JP2010197054A - Inspection apparatus of sealing performance in sealed section - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inspection apparatus capable of continuously inspecting the sealing performance of a sealed section and recording a reaction force of a product at each product. <P>SOLUTION: The inspection apparatus 1 includes: a conveyer belt 12 for transporting a product 2 having a sealed section 3b; a load cell 31 connected to a ball screw 37 connected to a motor 35; an air cylinder 32 mounted to a lower surface of the load cell 31; and a photoelectric sensor 33 for detecting that the product 2 has reached a part below the air cylinder 32. The load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 in a state for pressing the product are transferred to a downstream side at the same transfer speed as that of the product according to a detection signal of the photoelectric sensor 33. In the meantime, the reaction force of the product 2 is measured by the load cell 31. After the measurement is completed, the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 in a state for pressing the product are transferred to their original positions for the measurement of a next product 2. Then, the quality of sealing performance in the sealed section 3b is determined from measurement values and criterion values of the load cell 31 at each product 2 and the measurement values and the determination results are stored. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting sealability of a seal portion in a product in which a flexible container is filled with contents and a seal portion is formed and sealed.

  After filling a flexible container such as a tube or bag made of a resin such as polypropylene or polyethylene with contents such as liquid or paste, a sealed part is formed as a food product, It is used in many fields such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Such a product is manufactured by filling the container with the contents, and then sealing the filling port by heat fusion, ultrasonic welding, etc., but the container molding conditions and sealing conditions are poor, the content in the filling port For example, the thickness of the resin at the sealing part may become uneven due to things such as adhesion of objects or moisture, resulting in problems such as extremely thin parts or pin holes penetrating inside and outside the container, or insufficient sealing strength. May occur. Therefore, after the seal portion is formed, the sealability of the seal portion is inspected.

  As a method for inspecting the sealing performance of the seal portion, first, a method is adopted in which an operator pushes the container one by one with his / her hand and visually confirms whether the contents leak from the seal portion.

  In addition, as a method for continuously inspecting the sealing performance of the sealing parts of many products, a method for directly detecting the contents leaking from the sealing parts by applying a predetermined pressing force to the products filled with the contents has been proposed. ing. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-26300) attaches a tube filled with contents at a predetermined interval to a conveyor that conveys a tube at a predetermined interval and a chain roller that circulates in synchronization with the conveyor. By directly contacting the seal part with an air cylinder having a tube pressurizing pusher, a puncture detection plate having a printed circuit board configured to short-circuit the electric circuit when the contents leaked from the seal part are attached An apparatus including a detection plate for detecting a small amount of leakage attached to the seal portion is proposed.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-26300

  However, the method in which an operator presses the container filled with the contents one by one by hand to visually check the presence or absence of leakage from the seal portion takes a lot of labor and time for the work, and is loaded on the product. As the pressing force varies, the presence of pinholes may be missed, and a reliable 100% inspection cannot be performed.

  Moreover, according to the method as shown in Patent Document 1, it is possible to continuously inspect leakage of contents from the seal portions of many products, but in this method, the product against the pressing force of the pressing member Since the information on the load acting on the product such as reaction force of the product is not recorded for each product, it cannot be used for product management. Management information such as “the overall trend is decreasing” cannot be obtained.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is an apparatus capable of continuously inspecting the sealing performance of seal portions of a large number of products, and can record the reaction force of the product against the pressing force of the pressing member for each product. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of using stored records for product management.

  The sealing unit sealability inspection apparatus according to the present invention that achieves the above-described object includes a conveying unit that horizontally places and conveys the product, and is disposed above the conveying unit and presses the upper surface of the conveyed product. Possible pressing means, load measuring means capable of measuring the reaction force of the product against the pressing force of the pressing means, and a product for detecting that the product conveyed by the conveying means has reached the pressing means The load measuring means and the pressing means in a state where the product is pressed in accordance with the detection signal of the product detecting means are transferred downstream at the same speed as the conveying speed of the product, and then the load measuring means And the pressing means in a state where the product is not pressed to the original position before the movement, and the seal portion compared with the measured value of the load measuring means and a predetermined criterion value of Determination means for determining quality of sealing properties, characterized by comprising a storage means for storing a determination result of the measurement values and the determination means of the load measuring means.

