JPH07270273A - Inspecting apparatus of capsule - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute inspection of a capsule filled with a liquid, in a short time and without fail, by a method wherein the liquid-filled capsule to be inspected which is subjected to a pressure reducing process is sorted into a nondefective and a defective according t0 W weight difference. CONSTITUTION:Water-filled capsules for cigarette filters to be inspected are charged into a hopper part 1. A moving pocket 2 supplies a pressure reducing part 3 with a prescribed amount of the capsules dropped from the hopper part 1. In the pressure reducing part 3, the capsules are subjected to a pressure reducing process while they are shaken in a pressure reducing chamber 36 (hermetically closed space). By the pressure reducing process, a filled liquid leaks out of the capsules having a defective part (defectives), while it remains in the capsules having no defective part (non-defectives). Since the filled liquid comes into contact with the defective part in the course of shaking, the filled liquid surely leaks out of the capsules having the defective part. A conveyor 4 conveys the capsules after the pressure, reducing process to a sorting means 5. In the sorting means 5, the capsules subjected to the pressure reducing process are sorted into the nondefectives and defectives according to a weight difference.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a capsule inspecting apparatus, and more specifically, whether a liquid-filled capsule in which a liquid is contained and the upper lid is sealed is a defective product having defective portions such as pinholes, cracks, and poor sealing. The present invention relates to a capsule inspection device that inspects whether a product is a good product.

[0003]

[Prior Art and Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

If the liquid-filled capsule having the liquid contained therein and the upper lid sealed has a defective portion such as a pinhole, the filling liquid gradually leaks out after the capsule is manufactured.

Therefore, it is necessary to inspect the liquid-filled capsules and to exclude the capsules having defective portions.

However, conventionally, there is no apparatus suitable for surely inspecting a liquid-filled capsule in a short time, and in particular, there is an apparatus for inspecting the capsule at a speed commensurate with the manufacturing speed of the capsule. I didn't.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a capsule inspecting device which can inspect a liquid-filled capsule reliably in a short time.

Another object of the present invention is suitable for inspecting liquid-filled capsules, and in particular, it is possible to reliably inspect liquid-filled capsules in a short time at a speed commensurate with the capsule manufacturing speed. An object of the present invention is to provide a capsule inspecting device that can perform the operation.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

First, a hopper portion into which a liquid-filled capsule to be inspected is put, a depressurizing portion for depressurizing the capsule supplied from the hopper portion while rocking in a closed space, and a depressurized capsule. A capsule inspecting device comprising a selecting means for selecting a good product and a defective product according to a weight difference.

Secondly, the hopper part into which the liquid-filled capsule to be inspected is put, the first transfer means for supplying a certain amount of capsules dropped from the hopper part to the decompression part, and the first transfer means. A depressurization unit that depressurizes the capsules while rocking in a closed space, a second transfer unit that conveys the depressurized capsules to a selection unit, and the depressurized capsules are classified into good products and defective products by a weight difference. A capsule inspecting device, comprising:

Thirdly, the capsule inspecting apparatus according to the first or second aspect, wherein decompression sections are provided on both sides of the hopper section.

Fourthly, the capsule inspection apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the depressurizing treatment is carried out by depressurizing so as to reach 5 mmHg in absolute pressure within 10 seconds.

[0014]

[Action]

Next, the operation of the capsule inspection device of the present invention will be described.

The liquid-filled capsule to be inspected, which has been put into the hopper, is supplied from the hopper to the first transfer means.

The first transfer means transfers a fixed amount of the liquid-filled capsule to the decompression unit.

In the depressurization section, the capsule supplied by the first transfer means is depressurized while rocking in the closed space.

Due to the reduced pressure treatment, the capsule (defective product) having a defective portion leaks the filling liquid to the outside of the capsule. For a capsule (defective product) having no defective portion, the filling liquid remains in the capsule.

