JP2018203333A - Determination method of delayed leakage from filling packaging body - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a method which determines delayed leakage from the lateral seal part of a filling packaging body that is continuously filled and packaged at high speed just after manufacturing of the filling packaging body.SOLUTION: Provided is a method which determines, just after manufacturing of a filling packaging body W, a seal failure part which is related to a delayed leakage phenomenon that a liquid to be packaged may start, from at least 24 hours later, to leak from lateral seal parts 104, 106 of the filling packaging body W for the liquid article to be packaged that is manufactured by a filling packaging machine comprising a pair of vertical seal rolls and a pair of lateral seal rolls 104, 106. A lateral seal part 105 of the filling packaging body W which runs below the lateral rolls 104, 106 is photographed by an infrared camera, and a seal failure part which is related to the delayed leakage is identified from among infrared images obtained through this photographing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  According to the present invention, a delayed leakage of a liquid package from a lateral seal portion of a filling package for a liquid package, which is obtained by subjecting a long packaging film to vertical and horizontal seals, The present invention relates to a method for determining immediately after manufacturing.

  As for a filling and packaging machine for automatically filling and packaging a liquid or viscous packaged article in a packaging bag made of a plastic film, automatic filling machines such as those described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 are known. ing.

  In these automatic filling machines, for example, a long packaging film made of a laminated film including a base film layer and a sealant layer is continuously run from top to bottom along the longitudinal direction, Half-fold in the width direction so as to face each other, the two side edges of the overlapping film are continuously heat-sealed in the vertical direction by a vertical seal roll to form a vertical seal portion, and the film is then cylindrical. At the location on the bottom side of the cylindrical packaging film, a horizontal sealing portion is formed by heat-sealing in the lateral direction by a pair of lateral sealing rollers along the width direction of the packaging film, and the cylindrical packaging The packaging body is continuously manufactured by forming a horizontal seal portion at a location on the bag mouth side while filling the packaging material into the film for use and extruding the packaging material. To have.

JP-A-8-301237 JP 2006-248578 A JP 2016-47738 A

  This automatic filling machine is configured so that production conditions corresponding to the packaging form can be set by inputting numerical values for each item. In this case, if the production conditions (settings) are not appropriate, wrinkles and foaming may occur in the vertical seal portion and the horizontal seal portion. Even if such wrinkles and foaming are as small as several μm, if they reach the edge of the seal part from the filling space of the packaged item, it becomes a poorly sealed part, so-called delay that begins to leak after one to several days There is a risk of leakage.

Since it is difficult to visually detect (confirm) such a defective seal part of several μm of wrinkles and foaming that causes such delayed leakage, it has been difficult to detect (confirm) the manufactured package for about 3 days. The package was judged to be good or bad based on the presence or absence of actual liquid leakage.
However, this method has problems such as the need to secure a place to store a large amount of packages, that the product cannot be shipped immediately after production, and that the surrounding packages are soiled when a liquid leak occurs. there were. In addition, a plurality of packages are often shipped in a connected state (continuously packaged) via a lateral seal portion. In this case, there is a poorly sealed portion in the lateral seal portion between the packages. Even in this case, liquid leakage does not occur until the package is cut into individual packages at the shipping destination. Therefore, it is impossible to detect the sealing failure before shipping and determine the possibility of delayed leakage.

  Most of the delayed leakage from the package occurs from the horizontal seal portion and the position where the horizontal seal portion intersects the vertical seal portion. First, as described above, a long packaging film is folded in half in the width direction and the side edges are vertically sealed to form a cylindrical shape, and then covered in the cylindrical packaging film. When the package is filled, the packaging film is easily deformed due to the weight of the package, and vertical flaws are likely to occur. In particular, as in Patent Document 3, the side seal portion side that is the long side of the package is defined as the horizontal seal portion. In this case, the occurrence of the vertical flaw becomes significant, and by applying a horizontal seal in this state, a through flaw penetrating the seal portion is generated at a position where the horizontal seal portion and the horizontal seal portion intersect the vertical seal portion. In addition, liquid leakage occurs through the penetrating trough.

