  6  driver my motor  5  that is weighed by a loadcell  7 . The cone loading funnel is driver up and down by actuator  8  and the funnel is vibrated by motor  9 . The cone is held in a rotating turret assemble  14  and rotated on a table  14  by motor  10 . The cone when being filed with a powder is vibrated by the vibrator assemble  12  the drives the vibrator into the cone up and down by actuator  11 . 
       FIG. 2  Is a side view of  FIG. 1 . The vibrator  3  moves the powder  3   a  into the bowl feeder  4  the transfer the power to a trough  20  that is controlled by a rotating valve  16   a  that passes through a funnel with a magnetic removable base. The weigh cup is  21   a  that rotates onto the load cell  19  that rotates in the direction of  15  up to 180 degrees to dump the weighed article into a vibration funnel with a linear up/down actuator  13 , 13   a  that vibrates with linear vibrator motor  14 , coupler  23  that rotates an eccentric shaft bearing that rotate a yoke  24  to cause a linear motion on linear shaft bearings  23   a . The funnel interface hub  27  is lowered onto a cone  28  before filling begins. 
       FIG. 3  is a side view of a weigh station and turret assemble. The weigh funnel is  29  the accumulation On/Off valve is  29   a  that stores bulk product in the fill tube  29   a  during funnel  29  discharge into the vibrating funnel. The powder falls with gravity in the direction of  31 . The weigh base is a pointed cap to align the weight cup onto the center of the base so the cup is no longer in contact with the cup bracket  31   b  that has an oversize hole between two plates. The  31   b  bracket is assemble with two split halves to surround the round cup  29 . 
       FIG. 4  Is a perspective assemble of a weigh station  100  with a vibrating linear 2D cone shaker  101  that raises and lowers to allow the turret  101   a  to rotate other turrets not shown. 
       FIG. 5  is perspective view of a vibrating funnel assemble that travels up and down by rotating motor  38  that rotated shaft coupler  37  the rotates an eccentric shaft bushing not shown that causes a yoke  36  to travel up and down on linear shaft bearing  39   a.    
       FIG. 6  is a cut away assemble of  FIG. 5  the eccentric bearing holder  45  with yoke bearings  47   a ,  47  the causes the funnel  33  assemble shake up and down  32  with a motor-controlled frequency to shake powders out of the bottom of the funnel without sticking or clumping. The thumb screw or spring-loaded pin  35  allows the operator to change out interface bushing  41  tapered cone interfaces with a up and down paper cone vibrating zone  42  round side walls, the formed flared tube  40  nest into the paper cone not shown during powder filling cycles to prevent spilling. 
       FIG. 7  Is a side view of the yoke assemble for the funnel shaker in  FIG. 5 , fig,  FIG. 10  and hopper shaker in  FIG. 1 . The eccentric bearing bushing is  43  the bearing is  46  the yoke is  25   
       FIG. 8  is a vibrating funnel  40   a  assemble. The flared tube  40  that is moved into the cone  41  to prevent spillage the cone interface  34  moves with the vibrating funnel  40   a.    
       FIG. 9  is a cut away view of a vibrating cone funnel  42   a  assembles and cone  41 . The vibrating funnel is  42   a  the interface assemble is  42 , 40 . The cone  41  has the tube  40  placed inside of the cone by the linear actuator not shown. The cone  41  vibrates up and down  48   b  by a vibrating piston shown in  FIG. 10,11  in the vibrating zone  43  in the round tube withing the interface. The power material is  48 , 49  and cone filter is  51 . 
       FIG. 10  is a cut away view of a cone shaker that uses an eccentric linear vibrator  46  and linear actuator  49  to vibrate a cone  41  during powder filling to vibrate the cone up and down in a cone holder assemble  41   a  to compact the powder in the cone at the desired frequency and time for a programmable compactness. The vibrating piston is  42  that makes contact with the hard filter on the bottom of the smokable cone. 
       FIG. 11  Is a cut away of  FIG. 10 . The eccentric bearing is  46  the up and down piston is  42  and travel is  43 , the linear actuator is  50 . 
