JP2017100763A - Sealing or cooling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sealing or cooling device that detects whether an air driven unit performs sealing or cooling for a preset period of time, at a preset pressure, thus eliminating seal failures or imperfect cooling.SOLUTION: A sealing device 10 for sealing a package includes: an air cylinder 19 for opening and closing sealers 28A, 28B of the sealing device; a contact sensor 32 for detecting abutment of the sealers 28A, 28B; and a pressure sensor 31 for detecting whether pressure of air supplied to the air cylinder 19 is equal to or above a preset value. When both of the contact sensor 32 and the pressure sensor 31 come into a detection state, sealing time counting is started to measure sealing time T1. When time for which the contact sensor 32 is ON is equal to or longer than a preset period of time, with the pressure of the pressure sensor 31 being the preset value, it is determined that normal sealing is performed. When the time for which the contact sensor is ON is shorter than the preset period of time, it is determined that seal failure occurs. The present invention may be applied to a cooling device including cooling plates instead of the sealers 28A, 28B of the sealing device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

The present invention relates to a seal or a cooling device using an air cylinder as a drive source for an open / close mechanism of a sealer, for example.

In an automatic packaging machine, it is common to use a heat-sealing type sealing device that seals a packaging material by sandwiching the packaging material with a pair of sealers, and heating and pressing.

Servo motors and air cylinders are often used as drive sources for the opening / closing mechanism for sandwiching the pair of sealers.

When the servo motor is used as the drive source of the opening / closing mechanism, the opening / closing operation is the time from the sealer's separation state (contact state) to the contact state (separation state) by utilizing the excellent control characteristics of the servo motor. It is possible to manage the time and the sealing time, which is the time the sealer is pressing, and to manage the separation / contact position of the sealer and the sealing pressure, which is advantageous in the accuracy of operation.

However, when the servo motor is used as the drive source of the opening / closing mechanism, a mechanism for converting the rotational movement of the servo motor into the linear movement of the opening / closing operation of the sealer is required, and the configuration becomes complicated. However, there is a disadvantage that the cost is high and the cost is high.

On the other hand, when the air cylinder is used as the drive source of the opening / closing mechanism, the linear reciprocating motion of the air cylinder is used as it is for the opening / closing motion of the sealer. There are advantages.

However, when the air cylinder is used as the drive source of the opening and closing mechanism, the air cylinder operating speed is adjusted by adjusting the flow control valve (speed controller) on the assumption that the pressure of the compressed air supplied to the air cylinder is constant. Therefore, when the pressure of the compressed air supplied to the flow control valve fluctuates, the operating speed of the air cylinder changes. In addition, when the frictional resistance of the air cylinder piston changes due to the aging of the air cylinder, the operation speed also changes. For the above reasons, the air cylinder has a drawback that it is difficult to manage the opening and closing operation time and the sealing time, and the operation accuracy is lacking.

Patent Document 1 discloses that the opening / closing operation time can be managed even when an air cylinder is used as the drive source of the opening / closing mechanism. That is, set the air cylinder closing operation allowable time and opening operation allowable time, calculate the sealer closing operation time and opening operation time due to the operation of the air cylinder, monitor whether the calculated time is within the allowable time, When an operation in which a sealing failure is suspected occurs, the packaging bag is immediately removed from the system, and a warning for prompting inspection / adjustment is issued.

JP2012-001211A

In the configuration of the sealing device of Patent Document 1, the sealing time can be managed by monitoring the closing operation time and the opening operation time of the sealer, but the pressure of the compressed air supplied to the air cylinder is not considered at all. Since the time for sealing at an appropriate pressure is not measured, there is a problem that a sealing failure may occur. Even in the cooling device having substantially the same structure as the sealing device, similar problems occur due to poor cooling due to insufficient pressure on the cooling plate and insufficient pressurization time when the sealing portion of the package is cooled.

An object of this invention is to provide the seal | sticker or cooling device which eliminates a sealing failure or a cooling failure by sealing or cooling for a set time with the setting pressure in view of this problem.

The seal or cooling device of the present invention includes an air driving device that opens and closes an opening and closing mechanism that includes a pair of contact bodies that seal or cool a packaging material, and a contact sensor that detects contact of the contact body. And a pressure sensor for detecting the air pressure of the air driving device, and the contact sensor and the pressure sensor determine that the contact body is pressed at a set pressure for a set time or more. And determining whether or not sealing or cooling is appropriate.

According to the above configuration, the present invention can eliminate sealing failure and cooling failure by sealing or cooling for a set time with a set pressure.

