JP3192697B2 - Spout mounting device for paper containers - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a spout mounting device for mounting a spout to a paper container (hereinafter referred to as a carton).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 5, a carton 1 for liquid packaging is provided with a spout 2 attached thereto. As shown in FIG. 6, the spout 2 has a main body 3 to which a cap is attached and a flange 4 for bonding to a carton. Normally, the flange 4 is non-circular so that the direction of the spout hole formed in the spout can be determined from the outside, and the spout is attached to the carton 1 based on the direction of the flange 4. Is set in a predetermined direction with respect to the carton. As a method of attaching the spout to the carton, there are an internal attachment method in which the flange 4 is attached to the inner side of the carton and an external attachment method in which the flange 4 is attached to the outer side of the carton as shown. The present invention relates to this spout mounting method of the external type.

Conventionally, to attach a spout to a carton by an external method, the top of the carton is bent into a predetermined shape and sealed, and then the spout mounting portion of the carton and the spout flange are heated by hot air or the like. Thereafter, the spout was pressed against the spout mounting portion of the carton and welded.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional method, there is a problem that the welding time is long due to the use of hot welding by hot air, the production efficiency is poor, and the apparatus is large-scale and takes up space. In addition, since the spout is attached after the top of the carton is formed, there is a problem that the bonding strength is weak due to insufficient sealing pressure or that the direction of the spout is difficult to regulate.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a spout mounting apparatus capable of quickly and strongly bonding and mounting a spout to a carton.

[0006]

Spout attaching apparatus of the present invention, in order to solve the problem] is the spout attaching apparatus for attaching a spout having a flange to the carton exterior surface, the upper spout attaching portion of the carton
An anvil for supporting the back surface of the spout attaching portion so that the direction, downwards at a position opposite to the anvil, an ultrasonic horn provided to be close to and away from the anvil, note the tip An ultrasonic horn having a seal surface abutting on the flange of the outlet and a concave portion for accommodating the main body of the spout at a position surrounded by the seal surface, and the ultrasonic horn has a concave portion for holding the spout in a vacuum. A vacuum device for applying a vacuum and a spout between the ultrasonic horn and the anvil are horizontally arranged with a flange facing downward.
A chute arranged to supply feed, is disposed at the distal end of the chute, the position for positioning at a predetermined position relative to receive and the ultrasonic horn spout sent from the chute at a position outside the position It has a first shutter that can be opened and closed, and a second shutter that is disposed between the shooter and the first shutter and that can be opened and closed at a position where the forward end of the shooter is prevented from moving forward and a position outside the position. It is characterized by the following.

[0007]

In the spout mounting apparatus having the above construction, by opening the second shutter to a position not in contact with the spout on the chute, one of the spouts at the tip on the chute is fed into the first shutter and positioned. Then, by closing the second shutter, the subsequent advancement of the spout is prevented, and the spout on the first shutter is not interfered. In this state, the ultrasonic horn descends to suck and hold the spout on the first shutter, and then the first shutter is opened, and the ultrasonic horn is further moved.
Ultrasonic sealing can be performed by lowering and pressing the holding spout against the carton on the anvil. Here, since ultrasonic sealing is performed by the ultrasonic horn and the anvil, the spout and the carton can be bonded in a short time, and a strong sealing strength can be obtained. Also, the ultrasonic horn simply descends
Only hold the spout with the ultrasonic horn itself and the carton
Can be transported and mounted at a predetermined position with respect to the spout, so that the transport mechanism of the spout can be simplified, and the positioning of the spout with respect to the carton and the positioning of the spout with respect to the ultrasonic horn can be accurately performed. Becomes possible. Further pour
The mouth is raised below the flange by a horizontally arranged shooter.
Is supplied on the first shutter in an oriented horizontal state.
The outlet position is stable and always
Can be supplied to a predetermined position on one shutter, and pour out from this point
Mouth positioning accuracy for ultrasonic horn and carton
Can be enhanced .

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a spout mounting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a part of the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view taken in the direction A, and FIG. 1 to 4, reference numeral 10 denotes an anvil for mounting the carton 1 before folding the top and supporting the back surface of the spout mounting portion, and is fixed to the support frame 11. Numeral 12 is an ultrasonic horn arranged downward at a position facing the anvil 10, and is operated by an air cylinder (not shown).
It is designed to approach and separate from the anvil.
The ultrasonic horn 12 has, at its tip, a sealing surface 13 that abuts on the flange 4 of the spout 2 and a concave portion 14 that accommodates the main body 3 of the spout 2 at a position surrounded by the sealing surface 13. . The recess 14 is connected to a vacuum device such as a vacuum pump via a pipe 15 and an electromagnetic valve 16.
The spout 2 can be held in a vacuum.

