JP4552547B2 - Air hole sealing treatment method and air hole sealing treatment apparatus for hollow container - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a hollow container having air holes such as blow holes generated during blow molding, for example, and more particularly to an air hole sealing processing method and an air hole sealing processing apparatus for heating and sealing an opening of an air hole.

  Conventionally, when blow molding a hollow container, both ends of a parison extruded into a cylindrical shape are sealed by sandwiching the upper and lower ends of a pair of molds, and a blow nozzle is inserted into the parison, and air is blown into the parison from the blow nozzle. And inflated with a shape following the inner peripheral shape of the mold. The nozzle hole into which the blow nozzle is inserted is provided in a closed surplus portion that protrudes from the tip of the mouth and neck of the molded container body.

  When a hollow container formed by blow molding is used as a container for storing food, etc., the excess part is not cut for the purpose of maintaining the shape of the empty container being transported and ensuring hygiene inside the container. The blow hole opened in the surplus portion is closed to form a sealed container, and when filling the contents, the surplus portion is cut to open the mouth and neck. The blow hole is sealed by projecting the opening of the blow hole into a cylindrical shape and pressing the heated seal block against the tip of the convex opening to crush while melting the material resin to close the opening. It was. Such a technique is described in Patent Document 1, for example.

  The temperature of the seal block at the time of sealing work needs to be higher than the melting point of the material resin constituting the container, but it takes time to reach the melting point at a temperature near the melting point, so it is heated to a temperature considerably higher than the melting point. There was a need. At present, the melting point of the material resin is 120 ° C., the seal block is heated to 400 to 450 ° C., and the seal block is pressed and sealed in three times.

However, since the sealing block is heated at a high temperature of 400 to 450 °, there is a possibility that a burning odor is generated at the moment when the sealing block comes into contact with the air hole opening of the container, and the burning odor is enclosed inside the hollow container. is there. Therefore, the current situation is that the white smoke is collected by a blower to prevent the bottle from entering the bottle.
Although it is conceivable to lower the temperature of the seal block to a temperature at which no burning odor is generated, if the temperature is lowered, it is necessary to lengthen the contact time of the seal block, and the productivity is significantly reduced. On the other hand, there is a problem that if the contact time is shortened, the sealing performance is deteriorated.
JP 4-71700

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and the object of the present invention is to prevent the generation of a burning odor during the sealing process and to take time to seal the air holes. It is an object of the present invention to provide an air hole sealing processing method and an air hole sealing processing apparatus for a hollow container that can be reliably sealed.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a hollow container in which a contact heating means is brought into contact with an opening portion of an air hole provided in a resin-made hollow container to melt the material resin and close the air hole. In the air hole sealing method,
Prior to heating by the contact heating means, and performs preheating by non-contact heating means raises the temperature of the opening of the air hole to a temperature region to be softened at a temperature lower than the melting point of the material resin, the hollow by the gripping means The container is grasped and sent to the non-contact heating means and the contact heating means in order to perform a sealing process .

  The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the surface temperature of the contact surface of the contact heating means is about 250 ° C. or less.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the air hole sealing treatment device for a hollow container raises the temperature of the opening of the air hole provided in the resin-made hollow container to a temperature region where the temperature becomes a softened state below the melting point of the material resin. Non-contact heating means for preheating, contact heating means for contacting the opening of the air hole to melt the material resin and closing the air hole, and holding the hollow container to the non-contact heating means and the contact heating means And gripping means for sequentially carrying out the sealing process.

  The invention according to claim 4 includes a shielding member that shields and insulates portions other than the opening of the air hole of the hollow container.

  The invention according to claim 5 is configured such that the contact surface of the contact heating means with the opening of the air hole has an inclined surface that gradually protrudes left and right across a valley corresponding to the air hole position of the opening. It is characterized by becoming.

According to the first aspect of the invention, since the temperature of the material resin is raised to the softened state of the opening of the air hole by the non-contact heating means in advance, the contact heating by the contact heating means can be performed for a short time even at a low heating temperature. Can be raised to the melting point. Therefore, the contact heating means does not need to be heated to such a high temperature that a burning odor is generated, and a special measure for a burning odor such as a blower becomes unnecessary.
In addition, since the container is gripped by the gripping means and sequentially sent to the non-contact heating means and the contact heating means for sealing, the container can be continuously sealed.

  The invention according to claim 2 is such that the temperature of the contact heating means is about 250 ° C. If the temperature is below this level, it can be sealed in a short time without generating a burning odor.

