JP2008179409A - Airtight container and packaging material storing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an airtight container 50 capable of satisfying the UN standard of a shipping container for hazardous material or the like. <P>SOLUTION: A container with an inner lid, which is made of a resin material, includes a container body 10 formed with an externally threaded part 12 on the outer periphery on the upper end side, an inner lid 20 including a peripheral wall 21 which makes close contact with an inner circumference surface on the upper end side of the container body 10, a bottom plate 22 continuing from the lower edge of the peripheral wall 21, and a flange 23 horizontally and outwardly extending from the upper edge of the peripheral wall 21, and an external lid 40 including an internally threaded part 41 on its inner circumference surface to be threadably engaged with the externally threaded part 12 formed at the container body 10. A space S defined by the peripheral wall 21 and the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20 is filled with a plate-like filling material 30 whose thickness is such that a level of its top face 31 is higher than that of a top face of the flange 23 of the inner lid 20. The airtight container 50 consists of the container with the inner lid and the plate-like embedded material 30. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an airtight container and a packaging material containing the airtight container, but is not limited thereto, and in particular, contains an airtight container suitable for transporting infectious substances and diagnostic substances and the airtight container. Related to the packaging material.

  Airtight containers made of resin material are known. For example, in Patent Document 1, a container main body in which an external thread is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the upper end side, a peripheral wall in close contact with the inner peripheral surface of the upper end side of the container main body, a bottom plate continuous to the lower edge of the peripheral wall, A container with an inner lid made of a resin material, comprising: an inner lid having a horizontally extending flange; and an outer lid having an inner screw threadedly engaged with an outer screw formed on the container body. Are listed. Further, Patent Document 2 describes an airtight container provided with a packing corresponding to the above-described inner lid. It consists of an elastic seal member that contacts the back surface.

  Such an airtight container having an inner lid has a close contact between the peripheral wall of the inner lid and the flange portion and the container body, in addition to the closeness formed by a screw engaging portion or the like between the container body and the outer lid. High airtightness can be maintained since the closeness between the inner lid and the outer lid is added.

Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-88653 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2006-273384

  In recent years, high safety has been demanded for transport containers for dangerous goods and the like on air and sea, and strict inspection standards for such transport containers are set in the UN standard. For example, PI620 is a category A, which transports infectious substances, inspection standards for combination containers including secondary containers, and PI650 is a category B, which transports diagnostic specimens, primary and secondary containers Inspection standards for combination containers including Here, the primary container is a container that directly stores an infectious substance or a diagnostic sample, and the secondary container is a container that further stores a primary container that stores an infectious substance or a diagnostic sample. Say. In order to prevent the substances and specimens contained in the primary container from leaking to the outside when a problem occurs in the primary container during transportation, the secondary container must have an internal pressure of 95 kPa or higher and −40 ° C. It is required to maintain airtightness at a temperature in the range of + 55 ° C. Currently, secondary containers (airtight containers) that meet the above inspection standards are not manufactured in Japan, but depend on products from foreign suppliers.

  Moreover, the said standard has prescribed | regulated the strict test | inspection standard about a drop test and a burst test also about the packaging material when transporting a secondary container.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide an airtight container that can satisfy the UN standard for a transport container for dangerous goods and the like, and a packaging material that accommodates the airtight container.

  An airtight container according to the present invention includes a container main body having an outer thread formed on an outer peripheral surface on the upper end side, a peripheral wall in close contact with the inner peripheral surface on the upper end side of the container main body, a bottom plate connected to the lower edge of the peripheral wall, and an upper edge of the peripheral wall. A container with an inner lid made of a resin material, comprising: an inner lid having a flange extending to the outer lid; and an outer lid having an inner screw threadedly engaged with an outer screw formed on the container body; A plate-like embedding material having a thickness that can enter an area defined by the peripheral wall and the bottom plate of the inner lid and whose upper surface is higher than the upper surface of the flange of the inner lid. It is characterized by that.

  In the experiments by the present inventors, in the conventionally known container with an inner lid, when the inner pressure of the container is increased, the bottom plate of the inner lid is curved upward, and the deformation of the bottom plate is intermediate. It was experienced that the closeness between the lid and the container body and the closeness between the inner lid and the outer lid were adversely affected, thereby reducing hermeticity and not being able to maintain high hermeticity. In particular, when the hermetic container was placed at a low temperature of about −40 ° C., the decrease in hermeticity was significant. At a low temperature, the material constituting the container shrinks, and it is considered that the deformation due to the shrinkage of the material constituting the inner lid in particular causes a decrease in airtightness.

