JP2011136736A - Bottle holding device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stably hold a bottle without causing the deformation of the bottle or the conveyance failure of the bottle. <P>SOLUTION: A mounting base 3 is freely elevated and lowered between an elevated position where a mount surface becomes almost flush with the upper surface of a support table 2 and a lowered position where the mount surface is recessed from the upper surface of the support table 2. A biasing member 9 urges the mounting base 3 to an elevation position side. A pressing member 12 is arranged above the mounting base 3. The pressing member 12 engages with a cap 7b mounted on a bottle 7 without a contact with a bottle shoulder part 7c. A drive mechanism depresses the pressing member 12 engaged with the cap 7b and lowers the mounting base 3 mounted with the bottle 7 to the lowered position against the biasing force of the biasing member 9. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a bottle holding device that temporarily holds a bottle on a conveyance path.

  There are various kinds of bottles for storing liquid contents such as beverages. As one type, bottles made of synthetic resin, for example, blow molded bottles (PET bottles) made of polyethylene terephthalate are known. In this type of bottle, when the heated sealed contents are cooled, the inside of the bottle is depressurized due to a decrease in the volume of the contents, and the bottle body is slightly deflated. In order to prevent such an unfavorable deformation of the bottle, Patent Document 1 discloses a bottle having an inversion portion in which a part of the bottom of the bottle protrudes downward. The filling of the contents into the bottle with the reversing part is performed in a state where the reversing part protrudes outside the bottom of the bottle. And after sealing a bottle mouth part with a cap, the inversion part which protruded outside is pushed in and it inverts inside a bottle. The inside of the bottle is pressurized due to the decrease in volume due to this reversal, and the reduced pressure accompanying the cooling of the contents is offset, so that deformation of the bottle can be prevented.

  Patent Document 2 discloses such a bottom recessed device for a bottle with a reversing part. In this apparatus, first, a bottle filled and sealed with contents is placed on a placing table. The mounting table is accommodated in the support table, and is always urged upward by a spring member so that the mounting surface is flush with the upper surface of the support table. Next, the bottle is pushed down against the upward biasing force of the spring member while pressing the entire circumference of the shoulder of the bottle with the pressing member disposed above the mounting table. And the bottom part of a bottle is pushed up with the movable push-up punch arrange | positioned under the mounting base, hold | maintaining the state where the bottle was pushed down below. Thereby, the inversion part which protruded below from the bottom part of the bottle inverts upwards, and is pushed inside the bottle.

JP-T-2006-501109 JP 2009-096504 A

  However, in the bottom recessed device of Patent Document 2 described above, since the bottle shoulder that is in contact with the pressing member is pushed down, the bottle may be deformed at the bottle shoulder. In particular, as the thickness of the bottle is reduced in order to reduce the weight of the bottle, the bottle deformation problem becomes more apparent. Moreover, since the pressing member contacts the entire circumference of the bottle shoulder, the contact area with the bottle inevitably increases. For this reason, the pressing member may be caught on the bottle in the course of work, which may cause a bottle conveyance abnormality.

  Moreover, the pressing member of Patent Document 2 includes an annular engagement surface that engages with the entire circumference of the shoulder along the inclination of the bottle shoulder. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare separately according to the shoulder shape. Moreover, whenever the kind (shape) of the bottle used as a work object changes, it becomes necessary to change a pressing member, and for that purpose, a production line must be stopped temporarily. Further, since the pushing of the reversing part is performed by moving the push-up punch, a considerable push-up force is required, and there is a concern that the bottle may be deformed by the push-up. At the same time, since a mechanism for moving the push-up punch is required, the overall apparatus configuration is complicated. Complicating the device configuration is not preferable from the viewpoint of device manufacturing cost, ground contact area, maintenance workability, or integration with other devices.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to stably hold a bottle without causing deformation of the bottle or abnormal conveyance of the bottle.

  Another object of the present invention is to improve the productivity by sharing the pressing member.

  Another object of the present invention is to simplify the mechanism for pushing up the bottom of the bottle and to suppress the complexity of the apparatus configuration.

  Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to continuously perform the pushing-up operation of the bottle bottom portion and the winding operation of the label around the bottle body portion with a single device.