       FIG. 12  is a perspective view of a cone shaker linear actuator  56 . The eccentric motor assemble travel is  53  the piston travel is  52 . 
       FIG. 13  is a perspective view of  FIG. 12  in the down position  54  so the turret assembles not shown can rotate to the next twister station. 
       FIG. 14  Is a cut away side view of a weigh and filling station  59  is a rotating motor to vibrate the funnel  57   a  in the direction of  57  while the piston in  FIG. 12  moves up and down to cause a linear vibration on the cone that is being filled in the assemble. 
       FIG. 15  Is a perspective view of a biomass bowl feeder shaker  62   a  and storage. The biomass inventory feeder vibrates linear in the direction of  62  using an eccentric that discharges out of the vibratory feeder  63  and then in the bowl feeder rotation  64  the discharges in the trough  65  down to the weight hopper not shown. 
       FIG. 16  is a bottom view of the linear vibratory feeder motor  69  and  67  linear eccentric yoke  68  and bearing assemble. 
       FIG. 17  is a cut away view of  FIG. 15  the storage bowl motor is  69  and eccentric linear vibrator yoke  68 . 
       FIG. 18  Is a cut away view of  FIG. 15  with the eccentric bearing bushing  68   a  linear motion  73  on the linear slide bearings. 
       FIG. 19  Is a perspective view of the rotary filling station with an accumulation revivor  72 . The rotary valve motor  71  the valve on/off opening  70 . The accumulation tube is acquiring powder while the weighed cup is dumping product into the cone station. 
       FIG. 20  the vale is in the open position dumping the accumulation into the weigh cup and trickling the final weigh with higher accuracies of weight. 
       FIG. 21   72  is the accumulation tube and  76  is the rotating on/off valve. 
       FIG. 22  is a top view of  FIG. 21   72  is the off position. 
       FIG. 23  is a perspective view of a weighing station the weigh cup  75  is rotating into position to rest on a pointed weigh post  78  with a cutout  74  to allow the cup to rest on the point without touching the post  78  the split cup housings  85 , 86  do not touch the cup once in a resting position. The plate  80  is a mechanical stop plate to prevent the cup from crashing into the load cell to damage it if the shaft coupler slips and the stepper loses its home position. 
       FIG. 24  is a perspective view of the weigh cup  75  and the split mounting brackets  82  the cup  82  a has two flanges  83 , 84  to hold the cup to the bracket  82 . When the weigh cup  75  is sitting on the load cell  83   b  the bracket  82  is not in contact with the cup  82   a.    
       FIG. 25  is a close up cut-away view of the weigh cup  82   a  in  FIG. 24  sitting on the load cell pointed fixture  79  and the mating convex bottom of the weigh cup  85  to center the cup in the center of the bracket  82  to be contactless so the load cell  83   b  is only weighing the cup. 
       FIG. 26  is a top view of a biomass hopper that shakes in the direction of product to prevent clogging. The biomass is not shown the mounting hole is  95  the linear beading holder is  97 , the motor is  90  the eccentric yoke is  89  the feeder to the feeder bowl is  94  and the discharge is  93 . 
       FIG. 27  is a perspective view of a biomass powder feeder,  96  is the storage bowl  97  not shown in  FIG. 26 . The shaft  88  and linear bearings housing  97  and  90  is the motor. 
       FIG. 28  Is a perspective view of a frictionless  cannabis  cone  98  shaker utilizing permanent magnetic suspended on 3 or more electromagnetic coils  100 , 101 , 102 , 103  the pulse in synchronization to pulse the permanent floating magnetic up and down, The outside RF coil  99  that is in synchronization with the electromagnetic suspension coils to shake the  cannabis , hemp or other powders in a up and down motion to compact an article without mechanical wear. 
       FIG. 29  is a top view of  FIG. 29  the power of  cannabis  is  100  the is being vibrated by digital pulsed electromagnetic coils to settle the powder  cannabis  into compaction. 
       FIG. 30  Is a cutaway view of  FIG. 28  the electromagnetic lev