JP3279388B2 - Packaging material odor measurement method and device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for measuring the odor of a packaging material for measuring the odor inside a packaging material having an opening.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a packaging material formed of a plastic material having a small thickness and having an opening is prepared, and foodstuffs and other arbitrary contents are stored inside the packaging material through the opening. Thereafter, a packaging method in which the opening is sealed is widely used. A packaging material used in this type of packaging method, in which an opening of the packaging material is welded and sealed using heat welding, is usually called a pouch packaging material.

[0003] This kind of packaging material is usually produced by laminating plastic sheet materials having a small thickness together and sealing the three sides by welding or other processing. Odors must not remain inside the packaged material. Therefore, in general packaging material manufacturing work, the odor inside the produced packaging material is measured, and if the odor exceeds the allowable limit, the packaging material is discarded or treated to reduce the odor. To do.

Conventionally, when measuring the odor inside the packaging material, a semiconductor sensor for odor measurement has been inserted into the interior of the packaging material to perform the measurement.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional measuring method, when a semiconductor sensor having a large shape is inserted into the inside of the packaging material, a large amount of outside air is mixed at the same time. The odor inside changed greatly compared to the initial concentration, and it was not possible to measure the odor accurately. Moreover, since the amount of such outside air mixed is not always constant, the reproducibility of the measurement was poor. Further, since the mixed outside air is not agitated, the odor concentration inside the packaging material becomes uneven and the measurement is varied. In addition, since semiconductor sensors generate heat when used,
Inserting it into the interior of the packaging material may alter the quality of the packaging material or generate new gas.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to improve the reliability of measurement of odor inside a packaging material.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a method for measuring the odor of a packaging material according to the present invention is a method for measuring an odor in a packaging material having an opening, comprising:
An exhaust port for discharging air and an intake port for sucking air are inserted into the inside of the packaging material, an air passage communicating between the intake port and the exhaust port is formed outside the packaging material, and a semiconductor for air flowing through the air passage is formed. It is characterized in that odor is measured by a sensor.

Further, the packaging material odor measuring device according to the present invention comprises:
An exhaust port for discharging air, an intake port for inhaling air, an air transport pipe communicating between the exhaust port and the intake port, a semiconductor sensor disposed at an appropriate position in the air transport pipe, and air passing through the exhaust port and the intake port. And a blowing means for circulating and flowing the air in the transport pipe.

A semiconductor sensor is formed, for example, by coating a metal oxide, for example, SnO2, etc. on a ceramic substrate by a powder sintering method to form a semiconductor, and forming a counter electrode, a heater or the like as necessary in the semiconductor. It is constituted by embedding. This semiconductor sensor has the property that the electrical conductivity of the counter electrode, that is, the resistance value, changes according to the properties of the gas existing around it.

As the blowing means, a blowing device having an air inlet and an air outlet, and having an arbitrary structure capable of discharging air taken in from the air inlet through the air outlet can be applied. For example, an axial fan, a diaphragm type blower, or the like can be used.

[0011]

The air flow circulating through the air conveying path by the function of the air blowing means contains odor molecules existing inside the packaging material. When this air flow flows over the surface of the semiconductor sensor, the resistance value of the semiconductor sensor changes and the odor concentration is measured. The semiconductor sensor is not inserted into the packaging material to be measured, but is inserted into the exhaust port and the intake port. Since the shape of the exhaust port and the intake port can be made very small, a large amount of outside air does not flow into the inside of the packaging material when they are inserted into the packaging material. Since the inside of the packaging material is appropriately agitated by the airflow coming out of the exhaust port and being sucked into the intake port, the odor concentration inside the packaging material is made uniform.

[0012]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a packaging material odor measuring device according to the present invention. This packaging material odor measuring device is a substantially annular pipe 1 as an air conveying pipe whose tip (upper end in the figure) is bifurcated, and a semiconductor fixedly disposed at a front end (lower end in the figure) of the pipe 1. It has a sensor 2 and a blower pump 3 arranged at an appropriate position on the pipe 1.

At the left end of the pipe 1, a plurality of minute holes 4 as exhaust ports are provided in a row. At the right end of the pipe 1, a plurality of minute holes 5 as intake ports are similarly provided in a row. A data processing circuit 6 and a display 7 are connected to the semiconductor sensor 2.
The display 7 is constituted by, for example, a plurality of light-emitting segments, and displays a numerical value corresponding to the odor.

As shown in FIG. 3, the seal 8 provided at an appropriate position at the distal end of the pipe 1 has opening and closing arms 9 and 10 rotatably connected to each other at a support point P.
An elastic member such as rubber 1 is provided on the inner surface of each arm 9, 10.
1 is stuck. A ring-shaped stopper 12 is formed at the tip of one arm 10 in a hole 13 as viewed from the direction of arrow B.
Suspended. The sealing device 8 is fixedly supported separately from the pipe 1 or in a proper position of the pipe 1. In consideration of ease of use, it is preferable that the sealing tool 8 be fixedly supported on the pipe 1.

Since the packaging material odor measuring device according to the present invention is configured as described above, when measuring the odor inside the pouch packaging material 14 as shown in FIG. The leading end, that is, the exhaust port 4 and the intake port 5
Through the opening 14a. At this time, the pipe 1 is inserted so as to slide into the inside of the packaging material 14, and the opening 14a is kept from opening as much as possible. Since the outer diameter of the pipe 1 can be made very small, the pipe 1 can be actually inserted without opening the opening 14a.

