JPH0986507A - Carton assembling and filling machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate filling and sealing processing after re-form folding by folding an ear section of a sealed carton by a re-form folding device and a straightening device, and providing a top face forming device. SOLUTION: A folding inclination given to a supplied carton by a re-form folding device 2 of a filling section A2 is weakened by a next straightening device 3 to a certain extent. Thereafter, the carton is sent to a filling device 4, a top heating device 5, and a top press device 6. Next, the carton is formed by a top forming device 8 of a top forming section A3. The filling device 4 is not short of opening of the carton and leakage in filling is not generated. Also in the heating device, irregularity in the shape of the opening of the carton can be restrained by operation of the straightening device 3. Accordingly, sealing can be done at a constant quality.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carton in which a carton based on paper, plastic or the like is filled with an object such as a liquid or powder, and then the upper end of the carton is sealed to form a flat top. Assembling and filling machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a liquid- or powder-filled carton made of paper or the like is filled with a liquid or powder, the carton supplied in a folded state is unfolded to seal the bottom of the carton. Fill and then seal the top. The sealed upper end is formed in a gable roof shape or a flat surface shape with the sealed portion as a ridge. The upper end of the gable roof carton may be referred to as a gobel top and the upper end of a flat surface may be referred to as a flat top, and these expressions are appropriately used in this specification. As an assembling and filling machine for molding a flat top, for example, JP-A-56-489 is used.
No. 01 publication, No. 60-16486 official publication, No. 5
The one disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 44252/1992 is known. In these machines, the upper end of the carton is curled and sealed after the filling process.

[0003]

In a flat-top assembling and filling machine, it is necessary to fold the upper end of the carton until the upper surface of the carton becomes a substantially flat surface (horizontal surface) except for the sealing portion at the upper edge thereof. For this reason, it is sufficient to bend the upper end portion of the carton into an inclined surface shape, and the carton is provided with a fold that is far stronger than when the gobel top is formed. Therefore, if a flat-top fold is provided before filling, the opening of the carton may be narrowed, which may interfere with the subsequent filling and sealing processes.

An object of the present invention is to provide an assembling / filling machine for a carton, which can be easily filled and hermetically sealed after being bent.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a rib portion formed by abutting an upper end edge of the carton along one direction to a carton supplied with the upper end open, and a body portion of the carton, In a fold-back device that folds so that flat ears that project in a triangular shape in a direction are generated, a fold-back device that weakens the fold of the carton given by the fold-folding device, and the fold-back device. A filling device that fills the carton that has been treated with the object with the object, a top heating device that heats the inner surface side of the rib portion of the carton after the object is filled, and the habit after heating with the top heating device. A sealing device that folds the carton and seals the rib portion according to the folding provided by a folding device, and the rib portion of the carton processed by the sealing device, and A carton assembling and filling machine having an upper surface molding device that sequentially folds the ear parts and joins the ear parts to the body part of the carton to mold the upper surface of the carton into a substantially flat surface. Achieve the purpose.

According to the present invention, it is possible to increase the opening area of the carton by weakening the fold by the fold-back device after the fold. Therefore, the filling and sealing can be easily performed after the curling.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a carton assembling and filling machine. This carton assembling and filling machine is a bottom molding unit A1 for molding and sealing the bottom of the carton.
And a filling section A2 for filling the carton with an object and sealing it.
And a top molding portion A3 forming a flat top. Known methods and devices may be used for molding and sealing the bottom portion of the bottom molding portion A1, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

At the supply position P1 of the filling section A2, the carton processed in the bottom molding section A1 is supplied, for example, manually. The supplied carton is sequentially guided to the filling section A2 and the top molding section A3, and processed according to the procedure shown in FIGS. Hereinafter, the procedure for assembling the carton CT will be described prior to the various devices provided in both parts A2 and A3.

FIG. 2 (a) shows the carton CT when it is supplied to the filling section A2. At the top of the carton CT,
A ruled line (bending line, shown by a dashed line in the figure) K necessary for molding the flat top is pre-marked. The carton CT is formed by three-dimensionally bending a sheet material made of paper whose front and back surfaces are coated with a heat-welding resin. Therefore, the sheet material bonding portion CT1 exists at one location around the carton CT. In the illustrated example, the bonded portion CT1 is aligned with one corner of the carton CT.