Further, as a second cause, the horizontal seal portion is formed by submerged seal filling that heat-seals while extruding a liquid object to be packaged by a pair of horizontal seal rolls. In this submerged seal filling, the heat seal tends to vary depending on the temperature and type of the packaged item, and a heat seal failure tends to occur.
Furthermore, an article to be packaged inevitably intervenes in the horizontal seal portion, and a part thereof stays there and tends to be bitten and retained. In particular, in the case of a gas-liquid mixed phase fluid filled with a gas such as nitrogen together with a liquid material as a packaged item, there is a high possibility of gas biting into the horizontal seal portion, and biting into the horizontal seal portion. The liquid material may be expanded (200 to 600 times) and foamed at the same time as it is released from the pressure by the lateral seal roll, and the bubbles or foam may penetrate the lateral seal portion or may be a plurality of foams. If it is continuously formed so as to penetrate the lateral seal portion, a seal failure will occur, leading to liquid leakage immediately, and there is a possibility that delayed leakage will occur depending on the state of the bubbles and the relationship with the soot.

  In addition, the foam generated in the horizontal seal portion is in a foamed state immediately after the horizontal seal roll while the horizontal seal portion is in a high temperature state, but shrinks when cooled while moving downstream. Because it disappears, even if there is a large foam that immediately leads to leakage, it may not be found.

  In particular, the delayed leak is caused by, for example, through holes formed by, for example, minute foaming in the seal portion or a combination of a plurality of foams, wrinkles, etc., or pseudo through holes that become through holes after a lapse of time. to cause. The through-holes that cause this delayed leakage do not cause liquid leakage immediately after production, but the liquid package is gradually infiltrated from the filling space over one to several days. It is what is generated. Since such a through-hole or the like is very fine, it cannot be accurately detected from the inside of the lateral seal portion of the filling package that is continuously filled and packaged at a high speed, and there is no method for detecting in advance.

  Therefore, in the present invention, the occurrence of delayed leakage occurring at least 24 hours (one day) after the production of the filled packaging body from the lateral seal portion of the filled packaging body that is continuously filled and packaged at high speed is described. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for making a determination immediately after manufacturing.

As a result of intensive studies to achieve the above object, the inventors have arrived at the present invention according to the gist configuration described below.
That is, the present invention comprises a pair of vertical sealing rolls for folding a long packaging film in the width direction and vertically sealing both side edges in the longitudinal direction to form a cylindrical shape, and the cylindrical packaging film. A filling package for a liquid packaging manufactured by a filling packaging machine comprising a pair of horizontal sealing rolls that perform horizontal sealing at a predetermined interval across the width direction of the liquid packaging. A method of determining immediately after the manufacture of the filled package, a defective seal portion that leads to a delayed leakage phenomenon that will start to leak after 24 hours,
The horizontal seal part of the filling package that travels under the horizontal seal roll is photographed by an infrared camera, and a defective seal portion that leads to the delayed leakage is identified from a near-infrared image obtained by the photographing.

In the method for determining delayed leakage from the filled package of the present invention,
(1) The seal failure portion is in a region within 3.0 mm in the longitudinal seal direction from the filling space side seal edge of the liquid package of the lateral seal portion detected by the image processing device from the near infrared image, Targeting a through-hole or a pseudo-through-hole consisting of a series of bubbles or a combination of soot and bubbles,
(2) The unsealable portion is obtained by reconstructing a plurality of images taken with the infrared camera and having different sharpness and / or exposure into one composite image using an image processing device, and based on the composite image. To be identified,
Is a more preferable solution.

  According to the method of determining delayed leakage from a filled package according to the present invention, an infrared camera (wavelength: 700 to 2500 nm) is disposed at a position immediately after heat sealing by a horizontal seal roll on a lateral seal portion of a package that is continuously filled and packaged. By taking a picture with timing, and identifying a defective seal portion that causes the occurrence of delayed leakage from the captured image, it is possible to determine the possibility of delayed leakage immediately after manufacture of the filled package.

