JPH0337526A - Method and apparatus for measuring spraying amount of readily bubbling liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the occurrence of measuring errors due to mixing of bubbles by expressing the decrease caused by the sending of readily bubbling liquid from a container as the decreasing amount of the indicated value of an electronic platform scale. CONSTITUTION:Nozzles 12 - 14 for spraying hydrogen peroxide water as readily bubbling liquid are provided in a changer. Drying and pasteurization in the chamber are performed with sterilized air which is sent in through a heater and a sterilizing filter with blower. The hydrogen peroxide water is inputted in a pressurized tank 15. The tank 15 is mounted on an electronic platform scale 16. The scale 16 is mounted on a vibration isolating stage 17. The scale 16 is connected to a data processing device 21. The device 21 is connected to a sequencer 22 of a filling apparatus. Numerical values are preset, and the spraying is performed by said numerical values. Then, solenoid valves 23, 24 and 25 at the end of a hydrogen peroxide water pipe 18 are automatically closed, and the feeding of the hydrogen peroxide water is stopped.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the spray amount when spraying a foamable liquid, and in particular,
The present invention relates to a spray amount measuring method and device suitable for use in the food industry, where large amounts of hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite aqueous solutions, etc. are sprayed for sterilization.

[Conventional technology]

Various methods for measuring the flow rate of liquid have been devised and put into practical use. Among the flowmeters used in these methods, there are only a limited number of models that can extract flow values as electrical signals suitable for control, and some models such as electromagnetic flowmeters, float flowmeters, and piston flowmeters be.

By the way, these flowmeters have the problem that they do not provide accurate measurement values if air bubbles are mixed in the liquid.In electromagnetic flowmeters, air bubbles cause noise, and in float type flowmeters, air bubbles adhere to the float. In addition, piston type flowmeters cause erroneous measurements due to the compressibility of air bubbles.

Therefore, conventional flowmeters are not suitable for use in measuring the flow rate of liquids in which bubbles are likely to be mixed or generated.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

For these reasons, conventionally, the amount of sprayed foaming liquids has not been measured, and the amount of sprayed has been managed only indirectly by controlling the spray time of the spray nozzle. Even if the spray amount is 10 or 20 times the set value in a situation like this, it will be 1/lO
There was a problem in that situations often occurred where it was not possible to detect them even at 1/20.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems, and in order to enable accurate control of the spray amount of easily foamable liquid, the amount is measured by weight change, and measurement errors due to air bubbles are introduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide a spray amount measuring method and device that can avoid the occurrence of.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the method of the present invention is a method of measuring the spray weight when spraying a foamable liquid, in which the foamable liquid is contained in a container, and the container is placed on an electronic weighing scale. The amount of decrease in the indicated value of the quantum platform balance is the decrease in the foamable liquid in the container by sending and spraying the foamable liquid from the container to the outside through a flexible pipe. It is characterized by being regarded as

Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention includes a container containing a foamable liquid therein, and a delivery pipe connected to the container at one end and connected to a pipe leading to a spray nozzle at the other end, and the container is connected to an electronic weighing scale. The present invention is characterized in that the delivery tube is made of a flexible material.

[Effect]

In the method of the present invention, the desired amount of spray can be obtained by stopping the spray when the set reduction amount is reached.

In the device of the present invention, a foamable liquid is stored in a container, and as the foamable liquid is sent out from the container placed on an electronic platform scale during a spray operation, the decrease in the foaming liquid causes a decrease in the indicated value of the electronic platform scale. It can be seen as a quantity.

In addition, the flexible tube that sends the easily foamable liquid from the container to the outside has the function of isolating the container containing the easily foamable liquid from an external fixed support and allowing its weight to be supported only by the electronic platform scale. do.

Furthermore, electronic platform scales perform weighing while keeping the height of the weighing surface constant regardless of the load.

〔Example〕

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, an example of the case where this invention is applied and implemented to an aseptic filling packaging machine is demonstrated based on drawing.

Figure 1 is a piping system diagram of hydrogen peroxide solution in the packaging machine, Figure 2 is a side view schematically showing the overall configuration of the packaging machine, Figure 3 is a detailed view of the FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a pre-cup type container as a packaging container.

As shown in FIG. 2, this aseptic filling and packaging machine is equipped with a chamber 1, and the inside of the chamber 1 is passed through a sterilization filter 4 on a floor 2, and an air outlet 5. 6. 7
It is filled with sterile air blown from. In this chamber 1, the chamber 1 is supplied from the cup supply section 27.
The cup B supplied into the interior is sterilized in the cup sterilizing section 28, the sterilized cup B (see FIG. 4) is filled with contents in the filling section 8, and the lid material C is sterilized in the lid material supplying section 9. is supplied, the lid material C is sealed against the cup B in the lid material sealing part 1O, the lid material C is trimmed in the lid material punching part 11, and the final product is delivered to the chamber from the cup discharge part 29. 1 is discharged outside. Note that the cup supply section 2
7 is equipped with a feeding mechanism for taking the lowermost cup B stacked in the stacking holding frame 30 and placing it on a conveyor 31, and the conveyor 31 is configured to support and convey the upper edge flange of the cup B. In addition, the cup discharge section 29 pushes up the cup B from below with the cup push-up rod 32, and pushes up the cup B onto the cup discharge plate 3.
3 to push the chamber 1 outward, and is equipped with a discharge mechanism that pushes the preceding cup B out of the chamber 1 and discharges it.

