JP2002068146A - Sterilizing method for external face of cup container - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To get sterilizing agents uniformly attached on the outside of cup containers by using general spray nozzles which spray liquids roughly conically, and by spraying gaseous agents on a container with limited numbers of spray nozzles without forming any special gas chambers for filling the gaseous sterilizing agent. SOLUTION: To a cup container 1 gaseous sterilizing agents is sprayed roughly in cone shape at circumferential part of the bottom of the container 1 by spray nozzles 3, 4 which are located diagonally downward against the container 1 and symmetrically against the center of the container. Especially for the square-shaped container of which cross section is about square, the gaseous sterilizing agent is sprayed aiming at the two corners symmetrically located on the bottom of the container by respectively the spray nozzles 3, 4 located in the diagonal down side of the container 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for disinfecting the outer surface of a cup container by spraying a gaseous germicide, and more particularly to a cup adapted to spray a gaseous germicide onto individual containers. The present invention relates to a method for sterilizing the outer surface of a container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art While a cup-shaped container made of paper or plastic is transported while being held at a predetermined interval by a transport conveyor having a hole into which the container is inserted, the contents are filled into the container. When sealing the container opening from before, it has been customary to sterilize the inner and outer surfaces of the empty container before being sent to the filling / sealing process by the transport conveyor in advance with a sterilizing agent such as hydrogen peroxide solution. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 9-58632 and 9-58633 disclose a technique for spraying a gaseous germicide to uniformly apply the germicide to both the inside and the outside of a cup container. ing.

[0003] In other words, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 9-58632 and 9-58633 describe that a disinfectant is first sprayed onto a cup container conveyed by a conveyor (conveyor belt) for a filling / sealing process. In the chamber, the gaseous bactericide (hydrogen peroxide solution) is sprayed from a spray nozzle to each container, so that the inner surface side (inner surface) of the container
After attaching the disinfectant to the following disinfectant gas chamber,
It is disclosed that a germicide is sufficiently adhered to the outer surface side (outer surface) of a container while passing through a gas chamber in an atmosphere filled with a gaseous germicide continuously discharged from a gas discharge pipe. ing.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional method for disinfecting cup containers, in order to disinfect the outer surface of the container, the method is separately provided from a disinfectant spray chamber for disinfecting the inner surface of the container. In the formed germicide gas chamber, the gaseous germicide is continuously discharged from the gas discharge pipe, so that the germicide is attached to the outer surface side of the container by the atmosphere in the gas chamber filled with the gaseous germicide. Therefore, there is a problem that a large amount of the sterilizing agent is used, and the amount of the sterilizing agent discharged unnecessarily without adhering to the container increases.

[0005] In this regard, since the gaseous germicide is sprayed on the inner surface side of the container from above by means of a spray nozzle to the individual container, the outer surface side of the container also has an inner surface side. It is conceivable to try to solve the above problem by spraying the gaseous disinfectant on each container in the same way as described above, but on the inner surface side of the container, one spray nozzle from above is used. Although the disinfectant can be attached to the entire inner surface by spraying in a substantially conical shape, the outer surface side of the container can be sprayed in a substantially conical shape from below with a single spray nozzle (particularly the side wall). The disinfectant cannot be applied evenly to the outer surface).

Therefore, in order to spray the gaseous germicide toward the side wall and the bottom wall in order to uniformly and uniformly adhere the germicide to the outer surface side of the container, a large number of germs are applied to one container. A spray nozzle (at least 3 on each side of the side wall and at least 1 on the bottom wall) is required. Particularly, in a rectangular cup container having a substantially square cross section, the side wall is divided into four sides. When spray nozzles are provided for each side wall and bottom wall, a total of 5
The number of spray nozzles will be provided.

By providing a large number of spray nozzles for one container in such a manner, the sterilizing agent can be uniformly and evenly attached to the outer surface side of the container, but the sterilizing agent is increased by increasing the number of spray nozzles. This increases the cost of the equipment and complicates the structure of the equipment.Especially, in the case where a sterilizer is sprayed simultaneously on a plurality of cup containers transported in multiple rows, each cup container is required. A problem is how to install the spray nozzles in a limited space below the transport surface so as not to interfere with each other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has a special gas chamber for sterilizing the outer surface of a cup container by spraying a gaseous sterilizing agent from a spray nozzle. By spraying a gaseous sterilant from a small number of spray nozzles onto individual containers using a general spray nozzle that sprays in a substantially conical shape without filling with a gaseous sterilant. Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to uniformly and uniformly apply a germicide to the outer surface side of a container.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides two cup containers that are symmetrically positioned from the center of the container diagonally below and outside the container. A gaseous disinfectant is sprayed in a substantially conical shape from the position toward the corner of the bottom periphery of the container, and in particular, a square cup having a substantially square cross section. In the case of a container, a gaseous germicide is sprayed obliquely downward and outward toward two corners on one diagonal of the bottom of the container.

