EP0530156A2

EP0530156A2 - A machine for the production of soap bars made up of transparent soap

Info

Publication number: EP0530156A2
Application number: EP92830403A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Roberto c/o COLGATE PALMOLIVE S.p.A. Bocchi; Luciano c/o COLGATE PALMOLIVE S.p.A. Moglia; Sergio c/o COLGATE PALMOLIVE S.p.A. Santi
Original assignee: Colgate Palmolive SpA
Current assignee: Colgate Palmolive SpA
Priority date: 1991-07-26
Filing date: 1992-07-22
Publication date: 1993-03-03
Also published as: EP0530156A3; ITRM910567A1; IT1250059B; ITRM910567A0

Abstract

This invention relates to a machine for the production of soap bars made up of transparent soap, said machine being characterized in that it comprises a first metering and product forming zone which crmprises means (5, 6, 7) for suction of the liquid soap and for conveying the same into the halfmoulds (3), means (14) for injecting liquid soap into said half-moulds (3); means for feeding the filme (15) making up the envelope between said half-moulds (3), means (16) for heating the film (15) up to its softening temperature; means (4) for carrying out the operation of forming the envelope inside said half-moulds (3) and means (19) for welding the two half-envelopes obtained within the half-moulds (3) after the injection of the product, said first zone being thermostated; a second zone for the mechanical-pneumatic forward and centering motion comprising means (22) for cutting the film into stripes, guiding means (23) and driving means (21) as well as centering means; a third zone for shearing the envelopes comprising means (26) for feeding the envelopes into the shearing zone, means (25) for cold-shearing and means (27) for removing the product so shorn, a fourth zone for the cutting of the scraps, comprising means (29) for cold-cutting the scraps and means (27) for removing the same; and a fifth zone for cooling the product so obtained; the machine operation being completely determined and coordinated through a processor.

