JPH05170291A - Method and device for discharging liquid out of bottle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To discharge quickly liquid filled in a bottle and to minimize the size of a liquid discharging device by a method wherein the bottle is put upside- down, and a nozzle at a tip end of a ventilation pipe is inserted into a space at a bottom part to introduce atmosphere into the bottom space, whereby the pressure in the bottom space is increased to push down a liquid level. CONSTITUTION:A bottle 25 poured with sterilized liquid at a preceding step is supplied, first, from a feedind screw 26 to a star wheel 27 at the same pitch of a pocket 28 of the star wheel 27 and transferred to a bottle sandwiching means of a rotator 2. Next, the bottle 25, in accompany with the rotation of the rotor 2, is reversed by 180 deg. in a zone (a) to stand upside-down. Further within another zone (b), an air pipe 6 is raised by a cam 10, so that a nozzle 5 goes into the bottle 25. Then sterilized air is jetted into the bottle 25 through pipes 16,13 and 12 and a distributing head 14. At this time, the sterilized air jetted into the sterilized liquid becomes bubbles, which rise up into the bottom space of the bottle 25 and increase the pressure in the bottom space. Thereby, a liquid level is pushed down, and the liquid can be discharged efficiently.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for draining a bottle, and more particularly to a method for draining a sterilizing solution filled in a bottle in an aseptic filling system in a short time. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to discharge a liquid filled in a bottle, the bottle is inverted and turned upside down, so that it is naturally discharged by gravity. Therefore, there is a problem that the discharge of the liquid is hindered and the discharge speed is slow. In particular, as the diameter becomes smaller, the discharge time becomes significantly longer. For example, turn the bottle upside down and
It takes only 7.2 seconds to drain 00 ml of water with a 38 mm caliber bottle, but 2 with a 28 mm caliber bottle.
It took 5.4 seconds. As a sterilization method of the container in the aseptic filling system, the present inventors firstly filled the sterilizing liquid after washing the outer surface of the container and contacting the inner surface of the container with the sterilizing liquid, and after a certain time, during transport of the container by the turret. A container sterilization method has been proposed in which the container is turned over to remove the sterilizing liquid and then washed with sterile water (Japanese Patent Application No. 129200/1990). In the above invention, the sterilizing solution filled in the full-filled state is discharged by simply inverting the container. Therefore, in the case of a bottle with a small bottle diameter of 28 mm, it takes a long time for the sterilizing liquid to be discharged, so in order to gain that time, the drainage device must be larger than when handling a 38 mm diameter bottle. There was a problem I had to make.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention was devised in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and can discharge the liquid filled in the container in a short time, and can reduce the size of the drainage device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a device for draining a bottle that can be drained.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a method of draining a bottle of the present invention is to invert the bottle and to ventilate a vent pipe whose base end is open to the atmosphere from the mouth of the bottle into the bottle. The problem was solved by adopting the technical means characterized in that the tip nozzle of the pipe was inserted so as to be located in the bottle bottom space and the atmosphere was introduced into the bottle bottom space. Then, the drainage device for carrying out the drainage method is a rotating body in which bottle grasping devices for inverting and grasping a bottle are arranged at equal pitches, and are arranged on the outer periphery of the rotating body in correspondence with the bottle grasping device. , An air pipe whose base end is opened to the outside and a tip nozzle is upside down so that it can be inserted into the bottom space of the bottle gripped while being inverted by the bottle gripping device, and a cam for driving the air pipe up and down. It has a configuration characterized by being provided.

A method of discharging the liquid filled in the bottle, the bottle is inverted, and a nozzle at the tip of an air pipe whose base end communicates with an air supply source is inserted from the mouth of the bottle into the bottle. However, it is desirable to adopt a method of supplying air to the bottle to pressurize the bottom space in the bottle because the draining time can be further shortened. Then, the drainage device for carrying out the method is a rotary body in which bottle gripping devices for inverting and gripping a bottle are arranged at an equal pitch, and are arranged on the outer periphery of the rotary body corresponding to the bottle gripping device. An end is connected to an air supply source, and an air pipe is held up and down so that the tip nozzle can be inserted into a bottle held upside down by the bottle holding device, and a cam for driving the air pipe upward. It has a configuration characterized in that.

