JP2005001678A - Packaging machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a packaging machine capable of smoothly packaging leaf vegetables such as spinach and garland chrysanthemum. <P>SOLUTION: The packaging machine 10 comprises a belt conveyor 18 to move a long film 16 folded in a U-shaped section in the carrying direction, a longitudinal seal part 20 which overlaps and seals both edge parts of the longitudinal film 16 after an article to be packaged is fed in the long film 16, and forms the long film 16 in a cylindrical shape, and a holding member 56 to regulate an upper portion of the article so that the articles is not held by a sealed part of the long film 16 on the upstream side of the longitudinal seal part 20. The holding member 56 is provided on an endless belt so that a surface 56a facing a carrying surface of the belt conveyor 18 is moved in the carrying direction. In this packaging machine, the holding member to regulate the position of the upper portion of the article is provided on the endless belt with the facing surface moving in the transferring direction on the upstream side of the longitudinal seal part, and leaf vegetables can be smoothly carried thereby. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a packaging machine for feeding and packaging an article to be packaged in a long film provided with a U-shaped cross section.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a packaging machine provided so that an article to be packaged is fed into a long film bent into a U-shaped cross section and packaged in a state where the article is divided for each article to be packaged is well known. .
FIG. 7 shows an example of a conventional packaging machine (see Patent Document 1).
[0003]
FIG. 7 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a part of a conventional packaging machine 100.
A packaging machine 100 shown in FIG. 7 feeds and packs an article 110 to be packaged by a feeding device 108 in a long film 104 (hereinafter simply referred to as a film) that is bent into a U-shaped section by a former 106. Device. The film 104 bent in a U-shaped cross section is conveyed in the conveying direction A by a belt conveyor 112 provided horizontally, and sealed by a vertical seal portion 114 and a horizontal seal portion (not shown) for each packaged item. Divided.
[0004]
The vertical seal portion 114 seals the both edge portions of the moving film 104 by overlapping them to form the film 16 in a cylindrical shape. At this time, if a part of the object to be packaged 110 is sandwiched between the part to be sealed 104a (the edge part of the film) of the film 104 that is sealed by the vertical seal part 114, the part to be packaged 110 may not be correctly sealed or the object to be packaged 110 may be damaged. I will.
For this reason, a guide plate 116 that regulates the upper position of the article 110 to be packaged is provided on the upstream side of the vertical seal portion 114. The guide plate 116 is formed on an inclined surface that is inclined so that the downstream end 116a side is positioned downward, and is provided so as to be gradually pressed down when the article 110 to be packaged moves toward the vertical seal portion 114. Yes.
And it seals with respect to the width direction of the film 104 formed in the cylinder shape by the horizontal seal | sticker part, and it carries out in the state packaged one by one for each to-be-packaged object.
[0005]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-25705
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when leaf vegetables such as spinach and spring chrysanthemum are packaged using the packaging machine 100, since the leaf of spinach and spring chrysanthemum tends to adhere to the guide plate 116, the position of the package is shifted or covered. There is a problem that packaging cannot be smoothly performed because the package remains attached.
[0007]
Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve this problem, and an object thereof is to provide a packaging machine capable of smoothly packaging leaf vegetables such as spinach and spring chrysanthemum. .
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention has the following configuration in order to achieve the above object.
That is, a belt conveyor that moves a long film bent in a U-shaped cross section in the transport direction, and an object to be packaged is fed into the long film, and then both end edges of the long film are overlapped. A vertical seal portion for forming the long film into a cylindrical shape, and the packaged material so as to prevent the packaged object from being sandwiched between the seal portions of the long film on the upstream side of the vertical seal portion. In the packaging machine comprising a pressing member that regulates the upper part of the package, the pressing member is provided on an endless belt that moves in a direction in which the surface facing the conveying surface of the belt conveyor moves. And
[0009]
Further, the endless belt is provided so as to move at substantially the same speed as the belt conveyor.
Further, the pressing member is provided so that an inclination angle of a surface facing the transport surface can be adjusted.
Further, on the upstream side of the vertical seal portion, a part of the belt conveyor is formed on an inclined surface in which the downstream side is inclined upward.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a packaging machine according to the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a side view showing a configuration of an embodiment of a packaging machine according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view of the packaging machine shown in FIG.
