JPH0451411B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (1) Purpose of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention is used in the technical field of automatic filling and packaging devices that fill bags with contents, and in particular, when bags are fed intermittently. The present invention relates to an automatic filling and packaging apparatus having a bag receiving section, an opening section, a filling section, a degassing/temporary sealing section, a final sealing section, and a carrying out section at each position.

(Prior Art) This type of device is widely used for filling and packaging various contents. However, such conventional devices are intended for bags having a bag opening on one side. In recent years, aseptic bags have come into use that are completely sealed around the entire periphery during bag manufacturing, making the inside completely sterile, and that are prepared by cutting one side of the bag just before filling and packaging to create a bag opening. It's been getting worse. Since the conventional filling and packaging apparatus described above cannot handle such sterile bags, the above-mentioned cutting has been performed by a separate apparatus.

For example, if the all-around sealed bag has already been separated one by one, several of these bags are stacked one on top of the other and one side is manually opened using a cutter or knife cutting device to form a bag opening. In addition, in the case of a raw fabric in which the above-mentioned all-around sealed bags are formed continuously through perforations, after separating each bag manually at the perforations, stack several of these bags and open the above-mentioned bags. was working.

Furthermore, in this conventional device, the cut bags are filled in the following manner, which causes other inconveniences.

That is, the bag opening is enlarged to a sufficient extent for filling by slightly expanding the tight bag opening of the bag using an appropriate means, such as a suction cup, and inserting a pair of opening pieces into the bag through the opening and moving them apart. In this state, the bag is brought to the filling section where the contents are filled, and then the bag is evacuated and the opening is sealed to complete the filling and packaging process.

However, in the above-mentioned device, the opening of the bag must be expanded sufficiently for filling during the filling process, so the opening piece remains inserted into the bag. Therefore, depending on the type of content to be filled, the content may adhere to the opening through the opening piece, making it impossible to maintain sterility, reducing sealing performance, and impairing the appearance. I was used to it.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention solves the problems of the conventional apparatus described above, can handle bags whose periphery is sealed, especially sterile bags, and furthermore, the present invention solves the problems of the conventional apparatus described above. To provide an automatic filling and packaging device that does not stain the mouth.

(2) Structure of the invention (means for solving the problems) The present invention is structured as follows in order to solve the above problems.

The apparatus of the present invention consists of a filling device that fills and packages contents into bags from the bag opening, and a bag feeding device that supplies bags one by one to the filling device.

The bag feeding device has a separating section that separates the original fabric, in which bags sealed around the entire circumference are continuously formed by perforations, one bag at a time at the perforations. The mechanism of the separating section is not particularly limited, but for example, a continuous bag drawn from the original fabric may be fed by a feed roller with a high rotational speed arranged at the front and a feed roller with a slow rotation speed arranged behind it. If the bags are sent out using a device, the bags can be separated one by one at the perforations due to the speed difference between the feed rollers.

The filling device starts with a bag receiving section that receives bags one by one adjacent to the separating section, and sequentially includes a cutting section, an opening section, a filling section, and a sealing section at each position where the bags are intermittently delivered. Each part of the unloading section is arranged. The filling device is provided with at least as many bag holding mechanisms as the number of bag holding mechanisms corresponding to each of the above-mentioned sections, and each bag holding mechanism is capable of intermittently stopping at each of the above-mentioned sections and moving in circulation. Each of the above parts is held by the bag holding mechanism in the bag receiving section, for example, when a suspended bag moves intermittently with the movement of the bag holding mechanism and reaches each of the above parts. It's starting to work now.

The cutting section includes a cutting member that cuts off one side of a bag that is sealed around the entire periphery to form a bag opening.

The widening section, filling section, sealing section, and unloading section of the conventional device may be used as they are.

Furthermore, in order to avoid the contents from adhering to the expanding piece of the expanding part during filling, the expanding part has an opening that opens the bag by adhering to the outer surface of the bag in the vicinity of the edge to be cut. The bag has a suction cup, a pair of mouth expansion pieces that enter the bag from the opening and move apart to expand the opening, and a mouth expansion maintenance suction cup that maintains the mouth expansion state by adhering to the outer surface of the bag. More preferably, the widening piece is configured to be removed from the bag before the filling process.

(Function) In the present invention as described above, the continuous bag, which is pulled out from the original fabric and whose entire periphery is sealed and which is continuously formed with perforations, is transferred to the separating section of the bag feeding device by two feeding rollers. The paper is separated one by one by the difference in speed and delivered to the filling device.

In the filling device, the single bag is held by the bag receiving section, brought to the cutting section in that state, and one side is cut by the cutting member to form the bag opening. Thereafter, the bag is widened in the widening section, filled with contents in the filling section, and then the bag opening is sealed in the sealing section, and then the bag is carried out as a product from the carrying out section.