[0006]

[Function] By inserting the air pipe whose base end is open to the atmosphere so that the nozzle at the tip is located in the bottom space of the bottle which is upside down with the internal solution, the bottom space of the bottle becomes the same pressure as the atmosphere. Therefore, the liquid in the bottle will smoothly flow out due to its gravity. Also, by inserting an air pipe into the inverted bottle and ejecting air, the air supplied into the liquid reaches the bottom space,
The bottom space becomes pressurized and acts to push out the liquid,
The drainage time can be shortened. The device for that is to receive the bottle filled with liquid, flip the bottle upside down while the rotating body rotates, and when the reversal is completed, the air pipe rises by the cam and the tip nozzle part is put inside the bottle. The liquid is promoted by being inserted and bringing the space at the bottom of the bottle into the atmospheric pressure or the pressurized state via the air pipe.

[0007]

Embodiments of the drainage device of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The drainage device of the present embodiment is a sterile liquid drainage device for draining the sterile liquid from a bottle filled with the sterile liquid in the aseptic filling system, in which 1 is a main body base frame. The rotary body 2 is supported by the hollow rotary shaft 3 on the base frame. A bottle gripping device 4 for receiving, reversing and supporting the bottle 25 filled with the sterilizing liquid conveyed from the previous step is arranged on the outer peripheral portion of the rotating body 2 at a predetermined pitch. An air pipe 6 for inserting a nozzle 5 at its tip into the mouth of a bottle held in an inverted state in the bottle gripping device and injecting sterile air into the bottle is provided corresponding to the bottle gripping device. As shown in FIG. 1, the air pipe 6 is movably supported by a bearing 8 on the outer peripheral portion of the rotating body 2 so that its end portion bends and moves vertically with respect to the bottle holding device. It is plumbed. A cam follower 7 of a cylindrical cam 10 fixed on the main body base frame 1 is provided at the lower end of the air pipe 6, and the air pipe moves up and down according to the height of the cam surface by rotating the rotating body. Then, the nozzle 5 is designed to move in and out of the bottle.

The upper end of the air pipe 6 is connected to a flexible hose 12 via an opening / closing valve 11, and the base end of the flexible hose penetrates the core portion of the hollow rotary shaft 3 to rotate with the hollow rotary shaft 3. It is connected to a distribution header 14 provided at the top of the main 13. The lower end of the air main pipe 13 is connected to a sterile air supply source by a sterile air supply pipe 16 via a steam barrier type rotary joint 15. Reference numeral 20 denotes a drive device for rotationally driving the hollow rotary shaft 3, and a gear transmission mechanism 21 transmits a rotational force to the hollow rotary shaft 3. Reference numeral 22 denotes a sterilized drainage gutter provided on the base frame. The sterilized liquid discharged from the bottle is received by the gutter 22 and is collected and stored in the sterilized liquid tank 24 from the discharge pipe 23.