Further, by performing a decompression treatment so as to reach an absolute pressure of 5 mmHg within 10 seconds, the filling liquid in the capsule rapidly undergoes low temperature boiling.

Then, the filling liquid that has rapidly boiled at a low temperature does not remain in the capsule due to the surface tension of the liquid, but easily moves in the capsule by rocking.

By swinging during the depressurization process, even if the filling liquid does not come into contact with the defective portion of the capsule at the time of supplying the capsule, the capsule moves during the swing and comes into contact with the defective portion. With regard to (2), the filling liquid is surely leaked regardless of the state when the capsule is supplied.

Further, the rocking causes the capsule to move even after the leak, and the leaked liquid does not come into contact with the defective portion of the capsule. Therefore, as will be described later, when the depressurized state is released, the leaked liquid is again discharged into the capsule. It is not even sucked inside.

The capsules in which a large difference in weight between the non-defective product and the defective product due to the depressurization process are supplied to the selection means by the second transfer means.

In the sorting means, the depressurized capsules are sorted into good products and defective products by the difference in weight.

[0026]

[Example 1]

An embodiment of the capsule inspection device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the entire capsule inspecting apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a hopper of the capsule inspecting apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a depressurizing section of the capsule inspecting apparatus of the present invention. is there.

As shown in FIG. 1, the capsule inspecting apparatus of this embodiment has a hopper unit 1 into which a water-filled capsule for a cigarette filter to be inspected is charged, and a depressurizing unit 3 for depressing a certain amount of capsules dropped from the hopper unit 1. To the sorting means 5, a decompression unit 3 for decompressing the capsules supplied by the moving pocket 2 in a closed space, a conveyor 4 for carrying the decompressed capsules to the sorting means 5, and a decompressed capsule. The depressurizing unit 3 is provided on both sides of the hopper unit 1 and includes a sorting unit 5 that sorts the product into a non-defective product and a non-defective product according to a weight difference.

The structure and operation of each part of the capsule inspecting apparatus of the present invention will be described below.

The hopper unit 1 includes a storage block 12 having a hopper body 11 mounted on the upper end side, and a substantially rectangular installation plate 1 on which the storage block 12 is installed, as shown in FIG.
3 and a bottom plate 14 located on the bottom side of the installation plate 13.

The storage block 12 is formed with a cylindrical opening portion for communicating with the capsule from the top surface side to the bottom surface side, and the installation plate 13 has the same size as the opening portion of the storage block 12. A circular opening 13a is formed for dropping the capsule.

The storage block 12 is installed on the installation plate 13 so that the positions of the openings of the storage block 12 coincide with the positions of the openings 13a of the installation plate 13.

On the bottom side of the installation plate 13, the opening 1
A bottom plate 14 is slidably combined so as to open and close 3a.

The bottom plate 14 has two slide blocks 16 which are respectively engaged with two shafts 15 provided along both ends of the installation plate 13 at four corners on the upper surface side, and one shaft 15 is provided.
The cylinder 17 is attached to the slide block 16 to be combined with the slide block 16, and the slide block 16 is moved back and forth by expanding and contracting the cylinder 17.

In the figure, reference numeral 18 denotes a sensor attached to the front surface and the rear surface of the storage block 12 for sensing the input amount of the capsule.

As for the bottom plate 14, when the cylinder 17 contracts, the slide block 16 moves to the front side (front side), and the installation plate 1
The hole 13a of No. 3 is closed.

Then, with the bottom plate 14 closed at the lower end side of the storage block 12, it is supplied from a device for producing water-filled capsules for cigarette filters (not shown), for example, having an outer diameter of 6 mm and a length of 14 mm. And inside that, 0.15
Reserve a capsule that can be filled with about 0.25 ml of liquid.

When the sensor 18 senses that the capsules stored in the hopper body 11 and the storage block 12 have reached the set amount (for example, 144 capsules), the cylinder 17 extends and the slide block 16 moves rearward together with the bottom plate 14. .

