JPH0216986B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention involves placing a sealed packaged product in an airtight box, then sucking the air in the box to a predetermined vacuum value, and The present invention relates to a device that measures the pressure rise within a box by stopping vacuum suction, and detects the presence or absence of pinholes in the packaged product based on the pressure rise value.

(Prior Art) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-37533 discloses an airtight box for storing a packaged product, a vacuum mechanism for sucking the air inside the box, and a vacuum mechanism for removing air from the box by stopping the suction action of the vacuum mechanism. A pinhole inspection unit is shown, which consists of a mechanism for measuring the pressure rise inside the pinhole inspection unit, and furthermore, the unit is rotated on a circular orbit, and the packaged products are efficiently circulated on the circular orbit together with a large number of units. It is stored that a pinhole inspection is to be performed.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention, etc.) However, in the rotary apparatus, a vacuum processing mechanism and a measuring mechanism must be provided for each of a large number of boxes, resulting in a complicated structure. Furthermore, whereas the rotor rotates horizontally, packaged products are stored from the top of the box and discharged downwards, and the rotor rotation direction intersects the direction in which packaged products are put in and taken out. Packed products cannot be taken in and out of the box unless it is rotated intermittently.

The present invention provides an apparatus in which a large number of boxes can share a vacuum processing mechanism and a measuring mechanism, and which efficiently detects pinholes in packaged products by continuously rotating the boxes.

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the first invention includes a lower horizontal surface plate 3a and a box-shaped lid 3b that covers the surface plate. A drive mechanism that continuously rotates a large number of vacuum boxes 3, 3, etc. in pairs on a circular orbit, an upper rotor 6b located at the center of the circular orbit and rotating integrally with each vacuum box, and a machine stand. A rotary valve 6 consisting of a lower stator 6b that is supported by and does not move, and a hose 21 provided between each of the box-shaped lids and a large number of connecting holes 20, 20 formed in the rotor, and each of the box-shaped lids. 21... and a number of rods 17, 17... that engage each of the box-shaped lids in a hanging manner, the lower ends of which are slidably engaged with the annular rail 19 that is concentric with the circular track. a lid lifting mechanism that moves each box-shaped lid up and down with a curve in the vertical direction; and a section where the box-shaped lid is separated from the surface plate in the lid lifting mechanism is defined as an atmosphere opening area;
The rest of the area where the box-shaped lid is in close contact with the surface plate is divided into an exhaust area and a sealed area, and the vacuum box is communicated with the vacuum pump via a hose and rotary valve only in the exhaust area. A vacuum processing mechanism, a detection port 24 is formed in the stator of the rotary valve in the sealed section, and a reaction element 2 of a vacuum gauge 26 is provided in the detection port.
9 and a measuring mechanism provided with the measuring mechanism.

In addition, in the second invention, the lower horizontal surface plate 3
A drive mechanism that continuously rotates a large number of vacuum boxes 3, 3, . A rotary valve 6 includes an upper rotor 6b that rotates together with the box and a lower stator 6b that is supported by a machine stand and does not move, a large number of connection holes 20 formed in the rotor, and the Hose 21, 2 provided between each box-shaped lid
1..., and the lower ends of a large number of rods 17, 17... that engage each of the box-shaped lids in a hanging manner, respectively, are slidably engaged with the annular rail 19 that is concentric with the circular track,
A lid elevating mechanism that moves each box-shaped lid up and down by the vertical curve of the annular rail, and a section where the box-shaped lid is separated from the surface plate in the lid elevating mechanism is defined as an atmosphere opening section; The area where the box-shaped lid is in close contact with the surface plate is divided into an exhaust area and a sealed area, and the vacuum box is connected to the vacuum pump via a hose and a rotary valve only in the exhaust area. Electric wiring 28, 2 is connected to the processing mechanism and the reaction elements 29, 29... provided on each of the box-shaped lids.
While rotating the conductive brushes 30, 30 connected through 8... on a circular orbit together with the box-shaped lid,
A measuring mechanism is provided in which a vacuum gauge 26 is connected to a terminal 32 installed in a part of the circular orbit of the conductive brush, and the conductive brush belonging to the box-shaped lid that moves in the sealed section comes into contact with the terminal. This is how it was constructed.

