JP4635699B2 - Capper - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a capper, and more particularly, to a capper that continuously conveys containers filled with contents with a filler by a conveyor, temporarily stops at a predetermined position, performs capping one by one, and then conveys again by the conveyor. Is.

  A so-called one-head capper that stops containers continuously conveyed by a conveyor and performs capping one by one has been conventionally known (for example, see Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2).

The capper of the invention described in each of the above-mentioned patent documents continuously conveys a container filled with contents with a filler disposed on the upstream side by a conveyor, stops it once by a star wheel, After being intermittently sent downward and capping with the container stopped, it is returned to the conveyor again and sent to the next step.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-43038 (page 2-3, FIG. 3) Japanese Patent No. 2925706 (second page, FIG. 1)

  In the structure of the conventional one-head capper, the impact is generated when the container discharged from the filler and conveyed by the conveyor is forcibly stopped. In the case of a tall PET bottle, it may fall over, and the speed of the conveyor could not be increased. As a result, there is a problem that the processing capacity of the filler can be improved according to the speed of the conveyor, and the entire filling line cannot be speeded up.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided stop positioning means for temporarily stopping and positioning a filled container that has been discharged from the filler and continuously conveyed by the main conveyor, and capping for performing capping on the stopped container. in capper comprising a means, it provided a sub conveyor which travels at a lower speed than the main conveyor are arranged in parallel to the main conveyor, and a guide means for guiding the containers on the main conveyor onto the sub conveyor Rutotomoni, As the stop positioning means, a supply wheel is formed on the sub-conveyor, which is formed with pockets for holding containers at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and is provided on the sub-conveyor. Container receiving position and a cappy located directly below the capping means. The container is sequentially stopped at the container position and the container delivery position on the downstream side on the sub-conveyor, and the container transported on the sub-conveyor at the container receiving position is received in the pocket by the supply wheel, and this container is capped after positioning the moving is stopped, it is characterized in that to cap by the capping means.

  The invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that the sub-conveyor is fixed to a frame of a main conveyor.

  The capper of the present invention makes it possible to set the processing capacity of the filler higher than before without significantly reducing the conveying speed by the conveyor, thereby improving the overall processing capacity.

  A guide means for arranging a sub-conveyor having a lower speed than the main conveyor in parallel with the main conveyor for continuously transporting the filled containers discharged from the filler and guiding the containers on the main conveyor onto the sub-conveyor. After moving to this low-speed sub-conveyor, the container is stopped and capping is performed, so that the main conveyor for discharging the container from the filler runs at a high speed while the container is stopped at a low speed. The purpose of preventing the filling liquid from spilling or the container from falling down due to an impact at the time of stopping is achieved.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the entire configuration of a filling line provided with a capper (indicated by reference numeral 1 as a whole) according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG. 3 is an enlarged view showing a section taken along line III-III in FIG. In this embodiment, a filler 4 for filling contents such as a liquid in the container 2 is disposed on the upstream side (right side in FIG. 1) of the capper 1, and the container 2 filled with the contents in the filler 4. Is sent to the capper 1 for capping. In this embodiment, the container 2 used is a cup-shaped container having a large opening as shown in FIGS.

  The filler 2 that has been continuously conveyed from the upstream side by the main conveyor 12 is supplied to the filler 4 via an inlet star wheel 8. The supplied container 2 is filled with contents such as a liquid while being continuously rotated and conveyed in the filler 4, and then discharged again onto the main conveyor 12 through the outlet star wheel 10. The traveling speed of the main conveyor 12 is set based on the container supply amount per unit time required according to the processing capacity of the filler 4.

  The main conveyor 12 extends linearly to the downstream side, and the capper 1 is disposed on the side (the upper side in FIG. 1). The capper 1 is a one-head capper having a single capping head 14, and the containers 2 filled with contents are stopped one by one, and capping is performed in a positioned state. The capacity of the capper 1 as a one-head capper depends on the type and body diameter of the container to be capped, such as a cup-shaped wide-mouth bottle, a PET bottle, and a single bottle, and the difference in capping methods such as winding and driving. When the capacity is set within a range of about 20 to 40 bpm (bottle / minute) and more capacity is required, a multi-head capper is employed. Further, the filler 4 and the capper 1 are selected so as to have a processing capacity corresponding to each other, whereby the traveling speed of the main conveyor 12 is about 5 to 5 corresponding to the range of the processing capacity (20 to 40 bpm). It is set in the range of 10 m / min.

  A sub-conveyor 16 is installed in parallel on the side of the main conveyor 12 on the capper 1 side. The sub-conveyor 16 includes a conveyor belt 22 wound between a driven sprocket 18 arranged on the upstream side of the capper 1 and a drive sprocket 20 arranged on the downstream side. The transport surface 22a is located on the same plane as the transport surface 24a of the top chain 24 of the main conveyor 12 (see FIG. 3).

