JPH09142649A - Vessel feed device for filler - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a vessel from fluctuating due to sudden change of acceleration at transferring the vessel from a star wheel to a filler main body, so as to stably supply the vessel to the filler main body. SOLUTION: A filler main body 2 and a star wheel 1 supplying a vessel to the filler main body are separately arranged so that the pitch circles of both are separated from each other by a fixed offset quantity (e), and a guide is arranged so that the carrying locus of the vessel from the star wheel 1 to the filler main body 2 is followed to a connecting curve a, b consisting of a spiral curve continuously changing from the same curvature as the pitch circle of the star wheel 1 to the same curvature as the pitch circle of the filler main body 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a container feeding device in a filling device, and more particularly to a container feeding device in a filler for preventing instability of the container when transferring the container to the filler body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The flow of a container in a conventional general can filler will be described with reference to FIGS. The can whose inner and outer surfaces have been cleaned by the Linzer is the infeed conveyor 1
It is sent by 0. Then, the timing screw 11 provides the same predetermined space as the filling valve,
It is supplied to the pocket 13 of the star wheel 12. The can is constrained by a wheel outer guide 14 installed outside the pocket and the star wheel, and its movement direction is substantially reversed, and the can is fed onto the can stand at the contact point between the star wheel pitch circle and the filler pitch circle.

From here, the can moves along with the can stand 18 by the inner transfer guide 15 and the outer transfer guide 16, moves away from the star wheel 12, and is conveyed by the filler body 17. After this, a filling valve (not shown) descends from above to seal the mouth (flange) of the can and fill the content liquid. Depending on the type of the filler, such as a lifterless type filler, there is a type in which the can base is raised and the can mouth is sealed by pressing the filling valve located above to fill the can. The cans that have been filled are discharged to the discharge conveyor 20.
It is discharged to the next sealing process.

In the star wheel 12, the can makes a circular motion determined by the wheel pitch circle radius and its angular velocity, and after it is placed on the can stand 18, it makes a circular motion determined by the filler pitch circular radius and its angular velocity. The magnitude of the acceleration α applied to an object moving at a velocity v on a curve having a radius of curvature q is α =
It is calculated by v ² / q, and the direction is the center direction of the curvature. Since it is common to keep the velocity constant in the can flow in the filler, the acceleration will be inversely proportional to the radius of curvature. Normally, the star wheel pitch circle radius has a value of 1/3 to 1/6 of the filler pitch circle radius, so the acceleration that the can receives in the star wheel is 3 to 6 times the acceleration that it receives during filling on the can base. Doubled. The direction of the acceleration is leftward in the traveling direction of the can on the can stand, whereas it is rightward in the star wheel, which is completely opposite. A graph showing an example of the change in the acceleration is as shown in FIG.

In the graph of FIG. 3, the vertical axis is the acceleration and the horizontal axis is the time, but both of them are displayed dimensionlessly by the velocity and the filler radius, and the acceleration applied to the left side in the traveling direction of the can is positive. There is. Also, the star wheel pitch circle radius is calculated as 1/3 of the filler pitch circle radius. In the figure, what is indicated by a broken line (b) is the case of the conventional filling device shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. As is clear from the graph, the acceleration applied to the can at the contact point between the star wheel and the filler changes in an instant. Due to the large change in acceleration at the moment when the can is transferred to the can stand, the can becomes extremely unstable and causes wobble.

Since the filling valve descends to the place where the can is wobbling and tilted to seal the mouth of the can, the can flange is deformed or a load is applied diagonally to the can. It has been a problem from the past that various problems such as buckling occur. This problem is becoming more and more apparent in recent high-speed filling.
The can with the flange deformed is not completely sealed, resulting in filling failure, or defective winding in the next double winding step, resulting in incomplete sealing.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above problems in the conventional filling device, and prevents the container from wobbling due to a sudden change in acceleration when the container transfers from the star wheel to the filler body. It is an object of the present invention to provide a container feeding device for a filler that can stably supply the container to the filler body even with a high-speed filler and can enhance the fitting property between the container and the filling valve.

[0008]

As a result of various studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventor has installed a star wheel and a filler body at a predetermined offset distance from each other, and has a pitch circumference of the star wheel. The can that has advanced
The present invention has been found to be able to eliminate the blurring when the acceleration continuously changes to transfer to the filler body by gradually swinging outward along the connection curve whose curvature continuously changes.

That is, the container feeding device for the filler of the present invention is a container feeding device for filling a container such as a can or a bottle with a liquid, and comprises a filler body and a star wheel for supplying the container to the filler body. Installed so that the pitch circles of are separated by a predetermined offset amount,
The guide path is arranged so that the container transport path from the star wheel to the filler body has a connection curve that continuously changes from the same curvature as the pitch circle of the star wheel to the same curvature as the pitch circle of the filler body. The above-mentioned problems have been solved by the technical means characterized in that

As the connection curve, it is desirable to adopt a spiral curve whose curvature monotonously changes. The offset amount is 0.035 times or less the radius of the filler pitch circle, and the outer diameter of the star wheel is larger than the radius of the pitch circle within a radius of 40 mm or less. 250ml, 350ml
It is desirable because the cans can be sent particularly suitably.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to a filler for filling a container such as a can or a bottle with contents, but hereinafter, a case where the present invention is applied to a filler for filling a can with a liquid contents will be described.