  In particular, according to the present invention, by photographing the inside of the horizontal seal portion with an infrared camera, a fine through-hole made of a series of fine wrinkles or bubbles that could not be photographed conventionally, or a through-hole after a lapse of time. Since it is possible to take a picture of a poorly sealed part consisting of such a pseudo through-hole, it is determined from the photographed image immediately after manufacture of the filled packaging body whether or not the poorly sealed part causes delay leakage. Since it is possible to perform on-line detection that does not require the time (waiting time) required to detect delay leakage, it is advantageous in terms of location and cost. In particular, the present invention is suitably used for determining delayed leaks frequently occurring in the lateral seal portion based on the gas when the liquid packaged object and a gas such as nitrogen are mixed and packed. Can do.

  Further, according to the present invention, from a plurality of images captured by a plurality of infrared cameras with different aperture values, and a plurality of images obtained by adjusting the sharpness and / or exposure of the captured images, Even if there is a color pattern or printing on the packaging film, the processing device cuts out and combines only the optimal part (the part that is clearly projected) and reconstructs it as a single image. The inside of the seal portion can be clearly displayed, and a defective seal portion that causes a delayed leak can be detected.

It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of a filling packaging machine. (A) is a figure which expands and shows the 1st horizontal seal roll of the filling packaging machine of FIG. 1, (b) is a figure which expands and shows a horizontal seal part. It is a block diagram explaining the determination method of the delay leak from the filling packaging body of this invention. It is a figure explaining the method of changing exposure according to printing of the film for packaging from a picked-up image, and producing a synthesized image. The image data (a) of the horizontal seal portion determined to be defective and the image data (b) of the horizontal seal portion determined to be non-defective.

Hereinafter, a method for determining a delayed leak from a filled package according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The filling and packaging machine 10 may be various types such as a horizontal filling and packaging machine and another row filling and packaging machine in addition to the vertical filling and packaging machine described in Patent Documents 1 and 2. Hereinafter, the vertical filling and packaging machine shown in FIG. 1 will be described as a representative example.

The filling and packaging machine 10 guides with a guide rod 100 during the running while continuously running a single long packaging film F that is drawn out from the film roll R downward from the information. While the packaging film F is folded back in the width direction so that the sealant layers face each other, the both side ends located at the left end portion of the packaging film F are overlapped in the figure, and the overlapped both side ends The pair of vertical seal rolls 101 are continuously pressed and heated in the longitudinal direction (longitudinal direction) of the packaging film F to form the longitudinal seal portion 102, thereby forming the packaging film F into a cylindrical shape. To do.
Next, the article to be packaged M supplied from a tank (not shown) via a pump (not shown) and a supply path is formed into a cylindrical shape by the filling nozzle 103 penetrating from the top to the bottom between the pair of vertical seal rolls. The packaging film F ′ is filled continuously or intermittently by a predetermined amount, and the packaging film F ′ formed in a cylindrical shape is spaced apart in the longitudinal direction by a pair of first The horizontal seal portion 104 is intermittently formed by pressurizing and welding to each other while being heated over the entire width by the horizontal seal roll 104. Thereafter, the horizontal seal portion 105 is re-pressed by the second horizontal seal roll 106 to secure the seal, thereby continuously producing a large number of packaging bodies W in the longitudinal direction of the packaging film F. Configured to be bagged. The package W may be cut into one bag or a plurality of bags by providing a cutting mechanism 107 on the downstream side of the second horizontal seal roll 106 as shown in the figure.

In this filling and packaging machine 10, as shown in the enlarged side view of the first horizontal seal roll 104 portion in FIG. 2A, the packaging body W is disposed on the downstream side in the traveling direction of the packaging film F of the first horizontal seal roll 104. An infrared imaging device comprising an infrared irradiation device 21 is provided at a position facing the infrared camera 20 and the packaging film F so as to face each other.
The infrared camera 20 is equipped with a CCD sensor, a CMOS sensor, and the like, and has sensitivity to near infrared rays having a wavelength of 700 to 1700 nm irradiated from an infrared irradiation device 21 including an infrared LED or the like. When the packaging film F is photographed with a visible light camera, visible light is reflected on the surface of the packaging film F, so that the inside of the horizontal seal portion 105 cannot be photographed. When it is used, infrared rays are transmitted through the packaging film F and reflected at non-sealing positions such as foaming and wrinkles generated in the lateral seal portion 105, so that the line is lifted and a defect image can be taken clearly.