The packaging machine 10 of this embodiment is drawn out from a roll film 12 wound in a coil shape, and is a long film 16 (hereinafter simply referred to as a film) in which both ends are bent so as to have a U-shaped cross section. ) Is moved in the conveying direction A, and both end edges of the U-shaped film 16 are overlapped and sealed, and a vertical seal portion 20 that forms the film 16 in a cylindrical shape, and a cylindrical film 16 And a horizontal seal portion 22 that seals and cuts the package in the width direction for each length of the article to be packaged.
[0011]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the roll film 12 is rotatably supported by a central shaft 24 whose axis is a direction orthogonal to the film drawing direction at the lower part of the casing 11 of the packaging machine 10. Yes. The film 16 drawn out from the roll film 12 is transferred to the former 30 via a drawing drive roller 26 and a vertical movement roller 28.
The drawer driving roller 26 draws the film 16 from the roll film 12 with the film 16 sandwiched between the drawer driving roller 26 and the driven roller 26a. Further, the vertical movement roller 28 is always positioned below, but is provided so as to move by being pulled upward when tension is applied to the film 16. The vertical movement roller 28 is provided with a sensor (not shown) for detecting the position of the vertical movement roller 28 and is set to drive the pull-out driving roller 26 when the position of the vertical movement roller 28 rises. Yes.
[0012]
The former 30 is provided on the upstream side of the upper portion of the casing 11 of the packaging machine 10, and includes a lower former 30a and an upper former 30b.
The film 16 that has been transferred along the lower former 30a is formed to be narrower than the width of the film 16 with the upper former 30b turned upside down and turned upward. The upper former 30b is inserted into the groove, and both end portions are bent to form a U-shaped cross section. In the present embodiment, when the folded film 16 is viewed from the front, the width and height of the film 16 are provided to have substantially the same length.
In the present embodiment, the groove portion of the upper former 30b is used as a feeding portion 32 (see FIG. 2) into which an article to be packaged is fed by a feeding device (not shown).
[0013]
The film 16 folded into a U-shaped cross section is transferred in the transport direction A by the belt conveyor 18 and sealed by the vertical seal portion 20 and the horizontal seal portion 22 to wrap the article to be packaged. In some cases, it was not possible to wrap in a state fitted to the package.
[0014]
That is, in the conventional packaging machine 10 shown in FIG. 7, when a film having a U-shaped cross section is sealed by the vertical seal portion 114 and the film 104 is provided in a cylindrical shape, the cross section of the film 104 is formed in a substantially circular shape. . For this reason, if an article to be packaged is put in the film 104 formed in a substantially circular cylindrical shape and packaged, the article to be packaged is packaged in a state where it is pushed into the center of the film 16.
For example, when spinach is packaged, two bundles of spinach may be placed side by side in the width direction of the belt conveyor. In this case, if the vertical seal portion 114 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape as described above, it is pushed into the center side in the width direction and wrapped in a cramped state. is there. Moreover, when packaged in this way, there is a problem that it is difficult to display at a store because it is bulky when stacked.
For this reason, in this invention, the structure of the belt conveyor 18 is improved so that a wide to-be-packaged item can be packaged suitably. Below, the structure of the belt conveyor 18 of this embodiment is demonstrated.
[0015]
As shown in FIG. 1, the belt conveyor 18 according to the present embodiment includes an upstream roller 34, an intermediate roller 36 disposed on the upstream side of a vertical seal portion 20 described later, a downstream roller 38, and the roller 34. , 36, 38 and a belt 40. The belt conveyor 18 is provided such that the rotational drive of the motor 42 is transmitted to the upstream roller 34 by a round belt (not shown), and the conveying surface located above the belt 40 moves in the conveying direction A. Yes. In the present embodiment, the intermediate roller 36 is positioned above the upstream roller 34, and the conveyance surface of the belt 40 placed between the intermediate roller 36 and the upstream roller 34 faces the downstream side upward. It is formed in the inclined surface 40a which inclines. The conveying surface of the belt 40 provided between the intermediate roller 36 and the downstream roller 38 is provided on the horizontal surface 40b.
