Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B3/00—Packaging plastic material, semiliquids, liquids or mixed solids and liquids, in individual containers or receptacles, e.g. bags, sacks, boxes, cartons, cans, or jars
  • B65B3/02—Machines characterised by the incorporation of means for making the containers or receptacles
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B3/00—Packaging plastic material, semiliquids, liquids or mixed solids and liquids, in individual containers or receptacles, e.g. bags, sacks, boxes, cartons, cans, or jars
  • B65B3/02—Machines characterised by the incorporation of means for making the containers or receptacles
  • B65B3/022—Making containers by moulding of a thermoplastic material
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B67—OPENING, CLOSING OR CLEANING BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; LIQUID HANDLING
  • B67C—CLEANING, FILLING WITH LIQUIDS OR SEMILIQUIDS, OR EMPTYING, OF BOTTLES, JARS, CANS, CASKS, BARRELS, OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; FUNNELS
  • B67C7/00—Concurrent cleaning, filling, and closing of bottles; Processes or devices for at least two of these operations
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B67—OPENING, CLOSING OR CLEANING BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; LIQUID HANDLING
  • B67C—CLEANING, FILLING WITH LIQUIDS OR SEMILIQUIDS, OR EMPTYING, OF BOTTLES, JARS, CANS, CASKS, BARRELS, OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; FUNNELS
  • B67C7/00—Concurrent cleaning, filling, and closing of bottles; Processes or devices for at least two of these operations
  • B67C7/0006—Conveying; Synchronising
  • B67C7/002—General lay-out of bottle-handling machines
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B67—OPENING, CLOSING OR CLEANING BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; LIQUID HANDLING
  • B67C—CLEANING, FILLING WITH LIQUIDS OR SEMILIQUIDS, OR EMPTYING, OF BOTTLES, JARS, CANS, CASKS, BARRELS, OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; FUNNELS
  • B67C3/00—Bottling liquids or semiliquids; Filling jars or cans with liquids or semiliquids using bottling or like apparatus; Filling casks or barrels with liquids or semiliquids
  • B67C3/02—Bottling liquids or semiliquids; Filling jars or cans with liquids or semiliquids using bottling or like apparatus
  • B67C3/22—Details
  • B67C2003/227—Additional apparatus related to blow-moulding of the containers, e.g. a complete production line forming filled containers from preforms

Definitions

• the present invention relates to improvements made to online bottling plants comprising essentially a unit for manufacturing containers, in particular bottles, made of thermoplastic material, a unit for filling the above-mentioned containers and a unit for conveying containers from be manufactured interposed between the outlet of the aforementioned container manufacturing unit and the inlet of the aforementioned container filling unit.
• the travel device has been produced in the form of a very large conveyor of developed length, which can reach 500 m, or even more, which may correspond to a volume of several thousand containers.
• the empty container is easily deformable and, if it strikes an obstacle (for example a previous container stopped or moved less quickly), it can itself suffer and / or cause damage to the previous container, for example a deformation such as depression in the shoulder; this may result in a loss of symmetry of the container which may cause it to tilt by compared to the vertical for example and such a container is no longer able to be properly gripped in the filling unit, which causes a malfunction of the latter.
• Unacceptable deformation of the same kind can also affect containers transported over long distances between geographically distant units.
• the invention proposes an on-line bottling installation as mentioned in the preamble which, being arranged in accordance with the invention, is essentially characterized in that the unit for manufacturing the containers and the unit for filling containers are arranged as close as possible to each other and the conveyor unit has a short length and is arranged to move the containers one after the other without the containers being subjected to significant shocks especially against each other.
• the surface occupied by the conveying unit is reduced considerably; the cost of the material constituting the conveying unit and the cost of setting up this installation are therefore also considerably reduced.
• the risks of operating incident of this conveyor unit and the maintenance costs are lower.
• the installation and operating costs of the conveying unit are made all the lower as the distance separating the outlet from the container manufacturing unit and the inlet from the filling is less.
• the short transport distance of the containers also makes it possible to arrange the conveyor in any desired manner. It is possible to keep an air jet conveying structure which can then, being given the short distance to be traveled, be adjusted to move the containers with a speed corresponding to the operating speeds of the manufacturing unit and of the filling unit, and in any case this speed is considerably lower than that practiced in long conveyors currently used. Under these conditions, even if the containers collide, the shocks do not have a violence capable of causing their deformation. This eliminates a cause of malfunction of the filling unit.