  In the airtight container according to the present invention, a plate having a thickness that can enter the region defined by the peripheral wall and the bottom plate of the inner lid, and whose upper surface is higher than the upper surface of the flange of the inner lid in the state of entering. The bottom plate of the inner lid tries to bend toward the outer lid side by high internal pressure by screwing and fixing the outer lid in a state where the embedding material is put in the inner lid. This can be prevented by the embedding material entering between the inner lid and the outer lid. Thereby, high airtightness is ensured. The present inventors experimentally confirmed that the airtightness can be maintained at an internal pressure of 95 kPa or more and a temperature of -40 ° C. Therefore, the airtight container according to the present invention is suitable for use as the secondary container described above.

  The shape of the embedding material is preferably a flat plate shape, and the outer diameter is preferably substantially the same as or slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the inner lid. The material of the embedding material is not particularly limited as long as it has a mechanical strength sufficient to withstand the pressure in the container, but a foamed resin material and a foamed rubber material are preferable. A foamed resin material is preferable because it is excellent in lightness and handleability and has an appropriate compressibility, and foamed polystyrene having an expansion ratio of about 20 to 70 times is particularly preferable.

  As for the shape of the embedding material, in addition to the flat plate shape described above, a hole (through hole) is formed from the upper surface of the flat plate shape to the lower surface, and the hole and the outer peripheral surface of the embedding material are formed. It is more preferable that it is a form provided with one notch to communicate. For example, when the peripheral wall of the inner lid is formed in a cylindrical shape, airtightness can be improved by adopting a form in which this embedding material has substantially the same diameter as the peripheral wall and has a donut shape in plan view. According to such an embedding material, a notch having a predetermined width leading to the central hole and the outer peripheral surface is formed, so that the outer diameter size of the embedding material and the inner diameter size of the inner lid peripheral wall are approximately the same. Even in such a case, the embedding material can be elastically deformed to a small dimension by the notch width by a manual pressing force, and the installation work is facilitated by entering the inner lid in this posture. Similarly, it can be easily removed from the inner lid. Further, when the airtight container is in a low temperature state as described above and the inner lid and the outer lid are contracted and deformed, the embedding material is elastically deformed to a small size by at least the notch width, and the inner cover and the like are contracted and deformed. Can follow.

  Furthermore, the thickness of the embedding material is preferably about 2 to 5 mm thicker than the distance from the bottom plate of the inner lid to the top surface of the flange. With this thickness, the outer lid can be used to press the bottom of the inner lid toward the inside of the container with an appropriate pressure, and it is possible to reliably suppress the deformation of the bottom plate of the inner lid due to the pressure in the container. it can. Most preferably, the material of the embedding material is an elastic material and has a thickness as described above.

  The present invention, as a packaging material provided with the above-described airtight container, accommodates any one of the above airtight containers containing an object to be accommodated, a buffer material surrounding the airtight container, and an airtight container surrounded by the buffer material. There is also disclosed a packaging material comprising an outer box container. This packaging material is suitable when the item to be stored is a room temperature product (for example, bacteria, etc.), and can be dropped by using, for example, a cardboard box as a cushioning material, and by using a cardboard box or the like as an outer box container. Etc. with high safety.

  As another form of the packaging material provided with the above-described airtight container, the present invention provides any one of the above airtight containers containing the objects to be accommodated, the heat insulating container containing the airtight container, and the heat insulation containing the airtight container. There is also disclosed a packaging material comprising an outer box container further containing a container. This packaging material is suitable when the object to be stored is a frozen product (for example, a virus). For example, the airtight container is accommodated together with a refrigerant such as dry ice in a heat insulating container made of foamed resin, for example. For example, a packaging material having high safety against dropping or the like can be obtained by being housed in an outer container such as a cardboard box.

  According to the present invention, an airtight container capable of clearing the airtight test in the UN standards (PI620, PI650) for containers for transporting dangerous goods can be obtained. Moreover, the package body which accommodated the airtight container which can clear a drop test etc. is obtained.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an airtight container according to the present invention and a packaging material containing the same will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of an airtight container according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between an inner lid and an embedding material, and FIG. 3 is another embodiment of the embedding material. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a state before the outer lid is closed, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the outer lid is closed to be in an airtight state. Moreover, FIGS. 6-8 is a figure explaining the packaging material by this invention.