  An image (video signal) photographed by the infrared camera 20 is a fine non-sealed portion made of a soot, a series of bubbles or a combination of soot and bubbles in the horizontal seal portion 105 by an image processing device 22 made of a computer or the like. The presence / absence of the non-seal portion is detected, and it is further determined whether or not the detected non-seal portion becomes a seal failure portion leading to a delayed leak phenomenon.

  Whether or not the non-seal portion in the horizontal seal portion 105 that appears in the photographed image becomes a seal failure portion that leads to a delayed leakage phenomenon is extracted from the photographed image or the image by the image processing device 22, for example. The characteristic data (for example, the length and position of the wrinkles, the size and position of the bubbles, the number, etc.) of the non-sealed portion (defective portion), and the determination criterion conditions (for example, reference image data, This can be done by comparing the defect that occurred in the past with reference feature data obtained by converting the type or feature into data.

  In particular, as a criterion condition, as shown in FIG. 2B, the horizontal seal portion 105 shown in the photographed image is within 3.0 mm in the vertical seal direction from the seal edge 108 on the packing space side of the package. It is preferable to target a through hole or a pseudo through hole in the region 110 (the region indicated by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 2B, hereinafter referred to as “determination region 110”). A through hole (connected to the filling space) or a pseudo through hole (connected to the filling space after a lapse of time) in the determination area 110 of 3.0 mm in the longitudinal sealing direction from the seal edge 108 on the filling space side 105. By detecting, it is possible to determine a delayed leak that causes a liquid leak at least 24 hours after the production of the package W.

This is because the horizontal seal portion 105 has sufficient seal strength if the seal edge 108 on the filling space side is continuously formed in a strip shape with a length of 3.0 mm and at least 1.0 mm in the vertical seal direction. In other words, if there is a finely sealed portion such as foaming or wrinkles in the determination region 110, it takes 1 to several days to peel off the lateral seal portion 105 starting from that portion. This is because the liquid seal (delayed leak) occurs from the cut end face when the horizontal seal portion 105 is cut at the cutting position 111 (the central position in the length direction of the horizontal seal portion 105).
In the case of FIG. 2B, the non-seal portion 109a is composed of a series of bubbles, but because it is located outside the determination region 110, it is determined that there is no possibility of delayed leakage. Since the non-seal portion 109b is located at the seal edge 108 portion in the determination region 110, it is determined that there is a possibility of delay leakage.

Here, the infrared camera 20 converts the horizontal seal portion 105 formed intermittently by the first horizontal seal roll 104 into the first horizontal seal roll 104, particularly the horizontal heat seal position (a pair of the first horizontal seal roll 104). Position where the length L is within 30 cm, preferably within 20 cm in the running direction of the packaging film F from the position where the heat seal bars 104a provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the first horizontal seal roll 104 are in contact with each other. It is preferable to provide so as to photograph at a position.
The infrared camera 20 may be provided at any position as long as the horizontal seal portion 105 can be photographed at a position within the above range, but preferably, the infrared camera 20 is connected to the second seal roll 106 below the first horizontal seal roll 104. Provide between.

  As described above, when the horizontal seal portion 105 is photographed immediately after the first horizontal seal roll 104, particularly at a position within 30 cm from the first horizontal seal roll 104, the horizontal seal portion 105 is heated to a high temperature by heating by the first horizontal seal roll 104. Since it is in the state, the foaming generated in the lateral seal portion 105 can be photographed in the foamed state. For this reason, a state in which a large number of foams are connected in the horizontal seal portion 105, a state in which the foams are connected to the wrinkles, and the like can be detected from the photographed image. Can be determined.

  When the packaging film F is heated by the first horizontal seal roll 104, the vertical seal portion 102 is heated and remelted together with the horizontal seal portion 105, and wrinkles may be generated at that time. Also in this case, if the infrared camera 20 is used to photograph a position within 30 cm from the lateral heat seal position, the foam generated in the lateral seal portion 105 can be photographed in the foamed state. It is possible to determine whether or not the wrinkles generated at the intersecting position of the seal portion 105 and the vertical seal portion 102 communicate with each other and become a defective seal portion.

