GB1589421A - Device for charging and sealing pouches - Google Patents

Description

(54) DEVICE FOR CHARGING AND SEALING POUCHES (71) We, Tovo SEILAN KAISHA LIMITED, of Saiwai Building, 3-1 Uchisaiwaicho 1-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100, Japan and Tovo SHOK UHIN KIKAI KABU SHIES KAISHA of 20-17 Yako 6-Chome, Tsurumi-ku, Tokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture 230, Japan, both Japanese Companies, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement : This invention relates to apparatus for filling and sealing bags, for example retortable pouches.

As a means of filling flat bags with food or the like and then sealing the mouths of the bags, it is known to provide an endless conveyor provided with an appropriate number of bottom plates having guides in such a manner as to rotate intermittently in the vertical plane, a vacuum hood being provided free for vertical movement in the central part of the upper region of the conveyor, while in-feed devices and expelling devices for carrier units which grip filled bags are provided on both sides, bags filled with food or the like being fed by means of an in-feed endless conveyor to below the vacuum hood on guides on the bottom plate by the in-feed device, exhaustion of air being carried out by lowering the vacuum hood onto the bottom nlate while the mouths of the bags are sealed, the vacuum hood then being raised and the bottom plate moved to the region of the expelling device so that the carrier units can be expelled.

(Laid-open Patent Application No. Sho.

51-36388).

However, with this method, as it is necessary that the vacuum chamber should be formed by descent of the vacuum hood itself onto the bottom plate and the hood is provided with sealing devices and devices for effecting a gripping operation, and it is also necessary that there should be intermittent feed means of the bottom plate, the scale and structure become very complicated and speeding-up of the operation of lowering the vacuum hood onto the bottom plate is very difficult. This also gives rise to a risk of breaking of the nichrome sealing wire.

Moreover, as the bags are supplied to the guides of the bottom plate, the vacuum hood in-feed device and the expelling device with their flat surfaces in the same plane, there are the disadvantages that the scale becomes large and that the efficiency of the vacuum sealing treatment is reduced.

The present invention seeks to provide an apparatus for filling and sealing bags, from which, with suitable arrangement, some or all of the disadvantages of the prior arrangements are lacking or are substantially reduced. Accordingly the invention provides apparatus for product-filling and closing flexible bags, which comprises a plurality of carrier members each arranged for holding a predetermined number of the bags, support means defining a horizontal path for movement of the carrier members therealong, drive means to effect such movement, a plurality of first stations disposed at an upstream part of the support means for product-filling bags caused by said drive means to move along said path through open mouths at the top of the bags, and a vacuum sealing chamber disposed at a further part of the support means downstream of the first stations for evacuating the filled bags and heat-sealing them closed after evacuation, the vacuum sealing chamber comprising an exacuable enclosure through which the support means extends, heat-sealing means disposed within the enclosure above the path and adapted to heat-seal closed the mouths of bags presented to it, and entry and exit shutters respectively operable to allow the carrier members to enter and leave the enclosure, the supnort means within the vacuum sealing chamber being vertically movable for lifting carrier members thereon from the said Dath and into a raised position at which the heat-sealing means may be effective on the mouths of the bags carried by the carrier members.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood an apparatus embodying the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a plan view of one of the pouch carrier units of the apparatus, as seen when loaded with pouches and preparatory to pouch filling; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the carrier unit of Fig. 1, as seen generally on a central longitudinal section and with the pouches omitted for clarity; Fig. 3 is a detail of the carrier unit as seen in transverse section; Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of part of the carrier unit as shown in Fig. 2; Figs. 5(a) and 5(b) show mouth of one of the pouches on the carrier unit, as it appears during the stages of the pouch filling and sealing operation depicted in Figs.

