JP5851732B2 - Container conveying device and container gripper - Google Patents

Description

The present invention, container transport device provided with a rotary carrier for holding grips the mouth of the container to seal the mouth portion by the cap seam in a state before covering cap, and relates to a container gripper used therein.

  Conventionally, in general, the container gripper that grips and holds the mouth portion of the container in the state before the cap is covered is for a case where the outer diameter of the cross section of the container mouth portion is round, and the container mouth portion is simply sandwiched between the gripper. There are many things. (Patent Document 1)

In recent years, containers such as PET bottles that are filled with beverages are being pursued to the point where the thickness of the container is close to the limit from the viewpoint of saving materials, and not only the thickness of the container body but also the thickness of the container mouth is reduced. The pursuit is also made.
In the container such as the PET bottle, the shape of the container mouth portion is a bottle neck portion, a cap tightening screw portion, a collar portion corresponding to a boundary portion between the bottle neck portion and the cap tightening portion, and the sealing In many cases, the cap is composed of a band-shaped portion located on the inner side of the ring of the cap that remains on the cap tightening screw portion side of the container mouth when the cap is unscrewed and opened.

Conventionally, the cross-sectional outer periphery of the belt-shaped part is often round, in which case there is a risk that rigidity and strength may be insufficient if the container mouth is simply thinned. A container mouth portion having a shape that supplements rigidity and strength by making the outer periphery of the cross section of the belt-like portion an irregular shape such as an octagon has appeared.
When gripping a container mouth portion having an outer shape of the cross section of the belt-shaped portion such as an octagon, the conventional container gripper may not be able to grip and hold the container mouth portion with accurate positioning. There is.

  For this reason, when a container is transferred from a rotary transport body provided with a container gripper (A) for gripping the container mouth section to a container gripper (B) of another rotary transport body, the container gripper (A) Or, there is a risk that it cannot be accurately positioned and delivered to the container gripper (B). In particular, the rotary carrier is a rotary filling device, and the container is filled from the filling nozzle while holding the container mouth. When filling the liquid, if the positioning of the container mouth and the filling nozzle is not concentric, a filling failure may occur, and a device that the container gripper accurately positions the container mouth and securely holds the grip is required. It is being done.

JP-A-7-81748 (FIGS. 2 and 5)

According to Patent Document 1, the rotary container processing apparatus grips (grips) the mouth of the container by closing a pair of open / close clamp arms.
However, in the technique of Patent Document 1, the container mouth portion is simply sandwiched between grippers, and the container mouth portion whose outer periphery in cross section is an irregular shape such as an octagon is rotated from one rotary carrier to the other. The technology of the container grip that is accurately positioned and delivered to the carrier is not disclosed.

Another example of a conventional container gripper will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6 to 13.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a rotary container carrier incorporating a conventional container gripper. (Note that FIG. 1 also serves as a plan view of a rotary container carrier incorporating a container gripper according to the present invention.)
FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a PET bottle container in which the outer periphery of the belt-like portion of the container mouth is round, (a) is a front view, and (b) is a sectional view taken along line VI-VI in (a). is there.
FIG. 7 is a view for explaining a PET bottle container in which the cross-section outer periphery of the band-shaped portion of the container mouth is an octagon, (a) is a front view, and (b) is a sectional view taken along line VII-VII in (a). is there.
FIG. 8 is a front view of a conventional container gripper.
FIG. 9 is a bottom view of FIG.

In FIG. 6, the container P0 has the shape of the container mouth at the boundary between the bottle neck portion Pn, the cap winding screw portion Ps having the screw S, and the bottle neck portion Pn and the cap winding portion Ps. The corresponding flange part Pr and the band-like part Pc located on the inner side of the ring Cr of the cap that remains on the cap fastening screw part Ps side of the container mouth when the sealed cap C is unscrewed and opened. The cross-sectional outer periphery of the strip-shaped part Pc is formed in a round shape.
In FIG. 7, the container P has the same shape as the container P <b> 0 except that the container P <b> 0 is thinner than the container P <b> 0 described above and the band-shaped part Pc is replaced with the band-shaped part Pm, and redundant description is omitted. However, the outer periphery of the cross section of the belt-like portion Pm is not round, but has an irregular shape (in FIG. 7, an octagon is taken as an example. Hereinafter, the irregular shape will be described as an octagon for convenience).

