JP3174662B2 - Packaging equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a packaging apparatus for packaging a commodity such as fresh food on a tray with a stretch film.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known a packaging apparatus for packaging a product such as fresh food on a styrofoam tray with a stretch film together with the tray. This type of wrapping device clamps the side edges of the film so that the film is held in tension at the wrap station, and the tray on which the product is placed is pushed up by the lifter to the upper lap station, and the product or tray is placed on top of the product or tray. The front, rear, left and right side edges of the adhered film are folded into the bottom side of the tray by a folding member, and the product is packaged together with the tray with the film. In this type of packaging equipment,
The tray on which the goods are placed is intermittently transferred onto the lifter by the supply conveyor device in an unpackaged state.

[0003] When the product is pushed up by the lifter, the product in an unpackaged state may cause the product on the tray to spill on the lift plate of the lifter. It is unsanitary because it feeds on creatures and produces bacteria. Therefore, the lifting plate needs to be cleaned. Further, since the bottom surface of the tray contacts the top surface of the lifter, it is necessary to clean the top surface of the lifter. Such a cleaning operation is a daily operation that is performed at least when a day's packaging operation is completed, and therefore, it is necessary to easily perform the cleaning operation.

[0004]

However, the lifter is located at the origin position at the lowered position for convenience of packaging, and is provided further behind the supply conveyor device for feeding the tray to the lifter. Therefore, the lifter cannot be sufficiently cleaned from outside the packaging device. Therefore,
The supply conveyor device is provided detachably, and after removing the supply conveyor device, the lifter is cleaned. However, with this cleaning method, before and after cleaning,
Since it is necessary to remove and attach the supply conveyor device,
Daily cleaning work is troublesome and requires a great deal of labor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and is directed to a packaging apparatus that lifts a product to an upper lap station by a lifter and wraps the product together with a tray. It is intended to provide a device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a mode of a packaging device is set to a cleaning mode.
If an input section causes, is set to the cleaning mode
The, the riff others reach the upper end or in the vicinity thereof Then,
And a control unit for stopping the driving of the riff data. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, furthermore,
A lid that detects that the lid has reached the rising end or its vicinity
A lid position detecting device, wherein the control device includes the lifter
Drives the lifter upon receiving a detection signal from the position detection device
To stop. Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
Operates the folding member in the cleaning mode.
Ban. Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
When the return setting is made from the input unit, the product is placed
Lower the lifter to the origin position.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the cleaning mode is set.
Riser reaches or near the rising end
When the controller stops the driving movement of the lifter. Therefore, since the lifting unit can be cleaned in a state where the lifting unit of the lifter is stopped at or near the rising end, the supply conveyor device in front of the lifter does not interfere,
Cleaning of the lifting section of the lifter can be easily performed. Further
Equipped with a lifter position detector to detect the position of the lifter.
When the lifter is stopped, the folding member is not
The lifter can be stopped when
Since there is no risk that the folding member
No.

[0008]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the appearance of the packaging device. In this figure, the main body 1 of the packaging device is supported by four legs 1c. A supply conveyor device 2 is provided at the center of the front of the main body 1. The feeding conveyor device 2 is supported by weight detecting means 21 such as the load cell of FIG. 2, detects the weight of the product M placed on the tray T, and detects the tray T on the sliding plate 23 by the feed claw 22. Send it to lifter 3. The lifter 3 is provided on the rear side B of the supply conveyor device 2, that is, on the back side.

Above the lifter 3, a packaging mechanism 11 is provided. In the upper wrap station S, the packaging mechanism 11 transfers a film F indicated by a two-dot chain line to a tray T.
The product M is wrapped with the film T together with the tray T by folding it on the bottom side. A sealing device 19 is disposed in front Fo of the lap station S. The sealing device 19 heat seals the folded portions of the film F folded on the bottom surface of the tray T.

Next, each of the above components will be described in detail. The lifter 3 is disposed immediately below the lap station S. When the tray T is transferred from the supply conveyor device 2, the lifter 3 is lifted by a certain stroke to lift the tray T, and the film F held by the lap station S is tensioned. Is pressed against the lower surface of the tray T. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the lifter 3 includes a lifting unit 30 that moves up and down and a lifting mechanism 40 that moves the lifting unit 30 up and down.

