JPH0825543B2 - Method and device for manufacturing film package - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a film packaging body in which a strip-shaped packaging film is continuously supplied and molded into a given cross-sectional shape to form a tubular shape, and the contents are filled therein. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a film package capable of welding an overlapped portion in which the edges of the molded packaging film in the width direction are overlapped with each other in an optimum state when manufacturing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art While continuously supplying a band-shaped packaging film, it is formed into a tubular shape by molding it into a given cross-sectional shape, and the contents such as foods, electric parts and factory products are filled therein. Conventionally, as a packaging method or apparatus, foods such as sausage, ham and cheese are mainly packaged to produce a shell-shaped package (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-251325).
Similarly, a pillow-type package is manufactured (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-29).
No. 714, etc.), which packs solid items such as trays and box products to produce shrink packages (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 6-62).
2-28354, etc.) and the like are known.

In all of these packaging methods, the step of forming the packaging film into a tubular shape in accordance with the shape of the contents or the desired product shape and the edges of the formed film in the width direction are common. And a step of forming a vertical seal line by welding the overlapped overlapping portions. It is also already known that this vertical sealing can be performed by heat-melting while pressing the film of the overlapping portion by heat transfer from a hot plate, dielectric heat generation by a high frequency electric field, self-heat generation by ultrasonic vibration, and the like.

[0004] When welding the film, it is extremely important to adjust and maintain the welded portion in an optimum sealed state in order to obtain a package having excellent hermeticity. The reason is that if the sealing conditions, especially the temperature, are insufficient, the packaging will have a poor sealing, but on the contrary, even if it is excessive, the film material will deteriorate or become thin, and the sealing strength will decrease. Because it brings. In particular, in a packaging body in which the contents are sealed and then heat sterilized or heat shrunk, it is required to control the sealing state well so as to obtain high sealing strength.

On the other hand, the sealing parameters that determine the quality of the hermeticity of the package are temperature, pressure, time, etc. at the time of welding, and among these, the pressure and time are parameters that can be easily controlled by the apparatus. . However, the seal temperature is
Conventionally, by adjusting the temperature of the hot plate with the hot plate seal, changing the power supply input or output of the high frequency with the high frequency seal, and the amplitude of the horn with the ultrasonic seal, it is adjusted empirically or while observing the condition of the test product. I'm just there.

[0006]

All of the above-mentioned conventional seal temperature control methods merely adjust the heating energy supplied, and are not control methods that directly correspond to the film temperature at the welded portion. . This is because the film temperature is not uniquely determined by the heating energy, but it is also a function of the sealing pressure, the film material and thickness, the film running speed and the like.

On the other hand, a method is also conceivable in which the film temperature at the welded portion is directly detected and the heating energy is adjusted based on the detection signal. However, temperature detection using a contact-type temperature sensor such as a thermocouple damages the film in a molten or softened state, and a non-contact thermometer such as an infrared thermometer is used for the film surface layer. In addition to providing temperature information, it is expensive and has not been actively adopted in packaging devices.

[0008] The present inventors have a result of intensive studies to solve the above problems, giving a slight cross expansion force to the film immediately after the sealing line is formed, observed in the width direction of the deformation of the seal line accordingly The present invention has been reached by finding a simple control method of the seal temperature, which directly corresponds to the seal temperature, which is useful in so-called vertical sealing, that is, adjusting the supply of heating energy by means of the above.

[0009]

That is, a method for manufacturing a film package according to the present invention comprises a step of forming a continuously supplied strip-shaped film into a tubular shape, and an overlapping portion of the tubular film formed into a tubular shape. And a step of forming a welding line by welding, and an expanding step of applying a cross-sectional expansion force to the tubular film on which the welding line is formed immediately after the welding, and in the deformation of the welding line in the width direction in the expanding step. Accordingly, the welding state of the overlapping portion in the welding step is adjusted.

In the film package manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, the continuously supplied band-shaped film is molded into a tubular shape, and the overlapped portion of the tubular film is welded by welding. A welding member that forms a line, an expansion member that is in contact with the inner surface of the tubular film on which the welding line is formed, and has an outer diameter dimension that is larger than the inner diameter dimension, and a welding state of the overlapping portion by the welding member. And an adjusting device for adjusting.