• the duration of the transfer of the containers from the outlet of the manufacturing unit to the inlet of the filling unit is short: this considerably reduces the risk of internal pollution of the containers before their introduction into the filling unit and it becomes possible to dispense with the prior rinsing machine which was necessary until now. This again results in a substantial saving in material, in place, in washing liquid and in maintenance, and therefore a significant financial saving.
• the short transport distance also makes it possible to implement, under conditions of acceptable installation and operating cost, a mechanical transporter capable of moving the containers while maintaining them at a step from predetermined spacing, for example an endless chain and gripper conveyor; it is then easy to ensure that the containers are gripped at the outlet of the manufacturing unit and evacuated at a speed substantially identical to the speed at which the manufacturing unit delivers the finished containers, and likewise it is easy to ensure that the containers are presented at the inlet of the filling unit with a speed substantially identical to that of operation of the filling unit. It is therefore advantageous to provide synchronization means capable of synchronizing the respective operating speeds of the manufacturing unit, the conveying unit and the filling unit. It is also advantageous that the spacing steps of the containers at the outlet of the manufacturing unit, during movement in the processing unit conveying and entering the filling unit are substantially equal.
• the short conveying length of the containers may however cause a drawback in the event of malfunction even of short duration of the filling unit (whether a problem affecting the filling unit itself or, more frequently, an incident occurring downstream of it, for example at the labeling station or at the packaging station). Indeed, the absence of a temporary storage capacity for containers between the manufacturing unit and the filling unit should lead to the simultaneous shutdown of the manufacturing unit.
• the installation is arranged in such a way that, when the filling unit is stopped, the manufacturing unit can continue to operate temporarily so that, before the manufacturing unit is stopped at in turn, the heating oven (or ovens) is emptied to avoid the aforementioned drawbacks and / or that a reserve of completed containers is created to facilitate the return to operation of the installation, as explained below.
• the installation conforms the invention may further comprise a temporary container holding unit which is selectively connectable to the conveying unit and which is arranged to receive and retain a number of containers. It is then advantageous for the retaining unit to also be arranged so that the movement of the containers one after the other takes place without said containers being subjected to significant shocks.
• the manufacturing unit comprises at least one preform heating oven located upstream of a device for molding hot preforms
• the retaining capacity of the retaining unit is approximately equal to the number of containers present simultaneously in the heating oven, so that, in the event of the filling unit being stopped, the manufacturing unit can be kept in operation until the heating oven is emptied
• the retaining capacity of the retaining means is approximately equal to the number of recipients present simultaneously in the manufacturing unit between the inlet of the first oven and outlet of the last oven, so that, if the filling unit stops, the manufacturing unit can be kept in operation until all the heating ovens are emptied.
• the retaining capacity of the retaining means is approximately equal to the number of containers present simultaneously in the entire manufacturing unit, so that, in filling unit shutdown, ⁇ the manufacturing unit can be maintained in operation until it is completely emptied.
• the presence of a container holding unit within the installation may also be desirable to facilitate the operation of the installation.
• the furnace (or furnaces) for heating the manufacturing unit did not have the time to cool significantly and the container manufacturing unit can then restart substantially instantaneously, at the same time as the filling unit.
• the heating furnace is appreciably cooled and a time of preheating must be envisaged before the manufacturing unit can be in a state to produce again finished containers , while the filling unit is ready for immediate operation.
• the container retaining unit and to provide that the capacity thereof is at least equal to the number of containers necessary for the operation of the filling unit, during delivery. in operation of the installation, for a time necessary for the production unit to start up (heating time).
• the retaining unit comprises an open loop conveyor selectively connectable by its inlet end and / or by its outlet end to the conveyor unit and having a length making it suitable for receiving the aforesaid containers arranged one after the other.
• a retaining unit thus arranged can be compact enough not to cause excessive cost.
• the selective connection of the aforementioned conveyor with the conveyor unit can be carried out using means between the conveyor unit and the inlet end of the retaining unit and between the conveyor unit and the outlet end of the retaining unit.
• referral means are not functionally active during the time of their switching from one position to another - that is to say that they are not then capable of guiding, to the appropriate destination , containers which would appear during this switching time, provision can advantageously be made, to avoid any operational incident, for the containers monitoring during this switching time to be ejected from the circuit by means of ejection means. containers associated with said referral means.
