Patent ID: 8735746

Claim:
A method of cyclically weighing quantities of flowable product, comprising the steps of: providing a feeder for supplying a stream of said product; providing a weighing device for weighing a quantity of said product; cyclically operating said feeder to periodically feed a quantity of said product from said feeder to said weighing device to provide a dose weight of said product; and cyclically dispensing the quantity of product providing said dose weight from the weighing device, including operating said feeder and weighing device in a ratio of two independent, modes of operation, including: (1) a first, non-sampling mode of operation having a relatively high cycle rate, wherein during each cycle of operation the quantity of material is dispensed from said weighing device without verification of the dose weight of the quantity of product received by the weighing device during the feeding step, and (2) a second, sampling mode of operation having a relatively lower cycle rate, wherein during each cycle of operation the quantity of material is dispensed from the weighing device after the dose weight of the quantity of product received in the weighing device is verified by comparison to a target weight; and adjusting the dose weight of the product in response to the variation of the dose weight from the target weight as determined by the verification of the dose weight in said second mode of operation; and/or adjusting the rate at which said feeder supplies said product to said weighing device in response to variation of the dose weight from said target weight as determined by the verification of the dose weight in said second mode of operation.