JPH06156445A - Packing device for vegetables and fruits - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a device for packing vegetables and fruits for the sale at a supermarket, etc., full-automatically, without using an individual tray, etc., which is upto to cause a public problem relating to the disposal of the waste, and with a capability of completing the retail packing. CONSTITUTION:From a pair of film rolls 1 strips of heat-shrinkable film F are drawn by a motor and fed onto a film table 6a and a vegetable or fruit C to make a unit pack is loaded on the films F. By a cylinder 7 the film table 6a is lowered to a melt-attaching/fusion-cutting heater box 18; the vegetable or fruit C is packed and melt-attachment is applied in a strip of specified breadth to the pack at both end edges and the top edge; along the center line of the melt-attached part fusion-cutting is applied and an initial pack P0 is obtained. By passing this pack on a discharge conveyor 10 through a heat tunnel 11 the films F are made to shrink under heat and a pack of vegetable or fruit P is obtained. The waste film W produced by the fusion-cutting is discharged by a dust collector 15.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a packaging apparatus for fruits and vegetables,
In particular, the present invention relates to the provision of an automatic packaging device for fruits and vegetables for displaying and selling the fruits and vegetables at retail stores.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, when a comparatively large amount of packed fruits and vegetables is displayed and sold at a store in a supermarket, a shrink wrapping method using a plastic sheet has been conventionally used to maintain freshness.

A conventional shrink wrapping of this type is made of heat-shrinkable polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) film or the like while the contents of each pack are placed on a tray (plate) made of expanded polystyrene. A method of roughly hermetically packing in advance and continuously heat-shrinking these through a heating chamber has been adopted.

[0004]

However, in the conventional method as described above, since the initial packaging before the heat shrinkage is almost done manually, the work cost is high and the aesthetic appearance is good. / Most of the trays are made of styrene foam because of the product characteristics and stability, so it costs more and the purchaser side is disused when using the contents. Also contributed to the increase of plastic pollution.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and the cost reduction and the plastic film shrink packaging of this kind can be achieved by automating the whole process without using a conventional tray or the like. The purpose is to eliminate pollution sources.

[0006]

For this reason, in the present invention, a film supply means for supplying a pair of heat-shrinkable films from both sides to a table of a device for packaging fruits and vegetables of this kind in the present invention. And an input port for placing the contents fruits and vegetables to be packaged on this supply film,
Vertical movement means for lowering or raising the table in a stepwise manner, and contacting the widthwise both end edges of the film extending on both sides of the fruit and vegetables with the lowering of the table and the three edges of the fruit and fruit upper surface edge, respectively. And a fusing means for fusing the film along substantially the center of each fusing width, and a heating means for heat-shrinking the film portion of the initial packaging pack caused thereby. The object is achieved by providing a dust collecting means for sucking and discharging the film debris portion generated by the welding and fusing means, and an automatic control means for automating the steps of these means. Is what you are trying to do.

[0007]

With the device configuration of the present invention as described above, it is only necessary to sequentially supply the contents of each pack of fruits and vegetables for the initial packaging,
All the processes such as welding, fusing, and heat shrinkage are performed automatically, which saves work cost. In the end, no tray is used as a pollution source. Can contribute indirectly.

[0008]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below based on examples. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 respectively show a schematic configuration front view and a plan view of one embodiment of the packaging apparatus for fruits and vegetables according to the present invention.

In the apparatus of this embodiment, the apparatus frame 20, the opening / closing opening for the contents and fruits and vegetables C to be packaged, the heat-shrinkable film F feeding apparatus for packaging, and the table 6a for packaging process are moved up and down. Equipment, welding and fusing heater box 18 for initial packaging pack P ₀ , dust collector 15 for discharging fusing debris W of the pack, air compressor 16 and heat tunnel 11 for heat shrinking of packaging film, packaging for fruits and vegetables as final product Consists of a pack P unloading conveyor 10 and the like.

The film F supply device includes a pair of supports for rotatably supporting a pair of film rolls 1 for supplying the film F from both sides of the lower portion of the fruit and fruit abutment guide 4 at the fruit and fruit C input port. The roller 1a is provided, and flanges 1b for restricting the axial movement of the roll 1 are attached to both ends of the inner support roller 1a. The film F feed of each roll 1 is performed by a motor 5 via a double timing belt B. Each film feed roller 2 on both sides of the feeding port, a pinch roller 3 for sandwiching the belt B between the rollers 2 and the film feed rollers 2 respectively. It is driven so as to pull out the film F from each roll 1 via the auxiliary roller 2b. Reference numeral 2a is a belt tension roller arranged below the one feed roller 2.

A plurality of rollers 6 are arranged in parallel on the upper surface of the packaging work table 6a, and the fruits and vegetables C put on the film F on the tangential plane of the upper surface of the table 6a are rodless cylinders 7 and respectively. When the fruits and vegetables C are wrapped in the film F by the detection of each sensor (not shown) by the air cylinder 8, the fruits and vegetables C are moved down to the three-stage positions shown in the figure, and the fruits and vegetables C are received at the upper stage position and the heater box at the middle stage position. In 18 parts, welding / fusing of the film F and suction of fusing residues are performed.