  According to the air hole sealing processing device according to claim 3, since the container is gripped by the gripping means and is sequentially sent to the non-contact heating means and the contact heating means for sealing, the container is continuously sealed. Can be processed.

  According to the invention according to claim 4, since it is configured to shield the heat by the non-contact heating means by the shielding member, it can be prevented that the portion other than the air hole opening of the container is softened and the rigidity is lowered, The sealing process by the contact heating means is ensured.

  According to the invention of claim 5, since the contact surface with the opening of the contact heating means is provided with inclined surfaces on the left and right sides across the valley, the opening is pushed while being moved in the direction of closing the hole. It is crushed and the air hole can be sealed more reliably.

The present invention will be described in detail below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an air hole sealing treatment apparatus for a hollow container according to an embodiment of the present invention.
This air hole sealing treatment apparatus is a temperature region in which the temperature of the opening 102 of the blow hole 101 as the air hole provided in the resin hollow container 100 as shown in FIG. 4 is softened below the melting point of the material resin. A non-contact heating unit 10 as a non-contact heating means that raises to 2 and two contact heating units 20 and 20 as contact heating means that contact the opening 102 of the blow hole 101 to melt the material resin and close the blow hole 101 And a gripping device 30 as a gripping means for gripping the hollow container 100 and sending it to the non-contact heating unit 10 and the contact heating units 20 and 20 in order to perform a sealing process.

  The gripping device 30 is attached to a rotary transport device (not shown) such as a turntable, and the hollow container 100 gripped by the gripping device 30 moves on a circular transport line C. The non-contact heating unit 10 and the two contact heating units 20 and 20 are arranged along a circular conveyance line C. An insertion portion 60 into which the hollow container 100 is inserted into the air hole sealing processing device is provided on the upstream side of the non-contact heating unit 10, and the hollow container 100 is inspected on the downstream side of the contact heating contact heating units 20 and 20. An inspection unit 40 that performs the inspection and a discharge unit 50 that discharges the inspected hollow container 100 are disposed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the hollow container 100 includes a trunk portion 110, a mouth-and-neck portion 120, and a surplus portion 130 that extends upward from the mouth-and-neck portion 120, and a blow nozzle ( A blow hole 101 into which (not shown) is inserted is provided. Further, a reduced neck portion 140 is provided between the surplus portion 130 and the mouth-and-neck portion 120, and the neck portion 140 is gripped by the gripping device 30. The material of the hollow container 100 includes a single layer structure of a soft resin such as PP, a laminate in which a soft resin such as PP is laminated with a barrier layer in between, a laminate including a soft resin and a hard resin, and the like.

  The unsealed hollow container 100 is gripped by the gripping device 30 at the insertion position 60 on the upstream side of the non-contact heating unit 10. In the figure, the hollow container 100 is described so that the mouth-and-neck portion 120 is held in an upward state, but the mouth-and-neck portion 120 may be held in a downward state. With respect to the gripping device 30, the opening 102 of the blow hole 101 that opens to the surplus portion 130 is held in an outward posture toward the outside of the transport line C. The position of the opening 102 of the blow hole 101 is located on the center line D passing through the center O of the transport line C, and rotates and moves in this posture.

  The gripping device 30 is provided with a pair of gripping pieces 31, 31 that are opposed to each other with a center line D passing through the opening 102 of the blow hole 101. The hollow container 100 is continuously transferred to the non-contact heating unit 10 and the contact heating units 20, 20.

  The non-contact heating unit 10 includes a far infrared heater 11 and a support 12 that supports the far infrared heater 11. The far-infrared heater 11 extends in an arc shape along the circumference, and as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C, the blow hole 101 provided in the surplus portion 130 of the hollow container 100 gripped by the gripping device 30. It is aligned with the height of the opening 102 of the other. The heater support 12 is attached to a mounting base (not shown) so that the position thereof can be adjusted so that the distance between the infrared heater 11 and the circular transfer line C is constant. In this example, it is attached via a pair of brackets 13, 13 arranged at a predetermined interval along the transport line C, and the mounting holes 14, 14 of the brackets 13, 13 are orthogonal to the transport line C. It has a long hole in the direction.

While the hollow container 100 passes through the far-infrared irradiation region facing the far-infrared heater 11, far-infrared rays are irradiated to the opening 102 of the blow hole 101 of the hollow container 100, and the opening 102 is heated.
If a portion other than the opening 102 is heated, the rigidity of the surplus portion 130 where the opening 102 is formed cannot be maintained, and it may not be able to withstand the pressing by the contact heating units 20, 20. A masking member 32 is provided as a shielding member that shields a portion other than.

