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.

A cooled hot melt adhesive material storage system includes a bin and a cooling unit. The bin receives and holds a supply of hot melt adhesive pieces, and includes an outlet for communicating hot melt adhesive pieces to a melter device. The cooling unit is operatively coupled with the bin, and is configured for cooling hot melt adhesive pieces contained in the bin.

The invention relates to a process for hot application of an adhesive composition (80) on a support (96), by means of a system comprising: a nozzle (50) for applying the adhesive composition (80), a line (88) for supplying the nozzle (50) with the adhesive composition (80) to be applied in fluid form, a mixer (30) positioned in the line (88) for the homogeneous mixture of the main components of the adhesive composition before its application; the applied adhesive composition (80) including as main components: a silylated prepolymer, a compatible tackifying resin; the adhesive composition comprising a cross-linking catalyst; the process comprising: supplying the line (88) with the silylated prepolymer separated from the cross-linking catalyst, the mixing of the cross-linking catalyst with the main components by means of the mixer (30), the hot application of the mixed adhesive composition (80) onto a support (96).

Application of liquid material is carried out without causing variations in discharge amount even on a stage under heating while temperature of a liquid material is adjusted by a temperature control device. A liquid material discharge device includes a discharge port, a liquid chamber in communication with the discharge port, and a temperature control device adjusting a temperature of the liquid chamber, the liquid material discharge device discharging the liquid material from the discharge port while a workpiece and the discharge port are moved relative to each other. The liquid material discharge device also includes a coolant flow path through which a coolant for heat exchange with the temperature control device flows, and a discharge control device controlling a discharge operation. An application device including the liquid material discharge device and an application method using the application device are also provided.

A temperature control system for dispensing a fluid material from an applicator nozzle at a controlled temperature that includes at least one temperature control fluid conduit at least one fluid material supply conduit and at least one manifold device. The manifold device is in thermal communication with the temperature control fluid conduit and the fluid conduit and may also be in thermal communication with the fluid material supply conduit. At least one thermal adjustment device is in thermal contact with the manifold device. The thermal adjustment device includes at least one thermoelectric device such as at least one peltier circuit. The temperature control system also includes at least one sensor positioned proximate to the applicator nozzle that produces at least one signal actionable on the Peltier circuit device.

A heat exchange device for heating liquid adhesive material to an application temperature suitable for an adhesive bonding application includes a body having an inlet configured to receive a flow of liquid adhesive material and an outlet configured to provide the liquid adhesive material to a dispensing device for the adhesive bonding application. A fluid passageway in the body connects the inlet and the outlet. The fluid passageway includes a thin slit section in the form of an elongated ring shape, having a length along a fluid flow direction between the inlet and the outlet, the thin slit section further having a first dimension and a second dimension transverse to the fluid flow direction. The first dimension and the length are substantially greater than the second dimension. The heat exchange device further includes a heating element for heating the liquid adhesive material flowing through the thin slit section.

An integral melter and pump assembly or system, and a method of making the same, is disclosed wherein the pump assembly comprises a melter housing having a melter container defined within the melter housing. A pump mounting plate is integrally mounted within a side wall portion of the melter container and an output dispensing supply pump is mounted directly upon an external surface portion of the pump mounting plate in a surface-to-surface manner such that heat generated internally within the melter container is effectively transferred by conduction from the melter container and through the pump mounting plate such that the temperature level of the output pump is elevated to, and maintained at, a predeterminedly desired level even when the pump, is not disposed in its output dispensing mode. In addition, since the output dispensing or material supply pump is disposed externally of the melter container and the melter housing, the output dispensing or material supply pump is easily and readily accessible in case maintenance becomes necessary. Optionally, an oil jacket or chamber can surround the melter container so as to more evenly or consistently provide heating of the melter container.

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.

A gluing system for applying glue on products is disclosed. The gluing system includes a glue applicator configured to deposit melted glue on products, a glue container configured to contain excess melted glue discharged from the applicator and fresh melted glue, a glue delivering unit configured to deliver glue from the container to the applicator and a glue discharging unit configured to convey excess glue not used by the applicator to the container. The container is divided by a partition into a first chamber, containing the fresh melted glue, and into a second chamber containing the excess melted glue and separated from the first chamber. The partition includes a filter allowing flow of the fresh melted glue and the excess melted glue from both the first and second chambers to the delivering unit.

A bulk adhesive transfer system for transferring adhesive particulate to a melter includes a bulk supply and a transfer device, which may define a hopper of the melter, a mobile bin, and/or a buffer unit. The transfer device is configured to receive unmelted adhesive particulate from the bulk supply and then be selectively docked with the melter to transfer the adhesive particulate to the melter. The bulk adhesive transfer system may also include a knife gate valve device, which includes a plurality of ports that sequentially open and close to control flow of the adhesive particulate towards the melter. The bulk adhesive transfer system simplifies refilling operations for a melter while enabling continuous operation of the melter, even when the transfer device is undocked for removal from the melter.