The sterilizing liquid draining device of this embodiment is constructed as described above and operates as follows. The bottle 25 filled with the sterilizing liquid in the previous step is supplied to the star wheel 27 by being aligned with the pocket 28 of the star wheel 27 at an equal pitch by the feed screw 26, and then supplied from the star wheel to the bottle gripping device 4 of the rotating body 2. Delivered. Rotating body 2
The bottle 25 supplied to the container is rotated as shown in FIG.
In the section a, the reversing mechanism reverses 180 ° and becomes an inverted state. Although the reversing mechanism is not shown, a conventional reversing mechanism can be adopted as appropriate. For example, only the mouth of the container can be held and turned upside down. By reversing while supporting by the support member, it is possible to stably invert. When the bottle is completely inverted and reaches the position b, the air pipe 6 is gradually raised by the cam and the nozzle 5 enters the bottle through the bottle mouth. Opening valve 11 when nozzle 5 enters the bottle
Opens, and aseptic air is injected into the bottle, and the aseptic air injected into the sterilizing liquid becomes bubbles and rises to the space at the bottom of the bottle to pressurize the space at the bottom of the bottle (section 2c). As a result, the liquid surface is pushed down, and the liquid is discharged quickly. When the liquid discharge is completed or almost completed, the nozzle 5
It descends by the cam 10 and comes out of the bottle 25 (section d). Next, in the section e, the bottle 25 is turned over again and returned to the upright state, and is transferred to the star wheel 29 to be conveyed to the conveyor 3
0 transfers to the next washing step with sterile water. Of course, the nozzle can be inserted into the bottle so that the tip reaches the space at the bottom of the bottle, but even if the nozzle is not inserted so as to reach the space, if the nozzle is in the liquid, the air becomes bubbles. Since it reaches the upper space, in this embodiment, the tip of the nozzle is slightly inserted into the bottle mouth in order to shorten the time for the nozzle to move in and out of the bottle.

In the apparatus of the above-mentioned embodiment, the following experiment was conducted in order to confirm the effect of the present invention. The amount of sterilized liquid of 1500 ml that was fully poured into a bottle having a bottle diameter of 28 mm was changed by a nozzle having an outer diameter of 8 mm, and the injection amount of sterilizing air was changed to measure the drainage time in each case. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Table 1]

As is clear from the table, the drainage time became much shorter as compared with the conventional method as the air injection amount increased, and the effectiveness of this method was confirmed. In particular, as is clear from the graph in Fig. 3, the drainage time was shortened to 13.1 seconds even if a small amount of air of 67 ml / sec was supplied, compared to 25.4 seconds when air was not supplied. It is reduced to about half, and then the drainage time is shortened to a hyperbolic type as the air injection amount increases, and when the air injection amount is 889 ml / sec,
It is 3.1 seconds, which is 1/8 or less compared to the case of no injection. In addition, the drainage time from the bottle is affected not only by the bottle diameter, but also by the change in the bottle outlet area due to the air pipe outer diameter inserted into the bottle mouth. Therefore, when the air pipe outer diameter is 8 mm, 10 mm, or 12 mm The effect on the drainage time due to the difference in the outer diameter of the air pipe was investigated by changing the injection amount. The results are shown in Table 2.

[Table 2]

As a result, as the outer diameter of the air pipe becomes smaller and the air injection amount per unit time increases, the drainage time tends to become shorter. This is
On the contrary, the drainage time can be arbitrarily set by using the air injection amount and the outer diameter of the air pipe as parameters. Now, when it is desired to finish the drainage time from the bottle in 4 seconds, what amount of the air injection amount should be set was investigated using the air pipe outer diameter as a parameter. The results are shown in Table 3.

[Table 3]

That is, as can be seen from the table, it is possible to easily discharge 1500 ml of sterilizing liquid from a bottle having a diameter of 28 mm in 4 seconds by controlling the amount of air at each air pipe outer diameter. Is shown. The results of Tables 1 to 3 above are summarized and the relationship between the air injection amount and the drainage time of 1500 ml of water is shown in FIG. The above examples are examples in the case of injecting sterile air into the bottle to pressurize the inside of the bottle, but as another method of shortening the drainage time, when the bottle is inverted and the liquid is discharged. In view of the fact that the space formed at the bottom of the bottle becomes a negative pressure and hinders the discharge of the liquid, by making the space equal to the atmospheric pressure, it is possible to remove the factor that hinders the discharge of the liquid and accelerate the discharge of the liquid. It is possible.

In the present invention, in order to achieve that, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the nozzle 41 is inserted so that the nozzle tip of the tip of the air pipe 40 is located in the vicinity of the bottom of the bottle, that is, in the space in which the bottle is inverted and becomes the bottom in the bottle 25 in an inverted state. The base end of the air pipe 40 was opened to the atmosphere outside the bottle. As a result, the bottle bottom space has the same pressure as the atmosphere, and the liquid in the bottle smoothly flows out due to its gravity. An apparatus for achieving the method is the apparatus in the above embodiment,
It is not shown because it can be easily achieved by omitting the structure from the aseptic air supply source for supplying aseptic air to the flexible hose, opening the upper end of the air pipe to the atmosphere, and increasing the stroke of the cam.