The carton CT supplied to the filling section A2 is
First, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), it is folded and folded. At this stage, a rib portion CT3 is formed by abutting the upper edge of the carton CT in a horizontal line with a predetermined width, and the upper surface CT4 of the carton CT is folded until it becomes substantially flat (horizontal). Flat ears CT5 are formed on both sides of the upper surface CT4 so as to project in a triangular shape from the body CT6 of the carton CT toward both ends of the rib CT3. The direction of the rib portion CT3 is parallel to the joint surface of the bonding portion CT1. After the curl-fold in FIG. 2B, the upper end of the carton CT is folded back in the direction before the curl-fold as shown in FIG. 2C, and the curl is weakened. After that, the object (for example, liquid such as milk and juice, powder such as detergent) is filled from the opening of the carton CT.

After the filling, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the carton CT is refolded following the folding provided at the stage of FIG. 2 (b) to seal the rib portion CT3. After this, as shown in FIG. 3B, the rib portion CT3 has the upper surface CT4.
Fold it in close contact with. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 3C, the ear CT5 is joined to the body CT6.

In order to perform the above processing, the filling section A2 has
The first conveying device 1, the curling device 2, the curling device 3,
Filling device 4, top heating device 5 and top pressing device 6
However, the second molding device 7 and the top molding device 8 are provided in the top molding portion A3. Hereinafter, FIGS.
These devices will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a part of the main part of the first transfer device 1 with some parts omitted. A cross section taken along line Va-Va of FIG. 4 is shown in FIG. 5 (a), and a cross section taken along line Vb-Vb is shown in FIG. 5 (b). As is clear from these figures, the first transfer device 1 includes a base 11 rotatable about a vertical axis 10 and eight arms 1 mounted on the outer periphery of the base 11 at equal pitches in the rotational direction.
2 and a basket 1 attached to the tip of the arm 12.
And 3. The basket 13 includes a support plate 13a extending in the vertical direction and two types of rods 13b and 13c protruding from the support plate 13a to the outside of the vertical shaft 10 in the radial direction. Hold from. The base 11 is intermittently rotated by 45 ° (equal to the circumferential pitch of the arm 12) in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 1 with reference to the state where the supply position P1 and one basket 13 match each other by an indexing mechanism (not shown). Is driven to rotate. The devices 2 to 6 are arranged so as to surround the stop position of the basket 13. Therefore, the carton CT supplied to the supply position P1 is sequentially sent to each of the devices 2 to 6 every time the basket 13 rotates. The carton CT moved from the top press device 6 to the transfer position P2 is
It is transferred to the second transfer device 7 by the transfer mechanism 14 (see FIG. 19) attached to the first transfer device 1. This point will be described later. A pair of ear receivers 13d are provided at the upper end of the basket 13 so as to project in a triangular shape in the rotation direction of the basket 13 (to be exact, a tangential direction).

6 to 9 show the habit folding device 2. This device 2 is a carton CT with a pair of claws 20.
The upper end of the rib is extended from the inside in the longitudinal direction of the rib CT3 (the state is shown by an imaginary line in B1 of FIG. 7), and then the pressing plate 21 is moved from the standby position B2 shown in FIG. 8 to the horizontal position B3. The carton CT is rotated as shown in FIG. 2 (b).
Fold it up to the state shown in. 6 and 7 show the driving portion of the claw 20 and FIGS. 8 and 9 show the driving portion of the pressing plate 21 as the center. The horizontal direction of FIGS. 6 and 8 is the vertical axis 10 of FIG. Corresponds to the radial direction of. 7 and 9 show the driving portions of the claw 20 and the pressing plate 21 as seen from the direction of arrow VII in FIG. 6 and the direction of arrow IX in FIG. 8, respectively. Details of the apparatus are as follows.

The claw 20 and the pressing plate 21 are supported on the lifting table 22 in a state of being rotatable around the respective shafts 200 and 210. A supporting plate 23 is fixed to a frame F of the assembling and filling machine, and a rod 230 hung from the supporting plate 23.
An elevating table 22 is vertically movably mounted on the. A pair of air cylinders 24 are fixed to one side of the lift table 22, and the extension operation of the piston rods 240 thereof is converted by the link mechanism 25 into the above-described rotation operation of the pressing plate 21.
A drive plate 26 is arranged above the lift table 22, and the drive plate 26 is connected to a piston rod 270 of an air cylinder 27 fixed to the support plate 23. The drive plate 26 is combined with the lift table 22 so as to be vertically movable along the rod 220 fixed to the lift table 22. A coil spring 28 attached to the outer periphery of the rod 220 urges the lift table 22 and the drive plate 26 in directions away from each other.
A pair of suspending members 260 are hung from the drive plate 26, and the lower ends of these suspending members 260 are connected to the pawl 20 via a shaft 201.
Is rotatably connected with. When the piston rod 270 of the air cylinder 27 descends (extends), the drive plate 26 and the lifting table 22 integrally descend, the claw 20 and the pressing plate 21 approach the upper end of the carton CT, and the claw 20 moves to the carton CT. At the stage of being inserted into the opening, the elevating table 22 comes into contact with the stopper 231 of the rod 230 and further lowering operation is blocked. After that, the drive plate 26 becomes the coil spring 28.
While moving downward while compressing the
Is converted to the opening operation of.