4 and 6 respectively; Fig. 6 is a scrap view of the part of the carricr unit shown in Fig. 4, but at the stage of the pouch filling and sealing operation corrcsponding to Fig. 5(b); Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 but showing the carrier unit during evacuation of its pouches prior to sealing; Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the apparatus showing its general arrangement; Fig. 9 is a scrap view of part of the apparatus; Fig. 10 is a plan view of the part of the apparatus which assemblers the carrier units into groups and delivers them for pouch sealing; Fig. 11 shows the vacuum sealing chamber forming part of the apparatus, as seen in sectional side elevation; Fig. 12 shows the vacuum sealing chamber in sectional end elevation; Fig. 13 shows part of the vacuum sealing chamber in sectional plan view;; Fig. 13(a) is a scrap view taken in section on the line Xlll-Xlll of Fig. 13; and Fig. 14 is a plan view of the part of the apparatus which removes the carrier units from the vacuum scaling chamber.

Referring now to the drawings. the apparatus has elongate carrier units 1 (Figs.

1 to 7) each having two carriers 2 arranged side-by-sidc for carrying respective retort ablc pouches A. Each carrier has a pair of grippers, the inncrmost grippcrs of the unit being denoted 4' and the outermost grippers, disposed adjacent the ends of the unlit, being denoted 4. Each gripper in turn has two opposed jaws 3. 3' of which the jaw 3' is movable towards and away from the jaw 3 transversely of the unit to grip or release a pouch between the jaws as is later to be described. In addition, the grippers 4 are mounted by guides 6 on a base 5 for sliding movement longitudinally of the unit 1, being biassed outwardly (i.e. away from the associated grippers 4') by tension springs 7.

Each grippcr 4 has a detent 8 which is engageable by a stop lever 9 so as to hold the gripper in either a retracted position or in an advanced position adjacent the associated gripper 4', as is later to be described.

The stop lever is pivotally mounted on the base 5 and rcsiliently biassed to its operative position by a spring 9'.

Support for the carrier units 1 during their movement through the apparatus is provided in general by a pair of parallel and horizontal slide guides 10 in which support members 11 secured below the ends of the units are slidingly engaged. Projections 11' extend downwardly from the support mem- bers for the purpose later to become apparent. The guides are interrupted at a vacuum sealing chamber 13 later to be described.

The carrier units are fed onto the guides 10 at regular intervals by means not shown.

At the beginning of their passage through the apparatus they are moved along the guides at regular spacing and parallel relationship by an intermittent transfer device 13. (See Fig 8).

The device 13 has a feed plate 15 mounted below the path of the carrier units as they pass along the guides 10. The plate carries dogs 14 (Fig 9) mounted at the appropriate spacing along its length, the dogs being pivotally mounted and biassed into carrier unit-engaging, upwardly extending positions by springs 14'. The plate is longitudinally reciprocable by a device 16 mounted beneath it, so as with each forward movement to advance the units through a predetermined distance by means of the dogs 14. On the return strokes of the plate the dogs are retracted by sliding engagement with the undersides of the carrier units above them.

As shown in Fig 8, corresponding to the positions successively adopted by each unit 1 as it moves intermittently in this way along the guides 10 are a pouch supply device 100, a pouch opening device 101, a pouch inspection device 102, first and second solid matter filling devices 103 and 103', a liquid filling device 104, and a pouch closing device 105. These devices are arranged in sequence generally above the guides 10 for operation as follows on the pouches carried beneath them by the units ].

Let it be assumed that a carrier unit 1 fed into the guides 10 at the left hand of the apparatus (as shown in Fig. 8) has arrived and stopped below the pouch supply device 100. A release lever (not shown) forming part of the supply device engages the movable jaw 3' of each of the grippers 4, 4' so as to open the grippers and so allow a pair of flat retort pouches A to fall from a magazine (not shown) in between the grippers of respective ones of the carriers 2.When the pouches have fallen to a predetermined position within the carriers, the release lever is retracted so that each retort pouch is gripped at the top ends of its side edges by the respective pair of grippers 4, 4' (Fig 5(a)), and the unit 1, which is then as depicted in Figs 4 and 5(a), is moved by the intermittent transfer device 13 to the pouch opening device 101.