  In order to solve this problem, the first invention provides a bottle holding device having a support table, a mounting table, a biasing member, a pressing member, and a drive mechanism. Bottles are carried into and out of the support table. The mounting table has a mounting surface on which the bottle is mounted. The mounting table is movable up and down between a rising position where the mounting surface is substantially flush with the upper surface of the support table and a lowered position where the mounting surface is recessed from the upper surface of the support table. The urging member urges the mounting table toward the raised position. The pressing member is disposed above the mounting table. The pressing member engages with a cap attached to the bottle without contacting the shoulder of the bottle. The drive mechanism pushes down the pressing member engaged with the cap, and lowers the mounting table on which the bottle is mounted to the lowered position against the biasing force of the biasing member.

  Here, in the first invention, the pressing member includes a first engagement surface facing the upper surface of the cap, a ring extending downward from the periphery of the first engagement surface, and a side surface of the cap. It is preferable to have an opposing second engagement surface. The pressing member may further include a guide surface that extends in an annular shape while increasing in diameter downward from the periphery of the second engagement surface.

  In the first invention, a push-up punch that is inserted into a through-hole provided in the mounting table and pushes the inverted portion protruding from the bottom of the bottle into the bottle by pushing up the bottom of the bottle on the mounting table is further provided. Also good. In this case, the push-up punch is fixedly attached to the support table, and the bottom of the bottle may be pushed up by relative displacement with the bottle that is lowered by the drive mechanism.

  In the first invention, a label winding mechanism for winding the label around the body of the bottle while rotating the bottle in the circumferential direction in a state where the mounting table is lowered to the lowered position may be further provided.

  Moreover, 2nd invention provides the bottle holding apparatus which has a support table, a mounting base, a biasing member, a pressing member, a drive mechanism, and a push-up punch. Bottles are carried into and out of the support table. The mounting table has a mounting surface on which the bottle is mounted and a through hole that penetrates the mounting table. The mounting table is movable up and down between a rising position where the mounting surface is substantially flush with the upper surface of the support table and a lowered position where the mounting surface is recessed from the upper surface of the support table. The urging member urges the mounting table toward the raised position. The pressing member is disposed above the mounting table. The drive mechanism pushes down the pressing member and lowers the mounting table on which the bottle is mounted to the lowered position against the biasing force of the biasing member. The push-up punch is fixedly attached to the support table and inserted into the through hole of the mounting table. The push-up punch pushes up the bottom of the bottle by a relative displacement with the bottle that is lowered by the drive mechanism.

  Furthermore, the third invention provides a bottle holding device having a support table, a mounting table, an urging member, a pressing member, a drive mechanism, a push-up punch, and a label winding mechanism. Bottles are carried into and out of the support table. The mounting table has a mounting surface on which the bottle is mounted and a through hole that penetrates the mounting table. The mounting table is movable up and down between a rising position where the mounting surface is substantially flush with the upper surface of the support table and a lowered position where the mounting surface is recessed from the support table. The urging member urges the mounting table toward the raised position. The pressing member is disposed above the mounting table. The drive mechanism pushes down the pressing member and lowers the mounting table on which the bottle is mounted to the lowered position against the biasing force of the biasing member. The push-up punch is inserted into the through-hole, pushes up the bottom of the bottle by relative displacement with the bottle descending by the drive mechanism, and pushes the inverted portion protruding from the bottom of the bottle into the bottle. The label winding mechanism winds the label around the body of the bottle while rotating the bottle in the circumferential direction in a state where the mounting table is lowered to the lowered position.

  In the second or third invention, the above-described limitation items related to the first invention may be similarly applied.

  According to the first invention, the pressing member engages with the cap attached to the bottle without contacting the bottle shoulder. Since the external force accompanying the depression of the pressing member is not directly applied to the bottle shoulder, the bottle can be stably held without causing deformation of the bottle shoulder. Moreover, compared with the case where a pressing member contacts the perimeter of a bottle shoulder part, a contact area with a bottle becomes small. Thereby, since it becomes difficult for a holding member to be caught in a bottle, abnormal conveyance of a bottle can be prevented effectively. Furthermore, the holding of the bottle is performed by engaging with a cap having high shape commonality, and the bottle itself having many shape variations does not directly participate in holding. Therefore, since the same shape pressing member can be shared with various shapes of bottles, productivity can be improved.

