JP2006131285A - Capping machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize safe capping by reducing danger which are caused by burst or damage of a bottle in the process of capping. <P>SOLUTION: The capping machine 100 includes a capping head 10 having a throat 12 and supported so as to move upward and downward, a support 62 for supporting a bottle 1, a handle 30 for moving the capping head 10 downward so that the peripheral part of a cap 90 is fastened to the mouth 1a of the bottle 1 by a throat 12, and a cover 110 disposed so as to surround at least the sides of the bottle 1 placed on the support 62. The handle 30 extends outside of the cover 110. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a stoppering device for stoppering a crown at the mouth of a bottle.

  Some bottles filled with beverages such as beer are capped with a crown at the mouth. The crown is plugged by pressing a throat for tightening the outer periphery (skirt) of the crown to the mouth against the outer periphery of the crown in the axial direction of the bottle.

The stoppering machine used for testing or small-scale production has a structure in which the stopper is pressed against the crown by lowering the stoppering head attached with the throat according to the operation of the handle.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-43195

  At the time of capping, a strong force is applied by the throat to the crown placed on the mouth of the bottle, and this force may cause the bottle to burst. It is very dangerous if shards are scattered around by the rupture of the bottle. Conventionally, no countermeasure has been taken against scattering of fragments due to the rupture of the bottle at the time of capping.

  In addition, if the outer peripheral portion of the crown is tightly fitted inside the throat during the plugging, the crown may not be removed from the throat thereafter. If the stopper head is lifted upward in this state, the crown may come off the throat of the stopper head after the bottle is lifted with the crown connected to the stopper head, and the bottle may fall. This fall may cause the bottle to break and scatter, or the operator may be injured by the broken part. In order to solve such a problem, a mechanism for pressing the plunger against the crown through the opening of the throat and extracting the crown from the throat can be considered. This complicates the structure of the head.

  The present invention has been made on the basis of the above-mentioned problem recognition, and an object of the present invention is, for example, to reduce the danger due to rupture or breakage of a bottle associated with stoppering and enable safe stoppering.

  The plugging machine of the present invention is configured as an apparatus or a tool for plugging a crown into the mouth of a bottle, and has a throat and a stopper head supported so as to be movable up and down, a support for supporting the bottle, A handle for lowering the stopper head so that the outer periphery of the crown is tightened to the mouth of the bottle by the throat, and a cover arranged to surround at least the side surface of the bottle placed on the support. And the handle extends outside the cover.

  According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the stoppering machine is configured such that the stopper is lowered after the stopper head is lowered toward the mouth covered with the crown, so that the crown is stoppered in the mouth. A bottle position restricting portion for restricting the position of the bottle so as to prevent the bottle that has been stoppered from being lifted together with the stopper head when the stopper head is raised; It is preferable to provide.

  According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the bottle position restricting portion has a U-shaped inner side surface that is open at a side portion, an upper portion and a lower portion, and is configured such that a bottle can be taken in and out through the side portion, It is preferable that the cover has a door portion, and the bottle position restricting portion is configured such that the opened side portion faces the door portion.

  According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the support body includes a plurality of size-specific bottle bases that respectively fit a plurality of different-size bottles, and one size selected from the plurality of size-specific bottle bases. It preferably includes a support base that supports the bottle base.

  The stoppering machine of the present invention reduces the risk due to, for example, rupture or breakage of the bottle associated with stoppering and enables safe stoppering.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a stoppering machine according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view of the stoppering machine shown in FIG. A stopper 100 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention plugs a crown (lid) 90 into a mouth 1a of a bottle 1 having a mouth 1a, a body 1b, and a tapered intermediate portion 1c therebetween. It is configured as a tool for.

  The stoppering machine 100 includes a stoppering head 10 having a throat 12 for fastening the outer peripheral part (skirt part) of the crown 90 to the mouth part 1 a of the bottle 1. The stopper head 10 is connected to the lower end of the lifting rod 20 and is supported so as to be liftable. Specifically, the lifting rod 20 to which the stopper head 10 is connected is guided by a rod support 40 so as to be lifted and lowered between a rod top 22 provided at the upper end of the lifting rod 20 and the rod support 40. The spring 24 is held at the standby position.