At the pouch opening device 101 opening cams 8' (Fig. 4, 6) provided as part of the pouch opening device push the grippers 4 of each carrier 2 inwardly against the action of the springs 7, thus allowing the stop levers 9 to be biassed by the springs 9' into engagement with the rear ends of the detents 8 (see Fig 6) so as to retain the gripers 4 temporarily in their advanced positions.

(Previously the grippers 4 had been in retarded poistions in which forward parts of the detents 8 had been engaged by the stop levers 8 as shown in Fig 4). At the same time both the side walls of each pouch are engaged in known fashion by vacuum heads (not shown) with the result that, as depicted in Fig 5(b), the pouch mouth, located at the top of the pouch, is opened.

Next, with the pouches still held open the carrier unit under consideration is moved by the intermittent transfer device 13 to the pouch inspection device 102. After the pouches have been checked for any abnormality in the device 102, the carrier unit moves on through successive devices 103, 103' by which the pouches are filled with solid matter as desired, and thence onto the liquid filling device 104 which fills the pouches with liquid. The filled pouches are then carried by the carrier unit to the pouch closing device 105 for closing.

At the pouch closing device, the stop levers 9 of the grippers 4 are operated by a closing cam 8" (Fig 6) forming part of the pouch closing device. The levers 9 are thus released from the detents 8 so that the grippers 4 can move outwardly away from their associated grippers 4' under the action of the springs 7, thus closing the mouths of the pouches. With the pouches in this condition the carrier unit is passed to the vacuum sealing chamber 113 for pouch sealing as is later to be described. To that end the sealing chamber has guides 17 capable of forming continuations of the guides 10. The guides 17 are vertically reciprocable by air cylinders 18 between a lowered poistion in which they are in alignment with the guides 10 and a raised position in which the pouches A on the carrier units are presented for heat sealing.

Before the carrier units move off the guides 10 and pass on to the guides 17 of the vacuum sealing chamber they are formed into groups of a predetermined number by an infeed device 21. As can be seen from Fig 10 in conjunction with Fig 8, the device 21 is provided with pairs of upstream and downstream feed plates 24, 24' having respective dogs 23, 23' (see also Fig 3) at their trailing ends. The dogs 23, 23' are similar to the dogs 14 of the plate 15, being likewise pivotally mounted and biassed upwardly by springs 22, 22' so as to project above the top surface of the respective feed plates 24, 24' for operation, but to be forced into recesses when they pass in the upstream direction under the carrier units 1.

The feed plates 24, 24' are arranged for fore and aft reciprocating movement by means of air cylinders 25, 25' operating through racks 26, 26' and co-operating pinions 27, 27'. The arrangement is such and the air cylinders so controlled that the upstream plates 24 operate to abut and deliver a predetermined number of the carrier units 1. When these have been pushed into the vacuum sealing chamber 113, the down- stream plates are operated to positively feed the carrier units on to the guides 17 of the vacuum sealing chamber.

Figs 11 to 13 show the arrangement of the vacuum sealing chamber. From those Figures together with Fig 8 it will be seen that vertically slidable, simultaneously operable shutters 12 are provided for the chamber at its input and output ends.

Either inside or, as shown, outside the vacuum sealing chamber there is provided a removal device 28 (Fig 8) arranged to deliver a plurality of carrier units from the guides 17 of the vacuum sealing chamber and onto the guides 10 at the output end of the vacuum sealing chamber.

The removal device 28 is shown in detail in Fig 14. It has a pair of air cylinders 29 each having an abutment claw or dog 31 mounted on the end of its push-rod 30 and biassed upwardly by a spring (not shown). When the cylinders are extended the dogs engage behind the projections 11' of the support elements 11 of the last one of a predetermined number of the carrier units 1 in the vacuum chamber. Retraction of the air cylinders 29 then withdraws the predetermined number of carrier units from the guides 17 and passes them into the guides 10 for subsequent emptying of the carrier units of pouches, and return of the empty carrier units to the upstream end of the apparatus. During extension of the air cylinders 29 as described above the dogs 31 adopt retracted, non-operative positions.

