This class provides for the transfer of fluent material, gaseous, liquid or flowable granular solids, through a flow confining system, the source and terminal or receiver parts of which are normally separable, i.e., one or both parts are portable or are otherwise capable of or intended to have a utility in their separated condition. Such utility ordinarily lies in portability of a separated part, either for use of the contents material in another place, or for use of one of the system parts with another complementary part. Each part therefore must comprise an entity capable of use independent of the other, and together the parts provide a flow path from a source or dispenser to a terminal part or receiver, thereby comprising a filling system.
This class takes a mere dispenser-receiver combination where separability is claimed or is inherent, and also takes means to deliver material to a receiver when there is claimed some system characteristic which peculiarly relates the receiver to the dispenser to define a coaction of one with the other to complete the dispenser-receiver relationship; as for example, guiding or confining means for the receiver, related conveying means for either the receiver or dispenser or both, or a receiver support which is not merely a support for the dispenser but is some member or modification beyond the structural requirements therefor.
The scope of this class does not include method and apparatus for handling fluent material except in a manner characteristic of fluid flow. For the most part the material supply processes and apparatus involve discharge assistants and fluid flow guiding means of the class of Dispensing (see References to Other Classes, below).
This class takes systems as above defined including receivers which close (i.e., self-closing) upon separation or uncoupling from the supply.
This class also includes processes of varying gaseous conditions in a vessel or container, i.e., evacuating or maintaining a vacuum in a container, by sorption or gettering means incased in such container where the claims are silent respecting any sealing off, or do not include steps of closing and additionally where the sorption or gettering is not of the kind provided for elsewhere.
This class also includes certain combinations and subcombinations which appear to fall short of the receiver
coacting means requirement set out above, as in the last four "first line" subclass groups of this class. Though they require no more than what might be considered to be Class 222 subject matter, the concept of a normally detached, readily connectable, dispenser-receiver relation (see I (2) above) is satisfied.
LINES WITH OTHER CLASSESCOMBINATIONS OF FILLING APPARATUS WITH TREATING ORMANUFACTURING APPARATUS
As between this class (141) and Class 53, Package Making, Class 53 takes methods of and apparatus for packaging where some manufacturing operation as to either the package or its contents material is included anywhere along the line.
Class 53 includes among other packaging inventions the following:
Chemical packaging:
The selection of materials for cover and/or lining compatible with chemical or reactive contents material for package making is considered a type of manufacture, and is included in Class 53.
Article packaging:
Methods of packaging articles and apparatus for packaging articles not however those which rely upon fluid-flow handling methods or apparatus.
Contents treating and packaging:
Methods of and apparatus for packaging with or without closing if the contents material is treated or prepared by processes or apparatus involving an irreversible operation more commonly known as manufacture.
Filling with fluent material:
Filling with fluent materials where an arrangement not obtainable by fluent material flow results. Mere compacting is not included, but the packaging of a compacted charge which is subsequently handled as an article is, and also compacting to produce a package of a definite predetermined shape.
Receiver or cover making and filling: Methods of and apparatus for forming a cover or receiver and filling with fluent material or articles with or without closing including opening the receiver, e.g., a collapsed bag, or any covered receiver. Opening self-closing type receivers and filling with fluents is excepted. See I above.
Receiver filling and closing:
Methods of and apparatus for filling receivers with articles and/or fluent materials and closing such receivers.
Receiver filling:
Filling apparatus including additional means claimed in combination therewith having utility only in a closing or closure applying or associating function is included in Class 53, for example, relative to "jetting", such structure for supporting closure means and moving same through a jetting stream or the like with an associated filled receiver even though the step of or means for depositing the closure on the receiver is omitted, or receiver spacing or holding means after filling for cover application or a closing operation without applying the closure or closing.
TREATMENT CLASSES
As to the treatment classes, the line is whether or not there is present some handling operation other than supplying material to or removing it from the treatment area or chamber. Those patents which claim more than the handling incidental to treatment are placed in the appropriate material handling class, including this one, as they are also in many instances where the treatment device is claimed by name only, with incidental handling means and no other.
REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
5, Beds,
671+, for filling or draining a waterbed bladder. 28, Textiles: Manufacturing,
118+, and 121+ for processes of or apparatus for compacting loose fibers in a tampon or wad and inserting the same into a sheath or applicator device.
47, Plant Husbandry,
58.1, for miscellaneous processes of packaging or potting plants and the like and subclass 1.01 for miscellaneous apparatus therefor.
52, Static Structures (e.g., Buildings),
742.1+, for a process of filling a preformed cavity in an in situ erected type structure with a flowable material.
