JP2011120523A - Tray for heat treatment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide trays for a heat treatment which allows suppression of damage such as peeling of a sealed part near the corner part between a non-sealed folded part and the sealed part or a pinhole during the heat treatment such as a retorting treatment or a boiling treatment. <P>SOLUTION: The trays 10 and 10 for the heat treatment are disposed, respectively on both the upper and lower sides of a soft packaging bag 1 when heat-treating the soft packaging bag 1 wherein sealed parts 2 and 2 are formed in two sides located at both ends of the folded part composed of a non-sealed film, respectively. The trays have each recessed part 14 wherein a filling part 3 for contents of the soft packaging bag 1 is disposed and each of the supporting parts 11 and 11 for supporting the sealed parts 2 and 2 of the two sides, respectively on both sides of the recessed part 14. A holding part 12 for a part near the seal for holding the part 4 near the seal which is a part near each sealed part 2 of the two sides in the filling part 3 for the contents is provided between the bottom 13 of the recessed part 14 and the supporting part 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention is a heating used to hold the flexible packaging bags respectively disposed on the upper and lower sides of the flexible packaging bag when the flexible packaging bag is subjected to the heat treatment in retort heat treatment, retort sterilization treatment, boil heat treatment, etc. It relates to a processing tray.

When heat-treating a package consisting of soft packaging bags by retort heat treatment, retort sterilization treatment, boil heat treatment, etc., a plurality of trays are stacked and a large number of soft packaging bags are held therebetween. . The flexible packaging bag is a flexible pouch made of a plastic film or a composite film.
In addition, during the heat treatment, in order to improve the processing efficiency, the trays that are stacked while holding the package are rotated to stir the contents of the package. At this time, if the package moves around, the film may be wrinkled or broken, and further, there is a problem that damage such as pinholes occurs through the thickness direction of the film.

In order to solve this problem, Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose trays having a structure for securely holding a package.
Patent Document 1 discloses a support tray for sterilization of a flexible packaging body in which an edge of the packaging body is sandwiched with a small interval between partition walls that individually divide a plurality of flexible packaging bodies. Are listed.

  In Patent Document 2, concave and upper holding plates each having a curved surface or a plurality of flat surfaces are provided at opposing positions on the upper and lower trays to be stacked, and the holding plate has a curvature substantially equal to the outer periphery of the retort food pack. There is described a retort food tray in which the outer periphery of a pack formed in a curved shape and stored in a space formed by the holding plate is held by the curved surface of the holding plate.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-029369 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-237744

  In conventional retort pouches, in order to ensure durability during retort processing, a bag in which the entire periphery of the bag is sealed, for example, a four-sided sealed bag, is often used. However, the four-side sealed bag has a problem that the production cost is high because of the large number of sealing steps and the amount of film used.

In the case of a sachet having a folded portion made of an unsealed film such as a three-side sealed bag, the number of sealing steps at the time of bag making can be reduced, and the amount of film used can be reduced, which can be carried out at a lower cost than a four-side sealed bag. . Further, by reducing the seal for at least one side, the area as a packaging bag can be reduced and the transportation efficiency can be increased.
In addition, when the contents are food and drinks, medicines, etc., there is a side with no seal when opening the stick-shaped packaging bag and drinking directly with a mouth, so the seal part does not get in the way and it is easier to drink than a four-sided sealed bag There are advantages such as.
However, when a sachet having a folded portion is used as a retort pouch, a high load is applied to the corner formed by the folded portion 6 and the seal portion 2 positioned at the end thereof as shown in FIG. In addition, it has been found that there is a problem that peeling 9 of the seal portion 2 and pinholes are easily damaged in the vicinity of the folded portion 6.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and during heat treatment such as retort processing and boil processing, peeling of a seal portion near the corner between the unsealed folded portion and the seal portion, pinholes, etc. It is an object to provide a heat treatment tray capable of suppressing damage.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention heats a flexible packaging bag having a folded portion made of an unsealed film on at least one side and having a sealed portion formed on each of two sides located at both ends of the folded portion. When processing, trays for heat treatment respectively disposed on the upper and lower sides of the flexible packaging bag, the concave portion in which the content filling portion of the flexible packaging bag is disposed, and the two sides on both sides via the concave portion A support portion for supporting each seal portion, and between the bottom portion of the recess and the support portion, a seal vicinity portion, which is a portion close to the seal portions on the two sides, of the content filling portion is provided with the soft portion. Provided is a heat treatment tray comprising a seal vicinity holding portion for holding from both upper and lower sides of a packaging bag.