Front view of sealing device Top view of sealing device Illustration of piping for sealing device Time chart for proper sealing Time chart for malfunction seal Time chart when biting seal Time chart for air leak seal

In the following embodiments, description will be made based on a sealing device. However, if a cooling plate is attached instead of a sealer of the sealing device, the cooling device can be diverted, and the present invention is not limited to the sealing device. First, a bag-feeding rotary packaging machine to which the sealing device 10 of the present invention is applied will be briefly described. A plurality of sets of clamps 11 are arranged at equal intervals around the periphery of the intermittently rotating disk. The clamp 11 receives the packaging bag 12 which is the packaging material accumulated in the bag supply section, sandwiches the bag mouth of the packaging bag 12 and the lower side edges, and suspends the packaging bag 12. The disk is intermittently rotated to transfer the packaging bag 12 to a downstream section. At each stop section, a bag mouth of the packaging bag 12 is opened, the packaging bag 12 is filled with an article to be packaged, and a seal section. The sealing device 10 seals the bag mouth of the package, cools the bag mouth of the sealed package with the cooling device of the cooling section, and carries the packaged product out of the rotary type packaging machine.

Next, the configuration of the sealing device 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described.
The sealing device 10 is provided at the upper end of a column 13 erected on a machine stand in the vicinity of the seal section of the rotary packaging machine. In the sealing device 10, a cover body 15 is put on a box frame 14 whose upper surface and right side surface are opened.

Three fixing plates 16A, 16B, and 16C are erected in parallel on the bottom plate 17 of the box frame. The end of the air cylinder 19 is pivotally supported at the tip of a support shaft 18 fixed to the left side of the central fixed plate 16A. The tip of the piston rod of the air cylinder 19 is pivotally supported on the tip of a long piece of a generally rhombic pivot link 21 pivotally supported on a support shaft 20 fixed to the right side of the central fixed plate 16A. Has been.

One end of a pair of upper and lower horizontal upper rods 22 and one end of a lower rod 23 are connected to the rotating link 21 via the upper relay rod 24 and the lower relay rod 25, respectively, with the column shaft 20 interposed therebetween. ing. The upper rod 22 is slidably supported by a sleeve 27 fitted to a block 26 fixed to the fixed plate 16B. The tip of the sleeve 27 protrudes from the hole formed in the box frame 14 to the upper part of the clamp 11, and the other end of the upper rod 22 further protrudes from the tip of the sleeve 27. The lower rod 23 is slidably supported on the block 26, and the other end of the lower rod 23 protrudes from another hole formed in the box frame 14 to the vicinity of the clamp 11.

A rectangular parallelepiped sealer 28A is fixed to the other end of the upper rod 22 via a mounting plate 29A, and a sealer 28B is fixed to the other end of the lower rod 23 via a mounting plate 29B. When the sealer 28 </ b> A and the sealer 28 </ b> B (these are an example of an abutment body) abut, the bag mouth of the packaging body sandwiched by the clamp 11 of the rotary packaging machine can be sealed. Both the sealers 28A and 28B are arranged to face each other. Although not shown, both the sealers 28A and 28B are provided with a conventional heater and temperature sensor, and the temperature is controlled.

An electromagnetic valve 30 is fixed to the fixed plate 16C near the column 13, and a pressure sensor 31 is fixed to the fixed plate 16B via a bracket. The air cylinder 19 includes a contact sensor 32 that detects the position of the piston inside the air cylinder 19. The contact sensor 32 is set so as to detect the position of the piston when the sealers 28A and 28B are in contact. The contact sensor 32 only needs to be able to detect the contact between the sealers 28A and 28B. For example, the contact sensor 32 may be a limit switch provided directly on the sealers 28A and 28B, or the upper rod 22 and the lower rod 23. Or a sensor that can detect the rotational position of the rotational link 21.

As shown in FIG. 3, the piping of the sealing device 10 connects a compressed air supply source 33 and an input side port 30 </ b> C of the electromagnetic valve 30, and one output side port 30 </ b> A of the electromagnetic valve 30 and the air. The reverse port 19A of the cylinder 19 is connected. The other output side port 30B of the electromagnetic valve 30 and the forward port 19B of the air cylinder 19 are connected via a branch pipe 34, and the branch pipe 34 is connected to the pressure sensor 31. The output side port 30A has a function of a flow rate control valve (speed controller), and can adjust the operating speed of the air cylinder 19. The pressure sensor 31 detects that the pressure of the pipe between the other output side port 30B of the electromagnetic valve 30 and the forward port 19B of the air cylinder 19 is equal to or higher than a set value. The pressure sensor 31 only needs to detect that the pressure of the compressed air supplied to the air cylinder 19 is equal to or higher than a set value. For example, the pressure sensor 31 is directly attached to the forward port 19B of the air cylinder 19. Also good.

