JP2017214083A - Piston type filling machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a piston type filling machine that can maintain an effect by an inclined part of a discharge passage, and prevent a sterilization failure without increasing a manufacturing cost.SOLUTION: A measuring cylinder 10 is provided with a piston 14 so as to be raised and lowered, and measures supplied liquid by an up and down movement of the piston 14. A filling valve 30 is communicated with an opening 10a formed in the measuring cylinder 10 through a discharge passage 80. The discharge passage 80 is composed of a horizontal section 85 extending horizontally from the opening 10a to the filling valve 30, and an inclined section 81 extending obliquely upward from the downstream end part in the horizontal section 85 to the filling valve 30. An auxiliary discharge passage 86 is provided for communicating the horizontal section 85 with the filling valve 30.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a piston-type filling machine that measures a liquid supplied in a measuring cylinder and raises and lowers a piston provided in the measuring cylinder to fill a container.

  Conventionally, what was indicated by patent documents 1 as a piston type filling machine is known. This piston filling machine is inclined such that a portion on the filling valve side becomes higher toward the downstream side in a discharge passage that connects a filling valve for filling a container with a liquid and a measuring cylinder. According to this configuration, even when the completion timing of closing of the filling valve is delayed from the completion timing of lowering of the piston of the measuring cylinder, extra liquid may flow into the filling valve due to the inclined portion of the discharge passage. Is prevented. Accordingly, the intrusion of gas into the measuring cylinder due to the outflow of excess liquid is limited, and highly accurate quantitative filling is realized.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-30995

  However, according to such a piston-type filling machine, the following problems occur when cleaning and sterilizing the filling valve and the measuring cylinder. That is, when steam as a sterilizing agent is supplied to a filling valve or a metering cylinder, when the steam is cooled and changed to condensed water, the condensed water stays in the inclined discharge passage. The portion where the condensed water stays in this way does not sufficiently rise in temperature even when steam is supplied, and does not reach the sterilization temperature, resulting in poor sterilization. On the other hand, if an on-off valve or the like is provided on the bottom surface of the discharge passage in order to remove condensed water, there arises a problem that the manufacturing cost of the apparatus increases.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a piston-type filling machine that maintains the effect of the inclined portion of the discharge passage, does not increase the manufacturing cost, and does not cause poor sterilization.

  The piston-type filling machine according to the present invention is provided with a piston that can be moved up and down, and is communicated via a measuring cylinder that measures a supplied liquid by a lifting operation of the piston, an opening formed in the measuring cylinder, and a discharge passage. The discharge passage is composed of a horizontal section extending horizontally from the opening toward the filling valve, and an inclined section extending obliquely upward from the downstream end of the horizontal section toward the filling valve. The piston-type filling machine is characterized in that an auxiliary discharge passage that communicates the horizontal section and the filling valve is provided.

  The auxiliary discharge passage is composed of, for example, a slit formed on the bottom surface of the discharge passage in the inclined section, and the bottom surface of the slit is formed to be continuous from the bottom surface in the horizontal section and extends horizontally toward the filling valve. .

  When the liquid is a liquid containing ingredients, the slit preferably has a width smaller than the average outer diameter of the ingredients.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the piston type filling machine which does not produce a sterilization defect can be obtained, without raising manufacturing cost, maintaining the effect by the inclination part of a discharge passage.

It is sectional drawing which shows the structure of the principal part of the piston type filling machine which is one Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which expands and shows a filling valve. It is sectional drawing which shows the inclination area and auxiliary | assistant discharge passage of the discharge passage opened inside a filling valve, and follows the AA line of FIG.

The structure of the piston type filling machine which is one Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated.
FIG. 1 shows a main part of a piston-type filling machine, that is, a measuring cylinder 10, a filling valve 30, and a liquid supply valve 50. The metering cylinder 10, the filling valve 30, and the liquid supply valve 50 constitute a filling mechanism that fills one container C with a liquid, and a plurality of filling mechanisms are arranged on the outer peripheral portion of the rotating body 70 in the circumferential direction. It is provided at equal intervals along. The rotating body 70 is rotatably provided around the rotation axis X located on the left side in FIG. 1, and the container C is filled while rotating.