  In the present invention, the pressing means in the state of pressing the product and the load measuring means move downstream at the same speed as the product conveyance speed, and during this movement, the reaction force of the product is measured by the load measuring means and determined. Since the judgment means judges the quality of the seal part sealability compared to the judgment reference value, products with good sealability and products with insufficient sealability can be easily and accurately determined. Can be separated. And since a memory | storage means memorize | stores the measured value of a load measuring means and the determination result of a determination means for every product, a record can be used for product management. In addition, after the load measurement, since the pressing means and the load measuring means in a state where the product is not pressed returns to the original position before the movement for the measurement of the next product, the seal portions of a large number of products Sealability can be continuously checked.

  In a preferred configuration, in addition to the above-described configuration, the seal portion sealing property inspection device of the present invention includes scattered matter detection means for detecting scattered matter scattered from the seal portion by pressing of the pressing means, and the determination means includes: From the detection signal of the scattered matter detection means and the comparison result between the measurement value of the load measurement means and the determination reference value, the quality of the sealing portion is determined. With this configuration, it is possible to improve the accuracy of determining whether or not the sealing portion is sealed.

  In a preferred configuration, the load measuring means in the sealability inspection device of the present invention is a load cell, the pressing means is an air cylinder attached to the lower surface of the load cell, and the transfer means transfers the load cell. By doing so, the load cell and the air cylinder are transferred together. According to this configuration, it is possible to easily realize the integration of the load cell and the air cylinder, and it is also possible to easily realize the integral transfer.

  Further, in a preferred configuration, the conveying means in the sealing portion sealability inspection device of the present invention is a conveyor belt, a plurality of the products are spaced on the conveyor belt, and the sealing portion is one side edge of the conveyor belt. Further, product placement means for transporting the product along the line is provided. According to this configuration, the pressing position of the product can be made uniform, and the leakage material leaked from the seal portion can be easily collected.

  According to the sealability inspection device of the seal part of the present invention, it is possible to continuously check the sealability of the seal part of a large number of products, and record the reaction force of the product against the pressing force of the pressing member for each product. The stored records can be used for product management.

It is a schematic plan view of the sealing property test | inspection apparatus of the seal part of embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic front view of the sealing property test | inspection apparatus of the seal part shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the measuring method of the reaction force of a product. It is explanatory drawing which shows the detection method of the scattered material from a seal part.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIGS. 1 and 2 show a schematic plan view and a front view, respectively, of the sealability inspection apparatus 1 for a seal portion of the present embodiment.

  A product 2 to be inspected by the apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is a product in which a flexible tube-shaped container 3 made of resin is filled with a liquid content, and the mouth and neck of the tube-shaped container 3 is cap 4. After sealing, the contents are filled from the bottom 3a, and then the vicinity of the bottom 3a is sealed by heat fusion, ultrasonic welding, or the like to form the seal portion 3b.

  A conveyor belt (conveying means) 12 is attached to the base 11 of the sealability inspection device 1 of the seal portion of the present embodiment so that the product 2 on the conveyor belt 12 is conveyed in the direction of arrow A. It has become.

  Symbol 20 indicates an arrangement mechanism (product arrangement means) for arranging the seal portions 3b of the products 2 along the one side edge 12a of the conveyor belt 12. The arrangement mechanism 20 includes guides 21 a and 21 b, an optical fiber sensor 22, a servo motor 23 housed in an arm portion 26, four radially extending blade members 24 attached to a shaft 23 a of the servo motor 23, and a positioning guide 25. It is comprised by. The angle formed by the adjacent blade members 24 is set to 90 °. When a signal is transmitted from the optical fiber sensor 22 while the rotation of the rotary shaft 23a of the servomotor 23 is stopped, the servomotor is transmitted according to the transmission signal. 23 rotation shafts 23a are configured to rotate by 90 ° in the direction of arrow B and stop.

  Symbol 30 indicates a measuring unit for measuring the reaction force of the product by applying a predetermined pressing force to the product 2. The measuring unit 30 has a load cell (load measuring means) 31, an air cylinder (pressing means) 32, an optical fiber sensor (product detecting means) 33, and a load cell transfer mechanism (transfer means) 34 as main components. is doing. FIG. 3 is a schematic front view showing the vicinity of the measurement unit 30, but a collection tray 41 and a front panel of the control panel 50 described later are omitted for easy understanding.

  The load cell transfer mechanism 34 includes a motor 35 fixed to a fixed plate 39 attached to the base 11, a ball screw 37 supported by the fixed plate 39 and connected to a rotation shaft 35 a of the motor 35 via a belt 36, and a ball screw The slide base 38 is screwed with the slide base 38. A load cell 31 is attached to the lower surface of the slide base 38, and an air cylinder 32 is attached to the lower surface of the load cell 31.