[0016]
Thereby, when the both ends edge of the film 16 is sealed by the vertical seal | sticker part 20, the cross section of the film 16 is formed in the flat ellipse shape which crushed the up-down direction. That is, in the film 16 transferred from the upper former 30b toward the vertical seal portion 20 by the belt conveyor 18, the lower surface of the film 16 is gradually positioned upward due to the inclined surface 40a of the belt conveyor 18. Further, both edge portions of the film 16 are maintained substantially horizontally from the upper former 30b to the vertical seal portion 20. For this reason, when the lower surface of the film 16 is lifted upward, the lower surface of the film 16 is pushed up and the side is expanded. And the film 16 is provided in the flat ellipse shape by sealing the both-ends edge part of the film 16 with the vertical seal | sticker part 20 mentioned later.
[0017]
Next, the configuration of the vertical seal portion 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4.
FIG. 3 is a plan perspective view showing the configuration of the vertical seal portion 20 provided in the packaging machine 10 of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the vertical seal portion 20 of the present embodiment includes a first drive roller (drive shaft is 44) located on the upstream side and a drive roller with heater (drive) located on the downstream side of the first drive roller. And a second drive roller (drive shaft is 48) positioned on the downstream side of the heater-equipped drive roller, and follower rollers (drive shafts 44a, 44a, 46a, 48a). These drive rollers are provided such that the drive shafts 44, 46, and 48 are connected to the rotation roller 52 of the motor by a chain 50 and are rotatable in a horizontal plane.
[0018]
The vertical seal portion 20 provided in the above configuration moves both ends of the film 16 between the driving roller and the driven roller in the conveying direction A and extends by the first driving roller and the second driving roller. In this state, both edge portions of the film 16 are heat-sealed by a driving roller with heat.
The drive shaft 48 of the first drive roller is provided with an encoder plate 56 on which a code readable by a sensor 54 is printed at a predetermined interval on the peripheral edge of the disk. For this reason, based on the code read by the sensor 54, the distance fed by the first drive roller can be controlled by the sequencer. Thereby, in this embodiment, it is provided so that the film 16 may be moved by 1 pitch (the length of the film necessary to wrap one packaged item) every time the packaged item is fed. Yes.
[0019]
Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the three driven rollers are rotatably provided in contact with the abutting driving roller, and are brought into contact with and separated from the driving roller by a bending shaft 49 that supports the driven roller. It is possible to make it.
Thereby, the operation | work which pinches | interposes the both ends of the film 16 between rollers at the time of film installation can be done easily. In addition, since the drive roller with a heater contacts the driven roller only when the film 16 is heat-sealed, it is easy to contact and separate the driven roller by controlling the bending shaft 49 that supports the driven roller. It is possible to control.
[0020]
Next, the structure of the pressing member 56 will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 1, immediately before the vertical seal portion 20, the upper portion of the package is placed so that a part of the package is not caught in the sealed portion 16 a of the film 16 sealed by the vertical seal portion 20. A guide plate 58 for regulating the position is provided.
However, when packaging leafy vegetables such as spinach, there is a problem that leaves adhere to the guide plate 58 and the packaged material does not flow smoothly. For this reason, in this embodiment, the holding member 56 is provided on the upstream side of the guide plate 58, the upper position of the package is regulated on the upstream side of the guide plate 58, and the packaged material such as leafy vegetables is used. Is provided to flow smoothly.
[0021]
FIG. 5 is a side view and a front view showing the configuration of the pressing member provided in the packaging machine 10 of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the pressing member 56 includes an upstream roller 64 whose axis is horizontal and extends in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction A, and a downstream roller 66 parallel to the upstream roller 64 on the downstream side of the upstream roller 64. Is provided on an endless belt with a belt 68 interposed therebetween. A frame 70 is provided on the side between the upstream roller 64 and the downstream roller 66 so as to cover the side end portion of the belt 68. The upstream roller 64 and the downstream roller 66 have a central shaft 64a, 66 a is supported in a state where it is pivotally supported by the frame 70.
In this embodiment, the diameter of the upstream roller 64 is larger than the diameter of the downstream roller 66, and the side surface of the frame 70 is formed in a substantially triangular shape with an acute angle on the downstream side.