It is preferable that the seal vicinity portion holding portion is composed of an inclined surface, a curved surface, or a combination thereof.
The recess extends in the width direction of the flexible packaging bag, which is the extending direction of the side where the seal portion of the flexible packaging bag is formed, and has a length that is twice or more the width of the flexible packaging bag. It is preferably formed in a groove shape.

  According to the present invention, since the seal portion can be securely held by the support portion, and at the same time, the seal vicinity portion can be reliably held by the seal vicinity portion holding portion, even when heat-treating a flexible packaging bag having a folded portion made of an unsealed film, The load on the corner formed by the folded portion and the seal portion can be reduced, and damage to the pinhole due to peeling of the seal portion or wrinkles can be suppressed.

(A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the tray of the 1st example of this invention with a soft packaging bag, (b) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the state holding the soft packaging bag with the said tray. (A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the tray of the 2nd example of this invention with a soft packaging bag, (b) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the state holding the soft packaging bag with the said tray. (A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the state which used the tray for multistage stacking, (b) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows an example of the tray used in the middle of multistage stacking. It is a perspective view explaining a mode that a flexible packaging bag is arranged in the width direction in the groove-shaped crevice of a tray, and is arranged. (A) is a top view which shows an example of a three-sided seal bag, (b) is a cross-sectional view which follows the AA line of (a). (A) is a top view which shows an example of a back sticking bag, (b) is a cross-sectional view which follows the BB line of (a). (A) is a top view which shows an example of a tube bag, (b) is a cross-sectional view which follows the CC line of (a). (A) is a perspective view explaining an example of peeling of the seal part in a folding | returning part, (b) is a cross-sectional view which follows the DD line | wire of (a).

The present invention will be described below based on preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 4, the present invention has a folded portion 6 made of an unsealed film on at least one side, and has soft portions 2 and 2 formed on two sides located at both ends of the folded portion 6, respectively. Used for heat treatment of the packaging bag 1. In the heat treatment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the heat treatment trays 10 and 20 are arranged on both upper and lower sides of the flexible packaging bag 1, respectively.

The tray 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a pair of support portions 11 and 11 that respectively support the seal portions 2 and 2 on the two sides of the flexible packaging bag 1, and a recess 14 provided between the pair of support portions 11 and 11. Prepare. One support portion 11 supports one seal portion 2, and the other support portion 11 is disposed opposite to both sides of the recess 14 to support the other seal portion 2.
In addition, the support part 11 that supports one seal part 2 and the support part 11 that supports the other seal part 2 may be formed separately, or connected around the recess 14 in an annular or U-shape. It does not matter. In addition, a plurality of recesses 14 may be provided in the entire tray 10, and in this case, the support portions 11 are provided on both sides of each recess 14.

The flexible packaging bag 1 has a content filling portion 3 in which the contents are filled between the seal portions 2 and 2 on the two sides, and correspondingly, the concave portion 14 of the heat treatment tray 10 is provided. The content filling part 3 of the flexible packaging bag 1 is arrange | positioned. The distance between the support portions 11, 11, that is, the width of the recessed portion 14 can be appropriately set according to the height (vertical dimension) of the flexible packaging bag 1, and for example, about 100 to 200 mm is exemplified.
In the present invention, the height direction of the flexible packaging bag 1 is the direction in which the folded portion 6 extends, and is the long side direction in FIG. 4, but is not necessarily necessarily the long side direction.
The tray 20 shown in FIG. 2 also includes similar support portions 21 and 21 and a recess 24.

  The recesses 14 and 24 of the trays 10 and 20 are gradually increased in depth toward the center portion from the support portions 11 and 21, and the bottom portions 13 and 23, which are the deepest portions, are substantially flat surfaces. Has been. The bottom portions 13 and 23 correspond to the positions of the portions 5 in the flexible packaging bag 1 where the content filling portion 3 bulges and the thickness increases. The depth of the recesses 14 and 24 is preferably about 1/2 of the thickness of the flexible packaging bag 1 or slightly larger than that, for example, about 3 to 10 mm.