Reference numeral 17 denotes an ultrasonic horn 12 and an anvil 10
With the spout 2 in the horizontal position with the flange facing down
The chute is arranged horizontally so as to be supplied by a feeder, and is connected to a parts feeder (not shown) for supplying a spout. As shown in FIG. 4, guides 17a for regulating the flange 4 of the spout 2 are provided on both side edges of the shooter 17.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the spout 2 having the non-circular flange 4 is conveyed in the direction of arrow C with its direction regulated. Reference numeral 20 denotes a first shutter arranged at a position for receiving the spout 2 sent from the shooter 17, and a pair of shutter members 20a and 20b which can be opened and closed in the direction of arrow D in FIGS. It has a mechanism (not shown). Further, the first shutter 20 has a recess 21 for receiving one spout 2 sent in a predetermined direction by the shooter 17 in the same posture , and the first shutter 20 is held in the recess 21. The mounting position is determined so that the outlet 2 is located on the center axis of the ultrasonic horn 12. Thus, the first shutter 20 can position the received spout 2 at a predetermined position with respect to the ultrasonic horn 12. Reference numeral 23 denotes a second shutter which is located between the shooter 17 and the first shutter 20 and prevents advance of the foremost spout of the shooter 17; a pair of shutter members which can be opened and closed in the direction of arrow E in FIG. It has 23a, 23b and a drive mechanism (not shown) for opening and closing them. The shutter members 23a and 23b are arranged at positions where they contact the cylindrical main body portion 3 of the spout 2 at the tip of the shooter 17, and when the position of the spout 2 is regulated as shown in FIG. Of the first shutter 2
The attachment position is determined so as to be a position slightly away from the spout flange held at a predetermined position on the zero.

Next, the operation of the spout mounting apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described. The following operation is automatically performed by a sequence controller (not shown).

Now, it is assumed that the ultrasonic horn 12 retreats to a position away from the anvil 10, the first shutter 20 is closed, and the second shutter 23 at the tip of the shooter 17 is open. The spouts 2 whose direction is regulated on the chute 17 from the parts feeder are supplied side by side. First, the carton 1 to which the spout is to be attached is mounted on the anvil 10 by a transfer device (not shown), and then the ultrasonic horn 12 starts to descend. At the same time, when the second shutter 23 is closed, the spout 2 at the tip of the shooter 17 is positioned directly below the ultrasonic horn 12, and the subsequent spout 2 is slightly retracted and separated from the spout on the first shutter 20. And is bound to that position. The state at this time is the state shown in FIGS.

When the ultrasonic horn 12 is further lowered, the electromagnetic valve 16 is operated, and the spout 2 is suction-held by the vacuum device in the concave portion 14 of the ultrasonic horn 12. Thereafter, the first shutter 20 is opened, the ultrasonic horn 12 is lowered to the carton surface, and the spout 2 is pressed against the carton 1. In this state, the ultrasonic horn 12 operates to ultrasonically seal the flange 4 of the spout 2 to the outer surface of the carton. Thereafter, the ultrasonic horn 12 returns to the original position, the carton 1 is detached from the anvil 10, and sent to the next step. This completes one spout mounting operation. Thereafter, by repeating the same operation, the spouts are attached to the carton one after another.

In the above operation, the ultrasonic horn 12
The suction operation of the spout and the opening operation of the first shutter 20 are performed while the spout is lowered. Instead, the ultrasonic horn is inserted when the spout 12 is inserted into the concave portion of the ultrasonic horn 12. Alternatively, the lowering of the ultrasonic horn 12 may be started once after the lowering of the ultrasonic horn 12 is stopped and the suction operation of the spout and the opening operation of the first shutter 20 are performed.

In the above embodiment, both the first shutter 20 and the second shutter 23 are constituted by a pair of shutter members which can be opened and closed to the left and right. However, the present invention is not limited to this structure. It goes without saying that it is good.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the carton and the spout are sandwiched by the ultrasonic horn and the anvil, and the ultrasonic sealing is performed. Therefore, the sealing can be performed in an extremely short time, and High sealing strength can be obtained. Further, by using the first shutter and the second shutter, the spout can be supplied to the ultrasonic horn one by one, and the spout is sucked and held by the ultrasonic horn and pressed against the carton. The outlet can be accurately pressed against the carton in a predetermined posture, and the predetermined position of the flange can be accurately pressed by the sealing surface of the ultrasonic horn, so that the mounting accuracy of the spout is increased and the apparatus is compact. Further, as a result of the welding speed being short and the apparatus being compact, it becomes possible to incorporate the spout mounting apparatus of the present invention into an apparatus for consistently assembling, filling, and sheeting a carton, thereby reducing costs. And various effects can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a spout mounting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a part of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the above embodiment as viewed in the direction of arrows AA in FIG.

4 is a view taken in the direction of arrows BB in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing a general carton.

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of a spout.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Carton 2 Spout 3 Main part 4 Flange 10 Anvil 11 Support frame 12 Ultrasonic horn 13 Sealing surface 14 Depression 15 Piping 16 Solenoid valve 17 Shooter 20 First shutter 23 Second shutter

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B31B 1/00-1/84 301 B65G 47/74

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A spout mounting apparatus for mounting a spout having a flange on an outer surface of a carton, the spout of a carton.
An anvil as mounting portions are upward for supporting the back surface of the spout attaching portion, downward to a position opposing the anvil
The ultrasonic horn is provided so as to be able to approach and separate from the anvil, and has a sealing surface at the tip which abuts a flange of the spout and a main body portion of the spout at a position surrounded by the sealing surface. An ultrasonic horn having a concave portion to be formed, a vacuum device for applying a vacuum to the concave portion in order to hold a vacuum at the spout in the ultrasonic horn, a spout between the ultrasonic horn and the anvil, and a flange downward. Horizontal
A shooter arranged to supply horizontally in a state, and a position arranged at the tip of the shooter to receive a spout sent from the shooter and position it at a predetermined position with respect to the ultrasonic horn, and the position A first shutter that can be opened and closed at a position off the shutter, and a second shutter that is disposed between the shooter and the first shutter and that can be opened and closed at a position where the forward end of the shooter is prevented from advancing and a position outside the position. And a spout mounting device for a paper container.