In this case, when the opening opening part takes the above-mentioned preferred form, in the opening expanding step, the opening suction cup first opens the bag opening in a tight state, and a pair of opening opening pieces are inserted into the opening. The mouth of the bag is widened by moving away, and then the mouth expansion maintaining suction cup is used to maintain the mouth expansion state, and the mouth expansion piece is pulled out from the bag, and then the bag that can be expanded is brought to the filling section. In this way, the contents do not adhere to the expansion piece during filling, unlike in the conventional case.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the general configuration of this embodiment.

As seen in the figure, the automatic filling and packaging apparatus of this embodiment consists of a bag feeding device and a filling device.

The bag feeding device moves the roll material 1 supported on the material support shaft 1', the ultraviolet sterilizer 7, the separation section 10, and the bag positioning section 15 in the direction X in which the material is pulled out.
We are gradually preparing for this.

The original film 1 is formed into a tube film shape under sterile conditions, flattened, and then wound into a roll shape, so both sides 1a and 1b are folded parts and open. Of course, there is no
Seals of a constant width are applied at appropriate intervals, and a perforation 3 is provided at the center of the sealed portion 2 of a constant width, so that a bag 5 whose entire circumference is sealed is continuously strung. It has a form.

An ultraviolet sterilizer 7 is disposed adjacent to the original fabric 1 and at a forward position in the X direction. The ultraviolet sterilizer 7
, which sterilizes the continuous bags pulled out from the original fabric 1 by irradiating them with ultraviolet rays on their outer surfaces as they pass through, has passage ports 8 for the continuous bags at the front and rear, and a germicidal lamp that emits ultraviolet rays inside. (not shown).

At a front position of the ultraviolet sterilizer 7, a separating section 10 is provided which is made up of a pair of feed rollers 10A and 10B located at the front and rear. feed roller 10
Both A and 10B consist of pinch rollers on the top and bottom,
The front feed roller 10A is the rear feed roller 10.
It rotates a little faster than B (see Figure 2),
Due to this speed difference, the continuous bags are separated at the perforations 3 to form a single bag 5'.

A bag positioning section 15 is provided adjacent to the exit side of the front feed roller 10A. As shown in FIG. 3, the bag positioning section 15 has a receiving plate 16 whose one side faces the exit of the front feed roller 10A and is rotatable up and down about the one side. On one side, there is a feed roller 1 that contacts the receiving plate 16 when the receiving plate 16 is in the upper position.
7 and 17 are provided. An X-direction regulating member 18 for regulating the forward position of the bag 5' in the X direction is attached to the other side of the receiving plate 16, and at a position close to the side edge of the receiving plate 16 in the Y direction, bag 5'
A Y-direction regulating member 19 that regulates the forward position of the Y-direction.
is provided. Further, the receiving plate 16 is provided with a window 19', and directly below the window 19',
When the receiving plate 16 is in the upper position, the roller is recessed from the window 19' (see FIG. 3A), and is located at a position where it projects slightly above the window 19' when the receiving plate 16 rotates downward. 17' (see Figure 3B).

The filling device includes a rotary part (not shown) that rotates intermittently around O in FIG.
(FIG. 4), it has an enlarged opening part 50, a filling part 60, a degassing/temporary sealing part 70, a main sealing part 80, and an unloading part 90. The H position is an empty position.

The rotary section is similar to that in a conventional rotary type filling and packaging device, and although its mechanism is not shown, it has bag holding mechanisms with bag opening maintaining suction cups at eight locations on the circumference. At each position G, the bag is moved intermittently while holding the bag with the bag mouth facing upward.

At position A, a bag receiving section 20 is arranged.
The bag receiving section 20 may be the same as the conventional one, and as shown in FIG. We are prepared.

At position B, a cutting section 30 is arranged, as shown in detail in FIG. 4A.

The cutting section 30 includes a pair of bag holding members 31 and 32 and a blade 33.

One bag presser 31 is disposed outside the path of the bag 5', and is adapted to reciprocate with one bag presser 32 so as to be able to move toward and away from each other. Its shape has a groove portion 34 that is open on the outer surface and extends in the longitudinal direction for escape of the blade body 33, and
Further, the upper portion of the outer surface is provided with a protruding stepped portion 35 that protrudes and extends in the same direction. A plurality of vacuum holes 36 are provided in the upper portion of the groove portion 34 on the outer surface, and are open to the outer surface. A semicircular protrusion 37 is formed in the lower part of the groove part 34 on the outer surface at the center position in the longitudinal direction.

The other bag holder 32 is located inside the path of the bag 5', and is adapted to reciprocate toward and away from the one bag holder 31. The other bag holder 32 is provided with a groove 38 on the inner surface thereof, which has a length that spans almost the entire length of the groove 34 of the one bag holder 31, and a recessed step corresponding to the convex step 35 in the upper part. 39, and a recess 40 for receiving the protrusion 37 is formed at the lower center position.