  In FIG. 1, a container P conveyed in the direction of an arrow 6f from the upstream (the container P is targeted for convenience in FIG. 1) is capped by a container gripper similar to the container gripper 3 described later. The container gripper 3 is gripped again at the position T6 shown in the figure and held in the grip 6 in the state before covering and rotated in the direction of arrow 6a, and is rotated in the direction of arrow 5a. In the meantime, it passes through a rotary filling device (rotating carrier) 5 for filling a predetermined amount of filling liquid into the container P, and is further gripped by a container gripper similar to the container gripper 3 at the position T7 in the figure. It is delivered and discharged in the direction of the downstream arrow 7e from the outlet rotary carrier 7 that rotates in the direction of the arrow 7a.

  8 and 9, the conventional container gripper 3 is provided on the rotary transport body 5 equally in the circumference, and the container P (the container P is illustrated for convenience of explanation in FIG. 8. A pair of abutment plates 11p that partially abut against the bottle neck portion Pn of the collar portion Pr and partially engage with the side surface of the collar portion Pr on the bottle neck Pn side, and a grip portion 11g thereof. The container mouth portion is held by a pair of neck holders 11 that are engaged with a side surface (also referred to as a side surface m) of Pr on the belt-like portion Pm side so that the outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pm is substantially semicircular. The abutment plate 11p is integrally assembled with the neck holder 11, and the pair of neck holders 11 are vertically attached to a shaft 14 attached to a support plate 13 provided on the rotary carrier 5. Direction It is determined and is rotatable, and is engaged with the side surface m so that the grip portion 11g at the other end is sandwiched by a pair by the bias of the spring 15 interposed between the spring seats 11s provided at one end of the neck holder 11. Configured to match.

  The pair of neck holders 11 are opened as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 9 against the urging force of the spring 15 by a cam mechanism or the like (not shown), whereby the grip portion 11g is opened, and the side surfaces m and The detailed description is omitted.

  In the above description, the case where the container gripper 3 grips the container P has been described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, but when the container gripper 3 grips the container P0, the grip portion 11g becomes the strip-shaped portion Pm described above. Instead, the mouth of the container P0 is held by a pair of neck holders 11 which are engaged with the side surface of the belt-like portion Pc so as to sandwich the outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pc so as to be almost semicircular. Since these are the same, detailed description is omitted.

Next, the operation of the conventional container gripper 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 10, 11, 12, and 13.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the container mouth portion shown in FIG. 6 is gripped by a conventional container gripper, and is an enlarged view.
FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XI-XI in FIG.
FIG. 12 is a view for explaining a state in which the container mouth portion shown in FIG. 7 is gripped by a conventional container gripper, and corresponds to FIG.
13 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XIII-XIII of FIG. 12, showing the direction changed by 90 degrees, and corresponds to FIG.
10 and 11, when the mouth portion of the container P0 having a round cross-sectional outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pc is held by a pair of neck holders 11, the cross-sectional outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pc is held by the grip portion 11g of the neck holder 11. The center of the container mouth and the grip center of the pair of grip portions 11g are concentric with each other so that the container mouth is securely positioned and held by the pair of neck holders 11. Is done.

  On the other hand, in FIGS. 12 and 13, when the mouth portion of the container P having the octagonal cross-sectional outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pm is held by a pair of neck holders 11, the cross-sectional outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pm is gripped by the neck holder 11. The corners such as the octagonal corner e1, the corner e2, and the corner e3 are engaged in the direction of the center line xx of the grip portion 11g of the pair of neck holders 11 when being engaged so as to be surrounded by the portion 11g. However, it is not always in a symmetric position, and as shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 13 as an example, the corners e1 and e2 come to a position deviating from the center line yy of the grip portion 11g, and the center of the gap 11d between the pair of neck holders 11 with which the corner e3 is opposed. If it is at a position deviating from (center line xx), the balance of the pinching force is lost when pinching with the pair of grip portions 11g, and the pinching position is shifted in the direction of xx in the drawing and y− in the drawing. Deviation in the y direction is likely to occur, and the center of the container mouth portion and the grip centers of the pair of grip portions 11g may not be concentric.
For this reason, the positioning of the container P and the pair of grip portions 11g is out of order, and there is a possibility that a filling defect may occur when the container P is filled with the filling liquid by the rotary filling device 5.