(Function) The vacuum box 3, which continuously rotates in a circular orbit, is formed by a lower horizontal surface plate 3a and an upper box-shaped lid 3b. Each box-shaped lid 3b is supported by a rod 17 in a hanging manner, and the lower end of the rod is engaged with an annular rail 19 that is concentric with the circular orbit of the vacuum box, and is curved in the vertical direction of the annular rail. Move the box lid up and down. Since the box-shaped lid is opened upward relative to the surface plate in this manner, the packaged product is fed in a parallel (horizontal) direction to the surface of the surface plate.

As mentioned above, the section where the box-shaped lid is away from the surface plate is defined as the atmosphere-opening section, and in this atmosphere-opening section, packaged products can be taken in and out of the vacuum box, while the box-shaped lid is in close contact with the surface plate. The vacuum box is divided into an exhaust section and a sealed section, and in the exhaust section, the rotary valve 6 connects the vacuum box to the vacuum pump to remove the air in the vacuum box. The inside of the vacuum box is maintained at a vacuum. For this reason, the internal pressure of a vacuum box containing a packaged product with pinholes increases.

Therefore, in the first invention, a detection port 24 is formed in the stator 6a of the rotary valve in the sealed section, and a vacuum gauge 26 is provided in the detection port, so that the internal pressure of each vacuum box rotating in a circular orbit is reduced to a vacuum. Packaged products with pinholes are detected one after another by a meter, and packaged products with pinholes are sorted out by the internal pressure of the vacuum box.

On the other hand, in the second invention, the conductive brush 30 connected to the reaction element 29 provided on each box-shaped lid is rotated together with the box-shaped lid, and the terminal 32 provided on a part of the circular orbit of the conductive brush and the By contacting the conductive brush, the internal pressure of the vacuum box can be successively captured by the vacuum gauge.

(Example) A specific example of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of the entire apparatus in which eight vacuum boxes 3, 3, . More specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, a tower 5 is provided on the base 4 of the device, and the shaft 1 is erected in a fixed state on the tower, and the shaft 1 is fitted around the shaft 1. A rotary valve 6 consisting of a stator 6a and a rotor 6b is provided on the upper surface of the tower 5, the turntable 2 is provided on the upper surface of the rotary valve, and a buffer spring 7 is provided on the upper surface of the turntable. flat surface plate 3a
The vacuum box 3 is constituted by the surface plate 3a and a box-shaped lid 3b covering the top surface of the surface plate 3a.

The lower stator 6a of the rotary valve 6 is engaged with the tower 5 via pins 8, 8, while the rotor 6b is engaged with the turntable 2. Further, a boss 9 is arranged around the shaft 1,
A flange formed at the lower end of the boss is fixed to the upper surface of the turntable 2 via bolts 10, 10, . . . . Furthermore, an annular gear 11 concentric with the table is fixed to the lower surface of the turntable 2, and the driving gear 12 engaged with the gear is started to connect the rotor 6b of the rotary valve, the turntable 2, and the boss 9. It is configured so that they rotate together. Eight vertical rails 13 are provided on the circumferential surface of the boss 9.
13... are formed in a bulging shape, and each of these rails 13...
are engaged with pulleys 15, 15 supported at one ends of the arms 14, 14, respectively, and the box-shaped lids 3b are supported at the other ends of the arms 14, respectively. Further, eight rods 17, 17, which support approximately the middle portion of each arm 14 from below via pins 16, are passed through below the turntable 2, and wheels 18 are supported at the lower ends of these rods. ... are engaged with the upper surface of an annular rail 19 fixed to the upper surface of the base 4.

As shown in FIG. 3, the rotor 6b of the rotary valve has eight connecting holes 20, 2 passing through it vertically.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, each of the connection holes 20 and each of the eight box-shaped lids 3 are equally spaced.
b... are connected via hoses 21, 21..., respectively. (In addition, since the drawing is omitted in FIG. 1, the arm 14 and the hose 21 are not shown in their entirety.) On the other hand, on the upper surface of the stator 6a of the rotary valve in FIG.
The suction ports 22, 22 are opened close to each other, and the openings on the side of the valves of these suction ports are connected to two vacuum pumps (not shown) with hoses 2, respectively.
3 and 23. Furthermore, a detection port 24 and an atmosphere return port 25 are sequentially formed on the upper surface of the stator 6a from the suction port 22 toward the rotational direction of the rotor 6b.
A vacuum gauge 26 is connected to the side of the valve 4.