Furthermore, at the rear position of the other bag presser 32,
The blade 33 passes through the groove 38 of the other bag holder 32 and enters the groove 34 of one bag holder 31.
is installed. A serrated blade is formed at the tip edge of the blade body 33.

Further, a receiving tray 41 is provided below one of the bag holders 31 to receive the chips when the bag 5' is cut and slide them downward.

Next, an enlarged opening 50 is provided at position C. The widening portion 50 includes an opening suction cup 51 and a widening piece 52, as shown in FIG. 5A.

The opening suction cups 51 are disposed in pairs 51a and 51b facing both sides of the bag 5' at a central position near the bag opening. Two opening suction cups 51a on one side are provided adjacent to each other in the horizontal direction, and two opening suction cups 51b on the other side are provided adjacent to each other in the vertical direction, and both are arranged at intersecting positions on the bag surface. There is. Both can reciprocate in a direction perpendicular to the bag surface, and after moving to a position where they bite into each other as shown in Figure 5B, they retreat to a position where the bag opening is opened as shown in Figure 5A. It's summery. This retraction distance is sufficient to open the bag mouth to such an extent that the next pair of proximate widening pieces can be inserted into the bag mouth.

The mouth widening piece 52 is a tongue piece 52 extending downward from the arm body.
a and 52b, both tongue pieces move up and down from a position above the bag opening to enable insertion and removal into the bag, and when entering the bag opening, they are separated from each other by a predetermined opening distance in a direction perpendicular to the bag surface. It is possible to move in the (opposite) direction.

Furthermore, at a side position of the bag 5' slightly below the bag opening, there is an opening maintaining suction cup 53 supported by the bag holding mechanism.
is provided. The opening maintaining suction cup 53 is composed of a pair of suction cups 53a and 53b facing each other on both sides of the bag, similar to the opening suction cup 51 described above.
The positions of a and 53b are set to maintain the above-mentioned expanded state.

Note that the hatched portions indicated by two-dot chain lines directly below the opening maintaining suction cups 53a and 53b are portions held by a bag holding mechanism (not shown).

At position D, a filling section 60 having a nozzle 61 for filling the contents from above toward the mouth of the bag is disposed, and at positions E, F, and G, a degassing/temporary sealing section 70 and a main sealing section are disposed in sequence. 80, and finally, at position G, a discharge section 90 with a conveyor 101 is arranged.

Note that the respective parts at the positions D to G may be the same as those of the conventional device, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.
All of the above parts are located in a clean room.

Next, the operation of this embodiment as described above will be explained step by step.

First, a tube film is taken out from the roll material 1 and sent to the ultraviolet sterilizer 7. Since the inner surface of the tube film has already been sterilized at the time of molding, all of the inner and outer surfaces are sterilized by passing through the ultraviolet sterilizer 7.

The tube film then enters the separating section 10.
In the separation section 10, the front feed roller 10A rotates faster than the rear feed roller 10B, so the tube film is separated into one bag 5' at the perforation 3 due to this speed difference.

The single bag 5' is sent to the bag positioning section 15. Initially, the bag positioning portion 15 has its receiving plate 16 in a horizontal position and is in contact with the feed roller 17 (see FIG. 3A). Therefore, the bag is sent forward in the X direction by the feed roller 17. Then, the receiving plate 16 rotates downward and tilts as shown in FIG. 3B.

When the receiving plate 16 is tilted, the bag 5' reaches the X direction regulating member 18 due to the feed of the feed roller 17 and its own weight, and the bag 5' reaches the X direction regulating member 18, and the bag 5'
Roller 1 slightly protrudes from 9'
7' until it hits the Y direction regulating member 19.
direction and thus brought into position in both the X and Y directions.

Next, the positioned bag 5' is sucked by a suction cup 22 in the bag receiving section 20, and the arm 21 rotates upward to be held by a bag holding mechanism (not shown). Then, the rotary mechanism rotates intermittently, and the bags suspended by the bag holding mechanism sequentially stop at positions B to H.

When the bag 5' comes to the cutting part 30 at position B, the other bag presser 32 and one bag presser 31 come into contact with each other and press the upper edge of the pressed bag 5'. Then, vacuum pressure acts on the vacuum hole 36 and the bag 5'
Aspirate the upper edge of. Next, the blade 33 acts, passes through the slot 38 of the other bag holder 32, pierces the bag 5', and breaks the slot 34 of the one bag holder 31.
Go inside. At this point, the bag 5' is completely cut (see Figures 4B and C). At this time, wrinkles are generated at the bag opening by the action of the protrusion 37 and the recess 40. Then, air flows into the wrinkled portion, making it easier to open the bag mouth (see FIG. 4A), which will be described later. After that, the other bag presser 32 and the blade 3 are removed.
3 retreats to the original position. At this time, the upper edge portion of the bag as the cut waste is held by the vacuum pressure of the vacuum hole 36 and is not attached to the other bag holder 32. When the other bag presser 32 and the blade body 33 are completely retracted, the vacuum pressure is released. Then, the upper edge portion of the waste bag separated by the convex step portion 35 and the concave step portion 36 easily separates from one of the bag holders 31, and the receiving tray 41
fall to.