  Therefore, the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 can move together in the left-right direction in FIG. 3 through the belt 36, the ball screw 37, and the slide base 38 by the rotation of the rotating shaft 35a of the motor 35. In this embodiment, the moving speed of the slide base 38 in the downstream direction (arrow C direction), that is, the moving speed of the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 in the downstream direction is the transfer speed of the product 2 by the conveyor belt 12. It is adjusted to be the same.

  When air is supplied to the air cylinder 32, the piston rod 32a is pushed down by air pressure, and when released, the piston rod 32a is raised by a spring (not shown) in the cylinder tube 32b of the air cylinder 32. Yes. A pressure rubber 32c is attached to the tip of the piston rod 32a of the air cylinder 32 in order to prevent the product 2 from being damaged when pressed, and when the piston rod 32a is pushed down, the pressure rubber 32c is attached to the product. It is comprised so that the upper surface of 2 may be pressed. The pressing force on the product 2 can be adjusted by adjusting the air pressure supplied to the air cylinder 32.

  In the present embodiment, air is sent to the air cylinder 32 according to the transmission signal of the optical fiber sensor 33, the piston rod 32a is pushed down, and at the same time, the rotating shaft 35a of the motor 35 rotates, and the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 are connected. After the time set by the timer elapses, the piston rod 32a of the air cylinder 32 rises, and at the same time the rotating shaft 35a of the motor 35 reverses, 31 and the air cylinder 32 are configured to be transferred to their original positions as a unit. While the pressing rubber 32c presses the product 2, the reaction force of the product 2 is measured by the load cell 31, and the measured value is input to the data processing unit 53 and the data storage unit 54 described later.

  The pressing force of the air cylinder 32 against the product 2 is selected according to the type of the product so as to be sufficient to determine whether the sealing performance of the seal portion of the product 2 is good or not. Determined from simple preliminary experiments used. Moreover, the transfer time in the downstream direction of the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 is determined according to the conveyance speed (the number of conveyance per minute) of the product 2. In this embodiment, the transfer time is fixed (for example, 1 second) and only the pressing force is adjusted according to the type of the product 2 (for example, 20 to 100 kg), but both are adjusted. May be.

  Symbol 40 indicates a photoelectric sensor (scattered matter detection means) comprising a projector 40a and a light receiver 40b. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state where the upper surface of the product 2 is pressed by the air cylinder 32. If there is a pinhole in the seal portion 3b of the product 2, when the upper surface of the product 2 is pressed by the pressing rubber 32c attached to the piston rod 32a of the air cylinder 32, the contents scatter from the pinhole. When the signal light between the light projector 40a and the light receiver 40b is shielded by scattered objects, a detection signal is transmitted. A symbol 41 indicates a collection tray for collecting scattered matters.

  Symbol 50 indicates a control panel including an operation panel 51, a load cell load display unit 52, a data processing unit (determination unit) 53, a data recording unit (storage unit) 54, and various switches 55 such as a power switch.

  In the present embodiment, the operation panel 51 is configured by a touch panel, and in addition to product management information such as an inspection date, a product name, a lot number, and a product number, the pressing force of the air cylinder 32 and the sealing performance of the seal portion are good or bad. It is configured so that a determination reference value (load value) for determining can be input by an operator. The determination reference value is also determined from a simple preliminary experiment using a good product sample and a defective product sample of the product 2 according to the type of product.

  When the sealing performance of the seal portion 3b of the product 2 is good, the measured value of the load cell 31 corresponding to the reaction force of the product 2 is substantially equal to the pressing force of the air cylinder 32. When there is a pinhole or the seal portion 3b is punctured by the pressure of the air cylinder 32, the measured value of the load cell 31 corresponding to the reaction force of the product 2 is smaller than the pressing force of the air cylinder 32. For example, when the pressing force of the air cylinder 32 is set to 30 kg, the measured value of the load cell 31 is about 30 kg when the sealing performance is good, but when the sealing performance is poor, the measurement of the load cell 31 is performed. The output value is less than 25 kg. Therefore, a value of 25 kg is adopted as a determination reference value for determining whether or not the sealability of the seal portion is good. These values are merely examples, and naturally change according to the type of product.

  The input determination reference value is converted into a determination reference voltage according to the relationship between the load and voltage in the load cell 31, and the determination reference voltage is input to the data processing unit 53 from a voltage generator (not shown). Yes. The data processing unit 53 is configured by a voltage comparison circuit, and compares a load measurement value (output voltage of the load cell 31) after a predetermined time (for example, 1 second) from the start of movement of the load cell 31 in the downstream direction with a determination reference voltage. It is configured to be. The data storage unit 54 is configured to store, for each product 2, the measurement value of the load cell 31 and the determination result of the data processing unit 53 in addition to the product management information input from the operation panel 51.