[0022]
The pressing member 56 is attached to the lower portion of the motor box 62 supported above the belt conveyor 18 by the support portion 60. Specifically, at the lower part of the motor box 62, the central shaft 64 a of the upstream roller 64 is mounted on the both side surfaces of the motor box 62 so as to be pivotally supported. For this reason, the pressing member 56 is provided so that the downstream roller 66 can rotate in the vertical plane around the central axis 64 a of the upstream roller 64. Locking protrusions 76a and 76b are provided on the downstream side of the frame 70 and the upper portion of the motor box 62, respectively, and a chain 78 is hooked between the engaging protrusions 76a and 76b. Accordingly, the lower end side of the pressing member 56 is supported by the chain 78, and the pressing member 56 is held in an inclined state, and the inclination of the pressing member 56 can be adjusted by adjusting the length of the chain 78. . For this reason, it is possible to appropriately set the inclination of the pressing member 56 with respect to the object to be packaged and adjust the degree of restriction of the upper position of the object to be packaged.
[0023]
In addition, when packaging hard vegetables such as spinach and pumpkin with a large bundle, the pressing member may be clogged if it is held in a certain inclined state, but the pressing member 56 of this embodiment is The central shaft 64a of the side roller 64 is pivotally supported and the downstream end side is provided so as to be movable up and down, and the downstream side is suspended by a chain 78, so that the article to be packaged is conveyed by the belt conveyor 18. The downstream side of the pressing member 56 is pushed up by the applied force so that it can pass through.
Note that the pressing force of the pressing member 56 (the force by which the downstream side of the pressing member 56 is pushed up) is provided with a weight on the downstream side of the pressing member 56 or a biasing member such as a torsion spring that always presses the downstream side downward. It is provided so that it can be adjusted as appropriate.
[0024]
A conveyor pulley 64 b is attached to the upstream roller 64 of the pressing member 56, and the conveyor pulley 64 b is connected to a motor pulley 72 a attached to the motor 72 by a round belt 74. For this reason, since the drive of the motor 72 is transmitted to the upstream roller 64 to rotate the upstream roller 64, the belt 68 of the pressing member 56 can be driven. Further, when the facing surface 68a of the belt 68 that faces the conveying surface of the belt conveyor 18 comes into contact with an object to be packaged flowing by the belt conveyor 18, leafs of leafy vegetables may adhere.
Therefore, in the present invention, by driving the belt 68 so as to move the facing surface 68a of the belt 68 in the transport direction A, even if a leaf or the like is attached to the facing surface 68a, the transport direction A in the attached state is maintained. The packaged item can be made to flow smoothly by moving to. When the belt 68 reaches the downstream roller 66, the direction of the belt 68 is changed and the belt 68 is gradually peeled off from the leaf, so that the article to be packaged can be smoothly fed into the vertical seal portion 20.
In the present embodiment, since the moving speed of the belt 68 is set to the same speed as the moving speed of the belt conveyor 18, there is no resistance to the package object when abutting, and the package object is damaged. It is provided so that there is no.
[0025]
Moreover, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the upstream roller 34 of the belt conveyor 18 and the upstream roller 64 of the pressing member 56 are arranged in the same line in the vertical direction. Thereby, by restricting the upper part of the article to be wrapped, which is gradually pushed up by the inclined surface 40a of the belt conveyor 18, by the pressing member 56, the packaging shape can be formed into a flat elliptical shape, and the vertical seal portion 20 can be formed. Thus, both ends of the film 16 can be reliably sealed and packaged.
[0026]
Next, the horizontal seal portion will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 1, a carry-out conveyor 94 is provided on the downstream side of the belt conveyor 18, and the horizontal seal portion 22 of this embodiment is provided between the belt conveyor 18 and the carry-out conveyor 94. The horizontal sealing portion 22 is normally disposed above the sealed portion 16a of the film 16, and when sealed and cut, the horizontal sealing portion 22 descends to the horizontal surface 40b of the belt conveyor 18, and the belt conveyor 18 normally. The lower unit 80b is disposed below the horizontal plane 40b and rises to the horizontal plane 40b when sealing and cutting.
[0027]
FIG. 6 is an enlarged side view of the upper unit 80a and the lower unit 80b shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6, the upper unit 80 a is provided with a seal portion 82, a cutting blade 84, and a pressing plate 86 in order toward the downstream side. The lower unit 80 b is provided with a seal portion 88, a gap 90, and a sponge 92 at positions facing the seal portion 82, the cutting blade 84, and the pressing plate 86.