10 and 11 show the squeeze-back device 3, and the left side of FIG. 10 corresponds to the rotation center side of the first conveying device 1. FIG. 11 shows the state viewed from the direction of arrow XI in FIG.
Shown in This device 3 horizontally moves a pair of pins 30 standing by on the outer peripheral side of the transport path of the carton CT to the rotation center side of the first transport device 1 as shown at B4 in FIG. 2 is inserted into the lower surface of the ear, and then the pin 30 is pivoted upward about the shaft 31 as shown by an arrow Y1 in FIG. 11, whereby the ear CT5 is scooped up.
The carton CT is bent back as shown in (c). The pin 30 is rotatably attached to a shaft 31 via a lever 300, and the shaft 31 is supported by a movable base 32. Movable stand 32
An air cylinder 33 is attached to the shaft 3, and the expansion and contraction of the piston rod 330 is performed by the link mechanism 34.
It is converted into a rotational movement of the pin 30 centered on 1. The movable base 32 is supported so as to be movable in the horizontal direction with respect to a fixed portion 35 of the device 3 (for example, fixed to the frame F of FIG. 6). The movable table 32 is driven by the air cylinder 36, and the pin 30 moves in the horizontal direction.

FIG. 12 shows the filling device 4. The filling device 4 opens the first check valve 41 at the lower end of the tank 40 (also shown in FIG. 1) to suck a predetermined amount of the target object into the cylinder 42, and then closes the first check valve 41 to close the second check valve 41. While opening the check valve 43, the piston 44 is pushed up to push the target object in the cylinder 42 from the nozzle 45 to the carton CT.
To fill. It should be noted that each of the check valves 41 and 43 is driven in the opening direction independently of each other by an air cylinder assigned to each one. In FIG. 12, only the air cylinder 46 on the second check valve 43 side is shown.

13 and 14 show the top heating device 5, FIG. 13 is a side view, and FIG. 14 is an arrow XIV in FIG.
Each corresponds to a plan view from the direction. This device 5
The chamber 50 standing by above the carton CT is lowered by an air cylinder 51 and inserted into the upper end opening of the carton CT, and while supplying hot air from the heater 52 into the chamber 50, the hot air is passed through a through hole ( The inner surface of the rib portion CT3 of the carton CT is heated by being ejected from (not shown). By this heating, the resin on the inner surface of the rib portion CT3 is melted. As shown in FIG. 14, the chamber 50 is formed in a hexagonal shape in plan view. The lower surface side of the chamber 50 is entirely closed.

15 to 18 show the top press device 6. In this device 6, the rib portion CT3 is sandwiched by the pair of sealer jaws 61 while the upper end portion of the carton CT is folded by the pair of pressing plates 60. The resin melted by the heating of the heating device 5 is cooled in the process of being pushed by the sealer jaws 61, whereby the rib portion CT3 is sealed. 15 to 17 mainly show the driving portion of the sealer jaw 61, and the driving portion of the pressing plate 60 is shown in FIG. FIG. 16 shows the device 6 as indicated by the arrow XVI in FIG.
It corresponds to the state seen from the direction. The details of the driving part are as follows.

A pair of rods 62 are attached to a fixing portion 62 (for example, fixed to the frame F of FIG. 6) of the top press device 6.
0 is fixed in the vertical direction, and an elevating table 63 is movably attached to the rod 620. A pair of support plates 64 extending downward is fixed to the lift table 63, and a jaw opening / closing mechanism 65 is provided at the lower end of the support plates 64. As shown in FIG. 17, the jaw opening / closing mechanism 65 includes a shaft 650 supported by the support plate 64, a pair of jaw holders 651A and 651B rotatably supported by the shaft 650, and a jaw holder 651A. A shaft 65 is attached to the upper part of 651B.
Lever 6 rotatably connected via 2A and 652B
53A and 653B and a shaft 654 that rotatably connects the levers 653A and 653B to each other. Axis 654
Is an air cylinder 66 suspended from the lift table 63.
Of the piston rod 660. When the piston rod 660 of the air cylinder 66 is raised, the shaft 654
Are spaced upwardly from the shaft 650, which results in FIG. 17 (b).
As shown in, the jaw holders 651A and 651B rotate to open the sealer jaw 61 fixed to them. When the piston rod 66 is lowered, the jaw opening / closing mechanism 65 operates in the direction opposite to the above, and the sealer jaw 61 moves to the position shown in FIG.
Close as in (a).