Description

This invention relates to a machine for the production of soap bars made up of a transparent soap.
More exactly, this invention relates to a machine of the type mentioned above which is capable of supplying soap bars made up of a liquid soap which is already packaged, and has a very high quality standard.
As is well known to all those who are skilled in the art, transparent soap which already existis on the market since many years and, as is well known, is a product of a certain standard, has some features that make its production particularly delicate.
In that context, the Applicant intended to realize a machine which, working automatically, were able to conciliate all requirements of the production of transparent soap, so as to obtain a solid soap bar, already packaged in a case, and having very high quality characteristics as a final product.
In order to obtain such results, as there is no previously developed technology available on the market, we started our investigation by studying an already existing machine for injecting liquid soap into containers made up of a plastic material, for instance shampoo or bath foaming soap.
Obviously, such machine was absolutely unable to allow the production of transparent solid soap to be realized.
A first problem to be tackled and to be solved is the problem that, during injection of the product into the container, liquid soap solidifies very fast.
Moreover, as liquid soap changes volume on solidifying because it contains alcohol, it was necessary to realize some particular moulds in order to avoid the formation of empty zones within the container itself.
Another problem that we had to tackle and solve has been that of the formation of foam during injection of the liquid into the container because air, due to the shape of the small tube, could not flow out of the container itself.
Moreover, as the small injection tubes are cylindrical in shape, a perfect joining of the film making up the container was impossible to obtain.
Even the obtainment of an aesthetically valuable final product gave problems because of the fact that, during the cooling of soap a shrinking occurred which gave rise to hollows.
The already existing machine allowed one only product to be produced each time in order to have the possibility of feeding more rows of products simultaneously, the problem was to be tackled that was in connection with the deformability of the film, owing to which not all containers were simultaneously below the successive shearing operation.
Moreover, hot cutting of scraps was provided in machines already built in past years, which operation gave rise to enormous problems because scraps were folded instead of being cut.
In order to have the possibility of realizing a machine capable of giving an optimal result, all the problems mentioned above and many other problems in addition were to be tackled.
In particular, the whole metering and forming zone had to be thermostated, also intervening on the shape of the small injection tubes and on the flowrate in order to avoid the formation of foam and the presence of air.
Moreover, the mold was to be modified in a suitable way in order to obtain a shape capable of removing the occurrence of shrinking lines.
During the forward motion of the rows of soap bar containers, in order to obtain the simultaneous presence of such containers aligned in the row below the shearing operation, the Applicant thought of introducing a vertical cutting zone that separates the single rows, and a bend in the path between the metering-forming step and the successive shearing step, which bend allows the cut rows to recover any possible inhomogeneous shortening.
A further feature introduced consists in the fact of providing a cold shearing operation and the cutting of scraps at each step.
Obviously, the machine according to this invention also provides a whole additional set of innovations that will be disclosed in a more detailed way in the following.
Accordingly, it is a specific object of this invention a machine for the production of soap bars made up of a transparent soap, said machine being characterized in that it comprises a first metering and forming zone for the product, said zone comprising means for suction of the liquid soap and means for conveying the same to the half-moulds, means for injecting liquid soap into said half-moulds, means for feeding the film making up the envelope between the halfmoulds, means for heating the film till reaching the softening temperature, means for forming the envelope inside said half-moulds and means for joining the two half-envelopes obtained within said half-moulds after injection of the product, said first zone being thermostated; a second zone of mechanical-pneumatic forward motion and centering operation, said zone comprising means for cutting the film into stripes, means for guiding and driving and centering means; a third zone for the operation of shearing the envelopes, said zone comprising means for feeding said envelopes into the shearing zone, means for cold-shearing and means for removal of the product so shorn; a fourth zone for cutting the scraps, said zone comprising means for cold-cutting the scraps and means for removal of the same; and fifth cooling zone of the product so obtained; the full operation of the machine being determined and coordinated by means of a processor.
Preferably, according to this invention, said two halfmoulds have at least two shells for producing two rows of products, and in particular six rows of products.
Each one of said shells will preferably be so shaped as to have convergence lines that go toward the centre of the product.
Said means for suction and conveyance of the liquid soap will preferably be made up of a thermostated injection pump, having electrovalve pairs for suction and delivery which are equal in number to that of the shells of the moulds.
Again according to this invention, said film will be made up of a PVC/PE coupled layer which can be removed by peeling and is of 250/50 microns thickness.
The means for injecting liquid soap into the half-moulds are made up of small tubes whose cross section is preferably oval in shape, which start the injection at the point corresponding to the bottom of the moulds and which rise while the injection goes on.
A valve can be provided at the top of each injector, which valve prevents the product from dropping down when the machine is not in the injection step.
The forming of the envelope as a film inside the closed half-moulds occurs by means of the vacuum generated by a vacuum pump.
The two half-envelopes so obtained and filled are preferably welded by heat-welding.
A device for washing the moulds themselves can be provided in the circuit that joins the vacuum pump to the halfmoulds, said device comprising a valve for excluding transitorily the vacuum circuit and means for conveying water and pressurized air into the connection pipes to the moulds.
The operation of cutting the film into a number of stripes equal to the number of shells provided in said halfmoulds is performed by means of circular blades, the film being forced to follow a bend after the cutting operation in its forward motion.
The operation of feeding the containers to the welding zone is performed through pairs of horizontal supports, which are driven pneumatically, which arrange below the stripe, on the sides of the container, and take the same to the point correspondin to the shearing zone and then support the same till the beginning of the shearing operation.
The means for removal of the products so shorn and of the scraps so cut can be made up of a single conveyor belt.
Preferably the product is introduced into the cooling zone in the vertical position, with the part corresponding to the injection operation as the top part.
Before inserting the product into the cooling zone, it is preferably put into a case.
This invention will be disclosed in the followint according to some preferred embodiments of the same, with particular reference to the figures of the enclosed drawings wherein:

Figure 1, which is divided into the figures 1a and 1b is a comprehensive schematic view of the machine according to this invention;
Figure 2 is a schematic view of the pump zone of the machine shown in Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a perspective illustration of the mould zone of the machine shown in Figure 1;
Figure 4 is a vertical cross section of the mould zone of the machine shown in Figure 1;
Figure 5 shows the detail of a half-mould;
Figure 6 is a first schematic view of the shearing zone;
Figure 7 is a second schematic view of the shearing zone, together with the scrap cutting zone;
Figure 8 shows a detail of the feeding system of the shearing zone; and
Figure 9 shows in a schematic way the system for washing the moulds.