  When the horizontal seal portion 105 is photographed at a position more than 30 cm away from the first horizontal seal roll 104 in the running direction of the packaging film F, foaming generated in the horizontal seal portion 105 As the seal portion 105 is cooled, it shrinks, and in particular, a small foam of about several μm disappears completely. Therefore, even a poor seal portion that causes delayed leakage can be detected from the photographed image. Therefore, the delayed leak cannot be detected immediately after the packaging body W is manufactured.

  The infrared camera 20 is preferably capable of photographing in synchronism with the traveling speed of the packaging film F and / or the rotational speed of the first horizontal seal roll 104. For example, the infrared camera 20 of the packaging film F or the first horizontal seal roll 104 If the imaging command signal is sent from the position sensor provided on the drive motor or roller to the infrared camera 20 via the control unit of the filling and packaging machine 10 as shown in FIG. It is possible to accurately photograph the portion 105 at a predetermined position.

Further, when the packaging film F has printing of colors, patterns, characters, etc., for example, when the aperture value of the infrared camera 20 is adjusted to the printed part, the part without printing becomes too bright and there is no printing. When the aperture value of the infrared camera 20 is adjusted to a portion, the printed portion becomes too dark, and none of the horizontal seal portion 105 can be projected.
Therefore, a plurality of infrared cameras 20 with different exposures are provided, and the sharpness and / or exposure is adjusted from a plurality of captured images captured by each camera or a single captured image captured by the infrared camera 20. It is preferable to cut out and synthesize (reconstruct) only the optimum portion (the portion where the inside of the horizontal seal portion 105 is clearly projected) from the plurality of images obtained in this way by the image processing device 22. In this method, as shown in FIG. 4, when the area A has printing and the area B is made of a transparent film, the image processing apparatus uses a single photographed image (a) photographed by the infrared camera 20. 22 is used to create an image (b) in which the exposure is adjusted to the area A and an image (c) in which the exposure is adjusted to the area B, respectively, and the portion of the area A is cut out from the image (b). From c), the area B is cut out, and the combined area A and area B are combined to form a composite image (d). According to this, since the entire horizontal seal portion 105 can be clearly projected as one image without being obstructed by the printing layer of the packaging film F, the same method as the packaging film F without the printing layer can be used. It is possible to determine a delay leak.

  When a defective seal portion is detected by image processing performed by the image processing device 22, an exclusion signal is output from the image processing device 22 to the control unit 11 of the filling and packaging machine 10 as shown in FIG. Is discharged from the discharge unit 12 provided in the filling and packaging machine 10 to another line, the package W with a possibility of delayed leakage is not shipped. In addition, it is preferable that a registration mark, a barcode, a QR code (registered trademark) or the like is printed on the packaging film F in advance on the packaging body W, and an image taken by the infrared camera 20 and the packaging body using the barcode or the like. If it can be collated with W, the applicable packaging body W can be discharged | emitted from the discharge part 12 correctly.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of a photographed image (a) determined as a defective product (possibility of delay leak) and a photographed image (b) determined as a non-defective product (no possibility of delay leak) in the image processing apparatus 22. Indicates. In the photographed image (a), there is a seal failure portion made of a ridge penetrating in the length direction of the horizontal seal portion at the position indicated by the arrow, and liquid leakage may occur due to the seal failure portion. On the other hand, in the photographed image (b), there is no wrinkle or foaming and there is no risk of liquid leakage.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Filling packaging machine 11 Control part 12 Discharge part 20 Infrared camera 21 Infrared irradiation apparatus 22 Image processing apparatus 100 Guide rod 101 Vertical seal roll 102 Vertical seal part 103 Filling nozzle 104 1st horizontal seal roll 105 Horizontal seal part 106 2nd horizontal seal Roll 107 Cutting mechanism 108 Seal edge 109a, 109b Non-seal portion 110 Determination area 111 Cutting position

