JP4420181B2 - Manufacturing method of bagging food and sealing device for bagging filling - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for producing a packaged food and a packaged filling seal device used in this method.

When air-packing solid food, liquid food, solid food with juice, beverages (hereinafter collectively referred to as “food”) as packaged food, in order to prevent food oxidation and browning, It is necessary to replace the air with an inert gas such as nitrogen gas. In general, air-packaging of packaged food is automatically performed using a rotary table type filling and sealing machine. The rotary table type filling and sealing machine includes a plurality of bag holding units provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the rotary table, and a bag opening portion, a food filling portion and a sealing portion are fixedly provided so as to surround the rotary table. By opening the rotary table intermittently, opening of the bags held in each bag holding unit, filling of food and sealing of the bags are sequentially performed. In the packaging method using this filling and sealing machine, conventionally, an inert gas gas blow is generally performed immediately after sealing a bag after filling with food, and as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1 A method of performing gas blowing immediately before filling of food, a method of performing gas blowing during filling of food as disclosed in Patent Document 2, and a gas blowing during opening of a bag and filling of food as disclosed in Patent Document 3 Various gas replacement methods such as a method and a method of performing gas blowing at the time of opening a bag and immediately before sealing as disclosed in Patent Document 4 have been proposed.
JP-A-2-233321 JP-A-60-99820 JP 54-92487 A JP 7-313128 A

  Conventional gas replacement with an inert gas is performed at one time point before or after food filling or at two time points before and after food filling in intermittent rotation of the rotary table. Since it is determined by the production speed, that is, the number of bags produced per unit time, for example, when the number of the bag holding unit of the rotary table is 8 and the production speed is 30 bags / minute, the gas blowing time is before or after filling the food. In the case of one time point, the time is about 1 second, and even in the case of two time points at intervals before and after filling the food, it is only about 2 seconds. Therefore, in the conventional gas replacement, the gas replacement at the bottom side of the food contents is insufficient, or air is mixed again in the bag after the gas replacement, the replacement rate of the entire bag is poor, especially filling This tendency is remarkable when the food to be processed is a solid food.

  The present invention solves the problems in the above conventional method for filling packaged foods, and can provide a method and apparatus for producing packaged foods that can be sufficiently replaced with an inert gas without reducing the production efficiency of the packaged foods. Is to provide.

  The manufacturing method of the packaged food that solves the above-described problems of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a packaged food in which the packaged food is aerated by a filling seal device, from before opening the bag before filling the food to immediately before sealing the bag. An inert gas is continuously blown into the bag.

  In one aspect of the present invention, the inert gas is blown into the bag by moving the bag through the filling and sealing device with the gas blow nozzle inserted in the bag.

  A bag filling and sealing device that solves the above-described problems of the present invention includes a plurality of bag holding units provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the rotary table, and surrounds the rotary table so as to surround the bag opening, the food filling unit, and the sealing In the rotary table-type bag filling and sealing device that sequentially opens the bag held in each bag holding unit, fills food, and seals the bag by rotating the rotary table intermittently. Each unit is equipped with an inert gas blower equipped with a gas blow nozzle, and after opening the bag, before filling the food, the gas blow nozzle is inserted into the bag to start the gas blow, and before the bag is sealed, the gas blow is stopped. Each inert gas gas blower is operated so as to remove the gas blow nozzle from the bag.

  According to the method of the present invention, since the inert gas is continuously blown into the bag after the opening of the bag and before the filling of the food until immediately before the bag is sealed, the packed food is produced at the same production rate as before. The gas blow time can be several times longer than before, and the gas blow is not interrupted halfway, so air does not re-enter the bag during the gas blow interruption and production efficiency is not reduced. Sufficient gas replacement can be achieved. Thereby, in the conventional gas replacement method, the residual oxygen concentration after the gas replacement is several percent, but according to the method of the present invention, the residual oxygen concentration can be reduced to 0.5% or less.

  Further, according to the bag filling and sealing device of the present invention, each bag holding unit is provided with an inert gas blowing device having a gas blowing nozzle, and the gas blowing nozzle is inserted into the bag after filling the bag and before filling with food. Gas blow can be started for a long time by operating each inert gas gas blower to stop the gas blow before sealing the bag and remove the gas blow nozzle from the bag. Thus, sufficient gas replacement can be achieved without reducing production efficiency.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
One embodiment of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention is shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a gas blowing apparatus provided in the apparatus.

  This filling and sealing device 1 is a rotary table type bagging and filling sealing device, and eight bag holding units 3 are arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of a rotary table 2 that rotates intermittently in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 2 is fixed to the peripheral edge. Each of the bag holding units 3 includes a pair of bag holding arms 4 and is configured to hold both sides of the bag 6 closed by claws 5 and 5 that can open and close the bag holding arms 4. . Further, the pair of bag gripping arms 4 and 4 includes a mechanism capable of moving between two positions, ie, an approach position close to each other and a spaced position spaced apart from each other.