An air cylinder 67 is attached to the fixed portion 62, and its piston rod 670 is connected to the lift table 63. By the expansion / contraction operation of the piston rod 670, the lift table 63 is moved to the jaw 61, the support plate 64, and the jaw opening / closing mechanism 6.
5 and the air cylinder 67 move up and down. Fixed part 6
A pair of suspending members 621 are hung from 2 and a pressing plate 60 is rotatably connected to the lower end portions thereof via a shaft 622. As shown in FIG. 18, a link mechanism 68 is provided between the support plate 64 and the pressing plate 60. The linkage mechanism 68 has one end rotatably connected to the hanging member 621 and the other end rotatably connected to the support plate 64, one end to the first lever 680, and the other end to the pressing plate 60. And a second lever 681 that is movably connected.
When the support plate 64 descends along with the jaw holders 651A, 651B, the jaws 61, etc., the pressing plate 60 rotates from the standby position B5 shown by the phantom line B5 in FIG. 18 to the horizontal position shown by the solid line in association with the descending operation. Then, the carton CT is folded in as shown in FIG. After that, when the sealer jaw 61 is closed, the rib portion CT3 is sealed.

FIG. 19 shows a transfer portion from the first transfer device 1 to the second transfer device 7, and the transfer mechanism 14 is provided therein as described above. This transfer mechanism 14
Is a block 1 extruded by the air cylinder 140.
41 is moved in the radial direction of rotation of the basket 13 (left-right direction in the drawing), whereby the carton CT is transferred from the basket 13 to the transfer surface 70 of the second transfer device 7.
In FIG. 19, a state in which the push block 141 is most retracted from the second transport device 7 is shown by a solid line, and a state in which the push block 141 is closest to the second transport device 7 is shown by an imaginary line.

As shown in FIG. 20, five arms 71 parallel to each other are provided on the carrying surface 70 of the second carrying device 7.
A transport frame 71 with 0 is provided. This transport frame 71
Are repeatedly driven in the order shown by arrows M1, M2, M3, and M4 in FIG. 20 by the alternate forward / backward movements of the air cylinders 72 and 73. By the operation of the transport frame 71,
The carton CT sent from the filling section A2 is sequentially taken in between the arms 710 and conveyed by a fixed amount to the post-process side (arrow M3 direction).

21 to 23 show the top molding apparatus 8. As shown in FIG. 3 (b), the top molding device 8 includes a rib folding mechanism 80, a heating mechanism 81, and an earing mechanism 82, which are arranged in order along the transportation path of the carton CT. As shown in FIG. 21, the rib folding mechanism 80
The plate-shaped rib folding tool 800 arranged above the carton CT is lowered to the top surface of the carton CT by the air cylinder 801, and the rib portion CT3 is folded.

As shown in FIG. 22, the heating mechanism 81
Has a pair of chambers 810 facing the lower surface of the ear CT5 and the ear joint region of the body CT6, and a heater 811 for supplying hot air into the chamber 810. Chamber 81
An appropriate number of through holes (not shown) are provided in the facing surfaces of 0, the ear CT5, and the body CT6. The hot air blown out from the chamber 810 causes the lower surface of the ear CT5 and the body CT6.
The ear joining region of is heated, and the resin in the heated portion is melted.

As shown in FIG. 23, the earing mechanism 82
Is a movable base 820 attached to the fixed portion 83 (see FIGS. 21 and 22) of the device 8 so as to be movable up and down, and an air cylinder 821 for driving the movable base 820 in the vertical direction.
And a pair of peculiar folding plates 822 suspended from the movable table 820 and a pair of air cylinders 823 attached to the peculiar folding plates 822. The air cylinder 821 drives the movable table 820 downward. Carton CT
Bend the ears CT5 of the nose with the folding plate 822,
From the middle, pusher 824 with air cylinder 823
To the carton CT side to move the ear CT5 to the body CT6
Press on. The resin melted by the heating of the heating mechanism 81 is cooled in the process in which the ear CT5 is pressed against the body CT6, whereby the ear CT5 is joined to the body CT6.