  Next, operation | movement of the sealing performance test | inspection apparatus 1 of the seal part of this Embodiment is demonstrated.

  An operator turns on the power switch 55 of the control panel 50 of the inspection apparatus 1 and determines whether the pressure of the air cylinder 32 and the sealing performance of the seal part are good or bad from the operation panel 51 in addition to the product management information. A predetermined criterion value (load value) is input.

  After the input by the operator on the operation panel 51 is completed, the product 2 having the seal portion 3b is supplied onto the conveyor belt 12 from the product supply line 60. The product 2 on the conveyor belt 12 passes between the guides 21 a and 21 b, is conveyed in the direction of arrow A, and is guided toward the optical fiber sensor 22.

  When the product 2 passes under the optical fiber sensor 22, a detection signal is transmitted from the optical fiber sensor 22, and the rotation shaft 23a of the servo motor 23 rotates by 90 ° in the direction of arrow B according to this signal and stops. Due to this rotation, the product 2 is pushed and rotated by the blade member 24. However, since the cap 4 of the product 2 comes into contact with the positioning guide 25, the rotation of the rotary shaft 23a of the servo motor 23 is stopped. The distance between the seal portion 3b and the one side edge 12a of the conveyor belt 12 is adjusted to a constant value. When the next product 2 passes under the optical fiber sensor 22, the rotation shaft 23a of the servo motor 23 rotates again by 90 ° in the direction of arrow B according to the detection signal from the optical fiber sensor 22 and stops. Therefore, a large number of products 2 placed and conveyed on the conveyor belt 12 are spaced apart from the adjacent products 2 and are arranged so that the seal portion 3b is along one side edge 12a of the conveyor belt 12. Will be transported. For this reason, when inspecting the sealing performance of the seal portion 3b for many products 2, the pressing position of the product 2 by the pressing rubber 32c attached to the piston rod 32a is made uniform.

  When the product 2 conveyed by the conveyor belt 12 and conveyed in the direction of arrow A passes in front of the optical fiber sensor 33, the optical fiber sensor 33 sends a detection signal, and air is sent to the air cylinder 32 according to this signal. As a result, the piston rod 32a is pushed down, and the rotating shaft 35a of the motor 35 is rotated at the same time. Move (see FIG. 3). During this time, since the pressing rubber 32c attached to the piston rod 32a presses the upper surface of the product 2 positioned below, the reaction force of the product 2 is measured by the load cell 31. A load measurement value (output voltage) after elapse of a predetermined time (for example, 1 second) from the start of movement of the load cell 31 in the downstream direction is transmitted to the data processing unit 53 and the data storage unit 54.

  After the time set by the timer (for example, 1 second) elapses, the air supply to the air cylinder 32 is stopped, the piston rod 32a is raised, and at the same time the rotating shaft 35a of the motor 35 rotates in the opposite direction, the belt 36, Via the ball screw 37 and the slide base 38, the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 are integrally transferred to their original positions.

  Then, when the next product 2 conveyed by the conveyor belt 12 passes in front of the optical fiber sensor 33, the above-described operation is repeated again. Therefore, the sealing performance of the sealing portions 3b of a large number of products 2 conveyed at intervals by the conveyor belt 12 is continuously performed.

  If there is a pinhole in the seal portion 3b of the product 2, the content of the product 2 is scattered from the pinhole while the product 2 is being pressed by the pressing rubber 32c attached to the piston rod 32a of the air cylinder 32. When the signal light between the light projector 40 a and the light receiver 40 b of the photoelectric sensor 40 is shielded by scattered objects, a detection signal is transmitted and this signal is transmitted to the data processing unit 53. Scattered matter is collected in the collection tray 41. In the present embodiment, a large number of products 2 are transported by the arrangement mechanism 20 so that the seals 3b are arranged along the one side edge 12a of the conveyor belt 12, so that the photoelectric sensor 40 and the collection tray 41 are also included It is provided on the side edge 12a side.

  The data processing unit 53 compares a load measurement value (output voltage) transmitted from the load cell 31 with a determination reference voltage obtained by converting a determination reference value (load value) input by a worker into a voltage, and the measurement value is a determination reference. If it is smaller than the value, a failure signal is generated. Even when the measured value is larger than the determination reference value, a failure signal is generated when the scattered object detection signal is received from the photoelectric sensor 40. Therefore, in this Embodiment, the determination precision of the sealing performance of the said seal part improves. In addition to being transmitted to the data storage unit 54, the defect signal is also transmitted to an alarm device (not shown) to notify the worker of the occurrence of a defective product.

