JPH06127656A - Equipment for transferring bottle to sterile room - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide bottle transferring equipment for positively sending bottles without fall in a sterile room even if adverse effect by wind blown outwardly from the sterile room is observed in sending tire bottles in the sterile room retained in positive pressure. CONSTITUTION:In a sterile room 1 provided with installation sections such as a bottle washer, a filling machine for filling fruit juice in bottles B, etc., its room pressure is retained at a positive pressure of about 2mmAq. Where, the bottles employ PET-made bottles. A sending-in path 6 for sending the bottles in the sterile room 1 comprises an endless conveyor 8 for mounting the bottles B, a pair of upper and lower slide bars abutted to one surfaces of the bottles B, and a screw type transferring machine 12 abutted to the other surfaces of the bottles B. The screw type transferring machine 12 has a pair of upper and lower transferring rods 14, 16. Spiral guide grooves are formed in the transferring rods 14, 16. The transferring rods 14, 16 are rotated by synchronizing with around its shaft line by means of a driving means not shown in the diagram.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bottle conveying device to a sterile room, and more particularly to a bottle conveying device to a sterile room in which a filling machine for filling a bottle of fruit juice or the like is installed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-138015, an automatic filling machine for filling a bottle with a liquid such as fruit juice is known, but this kind of filling machine prevents invasion of various bacteria. Therefore, it is usually installed in a sterile room,
In addition, a bottle is generally carried into a sterile room by a belt conveyor.

[0003]

By the way, since the interior pressure of the sterile room is maintained at a positive pressure to prevent the entry of contaminated air from the outside, the sterile room entrance or bottle. At the carry-in opening, air flows out from the sterile room to the outside, and the air is always blowing to the outside.

Therefore, there is a risk that the bottle in the process of being carried into the aseptic room may fall under the influence of the air blown from the aseptic room. This problem becomes significant when the bottle is a lightweight bottle made of synthetic resin and / or when the bottle is loaded at high speed. Of course, if the bottle is not smoothly carried into the sterile room, it will hinder the filling work and the like performed in the sterile room thereafter.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to accurately convey a bottle when it is carried into a sterile room where a positive pressure is maintained, without falling, even if it is affected by wind blown from the sterile room to the outside. An object of the present invention is to provide a bottle transfer device capable of loading a bottle into a sterile room.

[0006]

In order to achieve such a technical problem, according to the present invention, a bottle carry-in path extending across the inlet of a sterile room which is maintained at a positive pressure and extending inside and outside the sterile room. Is formed by a screw-type carrier, the screw-type carrier has a conveying rod that is provided with a spiral guide groove extending in the axial direction on the outer peripheral surface and rotates around the axis, and the conveying rod is The bottle transport path includes at least a first transport rod that is in contact with the side surface of the bottle that moves in an upright position and that is in contact with the upper side of the bottle, and a second transport rod that is in contact with the lower portion of the bottle. There is.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 is a sterile room, and the sterile room 1 is provided with an installation area 2 such as a washing machine for washing a bottle and a filling machine for filling a bottle with fruit juice. Aseptic air is constantly supplied and the room pressure is maintained at a positive pressure of about 2 mmAq. An inlet 4a is formed in a partition wall 4 that separates the sterile room 1 and the outside 3, and a bottle carry-in path 6 that extends inside and outside the sterile room 1 is provided at the entrance 4a. The bottle is carried into the sterile room 1 through the above. Here, the bottle B is made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), and its size is width 83.5 x 83.5 x height 30.5 mm (capacity: for 1.5 liters) or width 113.3 x 83.5 x height 30.5 mm. (Capacity: for 2 liters).