In the above assembling / filling machine, the folding / unfolding returning device 3 attached to the carton CT by the straightening / folding device 2 is used.
Since the carton CT is guided to the filling device 4 after being weakened to a certain range by, there is no possibility that the filling device 4 has an insufficient opening amount of the carton CT and causes inconvenience such as filling leakage. In the heating device 5 as well, since the process of the squeeze-back device 3 suppresses the variation in the opening shape of the carton CT, the variation in the gap amount between the chamber 50 (see FIG. 14) and the inner surface of the rib portion CT3 of the carton CT is reduced. . Therefore, the carton CT can be sealed with a certain quality, and the carton C
The yield of the T filling and molding process is improved.

The devices 1 to 8 described above are merely examples, and devices of various configurations may be used in each step from the curl folding to the molding of the top.

[0029]

As described above, the assembling and filling machine of the present invention is provided with the squeeze-back device for weakening the folds imparted to the upper end of the carton, and therefore, prior to filling the object or sealing the carton. Even if you fold the carton,
These operations can be easily performed by sufficiently opening the carton in the step of filling the target object and the heating step prior to sealing the carton.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an assembly and filling machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a processing procedure of an upper end portion of a carton by the assembling and filling machine of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a processing procedure following FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a part of a main part of a first transfer device provided in the assembly and filling machine of FIG.

5A and 5B are diagrams showing details of the apparatus of FIG. 4, in which FIG. 5A is a sectional view taken along line Va-Va in FIG. 4, and FIG. 5B is Vb-V in FIG.
Sectional drawing along the b line.

6 is a side view mainly showing a driving portion of a claw of the peculiar folding device provided in the assembly and filling machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the state of the apparatus of FIG. 6 viewed from the direction of arrow VII in the figure.

8 is a side view mainly showing a driving portion of a pressing plate of the peculiar folding device provided in the assembly and filling machine of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a state of the apparatus of FIG. 8 viewed from a direction of an arrow IX in the figure.

FIG. 10 is a view showing a main part of a squeeze-back device provided in the assembly and filling machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a state of the apparatus of FIG. 10 viewed from a direction of an arrow XI in the figure.

12 is a cross-sectional view of a filling device provided in the assembling and filling machine of FIG. 1 taken along the vertical direction.

13 is a side view of a heating device provided in the assembling and filling machine of FIG.

FIG. 14 is a view showing the state of the apparatus of FIG. 13 as seen in the direction of arrow XIV in FIG.

FIG. 15 is a view showing a main part of a top press device provided in the assembly and filling machine of FIG. 1.

16 is a diagram showing the state of the apparatus of FIG. 15 as seen in the direction of arrow XVI in FIG.

17 is a diagram showing details of a jaw opening / closing mechanism of the apparatus of FIG. 15, (a) showing a state in which the sealer jaws are closed, and (b) showing a state in which the sealer jaws are opened.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing details of a drive portion of a holding plate provided in the apparatus of FIG.

19 is a view showing a transfer mechanism for transferring a carton from the first transfer device to the second transfer device in the assembly and filling machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 20 is an enlarged plan view showing the top molding portion A3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 21 is a view showing the apparatus of FIG. 20 as seen from the direction of arrow XXI in FIG.

FIG. 22 is a view showing the heating mechanism shown in FIG. 21 as seen from the direction of arrow XXII in FIG.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing the ear attachment mechanism shown in FIG.
The figure which shows the state seen from the I direction.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... 1st conveying apparatus 2 ... curl folding apparatus 3 ... curl return apparatus 4 ... filling apparatus 5 ... heating apparatus 6 ... top pressing apparatus 7 ... 2nd conveying apparatus 8 ... top molding apparatus A1 ... bottom molding part A2 ... filling Part A3 ... Top molding part CT ... Carton CT3 ... Rib part CT4 ... Upper surface CT5 ... Ear part CT6 ... Body part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rib portion formed by abutting an upper edge of the carton along one direction with a carton supplied with the upper end open, and a flat portion projecting from the body of the carton in a triangular shape in the one direction. A fold device that folds so as to create a ears, a fold-back device that weakens the fold of the carton given by the fold-folding device, and a purpose of the carton processed by the fold-back device A filling device for filling an object, a top heating device for heating the inner surface side of the rib portion of the carton after the object is filled, and a fold imparted by the curse folding device after heating by the top heating device. A sealing device that folds the carton to seal the rib portion in a manner similar to a gusset, and the rib portion and the ear portion of the carton processed by the sealing device are sequentially folded. Moni, assemble filling machine carton and top forming apparatus, comprising: a shaping the ears substantially flat surface of the top surface of the carton by joining the body of the carton.