An airtight container 50 according to the present invention in the form shown in FIG. 1 includes a bottomed cylindrical container body 10 made of a resin material. An upper end edge 11 of the container body 10 is a horizontal plane, and an outer screw 12 is integrally formed on the outer peripheral surface on the upper end side. In this example, the container body 10 is an integrally molded product of HDPE (high density polyethylene, linear expansion coefficient 11 to 13 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K ⁻¹ ).

An inner lid 20 made of a resin material is attached to the upper open portion of the container body 10. The inner lid 20 includes a peripheral wall 21 that is at least partially in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the upper end side of the container body 10 over the entire periphery, a bottom plate 22 that is continuous with the lower edge of the peripheral wall 21, and an upper surface of the peripheral wall 21. And a flange 23 extending horizontally from the edge. In this example, the inner lid 20 is an integrally molded product of LDPE (low density polyethylene, linear expansion coefficient 16 to 18 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K ⁻¹ ). The illustrated inner lid 20 also has an inner flange 24 on the inner surface side of the peripheral wall 21 in order to facilitate removal.

  The airtight container 50 according to the present invention can enter the region S defined by the peripheral wall 21 and the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20, and the upper surface 31 of the airtight container 50 from the upper surface of the flange 23 of the inner lid 20. Is provided with a plate-like embedding material 30 having an upper thickness b. As shown in FIG. 2, when the distance from the inner surface of the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20 to the upper surface of the flange 23 is h, the thickness b of the embedding material 30 is (h + a), where 0 <A. Usually, a may be about 2 mm to 5 mm.

  As shown in the figure, the above-described embedding material 30 is a flat surface and has a disk shape having an upper surface 31, a lower surface 32, and a peripheral surface 33 that are parallel to each other, and the diameter thereof is the inner diameter of the inner flange 24 of the inner lid 20. It is almost equal to the dimension. Further, a hole 34 is formed in the center for easy handling, but this hole 34 may be omitted. In this example, the embedding material 30 is made of an elastic material, and examples of the elastic material include a foamed resin material and a foamed rubber material.

  Further, an embedding material 30A as shown in FIG. 3 can be used. The embedding material 30A is made of an elastic material such as a foamed resin material or a foamed rubber material, like the embedding material 30, and the shape of the embedding material 30A having a hole 34 in the center is a donut shape. A notch 35 communicating with the hole 34 and the peripheral surface 33 is formed. The inventors of the present invention manufactured an embedding material 30A having the same diameter as the peripheral wall 21 of the inner lid 20, and inserted the embedding material 30A into the inner lid 20 or removed it from the inner lid 20 during the work. The quality of workability was verified. As a result, when the notch 35 having a predetermined width is formed, the embedding material 30A is manually deformed to a small size by pressing the embedding material 30A in the circumferential direction, and the embedding material 30A is taken out in that posture. It has been demonstrated that the ease of removal is improved compared to the case of the embedding material 30. The width of the notch 35 is preferably about 2 to 9 mm in an embedding material 30A having an outer diameter of 110 mm and a thickness of about 15 mm, which will be described later. If the width is too small, the amount of deformation in the circumferential direction is small, which does not improve workability. If the width is too large, the amount of deformation until the end surfaces sandwiching the notch 35 are brought into contact with each other by manual pressing force. This is because it becomes excessive and there is a risk of damaging the embedding material 30A itself.

The hermetic container 50 according to the present invention further includes an outer lid 40 made of a resin material provided with an inner screw 41 screwed to an outer screw 12 formed on the container body 10 on the inner peripheral surface of the peripheral wall 42. In this example, the outer lid 40 is an integrally molded product of PP (polypropylene, linear expansion coefficient 6 to 10 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K ⁻¹ ). The back surface of the top plate 43 of the outer lid 40 is a substantially flat surface. As will be described later, when the container main body 10 is screw-engaged, the back surface of the top plate 43 is connected to the upper surface 31 of the embedding material 30 and the middle. The lid 20 comes into contact with the upper surface of the flange 23.