  The masking member 32 covers the outer half surface of the surplus portion 130 of the hollow container 100 facing the far-infrared heater 11, and a transmission window 33 that transmits far-infrared rays is provided in a portion corresponding to the opening 102. It has a configuration. For example, the masking member 32 may have a semi-cylindrical surface shape as shown in FIG. A plurality of masking members 32 are equally distributed on the transfer line C together with each gripping device 30, and the transmission window 33 of the masking member 32 is an opening of the hollow container 100 in a state where the hollow container 100 is gripped by the gripping device 30. 102 is overlapped.

  Two contact heating units 20, 20 are arranged at a predetermined interval in the transport direction, and the opening 102 of the hollow container 100 is heated in two stages. The interval between the two contact heating units 20, 20 is the same as the interval between the gripping devices 30, 30 that hold the hollow container 100. Since the two front and rear contact heating units 20 and 20 have the same configuration, only one of the contact heating units 20 will be described.

The contact heating unit 20 includes a seal block 21 that can be brought into and out of contact with the opening 102 of the hollow container 100, and a drive device 25 that moves the seal block 21 forward and backward with respect to the opening 102.
As shown in FIG. 3, the seal block 21 protrudes into the center portion of the opposing surface of the block main body portion 22 provided with a heater mounting hole 22 a to which a heater (not shown) is mounted and the hollow main body 100 of the block main body portion 22. The heating head part 23 provided is provided. An attachment piece 22c extends at the lower end of the block body 22 and attachment holes 22d such as bolts are provided in the attachment piece 22c.

The heating head portion 23 extends in the vertical direction, and a stepped convex portion 23 a is provided at the upper end portion so as to face the opening portion of the hollow container 100, and the tip surface of the heating head portion 23 contacts the opening portion 102 of the blow hole 101. It becomes the contact surface 24 to do. The contact surface 24 is formed by V-shaped inclined surfaces 24b and 24b that gradually protrude toward the opening 102 from side to side across a valley 24a corresponding to the position of the air hole 101 of the opening 102.
On the other hand, the block main body portion 22 is provided with a sensor mounting hole 22b into which a temperature sensor such as a thermocouple is inserted, and is controlled so that the temperature of the contact surface 24 of the heating head portion 23 is constant. Further, fixing screw holes 22e and 22f for fixing a heater and a sensor (not shown) inserted in the heater mounting hole 22a and the sensor mounting hole 22b are provided on the back surface of the block main body portion 22.

  The drive device 25 may be configured to be electrically driven by a rotary motor, a linear motor, or the like, or may be configured to be driven by a fluid pressure such as air pressure. The opening 102 of the blow hole 101 of the hollow container is a heating head The seal block 21 is moved forward and backward in accordance with the timing at which the opposite position of the portion 23 is reached, and the sealing process is performed.

Next, an air hole processing procedure using the air hole sealing processing apparatus will be described.
The unsealed hollow container 100 is gripped by the gripping device 30 at the insertion position and sent to the non-contact heating unit 10 that is preheated at a predetermined speed. While passing through the irradiation region of the far infrared heater 11 of the non-contact heating unit 10, the opening 102 is heated by the radiant heat from the infrared heater 11.
The heating temperature is raised to a temperature range where the softening state is reached at or below the melting point of the material resin. In this example, the melting point of the material resin is 120 ° C., and the preheating is heated to 80 ° C. When heating, the far-infrared rays from the far-infrared heater 11 are shielded by the masking member 32, so that it is possible to prevent as much as possible that the portion other than the opening 102 is softened and the rigidity is lowered.

After passing through this irradiation region, when the position of the previous contact heating unit 20 is reached, the drive device 25 is driven to advance the seal block 21 by a predetermined amount, and the surface temperature of the heating head unit 23 heated to about 250 ° C. The contact surface 24 is pressed against the opening 102 for a predetermined time. Since the heating head portion 23 protrudes from the side surface of the block main body portion 22 by a predetermined height, even if the masking member 32 is present, the heating head portion 23 enters from the transmission window 33 of the masking member 32 and opens the blow hole 101. 102 is contacted. As a result, the material resin in the opening 102 is crushed by a predetermined amount while melting, and the blow hole 101 is closed by the molten resin. Since the contact surface 24 is V-shaped inclined surfaces 24b, 24b, the opening 102 is crushed while being moved toward the valley 24a, and the blow hole 101 of the opening 102 is sealed.
Further, when the position of the next-stage contact heating unit 20 is reached, the movable member 26 of the reciprocating device 25 of the next-stage heating unit 20 moves forward by a predetermined amount, and the contact surface 24 of the heating head portion 23 reaches the opening 102 for a predetermined time. Pressed. The heating head unit 23 is heated to 250 ° C. as in the previous heating head unit 23, and the unmelted portion is melted, and the opening 104 is reliably sealed.
The sealed hollow container 100 that has passed through the subsequent heating unit 20 is inspected for sealing failure by the inspection unit 40, removed from the gripping device 30 by the discharge unit 50, and discharged.