In this apparatus, when the folding width dimension when the tubular film on which the welding line is formed is flatly crushed is S, the expansion member has a folding width dimension S of 0.2 to 2 mm. It is preferable to have an outer peripheral length corresponding to the dimension added with.

[0012]

In the above means, the flat packaging film is formed into a tubular shape, and so-called vertical sealing is performed by, for example, high frequency at the overlapping portion where the edges of the film are superposed to each other to form a tubular film. Then, the tubular film is, for example, using an expansion ring or the like immediately after forming the vertical seal line,
It is expanded so that its inner diameter dimension increases by a predetermined amount.
According to such a configuration of the present invention, when the film is excessively heated and melted at the time of welding, the welding line is deformed so as to swell in the width direction by the circumferential tension acting on the tubular film due to the expansion of the inner diameter. When the heating and melting are further strengthened, the tubular film is split left and right at the welding line. Therefore, the heating energy supplied to the welding member is changed while confirming the deformation in the width direction of the welding line of the tubular film which is continuously fed through the expansion region, and, for example, the state immediately before the deformation is heated. By adjusting the energy level, the packaging device can always be set to the optimum welding state. The expansion ratio of the inner diameter of the tubular film by the expansion ring or the like is appropriately determined according to the material and thickness of the film used, the size of the package, the distance between the welding member and the expansion member, the type of the welding member, and the like.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view showing an example of a film package manufacturing apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view thereof. This device is a continuous filling and packaging device that manufactures a bullet-shaped film package mainly containing processed foods such as sausage, ham, and cheese.
1 and 2, the ironing mechanism and the ligating / cutting mechanism in the latter stage are omitted. 1 and 2, reference numeral 5 is a filling nozzle. Contents such as processed foods are continuously supplied to the filling nozzle 5 at a constant flow rate by a metering pump (not shown). A molding member 6 is provided on the outer periphery of the upper portion of the filling nozzle 5. As shown in FIG. 2, this molding member 6 is formed by winding a sheet metal material such as stainless steel into a cylindrical shape, and its edges 6a and 6b overlap each other with a minute gap. An ear-shaped support piece 6c is fixed to the molding member 6, and the molding member 6 is installed substantially concentrically with the filling nozzle 5 by fixing the support piece 6c to the inside of the housing.

An electrode supporting cylinder 21 is fixed to the outer periphery of the filling nozzle 5 and below the molding member 6, and a negative high frequency electrode 10 is fixed to the outer surface of the electrode supporting cylinder 21. At the position facing the high-frequency electrode 10, the high-frequency electrode 11 on the positive side is attached to the electrode supporting arm 1.
It is fixedly arranged at the lower end of 1a. The electrode supporting arm 11a is movable in the direction of the arrow, and the high frequency electrode 11 is sandwiched between the high frequency electrode 10 and the high frequency electrode 10 with a predetermined pressure adjustable by the urging force of a spring (not shown) during operation. Pressed. As shown in FIG. 1, high-frequency electrodes 10 and 11 are supplied with high-frequency power from a high-frequency power generator 25, and the strength of the high-frequency electrodes 10 and 11 can be changed by an adjusting operation of an adjuster 26.

An upper size ring 21a is formed on the upper end of the electrode support cylinder 21. The inner diameter d0 of the film after welding is determined by the diameter d of the size ring 21a. A support cylinder 22 is provided at the lower end of the filling nozzle 5,
A lower size ring 22a is formed at the lower end thereof.
The diameter of the lower size ring 22a is substantially the same as the diameter d of the upper size ring 21a. Electrodes 10 and 11
The support cylinder 23 is disposed below the welded portion by
An expansion ring 23a is formed at the lower end of the support cylinder 23. The diameter D of the expansion ring 23a is slightly larger than the diameter d of the size rings 21a and 22a (and the inner diameter d0 of the tubular film to be formed).