Various types of vacuum gauges 26 are known, and in the drawings, a thermal conduction vacuum gauge will be described as an example of the known vacuum gauges. This type of vacuum gauge, called a Pirani vacuum gauge, has a reaction element 29 connected to a meter 27 via a cord 28. The reaction element 29 consists of a ribbon or filament heated by an electric current, and when gas molecules rebound in a closed chamber, heat is removed from the filament. However, in a low vacuum, there are many gas molecules, so a large amount of heat is removed from the filament. I,
When the vacuum is high, there are fewer gas molecules and less heat is taken away from the filament. Therefore, the amount of heat carried in the reaction element 29 is measured by the meter 27.
Vacuum values can be read by measuring with , allowing for microscopic measurements compared to manometers and diaphragm vacuum gauges. There are other vacuum gauges such as viscous vacuum gauges, Knudsen vacuum gauges, ionization vacuum gauges, and vacuum gauges that use electric discharge.Also, there are detection means that detect the presence of gas by color and are not generally called vacuum gauges, but the present invention For convenience, these will be collectively defined as a vacuum gauge. However, liquid column differential vacuum gauges, diaphragm vacuum gauges, and the like are difficult to perform microscopic measurements, so they are probably not suitable for use in the present invention.

2, when the driving force of the drive gear 12 is transmitted to the turntable 2 via the annular gear 11, the rotor 6b, boss 9, vacuum box 3, and rod 17 connected to the turntable 2 are They begin to rotate as one. In this case, rod 1
The wheel 18 supported at the lower end of the rail 19 begins to roll on the upper surface of the annular rail 19, but since the upper surface of the rail is partially raised like a mountain at a certain point, the wheel 18 starts rolling on the upper surface of the annular rail 19. When the rod 17 begins to climb the slope, the rod 17 is pushed up and lifts the box-shaped lid 3b upwards as shown by the imaginary line do. The packaged product A is fed into the vacuum box 3 in the atmosphere-opening section where the box-shaped lid 3b is separated from the surface plate 3a described above. The packaged product A is a packaged item sealed with a packaging material, and is a so-called air-containing package in which the packaging material contains air, inert gas, etc. together with the packaged item.

On the other hand, the rotor 6b of the rotary valve rotates counterclockwise together with the turntable 2 as shown in FIG. During one cycle, the eight connecting holes 20, 20, . A vacuum comes into play. The rotation speed of the rotary valve is
0 passes over the two suction ports 22, 22, the inside of the vacuum box 3 reaches a vacuum value (for example, 760 m/
Therefore, the inside of each vacuum box 3 is controlled to become vacuum one after another. When the connection hole 20 is removed from the suction port 22, the connection hole 20 is sealed in a predetermined area behind the suction port 22 by the upper surface of the stator 6a. This is a state in which the vacuum box 3 is sealed off from both the vacuum pump and the atmosphere, and in this sealed section, the inside of the vacuum box 3 is theoretically vacuum (for example, 760 m/m
HG). In this case, vacuum box 3
The packaging material of the packaged product swells due to the expansion of the gas inside, and the gas tends to blow out of the packaging material. Packaging products contain gas as long as the strength of the packaging material itself and the strength of the sealing portion of the packaging material resist the pressure of the gas. Therefore, the inside of the vacuum box 3 is maintained in a vacuum state. However, if there is a pinhole in the packaging material, the gas will leak out of the pinhole and the vacuum box 3
Increase internal pressure. The connection hole 2 is opened by the rotation of the rotor 6b.
When 0 is connected to the detection port 24, the vacuum value in the vacuum box 3 is displayed on the vacuum gauge 26. A vacuum box in which the value displayed on the vacuum gauge 26 indicates the vacuum value indicates that there is no pinhole in the packaged product A inside, and a vacuum box where the value on the vacuum gauge has changed indicates that there is a pinhole in the packaged product. It represents.