  A cylindrical casing 11 is provided at the upper end of the measuring cylinder 10, and the upper end of the casing 11 is fixed to a support member 71 provided on the lower surface of the rotating body 70. The measuring cylinder 10 is a cylindrical member having a larger diameter than the casing 11, and the inside thereof is a measuring space 12. An elevating rod 13 is provided in the casing 11, and a piston 14 attached to the lower end of the elevating rod 13 is accommodated in the measuring space 12. The lifting rod 13 is driven up and down by a servo motor 20, whereby the piston 14 moves up and down in the measuring space 12, and the liquid supplied to the container C is measured and supplied to the filling valve 30. The illustrated state is a state where the lowering of the piston 14 is completed.

  A cylindrical casing 31 is provided at the upper end of the filling valve 30, and the upper end of the casing 31 is fixed to the support member 71 in the same manner as the casing 11 of the measuring cylinder 10. A filling nozzle 32 for filling the container C with liquid is formed at the lower end of the filling valve 30. An elevating rod 33 is provided in the casing 31, and a valve body 34 is attached to the lower end of the elevating rod 33. The elevating rod 33 is driven up and down by an air cylinder 40 provided on the upper surface of the rotating body 70, whereby the valve body 34 moves up and down to open and close the filling valve 30.

  The filling valve 30 is formed with an inclined section 81 that is a part of a discharge passage 80 described later. When the filling nozzle 32 is opened, the valve body 34 rises to a position where the opening of the inclined section 81 on the inner wall surface of the filling valve 30 is also opened. The valve body 34 has a seal portion 34 a at the tip of a cylinder, and the seal portion 34 a is in close contact with a conical surface valve seat 35 formed above the filling nozzle 32 to close the filling nozzle 32.

  A cylindrical casing 51 is provided at the upper end of the liquid supply valve 50, and the upper end of the casing 51 is fixed to the support member 71 in the same manner as the casing 11 of the measuring cylinder 10. The inlet portion 52 of the liquid supply valve 50 is connected to a filling liquid tank 82 that stores the liquid filled in the container C via the first liquid supply pipe 83, and the outlet portion 53 is the inlet portion 17 of the measuring cylinder 10. In addition, the second liquid supply pipe 84 is connected. An elevating rod 54 is provided in the casing 51, and a valve body 55 is attached to the lower end of the elevating rod 54. The elevating rod 54 is driven up and down by an air cylinder 60 provided on the upper surface of the rotating body 70, whereby the valve body 55 is raised and lowered to open and close the liquid supply valve 50.

  In the valve open state, the valve body 55 ascends until its lower end is positioned above the upper end of the inlet 52. Further, when the valve body 55 is in the closed state, the lower end portion thereof is lowered so as to be seated on the valve seat 56 formed in the outlet portion 53, and at this time, the side surface 55 a of the valve body 55 closes the inlet portion 52.

  As described above, in the state of FIG. 1, the lowering operation of the piston 14 is completed. In this state, the liquid supply valve 50 is closed while the filling valve 30 is open. Further, the piston 14 of the measuring cylinder 10 is at the lowermost position in the descending operation, and the lower surface of the large diameter portion 14 a of the piston 14 is positioned at the opening 10 a of the measuring cylinder 10.

  The portion below the opening 10a of the measuring cylinder 10 is a large-diameter space 18 that has a circular shape when viewed from above. The large diameter space 18 is slightly larger in diameter than the measuring space 12 and has a shape capable of accommodating the large diameter portion 14a of the piston 14. The upstream side of the large-diameter space 18 communicates with the inlet portion 17, and the downstream side communicates with the discharge passage 80. The discharge passage 80 has a horizontal section 85 extending horizontally from the opening 10a and the large-diameter space 18 toward the filling valve 30, and an inclination extending obliquely upward from the downstream end of the horizontal section 85 toward the filling valve 30. The section 81 is configured. An auxiliary discharge passage 86 is formed in the inclined section 81 as will be described later.