  The elevating rod 20 is engaged with a pin 34 of the handle 30 disposed so as to be rotatable about the rotation shaft 32, and moves up and down in accordance with a rotation operation of the handle 30 by the operator. When the handle 30 is rotated in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, the elevating rod 20 and the stopper head 10 connected to the lower end thereof are lowered. On the other hand, when the operator releases the handle 30, the elevating rod 20 is raised by the restoring force of the pulling 24, and the handle 30 is rotated in the direction of arrow B accordingly. Alternatively, the operator can also turn the handle 30 in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 1, and the lifting rod 20 and the stopper head 10 connected to the lower end thereof are raised accordingly.

  The rod support body 40 is fixed to the support column 70 by a fixing mechanism (for example, a screw) 42. By releasing the lock (fixing) by the fixing mechanism 42, the rod support 40 can be moved in the vertical direction, and the height of the rod support 40 according to the height of the bottle 1 to be plugged ( As a result, the height of the stopper head 10) can be adjusted.

  The bottle 1 to be plugged is placed on the bottle table 62 on the support base 60 and plugged. The bottle table 62 can be fixed to the support base 60 by a fixing mechanism (for example, a screw) 64. Here, the plugging machine 100 includes, for example, a plurality of size-specific bottle bases 62 as optional items, and the size-specific bottle bases 62 selected according to the size of the bottle 1 to be plugged are supported. It is preferable to be fixed to the base 60. The bottle base 62 can typically have a ring-shaped guide that defines the position of the lower portion of the bottle 1, whereby the bottle 1 can be centered on the throat 12 of the stopper head 10.

  Between the bottle base 62 and the stopper head 10, a bottle position restricting portion 50 is disposed. The bottle position regulating unit 50 is connected to an elevating ring (elevating unit) 54 via a connecting unit 52. The elevating ring 54 is fixed to the support 70 by a fixing mechanism (for example, a screw) 56. By releasing the lock (fixing) by the fixing mechanism 56, the elevating ring 54 can be moved in the vertical direction, and the rod support 56 can be moved according to the height of the intermediate portion 1c of the bottle 1 to be plugged. The height (as a result, the height of the bottle position regulating unit 50) can be adjusted.

  When the cap head 10 is lifted after the crown 90 is plugged into the mouth portion 1 a of the bottle 1, the bottle position restricting portion 50 is connected to the throat 12 of the plug head 10 when the stopper 1 is finished. The position of the bottle 1 is regulated by engaging the intermediate portion 1c so as to prevent the bottle 1 from rising with the stopper head 10 in the state. It should be noted that the crown 90 that is plugged into the mouth portion 1a of the bottle 1 and the throat 12 of the plugging head 10 are often connected by the outer periphery of the crown 90 being fitted inside the throat 12 during the plugging. It can happen.

  By providing the bottle position restricting portion 50, when the stopper head 10 is lifted after the stoppering, the stopper 1 is lifted by the stopper head 10 and, thereafter, from the throat 12 of the stopper head 10. It is possible to prevent the bottle 1 from falling due to the mouth 1a being pulled out.

  For example, in this case, when the bottle 1 is disposed on the stopper 100, the bottle position restriction unit 50 is first lifted and then the bottle 1 is placed on the bottle base. It is necessary to lower the bottle position regulating unit 50 after that, and the operation is troublesome. Such annoyance also occurs when the bottle 1 after the stopper is removed from the stopper 100. Therefore, the bottle position restricting portion 50 has a structure (for example, a U-shaped inner side surface 50s opened in the side portion (front side in FIG. 2), the upper portion (upper side in FIG. 2), and the lower portion (lower side in FIG. 2) (for example, The overall shape is preferably C-shaped). According to such a structure, the bottle 1 can be taken in and out (placement and removal of the bottle 1 from the plugging machine 100) through the opening 50a provided on the side, so that the above before and after the plugging as described above. An operator can be freed from troublesomeness.

  The stopper 100 includes a cover 110 disposed on a bottle base (support) 62 that supports the bottle 1 so as to surround at least a side surface of the bottle 1. Here, the cover 110 is disposed so as not to hinder the operation of the handle 30, and the handle 30 extends to the outside of the cover 110 in order to facilitate the operation by the operator.

  The cover 110 prevents the broken pieces of the bottle 1 from being scattered to the surroundings when the bottle 1 receiving the force through the throat 12 is ruptured at the time of plugging, and prevents injury of the worker due to the broken pieces. Contribute to.