  Surrounding the turntable 2, a bag receiving unit I for receiving a bag 6 from a bag supply unit (not shown) and holding the bag 6 with the bag holding unit 3 in a state where the upper end 6 a is closed, a pair of bag holding arms 4, 4 The upper end portion 6a of the gripped bag 6 is opened by moving it in the approaching position, that is, in the direction of narrowing the width (state of FIG. 2 (a)), and the food (for example, solid food) is put into the bag opening II and the opened bag 6 The first food filling part III to be filled, the second food filling part IV for further filling this bag 6 with another kind of food (for example, juice), the gas replacement part V for performing gas blowing, and the first for closing and sealing the bag 6 The first sealing portion VI for performing heat sealing, the second sealing portion VII for performing final heat sealing, and the cooling / discharging portion for discharging the bag 6 to the discharge conveyor 7 after cooling the sealed portion of the sealed bag 6 with a cooling press VIII is the bag holding unit It is provided at the same regular intervals as the arrangement intervals of fixedly. The turntable 2 is intermittently rotated so that the bag holding unit 3 stays at each part I to VIII for a predetermined time (for example, 1 second) and then moves to a part for performing the next process after a predetermined work is performed. Do exercise.

  Each bag holding unit 3 is provided with an inert gas blowing device 8. The gas blow device 8 includes a pair of gas blow nozzles 9, and these gas blow nozzles 9, 9 are positioned between the bag gripping arms 4, 4 of the bag holding unit 3, and the upper surface of the peripheral portion of the turntable 2. 2, the standby position as shown in FIG. 2 (a), and the tip of gas blow nozzles 9, 9 are inserted into the bag 6 by turning 90 ° in the direction of arrow B therefrom. It can move between two gas blowing positions shown in (b). Reference numeral 10 denotes a rotary stop valve, which is in a closed position at the standby position in FIG. 2A and in an open position at the gas blow position in FIG. That is, when the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 are rotated from the standby position to the gas blow position, the stop valve 10 is opened and an inert gas from an inert gas supply source (not shown) is blown into the bag 6 from the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9. Then, the air in the bag 6 is expelled to perform gas replacement. When ending the gas blow, when the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 are rotated from the gas blow position of FIG. 2B to the standby position of FIG. 2A, the stop valve 9 is closed and the gas blow is stopped.

The operation of this apparatus will be described below.
The bag 6 supplied from a bag supply unit (not shown) is closed at the upper end 6a of the bag 6 by the claws 5 and 5 of the bag gripping arms 4 and 4 at the separation position of the bag holding unit 3 that is stopped in the bag receiving unit I. It is gripped in the state. Next, when the rotary table 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the position of the bag opening II, the rotary table 2 stops, and the bag gripping arms 4 and 4 move to the approach position to open the bag 6.

  Next, when the turntable 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the first food filling part III, the turntable 2 stops and the bag 6 is filled with food (for example, solid food). On the other hand, while the bag 6 moves from the bag opening II to the first food filling unit III, the gas blowing device 8 is operated to rotate the gas blowing nozzles 9 and 9 from the standby position to the gas blowing position and insert them into the bag 6. Start gas blow. Next, when the turntable 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the second food filling section IV, the turntable 2 stops and another kind of food (for example, juice) is filled in the bag 6. During this time, the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 remain inserted in the bag 6 and the gas blow is continued. Next, when the turntable 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the gas replacement part V, the turntable 2 stops. The gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 are still inserted into the bag 6 and only the gas blow is performed while the rotary table is stopped in the gas replacement portion V. Next, when the rotary table 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the first sealing portion VI, the rotary table 2 stops, the bag gripping arms 4 and 4 are opened to the separated positions, and the upper end portion 6a of the bag 6 is closed. The upper end portion 6a is sandwiched between the heat presses 11 and the first heat sealing is performed. Further, during the movement immediately before the bag 6 reaches the first sealing portion VI, the gas blow device 8 is operated to rotate the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 from the gas blow position to the standby position, and withdraw from the bag 6 to stop the gas blow. . Next, when the rotary table 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the second sealing portion VII while the bag gripping arms 4 and 4 remain in the separated position, the rotary table 2 stops and the bag 6 is sandwiched between the heat presses 12. Then, the second heat seal is performed. Further, when the rotary table 2 rotates and the bag 6 reaches the cooling / discharging unit VIII while the bag gripping arms 4 and 4 remain in the separated position, the rotary table 2 stops, and the upper end 6a of the bag 6 is the cooling press. After being sandwiched by 13 and cooling the bag 6, the bag 6 is discharged as a product onto the discharge conveyor 7. The bag holding arms 4 and 4 that have finished discharging the bag 6 are sent to the bag receiving unit I by the next rotation of the rotary table 2 while maintaining the separated position, and wait for the next bag reception.