  According to the second invention, the push-up punch itself is fixed, and the bottle bottom is pushed up by the relative displacement with the bottle descending by the drive mechanism. Therefore, since it is not necessary to provide a mechanism for moving the push-up punch, the apparatus configuration can be simplified. Moreover, as a force which pushes up a bottle bottom part, not only the pushing-down force of the pressing member by a drive mechanism but the dead weight of a bottle acts. Therefore, it is not necessary to excessively increase the push-down force, so that deformation of the bottle due to push-up can be effectively suppressed.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, in the process in which the mounting table is lowered to the lowered position, the bottle bottom is pushed up by the push-up punch, and the label by the label winding mechanism is rotated while rotating the placing table lowered to the lowered position. Winding is performed. Thereby, a pushing-up operation and a winding operation can be performed continuously in the process of raising and lowering the mounting table in a single device.

Configuration diagram of bottle holding device according to the present embodiment Bottle appearance Schematic diagram of the main parts around the mounting table The figure which shows the front-end | tip shape of a pressing member Explanatory diagram of the bottle loading process Explanatory drawing of the bottle bottom-up process Explanatory drawing of the bottle bottom-up process Explanatory drawing of the bottle bottom-up process Illustration of labeling process Explanatory drawing of bottle unloading process

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a bottle holding device according to the present embodiment. The bottle holding device 1 is mainly composed of a support table 2, a mounting table 3, and a holding mechanism 4, and a push-up punch 5 and a label winding mechanism 6 are added. The mounting table 3 is accommodated in the support table 2 so as to be movable up and down and rotatable. A holding mechanism 4, a push-up punch 5, and a label winding mechanism 6 are fixedly attached to the support table 2.

  As the bottle 7 held by the bottle holding device 1, for example, a PET bottle obtained by blow-molding a synthetic resin such as polyethylene terephthalate can be used, and a liquid content such as a beverage is filled and sealed therein. FIG. 2 is an external view of the bottle 7 that is a work target of the bottle holding device 1. The bottle 7 includes a bottle body portion 7a, a bottle shoulder portion 7b, a cap 7c attached to the bottle mouth portion, and an inversion portion 7e formed at the center of the bottle bottom portion 7d. The reversing part 7e can be reversed from a protruding state protruding outward from the bottle bottom 7d to a depressed state recessed inside the bottle 7 due to the flexibility resulting from the material of the bottle 7, and is carried into the bottle holding device 1. At the stage (initial state), it is in a protruding state. As is well known, the reversing part 7e is used to increase the pressure (internal pressure) inside the bottle 7 sealed with the cap 7c. When the contents are hot-filled, the volume of the contents is reduced by cooling after sealing. Thereby, since the internal pressure of the bottle 7 will be in a pressure-reduced state, the bottle trunk | drum 7a etc. will be in the state which became slightly deflated. In order to prevent this, after the bottle 7 is sealed, the inside of the bottle 7 is pressurized by reversing the inverted portion 7e in the protruding state into the depressed state. As a result, the reduced pressure due to the cooling of the contents is offset, so that the deformation of the bottle 7 can be prevented. In addition, the contents may be not only those filled under pressure but also those filled at room temperature. This is because increasing the internal pressure of the bottle 7 by the reversing part 7e contributes to maintaining the shape of the bottle 7.

  A bottle 7 to be a work target of the bottle holding device 1 is loaded onto the support table 2 from a carry-in path (not shown) and then set on the mounting table 3 by a loading turret (not shown). In addition, the bottle 7 on which the work has been performed is carried out from the mounting table 3 through the support table 2 to a carry-out path (not shown) by a discharge turret (not shown).

  FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part around the mounting table 3. The support 8 having the upper surface flush with the support table 2 is attached to the support table 2 in a rotatable state. An opening is provided on the upper surface of the support 8, and the opening communicates with an internal space that accommodates the mounting table 3. The mounting surface 3a of the mounting table 3 has a substantially circular shape corresponding to the outer diameter of the bottle 7, and the bottle 7 is mounted on the mounting surface 3a. The mounting table 3 has an annular protrusion 3b that protrudes laterally from the outer periphery of the mounting table 3. The upper and lower movable ranges of the mounting table 3 are restricted by the annular protrusion 3b. That is, the upward displacement of the mounting table 3 is regulated by the annular protrusion 3 b coming into contact with the upper regulating surface 8 a of the support 8, and this is the raised position of the mounting table 3. The carrying-in of the bottle 7 from the support table 2 and the carrying-out of the bottle 7 to the support table 2 are performed in a state where the mounting table 3 is in the raised position. In the raised position, the placement surface 3a is substantially flush with the upper surfaces of the support table 2 and the support 8 so that there is no hindrance to the lateral sliding of the bottle 7 during loading and unloading. On the other hand, the downward displacement of the mounting table 3 is regulated by the annular protrusion 3 b coming into contact with the lower regulating surface 8 b of the support 8, and this is the lowered position of the mounting table 3. In the lowered position, the placement surface 3 a is depressed from the upper surfaces of the support table 2 and the support 8. In the lowered position, the entire lower periphery of the bottle 7 is covered with the support 8 and the lateral displacement of the bottle 7 is restricted. In a state where the mounting table 3 is lowered from the raised position including the lowered position, the bottle 7 on the mounting table 3 is effectively held by the support 8. An urging member 9 represented by a coil spring or the like is provided in an internal space existing between the mounting table 3 and the support 8. The upper end of the urging member 9 is in contact with the upper inner surface of the mounting table 3, and the lower end thereof is in contact with the protruding flat surface provided at the center of the support 8. The urging member 9 constantly urges the mounting table 3 in the upward direction, that is, the ascending position.

  The mounting table 3 is spline-fitted with the support body 8 and rotates integrally with the support body 8 in a state where it can be raised and lowered. Specifically, a concavo-convex outer spline is formed on the outer periphery of the annular protrusion 3 b in the mounting table 3. Further, an inner spline composed of a plurality of grooves extending in the vertical direction is formed on the inner peripheral surface 8c of the support body 8 facing the same. And the convex part of the cyclic | annular protrusion 3b is engaging with the groove | channel of the internal peripheral surface 8c. When the support 8 is rotated by this engagement, the mounting table 3 is also rotated integrally therewith. Moreover, since the convex part of the annular protrusion 3b is engaged in a slidable manner along the groove of the inner peripheral surface 8c, the mount table 3 can be raised and lowered without impairing the rotation of the mount table 3. Secured.

  The rotation shaft of the servo motor 10 is attached to the center of the support 8. When the servo motor 10 rotates, the support body 8 directly connected to the rotation shaft of the servo motor 10 and the mounting table 3 that is spline fitted to the support body 8 rotate together.

  In the center of the support 8, a rod-shaped push-up punch 5 protruding upward is provided. This push-up punch 5 is fixedly attached to the center of the support and rotates integrally with the support 8. The push-up punch 5 is inserted into a through hole 3c penetrating the top and bottom of the mounting table 3 and pushes up the bottom 7d of the bottle 7 on the mounting table 3 in the process of lowering the mounting table 3. As a result, the reversing part 7 e protruding from the bottle bottom part 7 d is pushed into the bottle 7. The length of the push-up punch 5 is suppressed to a length that does not protrude from the mounting surface 3a of the mounting table 3 in the raised position so as not to hinder the sliding of the bottle 7 on the mounting table 3.