In this suction, the suction negative pressure is used as a dust collector by opening and closing the air suction port of the air compressor 16 for supplying compressed air to each air cylinder by the air cylinder 15a. There is. 1
5b shows the suction tube.

The packaging process sequence for this is shown in FIG.
It shows in (d). In the figure, (a) shows that the table 6a is at the upper position in FIG. 1, and the film F is fed out from the pair of film rolls 1 by the drive motor 5 and welded and joined in advance at the central portion of each roller 6 of the table 6a. To
The state in which the fruit and vegetables C are placed from the opened input port is shown.

Next, the table 6a is lowered to the middle position of FIG. 1 in the state shown in FIG. 3B by the rodless cylinder 7 by the detection of a sensor (not shown). Here, the fruits and vegetables C are rotated in the welding / fusion heater box 18 by the detection signals of the respective sensors.
Thus, the switching lever 19 is operated to bring the film F on the upper portion of the fruit and vegetables C into close contact with the central portion by various mechanisms (not shown) as shown in FIG. 3C, and the side surface thereof is shown in FIG. 3D. As described above, the films F on both side faces of the fruits and vegetables C are also closely adhered to each other as shown in the figure, and are welded to each other with a predetermined width, and are fused along substantially the center line of the welded width to obtain the initial packaging pack P ₀ , and The separated blown film debris W on both sides is collected in a predetermined container by the dust collector 15. However, these are relatively small amounts, and the film materials such as PE and PP should be treated in a form that does not cause pollution. Is possible.

Thereafter, the initial packaging pack P ₀ is sent to the lowermost position shown in FIG. 1 by re-lowering of the rodless cylinder 7, and then the table 6a is inclined by about 45 ° by the rod contraction of the air cylinder 7 and packed. P ₀ rolls on the discharge conveyor 10 by its own weight and passes through the heat tunnel 11, so that the initial packaging pack P ₀ undergoes heat shrinkage of the packaging film F and adheres to the outer surface of the fruits and vegetables C. The fruit and vegetable packaging pack P as the final product is taken out onto the carry-out auxiliary table 14.

The work size of the pack P ₀ in the initial packaging state shown in FIG.
If the heater box 18 in the next step cannot be inserted as it is due to the shape of the
It goes without saying that additional steps such as a step of rotating by 0 ° to change the posture may be inserted.

The above operation is consistently and automatically performed, and each process sequence is automatically controlled by each sensor (not shown), timer and the like, and 12 indicates its control panel. Further, 13 is a work table, 21 is a work tool holder,
22 is a pneumatic equipment adjustment window, and 23 is a packaging state confirmation window of the initial packaging pack P ₀ .

The general specifications of the apparatus of the above embodiment are shown below. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that the configuration of each part may be modified in various ways. is there.

Work size: maximum width 150, maximum length 350, maximum height 1
80 (mm) film: PE or PP, film thickness 0.015
0.05 (mm) Maximum width 500, Roll diameter 165 to 200 (mm) Packaging speed: 3.0 s / stroke External dimensions: Main body 1460 x 875 x 100 (mm) Work table 600 x 875 x 15 (mm) Machine weight : 120Kg Power consumption: AC100V, 50 / 60Hz, 3.5Kw

[0020]

As described above, according to the apparatus of the present invention, all the work steps of heat shrink packaging of fruits and vegetables are automated,
Moreover, since there is no need to use a tray or the like that may cause processing pollution, it is extremely effective in terms of cost and pollution prevention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of an embodiment of a vegetable and fruit packaging device.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG.

[Figure 3] Packaging process sequence diagram

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Film Roll 2 Film Feed Roller 5 Roller Feed Motor 6a Table 7 Rodless Cylinder 8 Air Cylinder 11 Heat Tunnel 12 Control Panel 15 Dust Collector 18 Welding Fusion Heater Box 20 Machine Frame F Heat Shrinkable Film C Fruit and Vegetable P ₀ Initial Packing Pack P ₀ Fruit and vegetable packaging pack

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A film supply means for supplying a pair of heat-shrinkable films onto a table from both sides on an apparatus frame, and an input port for mounting the contents fruits and vegetables to be packaged on the supply film. A vertical movement means for lowering or raising the table in a stepwise manner, and both end portions in the width direction of the film extending on both sides of the fruit and vegetables along with the lowering of the table, and three edges of the upper edge of the fruit and vegetables, respectively. Welding and fusing means for closely adhering and fusing at a predetermined width, and for fusing the film along substantially the center of each fusing width, and heating for heat shrinking the film portion of the initial packaging pack caused thereby. Means, dust collecting means for sucking and discharging the film debris portion generated by the welding and fusing means, and for automating the steps of these means A packaging device for fruits and vegetables, which is provided with automatic control means.