  A motor 26 for driving the sub-conveyor 16 is disposed on the opposite side of the drive sprocket 20 across the main conveyor 12. The motor 26 is attached to one conveyor frame 28A (see FIG. 3), and its rotating shaft 30 passes through the conveyor frames 28A and 28B on both sides and projects to the side of the conveyor frame 28B on the capper 1 side. ing. The drive sprocket 20 is attached to the protruding end of the rotating shaft 30 from the conveyor frame 28B. The sub-conveyor 16 is driven at a lower speed than the main conveyor 12 by driving a motor 26. Further, the roller 23 supporting the return side of the conveyor belt 22 of the sub-conveyor 16 and the roller 25 supporting the return side of the top chain 24 of the main conveyor 12 are arranged on the same shaft 27 passing through both the conveyor frames 28A and 28B. It is supported (see FIG. 2 and FIG. 3). Similarly to the drive sprocket 20, the driven sprocket 18 is also pivotally supported on the conveyor frame 28B.

  The capper 1 is provided on a support column 34 fixed upright on a base 32. A driving unit 36 is supported on the upper end of the support column 34, and a capping head 14 that performs a capping operation by driving the driving unit 36 is attached downward on the lower surface side thereof. Further, near the lower portion of the support column 34, a horizontal mounting table 38 for mounting and supporting the container 2 at the time of capping is attached. The upper surface 38a of the mounting table 38 forms substantially the same plane as the conveying surfaces of the main conveyor 12 and the sub-conveyor 16 (the upper surface 24a of the top chain 24 and the upper surface 22a of the conveyor belt 22).

  A supply wheel 40 that rotates around the sub-conveyor 16 is disposed on the front side of the capper 1 (on both the conveyors 12 and 16 side). A shaft support member 42 is fixed between the conveyor frame 28A far from the capper 1 of the main conveyor 12 and the end of the table 38 described above. A vertical drive shaft 44 is rotatably supported between the shaft support member 42 and the lower surface of the upper drive portion 36, and the supply wheel 40 is attached to the lower portion of the drive shaft 44 so as to be intermittent. To be rotated.

  In this embodiment, four recesses 40a (pockets for holding the container 2) are formed on the outer periphery of the supply wheel 40 at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and intermittently rotate by 90 degrees and stop. Due to the intermittent rotation of the supply wheel 40, the four pockets 40a are formed into a container receiving position A on the upstream side (right side in FIG. 1) on the sub-conveyor 16 and a capping position B located immediately below the capping head 14. Then, the container is sequentially stopped at four locations, a container delivery position C located on the downstream side of the sub-conveyor 16 and an empty position D located on the opposite side of the capping position B. The container 2 that is held in the pocket 40a of the supply wheel 40 and is intermittently rotationally conveyed is supported on the outer surface by an arcuate guide 46 that is disposed over almost a half circumference from the receiving position A to the delivery position C. . The number of pockets 40a is not limited to four, and can be increased or decreased according to the required processing capacity. For example, when the number of pockets 40a increases to eight, the pockets 40a are intermittently rotated by 45 degrees.

  The receiving position A is provided with a sensor 48 for confirming that the container 2 has been sent, and this sensor 46 indicates that the container 2 has been received in the pocket 40a stopped at the receiving position A. Upon detection, the signal is sent to a control device (not shown), and the supply wheel 40 is rotated 90 degrees by a command signal from this control device, and the container 2 at the receiving position A is sent to the next capping position B.

  Above the main conveyor 12 and the sub-conveyor 16 arranged in parallel, the containers 2 discharged from the filler 4 onto the main conveyor 12 and transported on the main conveyor 12 are transferred onto the sub-conveyor 16. An upstream transfer guide 50 (50A, 50B) to be moved and a downstream transfer guide 52 (52A, 52B) to transfer the capped container 2 from the sub-conveyor 16 onto the main conveyor 12 are provided. The transfer guides 50 and 52 are attached to the conveyor frame 28 of the main conveyor 12 via a fixing rod 54 and a bracket 56. The transfer guides 50 and 52 are fastened and fixed by rotating the knob 58. Depending on the size of the container 2 to be processed, the position of the transfer guides 50 and 52 is changed by moving the knob 58. The distance between the guides 50 (50A, 50B) and 52 (52A, 52B) can be adjusted.

  The operation of the capper 1 according to the above configuration will be described. The containers 2 conveyed from the upstream side by the supply conveyor 6 are supplied into the filler 4 via the inlet star wheel 8. These containers 2 are discharged onto the main conveyor 12 via the outlet star wheel 10 after being filled with the contents while being continuously rotated in the filler 4.

  The containers 2 conveyed by the main conveyor 12 are transferred onto the sub-conveyor 16 that travels at a lower speed than the main conveyor 12 by the upstream guides 50A and 50B arranged on both sides. The container 2 transferred on the sub-conveyor 16 is accommodated in a pocket 40a located at the receiving position A when the supply wheel 40 rotated intermittently stops. Since the sub-conveyor 16 travels at a low speed, there is no possibility that the liquid in the container 2 may be spilled or the container 2 may fall over due to an impact when it hits the supply wheel 40 that is stopped.