  In using the airtight container 50, a container (for example, a primary container containing a specimen) (not shown) is accommodated in the container body 10. Next, the inner lid 20 is attached to the upper open part of the container body 10. As shown in FIG. 4, the lower surface of the flange 23 of the inner lid 20 is in close contact with the upper end edge 11 of the container body 10, and a part of the peripheral wall 21 of the inner lid 20 is on the upper end side of the container body 10 over the entire circumference. It is in close contact with the inner peripheral surface. Next, the embedding material 30 is put into a region S defined by the inner side of the peripheral wall 21 of the inner lid 20 and the bottom plate 22. As shown in FIG. 4, the bottom surface 32 of the embedding material 30 is substantially in close contact with the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20, and in this state, the upper surface 31 of the inner lid 20 is more than the upper surface of the flange 23 of the inner lid 20. The position is higher by the distance a.

  Next, the outer lid 40 is tightened while being rotated in a state where the inner screw 41 is screwed to the outer screw 12 formed on the container body 10. The state after tightening is shown in FIG. By tightening the outer lid 40 by screw fitting, the upper surface 31 of the embedding material 30 is gradually compressed while being pressed against the top surface 43 of the outer lid 40, and is compressed to the same level as the upper surface of the flange 23 of the inner lid 20. The The compression force also acts as a force that pushes down the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20. Thereby, the adhesion force in the contact area between the inner lid 20 and the container body 10, the contact area between the inner lid 20 and the outer lid 40, and the contact area between the container body 10 and the outer lid 40 is further increased.

  Assume that a high pressure is applied to the inside of the container body 10 in this state. As described above, a high downward pressure is applied to the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20 by the function of the embedding material 30, and deformation of the bottom plate 22 of the inner lid 20 due to the internal pressure in the container body 10 can be suppressed. Thereby, it can prevent that the airtightness in the above-mentioned close region falls, and high airtightness is maintained as it is. Furthermore, when the resin material is placed in a cryogenic environment, the resin material tends to shrink. However, the shrinkage can also be suppressed by the force acting on the inner lid 20 via the embedding material 30, so that the airtightness is also lowered. Can be effectively prevented.

  This hermeticity deterioration preventing function is naturally maintained even when the airtight container 50 is placed in a high temperature environment.

  In actual physical distribution of the airtight container 50, as shown in FIG. 6, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a cushioning material 60 such as a single cardboard is provided outside the airtight container 50 in which the contents are accommodated as described above. In this state, the product is wound, accommodated in a transport container 70 such as a cardboard box, packed as shown in FIG. In addition, when the contents need to be frozen like a virus, as shown in FIG. 7, in a heat insulating container 73 made of a foamed resin lid 71 and a container 72, for example, with a refrigerant such as dry ice. An airtight container 50 is accommodated, which is accommodated in a transport container 70 such as a cardboard box, packed as shown in FIG.

  The packaging material 80 in this state is a packaging that clears the drop test and the burst test set by the UN standard by appropriately setting the entrainment conditions of the buffer material 60, the strength of the heat insulating container 73 and the transport container 70, and the like. It can be a material.

  Hereinafter, the airtight container of the present invention will be described with reference to examples and comparative examples, but it is obvious that the present invention is not limited to the products of this example.

[Example]
1. A container with an inner lid and an embedding material having the shapes shown in FIGS.
A container body 10 having an inner diameter of 120 mm, a container height of 125 mm, and a thickness of 2 mm was integrally molded with HDPE (high density polyethylene, linear expansion coefficient of 11 to 13 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K ⁻¹ ).
The inner lid 20 has an outer diameter of 120 mm, a depth from the flange surface to the bottom plate of 12 mm, a flange width of 4 mm, and a thickness of 2 mm as LDPE (low density polyethylene, linear expansion coefficient of 16 to 18 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K). ^-1 ).
The outer lid 40 had an outer diameter of 125 mm and a height of 17 mm, and was integrally formed of PP (polypropylene, linear expansion coefficient 6 to 10 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K ⁻¹ ).
The embedding material 30 had an outer diameter of 110 mm, a thickness of 15 mm, and was molded from expanded polystyrene having a magnification of 40 times. The linear expansion coefficient of the expanded polystyrene used is 6 to 8 × 10 ⁻⁵ · K ⁻¹ .
2. The inner lid 20 was attached to the container body 10, the embedding material 30 was put into the inner lid 20, and the outer lid 40 was tightened by screw fitting to form an airtight container 50.
3. A hole was made in the bottom surface of the container body 10, and an air hose with a gauge connected to the compressor was placed in the container body 10 and sealed. The compressor was operated and an internal pressure of 130 kPa was applied in the airtight container 50. In that state, it was left in a freezer at −40 ° C. for 30 minutes. The internal pressure in the airtight container 50 after leaving for 30 minutes was 98 kPa. When water leakage was applied to the screw fitting portion of the outer lid 40 to evaluate air leakage, no air leakage was observed.
4). In the same manner as described above, an airtight container 50 with an internal pressure of 130 kPa was prepared. It was attached to an antifreeze solution (ethylene glycol solution) cooled to −40 ° C., and air leakage from the screw fitting portion of the outer lid 40 was evaluated. During the evaluation, the internal pressure was maintained at 95 kPa. After all, there was no air leak.