  Further, between the bottom portions 13 and 23 and the support portions 11 and 21, the seal vicinity portion 4 that is a portion close to the seal portion 2 on the two sides of the content filling portion 3 is held from both the upper and lower sides of the flexible packaging bag 1. The seal | sticker vicinity part holding parts 12 and 22 to be formed are formed. That is, the recesses 14 and 24 are composed of the bottom portions 13 and 23 and the seal vicinity holding portions 12 and 22 on both sides thereof.

  It is preferable that the seal | sticker vicinity part holding parts 12 and 22 consist of an inclined surface, a curved surface, or these combination. In the case of the tray 10 shown in FIG. 1, the seal vicinity portion holding portion 12 is composed of one inclined surface that continuously connects the support portion 11 to the bottom portion 13. Further, in the case of the tray 20 shown in FIG. 2, the seal vicinity portion holding portion 22 is configured by one curved surface that continuously connects between the support portion 21 and the bottom portion 23. The cross-sectional shape of the curved surface can be selected from various curved arcs such as an arc shape and an elliptical arc shape. From the viewpoint of ease of design and manufacture, an inclined surface having a linear cross section or a curved surface having an arc cross section is preferable. Here, the cross section is a cross section along a vertical plane including the height direction of the packaging bag, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The seal vicinity part holding parts 12 and 22 preferably have a shape along the outer shape of the seal vicinity part 4 whose thickness gradually decreases toward the seal part 2 of the flexible packaging bag 1. Therefore, the seal vicinity part holding | maintenance part can also be comprised from the combination of two or more inclined surfaces, two or more curved surfaces, or one or more inclined surfaces, and one or more curved surfaces.
It is preferable that the support portions 11 and 21 and the seal vicinity portion holding portions 12 and 22 have a cross section that is continuously connected without a step. Moreover, when the seal vicinity part holding | maintenance parts 12 and 22 are comprised from several inclined surface or curved surface, it is preferable to have a cross section which connects continuously without a level | step difference between these surfaces.

  Examples of the material constituting the support portions 11 and 21 and the concave portions 14 and 24 of the trays 10 and 20 include metal plates such as iron plates, stainless steel plates, and aluminum plates. The trays 10 and 20 respectively disposed on the upper and lower sides of the flexible packaging bag 1 are fixed by a pressing device (not shown) so that the mutual distance is not separated. As the pressing device, a device built in the retort processing device can be used.

  The trays 10 and 20 of this embodiment can be used by stacking a plurality of trays in multiple stages, for example, as shown in FIG. In that case, the tray 30 arranged in the middle except for the uppermost stage and the lowermost stage, that is, the structure having the support part 11 and the concave part 14 on the upper and lower surfaces, was placed on the upper side of the flexible packaging bag 1. The next stage of the flexible packaging bag 1 can be placed on the upper surface of the tray 30, which is preferable. The uppermost tray and the lowermost tray may have support portions 11 and recesses 14 on only one side.

  The flexible packaging bag 1 held in the trays 10, 20, and 30 is rotated or swinged in a state of being integrated with the trays 10, 20, and 30 by the above-described pressing device, or both rotating and swinging operations. Are heated simultaneously or non-simultaneously by a heating fluid such as water vapor or hot water in the treatment tank. Thereby, the contents of the flexible packaging bag 1 are agitated and the heating efficiency is improved.

At this time, according to the trays 10, 20, and 30 of the present embodiment, the two-side seal portion 2 is sandwiched by the support portions 11 and 21 from both the upper and lower sides, and the seal vicinity portion 4 is held from the upper and lower sides. 12 and 22, even when heat-treating the flexible packaging bag 1 having the folded portion 6 made of an unsealed film, the load on the corner formed by the folded portion 6 and the seal portion 2 can be reduced, and the folded portion The peeling of the seal portion 2 in the vicinity of both ends of 6 can be suppressed.
In addition, the tray for holding the flexible packaging bag 1 includes support portions 11 and 21 for sandwiching the seal portion 2, and the seal portion 2 in which no contents are interposed can be sandwiched with higher pressure. The packaging bag 1 can be supported more reliably.

  Comparing the tray of this embodiment with the tray described in Patent Document 1, this embodiment not only simply sandwiches the seal portion, but also the seal vicinity portion holding portion 12 that holds in close contact with or close to the seal vicinity portion 4, Therefore, it is possible to prevent the vicinity of the seal from swinging around the place where the seal portion is sandwiched as a fulcrum, and to prevent film wrinkles and damage to the film in the seal portion and the vicinity of the seal Penetrating pinholes etc.) are less likely to occur.