The lifting mechanism 40 has a cam plate 41. The drive shaft 42 of the cam plate 41 is rotationally driven by a lifter drive motor 43 shown in FIG. Cam plate 4 of FIG.
With the rotation of 1 by one rotation, the raising / lowering portion 30 is raised from the origin position P1 to the ascending position P2 in FIG. 4 by the action of the cam groove 41a and the link mechanism 45, and further, the origin position P1 in FIG.
Return to.

The lifting unit 30 has a lifting plate 32 fixed to a lifting frame 31 connected to a link mechanism 45. On the elevating plate 32, a number of support poles 34 having a tray support head 33 which can be turned upside down are provided upright. A guide tube 35 guided by a vertically extending guide rod 44 is fixed to the elevating frame 31. Lifting part 30 of lifter 3
There is only a link of the link mechanism 45 directly below the floor surface F1 as shown in FIG. The lifter drive motor 43 (FIG. 5) is surrounded by the outer wall plate 1a and the inner wall plate 1b of the main body 1 and is housed in the main body 1.

A film F is supplied to the lap station S in FIG. 2 in a state where the film F is sandwiched by a film feeder 6. When the product M is pushed up by the lifter 3, the film F comes into close contact with the upper surface of the product M. I do. In this state, the packaging mechanism 11 wraps the product M together with the tray T by folding the front, rear, left, and right side edges of the film F into the bottom side of the tray T as described below.

The wrapping mechanism 11 is driven by, for example, a wrapping mechanism drive motor 12 (FIG. 5) different from the lifter drive motor 43 (FIG. 5), and a pair of left and right folding plates (folding members) 15 and 15 are formed. , A rear folding plate (folding member) 16 and a round bar-shaped front folding member 17. Left and right folding plates 15,
Numeral 15 advances and retreats in the left-right direction (the direction orthogonal to the paper surface).
On the other hand, the rear folding plate 16 moves forward and backward in the front-back direction Fo. The left and right folding plates 15 and the rear folding plate 16 advance and retreat along the bottom surface of the tray T, thereby folding the film F toward the bottom surface of the tray T. The pusher 13 is driven at a predetermined timing slightly delayed from the rear folding plate 16, and with the operation of discharging the product M by the pusher 13, the front folding member 17 is moved.
Folds the side edge of the front Fo of the film F toward the bottom surface of the tray T. Each film feeder 6 includes a pair of transport belts 61 and 62. Further, the packaging mechanism may be driven by a lifter drive motor 43 (FIG. 5) using a cam.

As shown in FIG. 7A, a detected plate 70 is fixed to the drive shaft 42 of the cam plate 41. As shown in FIG. 7B, the detection plate 70 has a large number of detection holes 7.
1 is provided, and the optical sensor 72 is configured to detect the detection target hole 71. The detected plate 70 and the optical sensor 72 constitute a part of the lifter position detecting device 7. The lifter position detecting device 7 receives the pulse signal from the optical sensor 72 every time the optical sensor 72 detects the detection target hole 71 and counts the number of pulses, so that the lifting / lowering unit 30 of the lifter 3 in FIG. It detects that P2 has been reached and outputs a detection signal a in FIG. In the normal packaging mode, the detection signal a
Are the start signals for the folding operation of the left and right folding plates 16 (FIG. 2).

In the cleaning mode, the control device 8
Upon receiving the detection signal a from the lifter position detecting device 7, the stop signal b is output to the lifter drive motor 43, the packaging mechanism drive motor 12, and the like, and the drive of the lifter drive motor 43, the packaging mechanism drive motor 12, and the like is stopped. . The control unit 8 receives a mode signal m and a return signal c from an input unit 9. The input unit 9 is used to set the mode of the packaging apparatus to the packaging mode or the cleaning mode, and to perform various input settings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a pricing device 5 is provided above the lap station S. This pricing device 5
Is affixing a label indicating the price of the product M or the like to the upper surface of the film F indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. First, the normal packaging mode will be described. The operator supplies the tray T on which the product M is placed to the conveyor system 2
When placed on the tray, the supply conveyor device 2 transfers the tray T onto the tray support head 33. At the time of this transfer, the tray T is detected by the weight detecting means 21 of the supply conveyor device 2, and along with this detection, the film F is stretched by the film feeder 6 in the lap station S as shown by a solid line. It is unwound in the state. Subsequently, when the tray T is pushed up by the lifter 3, the film F comes into close contact with the upper surface and the upper end of the product M and the tray T. At this time, the lifter position detecting device 7 (FIG. 7) detects that the elevating unit 30 has reached the ascending position P2 (FIG. 4), and the packaging mechanism drive motor 12 (FIG. 5) operates.

