Patent ID: 7540310

Claim:
A particle filling line comprising: a vertically-oriented conduit having a conduit hollow, a conduit top and a conduit bottom, the conduit bottom defining an outlet, the conduit being arranged so that particles supplied to the conduit top flow through the outlet; a plurality of conduit hollow elements disposed within said conduit; a detector electrically connected to said conduit and separately electrically connected to said conduit hollow elements; a plurality of first electrical contact points electrically connecting said detector and said conduit; and a plurality of second electrical contact points electrically connecting said detector and said conduit hollow elements, the particle filling line being arranged to fill one or more included containers with particles in accordance with a method comprising: (a) filling the conduit hollow with particles; (b) flowing the particles through the outlet to be received by the one or more containers disposed on an included movable conveyor belt; and (c) determining when a resistance that is based on the spacing between the conduit hollow elements and the included conduit inner walls is less than a threshold resistance value, using said detector.