  When the temperature of the contact surface 24 of the contact heating head unit 20 was lowered to 250 ° C. or less, white smoke indicating vaporization of the material resin did not rise. From this, it is judged that the generation of the burning odor which was generated at the time of sealing was prevented. Therefore, there is no possibility that a burning odor enters the hollow container 100. Also, since no white smoke was generated, no recovery blower was required.

In the above embodiment, two stages of contact heating units 20 are provided, but only one stage may be provided, or three or more stages may be provided.
Further, the non-contact heating unit 10 is heated by the radiant heat of the circular infrared heater, but it may be heated by blowing a high temperature gas. In short, heat energy is supplied to the opening 102 in a non-contact manner, and the opening 102 is heated. What is necessary is just to be able to heat.
Furthermore, although it is the structure which obstruct | occludes the opening part of the blow hole of the surplus part of a hollow container, it is applicable not only when it blows but also opening parts, such as an exhaust hole, and in short opening of an air hole The present invention can be widely applied to a sealing process for closing the part.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a device configuration of an air hole sealing processing device for a hollow container according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2A is a partially enlarged view of the non-contact preheating step of FIG. 1, FIG. 2B is a side view of FIG. 1A, and FIG. 2C is a masking member of FIG. 1D is a partially enlarged view of the contact heating step in FIG. 1, FIG. 1E is a front view of FIG. 1D, and FIG. 3 shows the structure of the seal block of the contact heating device of the air hole sealing processing device of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 (A) is a plan view, FIG. 3 (B) is a side view showing a partially broken view, FIG. 4C is a front view, and FIG. 4D is an enlarged view of the contact surface of the heating head portion. FIG. 4 shows an example of a hollow container. FIG. 4 (A) is a front view, FIG. 4 (B) is a side view, FIG. 4 (C) is a plan view, and FIG. It is a partial side view of a state.

Explanation of symbols

10 non-contact heating unit 11 far infrared heater, 12 heater support,
13 Bracket, 15 Mounting hole 20 Contact heating unit 21 Seal block,
22 block body,
22a Heater mounting hole, 22b Sensor mounting hole 23 Heating head portion, 23a Step convex portion,
24 Contact surface, 24a Valley portion, 24b Inclined surface 25 Drive device 30 Gripping device 31 Gripping piece, 32 Masking member 40 Inspection portion, 50 Discharge portion, 60 Insertion portion 100 Hollow container, 101 Blow hole, 102 Opening portion 120 Neck portion , 130 Surplus part D Center line

Claims (5)

In the air hole sealing treatment method of the hollow container that contacts the contact heating means to the opening of the air hole provided in the resin-made hollow container to melt the material resin and close the air hole,
Prior to heating by the contact heating means, and performs preheating by non-contact heating means raises the temperature of the opening of the air hole to a temperature region to be softened at a temperature lower than the melting point of the material resin, the hollow by the gripping means An air hole sealing treatment method for a hollow container, wherein the container is gripped and sequentially sent to the non-contact heating means and the contact heating means for sealing.
  2. The method for sealing air holes in a hollow container according to claim 1, wherein the surface temperature of the contact surface of the contact heating means is about 250 [deg.] C. or less.   Non-contact heating means for performing preheating to raise the temperature of the opening of the air hole provided in the hollow container made of resin to a temperature range in which the air hole sealing treatment apparatus of the hollow container is softened below the melting point of the material resin. Contact heating means that contacts the opening of the air hole to melt the material resin and close the air hole, and grips the hollow container and sequentially sends it to the non-contact heating means and the contact heating means for sealing treatment. An air hole sealing treatment apparatus for a hollow container, comprising: a gripping means.   The air hole sealing processing apparatus for a hollow container according to claim 3, further comprising a shielding member that shields and insulates a portion other than the opening of the air hole of the hollow container. The contact surface of the contact heating means with the opening of the air hole is configured to have an inclined surface that gradually protrudes left and right across a valley corresponding to the position of the air hole of the opening. The air hole sealing device for a hollow container according to claim 3 or 4.

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