In the apparatus for manufacturing a film package shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the film 1 drawn out in a plane from the original is guided by the guide rolls 9a and 9b and guided to the inner peripheral surface of the molding member 6. Thereby, the film 1 is formed into a cylindrical shape, the edge 1a of the film 1 is on the inner surface of the outer edge 6a of the molding member 6, and the edge 1b of the film 1 is on the inner surface of the inner edge 6b of the molding member 6. When the molding member 6 is passed through, the edge portion 1a is placed outside the edge portion 1b.

The film 1 formed into a tubular shape by the forming member 6 is sandwiched between the high frequency electrodes 10 and 11 and welded in a state where the edges 1a and 1b thereof are overlapped with each other, and the welded line 2 is formed. The film body 16 is formed. Then, the inside of the tubular film body 16 is continuously filled with the contents from the filling nozzle 5, sandwiched between the film feed rollers 12 and 13, and continuously fed downward at a predetermined feeding speed. Thereafter, the tubular film body 16 containing the contents is intermittently squeezed by an ironing mechanism portion (not shown) to form a flat film portion from which the contents are removed, and the flat portion is further ligated / cut by a ligating / cutting mechanism portion. The film is subjected to bundling, ligation and cutting to manufacture a shell type packaging body.

The molded member 6 of the present invention is not limited to a circular shape, but may have another sectional shape such as a quadrangle according to the shape of the contents or the desired product shape. Further, the overlapping portion 1c in which the both edge portions 1a and 1b of the film 1 are overlapped with each other is not limited to the so-called envelope folding shown in the present embodiment, but will be described later.
If it is in a state where it can apply inner diameter expansion force
Also, other film superposition forms may be used. An example
For example, the cylindrical fis shown in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 3-78708.
The present invention is also applicable to a folded palm folded along the outer surface of a rum.
The method of can be suitably applied. In this case, welding line 2 is folded
It is formed within the range of the overlapped overlapping portion 1c.

As described above, immediately after the welding line 2 is formed, the tubular film body 16 has its inner diameter expanded by the expansion ring 23a to the inner diameter dimension d0 or more determined by the size ring 21a. The tension T generated in the circumferential direction of the tubular film body 16 due to the expansion of the inner diameter acts intensively on the welding line 2 which is easily deformed by heating and melting, and as a result, the welding line 2 corresponding to the degree of melting. The state change of will appear. FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 are front views showing deformations that appear in the welding line 2 passing through the expansion ring 23a depending on the degree of melting of the film. If the film is not excessively melted at the welding line 2, the welding line 2 does not spread to the left and right even if the film 1 receives the tension T due to the expansion force of the expansion ring 23a, as shown in FIG. The welding line 2 of the film package 16 that descends at a constant speed V remains linear and does not change.

Next, when the film is excessively melted in the portion of the welding line 2, when the film 1 receives the tension T by the expanding force of the expansion ring 23a, the over-melting welding line 2 spreads to the left and right. The thickness of the central portion of the welding line 2 becomes thin. As a result, as shown in FIG.
The welding line 2 passing through 3a has an appearance as if it is branched into two left and right lines. Further, if the film is excessively melted at the welding line 2, the welding line 2 is further divided into right and left, and a crack is generated in the middle portion. The crevices are even visible from the outside.

As described above, the expansion ring 23a is used immediately after the overlapping portion 1c is welded to the electrodes 10 and 11.
The inner ring expanding force is applied to the tubular film body 16 so that the expanding ring 2
By monitoring the widthwise deformation of the welding line 2 passing through 3a, it is possible to know how much the molten state of the film 1 on the welding line 2 is. However, FIG. 5 and FIG.
As shown in, the degree of melting of the film when the welding line 2 is deformed in the width direction is determined according to the expansion ratio of the inner diameter by the expansion ring 23a. That is, the tension T changes depending on the diameter D of the expansion ring 23a, and the melting degree of the film 1 when the welding line 2 changes in the width direction also changes depending on the tension T.

