JP2009234633A - Liquid filling machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid filling machine capable of preventing the filled liquid from being scattered to the surroundings and giving a highly precise filling amount without decreasing a filling velocity. <P>SOLUTION: The liquid filling machine includes a liquid passage 2 guiding a liquid from a hopper 1 with the liquid to be filled to a filling nozzle 6, a flexible tube 4 mounted in a predetermined section of the liquid passage 2, and movable pressing members 5 pressing the flexible tube 4. A plurality of the pressing members 5 are mounted in a lateral line, the flexible tube 4 is mounted directly under the pressing members 5, the flow passage 2 from the flexible tube 4 to the filling nozzle 6 is formed as a bent passage having at least one ascent and descent section 7, and the flow amount of the liquid in the flexible tube 4 is controlled in several steps by pressing the flexible tube 4 on a horizontal plane with the pressing members 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a liquid filling machine, and more particularly to an improvement of a liquid filling machine that fills a container such as an ampoule or a basket with a liquid.

Conventionally, as a technique for filling a container with a liquid, for example, the liquid is led through a conduit from a tank storing the liquid to be filled into the container to a filling needle (nozzle), and the on-off valve provided in the middle of the conduit is opened to open the liquid. A liquid pressure injection method for injecting a liquid into a container by pressure is well known. At that time, filling of the liquid is started by opening the on-off valve, and then the liquid pressure upstream of the on-off valve is measured, and the filling time corresponding to the measured pressure is calculated from a predetermined pressure-filling time function. Patent Document 1 (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 1-46392) describes a method of filling a liquid by opening the on-off valve for a period of time calculated by a vessel and the time of the calculation result.

After that, the technique described in Patent Document 1 opens and closes the opening / closing valve by moving one push frame (open / close valve) forward and backward by the operation of the air cylinder. However, when the viscosity of the liquid to be filled is low, it has been found that a problem of dripping occurs, and as a technique for solving this problem, a liquid filling machine that does not worry about dripping is disclosed in Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent No. 3454875). Gazette).
The liquid filling machine disclosed in Patent Document 2 is provided with a plurality of push frames (pressing members), and at the time of filling, the flexible tube disposed as a liquid passage in a certain section is pressed by a pressing member in a plurality of stages to control the liquid flow rate. In addition, at the time of filling stop, at least one of the downstream pressing members is moved from the advance position to the retract position, thereby increasing the volume in the flexible tube, thereby causing a suck back phenomenon, and the nozzle By pulling up the filling liquid inside, dripping can be prevented.

JP-B-1-46392 Japanese Patent No. 3454875

However, the liquid filling machine described in Patent Document 2 has a structure in which a flexible tube disposed as a liquid passage is pressed immediately above the nozzle, and an air cylinder that simply repeats forward and backward is used as a pressing member. belongs to. Therefore, for example, when the full amount is filled, all the flexible tubes are released from the pressure and are fully opened. This causes a problem that not only the area around the filling machine is soiled but also the filling amount cannot be finely adjusted.
In order to overcome this problem, it is possible to use a technique in which a mesh strainer or the like is inserted into the tip of the nozzle, but in that case, the liquid to be filled is contained in the liquid like dressing. In the case where it contains spices, granular seasonings, etc., clogging occurs in the mesh, making it unsuitable as a filling machine for these liquids.
In addition, when the pressing member is in a half-open state in order to reduce the liquid pressure from the fully opened flexible tube, the liquid flow rate decreases, and although the scattering of the liquid in all directions can be reduced somewhat, the filling speed will decrease. Another problem arises that production efficiency deteriorates.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above, and its purpose is not only to prevent dripping but also to prevent the liquid to be filled from being scattered during filling and to reduce the filling speed. An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid filling machine capable of obtaining a highly accurate filling amount without any problems.

  That is, the liquid filling machine of the present invention is provided with a liquid passage that guides the liquid from the hopper that stores the filling liquid to the filling nozzle, a flexible tube is provided in a certain section of the liquid passage, and the flexible tube is provided. In a liquid filling machine provided with a movable pressing member for pressing, a plurality of the pressing members are provided in a horizontal row, the flexible tube is provided immediately below the pressing member, and the flexible tube to the filling nozzle are provided. The flow passage is provided as a bent passage having at least one lifting section, and the flexible tube is pressed on a horizontal plane by the pressing member to control the flow rate of the liquid in the flexible tube in a plurality of stages. It is characterized by that.

With such a configuration, the liquid guided from the hopper to the liquid passage may be discharged in a rectified state when discharged from the filling nozzle through the bent passage, and scattering to the periphery may be eliminated.
The reason for this is not clear, but the liquid is affected by frictional resistance from the inner wall of the bent passage while passing through the bent passage, and is also relaxed without directly receiving the liquid pressure from the hopper. This is presumed to be caused by

At this time, if the pressing member is a servo cylinder having a motor used in an electric servomechanism, the cylinder can be moved forward and backward more accurately than the air cylinder, and each can be operated multiple times with high accuracy. It is even better because it can be adjusted in a minute amount.