The container feeder for the filler according to the embodiment of the present invention has the same structure as the conventional can feeder shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, but in the conventional apparatus, the container feeder is installed in contact with the filler body. In the present invention, the conventional star wheel is set apart from the filler body by a predetermined offset amount, and the can that has advanced on the pitch circumference of the star wheel is gradually swung outward from the point, leaving the circumference. The feature is that it is regulated by a guide so that it can be taken out. Regarding the configuration similar to the conventional one shown in FIGS. 6 and 7,
The description is omitted with reference to these figures, and only the characteristic points are shown in FIG.
And it demonstrates in detail by FIG.

In the container feeding device of the present invention in which the star wheel and the filler main body are installed apart from each other by a predetermined offset amount, the locus of the can that transfers from the star wheel 1 to the filler main body 2 has a radius of curvature of the star wheel pitch circle. If expressed using a radius r ₁ to infinity, that is, a curvature that is the reciprocal of the radius of curvature, the curvature is 1 / r ₁ to 0
It goes on a curve that changes continuously to. Further, from the point where the curvature becomes 0, the curvature becomes 0 to 1 /
r ₂ (r ₂ is the radius of the pitch circle of the filler body) is followed by a curve that changes continuously, and then transferred to the can stand. By doing this, it is possible to continuously change the curvature that was discontinuously changed in the past, that is, the acceleration, and it is possible to enhance the stability of the can after it has been transferred onto the can stand, and to prevent flange deformation and buckling. It is possible to solve such problems.

A spiral curve in which the curvature changes monotonously with the length of the curve is known as a curve in which the curvature continuously changes. This curve is called clothoid or Cornu's spiral, and there is an example of being used in the discharge part to the discharge conveyor after filling in the filler, and in other cases, continuous curves between highways It is used to tie the smooth.

This curve will be described with reference to FIG. The curvature from the star wheel 1 to the can stand has a curvature of 1 / r ₁
A curve a that changes from 0 to 0 and a curve b that changes the curvature from 0 to 1 / r ₂ are connected and used. The two connection points are taken as the origin and the coordinates shown in FIG. Take system.

In this coordinate system, the spiral curve is represented by the following equation (1) in the parametric representation using p, where p is the length along the curve.

(Equation 1) Here, the coefficient α is calculated by the following equation (2) from the radius r and the connection curve start angle Θ.

(Equation 2)

In order to simplify the expression, the functions D (p) and S (p) defined by the equation (3) will be used below.

(Equation 3)

Using this function, the above spiral curve is
It can be expressed as (4). X (p) = 1 / α ・ D (αp) Y (p) = 1 / α ・ S (αp) (4) Center coordinates O of the star wheel 1 or filler 2
₀ (X ₀ , Y ₀ ), the connection curve start point coordinates (Xr, Yr), and the spiral curve length ps to the connection curve start point are calculated by the following equations.
It can be obtained from the equations (5), (6) and (7).

(Equation 4) If the curvature is κ and the radius of curvature is q, these are
The relationship shown in (8) is established. κ = 1 / q = α ² p (8)

As shown in FIG. 1, if the radius ratio of the star wheel pitch circle radius r ₁ and the filler pitch circle radius r ₂ is λ (= r ₂ / r ₁ ), and the speed of the can is v, Between the acceleration α ₁ (= v ² / r ₁ ) that the can receives in the star wheel 1 and the acceleration α ₂ (= v ² / r ₂ ) that the can receives on the can base,
The following relationship holds: α ₁ = λ · α ₂ ··· (9) The length of the spiral curve on the star wheel side from the origin is p
₁ (= 2r ₁ Θ ₁ ), the length of the spiral curve on the filler side p ₂ (= 2
r ₂ Θ ₂ ), in order to make the time change rate of acceleration constant, there is a relationship of p ₁ : p ₂ = α ₁ : α ₂ = λ: 1 (10) Is good.

From these, the following relationship is found regarding the connection curve start angle. Θ ₁ = λ ² Θ ₂ (11) At this time, the amount by which the center of the star wheel and the center of the filler are separated, that is, the offset amount d is given by the following equation (12). In the coordinate system of FIG. 1, the coordinate point O ₁ at the center of the star wheel is represented as (X ₁ , Y ₁ ) and the coordinate point O ₂ at the center of the filler body is represented as (−X ₂ , −Y ₂ ). .