• the short length of the conveying unit can cause difficulty in cooling the containers which have just been manufactured and which leave the manufacturing unit while still being notably hot.
• the cooling of the containers has taken place between the output from the manufacturing unit and their introduction into the filling unit, either because of their intermediate storage, or because of the length of the intermediate conveyor.
• the short length required for the conveying unit means that the containers risk being brought still hot into the filling unit, which is not admissible for keeping it. ⁇ the qualities of the filling liquid or for holding container mechanics (deterioration, deformation, ).
• the conveying unit be associated with means for cooling at least a part, in particular at least the bottom (in general a thicker part which therefore cools naturally less quickly), outgoing containers of the manufacturing unit.
• the implementation of such cooling means which can be reduced to a simple blower, may not result in a significant additional cost of installation and maintenance.
• an installation arranged in accordance with the invention eliminates, by the very fact of its compactness, the numerous drawbacks of previous installations and it proves to be particularly advantageous from a financial point of view, whether for the material used, for its location, for its operation and for its maintenance.
• the invention will be better understood on reading the detailed description which follows of certain embodiments given solely by way of non-limiting examples. In this description, reference is made to the appended drawings in which:
• FIG. 1 illustrates very schematically an installation structure arranged in accordance with the invention
• Figure 2 illustrates another embodiment in which the installation of Figure 1 is completed by a container holding unit
• Figure 3 illustrates another embodiment in which the installation of Figure 2 is completed by a number of ancillary devices.
• the installation shown in FIG. 1 essentially comprises a unit 1 for manufacturing containers, such as bottles, made of thermoplastic material, a unit 2 for filling said containers, and a unit 3 for conveying containers manufactured from outlet 4 of the 'manufacturing unit 1 to the inlet 5 of the filling unit.
• Manufacturing unit 1 can be of any type suitable for the manufacture of containers, such as bottles, of thermoplastic material such as polyethylene terephthalate PET, polyethylene naphthalate PEN or others. It receives, at its entry, preforms of amorphous material from a unit 7 for supplying preforms.
• the unit 7 may consist of a hopper 8 receiving bulk preforms produced by pre-molding and in another location, which hopper is connected to the inlet 6 by a sorter 9 which isolates and positions the preforms on a slide 10 connected to the input 6 of the manufacturing unit (supply of cold preforms) as shown in FIG. 1.
• the unit 7 can also consist of the preform molding unit itself which delivers the preforms which have just been molded and still hot directly at input 6 of the manufacturing unit (supply of hot preforms).
• the processing of the preforms within the manufacturing unit can be arbitrary and adapted to the type of containers to be produced (single or double blowing, single or multiple heat treatment, etc.).
• FIG. 1 is reproduced, for reasons of simplicity and clarity, a simple treatment of the preforms which are mounted at 11 on a transfer chain 12, then heated in the procession in a tunnel oven 13 before being taken up at 14 to be introduced hot into a multi-mold blowing or stretch-blowing device 15 arranged on a carousel.
• the containers which have just been produced are presented at the outlet 4 of the manufacturing unit 1.
• the containers received at the inlet 5 of the filling unit 2 are placed on a drum filling device turning 16 from where, once filled, they are extracted and presented to a corking device 17.
• the filled and capped containers are then evacuated through the outlet 18 of the filling unit 2, to a labeling station and then a packing station (not shown).
• the container manufacturing unit 1 and the filling unit 2 are arranged as close as possible to each other so that the distance between the outlet 4 of the first and the inlet 5 of the second is also as low as possible.
• the conveyor unit 3 which extends from the above outlet 4 to the above inlet 5 is therefore short and the containers of the conveyor unit 3 are introduced into the filling unit 2 directly, without passing by means of a washing device which has become useless due to the now very reduced risk of internal pollution of the containers.
• the conveying unit 3 can certainly be of the air jet type like the very long conveyor devices used in current installations, but it can also be carried out under economically acceptable conditions. in the form of a conveyor device with an endless chain, for example with grippers, which is capable of transporting the containers with a constant spacing step.
• a filling unit can currently be supplied with containers to be filled from a single container manufacturing unit, which means that a single conveying unit is to be provided for joining together . This therefore results in a considerable simplification of the general design of the installation and greater compactness for a given production rate.
