Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Mcguffey, Grant

Grant McGuffey

Daniel D Bourget

Alan Pindrock

Mel Steven Lesley

Edward Wayne Bolyard, Jr

Mel Steven Lessley

Mairi MacLean

Scott Mercer

Christof Schotten

Joseph Angelini

A melter of a fluid delivery device includes a loading chamber, a hopper disposed beneath the loading chamber and connected to the loading chamber, and a positioning device disposed in the hopper extending to a first height from a bottom of the hopper. The positioning device is configured to penetrate an adhesive slug received in the hopper from the loading chamber. The positioning device may be formed as a rod having a proximal end and a distal end extending to the first height.

Positioning device in a melting unit of a hot melt adhesive system

A fluid delivery device is provided. The fluid delivery device includes a melter having a loading chamber and a hopper disposed in communication with the loading chamber, the loading chamber having one or more heating elements. The hopper includes a second heating element. The melter also includes a container handling system for lifting a container a predetermined height and moving the container from a position remote of the melter to a position within the loading chamber. The container includes contents stored within. The heating elements heat the contents so that the contents may be received in the hopper. The hopper may continue to heat the contents to provide a fluid. The fluid may be discharged from the hopper by way of a pump assembly. A pressure of fluid may be regulated at the pump assembly.

Method and apparatus for loading, melting and delivering fluid from a fluid delivery device

A dispensing system for dispensing fluid onto a substrate includes a manifold having internal passageways for fluid flow and one or more driving gears, a drive arm mounted on the manifold, the drive arm movable between first and second positions, and having a drive motor configured to drive the one or more drive gears. The system further includes one or more pump assemblies mounted on a top surface of the manifold, each pump assembly formed as a rotary gear pump having a gear train including two gears. One of the gears is disposed in meshed relationship with a respective drive gear of the one or more drive gears. The system also includes a filter block for filtering the fluid, one or more nozzles for dispensing the fluid onto the substrate, an applicator or nozzle adapter, and one or more valve assemblies for controlling flow of the fluid to the one or more nozzles.

Hot melt adhesive applicator system with small footprint

A new and improved hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material dispensing system comprises two separate and independent rotary gear-type metering pumps with two separate and independent supply sources and fluid supply passageways, or two separate and independent sets of rotary gear-type metering pumps with two separate and independent supply sources and fluid supply passageways, which are able to independently output precisely metered amounts of the hot melt adhesive materials simultaneously onto a particularly substrate through suitable output devices so as to result in a multitude of different hot melt adhesive patterns and at different locations.

Metering system for simultaneously dispensing two different adhesives from a single metering device or applicator onto a common substrate

A method of making an article having a substrate and two materials applied thereto includes providing a metered fluid dispensing system having first and second supply sources for supplying first and second fluids, respectively, an output device having at least one dispensing nozzle, and at least two pumps for pumping the first and second fluids from their respective supply sources to the at least one dispensing nozzle, the pumps being in close proximity to the dispensing nozzle. The dispensing system is configured to selectively control the passage of the first and second fluids from each one of the at least two pumps to the at least one dispensing nozzle. The substrate is conveyed past the fluid dispensing system in a machine direction and the first, or second, or first and second fluids are applied to the substrate in a plurality of segments, each segment having a volume per unit length and applied in a length in the machine direction to define a pattern, and in which wherein the pattern includes at least some areas in which the first or second fluid is present without the other fluid.

A foam heat exchanger, for use in connection with hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material dispensing applicators, comprises a foam having an open cell reticulated foam structure. Due to the open cell reticulated structure of the foam, the surface area of the foam heat exchanger, with which the air comes into contact, is significantly increased. In addition, the open cell reticulated structure of the foam heat exchanger will also cause the air flow to experience resistance and turbulence so as to in turn enhance the heating efficiency of the heat exchanger, through means of enhanced thermal energy transfer from the heat exchanger to the processed air stream, whereby a significantly larger volume of air can be heated as compared to a conventional heat exchanger of similar size.

Foam heat exchanger for hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material dispensing apparatus

A dual, variable volume hot melt adhesive dispensing nozzle or die assembly is provided with a pair of choke slots within a first fluid control plate. The provision of the choke slots within the first fluid control plate effectively restricts and retards the flow of the fluid through such choke slots whereby volumes of the fluids are effectively built up and stored upstream of the choke slots so as to effectively delay the reaction of pressure spikes upon the fluid flows under both positive and negative conditions. This buildup in pressure and volume is then dispensed over time so as to cause the fluid flow to smoothly transition between positive and negative spiked fluid flow conditions and normal fluid flow conditions. Accordingly, the pressure spikes do not adversely affect the resulting fluid flows whereby, for example, under conventional negative pressure spike conditions, gaps in the dispensed hot melt adhesive would otherwise occur.

Variable volume hot melt adhesive dispensing nozzle or die assembly with choke suppression

A hot melt adhesive material dispensing system comprises two separate and independent rotary, gear-type metering pumps, or two separate and independent sets of pumps, which are able to output precisely metered amounts of hot melt adhesive material. The hot melt adhesive materials discharged are able to be independently outputted through suitable output devices onto a substrate to result in different outputted volumes of the hot melt adhesive material in accordance with predeterminedly desired patterns, or at predeterminedly desired locations. The hot melt adhesive materials may also have their volumetric outputs combined such that the discharged or outputted volumes of the hot melt adhesive material onto the substrate may be, for example, twice the outputted volumes of the hot melt adhesive outputted onto the substrate from only one of the two pumps, or from only one of the two pumps.

