JPH11348912A - Method and equipment for packaging adhesive product or similar product - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To package an adhesive product easily, by extruding together a liquid adhesive product and a protection coating non-adherent-material within an extruding tool and by carrying out a solidifying process right after that. SOLUTION: A liquefied adhesive product is taken out of a tank 10 by a metering pump 20, is sent to an extruding device 30 by a line 22, and is caused to flow into the tubular member of an extruding tool. At the same time as it, a proper carrying device takes a protection coating non-adherent-material out of a tank 50, sends it to the extruding device 30, and causes it to flow into an annular passage of the extruding tool, thereby consecutively coating the periphery of the adhesive product passing through the tubular member with the non-adherent-material. Then, the extruded product consecutively flowing out from the extruding tool is subjected to a solidifying process by being directly transferred into a water tank 60 having a spirally extending cooling-passage 62. Further, in the vicinity of the entrance of the water tank 60, by means of a constricting cylinder the extruded product is formed into packets connected as in a chain, is subjected to a drying process, and is cut off into separate packets.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for packaging an adhesive product according to the features of claims 1 and 10. The invention also relates to a packaged adhesive product or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In practice, adhesive products, for example in the form of hot melt adhesives, are not generally used on the shop floor. The adhesive product must be packaged in a suitable transport container so that it can be transported from the manufacturing site to the point of use. Thus, an important function of the shipping container is to keep the means used for shipping and possibly storage out of contact with the adhesive product. The shipping container must also be configured such that the adhesive product is completely removed, ie, does not adhere to the inner wall of the container.

US Pat. No. 5,373,582 describes a method and equipment of the type described above in which a piece of plastic film is first continuously formed into a hollow tubular body by a film bonding apparatus. It is. The production of such a hollow tubular body is performed at a filling station for packaging an adhesive product. The tip of the tubular body in this tube forming direction is first contracted by a clamping roller, whereby the tubular body is closed at one end. Thereafter, the liquid adhesive product is filled into the tubular body closed at one end. After this filling has taken place to some extent, the next part of the continuously formed tubular body is also contracted by the clamping rollers, whereby individual packets filled with the adhesive product are produced. Such packets are cooled at a predetermined temperature before being separated from the continuously formed tubular body.

The method and equipment described above uses a plastic film for protective coating,
The disadvantage is that a hollow tubular body must be made from the film by a complex manufacturing method. That is, due to such a complicated manufacturing method, the filling equipment itself requires additional parts and additional parts, which leads to an increase in the cost of the filling equipment.

[0005] US Patent No. 3,469,363 also discloses the aforementioned US Patent No. 5,373,682 (No. 5,373,5).
No. 82) is described. The essential difference is that the tubular body is made from two plastic films instead of one plastic film. Therefore, in this case, US Pat. No. 5,373,68.
The problem described in No. 2 (error of No. 5,373, 582) occurs twice.

Finally, US Pat. No. 3,327,349 describes an extruder for applying a coating to a product to be extruded by a co-extrusion (co-extrusion) process.
The material to be coated is in a viscous state so that the protective coating can be easily applied to the adhesive product.

[0007] It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and equipment of the type described above which allows packaging of an adhesive product in a simple and effective manner. It is another object of the present invention to provide an adhesive product of the type described above which is effectively packaged within a protective coating.

For this method, the object is claimed in claim 1
Achieved by the features of By co-extrusion of the liquid adhesive product and the non-tacky material for the protective coating in an extruder (co-extrusion), the adhesive product can be packaged very simply and effectively. This method does not require the complicated operations required in the two methods described in US Pat. No. 5,373,682 (difference in number) and US Pat. No. 3,469,363.

[0009] Depending on the viscosity of the adhesive product and the viscosity of the protective coating, it may be advantageous to carry out the coagulation treatment immediately after the coextrusion treatment. To perform this coagulation process successfully, the extruded product can be subjected to various processes. For example, it may be particularly effective to guide the extruded product a predetermined distance to solidify the extruded product.

[0010] If the adhesive product is heated for liquefaction, the coagulation process comprises the step of cooling the extruded product comprising the liquid adhesive product and a protective coating for the adhesive product. Can be.