As shown in FIG. 1, after at least all of the exhaust port 4 and the intake port 5 have entered the packaging material 14,
Is closed to seal the opening 14a of the packaging material 14. Specifically, in FIG. 3, one of the arms, for example, the arm 9 is pressed against the other arm 10 to tighten the packaging material 14 and the pipe 1, and as shown in FIG. The arm 9 is rotated around the hole 13 and hooked on the back of the arm 9. Thus, the opening 14a of the packaging material 14 is hermetically sealed by the arms 9 and 10.

Thereafter, the blower pump 3 is started in FIG. Then, air is discharged from the exhaust port 4 to the inside of the packaging material 14, and the air in the packaging material 14 is further sucked into the pipe 1 from the intake port 5. The sucked air flows through the pipe 1 as shown by the arrow A, passes through the surface of the semiconductor sensor 2, enters the pump 3, and is again discharged from the exhaust port 4 to the inside of the packaging material 14. That is, the air in the packaging material 14 circulates and flows in the pipe 1.

When the circulating air flows over the surface of the semiconductor sensor 2, an electric signal corresponding to the concentration of odor molecules contained therein is output to the output terminal of the semiconductor sensor 2.
The output signal is subjected to data processing such as amplification, waveform shaping, and noise component cutting in a data processing circuit 6,
The signal after the processing is displayed on the display unit 7 in a viewable state, for example, a numerical value.

Since the air inside the packaging material 14 is appropriately stirred by the air flow circulating in the pipe 1, the odor concentration in the air inside the packaging material becomes uniform. Therefore, a stable odor measurement can be obtained. The pipe 1 is provided with a packaging material opening 14a.
Can be easily slid into the interior of the packaging material 14 without having to open it greatly, and there is no fear that a large amount of outside air will enter the interior of the packaging material 14.

As an odor measuring device using a semiconductor sensor, there is a device of a system in which air containing an odor component is not circulated but simply sucked toward the semiconductor sensor. When this kind of device is applied to the pouch packaging material 14 having a small internal space volume used for the measurement in the above embodiment, the air in the packaging material 14 is immediately sucked out, and the odor measurement is substantially performed. Can not. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the air is circulated, the air in the packaging material 14 can be continuously flowed to the semiconductor sensor 2.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.
Various modifications can be made within the technical scope described in the claims.

For example, in some cases, stable measurement can be performed without using the sealing device 8. In addition, the structure of the sealing device may be any structure other than the illustrated embodiment.

[0023]

According to the packaging material odor measurement method of the first aspect and the packaging material odor measurement device of the second aspect, the highly reliable odor measurement is achieved by preventing the outside air from being mixed into the interior of the packaging material. Can be. Also, circulating air flows inside the packaging material,
By stirring the air inside the packaging material, the concentration can be made uniform. Further, since the air inside the packaging material is conveyed to the semiconductor sensor by circulating the air, the odor can be measured without any problem even for the packaging material having a small internal capacity. Furthermore, since the semiconductor sensor is disposed outside the packaging material, there is no fear that heat generated from the semiconductor sensor will adversely affect the packaging material.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to more reliably prevent outside air from entering the inside of the packaging material.

According to the odor measuring device of the fourth aspect of the present invention, the air inside the wrapping material can be smoothly agitated in a wide range, so that the odor concentration inside the wrapping material can be even more reliably uniformized.

[0026]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing an embodiment of a packaging material odor measuring device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a usage state of the packaging material odor measuring device and an example of the packaging material.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an example of a sealing device for sealing an opening of a packaging material.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a state in which the opening of the packaging material is sealed by the sealing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pipe (air conveyance pipe) 2 Semiconductor sensor 3 Blast pump 4 Exhaust port (micro hole) 5 Inlet port (micro hole) 8 Sealing device 14 Packaging material 14a Opening of packaging material

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (56) References JP-A-3-9254 (JP, A) JP-A-6-213845 (JP, A) JP-A-3-83635 (JP, U) (58) Survey Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01N 27/12

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] In a packaging material odor measuring method for measuring the odor inside a packaging material having an opening, an exhaust port for discharging air and an air intake port for sucking air are inserted into the packaging material, and A method of measuring odor of a packaging material, comprising: forming an air passage communicating an intake port and an exhaust port outside; and measuring odor of air flowing through the air passage by a semiconductor sensor. 2. A packaging material odor measuring device for measuring odor inside a packaging material having an opening, wherein an exhaust port for discharging air, an intake port for sucking air, and an exhaust port and an intake port are communicated. A packaging material odor measurement device comprising: an air conveying pipe; a semiconductor sensor disposed at an appropriate position of the air conveying pipe; and a blowing means for circulating and flowing air in the air conveying pipe through an exhaust port and an intake port. 3. The packaging material odor measuring device according to claim 2, further comprising a sealing member for sealing the opening of the packaging material with the exhaust port and the air intake port inserted into the packaging material. 4. The packaging material odor measuring device according to claim 2, wherein the exhaust port and the intake port are a plurality of minute holes arranged in a line at a tip portion of the air conveying pipe.