[0010] According to the above method, a general spray nozzle that sprays in a substantially conical shape is used, and even when the cup container is square, two spray nozzles are used for each container. Just by spraying the gaseous germicide, the germicide can be uniformly and evenly adhered to the outer surface side of the container (the outer surface of the side wall, the lower surface of the bottom wall, and the lower surface of the flange portion).

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the method for sterilizing the outer surface of a cup container according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.
1 and FIGS. 2A and 2B show a method for sterilizing the outer surface of a square cup container according to one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 shows a state in which a gaseous germicide is being sprayed on the cup container, FIG. 3 schematically shows a system for gasifying the germicide and spraying from a spray nozzle, and FIG. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the cup container is transported, and FIG. 5 shows a case where a cover portion is hung down on the lower surface side of the transport conveyor.

The method of this embodiment is carried out to sterilize the outer surface of the square cup container in the aseptic filling line. For the aseptic filling line, the containers sent in a stacked state are used. Separated and supplied to the conveyor, then, along the transport path of the container by the conveyor, removing static electricity from the container, removing dust from the container, and sterilizing the inner and outer surfaces of the container with a disinfectant , Filling the interior of the container with contents, replacing air in the headspace of the container with nitrogen, sealing the film at the opening of the container and sealing, and detecting defective sealing. After sequentially passing through a process and a process of printing a date or the like, the filled and sealed product is discharged from the transport conveyor.

[0013] The whole of such aseptic filling line is installed in a clean room (room with higher air cleanliness than class 10,000), and in particular, the container opening is sealed after supplying the container to the conveyor. The portion up to the step of performing the process is installed in a clean booth (a room with higher air cleanliness than class 100) defined as a region with a high air cleanliness level.

For the transfer of cup containers in the aseptic filling line, it is efficient to carry out multi-row conveyance in which a plurality of containers are simultaneously advanced in the width direction. However, in some cases, single-row conveyance may be used. The sealing may be performed one row at a time in the width direction (one in the case of single-row conveyance), or may be performed a plurality of times in the conveyance direction and the width direction (a plurality of pieces in the single-row conveyance in the conveyance direction). In any case, the cup container is transported intermittently in order to temporarily stop the transport of the container when filling or sealing.

The transport conveyor used for transporting such cup containers has a conventionally known structure,
It has a function of a retainer (holding tool) for holding each cup container at a predetermined interval, and is provided at a predetermined interval on the conveyor 5 as shown in FIG. The cup container 1 into the hole 5a,
The flange 1a at the upper end of the cup container 1 is connected to the conveyor 5
Is a belt conveyor configured to convey a large number of cup containers 1 at predetermined intervals while being placed on the conveyance surface of the belt.

In a sterile filling line in which cup containers are conveyed by such a conveyer, in order to fill the contents in the filling step and to seal the container opening with a seal in the sealing step, the container is closed. Although the progress is temporarily stopped, during the stoppage of such a container,
In the container sterilization process, a gasifying sterilizing agent (for example, a hydrogen peroxide solution having a concentration of 35%) is sprayed from a spray nozzle toward each stopped cup container, whereby the inside and outside of the cup container are sprayed. After the disinfectant was adhered to both sides, the cup container was heated by hot air (for example, heated by 240 ° C. hot air such that the temperature of the container itself reached 80 ° C. in a heating time of 6 seconds). The disinfectant is removed after disinfecting the cup container by heating with hot air.

In this case, regarding the spraying of the gaseous germicide by the spray nozzle at this time, in the present embodiment, a square cup container having a substantially rectangular cross section is shown in FIG. 1 and FIG.
As shown in (B), the gaseous germicide is sprayed from above with a single spray nozzle 2 in a substantially conical shape, and is sprayed on the inner surface side (the inner surface of the side wall, the upper surface of the bottom wall, and the upper surface of the flange portion). At the same time, a disinfectant is adhered, and on the outer surface side of the container, two corners C1 and C2 on one diagonal line of the bottom of the container 1 are sprayed obliquely downward from the outside toward the bottom corners C1 and C2. By spraying the gaseous germicide from the nozzles 3 and 4 in a substantially conical shape, the germicide is attached to the outer surface side of the container 1 (the outer surface of the side wall, the lower surface of the bottom wall, and the lower surface of the flange portion).