A particularly simple method of this cooling treatment is to immerse the extruded product obtained by the coextrusion treatment in a water bath. For this purpose, the product to be extruded can be discharged directly into the water bath. This can be achieved by the following configuration. That is, the extruder for coextrusion discharges below the surface of the water tank so that the product to be extruded is immediately completely surrounded by water when it flows out of the extruder. In order to perform various other treatments on the extruded product after cooling in the water tank, it is desirable to perform a drying treatment after the cooling treatment.

In order to facilitate the handling of the extruded product by the user of the adhesive product, it is desirable to cut the extruded product into individual packets after the coextrusion process, particularly after the coagulation process. In order to facilitate this separation process, it is preferable that the product to be extruded is preliminarily segmented to form a chain-like packet connected to each other before final solidification. This chain may resemble, for example, chained sausages connected to each other. For this chaining, it is preferable to perform the above pre-fractionation when the product to be extruded is flexible enough to be sufficiently deformable by a machine tool.

[0013] The purpose of this facility is to provide
Achieved by the features of The same advantages exist for this installation as described for the method of the invention described above. Also in the case of this equipment, it is preferable that the solidification path is directly connected to the extruded product outlet of the extruder. In order to make the equipment particularly compact, it is effective to extend the coagulation path spirally in one plane, preferably in a horizontal plane.

As mentioned above in the method of the present invention, the coagulation treatment can be a cooling treatment if the adhesive product is heated for its liquefaction. Thus, the solidification path is constituted by the cooling path. In general, the cooling channel can consist of a special cooling device, for example a cool air fan, however, a particularly simple means of ensuring gentle handling of the product is to provide a cooling channel in the form of an aquarium. It is. The cooling bath may use water or other liquid that is chemically neutral to the extruded product. The cooling bath liquid can also be used to treat a protective coating on the extruded product.

In order to cool the extruded product as quickly as possible after it has exited the extruder, the extruded product can preferably be discharged directly into a water bath. For this purpose, as described above, the extruded product outlet of the extruding tool may face below the surface of the water tank so that the product to be extruded is immediately and completely surrounded by water when flowing out of the extruding tool. Particularly preferred.

In order to properly pull out the product to be extruded from the extruder, it is preferable to provide a drawing roller for the product to be extruded in the water tank. In order to transport the product to be extruded in the water tank, various transporting means can be used. The extruded product that has flowed out of the extrusion tool has residual heat,
Since it is still deformable, a gentle transport method must be used. For this purpose, the product to be extruded is conveyed at least part way along the cooling path by means of a water spray nozzle. Of course, this transport means can be combined with other transport means. In order to facilitate processing of the product to be extruded after cooling, it is preferable to provide a drying path after the water tank.

As described above with respect to the method of the present invention, it is preferable that the extruded product flowing out of the coagulation path is separated by a separating device into a divided packet. This facilitates the use and especially the distribution of the product to be extruded. If the coagulation path is provided with a clamping (compression) device to form a chain of interconnected products from the extruder prior to final coagulation, the above-described separation step can be performed more easily. it can. Such a clamping device can for example consist of two star-shaped rollers, the product to be extruded from the extruder flowing between these rollers. These star-shaped rollers have several ribs projecting radially outward over their entire outer circumference, the number of ribs being determined according to the length of the packet. The two star rollers are arranged such that two opposing ribs sandwich the product to be extruded therebetween.

If the product to be extruded is solidified by cooling in the water bath, it is particularly advantageous to arrange a clamping device between the product to be extruded and the extraction roller in the water bath.

The extruder can use an extrusion head having an inlet port for the adhesive product, an outlet port for the adhesive product, and an annular outlet port for the non-tacky protective coating material, respectively. The inlet and outlet ports for the product are connected at least substantially coaxially, and the annular outlet port for the non-stick material is located between the inlet and outlet ports for the adhesive product.

It should be noted that the adhesive product packaged by the method and equipment according to the present invention is that the non-tacky protective coating can be chemically neutral to the adhesive product. The protective coating can also be chemically compatible with the adhesive product. The protective coating may also be composed of a material that is non-tacky to the outside, but that reacts with the adhesive product at the interface layer between the protective coating and the adhesive product. In each of these cases, it is preferred that the protective coating can be treated with the adhesive product during subsequent use of the adhesive product without having to remove it from the adhesive product. The protective coating should range from about 1-5% by weight of the adhesive product.