Therefore, according to the result of the experiment conducted by the inventor of the present invention, if the folding width when the tubular film body 16 formed in a tubular shape is flat is S as shown in FIG. It is preferable to determine the diameter D of the expansion ring 23a so as to have a peripheral length corresponding to a value Sa obtained by adding S to 0.2 to 2 mm, and more preferably 0.2 to 1 to S.
It has been found that it is optimal to determine the diameter D of the expansion ring 23a so that the peripheral length corresponds to the value obtained by adding mm. The value of Sa-S is concentrated on the welding line 2 which is easily deformed by heating and melting because the tension T acting on the tubular film body 16 acts, and thus the folding width S is about 10 mm. From the body to a film package having a large diameter such that S exceeds 200 mm, any size of film package is effective. By setting such a value, the high-frequency electrodes 10 and 11 can be formed. It was found that the welding line 2 in the optimum molten state can be formed by setting the high-frequency power applied to the welding line 2 to a state immediately before the branch of the welding line 2 begins to occur as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, depending on the distance L between the electrode 10 or 11 and the expansion ring 23a, that is, the cooling distance until the film heated and melted by the welding member reaches the expansion member, the expansion ratio of the inner diameter by the expansion ring 23a is increased. Place
In the same way as in the case of welding, the welding line 2 is deformed in the width direction (branches or fissures).
The degree of melting of the film at the beginning of confirmation (melting at the time of welding)
The temperature of the landing 2) changes. Because the interval L is
After welding the film with electrodes 10 and 11,
Until the film receives the tension T by the expansion ring 23a.
This is because it relates to the temperature drop of the welding line. In the temperature control of the welding line 2 according to the present invention, the interval L is related to the control sensitivity, and the smaller L is, the better the sensitivity is.
In particular, if the interval L and the value of Sa-S are both set small, it is possible to control the temperature of the welding line 2 with high sensitivity and accuracy. However, in general, the distance L is preferably selected from the range of 10 to 300 mm, although it depends on the traveling speed of the film.

To start the production of the film package, first, the diameter D of the expansion ring 23a is set to the above-mentioned preferable value, the film 1 is continuously supplied to the forming member 6, and the film is formed as shown in FIG. The edge portions 1a and 1b of 1 are welded by the high frequency electrodes 10 and 11 to continuously form the welding line 2, and the tubular film body 16 is formed by the film feed rollers 12 and 13 without supplying the contents. Send continuously. Then, the adjusting unit 26 shown in FIG. 1 is operated to gradually increase the high frequency power supplied to the high frequency electrodes 10 and 11. When the high frequency power is increased to some extent, the welding line 2 in which the edges 1a and 1b of the film 1 are welded is continuously and linearly formed as shown in FIG. When the high frequency power is further increased, the welding line 2 begins to branch to the left and right at the position of the expansion ring 23a as shown in FIG. 5, and when the high frequency power is further increased, the welding line 2 is welded as shown in FIG. A tear occurs at the line 2 portion.

Therefore, when the high-frequency power is gradually increased, the high-frequency power is fixed in a state immediately before branching to the left and right in the welding line 2, whereby the welding line 2 in an optimum molten state can be formed. Adjustment is completed.

(Experimental Example 1) Device used: Continuous packing and filling device manufactured by Kureha Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (using a high frequency welding electrode) Film used: A copolymer of vinylidene chloride and vinyl chloride and biaxially stretched. Film (Kureha Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., trade name “Kureharon”) Film thickness: 0.04 mm thickness of a double-layered film Folding width S of the manufactured film package: 55 mm Diameter D of the expansion ring 23a : 35.33 mm (corresponding to a folding width of S + 0.5 mm)

(Experimental Example 2) Device used: Same as Experimental Example 1 Film used: Same as Experimental Example 1 Film thickness: Same as Experimental Example 1 Folding width S of the produced film package S: 23 mm (Experimental Example) The same as 1) Diameter D 2 of expansion ring 23a: 14.77 mm (corresponding to a folding width of S + 0.2 mm)

(Experimental Example 3) Device used: Same as Experimental Example 1 Film used: Same as Experimental Example 1 Film thickness: Same as Experimental Example 1 Folding width S of the produced film package S: 120 mm Expansion ring 23a Diameter D: 77.16 mm (corresponding to a folding width of S + 1.2 mm)

In each of the above experiments, first, the film 1 was supplied, and the film 1 was formed into a tubular shape by the forming member 6 without supplying the contents, and the edges 1a and 1b of the film 1 were formed into the high-frequency electrode 10.
And the cylindrical film body 16 is fed downward by the film feed rollers 12 and 13, and the high frequency power supplied to the high frequency electrodes 10 and 11 is gradually increased. Then, the welding line 2 was visually observed at the position of the expansion ring 23a, and the high frequency output was fixed immediately before the welding line 2 began to branch to the left and right.

