JP4998669B2 - Shut valve type filling nozzle for bag-like containers with spout - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a filling nozzle used in a process of filling a bag-like container with a spout with a liquid object such as a beverage.

A packaging bag with a spout is used as a container for soft drinks. Many of these spouted pouch-shaped containers are made by laminating a synthetic resin film with a material that gives rigidity, so that it has flexibility and a predetermined rigidity, and is generally called a pouch container. ing. A process for filling a liquid container such as a soft drink in a bag-like container with this kind of spout is exemplified and described in Patent Document 1. This example is a form shown in FIG. 2 , and the apparatus 1 includes a rotary table 5 provided on the machine base 3 so as to be intermittently rotatable, and is packed on the rotary table 5 at predetermined intervals in the circumferential direction. A plurality of bag holding devices including a bag holding member 7 for holding a bag are provided. The packaging bag used in this embodiment is the same as a known packaging bag with a spout, and is composed of a bag body having a certain degree of rigidity and a spout attached to the bag body. The upper flange of the spout is received on the upper surface of the bag holding member 7 and supported in a suspended state. The packaging bag is held by the bag holding member 7 and sequentially moves through the steps indicated by numerals on the rotary table 5 as the rotary table 5 rotates. That is, the spout-equipped packaging bag is supplied to the bag holding member 7 from a bag supply device (not shown) in the first step. In this embodiment, bag packing is performed in units of two, and the bag holding member 7 includes two notches, that is, bag holding portions, and two pieces are simultaneously supplied from the bag supply device. A bag is supplied. In the second step, it is confirmed by the detector 9 using an optical sensor or the like that the packaging bag is held by the bag holding member 7. In the third step, the date of manufacture is printed by the printer 11 such as a jet printer. In the fourth step, a predetermined amount of liquid material is filled into the bag using a liquid filling nozzle 13 connected to a storage tank (not shown). That is, the tip of the filling nozzle 13 is pressed against the mouth of the spout of the bag and communicated with each other to fill the liquid material.

  In the next fifth step, the cleaning liquid and air are sprayed using the spout mouth cleaning device 15 to clean the portion outside the bag body of the spout. In the sixth step, air is blown onto the portion cleaned by the spout mouth drying device 17 at the tip of the spout and dried. In the seventh step, a gas flush nozzle 19 is inserted into the spout, thereby replacing the air in the bag using, for example, nitrogen gas. In the eighth step, a tape 22 made of aluminum foil, a synthetic resin thin film, or the like is supplied from a tape supply device provided with a tape reel 21, a seal body for an inner seal is punched out, and the upper end surface of the spout mouth Temporarily attached. The ninth step is a primary sealing step in which the sealing body is sealed to the upper end surface of the spout mouth using the hot plate 23. In this step, the bag is deaerated prior to the sealing, which will be described later. To do. The tenth step is a secondary sealing step that is also performed using the hot plate 25. The eleventh step is a cooling step in which the sealed portion is cooled using the cooling plate 27. The twelfth process is an inner seal defect detection process for determining whether or not the inner seal is properly performed. The thirteenth step is a cap attachment step, in which the cap 30 is supplied from the cap supply device 29 to the cap tightening device 31, and is tightened and attached to the mouth portion of the spout. In the fourteenth step, the tightening state of the cap is inspected by a cap tightening inspection device including the strobe 33, the CCD camera 35, and the like. And it discharges | emits on the discharge conveyor 37 at a 15th process, and complete | finishes a process.

In the above filling process, when the content liquid is filled into a bag-like container with a spout, it is desired that there is little foaming, the filling time is short, and there is no liquid dripping around the spout. When the filling is performed from the spout, the filling nozzle is inserted into the spout or the spout is placed inside the filling nozzle. Since the inner diameter of the spout is generally a small diameter of 10 mmφ or less, in the former case, the opening diameter of the filling nozzle must be further reduced. For this reason, the filling flow rate is increased and the liquid is liable to foam. In the latter case, the opening diameter of the nozzle is the outer diameter of the spout and there is no disadvantage in terms of the filling flow rate, but there is a problem that the residual liquid tends to drop off when the nozzle leaves the spout after filling. When the inner solution to be filled is easy to foam like enteral nutrients and has a low viscosity, the foaming phenomenon in the container and the dropping phenomenon from the nozzle are likely to occur, and the response to the above demands is severe.
Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for preventing dripping from a nozzle by arranging a mesh body in the vicinity of an opening of a filling nozzle and utilizing the surface tension of the liquid as a conventional technique corresponding to the problem of the dripping phenomenon after filling. It is shown. This technique is a liquid filling nozzle including a hollow nozzle body, an opening provided at a lower portion of the nozzle body, and a liquid stopping network located above the opening. An extension extending below the support portion of the mesh body and radially inward at a small interval, an opening tip having a reduced diameter at the tip of the extension, and an annular space for holding liquid between the extension and the mesh body And the lowermost end of the mesh body is higher than the uppermost end of the innermost circumference of the opening tip, and the opening is the distance between the opening tip and the mesh body, the center line of the opening and the lower surface of the mesh body The distance between the intersection and the horizontal plane passing through the opening tip, and the opening tip diameter are set to predetermined conditions to provide a dripping prevention function.
JP 2001-328601 A "Packaging and packaging method using spouted packaging bag and sealing device used in the method" Published on November 27, 2001 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-212396 “Liquid dripping prevention filling nozzle” published on September 17, 1991