At the sides of the vacuum sealing chamber (in relation to the movement of the carrier units through the apparatus) there are provided gripper pushing devices 34 (Fig. 12) comprising air cylinders 32 having pushing plates 33 fixed at the ends of their piston rods. When the guides 17 are raised, these pushing plates 33 are operated to move inwards, thereby pressing on the outer grippers 4 of each of the carrier units 1 which at the time in question are located in the vacuum sealing chamber and so, by slightly reducing the separation of the grippers 4, 4' of each carrier unit, opening the mouth of the pouches A on the unit to facilitate the air exhaustion operation.On this occasion the inward pressure exerted on the grippers 4 is less than that required to enable the stop levers 9 to engage behind the stops 8, with the result that when the pushing plates 33 are subsequently retracted the grippers 4 are free to be returned to their former positions by the springs 7.

Bag sealing devices 19 are arranged in the upper region of the vacuum sealing chamber 113, one for each carrier unit 1.

As can be seen from Figs 11, 12, and, in particular, Figs 13 and 13(a), each device 19 has a sealing member 36 faced by a nichrome plate 35, and a seal-receiving member 38 faced by a rubber pad 37. The members 36 are mounted in parallel relation along a pair of common connecting rods 39; likewise, the members 38 are mounted in parallel on a pair of coupling rods 40. However, whereas the members 36 are rigidly attached to the rods 39, the members 38 are attached to the rods 40 so as to provide resilience for their co-operation with the members 36.

]n operation, empty carrier units 1 supplied by suitable means to the upstream end of the guides 10 are intermittently moved along the apparatus, one at a time, by the abutment claws 14 of the feed plate 15. During successive dwell periods of the feed plate each carrier unit is subjected to or,er.ltions to achieve supply, opening, in specton, filling and closing of the pouches.

After moving off the feed plate the carrier units are assembled by the infeed device 21 into groups of a predetermined number.

The members 36, 38 are arranged alternately along the chamber 113 so as to form the individual sealing devices 19, each of which has its nichrome plate 35 and rubber pad 37 arranged in opposition for receiving the two pouches A of a carrier unit 1 between them.

The rods 39, 40 are simultaneously reciprocable in opposite senses by air cylinders 41. Thus, when a group of the predetermined number of carrier units 1 has been formed, the doors 12 of the vacuum sealing chamber 113 are opened, and then the first set of feed levers 24 of the infeed device 21 are operated, their abutment claws 23 abutting the ]ast one of the predetermined number of carrier units and delivering the predetermined number of carrier units onto the guides 17 in the vacuum sealing chamber 113. By this feeding operation, the predetermined number of carrier units 1 which were already in the vacuum sealing chamber 113 on the guides 17 are expelled from the vacuum sealing chamber and pass onto the guides 10.Next, the second set of feed levers 24' operate, their abutment claws 23' positively feeding the last one of the carrier units 1 of the new group into the vacuum sealing chamber, - thereby ensuring that the carrier units of the new group are positioned on the guides 17.

When the predetermined number of carrier units 1 have been received in the vacuum sealing chamber 113 in this way, the doors 12 are closed and the vacuum scaling chamber is exhausted. The guides 17 are then raised so as to bring the openings of the pouches A in each of the carrier units 1 into a raised position between the sealing member 36 and the seal-receiving member 38 of a respective one of the bagsealing devices 19. Subsequently, the gripper pushing devices 34 are operated so that the outer grinDers 4 are pushed inwardly by the pushing plates 33 as previously mentioned, thus slightly opening the mouths of the pouches to allow exhaustion of air therefrom.After the pushing plates 33 have been retracted to their original positions, the pouch sealing devices 19 are operated to effect pinch-sealing of the mouths of the pouches by co-operation of the plates 35 and pads 37 of the sealing members 36 and the seal-receiving members 38 respectively.