When the connecting hole 20 is connected to the atmosphere return port 25 and the atmosphere is returned to the vacuum box 3, the box-shaped lid 3b is temporarily lifted by the rod 17, so that the detected packaged products and the undetected packaged products are separated. At the same time, those with pinholes are selected from among the detected packaging products.

As described above, by sequentially feeding packaged products into each vacuum box 3 rotated by the turntable, the presence or absence of pinholes in each packaged product is indicated by the vacuum gauge, so that defective packaged products can be efficiently eliminated.

Note that the detection port 2 in the rotary valve 6
If the vacuum gauge 26 detects a pinhole in the packaged product due to the presence of gas in the detection port 24
Dilute gas is trapped inside, which affects the measurement of subsequent packaged products. Therefore, each connection hole 2
Detection port 24 and suction port 2 between 0, 20...
It is desirable to form an auxiliary passageway in the rotary valve that connects to the detection port 24 to prevent gas from being trapped in the detection port 24. Figure 4 shows the eight vacuum boxes 3, 3 installed on the top surface of the turntable 2.
In this embodiment, vacuum gauges 26, 26... are connected to all of the vacuum boxes 3, and when a packaged product is supplied into the vacuum box 3 in the atmosphere open section, a vacuum is applied to the packaged product in the exhaust section, so that each vacuum box 3 is connected in the sealed section. The presence or absence of pinholes in each packaged product can be detected by looking at the vacuum gauge 26 provided in the vacuum box. However, since this embodiment uses a large number of vacuum gauges, the cost of the device increases accordingly. On the other hand, in the case shown in Fig. 5, all the vacuum boxes 3,
3. Pinholes in packaged products within can be sequentially detected. That is, in the case shown in the figure, reaction elements 29, 29... of vacuum gauges are provided in all of the vacuum boxes 3, 3... provided on the turntable 2, and the reaction elements 29, 29... are connected to each of the reaction elements 29... and the cord 28... The connected brushes 30, 30... are brought into sliding contact with the tire 31 at the center of the turntable, and the meter 27 is connected to a terminal 32 formed on a part of the tire, and the conductive function between the terminal 32 and the brush 30 is According to
Only the internal pressure of the vacuum box connected to the terminal 32 is displayed on the meter 27. The specific structure of FIG. 5 is as shown in FIG. 6, in which the tire 31 is fixed around the upper end of the shaft 1, and a bracket is attached to the upper end of the boss 9 installed around the shaft 1 integrally with the turntable 2. The brushes 30, 30... are fixed via the brushes 33, 33..., and each brush 30... is brought into contact with the circumferential surface of the tire 31, and the reaction element 29 provided in each brush 30... and each vacuum box 3... are connected via a cord 28, and a meter 27 is further connected to a terminal 32 provided on a part of the tire.

The meter 27 of the vacuum gauge in each of the above embodiments has been explained so that the vacuum value can be determined by visually observing the movement of the needle and various reactions. However, if the movement of the needle exceeds a predetermined value, the electrical It may also be something that emits a signal. By using such a structure, it is possible to automatically select only packaging products with pinholes by the mechanical force acting on the electrical signal. Further, in each of the above embodiments, the vacuum box 3 is composed of a surface plate 3a and a box-shaped lid 3b, but each box-shaped lid 3b is brought into direct contact with the turntable 2, and the turntable 2 and The box-shaped lid 3b may constitute a vacuum box. moreover,
In each of the above embodiments, each vacuum box is rotated on a horizontal plane by a turntable.
For example, it may be an embodiment in which a vacuum box is provided on a rotor that moves in the rotational direction of a windmill or a caterpillar.