However, the above filling nozzle is not for a spouted bag-like container but for a solid container such as a can or a bottle. From the standpoint of preventing foaming, the nozzle opening diameter is 10 mmφ or more, and the liquid flow rate is kept low. This was invented as a measure for facilitating the occurrence of dripping. On the other hand, since the present invention is a filling nozzle for a bag-like container with a spout, when the opening diameter of the nozzle is 10 mmφ or less, for example, about 8.3 mmφ, the filling flow rate is considerably higher than the above filling nozzle. The environmental conditions are different such that the filling container is not a solid container such as a can or a bottle but a bag-like container with a spout, and there is less foaming and filling time when filling suitable for it, Therefore, it is desired to realize a filling form with a filling nozzle that does not spill liquid around the spout.
Under such circumstances, the problem of the present invention is that the nozzle opening diameter is not made smaller than the spout inner diameter, and at the time of filling, there is a spout with little foaming of liquid and dripping around the spout. The object is to provide a filling nozzle for a bag-like container.

The shut valve type filling nozzle of the bag-like container with a spout according to the present invention is such that the nozzle tip can fit the spout of the bag container, and the nozzle has a tip opening having a diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the spout. And an open / close valve is installed between the supply pipe and the nozzle tip, and a rod having an outer diameter substantially equal to the nozzle tip opening diameter is arranged in such a manner that the rod can be moved forward and backward to the nozzle tip opening. I made it.
Further, the shut valve type filling nozzle of the spouted bag-like container according to the present invention has a rod-like shape in which the valve seat is formed above the tip opening of the nozzle in the above-described configuration, and a rod that can be moved forward and backward is provided in the center. The valve body is slidably disposed with respect to the valve seat.

The shut valve type filling nozzle of the bag-like container with a spout according to the present invention is such that the nozzle tip can fit the spout of the bag container, and the nozzle has a tip opening having a diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the spout. In the filling process, the spout tip of the bag container is fitted into the tip of the nozzle in close contact, and air is not sucked during filling, preventing foaming even when the filling flow rate is high. Is done. Also, an on-off valve is installed between the supply pipe and the nozzle tip, and a rod having an outer diameter substantially equal to the nozzle tip opening diameter is arranged in such a manner that the rod can be advanced and retracted to the nozzle tip opening. Therefore, when a predetermined amount is filled and the on-off valve is closed, the liquid remains inside the nozzle, but the rod with the outer diameter approximately equal to the nozzle tip opening diameter is displaced so that the liquid remaining in the tip opening is transferred into the spout. Can be forcibly discharged. For this reason, even if a filling process is complete | finished and a nozzle front-end | tip part cancels | releases a fitting with the spout of a bag container, a droplet does not fall from the front-end | tip opening part of a nozzle.
Further, the present invention is such that a valve seat is formed above the nozzle tip opening, and a rod-shaped valve body, in which a rod that can be moved back and forth, is disposed at the center, is slidably disposed with respect to the valve seat. In the shut valve type filling nozzle of the spouted bag-like container, the outer rod that performs the valve function and the inner rod that discharges the residual liquid are arranged concentrically, so that the structure is compact. Moreover, since these drives are displacement drives in the same direction, it is easy to use a common drive source.

  FIG. 1 shows a first form of a shut valve type filling nozzle of a spouted bag-like container according to the present invention. The example shown here has a configuration in which a valve body for stopping filling and a rod for forcibly discharging remaining liquid are arranged concentrically. The filling nozzle body is provided with a tip opening A, a valve seat B formed thereabove, and a supply pipe C connected to a supply tank (not shown) on the side wall. A rod-shaped valve body D that can be moved in the vertical direction by a drive unit (not shown) facing the valve seat B is attached, and an elongated cylindrical space is formed at the center of the valve body D. A rod E for forcibly discharging the liquid remaining in the nozzle is slidably inserted into the space. Moreover, although not shown in figure, the drive source which displaces the said valve body D and the said rod E to an up-down direction is provided. The inner diameter of the opening A is substantially equal to the outer diameter of the spout S of the bag container. The outer diameter of the rod E and the inner diameter of the cylindrical space of the valve body D are also equal to the outer diameter of the spout S of the bag container. It is almost equal.