  The holding mechanism 4 is fixedly attached to the support table 2 and holds the bottle 7 disposed on the mounting table 3 from above. The holding mechanism 4 includes an elevating rod 11 that extends in the vertical direction, a pressing member 12 attached to the tip of the elevating rod 11, and a drive mechanism 13 such as a hydraulic cylinder that elevates and lowers the elevating rod 11. FIG. 4 is a view showing the tip shape of the pressing member 12. The pressing member 12 has a first engagement surface 12a, a second engagement surface 12b, and a guide surface 12c. The first engagement surface 12a has a substantially circular shape corresponding to the outer diameter of the cap 7b and faces the upper surface of the cap 7b. The second engagement surface 12b extends annularly downward from the periphery of the first engagement surface 12a, and faces the side surface of the cap 7b. The guide surface 12c extends in an annular shape while increasing in diameter from the periphery of the second engagement surface 12b downward. The feature of the pressing member 12 is that the bottle 7 is held by engaging with the cap 7b attached to the bottle mouth without contacting the bottle shoulder 7c. The reason why the guide surface 12c is provided is to position the cap 7b appropriately on the engagement surfaces 12a and 12b when the pressing member 12 is lowered to the cap 7b side.

  The label winding mechanism 6 is fixedly attached to the support table 2 and winds the label around the bottle body 7 a that is circulated by the servo motor 10. As is well known, the label winding mechanism 6 includes a stand that holds a roll on which labels are continuously printed, a cut portion that cuts individual labels from the roll, and a mounting portion that attaches the cut label to the bottle body 7a. The application unit mainly applies an adhesive to the label and a roller for conveying the label.

  Hereinafter, the work process in the bottle holding device 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 10. First, as shown in FIG. 5, the bottle 7 to be worked is slid on the support table 2 by a loading turret (not shown) and set on the mounting table 3 in the raised position. The bottle 7 is filled and sealed with the liquid content, and the inversion portion 7 e of the bottle 7 is in a protruding state protruding outward from the bottom of the bottle 7. At this stage, the pressing member 12 disposed above the mounting table 3 is lifted and separated from the bottle 7.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the pressing member 12 is pushed down with a predetermined pressure by the drive mechanism 13. In this process, first, the guide surface 12c of the pressing member 12 comes into contact with the cap 7b, and the pressing member 12 is guided directly above the cap 7b along the inclination of the guide surface 12c. Engages with the cap 7b. The upper portion of the bottle 7 is held by this engagement, and thereafter, the lateral displacement of the bottle 7 is restricted.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 7, when the pressing member 12 engaged with the cap 7 b is further pressed down, the mounting table 3 on which the bottle 7 is mounted is lowered against the biasing force of the biasing member 9. Go. Thereby, the lower part of the bottle 7 fits in the support table 2, and in addition to holding the upper part of the bottle 7 by the pressing member 12 described above, the lower part of the bottle 7 is also held. Thereafter, the reversing part 7 e protruding downward from the bottom of the bottle 7 comes into contact with the tip of the push-up punch 5.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 8, when the pressing member 12 is further pressed down, the relative displacement between the push-up punch 5 fixed to the support table 2 and the bottle 7 that descends together with the mounting table 3 causes the bottle 7 to move. The bottom is pushed up. In addition to the pressure that pushes down the pressing member 12, the self-weight of the bottle 7 also acts on this push-up force. As a result, the reversing part 7e in the protruding state is reversed to the depressed state, and the internal pressure of the bottle 7 is increased. Thereafter, the mounting table 3 reaches the lowered position.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 9, the support body 8 and the mounting table 3 are rotated by the servo motor 10 while the mounting table 3 is lowered to the lowered position. And a label is wound around the trunk | drum of the bottle 7 using the label winding mechanism 6, rotating the bottle 7 on the mounting base 3 to the circumferential direction. When the label winding operation is completed, the servo motor 10 is stopped.

  Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 10, when the holding member 12 in the lowered state is raised, the placing table 3 on which the bottle 7 is placed is raised by the urging force of the urging member 9 and returned to the raised position. The bottle 7 subjected to both the push-up operation and the winding operation is slid on the support table 2 from the mounting table 3 by a discharge turret (not shown) and carried out to the discharge path.