  In addition, if the liquid outlet of the filling nozzle is provided at the same level as or higher than the horizontal plane, the siphon effect is less likely to occur, so a more stable result can be obtained in the prevention of scattering and the adjustment of the amount of filling. Good.

As a result of employing the above configuration, the present invention can obtain the following effects.
That is, by providing a plurality of pressing members in a horizontal row and forming a bent passage in which at least one lifting section is formed in the flow passage between the flexible tube provided immediately below the pressing member and the filling nozzle. The filling liquid can be rectified and filled without being scattered from the liquid outlet of the nozzle to the periphery.
Further, by using an electric servo cylinder as the pressing member, a minute adjustment of the filling amount can be easily performed with high accuracy.
Furthermore, by providing the liquid outlet of the filling nozzle at the same level as or higher than the horizontal plane that presses the flexible tube, it is possible to more stably prevent scattering of the filling liquid at the liquid outlet. A small amount of the amount can be adjusted.

Hereinafter, a liquid filling machine of the present invention will be described with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an example of a liquid filling machine according to the present invention, and is a schematic front view for explaining the whole image. 2 is a partial sectional view showing a state in which the upstream side of the pressing member (servo cylinder) according to the embodiment of the present invention is fully closed, and FIG. 3 is a liquid filling using an air cylinder as a conventional pressing member. It is a schematic front view which shows a machine.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a hopper that stores liquid to be filled. A flow sensor (detector) 3 and a flexible tube 4 are provided in a predetermined section through a liquid passage 2 that guides the liquid in the hopper 1. It is. At this time, the flexible tube 4 is supported on a horizontal base 8 and is opened and closed by a plurality of (two in this embodiment) pressing members (servo cylinders) 5 and 5 arranged in a horizontal row. As a structure that can be controlled.
Further, the liquid passage 2 from the flexible tube 4 to the filling nozzle 6 is a bent passage in which at least one lifting section 7 is formed. Furthermore, the liquid outlet 6 a of the filling nozzle 6 is provided at a position several mm higher than the horizontal table 8.
In the present embodiment, the filling nozzle 6 is attached to the end of the bent passage of the liquid passage 2, but the bent passage and the filling nozzle 6 may be integrated.

  Here, the plurality of pressing members 5 and 5 that open and close the conduit of the flexible tube are controlled via a control device (amplifier) 9 for an information signal from the flow sensor 3. The liquid filling apparatus according to the present embodiment fills the container 10 with the liquid from the filling nozzle 6 through the bending circuit in which the plurality of pressing members 5 and 5 and the elevating section 7 are formed.

In this embodiment, the pressing members 5 and 5 of the liquid filling machine are configured to have two servo cylinders capable of switching the pressing position in 16 stages. As a result, the opening / closing diameter of the liquid passage 2 is adjusted to an arbitrary plurality of stages, and the flow rate of the liquid can be switched and controlled in multiple stages so as to be in a desired state. These controls are generally performed by a sequencer.
Thereby, compared with the apparatus which employ | adopted multiple air cylinders as the conventional press member, adjustment of filling amount can be performed with a sufficient precision and it is possible to prevent the dispersion | variation in the filling amount to a container reliably.

In the liquid filling machine of this embodiment, the flow rate of the liquid flowing from the hopper 1 to the filling nozzle 6 is precisely controlled by the pressing member 5 in the section of the flexible tube 4 provided in the liquid passage 2. Further, in the elevating section 7 of the liquid passage 2, the liquid flowing inside is subjected to interference due to frictional resistance by the inner wall of the liquid passage tube, and the flow is rectified so that the liquid outlet 6 a of the filling nozzle 6 is moved to the periphery. It is discharged into the container 10 without being scattered.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is one Example of this invention liquid filling machine, and the schematic front view for demonstrating the whole image. FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a state where an upstream side of a pressing member (servo cylinder) of the liquid filling machine in FIG. 1 is fully closed. The schematic front view which shows the conventional liquid filling machine which used the air cylinder as a press member.

Explanation of symbols

1 Hopper 2 Liquid passage 3 Flow rate sensor (detector)
4 Flexible tube 5 Pressing member 6 Filling nozzle 6a Liquid outlet 7 Elevating section 8 Horizontal base 9 Control device (amplifier)
10 containers

Claims (3)

  A liquid passage that guides the liquid is provided from the hopper that stores the filling liquid to the filling nozzle, a flexible tube is provided in a certain section of the liquid passage, and a movable pressing member that presses the flexible tube is provided. In the liquid filling machine, a plurality of the pressing members are provided in a horizontal row, the flexible tube is provided immediately below the pressing member, and a flow path from the flexible tube to the filling nozzle is provided in at least one lifting section. A liquid filling machine which is provided as a formed bent passage, presses the flexible tube on a horizontal plane by the pressing member, and controls the flow rate of the liquid in the flexible tube in a plurality of stages.   The liquid filling machine according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is a servo cylinder.   The liquid filling machine according to claim 1, wherein a liquid outlet of the filling nozzle is provided at a position equal to or higher than the horizontal plane.

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