  Further, when the tray of this embodiment is compared with the tray described in Patent Document 2, in this embodiment, the shape of the recess 14 holding the content filling portion 3 of the flexible packaging bag 1 is in the vicinity of the seal near the seal vicinity 4 Since the part holding parts 12 and 22 are mainly matched with the outer shape of the flexible packaging bag 1 and the position of the support parts 11 and 21 sandwiching the seal part 2 can be used as a reference, the size of the seal vicinity part 4 is Even in a small sachet, the shape of the recess 14 can be easily matched to the seal vicinity portion 4, and the manufacturing cost of the tray can be reduced.

  Stirring by rotation or rocking is more effective when the content is a mixture of two or more types with a large specific gravity difference, such as insoluble matter such as solids, granules, and jelly bodies, and fluids such as liquids. It becomes the target. When the specific gravity difference of the contents is small, it is preferable to mix a small amount of gas such as air or nitrogen because stirring of the contents by rotation or swinging is promoted.

As shown in FIG. 4, the recess 14 extends in the width direction of the flexible packaging bag 1, which is the extending direction of the side where the seal portion 2 of the flexible packaging bag 1 is formed. Preferably, it is formed in a groove shape having a length that is at least twice as long as the lateral dimension. Thereby, the tray which can hold | maintain the 2 or more flexible packaging bags 1 can be comprised with a simpler structure. In the case of this embodiment, as described above, the flexible packaging bag 1 can be more securely held by sandwiching the seal portion 2, so that a partition for holding both sides of the flexible packaging bag 1 in the width direction can be used. A structure is not necessary, and even if there is volume expansion of the contents during heating, it can escape to the outside in the width direction.
In the present invention, the width direction of the flexible packaging bag 1 is the direction in which the seal portion 2 extends and is the short side direction in FIG. 4, but is not necessarily necessarily the short side direction.

  In addition, if the recess 14 has a groove-like structure as shown in FIG. 4, the shape of the recess 14 may be formed uniformly along the longitudinal direction of the groove (the width direction of the flexible packaging bag 1). The molding process can be further simplified, and the manufacturing cost of the tray can be reduced. In FIG. 4, the groove-like recess 14 has an inclined surface in the seal vicinity holding portion 12 as in FIG. 1. However, as described above, the curved surface or a combination of the inclined surface and the curved surface is used. Etc.

Since the groove-shaped recess 14 does not have a partition in the longitudinal direction of the groove, the same recess 14 can be used regardless of the width-wise dimension of the flexible packaging bag 1 and the arrangement interval. As a result, with respect to the position where the soft packaging bag 1 is placed and the number of packaging bags 1 that can be arranged along one groove-like recess 14, the degree of freedom when using the tray can be increased. If the vertical dimension of 1 matches, the same tray can be used even if the width dimension is changed.
In order to hold a larger number of packaging bags 1 with a single tray, it is possible to arrange a plurality of grooves 14 in the height direction of the packaging bag 1 by combining the groove-shaped recess 14 and the support portions 11 on both sides thereof. . In this case, the packaging bags 1 can be arranged two-dimensionally vertically and horizontally on the tray.

In addition, since a heat medium such as water vapor or hot water can move along the groove, it is possible to prevent the recesses 14 and 24 from being provided with punch holes. Thereby, since the moving direction of the heat medium is aligned in the direction along the groove, the flexible packaging bag 1 moves up and down by the flow in the thickness direction of the flexible packaging bag 1 so that the surface of the flexible packaging bag 1 rubs against the surface of the tray. Damage can be suppressed.
In addition, in order to prevent the position of the flexible packaging bag 1 from shifting before the upper and lower trays are overlaid, for example, the support portions 11 and 21 can be provided with unevenness that is positioned in contact with the seal portion 2.

As a flexible packaging bag which has the folding | turning part 6 of the film F applicable to this invention, what is shown, for example in FIGS. 5-7 is mentioned.
The soft wrapping bag shown in FIG. 5 has a three-sided seal having a seal portion composed of two end seal portions 2 and 2 and a side edge seal portion 7 on each of two sides of the folded portion 6 and one side opposite to the folded portion 6. Bag 1.
The flexible packaging bag shown in FIG. 6 has folded portions 6 and 6 on two sides facing each other, and has a back-sealed bag 8 having a back-sealed seal portion 8 at the center in the width direction (vertical direction in FIG. 6A). 1A (also referred to as a palm tension or pillow type packaging). In FIG. 6, the back-sealed seal portion 8 is in a state of rising vertically with respect to the seal portion 2, but it may be tilted along the content filling portion 3.
The flexible packaging bag shown in FIG. 7 is a tube bag 1B in which the film F has a tube shape, has folded portions 6 and 6 on two opposite sides, and has seal portions 2 and 2 only on two sides of both ends. is there.