  In order to solve the problem in the case of holding the container mouth portion in which the outer periphery of the cross section of the belt-like portion is not round but has an irregular shape such as an octagon as described above, the present invention can accurately position the container mouth. An object of the present invention is to provide a container gripper that securely holds a grip.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention solves the problems by the following means.
(1) In the container transport device of the first means , the container mouth portion is a bottle neck portion, a cap winding screw portion, and a collar portion corresponding to a boundary portion between the bottle neck portion and the cap winding screw portion. And a non-circular band-shaped portion corresponding to a position remaining on the container mouth side when the cap that has sealed the container mouth portion is unscrewed and opened. between the container gripper with other container gripper provided on rotary conveying member provided in the body, a container transfer device that passes accepted, container gripper provided on the rotating carrier of the one of the previous SL A neck holder that engages with the belt-like portion side of the collar portion to hold the container mouth portion, and the outer periphery of the screw of the cap tightening screw portion on the cap tightening screw portion side of the neck holder is substantially semicircular. The container mouth by pinching And a container support provided in the other rotary transport body, the container gripper of the one rotary transport body and the container gripper of the one rotary transport body. A neck holder that is configured so as not to interfere, and that engages with the side surface of the collar portion on the bottle neck side, a contact plate that engages with a part of the belt-like portion, and the cap tightening screw portion side of the neck holder And a neck support that positions the container mouth part and the container gripper in the container radial direction by sandwiching the outer periphery of the screw of the cap tightening screw part so as to be substantially semicircular. and said that the content was.

(2) The container gripper of the second means is the container gripper of the first means, wherein the container transport body is a rotary transport body, and the other rotary transport body adjacent to the container gripper of the one rotary transport body. One of the container grippers of the rotating transport body that re-grips the container mouth to the container gripper and delivers the container is the container gripper described in the first means, and the container gripper of the other rotating transport body is A neck holder configured so as not to interfere with the container gripper of the one rotary conveyance body and engaging with at least the belt-like part side of the collar part to hold the container mouth part, and the cap winding of the neck holder The container mouth portion and the container gripper are positioned in the container radial direction by sandwiching the outer periphery of the screw of the cap winding screw part on the fastening screw part side so as to be substantially semicircular. Characterized in that a structure in which a neck support you so that.

(3) The container gripper of the third means is characterized in that, in the container gripper of the first and second means, the neck support is made of a soft material such as soft plastic.

  The present invention according to claim 1 is a container gripper provided on a container transport body that grips and transports the mouth portion of the container that seals the mouth portion by tightening the cap in a state before the cap is put on the cap. The shape of the container mouth part is a bottleneck part, a cap winding screw part, a collar part corresponding to a boundary part between the bottleneck part and the cap winding part, and the sealed cap is threaded and opened. In the container gripper that grips and holds the container mouth portion composed of the belt-like portion corresponding to the position remaining on the container mouth side when the container mouth portion is engaged with at least the belt-like portion side of the flange portion, By holding the neck holder to be held and the outer periphery of the screw of the cap winding screw part so as to be substantially semicircular around the cap winding screw part side of the neck holder, By providing a neck support for positioning the container mouth portion and the container gripper in the container radial direction, the container mouth portion and the container gripper can be positioned in the container radial direction only by the neck holder. This has the effect that the positioning can be reliably performed by the neck support where it cannot be surely performed.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the container gripper according to the first aspect, the container transport body is a rotary transport body, and the container of the other rotary transport body adjacent to the container gripper of the one rotary transport body. One of the container grippers of the rotary conveyance body that re-grips the container mouth to the gripper and delivers the container is the container gripper according to claim 1, wherein the container gripper of the other rotation conveyance body is the one of the ones. A neck holder that is configured not to interfere with the container gripper of the rotary transport body, and that engages at least with the band-shaped part side of the collar part to hold the container mouth part, and the cap fastening screw part of the neck holder On the side, the container mouth portion and the container gripper are positioned in the container radial direction by sandwiching the outer periphery of the screw of the cap tightening screw part so as to be substantially semicircular. When the container mouth portion is re-gripped from the container gripper of one rotary transport body to the container gripper of the other rotary transport body and the container is delivered, The container gripper is positioned in the container radial direction with certainty and delivered.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the container gripper according to the first and second aspects, since the neck support is made of a soft material such as soft plastic, the cap tightening screw portion is formed by the neck support. When the outer periphery of the screw is sandwiched, there is an effect that the screw of the cap tightening screw portion is not damaged.