When the wrapping mechanism drive motor 12 (FIG. 5) operates, the pair of left and right folding plates 15, 15 move in the left and right direction (perpendicular to the paper) along the bottom surface of the tray T, and the film F is moved. It is folded on the bottom side of the tray T. After this,
The rear folding plate 16 moves to the front Fo, and the film F is folded toward the bottom surface of the tray T. The pusher 13 moves forward Fo slightly after the rear folding plate 16 advances,
Push the tray T forward Fo. With this extrusion,
The film F is folded by the front folding member 17 on the bottom surface side of the front part of the tray T. During the operation of the folding plates 15 and 16, the lifting unit 30 is held at the rising end as shown in FIG. After the folding operation of the folding members 15 and 16, the film F is heat-sealed by the sealing device 19 in FIG. In this way, the products M are stretch-wrapped one after another. For example, when the wrapping work of the day is completed, the operator cleans the elevating unit 30 and the like.

Next, this cleaning method will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when starting in step S1, the process proceeds to step S2. If the cleaning mode is not set, the process proceeds to step S3, and the control device 8 (FIG. 5) controls the lifter 3 (FIG. 3) and the like according to the above-described packaging mode. . In step S2, if the mode is set to the cleaning mode by pressing a predetermined key of the input unit 9 in FIG. 5, the process proceeds to step S4 in FIG.

In step S4, the lifter position detecting device 7 shown in FIG. 5 determines whether the elevating unit 30 shown in FIG. 4 has moved up to the ascending position P2, and the lifter position detecting device 7 generates a predetermined number of pulse signals. After counting, the detection signal a is output to the control device 8, and the process proceeds to step S5 in FIG. Step S
In 5, the control device 8 of FIG. 5 outputs a stop signal b to stop driving the lifter drive motor 43 and the packaging mechanism drive motor 12. Therefore, the elevating unit 30 in FIG. 4 stops at the ascending position P2 indicated by the solid line. The control device 8 stops the lifter drive motor 43 (FIG. 5) and the packaging mechanism drive motor 12 before and after the right and left folding plates 15 in FIG. 8 start the folding operation.

After the stop, the operator cleans the upper surface of the tray support head 33 of the elevating unit 30 in FIG. 4 with a cloth or the like, and also removes the garbage falling on the elevating plate 32 to the lower floor F1. When dropping and washing floor F1 with water,
The garbage on the floor F1 is washed out with water.

Here, since the operator is at the position P2 in which the elevating unit 30 is raised, the supply conveyor device 2 does not hinder the cleaning and the narrow space between the supply conveyor device 2 and the seal device 19 during cleaning. Since it is not necessary to put a hand from a place, the lifting unit 30 can be easily and sufficiently cleaned. In addition, since the work of removing and attaching the supply conveyor device 2 is not required, the cleaning can be performed quickly.

By the way, since this type of packaging apparatus is provided with an emergency stop button, even if it is a conventional packaging apparatus, pressing the emergency stop button causes the elevating unit 30 to stop at the ascending position P2. be able to. However, since the operation of this type of packaging apparatus is extremely fast, it is not easy to stop the elevating unit 30 immediately before the start of the folding operation of the left and right folding plates 15 in FIG. Therefore, even if the elevating unit 30 can be stopped at the ascending position P2 in FIG. 4, since the left and right folding plates 15 and the rear folding plate 16 are moving forward, the operation of pushing and expanding these folding plates 15, 16 is performed. Is required. As a result, the cleaning operation cannot be performed quickly.

On the other hand, this packaging device receives a detection signal a from the lifter position detection device 7 in FIG.
Stops the lifter driving motor 43 and the like, so that the lifting / lowering unit 30 and the folding plates 15, 16 can be stopped before or immediately after the folding plates 15, 16 in FIG. Since the operation of pushing and expanding the folding plates 15 and 16 becomes unnecessary, the cleaning operation can be performed quickly.