It should be noted that the term "adhesive product" does not mean that the adhesive product has the function of exhibiting adhesive properties as a result of its chemical composition, but the function of connecting two or several parts by bonding. Structures having fabrics
Is also included. Such materials can also be easily packaged by the method and equipment according to the invention. The invention is particularly effective when used in hot melt adhesives. In the following, examples embodying the present invention and other preferred embodiments are described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, an installation according to the invention for packaging an adhesive product or similar product has a tank 10 for containing the adhesive product. The adhesive product can be put into the tank 10 in the form of fine particles or powder, and is liquefied in the tank 10 by a heating device (not shown).
Such an adhesive product to be packaged later can also be introduced into a tank in liquid form in advance and kept in a liquid state by a heating device in this tank.

The liquid adhesive product is metered from this tank 10 via a connection line 12 to a metering pump.
pump 20). From this metering pump 20, the adhesive product is fed via a connection line 22 to an extruder 3
Transferred to 0. The pushing tool 32 of the pushing device 30
Will be described in further detail later with reference to FIGS. As the extruder 30, any known configuration of a single screw type extruder or a twin screw type extruder can be used.

As shown in FIG. 1, another tank 50 is
It contains a non-tacky material that constitutes a protective coating (sheath). This non-adhesive material can also be charged into the tank 50 in the form of fine particles or powder and liquefied in the tank 50 by a heating device (not shown).

The non-tacky material for this protective coating construction can also be charged in advance to the tank 50 in liquid form and maintained in a liquid state in the tank 50 by a heating device. The non-stick material for the protective coating configuration is transferred from the tank 50 to the extruder 30 via the connection line 52.

From the extruder 30, specifically, the extruder 3
2 (see FIG. 4), the extruded product continuously extruded, ie, the product to be extruded E, is an adhesive product from the tank 10 and a non-adhesive product from the tank 50 in the form of a film covering the adhesive product. Protective coating. The product E to be extruded is conveyed to the cooling device 60.
The cooling device 60 has a passage 62 containing water, which helically extends from the outside, i.e. from the extrusion device 30 to the inside in a plane, in particular in a horizontal plane, as shown in FIG. Exist. 2 and 3, the cooling device 60 is supported by a frame 64, which also supports the extrusion device 30. The passage 62 of the water tank 60 can be configured by arranging a contour having a U-shaped portion in a spiral shape in a horizontal plane. Alternatively, the passage 62 can be formed by providing a container having a baffle (baffle) extending spirally. In the embodiment shown, the cooling path is 190 m long and comprises a tank or vessel 2.5 × 4.5 m in size.

After passing through the cooling path formed by the passage 62, the product E to be extruded is pulled obliquely upward from the cooling device 60 by the conveyor belt 80 as shown in FIGS. Upon leaving the path 62, the extruded product E is dried while moving along the drying path formed by the conveyor belt 80. This drying can be achieved by installing a hot air fan 90 above the drying path. At the end of the drying path formed by the conveyor belt 80, a separating device 100 is provided.
The separating apparatus 100 separates individual packets (packets) EP of the product E to be extruded. The conveyor belt 80, the drying device 90, and the separating device 10
0 will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 shows the arrangement of the extruding device 30, the cooling device 60, the outlet conveyor belt 80, the drying device 90, and the separating device 100. Extruded product E is
As soon as it flows out of the extruder 32 of the extruder 30, it enters the water tank. This water tank is constituted by a water passage extending spirally in a horizontal plane. In other words, the extruding tool 32 discharges the extruded product E into the water tank such that the product E is completely surrounded by water when flowing out of the extruding tool 32. Two clamping rollers 66a, 66b of a clamping or compression device 66
Is located in the conveying direction of the product E to be extruded, in the immediate vicinity of the extruding tool. As shown in FIG. 4, the rotation axes of these tightening rollers 66a, 66b are essentially horizontal. Each of the tightening rollers 66a, 66b has six ribs protruding outward in the radial direction, and these ribs are arranged at equal angular intervals around the rotation axis. The two tightening rollers 66a, 66b are arranged such that one rib of the upper roller 66a and one rib of the lower roller 66b face in the vertical plane of the axis of the two rollers 66a, 66b. ing. Two tightening rollers 66a, 6
6b preliminarily subdivides the extruded product E flowing out of the extruding tool 32 to form extruded product packets EP having the same size and shape and separated from each other. These packets are connected to each other in a chain.