  As described above as the prior art, in the filling step, as shown on the left side of FIG. 1, the tip opening A of the filling nozzle connected to the storage tank (not shown) is the tip of the spout S of the bag-like container. The parts are connected to each other so as to be fitted from the outside, the valve is opened, and a predetermined amount of liquid material is filled into the bag. This bag-like container generally called a pouch is supplied to this process in an exhausted state, and since there is no air initially present inside the container like a solid container such as a can or a bottle, the foaming phenomenon is unlikely to occur. When the inner diameter of the spout S for supplying the liquid material is 10 mmφ or less, the flow velocity value must be relatively high, and the conditions are severe. However, in the embodiment of the present invention, since the liquid material is filled with the nozzle tip opening A fitted to the tip of the spout S, the air is not sucked at the time of filling, and the foaming phenomenon is unlikely to occur. It can be performed. When a predetermined amount of liquid material is filled into the bag, as shown in the center of FIG. 1, the valve body D with the rod E is lowered and abuts against the valve seat B to close the valve and stop filling. . In this state, the liquid remains in the minute space in the tip opening A. Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in the right side of FIG. 1, as the next step, the rod E is further lowered until it comes into contact with the top of the opening of the spout S, and the residual liquid is forcibly discharged into the spout S. . Since the residual liquid is completely discharged by this operation, even if the filling process is completed and the nozzle tip A is released from the spout S of the bag container, droplets are discharged from the nozzle tip opening A. Never fall. Further, if the rod E keeps sealing the tip opening A of the nozzle until it is fitted with the spout of the next bag container, there is no drop of liquid droplets during that time.

In this embodiment, a valve seat B is formed above the tip opening A of the nozzle, and a rod-shaped valve body D having a rod E that can be advanced and retracted at the center is slidable with respect to the valve seat B. The outer rod D that performs the valve function and the inner rod E that discharges the residual liquid are arranged concentrically. The preferred operation in the filling process will be described. First, the bag container is conveyed in a crushed form without a gap, and the tip opening A of the nozzle descends to the tip of the spout S and fits from the outside. The form of the filling nozzle at this time is 2 at the time of stop shown on the right side of FIG. 1, that is, the state where the rod E seals the tip opening A. When the fitting form is adopted, the rod E slides and rises in the valve body D, and the tip end portion coincides with the valve position, that is, the stop state 1 shown in the center of FIG. In the state where the valve position coincides with the valve position, the valve body D leaves the valve seat B and releases the valve. That is, in the filling mode shown on the left side of FIG. 1, the liquid material to be filled is pumped from the tank through the supply pipe C. This liquid is filled into the bag container through the spout S via the valve portion. When the predetermined amount of filling is completed, the valve body D is lowered integrally with the rod E and returns to the form of the stop 1 shown in the center of FIG. 1 where the valve is closed. Filling ends. At this time, since the liquid remains in the small space of the tip opening A, the rod E is further displaced downward until it contacts the top surface of the spout S, and the residual liquid is discharged into the spout S. Let That is, it returns to the form at the time of stop 2 shown on the right side of FIG. The fitting of the bag container filled in this state is released, and it is sent to the next process and a new empty bag container is conveyed.
In this embodiment, since the rod E for discharging the residual liquid and the valve body D are arranged concentrically, a compact filling nozzle structure can be realized. Further, since these drives are displacement drives in the same direction and are close to each other, it is easy to commonly use a fluid mechanism such as hydraulic pressure as a drive source.

It is a figure explaining one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the process of filling to a bag container with a spout and a seal.

Explanation of symbols

A Tip opening B Valve seat C Supply pipe D Valve body E Rod F Valve part S Spout

Claims (1)

The tip of the nozzle is configured to fit a spout of a bag container, the nozzle has a tip opening having a diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the spout, and an open / close valve is provided between the supply pipe and the nozzle tip. And a rod having an outer diameter substantially equal to the nozzle tip opening diameter is disposed in such a manner that the rod can be advanced and retracted to the nozzle tip opening, and a valve seat is formed above the nozzle tip opening. A shut valve type filling nozzle for a spout-equipped bag container, wherein a rod-shaped valve body having a rod that can be moved forward and backward is slidably disposed with respect to the valve seat .

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