(Equation 5) Using the above connection curve, set the connection curve start angle to Θ ₁ = 12
The solid line (a) shows the change in acceleration applied to the can in the case of θ and Θ ₂ = 4/3 ° (λ = 3). It is clear that in the conventional case where the connection curve is not used, the acceleration which is discontinuously changed as shown by the broken line (b) is continuously changed by connecting using the spiral curve.

In FIG. 1, the can sent by the star wheel 1 has a star wheel connection curve starting point coordinate A.
(Xr _1, Yr ₁₎ coordinate point B (-Xr _2, -Yr ₂₎ through the cans are made to be possess to completely Kandai, unless Yara Press pocket section 3 of the star wheel 1 to this position , I can't move at a constant speed. Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, the outer diameter R ₁ of the star wheel is made larger than the pitch circle diameter, and the star wheel pocket 3 supports up to the point where the can c is completely transferred onto the can base. I am trying. Now, assuming that the point at which this point is transferred to the can stand is a support point and the amount of this point moving away from the pitch circle diameter of the star wheel is the eccentricity amount, the eccentricity amount e can be obtained by the following equation (13).

(Equation 6)

When this eccentricity e becomes large, the outer diameter of the star wheel must be made large, but when the outer diameter of the star wheel becomes too large, as is apparent from FIG.
Timing screw 1 on the infeed conveyor 10
Since it will interfere with 1, the outer diameter of the star wheel must be suppressed to the extent that it does not interfere. The outer diameter of the star wheel can be made larger than the diameter of the star wheel pitch circle.
Fillers for 0 ml cans generally have a radius of 10 to 2
It is about 0 mm. Therefore, the eccentricity e of the supportable point is 40 mm or less. When the relationship between the ratio λ of the star wheel pitch circle radius and the filler body radius where the eccentricity is 40 mm or less and the connection curve start angle Θ is obtained by the above equation (13), the range shown as the applicable area in FIG. 4 is obtained. .

That is, in FIG. 4, when a combination of λ and Θ ₂ outside the applicable area is used, e> 40, which does not interfere with the timing screw, and the star wheel pocket does not interfere with the transfer to the can stand. It will be impossible to support. Therefore, in this case, the connection curve start angle Θ ₂ should be a value of about 1.46 ° at the maximum. Further, the range of the offset amount is as shown in FIG. 5 when it is obtained for the connection curve start angle Θ ₂ from the equation (12). In this figure, the offset amount is the filler pitch circle radius r
It is displayed as dimensionless in ₂ . From this, it can be seen that the offset amount is in the range of d / r ₂ <0.035. For example, filler pitch circle radius r ₂ = 2,000 m
When m, the allowable range of the offset amount is 70 mm at maximum.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
The present invention is not limited to this, and various design changes are possible within the scope of its technical idea. For example, the connection curve does not necessarily have to be based on the Cornu spiral, but other spiral curves can be adopted. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied not only to a can but also to a filler feeding device for filling the contents into a bottle or another container.

[0025]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention is configured as described above, and the container moves along a curve in which the curvature continuously changes from the star wheel to the filler main body and is supplied to the filler main body.
It is possible to avoid sudden changes in acceleration at the transfer section,
The stability of the container that has been transferred to the filler body can be increased, and even with the recent high-speed filling filler, problems such as flange deformation and buckling of the container can be eliminated, and the container and the filling valve It is possible to improve the fitting property of. Therefore, it is possible to further speed up the operation of the filler, and in the case of the filler for the can, it is possible to stably fill the can with a thin plate thickness, which can contribute to achieving a thinner can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a trajectory of a can when a star wheel and a filler body are connected to each other by using a spiral curve whose curvature monotonously changes in a container feeding device of the present invention, and a coordinate system of the curvature monotonous change spiral curve. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view of a shape of a main part of the infield star wheel of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a comparison of changes in acceleration applied to a container according to the present invention and a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a ratio of a filler pitch circle radius to a star wheel pitch circle radius applicable to the present invention and a range of a connection curve start angle.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship between an offset amount and a connection curve start angle.

FIG. 6 is a schematic layout diagram of a container feeding device in a conventional filler.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a main part thereof.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Star wheel 2 Filler body 3 Pocket

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A container feeding device for a filler for filling a container such as a can or a bottle with a liquid, wherein a pitch circle of the filler main body and a star wheel for supplying the container to the filler main body are separated by a predetermined offset amount. So as to be installed separately, and the transport trajectory of the container from the star wheel to the filler body follows a connection curve that continuously changes from the same curvature as the pitch circle of the star wheel to the same curvature as the pitch circle of the filler body. A container feeding device for a filler, characterized in that guides are arranged in such a manner. 2. The container feeder for the filler according to claim 1, wherein the connection curve is a spiral curve whose curvature monotonously changes. 3. The container feeder for the filler according to claim 1, wherein the offset amount is 0.035 times or less the filler pitch circle radius. 4. The container feeder for the filler according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the outer diameter of the star wheel is larger than the pitch circle diameter within a range of 40 mm or less.