As a result of intensive studies to achieve the above object, the inventors have arrived at the present invention according to the gist configuration described below.
That is, the present invention comprises a pair of vertical sealing rolls for folding a long packaging film in the width direction and vertically sealing both side edges in the longitudinal direction to form a cylindrical shape, and the cylindrical packaging film. A filling package for a liquid packaging manufactured by a filling packaging machine comprising a pair of horizontal sealing rolls that perform horizontal sealing at a predetermined interval across the width direction of the liquid packaging. A method of determining immediately after the manufacture of the filled package, a defective seal portion that leads to a delayed leakage phenomenon that will start to leak after 24 hours,
An infrared irradiation device is disposed on one side of the filling packaging body at a position where the transverse sealing portion of the filling packaging body that travels under the transverse sealing roll and the position where the transverse sealing portion and the vertical sealing portion intersect with each other. An infrared camera is arranged on the other side to shoot a near-infrared image, and from the near-infrared image obtained by this shooting, an image processing device uses the image processing device to fill the liquid packaging object in the space to be filled with the liquid package. The target is a through hole or a pseudo through hole that is in a region within 3.0 mm from the vertical seal direction and is formed by deformation of the packaging film due to the weight of the filled liquid package, or a chain of vertical rods and vertical rods and bubbles. The defective seal portion that leads to the delayed leakage is specified.

In the late leakage determination method from the fill package of the present invention, before Symbol defective sealing portion, a plurality of images having different sharpness and / or exposure taken with the infrared camera using the image processing apparatus Reconstructing into one composite image and specifying based on the composite image is a more preferable solution.

The filling and packaging machine 10 guides with a guide rod 100 during the running of a single long packaging film F that is continuously fed from the film roll R and running from the top to the bottom. While the packaging film F is folded back in the width direction so that the sealant layers face each other, the both side ends located at the left end portion of the packaging film F are overlapped in the figure, and the overlapped both side ends The pair of vertical seal rolls 101 are continuously pressed and heated in the longitudinal direction (longitudinal direction) of the packaging film F to form the longitudinal seal portion 102, thereby forming the packaging film F into a cylindrical shape. To do.
Next, the article to be packaged M supplied from a tank (not shown) via a pump (not shown) and a supply path is formed into a cylindrical shape by the filling nozzle 103 penetrating from the top to the bottom between the pair of vertical seal rolls. The packaging film F ′ is filled continuously or intermittently by a predetermined amount, and the packaging film F ′ formed in a cylindrical shape is spaced apart in the longitudinal direction by a pair of first The horizontal seal portion 104 is intermittently formed by pressurizing and welding to each other while being heated over the entire width by the horizontal seal roll 104. Thereafter, the horizontal seal portion 105 is re-pressed by the second horizontal seal roll 106 to secure the seal, thereby continuously producing a large number of packaging bodies W in the longitudinal direction of the packaging film F. Configured to be bagged. The package W may be cut into one bag or a plurality of bags by providing a cutting mechanism 107 on the downstream side of the second horizontal seal roll 106 as shown in the figure.

Claims (3)

A long packaging film is folded back in the width direction, and a pair of vertical seal rolls for vertically sealing both side edges in the longitudinal direction to form a cylindrical shape, and sandwiching the width direction of the cylindrical packaging film A liquid package to be packaged for a liquid package manufactured by a filling and packaging machine including a pair of horizontal seal rolls that perform horizontal sealing at a predetermined interval, and the liquid package starts to leak from the horizontal seal portion at least 24 hours later. A method of determining immediately after the manufacture of the filled packaging body, a defective seal portion that would lead to a delayed leakage phenomenon,
Photographing the lateral seal portion of the filling package that travels under the lateral seal roll with an infrared camera, and identifying a defective seal portion that leads to the delayed leakage from a near-infrared image obtained by the photographing. Judgment method of delayed leak from package.   The defective seal portion is a series of bubbles and bubbles in the horizontal seal portion detected by the image processing apparatus from the near-infrared image in a region within 3.0 mm in the vertical seal direction from the sealing edge on the filling side of the liquid package. 2. The method for determining delayed leakage from a filled package according to claim 1, wherein the target is a through-hole or a pseudo-through-hole formed by a combination of a bag and a bubble.   The unsealable portion is identified based on a composite image obtained by reconstructing a plurality of images taken with the infrared camera and having different sharpness and / or exposure into one composite image using an image processing device. The method for determining a delayed leak from a filled package according to claim 1 or 2.