The cylinder 17 and each cylinder described later are operated by air, but the air supply pipe and the air bleed pipe are omitted in the drawing.

Then, the slide block 16 moves to the back side (rearward), so that the opening 13a closed in the bottom plate 14 is opened.

When the opening 13a is opened, the capsule of the hopper 1 drops from the opening 13a into the moving pocket 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the moving pocket 2 is an upper and lower open container which is moved to the left and right by a monocarrier that is fitted to the screw screw 21.
In the position of, it is located on the upper surface of the plate body 22 which is the bottom plate.

The moving pocket 2 supplies the capsule supplied from the hopper unit 1 to one depressurizing unit 3 and then,
The capsule is returned to the original position, and then the capsule received from the hopper unit 1 is supplied to the other decompression unit 3, and the capsules move alternately left and right.

The decompression unit 3 has a cylindrical decompression chamber 36 that can be sealed by an upper lid 32 that moves up and down by an upper lid opening / closing cylinder 31 and a bottom lid 35 that opens and closes with a bottom lid opening / closing cylinder 33 with respect to a fulcrum 34. is doing.

The decompression chamber 36 is swingably mounted on two mounting shafts 37 by a mounting frame 38 that is vertically slidably assembled and a swing cylinder 39 connected to the mounting frame 38.

Although not shown, a water absorbing material may be attached to the decompression chamber 36.

In addition to the decompression chamber 36, the mounting frame 38 is mounted with the upper lid opening / closing cylinder 31 and the bottom lid opening / closing cylinder 33 located between the two mounting shafts 37.

As shown in FIG. 3, the upper lid 32 is provided with an air vent hole 40 which is a connection port of an air vent pipe body (not shown) for depressurization, and a pneumatic air supply pipe body (not shown). An air supply hole 41 which is a connection port is formed.

In the decompression unit 3, the upper lid 32 of the decompression chamber 36 is raised and the bottom lid 35 is closed when the capsules are supplied.

When the movable pocket 2 slides above the decompression chamber 36 with the upper lid 32 raised from the end side of the plate 22, the capsule in the movable pocket 2 falls into the decompression chamber 36.

When the capsule falls into the decompression chamber 36, the upper lid opening / closing cylinder 31 extends and the upper lid 32 is closed.

After closing the upper lid 32, the air inside the decompression chamber 36 is evacuated through the air vent hole 40 so that the pressure inside the decompression chamber 36 reaches 5 mmHg in absolute pressure within 10 seconds.
While the inside of 6 is kept in a depressurized state, the depressurizing chamber 36 is swung up and down about 10 times by the swing cylinder 39.

By reducing the pressure so as to reach an absolute pressure of 5 mmHg within 10 seconds, the filling liquid in the capsule rapidly boils at a low temperature.

Then, the filling liquid that has rapidly boiled at a low temperature does not remain in the capsule due to the surface tension of the liquid, but easily moves in the capsule by rocking.

By decompressing the decompression chamber 36, among the capsules in the decompression chamber 36, which have defective portions such as pinholes, cracks, and defective sealing of the lid material, the filling liquid in the capsule is forced out of the capsule. As it leaks to the capsule, the weight of the capsule is reduced.

At this time, by swinging the decompression chamber 36, even if the filling liquid does not come into contact with the defective portion of the capsule at the time of supplying the capsule, the capsule in the decompression chamber 36 moves and comes into contact with the capsule during the swing. , For capsules with defective parts,
Regardless of the state of the capsule when it is supplied, the filling liquid is surely leaked.

Further, by rocking the decompression chamber 36, the capsule moves even after the leak, and the leaked liquid does not come into contact with the defective portion of the capsule. Therefore, compressed air is introduced from the air supply hole 41 as described later. Also, when the upper lid 32 is opened and released from the decompressed state, the leaked liquid is not sucked into the capsule again.