In the following disclosure of the Figures, general reference will be made to Figure 1, mentioning the other figures enclosed herein when specific parts of the machine era described in turn.
The numeral reference 1 points out the housing of the pumps and of the electrovalves for suction of the product from the reservoir 2 and its injection into the moulds 3.
The vacuum pump 4 is arranged below said housing 1, said pump being employed for realizing the vacuum inside the moulds 3.
The housing 1 is illustrated in a more detailed way in Figure 2. A multiple pump 5 is provided inside said housing 1, said pump being provided with 6 pairs of electrovalves 6 and 7, which are employed respectively for suction of the product from the reservoir 2, through the pipes 8, and the conveyance of the injection of the product itself through the pipes 8 towards the moulds 3.
The numbero of pairs of electrovalves obviously corresponds to the number of moulds.
The housing 1 is thermostated through the electrical resistances 10, so as to keep the product at a temperature of about 45°C.
The numeral reference 11 points out the pipes for the oil in the device for controlling the hydraulic cylinder that drives the pump 5.
The small injection pipes 9 pass through the pipe 12 which comes out of the housing 1 at the top portion of the same.
Turning now the attention back to Figure 1, two small tubes 13 can be observed which control pneumatically the rising piston of the injectors 14 during the injection of the product into the moulds 3.
The film 15 in the shape of rolls is fed in two parallel, opposite and vertical rows, passing between the two halfmoulds 3. Before arriving at the point corresponding to the moulds 3, said film 15 is heated up to the softening temperature by two heaters 16.
The half-moulds 3 close through an oleopneumatic system 17 (see Figure 3) and vacuum is obtained through the action of the vacuum pump 4 already mentioned above, which is connected to the two half-moulds 3 by means of the openings 18 (see Figure 4), so realizing the forming operation.
In that moment the injectors 14 are fully lowered.
Two blades 19 are provided below said half-moulds 3 for heat-welding the film downstream of the envelope so formed.
The injection of the product begins just a few seconds after the beginning of action of the vacuum pump 4, and the injectors 14 begin rising during the filling step, through the action of the pneumatic system mentioned above.
Top valves can be provided on the injectors 14, said valves being not shown, which close at the moment when the injection stops, so preventing the product from dropping in the stopping phase onto the film not yet formed.
The particular shape of the moulds 3, which can be fully observable in Figure 5, allows to avoid the formation of shrinking lines of the film on the film itself and then on the envelope 20.
About 15-18 seconds elapse between an injection operation and the next one.
The whole zone just disclosed for the forming of the product and the injection of the same is thermostated.
Grippers 21 are provided downstream of the moulds 3 and of the blades 19, said grippers being employed for driving the film towards the zone where the film is cut into stripes, in a number corresponding to the number of moulds 3.
The operation of cutting the film 15 intro stripes is performed by means of five circular blades, which are borne by the member 22. Guides 23 are provided in that zone, said guides leading the film stripes together with the envelopes 20 already formed and filled up to the shearing zone.
The bend formed by the film 15 in that cutting zone allows any possible differences of position of the film itself to be recovered.
The reference numeral 24 points out a pushing frame that takes the film 15 to the shearing zone, arranging said film below the shearing machine 25, which has a suitable shape.
The shearing zone and the scrap cutting zone are illustrated in particular in figures 6 and 7.
The envelope 20 is taken below the shearing machine 25 into the correct position through the blades 26 or through supporting fins, which are driven by the piston 27 before the shearing machine closes (Figure 6).
The blades 26, with the shearing machine 25 open, form the lower support of the envelope 20.
When the pushing frame 24 finishes its stroke, the lower part 25′ of the shearing machine 25 starts rising and the blades 26 shrink into the configuration shown in Figure 7.
The shorn envelope 20 drops onto the conveyor belt 30 while the scrap 28 goes to the cutter 29 which cuts it step by step causing it to drop onto the conveyor belt 30 and then into the tub 21.
The workmen take the envelope 20 from the belt 30, put them into cases and such cases are then put into the refrigerator (not shown) where the soap bar is left for the time required to form a solid outer crust.
Turning now the attention to Figure 9, it can be observed that the system for washing the moulds 3 is housed within the housing 1.
A first electrovalve 33 is provided in the pipe 32 connected to the vacuum pump 4, for the operation of the pump itself, together with a valve 34 that puts the washing system into action.
A small basin 35 full of water is arranged within the thermostated housing 1 so that water is always at a temperature of about 45°C.
Should the film become pierced, soap, which immediately solidifies, would block the holes for vacuum in the moulds 3, so that it would be necessary to disassemble the whole apparatus.
On the contrary, the pump 4 can be isolated with the washing system by acting on the valve 34, and water is delivered through the valve 36 and the pipes 37 to the mould 3.
Once the pipes 37 are filled with hot water, it is possible to act through the valve 36, by closing the same, and through the valve 38, opening it, for conveying pressurized air from the pipe 39 to the moulds 3. Thus any material comes out of the device by passing through the small holes of the moulds 3, so that the occlusion is removed.
The vacuum pump 4 can be excluded by means of the valve 40.
The washing system is operated manually.
On the contrary, the operation of the machine is controlled by a processor.
This invention has been disclosed with specific reference to some preferred embodiments of the same, but it is to be understood that modifications and/or changes can be introduced by those who are skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention for which a priority right is claimed.