[0015]

[Table 4] Next, Table 4 shows the results of the examples of the above method. In this embodiment, the inner diameter × outer diameter is 5 mm × 8 mm (air pipe A), 7 mm ×
It shows the drainage time when 1500 ml of sterilizing liquid was discharged from a bottle having a bottle diameter of 28 mm using 10 mm (air pipe B) and 9 mm × 12 mm (air pipe C) air pipes. In the table, * indicates the case where the liquid was clogged in the air pipe and no air entered. As is clear from the table, by making the space formed at the bottom of the bottle atmospheric pressure, for example, in the case of the air pipe A, the liquid can be drained in an average of 5.50 seconds, and the bottle is simply inverted. The drainage time can be shortened in comparison with the case of 25.4 seconds. Since the bottom of the bottle should be at atmospheric pressure, the smaller the outer diameter of the air pipe is, the better in order to increase the outlet area of the bottle, but if it is small, the phenomenon that the liquid is clogged in the air pipe occurs as in the above embodiment. Therefore, it is desirable to use an air pipe having a small outer diameter that can secure an inner diameter such that such a phenomenon does not occur.
An air pipe with an outer diameter of about 7 mm x 10 mm is most desirable.

[0016]

The present invention has the following special effects. According to the configurations of claims 1 and 2, since the bottle bottom space has the same pressure as the atmosphere, the liquid in the bottle can smoothly flow out due to its gravity, and the drainage time is much shorter than the conventional one. Could be shortened to Further, according to the configurations of claims 3 and 4, the bottom space is brought into a pressurized state, has a function of pushing out the liquid, and the drainage time can be further shortened. Further, since the drainage is performed in a short time, the drainage device can be configured to be significantly smaller than the conventional drainage device. Especially, by adopting the sterilizing liquid discharge step in the aseptic filling system, the container sterilization work efficiency can be improved. It was possible to save space as well as to improve.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a bottle drainage device according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a bottle drainage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a bottle drainage device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the air injection amount and the drainage time.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Main body base frame 2 Rotating body 3 Hollow rotating shaft 4 Bottle gripping device 5, 41 Nozzle 6, 40 Air pipe 7 Cam follower 10 Cam 11 Open / close valve 13 Air main pipe 25 Bottle

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for discharging a liquid filled in a bottle, which comprises inverting a bottle and injecting a ventilation pipe from the mouth of the bottle into the bottle, the ventilation pipe of which the base end is open to the atmosphere. A method for draining liquid from a bottle, characterized in that a nozzle is inserted so as to be located in a bottle bottom space, and atmosphere is introduced into the bottle bottom space. 2. A rotating body in which bottle holding devices for inverting and holding a bottle are arranged at an equal pitch, the bottle holding device is arranged on the outer periphery of the rotating body so as to correspond to the bottle holding device, and the base end is opened to the outside air. It is characterized by comprising an air pipe movably held up and down so that the nozzle at the tip can be inserted into the bottom space of the bottle held upside down by the bottle holding device, and a cam for vertically moving the air pipe. Drainage device from bottle. 3. A method for discharging a liquid filled in a bottle, wherein the bottle is inverted, and a nozzle at the tip of an air pipe whose base end communicates with an air supply source is inserted from the mouth of the bottle into the bottle. Then, air is supplied to the bottle to pressurize the bottom space in the bottle to discharge liquid from the bottle. 4. A rotating body in which bottle gripping devices for inverting and gripping a bottle are arranged at equal pitches, the bottle gripping device is arranged on the outer periphery of the rotating body in correspondence with the bottle gripping device, and the base end is connected to an air supply source. A bottle characterized by comprising an air pipe movably held up and down so that the nozzle at the tip can be inserted into the bottle held upside down by the bottle holding device, and a cam for driving the air pipe upward. Drainage device from.