While the cups B are being transported by the conveyor 31, the inner and outer surfaces of the cups B are sterilized by the sterilizing liquid sprayed from the cup sterilizing liquid supply nozzles provided above and below the conveyor transport surface in the cup sterilizing section 28 for each cup B. be done.

This chamber 1 contains chamber 1 as a foaming liquid.
It is equipped with three spray nozzles 12, 13, and 14 that spray hydrogen peroxide solution to sterilize the interior of the room.After spraying hydrogen peroxide solution from these spray nozzles, blower 2 blows the heater 3 and the The inside of the chamber 1 is dried and sterilized by sterile air sent through the germ filter 4.

As shown in FIG. 3, the hydrogen peroxide solution for sterilizing the inside of the chamber 1 is placed in a pressurized tank 15 as a container for accommodating it, and the pressurized tank 15 is placed on an electronic bench scale 16 and also on an electronic bench scale 16. is placed on a vibration isolating table 17. Hydrogen peroxide water is supplied to the pressurized tank 15 by opening the lid 26, and the hydrogen peroxide water pipe 18 as a delivery pipe from the pressurized tank 15 and the air supply pipe I9 to the pressurized tank 15 are This is done using a fluororesin tube that is loosened and fixed to a support so as not to affect the measured values of the electronic platform scale 16. Further, the periphery of the pressurized tank 15 is covered with a cover 20.

As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic platform scale 16 is connected to the data processing device 2.
1, and the data processing device 21 is connected to the sequencer 22 of the filling machine.If you set a numerical value in advance, when that numerical value is sprayed, the electromagnetic at the end of the hydrogen peroxide water pipe 18 will be automatically activated. The supply of hydrogen peroxide solution can be stopped by closing the valves 23, 24 and 25. The operation of stopping the spray can also be done manually, and in that case, it is also possible to manually stop the spray of each spray nozzle 12, 13, 14 while checking the numerical values on the data processing device 21.

In this example, an electronic platform scale 1 with a maximum weighing capacity of 60 kg and a sensitivity of 1 g is used.
When a manual hydrogen peroxide spray test was performed using 6, the measured spray amount was ±1g for a measured spray amount of 200g.
A range of spray volumes was obtained. Also, for automatic spray test, three spray nozzles 12.13.14
Depending on the distribution of each spray amount, the set spray amount 2
A spray amount in the range of ±2 g relative to 00 g was obtained.

With conventional aseptic filling and packaging machines, when the filling interval opens up, hydrogen peroxide decomposes in the piping and generates oxygen, leaving the piping almost empty. It often takes a considerable amount of time for the hydrogen peroxide solution to be sprayed from the spray nozzle in the position, and in extreme cases, the spray setting time 3
There were cases where the spray was only sprayed for about 10 seconds within 0 seconds.

In the aseptic filling and packaging machine implementing the present invention, if the total amount of hydrogen peroxide to be sprayed and the amount of hydrogen peroxide to fill the empty hydrogen peroxide pipe 18 is set in advance, the predetermined amount can be ensured. A large amount of spray is applied.

In addition, spray nozzles located higher and further away than the tank can be sprayed individually, and other spray nozzles can be sprayed all at once. It is possible to eliminate the difference in spray amount due to the difference in the amount of spray.

In this way, according to this method, the amount of hydrogen peroxide sprayed can be determined reliably by changes in the weighed weight, which is different from the conventional method of controlling only the time of hydrogen peroxide spray inside the chamber in an aseptic filling machine. In contrast, it is possible to not only prevent wasteful consumption of hydrogen peroxide solution, but also to prevent sterilization failure due to insufficient spraying.

Although the present invention has been described in detail based on one embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be embodied in various forms within the scope of the claims. The application is not limited to packaging machines, the type of liquid to be sprayed is not specific to hydrogen peroxide, and there are also restrictions on the material of the delivery pipe and the number of spray nozzles. It can be selected as appropriate.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the method of the present invention, by measuring the weight of the spray liquid, the weight of the gas can be ignored, making it possible to measure the amount of spray without being adversely affected by air bubbles, unlike when using conventional flowmeters. becomes.

In addition, with normal weighing methods, the height of the weighing surface rises and falls due to changes in load, so the weighed value is affected by the rigidity of the piping that connects the container containing the spray liquid and external equipment, resulting in errors. However, according to the device of the present invention, the weighing surface of the electronic bench scale is always constant regardless of the presence or absence of a load, and the above-mentioned piping is made of a soft material and connected to external equipment. Therefore, the performance of the electronic platform scale can be effectively demonstrated.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an example of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention.
The figure is a piping system diagram of hydrogen peroxide in the aseptic filling and packaging machine, and Figure 2 is a side view schematically showing the overall configuration of the packaging machine.
FIG. 3 is a detailed view of the section ``■'' in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a pre-cup type container as a packaging container.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a method of measuring the spray amount when spraying a foamable liquid, the foamable liquid is contained in a container, the container is placed on an electronic weighing scale, and the above-mentioned foaming liquid is placed outside from the container. An easily foamable liquid, characterized in that a decrease in the easily foamable liquid in the container by sending and spraying the easily foamable liquid through a flexible pipe is regarded as a decrease in the indicated value of the electronic platform scale. How to measure the amount of spray. (2) A container containing a foamable liquid therein, and a delivery pipe connected to the container at one end and connected to piping leading to a spray nozzle at the other end, and the container is placed on an electronic weighing scale. A spray amount measuring device for an easily foamable liquid, characterized in that the delivery pipe is made of a flexible material.