53, Package Making, appropriate subclasses for methods or and apparatus for encompassing or encasing goods or materials and see Lines With Other Classes of this class, above.
73, Measuring and Testing,
864.01+, for a pipette, per se.
86, Ammunition and Explosive-Charge Making, for processes and apparatus there classified on an art basis.
100, Presses, for methods and apparatus for compacting material in filler receivers where feeding of fluent material into the receiver is not involved and see section V of that class (100). 116, Signals and Indicators, appropriate subclasses for indicators and mechanically produced signals.
119, Animal Husbandry,
14.01+, for milking machines involving vacuumizing the receiver.
137, Fluid Handling, for methods of and apparatus for handling fluid materials, appropriate subclasses, where "normally detached, connectable supply and receiver" does not predominate, and particularly 154+ for diverse fluid containing pressure systems; 223+ for inflatable article filling chuck and/or stem; 263 and 571+ for fluent material handling systems comprising plural tanks connected for serial flow; 317+ for means for tapping systems under pressure; and 386+ for liquid level responsive or maintaining systems.
177, Weighing Scales,
52+, for a weigher correlating the movement of a series of receivers with respect to the weigh station, subclass 59 for a weigher correlated with a receiver, subclasses 60+ for weigher responsive material control without handling or treatment in addition to supplying, filling, weighing, removing material from the weigher or removing a receiver from filling-weighing position, and subclasses 253+ for load holders, particularly subclasses 262+ for scale pans.
193, Conveyors, Chutes, Skids, Guides, and Ways, appropriate subclasses particularly 2+ for loading and unloading chutes for conveying material by gravity flow.
198, Conveyors: Power-Driven, for a power-driven conveyor, or for such a conveyor combined with a gravity conveyor.
206, Special Receptacle or Package, appropriate subclasses for a container particularly configured to hold a specific article or material including an article (s) or material (s) put up as a mercantile unit.
210, Liquid Purification or Separation,
235, for a filter and coacting receiver, and subclasses 473+
for a filter-receiver combination. 210, Liquid Purification or Separation,
235, 473.+ (From Index and Miscellaneous Class Notes.)
220, Receptacles,
86.1+, for attachments which serve as filling devices, such as attached funnels.
221, Article Dispensing,
96, for receptacle dispensers combined with a fluent material dispenser where the relationship is nominal and does not qualify under Section I e.g., the receiver is not supplied to, guided into, or supported at the fluent material dispenser for filling by the receptacle dispensing means.
222, Dispensing, appropriate subclasses for dispensers, and
130, for plural compartments, one defining a dispensing means, the other storage means for cups or receptacles and not qualifying as an article dispenser for Class 221.
229, Envelopes, Wrappers, and Paperboard Boxes, for receptacles of that material.
241, Solid Material Comminution or Disintegration, for comminutors claimed in combination with means to discharge the material therefrom into a portable receptacle. See particularly
100, and the class definition of that class (241).
241, Solid Material Comminution or Disintegration, 100,. (From Index and Miscellaneous Class Notes.)
248, Supports,
94, and 95+ for strainer or funnel type and bag supports respectively wherein the strainer, funnel spout etc., are claimed by name only and wherein the means supporting the bag is not modified to hold and fill the bag and where flow control is not claimed.
250, Radiant Energy,
428+, for ray energy generators there classified including means to admit vapor or gas into, or to withdraw gas or vapor from the interior of the envelope of the X-ray generator.
250, Radiant Energy,
428+,. (From Index and Miscellaneous Class Notes.)
251, Valves and Valve Actuation, for actuators there classified.
260, Chemistry of Carbon Compounds, or the appropriate composition class, for processes of storing chemicals when a chemical combination is involved from which the chemicals may be subsequently released, even though the storing takes place in a container or the initial reaction and/or the decomposition reaction is claimed.
264, Plastic and Nonmetallic Article Shaping or Treating: Processes, appropriate subclasses, for processes within the class definition, in which plastic material may be shaped or molded in a receptacle and subsequently removable therefrom, said receptacle acting as a mold. For treatment of a mold to facilitate removal thereof from the contained molded material, see
39, 213, 221, 224, 264, 300, 313+, 338, and 353.5. 313, Electric Lamp and Discharge Devices, particularly
7, 545, 546, 547+ and 552 for evacuating pumps and gas or vapor generating or pressure regulating means.
313, Electric Lamp and Discharge Devices,
7, and 545, 546, 547+, 552. (From Index and Miscellaneous Class Notes.)
315, Electric Lamp and Discharge Devices: Systems,
108+, for confined gas or vapor type load device with pressure regulating means.