When the mouths of the pouches have been sealed in this way, the air cylinders 41 are retracted and the guides 17 are returned to their lowered position. The doors 12 are then opened, and a fresh batch of the carrier units 1 is fed into the vacuum sealing chamber 113 as described above.

By this infeed operation the batch of carrier units already in the chamber 113 is delivered onto the guides 10 at the exit end of the chamber. The air cylinders 29 of the removal device 28 are then extended to bring the abutment claws 31 of the push rods 30 into engagement with the abutment projections 11' of the carrier unit at the rear of the first batch, and subsequent retraction of the air cylinders separates the carrier units of the first batch from those of the following batch and pushes them in a positive manner along the guides 10.

Although not apparent from the drawings, the jaws 3, 3' of the grippers 4, 4' of the carrier units of the first batch are subsequently released to allow the pouches which they carry to drop down for recovery and collection, and the empty carrier units themselves are fitted for re-use onto the upstream end of the guides 10 by suitable means.

In the described embodiment presentation of the pouches for sealing is effected by upwards movement of the guides 17 from alignment with the guides 10 by which the pouches are carried through the apparatus. Consequently, in contrast to the previous devices, a loss of speed of the treatment operation due to the complexity of the construction of the vacuum sealing chamber necessary to allow for upward and downward movement of the feed to the vacuum sealing chamber or of the bag sealing devices and of the construction of the feed mechanism for the carrier units is not experienced. In fact, the construction of the vacuum sealing chamber and the feed mechanism for the carrier units can be made very simple. The feed operation of the carrier units and the exhaust-sealing operation can be carried out very rapidly and smoothly.Since the air-exhaust operation is accelerated by the slight opening of the mouths of the bags by the gripper pushing devices 34 prior to sealing of the mouths of the bags, the air-exhaust sealing can be carried out smoothly and positively.

Furthermore, the independently movable nature of the carrier units enables sealing to be carried out simultaneously on a large number of the carrier units whilst allowing the carrier units to be treated individually, at regular intervals, for the various filling operations. Moreover, as the carrier units are so constructed that the flat faces of the bags face their direction of advance, the pouch handling capacity of the vacuum sealing chamber is further increased, and the operations of filling and sealing can be performed very rapidly and with high efficiency.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. Apparatus for product-filling and closing flexible bags, which comprises a plurality of carrier members each arranged for holding a predetermined number of the bags, support means defining a horizontal path for movement of the carrier members therealong, drive means to effect such movement, a plurality of first stations disposed at an upstream part of the support means for product-filling bags caused by said drive means to move along said path through open mouths at the top of the bags, and a vacuum sealing chamber disposed at a further part of the support means downstream of the first stations for evacuating the filled bags and heat-sealing them closed after evacuation, the vacuum sealing chamber comprising an evacuable enclosure through which the support means extends, heat-sealing means disposed within the enclosure above the path and adapted to heat-seal closed the mouths of bags pre sented to it, and entry and exit shutters respectively operable to allow the carrier members to enter and leave the enclosure, the support means within the vacuum sealing chamber being vertically movable for lifting carrier members thereon from the said path and into a raised position at which the heat-sealing means may be effective on the mouths of the bags carried by the carrier members.

2. Apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the carrier members are provided with grippers arranged for gripping the bags at each end of their mouths, the support means comprising first guides, interrupted at the vacuum sealing chamber, which are arranged to support and guide the carrier members for movement along the path to and from the vacuum sealing chamber with the bags individually orientated transversely of their direction of advance, and second guides arranged for forming continuations of the first guides at the vacuum sealing chamber but which are vertically movable for lifting carrier members thereon from the path and into a raised position at which the heat-sealing means may be effective on the mouths of the bags carried by the carrier members, the apparatus further comprising an in-feed device arranged to collect the carrier members on the first guides and to feed them intermittently in groups into the vacuum sealing chamber for bag sealing, pushing devices operative upon the grippers of the carrier members when in the said raised position thereof, but prior to bag sealing, for opening the bag mouths to facilitate evacuation of the bags, and an expelling device arranged to remove the groups of carrier members in succession from the second guides after bag sealing and lowering of the carrier members to the said path, and to feed the carrier members again on to the first guides for continued movement along the path.

3. Apparatus for filling with product and sealing closed flexible bags, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (3)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. of the pouches for sealing is effected by upwards movement of the guides 17 from alignment with the guides 10 by which the pouches are carried through the apparatus. Consequently, in contrast to the previous devices, a loss of speed of the treatment operation due to the complexity of the construction of the vacuum sealing chamber necessary to allow for upward and downward movement of the feed to the vacuum sealing chamber or of the bag sealing devices and of the construction of the feed mechanism for the carrier units is not experienced. In fact, the construction of the vacuum sealing chamber and the feed mechanism for the carrier units can be made very simple. The feed operation of the carrier units and the exhaust-sealing operation can be carried out very rapidly and smoothly.Since the air-exhaust operation is accelerated by the slight opening of the mouths of the bags by the gripper pushing devices 34 prior to sealing of the mouths of the bags, the air-exhaust sealing can be carried out smoothly and positively. Furthermore, the independently movable nature of the carrier units enables sealing to be carried out simultaneously on a large number of the carrier units whilst allowing the carrier units to be treated individually, at regular intervals, for the various filling operations. Moreover, as the carrier units are so constructed that the flat faces of the bags face their direction of advance, the pouch handling capacity of the vacuum sealing chamber is further increased, and the operations of filling and sealing can be performed very rapidly and with high efficiency. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. Apparatus for product-filling and closing flexible bags, which comprises a plurality of carrier members each arranged for holding a predetermined number of the bags, support means defining a horizontal path for movement of the carrier members therealong, drive means to effect such movement, a plurality of first stations disposed at an upstream part of the support means for product-filling bags caused by said drive means to move along said path through open mouths at the top of the bags, and a vacuum sealing chamber disposed at a further part of the support means downstream of the first stations for evacuating the filled bags and heat-sealing them closed after evacuation, the vacuum sealing chamber comprising an evacuable enclosure through which the support means extends, heat-sealing means disposed within the enclosure above the path and adapted to heat-seal closed the mouths of bags pre sented to it, and entry and exit shutters respectively operable to allow the carrier members to enter and leave the enclosure, the support means within the vacuum sealing chamber being vertically movable for lifting carrier members thereon from the said path and into a raised position at which the heat-sealing means may be effective on the mouths of the bags carried by the carrier members.

2. Apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the carrier members are provided with grippers arranged for gripping the bags at each end of their mouths, the support means comprising first guides, interrupted at the vacuum sealing chamber, which are arranged to support and guide the carrier members for movement along the path to and from the vacuum sealing chamber with the bags individually orientated transversely of their direction of advance, and second guides arranged for forming continuations of the first guides at the vacuum sealing chamber but which are vertically movable for lifting carrier members thereon from the path and into a raised position at which the heat-sealing means may be effective on the mouths of the bags carried by the carrier members, the apparatus further comprising an in-feed device arranged to collect the carrier members on the first guides and to feed them intermittently in groups into the vacuum sealing chamber for bag sealing, pushing devices operative upon the grippers of the carrier members when in the said raised position thereof, but prior to bag sealing, for opening the bag mouths to facilitate evacuation of the bags, and an expelling device arranged to remove the groups of carrier members in succession from the second guides after bag sealing and lowering of the carrier members to the said path, and to feed the carrier members again on to the first guides for continued movement along the path.

3. Apparatus for filling with product and sealing closed flexible bags, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.