  When the sensor 48 detects that the container 2 is received in the pocket 40a located at the receiving position A, the supply wheel 40 is rotated 90 degrees by a signal from the sensor 48, and the container on the sub conveyor 16 is moved to the capping position B. Move. When the supply wheel 40 is rotated, the containers 2 are transferred from the sub-conveyor 16 onto the mounting table 38 disposed on the side of the sub-conveyor 16 and stopped at the capping position B. A capping head 14 is provided above the capping position B. When the container 2 stops at this position B, the capping head 14 is lowered by the drive of the drive unit 36 and capping is performed.

  When capping is completed, the supply wheel 40 rotates 90 degrees again, and the container 2 at the capping position B is moved to the delivery position C. Further, the next container 2 is sent from the receiving position A to the capping position B by the rotation of the supply wheel 40. The container 2 sent to the delivery position C is transferred from the placement table 38 onto the sub-conveyor 16 again, taken out of the pocket 40a by the traveling sub-conveyor 16, and conveyed downstream. The containers 2 conveyed by the sub-conveyor 16 are guided by the downstream transfer guides 52 (52A, 52B), transferred onto the main conveyor 12, and conveyed at a high speed. In this way, the speed of the main conveyor 12 is kept high, and the container 2 is moved to the low-speed sub-conveyor 16 and decelerated only when the container 2 is stopped during capping. Accordingly, the filler 4 disposed on the upstream side can be set at a high speed, and the capacity of the entire filling line can be improved. And the impact at the time of stopping the container 2 can be relieved.

  The operation will be described with a specific example. For example, the processing capacity of the one-head capper 1 for capping the wide-mouthed cup-shaped container 2 while preventing liquid spillage is 22 bpm (bottle / min), and the optimum conveyor speed at this time is 2 m / min. The conveyor speed required for the filler 4 (9-valve rotary filler) to exhibit the same throughput is 5.5 m / min. In this case, if the capper 1 is installed directly on the main conveyor 12 from which the containers from the filler 4 are discharged, liquid spillage occurs because the speed is too high at 5.5 m / min. Liquid spillage or overturning of the container 2 that goes straight and collides with the supply wheel 40 does not occur if the traveling speed of the conveyor is 5 m / min or less, so when trying to reduce the speed of the main conveyor 12 to 5 m / min or less. The processing capability of the filler 4 is lower than the processing capability of the capper 1, and the processing capability of the entire line including the filler and the capper is also reduced. In contrast, in the above-described embodiment, the sub-conveyor 16 is arranged in parallel to the main conveyor 12, and the container 2 is moved from the filler 4 to the optimum speed of the sub-conveyor 16 with respect to the processing capacity 22 bpm of the capper 1. The traveling speed of the discharged main conveyor 12 can be 5.5 m / min when the processing capacity of the filler 4 is the same as the processing capacity of the capper 1 without reducing the processing capacity of the entire line. The impact when stopping the container 2 can be reduced.

  As described above, when the container 2 is stopped for introduction into the capper 1, the container 2 is transported via the low-speed sub-conveyor 16, but when discharged from the filler 4 and after capping is completed. Is carried out by the main conveyor 12, which is faster than the sub-conveyor 16, so that the conveying speed of the entire conveyor is not lowered so much that there is no risk of liquid spillage or container 2 falling over when the container is stopped. At the same time, the processing capacity of the filler 4 can be set high. Therefore, the processing capacity of the entire filling line can be improved. Further, since the sub-conveyor bay 16 is structured to be fixed to the frame portions 28A and 28B of the main conveyor 12, it can be easily provided on an existing line, and is compact and low-cost.

It is a top view which shows the structure of the whole filling line provided with the one head capper which concerns on one Example of this invention. Example 1 It is sectional drawing which follows the II-II line | wire of FIG. It is a figure which expands and shows the cross section which follows the III-III line of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

2 Container 4 Filler 12 Main conveyor 14 Capping means (capping head)
16 Sub-conveyor 28A Main conveyor frame 28B Main conveyor frame 40 Stop positioning means (supply wheel)
50 Guide means

Claims (3)

In a capper provided with stop positioning means for temporarily stopping and positioning the filled containers discharged from the filler and continuously conveyed by the main conveyor, and capping means for capping the stopped containers,
Wherein a sub conveyor which travels at a lower speed than the main conveyor is placed on the main conveyor and parallel, provided with guide means for guiding the containers on the main conveyor onto the sub conveyor Rutotomoni, as the stop positioning means circumferentially Provided on the sub-conveyor is a supply wheel which is formed with pockets for holding containers at equal intervals in the direction and rotates intermittently, and the pocket of the supply wheel has a container receiving position on the upstream side on the sub-conveyor, The container is sequentially stopped at the capping position located immediately below the means and the container delivery position on the downstream side on the sub-conveyor, and the container transported on the sub-conveyor at the container receiving position is received in the pocket by the supply wheel. , and moved to stop this container to the capping position After tanning-decided, capper, characterized in that to cap by the capping means.   The capper according to claim 1, wherein the sub-conveyor is attached and fixed to a frame of a main conveyor.   The capper according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a traveling speed of the sub-conveyor is 5 m / min or less.

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