Thus, the bag with the bag opening at the top edge is at position B.
is brought to the enlarged part of the mouth.

In the case of the enlarged mouth part 50, first, the opening suction cup 51 opens the bag mouth a little. That is, one opening suction cup 51a and the other opening suction cup 51b move to a position where they bite into the bag 5' so as to pinch the bag 5'. Therefore, more wrinkles occur at the bag opening, and air flows in from there (No. 5).
(See Figure B). And the opening suction cups 51a, 51
b is moved back and the bag opening is easily opened. next,
This opening has a pair of tongue pieces 52a,
52b enters downward, and then both tongue pieces retreat in a direction away from each other. Then, at the opening opening position, the opening maintaining suction cups 53a and 53b stick to the bag 5' to keep the bag in the opening opening state (see FIG. 5C),
Thereafter, the tongue pieces 52a and 52b of the mouth expanding piece move close to each other and are pulled out upward.

The bag whose opening has been expanded as described above is directly brought to the filling section 60 at position D and filled with the contents.

The bag 5' filled with the contents is then degassed at the degassing/temporary sealing section 70 at position E, and after being temporarily sealed to prevent air from entering the bag, it is moved to position F.
The product is sealed and completely packaged at the final sealing section 80 by heat welding, for example, and then brought to the carry-out section 90 at position G, where the bag holding mechanism is released and the packaging bag as a product is transferred to the conveyor 10.
1 and carried out.

(3) Effects of the Invention As described above, the automatic filling and packaging apparatus according to the present invention converts bags whose periphery is sealed and which are continuously formed as a raw material into a single bag in a series of processes. It is now possible to separate the bag and cut one side of it to create a bag opening just before the filling process.
Using continuous sealed bags, the filling and packaging work can be made more efficient and the equipment can be simplified, and since the bag is not opened until immediately before filling, complete sterility can be maintained.

Furthermore, when expanding the opening, if the opening piece is removed from the bag before the filling process, the contents will not stick to the opening of the bag, ensuring sterility, preventing deterioration of sealing performance, and damaging the appearance. There will be no more.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a separating section of the device shown in FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 shows a schematic perspective view of the bag positioning section of the device shown in FIG. Figure 5 shows a schematic perspective view of the cut section of the device; Figure B is a cross section taken along line B-B in Figure A, Figure C is a cross section taken along CC in Figure A, and Figure 5A is an enlarged view of the device shown in Figure 1. Fig. B is a partial perspective view showing a state in which the opening suction cup is sucked into the bag at the bag opening in Fig. A;
Figure C is a partial vertical sectional view of Figure A. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Original fabric, 3... Perforation, 10... Separation part, 20... Bag receiving part, 30... Cutting part, 50...
... widening part, 51 ... opening sucker, 52 ... widening piece,
53... Expansion maintaining suction cup, 60... Filling part, 70...
...Degassing/temporary sealing section, 80...Main sealing section, 90
...Unloading department.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Consists of a bag feeding device that supplies bags one by one, and a filling device that fills and packages the contents from the bag opening after receiving the bag, and the filling device is configured to hold the bag while the bag is being held. The bag holding mechanism includes at least a bag receiving section, an opening section, a filling section, a sealing section, and a carrying out section at each position held by the mechanism and intermittently fed to each position, and the bag holding mechanism includes at least one part of the filling device. The bag supply device is provided with a number corresponding to each part, and is set to move in circulation so as to stop intermittently at the position of each part. has a separation section that separates the original fabric formed into a bag one by one at the perforations, and when one of the bag holding mechanisms of the filling device reaches a predetermined receiving position, the separated bags are separated from the bag holding mechanism. An automatic filling and packaging device that can be delivered to and from the filling device, and that a cutting portion for cutting one side of the bag is provided between the bag receiving portion and the opening portion of the filling device. . 2. The opening opening part includes an opening suction cup that opens the bag by adhering to the outer surface of the bag near the edge to be cut, a pair of opening pieces that enter the bag from the opening and move apart to widen the opening; and a mouth expansion maintaining suction cup that maintains the mouth expansion state by adsorption to the outer surface of the bag, and the pair of mouth expansion pieces are extracted from the bag before the filling process, as set forth in claim 1. automatic filling and packaging equipment.