  During the operation of the filling and sealing device 1, the inert gas is blown into the bag 6 by rotating the inside of the device 1 while the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 are inserted into the bag 6. That is, after opening the bag 6 and before filling the food, the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 are inserted into the bag 6 to start the gas blow, and before the bag 6 is sealed, the gas blow is stopped and the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 are put into the bag. Gas blowing is performed by operating each inert gas gas blowing device 8 so as to remove from the gas.

  In the above apparatus, the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 can be rotated by various methods such as electric, pneumatic and hydraulic. Further, instead of rotating the gas blow nozzles 9 and 9 as in the above example, it can be configured to move up and down in the vertical direction. The number of gas blow nozzles is not limited to two, and may be one or three or more depending on the purpose of use.

  In the above-described embodiment, eight working units I to VIII are provided on the rotary table 2, but the number of working units is not limited thereto. Further, the method of the present invention can be applied not only to the rotary table type bag filling and sealing device but also to a linear bag filling and sealing device.

  Using the above apparatus, continuous gas blowing was performed by the method of the present invention, and the residual oxygen concentration was measured. For comparison, the residual oxygen concentration was also measured by performing gas blowing by the methods described in Patent Documents 1 to 4 and a conventionally used method.

  FIG. 3 shows the gas blow interval and time according to the method of the present invention and the gas blow interval and time according to the above-described prior art method.

  In FIG. 3, the conventional method A is the method of Patent Document 1 (blow time of about 2 seconds), the B method is of Patent Document 2 (blow time of about 2 seconds), and the C method is the method of Patent Document 3 (blow time). The D method is a method using a filling and sealing machine generally used conventionally (blow time of about 2 seconds), and the E method is the method of Patent Document 4 (blow time of about 4 seconds).

  In the above experiment, the production rate was 15 bags / min. As a bag, an aluminum foil laminated standing pouch (100 × 160 × 29 mm) was used, and as a filling content, 120 g of white rice was filled in the first filling portion. Nitrogen gas was used as the inert gas, and the amount of sealed gas in each bag was about 40 ml.

  The graph of FIG. 4 shows the residual oxygen concentration obtained as a result of performing the gas replacement by each method with various replacement gas flow rates (l / min). From FIG. 4, in the conventional gas replacement method, the residual oxygen concentration is about 2% at an air flow rate of 20 l / min even in the C method (blow time of about 4 seconds) with the best results, but according to the method of the present invention, The residual oxygen concentration at the same air volume is about 0.5%, which shows that the gas replacement efficiency is greatly improved as compared with the conventional method.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be widely applied to aerated packaging of packaged foods such as packaged solid foods, fluid foods, and beverages, particularly gas replacement with inert gas.

It is a top view which shows one Embodiment of the filling sealing device used for implementation of the method concerning this invention. It is a perspective view which shows one example of a gas blow apparatus. It is a figure which shows the gas blow area and time by the method of this invention, and the conventional method. It is a graph which shows the relationship between gas substitution by each method, and residual oxygen concentration.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bag filling filling sealing device 2 Rotary table 3 Bag holding unit 4 Bag gripping arm 6 Bag 8 Inert gas blow device 9 Gas blow nozzle

Claims (2)

By providing a plurality of bag holding units provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the turntable, and providing a bag opening, a food filling portion, and a sealing portion so as to surround the turntable, and rotating the turntable intermittently In the rotary table type bag filling and sealing device that sequentially performs opening of the bag held in each bag holding unit, filling of food and sealing of the bag, each bag holding unit is provided with an inert gas blowing device having a gas blow nozzle, The gas blow nozzle is movable by rotating between two positions of a standby position where the gas blow nozzle is lifted and a gas blow position where the tip of the gas blow nozzle is inserted into the bag. It is further equipped with a rotary stop valve that opens and closes in conjunction with the gas blow nozzle from the standby position before filling the food after opening the bag. The rotary stop valve is opened to start the gas blow by turning it into the bag and immediately before the bag is sealed, the gas blow nozzle is turned from the gas blow position to the standby position immediately before the bag is closed. A bag-filling-seal device characterized by stopping gas blow with the valve closed . 2. The bag according to claim 1, wherein a rotation between two positions of a standby position where the gas blow nozzle is lifted and a gas blow position where the tip of the gas blow nozzle is inserted into the bag is 90 degrees. Filling and sealing device.

Images