  The data storage unit 54 stores, for each product 2, the measured value transmitted from the load cell 31 and the determination result transmitted from the data processing unit 53 in addition to the product management information input from the operation panel 51 by the worker. To do. Each data stored in the data storage unit 54 is output by a printer or the like as necessary.

  Therefore, according to the sealing property inspection apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the reaction force of the product 2 against the pressing force of the air cylinder 32 can be measured by the load cell 31, and a large number of products 2 can be inspected continuously. The measurement result can be recorded in the data storage unit 54 for each product 2.

  Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the air cylinder 32 is attached to the lower surface of the load cell 31, but the load cell 31 is disposed below the conveyor belt 12, and the load cell 31 and the air cylinder 32 disposed above the conveyor belt 12 are provided. You may comprise so that it can move in synchronization. In this case, the lower surface of the product 2 pressed by the pressing rubber 32c attached to the piston rod 32a presses the load cell 31 via the conveyor belt 12. Since the measured value of the load cell 31 corresponds to the sum of the reaction force of the product 2 pushed by the pressing rubber 32c attached to the piston rod 32a and the mass of the product 2, the reaction force of the product 2 is consequently obtained. Can be measured.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although one value was employ | adopted as a determination reference value which determines the sealing quality of the seal part 3b, as a determination reference value, the OK zone with favorable sealing performance and the sealing quality are determined. A determination reference value a for distinguishing an unknown gray zone and a determination reference value b for distinguishing a gray zone whose sealing performance is unknown and an NG zone with poor sealing performance are determined in advance. By comparing the determination reference values a and b with the measurement values obtained by the load cell 31, the products can be classified into products in three zones, an OK zone, a gray zone, and an NG zone. And the precision of the sealing property test | inspection of a seal | sticker part can be efficiently improved because an operator visually inspects only the product which belongs to a gray zone.

  The sealing part sealability inspection device of the present invention can be suitably used as a device for continuously inspecting the sealing properties of seal parts of a large number of products having a seal part. The automatic defective product discharging apparatus can also be configured by interlocking with a mechanism for receiving and discharging defective products (for example, a mechanism for pushing defective products in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction).

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sealing property inspection apparatus 2 Product 3b Sealing part 12 Conveyor belt
20 Placement mechanism (Product placement means)
31 Load cell (load measuring means)
32 Air cylinder (Pressing means)
33 Optical fiber sensor (Product detection means)
34 Load cell transfer mechanism (transfer means)
40 Photoelectric sensor (scattering object detection means)
53 Data processing unit (determination means)
54 Data storage unit (storage means)

Claims (4)

A sealability inspection device for a seal portion in a product in which a flexible container is filled with contents and a seal portion is formed and sealed,
Conveying means for horizontally placing and conveying the product;
A pressing means disposed above the conveying means and capable of pressing the upper surface of the conveyed product;
Load measuring means capable of measuring the reaction force of the product against the pressing force of the pressing means;
Product detection means for detecting that the product conveyed by the conveyance means has reached under the pressing means;
According to the detection signal of the product detection means, the load measuring means and the pressing means in a state of pressing the product are transferred downstream at the same speed as the conveyance speed of the product, and then the load measuring means and the product are moved. Transfer means for transferring the pressing means in a non-pressed state to the original position before movement;
A determination means for determining the quality of the sealing portion by comparing the measured value of the load measuring means with a predetermined determination reference value;
An apparatus for inspecting sealability of a seal part, comprising: a storage unit that stores a measurement value of the load measuring unit and a determination result of the determination unit. Further comprising a scattered matter detecting means for detecting scattered matter scattered from the seal portion by pressing of the pressing means,
The determination means determines whether the sealing portion is good or bad from a detection signal of the scattered matter detection means and a comparison result between a measurement value of the load measurement means and the determination reference value. The sealing property test | inspection apparatus of the seal part of Claim 1. The load measuring means is a load cell;
The pressing means is an air cylinder attached to the lower surface of the load cell;
3. The sealability inspection device for a seal part according to claim 1, wherein the transfer means transfers the load cell and the air cylinder as a unit by transferring the load cell. 4. The conveying means is a conveyor belt;
4. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising product arranging means for conveying a plurality of the products on the conveyor belt at intervals and arranging the seal portions along one side edge of the conveyor belt. The sealing property test | inspection apparatus of the seal part of Claim 1.

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