After the cleaning, the process proceeds to step S6 in FIG.
When the operator presses the return button of the input unit 9 to perform the return setting, the process proceeds to step S7, in which the control device 8 in FIG. 5 drives the lifter drive motor 43, and the elevating unit 30 in FIG. And return.

In the above embodiment, the elevating unit 30 and the folding plates 15 and 16 are stopped at the timing of starting the folding operation shown in FIG. 8, but this timing may be slightly shifted before and after the time axis. Good. For example, the ascending position P2
, That is, in the vicinity of the ascending position, the elevating unit 30 may be stopped, or conversely, each of the folding plates 15, 1
6 starts to operate slightly, and then the elevating unit 30 and each folding plate 1
5 and 16 may be stopped. Further, in the cleaning mode, if all the drive motors other than the lifter drive motor 43 are not operated, the lift unit 30 may be stopped at any timing in the state where the lift unit 30 is at the lift position P2 or a position near the lift position P2. .

Further, in the above embodiment, the position of the elevating unit 30 in FIG. 3 is indirectly detected by the lifter position detecting device 7 in FIG. 7, but in the present invention, the tray support head 33 is directly connected by an optical sensor or the like. Detects the lifter drive motor 43
(FIG. 5) may be stopped.

If the lifting plate 32 shown in FIG. 4 can be detached from the lifting frame 31, the cleaning of the tray support head 33 and the lifting plate 32 is further facilitated. FIG. 9 shows an example of this structure.

In FIG. 9A, a pair of first and second spring plates 31a and 32a that engage with each other are fixed to the lifting frame 31 and the lifting plate 32 with screws. First
The projection 31b of the spring plate 31a has a structure that fits into the recess 32b of the second spring plate 32a. Therefore, by lifting the lift plate 32 upward, the two spring plates 31a, 3
Due to the elastic force of 2a, the engagement between the two spring plates 31a and 32a is released, and the lifting plate 32 can be removed from the lifting frame 31. On the other hand, the lifting plate 32 is pushed down from above to lower the lifting plate 32. It can be attached to the lifting frame 31.

In FIG. 9B, a spring plate 31c is fixed to the lifting frame 31 with screws. The spring plate 31c is bent in a V-shape, and the pressing portion 3 for pressing the elevating plate 32 is formed.
1d, and a guide portion 31e for guiding the lift plate 32. Therefore, similarly to FIG. 9A, the lifting plate 32 can be easily attached to and removed from the lifting frame 31. In FIG. 9, the illustration of the support pole 34 (FIG. 2) is omitted.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, the lifter can be cleaned while the lifter is stopped at or near the rising end, so that the feeder located before the lifter can be cleaned. Since the conveyor device is not in the way,
The lifting part can be easily cleaned. In addition, since the trouble of removing the supply conveyor device can be omitted, the cleaning can be performed quickly .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a packaging device showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a packaging operation of the packaging device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a standby state of the packaging apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a method of cleaning the packaging device.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a control method of the packaging apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a cleaning method.

FIG. 7A is a side view of the lifter position detecting device, and FIG.
FIG.

FIG. 8 is a time chart.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing a modification of the elevating unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 2: supply conveyor device, 15, 16: folding member, 3: lifter, 30: lifting unit, 43: lifter drive motor (drive machine), 7: lifter position detection device, 9: input unit, a: detection signal, F ... film, M ... product, S ... lap station, T ... tray.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A tray on which goods are loaded is transported in an unpackaged state onto a lifter by a supply conveyor device, and the goods pushed up by the lifter to an upper lap station are driven by the folding member along the bottom surface of the tray. a packaging apparatus for packaging in each tray film by an input unit for setting the mode of the packaging device in the cleaning mode, when it is set to the cleaning mode, the riff data
There reach the upper end or near Then, the packaging device and a control device for stopping the driving of the riff data. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
Lifter that detects when the pressure reaches the rising end or its vicinity
A position detection device, wherein the control device detects the detection signal from the lifter position detection device.
A packaging device that stops driving the lifter upon receiving a signal. 3. The cleaning module according to claim 1, wherein
In the case of a packaging device, the operation of the folding member is prohibited.
Place. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein
When the return setting is made from the input section, the product is placed.
A packaging device that lowers the lifter to the home position.