  The configuration of the inclined section 81 of the discharge passage 80 and the auxiliary discharge passage 86 will be described with reference to FIGS. The lower end 81 b of the opening 81 a in the filling valve 30 in the inclined section 81 substantially coincides with the height position of the upper end of the inner wall surface of the horizontal section 85 as indicated by the horizontal line L. The auxiliary discharge passage 86 is formed to communicate the horizontal section 85 and the inside of the filling valve 30. The auxiliary discharge passage 86 includes a slit formed on the bottom surface of the discharge passage 80 in the inclined section 81. The bottom surface 86 a of the slit is formed so as to be continuous from the bottom surface 85 a in the horizontal section 85 without a step, extends horizontally toward the inside of the filling valve 30, and continues to the valve seat 35. Further, the width of the auxiliary discharge passage 86 is narrower than the width of the discharge passage 80 in the horizontal section 85 and the inclined section 81. In FIG. 3, the width of the auxiliary discharge passage 86 is about 30% of the width of the inclined section 81, but this is only an example.

The operation of this embodiment will be described.
The liquid filling operation into the container C is performed as follows. First, in a state in which the filling valve 30 is closed and the liquid supply valve 50 is opened, the piston 14 rises to a predetermined rising position in the measuring cylinder 10, whereby the filling liquid is supplied from the filling liquid tank 82 to the measuring cylinder 10. And is supplied into the discharge passage 80. Next, the liquid supply valve 50 is closed and the filling valve 30 is opened, and the piston 14 is lowered to a predetermined lowered position. Immediately after the lowering operation of the piston 14 is completed, the valve body 34 descends to close the opening 81a of the inclined section 81, and sits on the valve seat 35 to close the filling nozzle 32. Thereby, the filling operation to the container C is completed.

  While the valve body 34 of the filling valve 30 is driven up and down by the air cylinder 40, the lifting and lowering operation of the piston 14 is driven up and down by the servo motor 20 in order to perform accurate metering according to the type of filling liquid. . On the other hand, in order to prevent the valve body 34 from closing before the completion of the lowering operation of the piston 14 and making the quantitative filling impossible, the timing at which the valve body 34 of the filling valve 30 is seated on the valve seat 35 is: The air cylinder 40 is controlled so that the piston 14 is slightly delayed from the timing at which the piston 14 reaches the lowest descending position (position shown in FIG. 1) in the measuring cylinder 10.

  If the auxiliary discharge passage 86 is not formed in the inclined section 81, the liquid level in the discharge passage 80 is higher than the lower end 81b of the opening 81a even if the filling valve 30 is opened after the lowering operation of the piston 14 is completed. It does not fall below the position (horizontal line L). However, in this embodiment, since the auxiliary discharge passage 86 is formed, the liquid flows out from the auxiliary discharge passage 86 into the filling valve 30 until the valve body 34 of the filling valve 30 closes the auxiliary discharge passage 86. There is a possibility that the liquid level in the discharge passage 80 falls below the horizontal line L. Depending on the inflow amount of the liquid, outside air may enter the measuring cylinder 10 and hinder measurement at the next filling time.

  As described above, the air cylinder is set so that the timing at which the valve body 34 of the filling valve 30 is seated on the valve seat 35 is slightly delayed from the timing at which the lowering position (position shown in FIG. 1) of the lowering operation is reached in the measuring cylinder 10. 40, the liquid flows out from the auxiliary discharge passage 86 until the valve body 34 is seated on the valve seat 35. However, when the filling liquid is a liquid containing ingredients, the auxiliary discharge passage By setting the width of the slit 86 to be smaller than the average outer diameter of the ingredients, the outflow of liquid from the auxiliary discharge passage 86 can be suppressed. In addition, as a calculation method of the average outer diameter of ingredients, various average values, such as an arithmetic mean and a geometric mean, can be used.

  Thus, the presence of small ingredients in the auxiliary discharge passage 86 suppresses the flow of the liquid in the auxiliary discharge passage 86, and the discharge of the liquid into the filling valve 30 is reduced as much as possible. Therefore, the effect of the inclined section 81 is maintained, and the liquid level in the inclined section 81 is prevented as much as possible from the horizontal line L. Such an effect is exhibited not only in the case of liquids containing ingredients but also in the case of filling high viscosity liquids.