Subsequently, while continuously supplying the material for fish sausage from the filling nozzle 5, the tubular film body 16 was squeezed (fleshed), ligated, and cut, and 200 times in each experimental example. A shell-shaped package of books was produced. An aluminum wire was used as the ligation member.
In the observation immediately after the production, neither peeling of the film nor the occurrence of breakage of the welding line 2 at the portion of the welding line 2 of the produced package was observed. Next, 200 packages each produced in each experimental example were transferred to a high pressure heat sterilization (retort) process. After that, all the packages were observed.
No damage or the like was confirmed in the part.

As described above, the welding state of the welding line 2 can be adjusted by visually confirming the deformation of the welding line 2 in the width direction, while gradually increasing the energy supplied to the welding member to start the deformation of the welding line 2. It has been explained that what can be done by setting the supply energy to the level of. Although this method of adjustment is a simple, effective and preferred method, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the widthwise deformation of the welding line 2 is automatically detected by an optical detection unit or a detection unit based on image analysis, and the energy supplied to the welding member is automatically controlled by the detection signal. May be. Further, as another modification, the expansion ring 23a
Is configured such that the outer diameter dimension thereof changes mechanically, electrically or thermally, that is, the tension T is variable, and the outer diameter dimension change and the welding line width change are It is also possible to set the output level to the welding member based on the correlation of.

Finally, the manufacturing method and the manufacturing apparatus for the film package of the present invention are the heat welding means using a hot plate instead of the high frequency welding means using the high frequency electrodes 10 and 11, or the ultrasonic welding means using an anvil and a horn. It can also be carried out by other welding means, such as the process of forming the packaging film into a tubular shape according to the shape of the contents or the desired product shape and welding the overlapping part where the widthwise edges of the formed film are overlapped. As long as it has a step of forming a vertical seal line, it can be applied when manufacturing other packages such as pillow packages and shrink packages. Further, by omitting the filling and ironing steps in the present embodiment and performing lateral sealing instead of ligation, a simple two-way sealing packaging bag can be manufactured. The film package of the present invention includes such a packaging bag.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to easily adjust the melting state of the welding line formed by high frequency welding or the like in a short time so as to always be optimum.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an example of an apparatus for manufacturing a film package according to the present invention,

2 is a perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a folding width of a film package, (A) is a sectional view of the film package in a flat state, and (B) is a front view thereof.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing the manufacturing process of the film package when the fusion of the welding line is not excessive;

FIG. 5 is a front view showing the manufacturing process of the film package when the fusion of the welding line is excessive;

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a manufacturing process of the film package when the fusion of the welding line is further excessive;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 film 1c overlapping part 2 welding line 5 filling nozzle 6 forming member 10,11 high frequency electrode 12,13 film feeding roller 16 tubular film body 21a upper size ring 23a expansion ring

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A step of forming a continuously fed strip-shaped film into a tubular shape, a step of welding a superposed portion of the tubular shaped strip-shaped film to form a welding line, and a welding line immediately after the welding. And a step of applying a cross-section expanding force to the formed tubular film, and adjusting the welding state of the overlapping portion in the welding step according to the deformation in the width direction of the welding line in the expanding step. And a method for producing a film package. 2. A forming member for forming a continuously-supplied strip-shaped film into a tubular shape, a welding member for forming a welding line by welding an overlapping portion of the tubular-shaped strip-shaped film, and a welding line. Contacting the inner surface of the formed tubular film,
An apparatus for manufacturing a film package, comprising: an expansion member having an outer diameter dimension larger than the inner diameter dimension; and an adjusting device for adjusting a welding state of the overlapping portion by the welding member. 3. When the folding width dimension when flattening the tubular film on which the welding line is formed is S, the expansion member has a folding width dimension S of 0.2 to 2 m.
3. The outer peripheral length corresponding to the dimension including m.
An apparatus for manufacturing the film package described.