  Thus, according to this embodiment, the pressing member 12 engages with the cap 7c attached to the bottle 7 without contacting the bottle shoulder 7b. Since the external force accompanying the depression of the pressing member 12 is not directly applied to the bottle shoulder 7b, the bottle 7 can be stably held without causing deformation of the bottle shoulder 7b. Moreover, the contact area with the bottle 7 can be made small compared with the case where the pressing member 12 contacts with the perimeter of the bottle shoulder part 7b. Thereby, since the pressing member 12 becomes difficult to catch on the bottle 7, the conveyance abnormality of the bottle 7 can be prevented effectively. Furthermore, the holding of the bottle 7 is performed by engaging with the cap 7c having high shape commonality, and the main body of the bottle 7 having many shape variations is not involved in the holding. Therefore, since the pressing member 12 having the same shape can be shared with the bottles 7 having various shapes, the productivity can be improved.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the push-up punch 5 itself is fixed, and the bottle bottom portion 7d is pushed up by the relative displacement with the bottle 7 lowered by the drive mechanism 13. Therefore, since it is not necessary to provide a mechanism for moving the push-up punch 5, the configuration of the bottle holding device 1 can be simplified. Further, as the force for pushing up the bottle bottom 7d, not only the pressing force of the pressing member 12 by the drive mechanism 13 but also the weight of the bottle 7 acts. Therefore, it is not necessary to excessively increase the push-down force, so that the deformation of the bottle 7 due to the push-up can be effectively suppressed.

  Furthermore, according to this embodiment, while the mounting table 3 is lowered to the lowered position, the reverse portion 7e is pushed up by the push-up punch 5, and the label 3 is rotated while the loading table 3 lowered to the lowered position is rotated. The label is wound by the winding mechanism 6. Thereby, the raising operation | work of the inversion part 7e and the label winding operation | work can be performed continuously in the raising / lowering process of the mounting base 3 in the bottle holding device 1, and it can aim at the improvement of work efficiency.

  In the above-described embodiment, the bottle holding device 1 that performs the push-up operation of the reversing unit 7e and the label winding operation has been described. However, the shape of the pressing member 12 that is one of the features of the present embodiment is described. When attention is focused only on the features, the content of the work itself may be anything.

  As described above, the bottle holding device according to the present invention can be widely applied to devices that temporarily hold a bottle on a conveyance path and perform various operations.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bottle holding device 2 Support table 3 Mounting base 3a Mounting surface 3b Annular protrusion 3c Through-hole 4 Holding mechanism 5 Push-up punch 6 Label winding mechanism 7 Bottle 7a Bottle trunk 7b Bottle shoulder 7c Cap 7d Bottle bottom 7e Inversion Part 8 Support body 8a Upper restricting surface 8b Lower restricting surface 8c Inner peripheral surface 9 Energizing member 10 Servo motor 11 Lifting rod 12 Holding member 12a First engaging surface 12b Second engaging surface 12c Guide surface 13 Drive mechanism

Claims (6)

In the bottle holding device,
A support table into which bottles are carried in and out;
A rising position at which the placement surface is substantially flush with an upper surface of the support table; and a lowered position at which the placement surface is recessed from the upper surface of the support table. A mounting table that can freely move up and down,
A biasing member that biases the mounting table toward the raised position;
A pressing member that is disposed above the mounting table and that engages with a cap attached to the mouth of the bottle without contacting the shoulder of the bottle;
A drive mechanism that pushes down the pressing member engaged with the cap and lowers the placing table on which the bottle is placed to the lowered position side against the urging force of the urging member. A bottle holding device. The holding member is
A first engagement surface facing an upper surface of the cap;
2. The bottle holding device according to claim 1, further comprising a second engaging surface that extends annularly downward from the periphery of the first engaging surface and faces the side surface of the cap. apparatus.   3. The bottle holding device according to claim 2, wherein the pressing member further includes a guide surface that extends in an annular shape while expanding in diameter downward from the periphery of the second engagement surface.   The insertion device according to claim 1, further comprising a push-up punch that is inserted into a through-hole provided in the mounting table and pushes the reverse portion protruding from the bottom of the bottle into the bottle by pushing up the bottom of the bottle. The bottle holding device described in any one of 1 to 3.   The said push-up punch is fixedly attached to the said support table, and pushes up the bottom part of the said bottle by the relative displacement with the said bottle descend | falling by the said drive mechanism. Bottle holding device.   The label winding mechanism for winding a label around the body of the bottle while rotating the bottle in the circumferential direction in a state where the mounting table is lowered to the lowered position. The bottle holding device described in any one of.

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