Metering system for hot melt adhesives with variable adhesive volumes

A metering pump or segment, and a metering pump assembly comprising a plurality of the metering pumps or segments, are disclosed. The drive shaft assembly for driving the pump gears of each metering pump or segment is coaxially aligned with the longitudinal axis of the pump or segment, as is the fluid inlet. The single drive shaft assembly is utilized to drive all of the metering pumps or segments comprising the metering pump assembly, and the different metering pumps or segments are fluidically connected together by means of a common fluid passageway. In addition, the different metering pumps or segments can be interchanged or exchanged so as to permit different metered fluid output volumes to be outputted at different predetermined locations, and the dispensing volumes can also be added together.

Metering gear pump or segment, and metering gear pump assembly comprising a plurality of metering gear pumps or segments

A hot melt adhesive metering pump assembly, and an integral reservoir tank fluidically connected thereto and the hot melt adhesive metering pump assembly comprises a plurality of rotary, gear-type metering pumps which are arranged in a compact, longitudinally spaced manner upon a drive gear manifold. All of the driven gears of pumps are respectively driven by manifold pump drive gears which are rotatably mounted upon a common motor-driven rotary drive shaft rotatably disposed within the drive gear manifold, and a first side wall member of a base portion of the reservoir tank is integrally connected to a side wall portion of the drive gear manifold, while a second side wall member of the base portion of the reservoir tank is provided with a plurality of hose connections to which hot melt adhesive delivery hoses are to be connected so as to respectively convey the precisely metered amounts of the hot melt adhesive material toward the applicator heads.

Hot melt adhesive metering pump assembly with integral reservoir tank

A new and improved hot melt adhesive material dispensing system comprises two separate and independent rotary, gear-type metering pumps, or two separate and independent sets of rotary, gear-type metering pumps, which are able to output precisely metered amounts of hot melt adhesive material. The hot melt adhesive materials discharged from the two separate and independent rotary gear pumps, or from the two separate and independent sets of rotary gear pumps, are able to in fact be independently outputted through suitable output devices onto a particular substrate so as to result in different outputted volumes of the hot melt adhesive material in accordance with predeterminedly desired patterns, or at predeterminedly desired locations. Alternatively, the hot melt adhesive material from the two separate and independent rotary gear pumps, or from the two separate and independent sets of rotary gear pumps, may also have their volumetric outputs effectively combined such that the discharged or outputted volumes of the hot melt adhesive material onto the substrate may effectively be, for example, twice the outputted volumes of the hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material outputted onto the substrate from only one of the two separate and independent rotary gear pumps, or from only one of the two separate and independent sets of rotary gear pumps.

Method for metering hot melt adhesives with variable adhesive volumes

A method of making an article having a substrate and a material applied thereto includes providing a metered fluid dispensing system having a supply of fluid to be dispensed, an output device having at least one dispensing nozzle, at least two pumps for pumping fluid from the supply to the at least one dispensing nozzle. The pumps are in close proximity to the dispensing nozzle. Output supply passageways interconnect the pumps and the dispensing nozzle, and flow control elements selectively control the passage of the fluid from the pumps to the nozzle. The substrate is conveyed past the fluid dispensing system in a machine direction and fluid is applied to the substrate in a plurality of segments. Each segment has a volume per unit length and is applied in a length in the machine direction to define a pattern. The pattern includes at least some areas in which the fluid is present at a first volume as applied from one of the pumps and at least some areas in which fluid is present at a second volume that is greater than the first volume, as applied from both of the pumps.

A hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material metering system has different output assemblies interchangeably mounted thereon in a modular manner. In this manner, if it is desired to effectively convert a particular metering system from one type of metering system to another type of metering system, a particular output assembly can be exchanged for a different output assembly. In addition, if a particular output assembly needs to be replaced or repaired, the particular output assembly can be simply removed and a new similar output assembly can be simply installed.

Hot melt adhesive metering system with interchangeable output assemblies

A new and improved remote, hot melt adhesive metering station (), for supplying predetermined or precisely metered volumes of hot melt adhesive material toward applicator head or dispensing nozzle structures, comprises a plurality of rotary, gear-type metering pumps () which are arranged in a compact, longitudinally spaced manner upon an axially elongated drive gear manifold () such that the rotational axes of the plurality of rotary, gear-type metering pumps () are disposed parallel and adjacent to one side of the axially elongated drive gear manifold (). Hot melt adhesive material is supplied from a remotely located adhesive supply unit (ASU), to the drive gear manifold (), by an inlet supply port hose connection (), and all of the pump driven gears () of the plurality of rotary, gear-type metering pumps () are respectively driven by manifold pump drive gears () which are all rotatably mounted upon a common, motor-driven drive shaft () rotatably disposed within the drive gear manifold (). The drive gear manifold () is also provided with a plurality of outlet port hose connections () to which hot melt adhesive delivery hoses are to be connected.

Remote hot melt adhesive metering station

A modular system, for delivering hot melt adhesive materials, comprises a modular metering assembly, having metering stations disposed therein, that is able to be attachably and detachably mounted upon a modular tank assembly. Alternatively, one or more of the metering stations may be disposed externally of the modular metering assembly, and alternatively still further, one or more additional modular metering assemblies may be attachably and detachably connected to the first modular metering assembly. Also disclosed is a closed-loop fluid pressure control system, for independently controlling the pressure of the hot melt adhesive material being conveyed to the metering devices, whereby the working pressures of the hot melt adhesive materials being conveyed to the metering devices can have different working pressures.

Growing community of inventors

Springfield, TN, United States of America

Grant McGuffey