  The sterilization operation in the filling mechanism is performed as follows. That is, in the filling valve 30 and the liquid supply valve 50, the valve bodies 34 and 55 are lifted and are set in the open state. The large-diameter space 18 is accommodated. Thereby, the packing 16 is released from the inner wall surface of the measuring space 12 and expands, but does not contact the inner wall surface of the large-diameter space 18. On the other hand, the first liquid supply pipe 83 is connected to a cleaning liquid tank (not shown) that stores the cleaning liquid, and the filling nozzle 32 is equipped with a cleaning cup (not shown).

  In this state, the cleaning liquid is discharged from the cleaning liquid tank, supplied to the first and second liquid supply pipes 83 and 84, the liquid supply valve 50, the measuring cylinder 10, the discharge passage 80, and the filling valve 30 and discharged to the cleaning cup. . When cleaning with the cleaning liquid is completed, the first liquid supply pipe 83 is removed from the cleaning liquid tank and connected to a steam supply device (not shown). Then, high-temperature (for example, 135 ° C.) steam is supplied to the liquid supply pipes 83 and 84 in the same manner as the cleaning liquid, and is discharged from the filling valve 30 to the cleaning cup.

  In the present embodiment, since the auxiliary discharge passage 86 is formed in the inclined section 81 of the discharge passage 80, the cleaning liquid in the discharge passage 80 passes through the auxiliary discharge passage 86 in the cleaning cup before the high-temperature steam is supplied. Have been discharged. Even if the steam is changed to condensed water by cooling, the condensed water is discharged through the auxiliary discharge passage 86 and does not stay in the discharge passage 80. Therefore, since the temperature of steam does not decrease due to condensed water, the steam maintains a predetermined high temperature state and exhibits a sufficient sterilization effect.

  The present embodiment has a simple configuration in which an auxiliary discharge passage 86 that communicates the horizontal section 85 and the filling valve 30 is provided. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a piston-type filling machine that maintains the effect of the inclined portion of the discharge passage 80, does not increase the manufacturing cost, and does not cause poor sterilization.

  It should be noted that the present invention can be applied to the case of filling a low-viscosity liquid by narrowing the slit width of the auxiliary discharge passage 86. In short, the width of the auxiliary discharge passage 86 may be appropriately determined according to the properties of the filling liquid.

  The shape of the auxiliary discharge passage 86 is not limited to a slit, and may be a through hole as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIGS. That is, the auxiliary discharge passage 86 extends in parallel along the axial direction of the horizontal section 85 and opens into the filling valve 30.

  Furthermore, the raising / lowering drive of the valve body 34, the piston 14, and the valve body 55 is not limited to the air cylinder and the servo motor, respectively, and an appropriate drive mechanism such as a motor or a cam mechanism of another system may be adopted.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Metering cylinder 10a Opening part 14 Piston 30 Filling valve 80 Discharge passage 81 Inclination section 85 Horizontal section 86 Auxiliary discharge passage

Claims (3)

A piston provided so as to be movable up and down, and a measuring cylinder for measuring the supplied liquid by a lifting and lowering operation of the piston;
An opening formed in the metering cylinder and a filling valve communicated via a discharge passage;
The discharge passage is composed of a horizontal section extending horizontally from the opening toward the filling valve, and an inclined section extending obliquely upward from the downstream end of the horizontal section toward the filling valve. In piston type filling machine,
A piston-type filling machine, wherein an auxiliary discharge passage is provided for communicating the horizontal section and the filling valve.   The auxiliary discharge passage is composed of a slit formed in the bottom surface of the discharge passage in the inclined section, and the bottom surface of the slit is formed to be continuous from the bottom surface in the horizontal section and toward the filling valve. 2. The piston-type filling machine according to claim 1, which extends horizontally.   The piston-type filling machine according to claim 2, wherein the liquid is a liquid containing ingredients, and the slit has a width smaller than an average outer diameter of the ingredients.

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