JP2003291902A - Compound stepped pressing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compound stepped pressing device which is structured compact to be mounted on a container in being put in a filling/sealing device, etc., and which accurately raises the liquid level of a filled material in the filling container to a desired level by pressing the body part of the container. <P>SOLUTION: This compound stepped pressing device comprises a first pressing means 3 provided horizontally on a base 2 and one or more other pressing means 4, 5 supported by the reciprocating body part 3' of the means 3. A roughly panel shaped pressing member 6 is provided at the tip end of the body part 3' of the means 3, and the member 6 is formed integrally for pushing and advancing further to the front divided as a plurality of pressing members 6', 6" by the reciprocating movement of each of the pressing members 4, 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article pressing apparatus, and more particularly, to an article pressing apparatus capable of variably finely adjusting a pressing area and a pressing stroke of a pressing member that is in contact with an article when the article is pressed. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, soft plastic containers and bags (hereinafter also simply referred to as "containers") sealed and filled with fluid foods, chemicals, detergents and paints have been manufactured and sold. ing. At this time, in the case where food is filled and sealed, as much air as possible is trapped in the upper space (head space) of the container or bag in order to avoid the occurrence of quality problems such as food spoilage, modification and deterioration. It is manufactured so that it will not occur. For example, in order to eliminate air pockets, the bag is filled with a filling material, and after the filling material overflows, the opening of the bag is sealed, or after filling the container with a predetermined amount of the filling material, A technique is used in which the body of the container is pressed to raise the liquid level of the filling material in the container to reduce the upper space as much as possible, and then the opening of the container is sealed or covered.

[0003]

However, the filling and sealing body in which the inside of the bag is filled up and the opening thereof is sealed as described above can eliminate the space portion of the head space portion, but the sealing portion. However, there are disadvantages that the filling material is caught and soiled and the sealing strength of the sealing portion is weakened. In addition, in the technique of simply pressing the body of the container to make it concave, raising the liquid level of the filling in the container to a certain height and sealing the opening, the manufacturing method for each container Since there is a variation (error) in the shape due to, it is difficult to delicately adjust the pressing amount of the pressing device to correspond to this, and as a finished product, the head space of all filling and sealing bodies is eliminated or made constant. It was extremely difficult.

Therefore, in order to solve this, the present inventor created an apparatus equipped with a plurality of pressing means so that different parts of the container can be pressed separately. I tried to adjust the height. However, an extra space is required to separately install the pressing means, which hinders the pressing device when it is incorporated into the filling and sealing device, and lacks compactness. Further, the pressing device for finely adjusting the liquid surface is rough, and it has not been possible to obtain a sufficiently satisfactory result. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has a compact structure that is easy to install when incorporated into a filling and sealing device, etc., and the liquid level of the filling in the container is set at a desired position by pressing the body of the container. An object of the present invention is to provide a compound step thrusting device that can be accurately pushed up.

[0005]

That is, the compound step thrusting device of the present invention has at least a first pressing means horizontally fixed on a base and a reciprocating portion of the pressing means. 1
And a substantially plate-shaped pressing member at the tip of the reciprocating part of the first pressing means, and the pressing member has a part of the other pressing means. By the reciprocating motion of the reciprocating parts of the pressing means, the plurality of pressing members are cleaved to be integrally molded so that they can be pushed forward.

As a result, the pressing condition for delicately controlling the liquid level in the container is changed from a wide pressing area to a narrow pressing area by operating other pressing means as necessary after the pressing action of the first pressing means. Alternatively, by supplementing the shortage of the pressing stroke (length) and extending so as to reach an appropriate length, the pressing amount can be finely adjusted as in the manual operation. Therefore, by incorporating the pressing device having such a structure into the liquid filling and sealing device for the container, it is possible to obtain the liquid filling and sealed container in which the liquid level is appropriately controlled. In this case, the liquid filling and sealing device incorporating the pressing device is provided with a known sensor for detecting the liquid level, and the operation of the pressing device can be electrically controlled in conjunction with the liquid level sensor. Needless to say.

Further, at this time, if the reciprocating stroke of the first pressing means is formed to be longer than the reciprocating stroke of the other pressing means, the other pressing means can be downsized and the compound step thrusting press can be performed. Since the entire device can be formed into a compact and compact shape with a good appearance, it can be easily incorporated into a filling and sealing device that requires liquid level control. In the present invention, to be fixed on the base means
It is not necessarily limited to a specific base, and may be anything as long as the first pressing device can be fixed, for example, a frame or the like of the filling and sealing device is fixed to this instead of the base. It may be.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view showing an external appearance of an example of the compound step thrusting device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side explanatory view showing an example of incorporating the compound step thrusting device of the present invention into a filling and sealing device. . 3, FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 are side surface explanatory views showing the state of transition of the liquid level in the container from the filling to the container sealing in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, a compound step thrusting device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention has a first pressing means 3 fixed horizontally on a base 2 and a reciprocating motion of the pressing means 3. Part 3 '
At least one or more (in this description, two groups) other pressing means 4 and 5 are supported by the flat pressing member at the tip of the reciprocating portion 3'of the first pressing means 3. 6 are provided. A part of the pressing member 6 is merged with the tips of the reciprocating parts 4 ', 5'of the one or more other pressing means 4, 5, and the reciprocating parts 4', 5 ' The other pressing means 4 and 5 supported by the reciprocating part 3 ′ of the first pressing means 3 which is cleaved by reciprocating motion and is integrally formed with its external appearance so as to be able to further push forward are reciprocating parts. It is adapted to reciprocate together with the movement of the pressing member 6 at the tip of 3 '.