(Effects) The present invention rotates a large number of vacuum boxes along a circular orbit, and detects the internal pressure of each vacuum box sequentially from the beginning using a rotary valve, or detects the internal pressure of each vacuum box in order from the top using a rotary valve, or detects the internal pressure of each vacuum box using an element that responds to the internal pressure of the vacuum box. The connected conductive brushes are rotated together with each vacuum box, and each conductive brush is brought into contact with the terminal in a part of its circular orbit, and the internal pressure of the vacuum box is electrically detected in order from the beginning. , the vacuum processing mechanism and measurement mechanism can be shared by a large number of vacuum boxes, which simplifies the structure, and since the box-shaped lid of the vacuum box opens upward, it is possible to place packaged products against the surface of the surface plate. Since the packaging products can be fed in parallel and the supply of the packaged products does not interfere with the rotation of the surface plate, the vacuum box can be continuously rotated and pinholes in the packaged products can be detected with high efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a partially simplified plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a composite sectional view taken along the - line and '-' line in the previous figure, and Fig. 3 is a - line in the previous figure. A perspective view, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of another embodiment compared with the previous diagram, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams of another embodiment. 2...Turntable, 3...Vacuum box,
3a...Surface plate, 3b...Box-shaped lid, 6...Rotary valve, 6a...Stator, 6b...Rotor, 12
... Drive gear, 17 ... Rod, 19 ... Annular rail, 20 ... Connection hole, 21 ... Hose, 22 ...
...Suction port, 24...Detection port, 25...Atmospheric return port, 26...Vacuum gauge, 27...Meter, 28...Code, 29...Reaction element, A...
packaging products.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A large number of vacuum boxes 3 each consisting of a lower horizontal surface plate 3a and a box-shaped lid 3b covering the surface plate;
3. A drive mechanism that continuously rotates on a circular orbit, an upper rotor 6b that is located at the center of the circular orbit and rotates together with each vacuum box, and a lower fixed unit that is supported by the machine base and does not move. A rotary valve 6 consisting of a rotor 6b, hoses 21, 21,... provided between a large number of connection holes 20, 20... formed in the rotor and each of the box-shaped lids, and each of the box-shaped lids. A large number of rods 1 are each engaged in a hanging manner.
7, 17... a lid material elevating mechanism whose lower end is slidably engaged with an annular rail 19 concentric with the circular track, and which moves each box-shaped lid up and down by the vertical curve of the annular rail; In the lid lifting mechanism, the section where the box-shaped lid is away from the surface plate is defined as an open-to-atmosphere section, and the other section where the box-shaped lid is in close contact with the surface plate is divided into an exhaust section and a sealed section. , a vacuum processing mechanism in which a vacuum box communicates with a vacuum pump through a hose and a rotary valve only in the exhaust section; and a detection port 24 is formed in the stator of the rotary valve in the sealed section, and the detection port A pinhole detection device for packaged products, comprising a measuring mechanism provided with a reaction element 29 of a vacuum gauge 26. 2. A large number of vacuum boxes 3 each consisting of a lower horizontal surface plate 3a and a box-shaped lid 3b covering the surface plate;
3. A drive mechanism that continuously rotates on a circular orbit, an upper rotor 6b that is located at the center of the circular orbit and rotates together with each vacuum box, and a lower fixed unit that is supported by the machine base and does not move. A rotary valve 6 consisting of a rotor 6b, hoses 21, 21,... provided between a large number of connection holes 20, 20... formed in the rotor and each of the box-shaped lids, and each of the box-shaped lids. A large number of rods 1 are each engaged in a hanging manner.
7, 17... a lid material elevating mechanism whose lower end is slidably engaged with an annular rail 19 concentric with the circular track, and which moves each box-shaped lid up and down by the vertical curve of the annular rail; In the lid lifting mechanism, the section where the box-shaped lid is away from the surface plate is defined as an open-to-atmosphere section, and the other section where the box-shaped lid is in close contact with the surface plate is divided into an exhaust section and a sealed section. , a vacuum processing mechanism in which the vacuum box communicates with the vacuum pump through a hose and a rotary valve only within the exhaust section; and a reaction element 29 provided in each of the box-shaped lids.
29... via electrical wiring 28, 28... are rotated together with the box-shaped lid on a circular orbit, and a terminal 32 is installed in a part of the circular orbit of the conductive brushes. A pinhole detection device for a packaged product, comprising: a measuring mechanism to which a vacuum gauge 26 is connected, and a conductive brush belonging to a box-shaped lid moving in the sealed section comes into contact with the terminal.