As shown in FIG. 2 (A), two spray nozzles 3, 4 are provided on the lower surface side of the conveyor 5 from diagonally below the container 1 toward the bottom corners C1, C2. By spraying the gaseous germicide, the container 1 is slightly lifted and the container 1 (the flange 1a and the side wall 1) is lifted.
Since a gap is formed between b) and the conveyor 5, the flow of the gaseous sterilant from below flows upward from the side wall 1 b of the container 1 along the lower surface of the flange portion 1 a.
The flow of the germicide from the side wall 1b of the container 1 along the flange portion 1a is improved, and the germicide can be uniformly and evenly adhered to the outer surface of the side wall 1b of the container and the lower surface of the flange portion 1a.

FIG. 3 shows a system for spraying a disinfectant (hydrogen peroxide solution) into gaseous form from a spray nozzle.
As shown in the figure, a spray nozzle 2 for sterilizing the inner surface side of the container 1 above the conveying surface of the conveyor 5 and a spray nozzle 3 for sterilizing the outer surface side of the container 1 below the conveying surface of the conveyor 5. In each of 4, the disinfectant (hydrogen peroxide solution) supplied by the drive of the pump and the air pumped through the filter, the regulator and the solenoid valve by the drive of the compressor are introduced into a chamber heated by steam. It is introduced through a two-fluid nozzle, and a sterilizing agent (hydrogen peroxide solution) is gasified in the chamber, and then sprayed as a gaseous sterilizing agent from each spray nozzle.

In such a gaseous germicide spraying system, the driving of the pump and the solenoid valve is controlled by a signal from the control panel, so that the gaseous germicide can be sprayed from each of the spray nozzles 2, 3, and 4. As described above, since the stopping of spraying can be controlled, the transport conveyor 5 is intermittently driven so as to temporarily stop the progress of the container 1 during filling and sealing, as described above. On the other hand, in the method of the present embodiment, the spray nozzles 2, 3, and 3 are synchronized with the timing at which the progress of the container 1 is temporarily stopped in the container sterilization step.
4, the gaseous germicide is intermittently sprayed.

Incidentally, the capacity is 450 ml and the height is 11
For a 3 cm square cup container, 1% hydrogen peroxide solution having a concentration of 35% was used as a disinfectant by the method of the present embodiment.
The gaseous germicide is turned on for 1 hour in synchronization with the transport operation of the container, which repeatedly moves and stops every second.
Spraying intermittently for 1 second and OFF time for 1 second, spraying twice for one container (total spraying time of 2 seconds), and then 240 ° C
The temperature of the container itself reaches 80 with a heating time of 6 seconds by the hot air of
C. and after the container was transported into an atmosphere filled with a continuous spray of a gaseous germicide by a conventional method (total spraying time of 3 seconds) and then 24 hours.
The state of adhesion of the germicide on the outer surface side of the container was compared for each case where the container was heated with hot air of 0 ° C. so that the temperature of the container itself reached 80 ° C. in a heating time of 6 seconds. (In each case, the number of samples is 20, and the number of tests is 3.)

As a result, the state of adhesion of the disinfectant on the outer surface side of the container was observed. When the disinfectant (35% concentration of hydrogen peroxide solution) was used so as to be 5 g per one container,
In the method of the present embodiment, an appropriate amount of adhesion was confirmed, and in the conventional method, the amount of adhesion was small. In addition, when a disinfectant (aqueous hydrogen peroxide having a concentration of 35%) is used so that the amount of the disinfectant is 7.5 g per one container, in the method of the present embodiment, excessive adherence and residual of the disinfectant are confirmed, In the conventional method, an appropriate amount of adhesion was confirmed. That is, according to the method of the present embodiment, an appropriate amount of adhesion can be obtained by using a small amount of a bactericide (5 g of hydrogen peroxide solution having a concentration of 35% per one container) as compared with the conventional method. Was confirmed.

According to the method of the present embodiment as described above,
By spraying the gaseous germicide onto the individual cup containers 1 from the spray nozzles 3, 4 without defining a special gas chamber and filling it with gaseous germicide,
Without using a large amount of disinfectant,
Is square (cross section is substantially square), but only two general spray nozzles 3 and 4 that spray in a substantially conical shape are used.
The disinfectant can be uniformly and evenly attached to the outer surface side of the container (the outer surface of the side wall, the lower surface of the bottom wall, and the lower surface of the flange portion).