Next, the operation of the sealing device 10 of the present invention will be described. The packaging bag 12 accumulated in the bag feeding section of the rotary type packaging machine is suspended by being clamped by the clamp 11, the packaging bag 12 is transferred to the downstream section, and at each stopping section, the packaging bag 12 A bag mouth is opened, and the packaging bag 12 is filled with an article to be packaged. Further, the package body filled with the article to be packaged reaches the seal section, and the bag mouth of the package body is located between the sealer 28A and the sealer 28B, and the state shown in FIG.

In this state, according to the command of the controller of the rotary packaging machine, the solenoid valve 30 is operated and the piston rod of the air cylinder 19 moves forward, so that the rotating link 21 rotates clockwise, The upper rod 22 connected to the rotation link 21 slides to the right in FIG. 1, and the lower rod 23 slides to the left. The sealers 28A and 28B fixed to the other ends of the rods 22 and 23 approach each other and press the bag mouth of the packaging bag 12 to perform heat sealing. Thereafter, the solenoid valve 30 is turned from “on” to “off” in accordance with a command from the controller of the rotary packaging machine, and the sealer 28A and the sealer 28B are separated and returned to the initial state in the reverse procedure. The electromagnetic valve 30 is controlled by a controller to be “on” or “off” at regular intervals in accordance with intermittent rotation of the rotary packaging machine.

Next, although it demonstrates in detail using the time chart of the sealing time at the time of an appropriate time shown in FIG. 4, the time chart demonstrated by this invention is only an example, It is limited to what is shown in these time charts is not. By the command of the controller of the rotary packaging machine, the solenoid valve 30 is turned from “off” to “on”, and at the same time, the cylinder pressure increases and the sealers 28A and 28B start approaching. However, the increase in the cylinder pressure is not so large as to be detected by the pressure sensor 31.

As time elapses, both the sealers 28A and 28B come into contact with each other, and at the same time, the contact sensor 32 provided in the air cylinder 19 changes from “off” to “on”, and the cylinder pressure further increases. When time elapses and the set cylinder pressure is reached, the pressure sensor 31 detects the pressure and changes from “off” to “on”.

At the same time that the contact sensor 32 is in the “on” state and the pressure sensor 31 is in the “on” state at the set pressure, the controller changes the seal time count from “off” to “on”, and the seal time T1. Start measuring. When time elapses and the solenoid valve 30 is turned “off” by a command from the controller of the rotary packaging machine, the cylinder pressure is lowered, so the pressure sensor 31 is turned “off” and the seal time count is turned “off”. The measurement of the sealing time T1 is finished. Thereafter, the measured sealing time T1 is confirmed. This confirmation is performed by a controller of the rotary type packaging machine, and a confirmation command is issued after a predetermined time of the “off” command of the electromagnetic valve 30. When the controller confirms that the measured sealing time T1 is equal to or longer than the set value, no alarm or the like is output and the packaging operation is continued.

Next, a description will be given with reference to the time chart of the sealing time at the time of malfunction shown in FIG. The malfunction described here is a delay in the operation time from the separated state of the sealers 28A and 28B to the contact state. The adjustment of the flow control valve of the air cylinder 19 is reduced, and the pressure of the compressed air is decreased. This is caused by an increase in frictional resistance due to the aging of the air cylinder 19 or a biting of a foreign object having a fragile property into the seal portion.

From here on, the difference from the time chart of the sealing time at the appropriate time in FIG. 4 described above will be mainly described. At the same time as when the solenoid valve 30 is operated from “off” to “on”, the both sealers 28A and 28B start approaching, but the sealers 28A and 28B come into contact with each other due to the malfunction. The time T2 until is longer than that at the appropriate time. Therefore, by changing the seal time count from “off” to “on”, the timing for starting the measurement of the seal time T3 is delayed as compared with the appropriate time.

Thereafter, the electromagnetic valve 30 is turned from “on” to “off” in accordance with a command from the controller of the rotary packaging machine, as in the case of the appropriate time. After that, the controller checks the measured sealing time T3, and outputs an alarm because the sealing time T3 is less than a set value. In addition, the alarm means that the rotary packaging machine is stopped, an alert is displayed on the operation screen of the rotary packaging machine, a warning sound is emitted, a rotating lamp is operated, etc., and a malfunction of the seal is notified to the worker. It is general. Note that defective products may be excluded from the system.

Next, description will be made with reference to the time chart of the sealing time at the time of biting shown in FIG. The biting referred to here means that the sealers 28A and 28B do not come into contact with each other, and this occurs when the piston rod is fixed due to aging of the air cylinder 19 or a foreign matter having an unbreakable property is bitten into the seal portion. That is.