For this reason, when the film 16 is sandwiched from above and below by the upper unit 80a and the lower unit 80b, the upstream end of the package divided by the seal portions 82 and 88 is heat-sealed, and the cutting blade 84 has a gap 90. And the film 16 is cut in the width direction. In order to provide the film 16 in a stretched state when being cut by the cutting blade 84, in the present embodiment, it is provided so as to press the downstream side of the film 16 by the pressing plate 86 and the sponge 92.
[0028]
The operation of the packaging machine 10 of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described over time.
First, the film 16 is installed in the packaging machine 10. Then, when an article to be packaged is inserted from the feeding section 32 by a feeding device (not shown), a sensor 96 (see FIG. 3) provided on the upper former 30b detects and drives the belt conveyor 18 and the vertical seal section 20. The roller is driven to move the film 16 by 1 pitch. At this time, when the belt conveyor 18 is driven, the vertical movement roller 28 is tensioned, so that it moves upward, the sensor of the vertical movement roller 28 detects it, and the pulling drive roller 26 is driven. For this reason, the film 16 can be smoothly moved without applying a load to the belt conveyor 18.
When the film 16 and the object to be packaged move in the transport direction A, the lower surface of the film 16 is pushed up by the inclined surface 40a, and is provided in an elliptical shape with a flat cross section. In addition, an object to be packaged in the film 16 is pressed from above by a pressing member 56 so as to be accommodated in a cylindrical film. At this time, since the contact surface 68a of the pressing member 56 is moved in the transport direction A, the article to be packaged flows smoothly without being caught and can be fed into the vertical seal portion 20.
And after the both ends edge of the film 16 is sealed by the vertical seal part 20, only the upstream end side of the film 16 is sealed by the horizontal seal part 22, and the conveyor 94 for carrying out in the state divided | segmented for every package. It is carried out by.
[0029]
The packaging machine according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be modified without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
For example, in this embodiment, a pressing member to which a belt provided in a planar shape is attached is used, but the belt may be provided in a net shape or a film shape.
Further, in this embodiment, a pressing member is provided in a packaging machine provided with a partially inclined belt conveyor. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the belt conveyor is not limited to this. The pressing member of this embodiment may be attached to a flat packaging machine.
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
According to the packaging machine of the present invention, as described above, the pressing member that regulates the upper position of the article to be packaged on the upstream side of the vertical seal portion is provided on the endless plate whose opposing surface moves in the transfer direction. As a result, the leafy vegetables can be transported smoothly and the like can be achieved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a side view showing a configuration of an embodiment of a packaging machine according to the present invention.
2 is a front view of the packaging machine shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a transparent plan view showing a configuration of a vertical seal portion provided in the packaging machine of FIG.
4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a driven roller shown in FIG. 3. FIG.
5 is a side view and a front view showing a configuration of a pressing member provided in the packaging machine of FIG. 1. FIG.
6 is an enlarged side view of a horizontal seal portion shown in FIG. 1. FIG.
FIG. 7 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a part of a conventional packaging machine 100. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Packing machine 16 Film 18 Belt conveyor 20 Vertical seal part 22 Horizontal seal part 30 Former 32 Infeed part 40 Belt 40a Inclined surface 40b Horizontal surface 56 Holding member 68 Belt 68a Opposite surface 80a Upper unit 80b Lower unit

Claims (5)

A belt conveyor for moving a long film bent in a U-shaped cross section in the transport direction;
After the article to be packaged is fed into the long film, both end edges of the long film are overlapped and sealed, and a vertical seal part that forms the long film into a cylindrical shape,
On the upstream side of the vertical seal part, in a packaging machine comprising a pressing member that regulates the upper part of the packaged object so that the packaged object is not sandwiched by the sealed part of the long film,
The packaging machine according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is provided on an endless belt whose surface facing the conveying surface of the belt conveyor moves in the conveying direction. The packaging machine according to claim 1, wherein the endless belt is provided so as to move at substantially the same speed as the belt conveyor. The packaging machine according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is provided so that an inclination angle of a surface facing the conveying surface can be adjusted. The packaging machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the pressing member is provided such that a downstream end side thereof is movable up and down, and is provided so that the article to be packaged can pass therethrough. The packaging machine according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a part of the belt conveyor is formed on an inclined surface in which the downstream side is inclined upward on the upstream side of the vertical seal portion. .

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