It is a top view of the rotary container conveyance body incorporating the container gripper concerning this invention. (Note that FIG. 1 also serves as a plan view of a rotary container carrier incorporating a conventional container gripper.) It is a front view of the container gripper concerning the 1st Embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. It is a front view of the container gripper concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention, and is a figure equivalent to FIG. It is a figure explaining the PET bottle container whose cross-section outer periphery of the strip | belt-shaped part of a container opening part is a round shape, (a) is a front view, (b) is a VI-VI cross section of (a). It is a figure explaining the PET bottle container whose cross-section outer periphery of the strip | belt-shaped part of a container opening part is an octagon, (a) is a front view, (b) is VII-VII sectional drawing of (a). It is a front view of the conventional container gripper. It is a bottom view of FIG. It is a figure explaining the state which grips the container opening part shown in FIG. 6 with the conventional container gripper, It is an enlarged view. In the XI-XI sectional view of FIG. 10, the orientation is changed by 90 degrees. It is a figure explaining the state which grips the container opening part shown in FIG. 7 with the conventional container gripper, and is a figure equivalent to FIG. FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken along the line XIII-XIII in FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments. In addition, constituent elements in the following embodiments include those that can be easily assumed by those skilled in the art or those that are substantially the same.

(First embodiment of the present invention)
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a rotary container carrier incorporating a container gripper according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front view of the container gripper according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG.
In FIG. 1, the container gripper 3 of the rotary filling device 5 described in the prior art is replaced with the container gripper 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, which overlaps with the contents described in the prior art. Detailed descriptions of the portions are omitted.

2 to 4, the container gripper 1 is arranged on the side of the cap tightening screw portion Ps of the neck holder 11 so that the outer periphery of the screw S of the cap tightening screw portion Ps is almost semicircular by the grip portion 12g. A pair of neck supports 12 for positioning the container P and the container gripper 1 in the container radial direction by being sandwiched are added to the cap tightening screw portion Ps side of the pair of neck holders 11 and assembled. It becomes the composition.
The configuration of the pair of neck holders 11 is the same as that of the pair of neck holders 11 of the conventional container gripper 3 shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 described in the prior art, and redundant description is omitted here.

  Here, the neck support 12 is made of a soft material such as soft plastic or rubber at a portion that sandwiches the outer periphery of the screw S of the cap tightening screw portion Ps so as to be substantially semicircular.

Next, the operation of the container gripper 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The container P is held by the pair of neck holders 11 integrated with the pair of contact plates 11p of the container gripper 1 in the same manner as described in the prior art, and the grip of the pair of neck supports 12 is held. The outer periphery of the screw S of the cap winding screw portion Ps is sandwiched by the portion 12g so as to be substantially semicircular.
When the outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pm of the container P is not a round shape but an irregular shape such as an octagonal shape, the positioning of the container mouth portion is out of order with the pair of neck holders 11 alone, as described in the prior art. There is a possibility that the container radius between the mouth of the container P and the container gripper 1 is sandwiched between the pair of neck supports 12 so that the outer periphery of the screw S of the cap tightening screw part Ps is almost semicircular. Directional positioning is ensured.
As a result, even when the filling liquid is filled into the container P by the rotary filling device 5, there is no possibility of causing a filling defect or the like.

  When the outer periphery of the screw S of the cap tightening screw portion Ps is sandwiched between the pair of neck supports 12 so as to be substantially semicircular, the outer periphery of the screw S of the cap tightening screw portion Ps of the neck support 12 is Since the material of the portion sandwiched so as to surround approximately a semicircle is made of a soft material such as soft plastic or rubber, the screw S of the cap winding screw portion Ps is not damaged.

  Further, in FIGS. 2 to 4 and the above description, the case where the container P is gripped in an inverted state has been described. However, the container P may be gripped in an upright state. Description is omitted.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 5 is a front view of a container gripper according to the second embodiment of the present invention and corresponds to FIG.
In FIG. 5, the same structure as that in FIG. 2 is denoted by the same reference numeral, and redundant description is omitted. However, the container gripper 1 is provided on the rotary filling device 5 shown in FIG. The container gripper 2 is provided on the circumference of the inlet rotary transport body 6 and the outlet rotary transport body 7 shown in FIG. 1, and the container P is moved from the container gripper 2 to the container gripper at the position T6 in the figure. 1 is transferred from the container gripper 1 to the container gripper 2 at a position T7 shown in the figure.