At the same time as when the solenoid valve 30 is operated from “off” to “on”, the both sealers 28A and 28B start approaching, but the sealers 28A and 28B cannot come into contact with each other due to the biting. Therefore, the contact sensor 32 remains “off” and does not operate, and only the pressure sensor 31 detects the pressure and changes from “off” to “on”. When the contact sensor 32 is in the “off” state and the pressure sensor 31 is in the “on” state, the seal time count remains “off” and the measurement of the seal time is not started. Thereafter, the electromagnetic valve 30 is turned from “on” to “off” in accordance with a command from the controller of the rotary packaging machine, as in the case of the appropriate time. After that, the controller confirms the measured sealing time and outputs an alarm because the sealing time is less than a set value.

Next, a description will be given using a time chart of the sealing time at the time of air leakage shown in FIG. Air leakage here means that the set pressure is not reached, and air leakage from a pipe between the forward port 19B of the air cylinder 19 and the branch pipe 34, the branch pipe 34 and the pressure sensor. This is caused by an air leak from a pipe between the pipe 31 and other pipes, an air leak due to aging of the air cylinder 19, a decrease in the pressure of compressed air, or the like.

At the same time as the proper operation, the solenoid valve 30 operates from "off" to "on", and at the same time, the sealers 28A and 28B start approaching and abutting, and at the same time, the abutment sensor 32 of the air cylinder 19 is provided. Operates from “off” to “on”. However, since the set cylinder pressure is not reached, the pressure sensor 31 remains “off” and does not operate. While the contact sensor 32 is in the “on” state, when the pressure sensor 31 is in the “off” state, the sealing time count remains “off” and the measurement of the sealing time is not started. Thereafter, the electromagnetic valve 30 is turned from “on” to “off” in accordance with a command from the controller of the rotary packaging machine, as in the case of the appropriate time. After that, the controller checks the measured sealing time, and outputs an alarm because the sealing time is less than a set value.

So far, the bag-feeding rotary packaging machine to which the sealing device 10 of the present invention is applied has been described. However, the sealing device 10 of the present invention is a bag-feeding type, bag-making type, vertical type, horizontal type, or packaging material. It does not ask forms, such as a continuous feed and intermittent feed of a packaging material. Further, any heat seal that seals the packaging material by sandwiching, heating and pressing the packaging material regardless of the vertical seal and the horizontal seal can be applied. Further, a belt-shaped packaging material is formed into a cylindrical shape, and both ends in the width direction of the packaging material formed in the cylindrical shape are sandwiched by vertical sealers to provide a vertical seal, and the packaged material is filled, At a position between the packaging material, the packaging material formed in a cylindrical shape is sandwiched by a transverse sealer in a direction crossing the packaging material, and cut in the middle of the transverse seal so that the packaging material is wrapped in a packaging bag. It may be a sealing device used for each sealing device of an automatic packaging machine that manufactures a packaged product wrapped inside. Moreover, although the heat sealing was demonstrated in the said Example, it can apply also to an impulse sealing apparatus other than heat sealing.

Furthermore, although the said Example demonstrated the sealing device, a cooling device may be sufficient. When used as a cooling device, a cooling plate is attached instead of the sealers 28A and 28B in FIG. 1, and a cooling gas or a cooling liquid is supplied to the cooling plate. Also in the case of the cooling device, cooling after sealing can be ensured by cooling the bag mouth of the packaging bag at a set pressure with a cooling plate for a set time.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is useful for a sealing device or a cooling device that uses an air driving device such as an air cylinder as a driving source for an opening / closing mechanism of the sealing device or the cooling device.

10 .. Sealing device 12 .. Packaging bag 19 .. Air cylinder (air drive device)
28A ・ ・ Sealer (contact body)
28B ・ ・ Sealer (contact body)
30 ... Solenoid valve 31 ... Pressure sensor 32 ... Contact sensor T1 ... Sealing time T3 ... Sealing time

Claims (2)

An air driving device that opens and closes an opening and closing mechanism that includes a pair of contact bodies that seal or cool the packaging material; a contact sensor that detects contact of the contact body; and an air A pressure sensor for detecting pressure,
A seal or a cooling device, wherein the contact sensor and the pressure sensor determine whether or not the contact body is pressed at a set pressure for a set time or more to determine whether or not the seal or cooling is appropriate. 2. The seal according to claim 1, wherein at least one of outputting an alarm, stopping the apparatus, and discharging a defective product out of the system is performed when it is determined that the seal or cooling is appropriate. Cooling system.

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