  As the film F used for the flexible packaging bag, a single-layer film made of one kind of resin, a coextruded film having a multilayer made of one kind or plural kinds of resins, a laminate film, a laminate film, and the like can be used. The film needs to have at least one surface having a heat seal property, and as such a film, for example, a sealant layer made of a resin having a heat seal property is laminated on the surface of a base material layer made of a stretched film or the like. A laminate film can be used.

In order to impart gas barrier properties to the film, it is preferable to use a metal foil such as an aluminum foil, a gas barrier resin film such as an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer, or a laminate film having a metal or inorganic compound deposition layer as an intermediate layer. . Examples of the metal of the vapor deposition layer include Al, Cr, Ni, Sn, and alloys, and examples of the inorganic compound of the vapor deposition layer include inorganic oxides such as silica and alumina, ceramics, and the like.
Examples of the resin constituting the sealant layer include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), and cyclic polyolefin (COP).
These films are flexible and foldable, are convenient for transportation and storage when empty, are not bulky after use, and are excellent in volume reduction and disposal.

The size of the package and the size of the corresponding tray recess are not particularly limited. For example, the weight is about 5 to 300 g and the thickness is about 5 to 15 mm for a small capacity, and the weight for a large capacity. A thickness of about 1 to 3 kg and a thickness of about 70 to 80 mm are exemplified. In the case of a stick-shaped packaging bag, the height (vertical dimension) is about several times the width (horizontal dimension), and the dimensions are not particularly limited. For example, the height (length) is 100 to 200 mm. The degree and the width of about 20 to 50 mm are exemplified. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to a wider packaging bag, and the width and height of the packaging bag may be similar, or the width of the packaging bag may be greater than the height.
In the case of FIGS. 5 to 7, the outer shape of the package is a substantially rectangular planar shape (for example, a rectangle), but is not particularly limited to this, such as a corner, an end, or a side of the packaging bag. Notches (concave portions) and ears (convex portions) may be provided in part. In addition, the seal portions 2, 7, and 8 are linear in the case of FIGS. 5 to 7, but a concave portion or a convex portion is locally provided, or a part or all of them are curved (for example, a gentle arc shape). There may be.

  The present invention can be used without particular limitation as long as it is a content that requires heat treatment in a flexible packaging bag such as retort heat treatment, retort sterilization treatment, and boil heat treatment. For example, it can be used for retort pouches such as foods and beverages and pharmaceuticals, and aseptic packaging.

F ... film, 1, 1A, 1B ... soft packaging bag (packaging body), 2 ... end seal part, 3 ... content filling part, 4 ... seal vicinity part, 6 ... folding part, 9 ... seal peeling part, 10 , 20, 30 ... tray (heat treatment tray), 11, 21 ... support part, 12, 22 ... seal vicinity holding part, 13, 23 ... bottom part, 14, 24 ... concave part.

Claims (3)

When heat-treating a flexible packaging bag having a folded portion made of an unsealed film on at least one side and having a sealed portion formed on each of two sides located at both ends of the folded portion, Each of the heat treatment trays disposed,
A concave portion in which the content filling portion of the flexible packaging bag is disposed; and a support portion that supports the seal portions on the two sides on both sides of the concave portion,
Between the bottom part of the recess and the support part, a seal vicinity part holding the seal vicinity part that is a part close to the seal part on the two sides of the content filling part from both the upper and lower sides of the flexible packaging bag. A heat treatment tray comprising a portion.   The heat treatment tray according to claim 1, wherein the seal vicinity portion holding portion includes an inclined surface, a curved surface, or a combination thereof.   The recess extends in the width direction of the flexible packaging bag, which is the extending direction of the side where the seal portion of the flexible packaging bag is formed, and has a length that is twice or more the width of the flexible packaging bag. The heat treatment tray according to claim 1, wherein the heat treatment tray is formed in a groove shape.

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