In this embodiment, the timing of the advance of the container is temporarily stopped in the container sterilization step.
Since the gaseous germicide is intermittently sprayed from each of the spray nozzles 3 and 4 (the same applies to the spray nozzles 2), the gaseous germicide is continuously sprayed to each container. Compared with the case, the spray amount of the gaseous germicide can be further reduced.

As described above, the two spray nozzles 3,
In the case where the outer surface of the cup container 1 is sterilized by the step 4, as shown in FIG. 5, the side wall 1 b of the cup container 1 is attached to the lower surface of the conveyor 5 holding and conveying the cup container 1. By suspending the cover portion 5b so as to surround at least a part of the side wall 1b at an appropriate interval, even if the amount of spray from each of the spray nozzles 3 and 4 is small, the gaseous form sprayed in a substantially conical shape The disinfectant can be efficiently attached to the outer surface of the cup container 1 without diffusing.

Although the embodiment of the method for sterilizing the outer surface of a cup container according to the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific examples shown in the above embodiments.
For example, as for the target cup container, it is particularly effective in a square cup container having a substantially rectangular cross section, but it can be applied to a cup container having a substantially circular cross section, and a disinfectant to be used. Is not limited to the exemplified hydrogen peroxide solution, it can be carried out with other disinfectants, and a system for spraying the disinfectant into a gaseous form from a spray nozzle is also a specific example shown in the embodiment. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be changed as appropriate.

[0027]

According to the method for sterilizing the outer surface of a cup container of the present invention as described above, the spray nozzle can be used to separate the individual containers from the spray nozzle without defining a gas chamber filled with a gaseous germicide. By spraying the gaseous germicide toward the germicide, the amount of germicide used can be kept low, and a small number of spray nozzles can be used for individual containers using a general spray nozzle that sprays in a substantially conical shape. By simply spraying the gaseous sterilant toward the container, the sterilant can be uniformly and evenly attached to the outer surface side of the container, so that the cost of the sterilization equipment and the complexity of the apparatus can be suppressed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which a gaseous germicide is sprayed on a square cup container by the outer surface sterilization method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which a gaseous germicide is sprayed on a square cup container by the outer surface sterilization method of the present invention (A).
Partial cross-sectional side view and (B) top view.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a system for spraying a gaseous germicide from a spray nozzle.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a part of a transfer conveyor for holding and transferring cup containers at predetermined intervals.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view showing a state in which a cover portion is hung on the lower surface side of the transport conveyor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cup container 2 Spray nozzle 3 Spray nozzle 4 Spray nozzle 5 Transport conveyor 5b Cover part (of transport conveyor)

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] September 6, 2000 (2000.9.6)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0021

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Incidentally, the capacity is 450 ml and the height is 11
For a 3 mm square cup container, a 1% hydrogen peroxide solution having a concentration of 35% was used as a disinfectant by the method of this embodiment.
The gaseous germicide is turned on for 1 hour in synchronization with the transport operation of the container, which repeatedly moves and stops every second.
Spraying intermittently for 1 second and OFF time for 1 second, spraying twice for one container (total spraying time of 2 seconds), and then 240 ° C
The temperature of the container itself reaches 80 with a heating time of 6 seconds by the hot air of
C. and after the container was transported into an atmosphere filled with a continuous spray of a gaseous germicide by a conventional method (total spraying time of 3 seconds) and then 24 hours.
The state of adhesion of the germicide on the outer surface side of the container was compared for each case where the container was heated with hot air of 0 ° C. so that the temperature of the container itself reached 80 ° C. in a heating time of 6 seconds. (In each case, the number of samples is 20, and the number of tests is 3.)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A gaseous germicide is applied to each cup container from two diagonally lower outer sides of the container and symmetrical positions from the center of the container toward the corners of the bottom periphery of the container. An outer surface sterilization method for a cup container, wherein the outer surface is sprayed in a substantially conical shape. 2. A gaseous germicide is sprayed from a diagonally lower outer side toward two corners on one diagonal line of a bottom of a square cup container having a substantially square cross section. The method for sterilizing an outer surface of a cup container according to claim 1, wherein the method is performed. 3. A gaseous germicide is intermittently applied to a cup container being conveyed toward a filling / sealing process at a timing when the progress of the container is temporarily stopped for filling / sealing. The method for sterilizing the outer surface of a cup container according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method is performed by spraying. 4. A transport conveyor having a container insertion hole for holding and transporting a cup container at a predetermined interval, wherein at least one of the side walls of the side wall of the cup container is disposed at an appropriate distance from the lower surface of the transport surface. 4. The method for sterilizing an outer surface of a cup container according to claim 1, wherein the cover is suspended so as to surround the portion.