System and method for monitoring liquid adhesive flow

• Main Authors: Ramosevac, Enes, Fort, Wesley C, Ramspeck, Ronald
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 22.06.2021
• Subjects: ADHESIVE PROCESSES NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE; ADHESIVES; APPARATUS FOR APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TOSURFACES, IN GENERAL; APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; ATOMISING APPARATUS; CHEMISTRY; CONTROLLING; DYES; MEASURING; MEASURING VOLUME, VOLUME FLOW, MASS FLOW OR LIQUIDLEVEL; METALLURGY; METERING BY VOLUME; MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF MATERIALS; MISCELLANEOUS COMPOSITIONS; NATURAL RESINS; NON-MECHANICAL ASPECTS OF ADHESIVE PROCESSES IN GENERAL; NOZZLES; PAINTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; POLISHES; REGULATING; SPRAYING APPARATUS; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TESTING; TRANSPORTING; USE OF MATERIALS AS ADHESIVES

A hot melt adhesive system includes an adhesive supply for receiving solid or semi-solid hot melt adhesive, and a heater associated with the adhesive supply for melting the solid or semi-solid hot melt adhesive into liquid hot melt adhesive. An adhesive tracking system monitors an output of the liquid hot melt adhesive, and includes a flow meter having a flow inlet and a flow outlet. The flow meter measures an amount of the adhesive flowing out of the flow outlet. A product detector may be used to sense a presence of a product to which the adhesive is applied. A controller then determines the total amount of the liquid adhesive dispensed and the average amount of liquid adhesive dispensed per product.