Track system for creating finished products
A track system includes a primary transport portion and a secondary transport portion along which a plurality of vehicles can be propelled. Each secondary transport portion includes a unit operation station for performing a transformation on a container or the contents therein.
1. A system comprising:
a plurality of containers for holding a fluent material;
a plurality of vehicles for containers, wherein a container is disposed on a respective vehicle to form a container-loaded vehicle, there being a plurality of container-loaded vehicles;
a track system comprising a track on which the pluraity of container-loaded vehicles are propellable, said track comprising:
a primary transport portion that defines a primary path comprised of track that forms a closed loop that is configured to permit at least one container-loaded vehicle to travel in a holding pattern;
at least one secondary transport portion that extends from the primary transport portion and defines a secondary path comprised of track that intersects the primary path at an ingress location and an egress location; and
at least one unit operation station disposed along a secondary transport portion and configured to perform a container treatment operation on at least one container-loaded vehicle, wherein the plurality of container-loaded vehicles are independently routable along the track system to deliver at least some of the containers to the at least one unit operation station for performing a container treatment operation on at least some of said containers;
wherein one of the unit operation stations comprises a container loading station that is configured to facilitate loading a container onto one of the vehicles and
wherein at least one of the unit operation stations comprises a plurality of independently controllable nozzles for dispensing fluent material into the containers.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the ingress location and the egress location are spaced apart on the primary path.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the ingress location and the egress location are at the same location on the primary path.
4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a first ingress track switch at the ingress location and a first egress track switch at the egress location.
5. The system of claim 3 further comprising a single track switch at the ingress and egress location.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein each vehicle comprises a magnet.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the track system comprises:
one or more running surfaces that support the vehicles; and
a plurality of conductive propulsion coils that facilitate routing of the vehicles along the track system along a direction of travel.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein each conductive propulsion coil defines a common axis and comprises a conductor having one or more turns that are disposed about a common axis.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the respective common axes of the plurality of conductive propulsion coils are substantially parallel with one another and are substantially orthogonal to the direction of travel.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein:
the plurality of propulsion coils are disposed beneath the respective magnet of each vehicle; and
the propulsion coils disposed on at least one of the opposing sides of the magnet of a vehicle is configured to exert a propulsive force on the vehicle that facilitates propulsion of the vehicle along the track system.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the propulsion coils on the opposing sides of the magnet of a vehicle exert propulsive forces on the magnet.
12. The system of claim 1 wherein the only type of unit operation station disposed along said primary transport portion comprises a fast cycle unit operation station.
13. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the secondary transport portion comprises at least one unit transport segment; and
one of the unit operation stations is disposed along the at least one unit transport segment.
14. The system according to claim 13 , wherein the secondary transport portion comprises a plurality of unit transport segments that further define the secondary path and wherein each unit transport segment defines a segment ingress location and a segment egress location.
15. The system of claim 14 wherein the plurality of unit transport segments are arranged in parallel.
16. The system of claim 14 wherein the track system further comprises:
an ingress switch at each of the segment ingress locations; and
an egress switch at each of the segment egress locations.
17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the track system further comprises a plurality of unit operation stations each disposed at one of the unit transport segments.
18. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of containers comprise a plurality of first containers having a volume and a shape and a plurality of second containers having one or more of a volume and a shape that is different from one or more of a volume and a shape, respectively, of the plurality of first containers.
19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of independently controllable nozzles are configured so that at least one first independently controllable nozzle dispenses a fluent material that is different from a fluent material dispensed from at least one second independently controllable nozzle.
20. The system of claim 18 wherein each vehicle is independently routable along the track system to deliver the first and second containers to different unit operation stations; and at least one first vehicle has associated therewith a route that is different from a route associated with an at least one second vehicle, with each of the at least one first vehicle and the at least one second vehicle executing the associated routes simultaneously.
21. The system of claim 18 wherein each of the vehicles is configured to accommodate one or more of the different shapes and sizes of the first container and the second container.
22. The system of claim 1 , wherein the loading station comprises a gravity feed chute.
23. The system of claim 1 , wherein the loading station comprises a mechanical motion device.
24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the mechanical motion device is selected from the group consisting of one or more independently actuatable automatic arms, one or more pneumatic arms, one or more robots, transfer wheels, and combinations thereof.