  The cover 110 can include, for example, a frame 112, a wall portion 114 supported by the frame 112, and a door portion 116. Here, it is preferable that the door part 116 is arrange | positioned in the position (namely, position where the opening part 50a faces the door part 116) facing the opening part 50a provided in the side part of the bottle position control part 50. . By making the positional relationship between the door part 116 and the opening part 50a of the bottle position restricting part 50 in this way, the operator opens the door part 116 and easily places the bottle 1 to be stoppered on the bottle table 62. In addition, the bottle 1 that has been stoppered can be easily taken out of the cover 110 from the bottle base 62.

  It is preferable that at least the wall portion 114 of the wall portion 114 and the frame 112 is made of a transparent material in consideration of visibility at the time of stoppering and handling of the bottle. Similarly, the door part 116 is also preferably made of a transparent material. Although the door part 116 may be comprised with a hard material, it is preferable to comprise with the material which has a softness | flexibility so that it may be illustrated in FIG. By configuring the door portion 116 with a flexible material, a space required for opening and closing the door portion 116 can be reduced. When the door portion 116 is closed, the door portion 116 can be fixed to the frame 112 by fixing portions (for example, hook-and-loop fasteners) 118 and 120.

  Hereinafter, a method of using the plugging machine 100 will be described. First, the door 116 is opened, the bottle 1 to be stoppered is placed on the bottle base 62, and the crown 90 is placed on the mouth 1 a of the bottle 1. Next, the door portion 116 is closed, and the handle 30 is rotated as shown by an arrow A to lower the stopper head 10 and tighten the outer peripheral portion of the crown 90 with the throat 12 to bring the crown 90 into the mouth portion. Plug into 1a. Next, when the operator releases the handle 30, the stopper head 10 is normally lifted by the restoring force of the spring 24 and pulled away from the mouth 1 a of the bottle 1. Here, when the crown 90 is tightly fitted inside the throat 12, the operator raises the stopper head 12 by rotating the handle 30 in the direction of arrow B, and the mouth of the bottle 1. It can be pulled away from the part 1a. At this time, since the position of the bottle 1 is regulated by the bottle position regulating unit 50 at the intermediate part 1c, the bottle 1 is not lifted with the movement of the plugging head 10, and is not dropped thereafter. .

  When the stoppering is finished, the door 116 is opened, and the stoppered bottle 1 is taken out of the cover 110 from the bottle base 62.

It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the stoppering machine of suitable embodiment of this invention. It is a front view of the plugging machine shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bottle 1a Bottle mouth part 1b Bottle body part 1c Tapered intermediate part 10 Bottle stopper head 12 Throat 20 Lifting rod 22 Rod top 24 Spring 30 Handle 32 Rotating shaft 34 Pin 40 Rod support 42 Fixing mechanism 50 Bottle Position restriction part 50a Opening part 50s provided in the side part of the bottle position restriction part U-shaped inner side surface 52 Connecting part 54 Lifting ring 56 Fixing mechanism 60 Support base 62 Bottle stand 70 Column 90 Crown 100 Plugging machine 100 Cover 112 Frame 114 Wall 116 Door 118, 120 Fixed part

Claims (4)

A capping machine for capping a crown into the mouth of a bottle,
A stoppering head having a throat and supported so as to be movable up and down;
A support for supporting the bottle;
A handle for lowering the stopper head so that the outer periphery of the crown is tightened to the mouth of the bottle by the throat;
A cover disposed to surround at least a side surface of the bottle placed on the support;
And the handle extends outside the cover.   When the stopper head rises after the crown has been plugged into the mouth by lowering the stopper head toward the mouth covered with the crown, The stopper device according to claim 1, further comprising a bottle position restricting portion that restricts the position of the bottle so as to prevent the bottle head from being lifted together with the stopper head in a state of being coupled to the stopper head. The bottle position restricting part has a U-shaped inner side surface that is open at the side, upper part and lower part, and is configured such that the bottle can be taken in and out through the side part,
The said cover has a door part, The said bottle position control part is comprised so that the said opened side part may face the said door part, The stoppering machine of Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.   The support includes a plurality of size-specific bottle tables that respectively fit a plurality of different-size bottles, and a support base that supports one size-specific bottle table selected from the plurality of size-specific bottle tables. The plugging machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein:

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