• a temporary retention unit 19 which is arranged to receive, temporarily retain and restore a certain number of containers. It is desirable that the retaining unit is also arranged so that the movement of the containers one after the other takes place without the said containers being subjected to significant shocks.
• the manufacturing unit continues to operate after a stop of the filling unit so as to complete, at least, a heating cycle in progress.
• the manufacturing unit comprises at least one preform heating oven located upstream of a device for molding hot preforms
• provision is made for the capacity to retention of the holding unit is approximately equal to the number of containers present simultaneously in the heating oven, so that, in the event of the filling unit being stopped, the manufacturing unit can be kept in operation until the heating oven is emptied.
• the manufacturing unit comprises several heating ovens located upstream from respective molding devices, it is expected that the retaining capacity of the retaining unit is approximately equal to the number of containers present simultaneously in the production between the inlet of the first oven and the outlet of the last oven, so that, in the event of the filling unit being shut down, the manufacturing unit can be kept in operation until all of the heating are drained.
• a large-capacity manufacturing unit contains an order of magnitude of about 500 containers being processed at various stages; the body of a completed container having a diameter of about 10 cm, the line of these containers joined against each other has a length of about 50 meters.
• the retaining unit 19 may comprise a conveyor 20 extending in an open loop between an inlet 21 and an outlet 22 which are selectively switchable on the conveyor unit 3.
• the open loop formed by the conveyor 20 has a specific developed length to receive the aforementioned number of containers, which can reach several hundred for the largest manufacturing units.
• the retaining unit has sufficient capacity to be able to '' supply the filling unit which is put back into operation first, while waiting for the preheating to end.
• these referral means have a response time and are not able to safely guide the containers during their switching phase. To avoid any incident in the event of the arrival of containers during this switching phase, provision is made, as shown in FIG.
• container ejection means for example a cleat across the feed corridor, designated at 24 in FIG. 3, upstream of the furnace (s) heating of the manufacturing unit, to eject or stop the containers (preforms, intermediate containers) which are brought to the oven (s) while the filling unit is no longer in operation.
• ejection means or stop means for example a cleat across the feed corridor, designated at 24 in FIG. 3, upstream of the furnace (s) heating of the manufacturing unit, to eject or stop the containers (preforms, intermediate containers) which are brought to the oven (s) while the filling unit is no longer in operation.
• the manufacturing unit being then still maintained in service to complete the containers during manufacture as specified above, it is thus ensured that no new preform or new intermediate container is introduced into the oven (s).
• cooling 25 all or part, and especially the bottom, of the containers leaving the manufacturing unit.
• the cooling means 25 can be located at the outlet of the manufacturing unit, or even extend to the inlet of the filling unit if necessary.
• These cooling means can be produced in any suitable way, from a simple blower transverse to the conveyor, inexpensive, to a tunnel type equipment with blowing cold air or cold gas countercurrent to the circulation of the containers. , more efficient but more expensive.

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

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• 1995
  • 1995-03-23 FR FR9503428A patent/FR2732002B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 1996
  • 1996-03-20 DE DE69601495T patent/DE69601495T2/de not_active Revoked
  • 1996-03-20 ES ES96908157T patent/ES2130806T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1996-03-20 CN CN96192770A patent/CN1094866C/zh not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1996-03-20 MX MXPA97007262A patent/MXPA97007262A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 1996-03-20 BR BR9607881A patent/BR9607881A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1996-03-20 JP JP8528136A patent/JPH11502175A/ja active Pending
  • 1996-03-20 KR KR1019970706575A patent/KR100356306B1/ko not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1996-03-20 AT AT96908157T patent/ATE176432T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1996-03-20 US US08/913,929 patent/US5996322A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1996-03-20 EP EP96908157A patent/EP0815009B1/de not_active Revoked
  • 1996-03-20 DK DK96908157T patent/DK0815009T3/da active
  • 1996-03-20 CA CA002217393A patent/CA2217393C/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1996-03-20 WO PCT/FR1996/000416 patent/WO1996029245A1/fr active IP Right Grant
  • 1996-03-20 AU AU51500/96A patent/AU706011B2/en not_active Ceased
• 1999
  • 1999-04-07 GR GR990401015T patent/GR3029923T3/el unknown

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