GB1248535A - A method of, and equipment for, cleansing and/or sterilising the filler tube in a packaging machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1,248,535. Sterilizing packaging machinery. TETRA PAK INTERNATIONAL A.B. 14 Feb., 1969 [1 March, 1968], No. 8183/69. Heading B8C, In a sterile packaging machine wherein a tubular packaging container 1 e.g. of paper, aluminium or plastics, is continuously formed and passes around a filling nozzle 2 delivering e.g. milk, and which filled container 1 is then sealed into separate filled containers, the exterior and interior of the nozzle 2 is cleansed and/or sterilized, prior to the commencement of or after termination of the packaging process, by the admission of fluid to an enclosure 13 around the nozzle defined by the stationary container 1 sealed below the nozzle 2 by a plate 3, the fluid reaching a level 18 at least as high as that 17 occupied by the milk during the packaging process. The plate 3 is sealed to the packaging container 1 by an arrangement 4 comprising an air inflatable interior seal which bears against an exterior seal, has a conical upper face facilitating drainage to a combined fluid inlet and outlet 9, and carries either an electrical or a fluid heating coil 10 provided with fluid inlet 11 and outlet pipes 12 and handles 14 and 15 and an outlet steam trap 16 when e.g. superheated steam heating is employed. In a described embodiment, cleansing and sterilization of milk suspension containing spores of Bacillus subtilis contaminent was effected by 2 % caustic soda solution heated for 10 minutes by the coil 10 containing steam at 145‹ C. and 59 p.s.i.g. inlet, and 100‹ C. and atmospheric pressure outlet conditions. Rinsing was effected by sterile distilled water at room temperature, and the efficiency of the process was then checked by determining growths in beef tea which had been incubated for seven days at 30‹ C., and swabbed on to the nozzle 2. It is stated that the exterior seal may be channel shaped and attached to the plate 3 around the bottom of the container 1 by the channel legs. The plate 3 may also comprise spaced discs with the interior seal clamped therebetween, and the heating inlet and outlet pipes 11 and 12 may have a common handle.