315, Electric Lamp and Discharge Devices: Systems,
108+,. (From Index and Miscellaneous Class Notes.)
340, Communications: Electrical, appropriate subclasses for electric signaling.
401, Coating Implements With Material Supply,
118+, for a container for a supply of coating material in combination with a separable applicator (which may be a part of the closure for the container) which transports the material from the container and applies it to a work surface by rubbing contact therewith; provided that force-applying means to move material from the container to the applicator is either entirely absent from the combination or is present in the applicator only.
414, Material or Article Handling, 404+, for a device for emptying the contents of a portable receptacle into a portable receiving means, and wherein the
transfer is accomplished by mutually inverting both the receiver and the same.
422, Chemical Apparatus and Process Disinfecting, Deodorizing, Preserving, or Sterilizing, for process and apparatus appropriate to that class and see this class (141) particularly
11, 70 and 85.
422, Chemical Apparatus and Process Disinfecting, Deodorizing, Preserving, or Sterilizing,
40+, for process involving protective layers. (From Index and Miscellaneous Clas Notes.)
425, Plastic Article or Earthenware Shaping or Treating: Apparatus,
447+, for the combination of means providing a shaping surface (e.g., a mold, etc.) and means feeding fluent stock thereto; see the search notes thereunder.
426, Food or Edible Material: Processes, Compositions, and Products,
392+, for food working operations combined with packaging.
445, Electric Lamp or Space Discharge Component or Device Manufacturing, for methods of manufacture and apparatus for electric lamp devices, particularly
38+, 53+, 70 and 73 for combined operations. 445, Electric Lamp or Space Discharge Component or Device Manufacturing,
38+, 53+, 70, and 73. (From Index and Miscellaneous Class Notes.)
452, Butchering,
35+, for apparatus dealing with sausage stuffing.
470, Threaded, Headed Fastener, or Washer Making: Process and Apparatus, appropriate
164+, for distributors and feeders.
585, Chemistry of Hydrocarbon Compounds, especially
2+, 15 and 899 for processes which may involve the storage of hydrocarbons.
GLOSSARY:
CUT-OFF
The term as used in this class means some mechanically operative element or device (not gas pressure) which arrests flow of material. CYCLICAL OPERATION
This term describes a filling system in which no operator intervention is required from the time a receiver is placed in filling position at least until the receiver is filled and ready to be removed. The flow of contents material may be cut off by a movement of the receiver which occurs in the sequence of events in the machine.
DISPENSER
A mechanism which affirmatively effects or permits separation of a portion of the contents material supply thereof and discharge in a definite direction or path.
FILLING HEAD
The portion of a dispenser or source part of the system which comprises the flow outlet or flow confining terminus and other flow confining structure which may be in advance (up-stream) of it back to the supply.
FUNNEL
A fluid handling device of increasingly restricted capacity in the direction of flow and having its free end arranged to enter into the inlet of a receiver, being ordinarily designed to collect an unconfined flow and channel it into a narrower flow path or one which is out of line with the previous path or flow direction. The material may be retained in the funnel body by valve means, and the funnel may comprise the only claimed supply means of the filling system or an intermediate or final receiver, and may be supported by either the preceding or succeeding flow confining means, or by a means external to the flow system.
MANUFACTURE
In order to draw a line with the manufacturing classes which may include filling, the term is used here as meaning an operation on material, or apparatus for operating on material, to effect a permanent or irreversible change in the physical character of the material, e.g. cutting, crushing, shaping and boring, or to arrange the parts of an article of manufacture into their desired relation, i.e., assembling.
MATERIAL GUIDE
Means other than funnels to direct material from supply to receiver without forming a flow-confining connection between them. Examples of material guides in this class are: (1) A nonflow support for contents material associated with a receiver support over which the material can be pushed or moved manually into the receiver; (2) A flow directing detachable extension of a receiver inlet which may be either tubular or channel-shaped in cross-section. If tubular and tapering, it must either engage the receiver externally or be located entirely within the receiver. Cf funnel, above; or (3) An extension of a supply container which is hand held, the extension being designed to engage the receiver and direct the flow thereto.
RECEIVER
A device which accepts the material from the dispenser and is capable of confining fluids within a predetermined or predescribed volumetric configuration, and does not therefore rely upon surface tension or molecular cohesive forces to preclude escape of material therefrom.
SUPPLY MEANS
The contents material confining means of the dispenser.
SYSTEM
The combination of dispenser and receiver in flow exchange relation with any or all appurtenances thereof.
TREATMENT
With respect to the treatment classes, treatment as here construed is concerned with reversible changes in the physical characteristics of contents material such as exemplified by agitating, heating, cooling, sorting and the like.