Claims

A machine for the production of soap bars made up of a transparent soap, said machine being characterized in that it comprises a first metering and product forming zone comprising means for suction of the liquid soap and means for conveying the same into the half-moulds, means for injecting liquid soap into said half-moulds, means for feeding the film making up the envelope between the half-moulds, means for heating said film up to the softening temperature, means for forming the envelope inside said half-moulds, and means for welding said two half-envelopes obtained within said halfmoulds after injection of the product, said first zone being thermostated; a second zone for the forward motion and the mechanical-pneumatic centering that comprises .means for the cutting the film into stripes, means for guiding and driving the materiale and means for centering the same; a third zone for shearing said envelopes which comprises means for feeding said envelopes into said shearing zone, cold-shearing means as well as means for removing the product so shorn; a fourth zone for cutting the scraps which comprises means for cold-cutting said scraps and means for their removal; and a fifth zone where the product so obtained is cooled; the operation of the machine being completely determined and coordinated through the intervention of a processor.
A machine according to claim 1, characterized in that said two half-moulds have at least two shells for producing two rows of products.
A machine according to claim 2, characterized in that six shells are provided in each half-mould for producing six rows of products.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that each one of said shells is so shaped as to show lines converging toward the centre of the product.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that said means for suction of liquid soap and for conveying the same consist of a thermostated injection pump having pairs of electrovalves for suction of soap and conveying the same which are equal in number to the mould shells.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that said film is made up of a PVC/PE coupled layer which can be removed by peeling and is 250/50 micron thick.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that said means for injecting liquid soap into the half-moulds are made up of oval cross-section small tubes.
A machine according to claim 7, characterized in that said small tubes begin injection at the point corresponding to the bottom of the moulds, and they rise while the injection goes on.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that a valve is provided on topo of each injector, said valve preventing the product from dropping when the machine is not in the injection phase.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the operation of forming the envelope as a film inside the closed half-moulds is performed by means of the vacuum generated by a vacuum pump.
A machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the two half-envelopes obtained and filled are welded through heat welding.
A machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a system for washing the moulds themselves is provided in the circuit that connects the vacuum pump to the half-moulds.
A machine according to claim 11, characterized in that said system for washing the moulds comprises a valve for excluding the vacuum circuit transitorily, as well as means for conveying water and pressurized air into the connection pipes to the moulds.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the operation of cutting the film into a number of stripes equal to he number of shells provided in the half-moulds is performed by means of circular blades, the film being forced to follow a bend during its forward motion after the cutting operation.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the operation of feeding the containers to the welding zone is performed by means of horizontal supporting pairs which are driven pneumatically, and which arrange below a stripe, on the sides of the container, taking it into the shearing zone and supporting the same till the beginning of the shearing operation.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means for the removal of the product so shorn and of the scraps so cut are made up of a single conveyor belt.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the product is introduced into the cooling zone in the vertical position, putting the part corresponding to the product injection zone into the envelope at the top part.
A machine according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterized in that the product is put into cases before inserting the same into the cooling zone.