After the movement (pushing) of the reciprocating portion 3'is stopped, if necessary, the pressing member 6 at the tip of the reciprocating portion 3'has a part thereof reciprocating portions 4 ', 5 of the other pressing means 4, 5. In a state of being pressed by the tip pressing members 6 ', 6 "of"', the tip pressing members 6 ', 6 "of the reciprocating portions 4', 5'of the other pressing means 4, 5 are continuously pushed. At this time, since the reciprocating strokes of the pressing means 4 and 5 are for fine adjustment for supplementing the insufficient pressing by the first pressing means 3,
Is set shorter than the stroke of the pressing means 3 of
Further, the pressing speed is set to be lower than that of the first pressing means 3.

[0011]

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 showing an example in which the liquid filling and sealing apparatus is incorporated. As shown in FIG. 2, a container A made of a soft plastic, which is erect with the opening facing upward just below the filling nozzle 9 of the filling and sealing device 7, is filled with a predetermined amount of filling material from the opening by the filling nozzle 9. (Fig. 3). Further, the container A is a pressing device 1 equipped with a liquid level sensor 8.
The side portion of the first pressing means 3 is pressed and supported in cooperation with the support member 11. Subsequently, the other pressing means 4 and 5 of the pressing device 1 are operated, and the pressing members 6 ′ and 6 of the other pressing portions 4 ′ and 5 ′ to which the substantially plate-shaped pressing member 6 of the first pressing means 3 is given up. "And the body of container A is pressed (Fig. 4). This causes the liquid level of the filling material in container A to rise to the vicinity of the sensing range of liquid level sensor 8. At this time, the liquid level sensor is still on. Since 8 does not confirm the liquid level of the filling, the other pressing means 4 continues to operate, and the original pressing member 6 is ceded to the small area of the pressing member 6 ′ of the further reciprocating portion 4 ′ ( Figure 5).

[0012] Further, the other reciprocating part 5'which has been ceded.
The pressing member 6 ″ of the container A is a new pressing member having a small area and is pushed at a low speed to further press the body of the container A. Since the pressing area at this time is small and low, the liquid in the container A is The surface rises at a slower speed (easy to detect), and the liquid level sensor senses the liquid surface during the ascending, whereby the pushing of the pressing means 5 is stopped and the liquid surface rise is stopped. The part is pressure-bonded and sealed by heating plates (heaters) installed at predetermined positions on both sides of the part (Fig. 6), whereby a desired head space is formed in the container A, or there is no head space at all. Manufactured as a sealed body.

In carrying out the present invention, when the pressing member is to be cleaved, the number, shape and size of cleaving can be appropriately selected depending on the shape of the container. The pressing position and pressing speed are also determined by the liquid to be filled and the liquid temperature. Further, also in the sensor that senses the liquid surface, the type of sensor and its installation location are determined by the intended use.

As described above, according to the present invention,
A compact structure in which a plurality of other pressing means are supported by the reciprocating part of the first pressing means, and the pressing member at the tip of the reciprocating part of the first pressing means is integrated with the pressing part of the other pressing means. With such a structure, it is possible to freely finely adjust the pressing stroke and pressing area. Therefore,
By incorporating this into a device for filling and sealing a fluid in a container or bag made of soft plastic, the assembly can be done easily, and the head space inside the container can be made constant or the head space can be eliminated properly. Can be manufactured. Further, when the fluid substance is a food, all the products can be manufactured as a filled and sealed product in which the quality deterioration due to the air in the container can be prevented, and the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view showing an appearance of an example of a compound step thrusting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory side view showing an example in which the compound step thrusting device of the present invention is incorporated into a filling and sealing device.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a filling completed state in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing an operating state of the first pressing means.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing an operating state of another pressing means.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing an operating state of another pressing unit and a heat sealing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Complex step thruster 2 bases 3 First pressing means 3'reciprocating part 4 Other pressing means 4'reciprocating part 5 Other pressing means 5'reciprocating part 6 Pressing member 6'Pressing member (Carrying unit) 6 "Pressing member (Carrying unit) 7 Filling and sealing device 8 Liquid level sensor 9 Filling nozzle 10 Heat sealing means 11 Bearing members A container

Continued front page    F-term (reference) 3E118 AA05 AA07 AB14 AB15 AB17                       CA03 DA02 DA06 EA07

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A first pressing means horizontally fixed on a base, and at least one supported by a reciprocating portion of the pressing means.
And a substantially plate-shaped pressing member at the tip of the reciprocating part of the first pressing means, and the pressing member has a part of the other pressing means. 2. A compound step thrusting device, which is formed as one of a plurality of pressing members and is integrally molded so as to be capable of being pushed by the pushing movement of each reciprocating portion of the pushing means. 2. The compound step thrusting device according to claim 1, wherein the first pushing means is an air cylinder. 3. The compound step thrusting device according to claim 1, wherein the reciprocating stroke of the first pressing means is longer than the reciprocating stroke of the other reciprocating means.