The bottle carrying-in path 6 constitutes the floor surface of the carrying path 6 and the endless conveyor 8 on which the standing bottle B is placed, and a pair of upper and lower slide bars 10 which come into contact with one side surface of the bottle B, 11 (see FIG. 4) and a screw-type carrier 12 that comes into contact with the other side surface of the bottle B. The screw-type carrier 12 has a pair of upper and lower carrier rods 14 and 16 extending along the carrier path 6, and the upper carrier rod 1
4 is disposed at a height position substantially the same as that of the upper slide bar 10. That is, the upper transport rod 14 is arranged at a position where it abuts on the upper portion of the bottle B. On the other hand,
The lower conveying rod 16 is arranged at a height position substantially the same as that of the lower slide bar 11. That is, the lower transport rod 16 is arranged at a position in contact with the lower portion of the bottle B. Since the transport rods 14 and 16 have the same configuration, the upper transport rod 14 will be described. The transport rod 14 has a tapered rear end 14a (see FIG. 2) and a front end (not shown). Further, a spiral guide groove 18 extending in the axial direction is formed on the outer peripheral surface. The guide groove 18 is formed on the rear end 14a of the rod 14.
To the tip, and the pitch P (see FIG. 3) is the same over the entire outer peripheral surface of the rod 14.

The two transport rods 14 and 16 are rotationally driven about their axes in synchronism by a driving means (not shown), and the transport speed of the bottle B by these rods 14 and 16 is the same as the transport speed of the endless conveyor 8. Is set to be By the way, the transport speed in this embodiment is about 30.
It is set to ~ 45 m / min. In the above configuration,
The wind blown from the sterile room 1 to the outside 3 through the inlet 4a was measured, and the wind speed was 2 to 3 m / sec. Even if such a wind is received, since the PET lightweight bottle B is transported by the pair of upper and lower transport rods 14 and 16, the PET light bottle B is brought into the sterile room 1 in a state where the bottle B is kept in a normal standing posture without inclining. It becomes possible to carry in the bottle B.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and includes the following modifications. (1) The pair of upper and lower transport rods 14 and 16 are arranged on one side of the bottle B, and the slide bars 10 and 11 are arranged on the other side of the bottle B.
Instead of 1, a pair of upper and lower transport rods may be provided and the bottle B may be sandwiched between the transport rods. Alternatively, on one side of the bottle B, a transport rod that contacts the upper portion of the bottle B and a slide bar that contacts the lower portion of the bottle B are arranged, and on the other side of the bottle B, a slide rod that contacts the upper portion of the bottle B. You may make it arrange | position a bar and the conveyance rod which contacts the lower part of the bottle B. (2) Although the floor surface of the bottle conveying path 6 is constituted by the endless conveyor 8, the floor surface of the conveying path 6 may be constituted by laying a resin having a small friction coefficient instead of the endless conveyor 8.

[0011]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, by the screw type carrier constituted by the first and second carrier rods, which come into contact with the upper part and the lower part of the bottle, respectively, Since the bottle is carried into the aseptic room, the bottle can be carried into the aseptic room without being affected by the air blown from the aseptic room to the outside, while reliably maintaining the properly standing posture.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing a bottle carry-in path at the entrance of a sterile room.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a screw-type carrier that constitutes a bottle carry-in path at the entrance of the sterile room.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of a screw type transporter.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Aseptic room 3 Outside 4a Aseptic room inlet 6 Bottle carry-in path 12 Screw type carrier 14 Upper side conveying rod 16 Lower side conveying rod

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bottle carrying path extending across the inside of and outside the aseptic room across the entrance of the aseptic room, which is maintained at a positive pressure, is formed by a screw type carrier, and the screw type carrier has an axis line on the outer peripheral surface. Has a spiral guide groove that extends in the direction, and has a transport rod that rotates about an axis, and the transport rod is disposed at a position where it abuts the side surface of the bottle that moves in the upright posture along the bottle transport path. And at least a first transport rod that abuts the upper portion of the bottle,
A bottle transfer device to a sterile room, which is composed of a lower part of the bottle and a second transfer rod that comes into contact with the bottle.