The container gripper 2 includes a pair of neck holders 21 that are engaged with the side surface on the bottle neck Pn side of the collar portion Pr of the container P so that the outer periphery of the bottle neck Pn is substantially semicircular, and the belt-shaped portion of the collar portion Pr. The mouth portion of the container P is held by a pair of contact plates 21p that abut on the side surface on the Pm side and engage with a part of the outer periphery of the belt-like portion Pm. It is assembled in one piece.
The neck holder 21 is configured to be engaged with the flange Pr by the action of the spring 15, similarly to the neck holder 11 of the container gripper 1. Since the contents overlap, detailed description is omitted.

The container gripper 2 is further sandwiched so that the outer periphery of the screw S of the cap tightening screw portion Ps is almost semicircular on the cap tightening screw portion Ps side of the neck holder 21, thereby A pair of neck supports 22 that are positioned in the container radial direction with respect to the container gripper 2 are added to the neck holder 21 and assembled.
The pair of neck supports 22 are configured not to interfere with the pair of neck supports 12 of the container gripper 1, as shown in FIG. Similarly, the neck holder 21 is configured not to interfere with the neck holder 11 of the container gripper 1.

Next, the operation of the container gripper 2 according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Since the container P is reliably positioned in the container radial direction with respect to the container gripper 2 by the pair of neck supports 22, when the container P is transferred from the container gripper 2 to the container gripper 1 at the position T6 in the figure, the container gripper 1 The positioning in the radial direction of the container is also reliably delivered.
Also, when the container P is transferred from the container gripper 1 to the container gripper 2 at the position T7 in the figure, the container gripper 1 is surely positioned in the container radial direction, so that the container P in the container radial direction The positioning is surely delivered.

  Thus, in the case of the second embodiment of the present invention, the container P and the container gripper 1 or the container P and the container gripper 2 are delivered by the delivery of the container P by the combination of the container gripper 1 and the container gripper 2. The positioning in the radial direction can be ensured, and when the cap is tightened in the subsequent process of the rotary filling device 5, the container P is to be tightened with the cap positioned in the radial direction of the container with certainty. Therefore, there are no mistakes in cap tightening.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 2 Container gripper 5 Rotary filling device 6 Inlet rotation conveyance body 7 Outlet rotation conveyance body 11, 21 Neck holder 11p, 21p Neck support 12, 22 Neck support 14 Shaft 15 Spring C Cap P Container Pn Bottle neck part Ps Cap winding Fastening screw part Pm Strip-like part Pr ridge part S (cap tightening screw part) screw

Claims (4)

A container mouth portion is a bottle neck portion, a cap winding screw portion, a collar portion corresponding to a boundary portion between the bottle neck portion and the cap winding screw portion, and a cap that has sealed the container mouth portion. A container having a non-circular belt-like portion corresponding to a position remaining on the container mouth side when the thread is opened and opened, and a container gripper provided on one rotary transport body and another rotary transport body between the container gripper provided, a container transfer device that passes accepted,
A container gripper provided on the one rotary conveying body includes a neck holder that engages with the band-shaped part side of the collar part and holds the container mouth part, and a cap fastening screw part side of the neck holder, A neck support configured to position the container mouth part and the container gripper in the container radial direction by sandwiching the outer periphery of the screw of the cap tightening screw part so as to be substantially semicircular. ,
It said other container gripper provided on rotary carrier includes a neck holder is configured so as not to interfere with the container gripper before Symbol one rotary conveying member, to engage the bottle neck side surface of the flange portion, By sandwiching the outer periphery of the screw of the cap tightening screw portion on the side of the cap tightening screw portion of the neck holder so as to be substantially semicircular, the contact plate that engages with a part of the band-shaped portion, the container A container transporting device comprising a neck support for positioning a mouth portion and the container gripper in a container radial direction.   The container gripper provided in the said one rotation conveyance body of the container conveyance apparatus of Claim 1.   The container gripper provided in the said other rotation conveyance body of the container conveyance apparatus of Claim 1.   The container gripper according to claim 2, wherein the neck support is made of soft plastic or rubber.

Images