[Comparative Example 1]
The same air leakage evaluation as in Example 1 was performed using the airtight container used in Example 1 without attaching the embedding material 30 to the airtight container. In each case, air leakage was observed.

[Discussion]
The embodiment using the embedding material 30 has no air leakage in an environment of −40 ° C., and the effectiveness of the airtight container 50 according to the present invention is shown. The environment of −40 ° C. is the most severe environment in which the material of the inner lid 20 contracts, and there is no air leakage under these conditions. Air leakage does not occur. Therefore, it turns out that the airtight container 50 of an Example is a container which can clear the airtight test imposed on the secondary container prescribed | regulated to PI620 and PI650 in the above-mentioned UN specification transport container.

The perspective view which decomposes | disassembles and shows one Embodiment of the airtight container 50 by this invention. The figure for demonstrating the relationship between the inner cover 20 and the embedding material 30. FIG. The perspective view which shows the other form of an embedding material. The figure which shows the state before carrying out the outer cover 40 in a cross section. Sectional drawing when the outer lid 40 is closed to be in an airtight state. The figure explaining one form of the packaging material 80 by this invention. The figure for demonstrating the heat insulation container 73 used with the other form of the packaging material 80 by this invention. The figure which shows the packaging material 80 by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 50 ... Airtight container, 10 ... Container main body, 11 ... Upper end edge of container main body, 12 ... Outer screw of container main body, 20 ... Inner lid, 21 ... Perimeter wall of inner lid, 22 ... Bottom plate of inner lid, 23 ... Flange, 24 ... inner flange of the inner lid, S ... region defined by the peripheral wall and bottom plate of the inner lid, 30, 30A ... embedding material, 31 ... upper surface of the embedding material, 32 ... lower surface of the embedding material, 34 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS ... Hole of embedding material, 35 ... Notch, 40 ... Outer lid, 41 ... Inner screw of outer lid, 42 ... Perimeter wall of outer lid, 43 ... Top plate of outer lid, 60 ... Buffer material, 70 ... Container for transport 73 ... heat insulation container, 80 ... packaging material

Claims (6)

A container main body having an outer thread formed on the outer peripheral surface of the upper end side, a peripheral wall in close contact with the inner peripheral surface of the upper end side of the container main body, a bottom plate continuous to the lower edge of the peripheral wall, and a flange extending horizontally from the upper edge of the peripheral wall A container with an inner lid made of a resin material, comprising a lid and an outer lid having an inner screw threadedly engaged with an outer screw formed on the container body;
A plate-like embedding material having a thickness in which the upper surface of the inner lid is higher than the upper surface of the flange of the inner lid in a state of being able to enter an area defined by the peripheral wall and the bottom plate of the inner lid;
An airtight container comprising:   The airtight container according to claim 1, wherein the embedding material is made of a foamed resin.   The said embedding material is provided with the hole leading to the lower surface from the said upper surface, and is equipped with one notch communicating with this hole and the outer peripheral surface of this embedding material, The Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. Airtight container.   The airtight container according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a thickness of the embedding material is 2 to 5 mm thicker than a distance from a bottom plate of the inner lid to an upper surface of the flange.   The airtight container according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which accommodates an object to be accommodated, a buffer material surrounding the airtight container, and an outer box container containing an airtight container surrounded by the buffer material. A packaging material characterized by   The airtight container according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which accommodates an object to be accommodated, a heat insulating container made of foamed resin that accommodates the airtight container, and an outer box container that further accommodates the heat insulating container that accommodates the airtight container. And a packaging material characterized by comprising:

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