After the rocking is completed, the decompression chamber 3 is fed from the air supply hole 41.
Compressed air is supplied to the inside of the chamber 6, and the upper lid 32 and the bottom lid 35 are opened to release the depressurized state.

Then, the capsules in the decompression chamber 36 are discharged onto the conveyor 4 installed below the decompression unit 3.

The processing of the capsules by the decompression unit 3 is as follows.
The depressurization units 3 arranged on the left and right of the hopper unit 1 alternately perform the processes.

Regarding the capsules decompressed by the decompression unit 3, comparing defective products in which the filling liquid leaked from the defective portion with non-defective products in which the filling liquid did not leak, the filling liquid was discharged outside the capsule. Since it leaks, it is considerably lighter than the good product, and between the good product and the defective product,
There is a considerable weight difference.

The depressurized capsules are carried to the sorting means 5 by the conveyor 4.

The selecting means 5 may be any means for selecting good products and defective products by utilizing the weight difference of the capsules.

As the sorting means 5 utilizing the weight difference, a means for introducing depressurized capsules into the liquid and performing the sorting utilizing the difference in specific gravity, or a vertical wind tunnel with a vacuum pump connected to the upper side By inserting the capsule into the pipe, sucking the defective product with a light weight to the upper side, and dropping the good product whose dropping force due to its own weight is greater than the suction force to the lower side,
It is possible to employ a wind selection / selection means or the like for separating good products from defective products.

The above capsule inspecting device is provided with the depressurizing units 3 capable of batch processing a fixed amount of capsules at two places on the left and right,
Since the capsules supplied from the hopper unit 1 can be distributed to the left and right and processed alternately, 864 capsules per minute, which is the production rate of water capsules, can be inspected in accordance with the production rate.

[0067]

【The invention's effect】

Since the capsule inspecting apparatus of the present invention is inspected by the decompression unit while swinging a certain amount of the capsules to reduce the pressure to increase the weight difference, the inspection of the liquid-filled capsules can be performed in a short time. It can be done reliably.

Particularly, in the case where the depressurizing parts are provided at two places on the left and right of the hopper part so that the depressurizing process can be performed alternately, the inspection of the liquid-filled capsules can be performed at a speed commensurate with the manufacturing speed of the capsules. It can be reliably performed in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall front view of a capsule inspection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a hopper portion of the capsule inspection device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a decompression unit of the capsule inspection device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Hopper part 2 Moving pocket 3 Decompression part 4 Conveyor 5 Sorting means 11 Hopper body 12 Storage block 13 Installation plate 13a Opening part 14 Bottom plate 15 Shaft 16 Slide block 17 Cylinder 18 Sensor 21 Screw screw 22 Plate 31 Top lid open / close cylinder 32 Top lid 33 Bottom lid opening / closing cylinder 34 Support point 35 Bottom lid 36 Decompression chamber 37 Mounting shaft 38 Mounting frame 39 Swing cylinder 40 Air vent hole 41 Air supply hole

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A hopper part into which a liquid-filled capsule to be inspected is charged, a decompression part for decompressing the capsule supplied from the hopper part while rocking in a closed space, and a decompressed capsule by weight. A capsule inspecting device, comprising a selecting means for selecting a good product and a defective product according to a difference. 2. A hopper part into which a liquid-filled capsule to be inspected is charged, a first transfer means for supplying a fixed amount of capsules dropped from the hopper part to a decompression part, and a capsule supplied by the first transfer means. , A depressurizing unit that performs a depressurizing process while swinging in a closed space, a second transferring unit that conveys the depressurized capsules to a selecting unit, and a sorting process that sorts the depressurized capsules into good products and defective products by a weight difference A capsule inspecting device, comprising: 3. A decompression section is provided on both sides of the hopper section,
The capsule inspection device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The depressurizing treatment is performed at an absolute pressure of 5 within 10 seconds.
The method is performed by reducing the pressure so as to reach mmHg.
The capsule inspection device according to any one of 1.