A pulling or conveying device 68 is arranged behind the tightening device 66 in the direction in which the extruded product E or the extruded product packet EP is conveyed.
Reference numeral 8 includes two transport rollers 68a and 68b. These two transport rollers 68a, 68b are also mounted on the tightening rollers 66a, 66b of the tightening device 66 such that their respective horizontally extending rotation axes extend in the drawing of FIG. 4 and overlap in a vertical plane. Are arranged in parallel to each other. The product packet EP to be extruded passes through two rollers 68a, 68b. It should be noted that the conveying device 68 functions to hold the product E to be extruded after flowing out of the extruding device 30 in water.

After passing through the extrusion device 68, the various extruded product packets EP reach the water surface of the aquarium and are conveyed along the passage 62 by several water spray nozzles 70. The water used for the water spray nozzle is taken from the passage 62 by a pump 72 schematically illustrated in FIG. 4 and sent to the spray nozzle 70. Two connection lines 74, 76 are provided for this purpose. That is, the line 74 connects the pump 72 to the water tank in the cooling passage 62, and the line 76 connects the pump 72 to the spray nozzle 70.

After the product packet EP to be extruded has passed through the end of the spiral cooling passage 62, the conveyer belt 80
Reach The conveyor belt 80 separates the extruded product packet EP from the cooling passage 62 and sends it to the apparatus 100. The separating device 100 will be described later in detail. Conveyor belt 80 also has drying device 9
0, for example, a part of a drying path provided with a hot air fan. The hot air fan 90 is connected to a hot air source (not shown).

In the transport direction, the conveyor belt 80
A disconnecting device 100 is disposed behind. The separating device 100 can be constituted by a knife. As shown in FIG. 4, the separating device 100 can also be composed of two conveyor belts 100a, 100b, which extend parallel to each other and are upward in a vertical plane. It is arranged to overlap and is located behind the conveyor belt 80 in the transport direction. The separating device 100 may also include a roller 102 at the end of the conveyor belt 80, which roller 102 is located above the conveyor belt 80 and has various extruded product packets EP.
Is sandwiched between the roller 102 and the conveyor belt 80. Since there is a difference in the transport speed between the conveyor belts 100a, 100b and 80 and the roller 102, the extruded product packet EP is separated from the chain. After passing through the separating device 100, the extruded product packet EP falls into the transport container T schematically shown in FIG.

It should be noted that the cooling device 110 is connected to the cooling passage 62 by two lines 112 and 114, and the water is cooled by the cooling device 110.
Is sent to This cooling device 110 can also include a pump 116. It should be further noted that the tubular member 120 can be placed in a water tank to control the water level.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show details of an extruder 32 that can be used with the equipment and method according to the present invention. The extruder 32 has an adhesive product inlet port 34 and an adhesive product outlet port 36, the inlet and outlet ports 34, 36 being flanged 34a, 36a.
And two tubular members each having The two tubular members 34 and 36 have the same inner diameter and outer diameter, and are accommodated or seated coaxially (coaxially) in a holder 38. The holder 38 has a corresponding inner hole 38a having an inner diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the two tubular members 34, 36. The tubular member 34 constituting the extruded product inlet port includes:
It is fixed in the holder 38 by several screws 34b. These screws 34b pass through the flange 34a.
The flange 34a is located at a certain distance from the outer left end of the tubular member 34 shown in FIG. Flange 3
A seal ring 40 is arranged between 4a and holder 38. The tubular member 34 has an external thread portion 34c at an end remote from the holder 38, and is connected to the extrusion device 30 by the external thread portion 34c.

The tubular member 36 having an outlet port for the product E to be extruded is screwed into a holder 38 by an external screw 36b, and is held in the holder 38 by a locking nut 37.

The two tubular members 34 and 36 are
8 are coaxial within the inner bore 38a, but are held with a certain gap. The gap between the two tubular members 34, 36 forms an annular passage 42, and the annular passage 42
Is connected to the connection line 52 by the inlet hole 44.
The connection line 52 leads to a tank 50 containing a non-stick material for forming a protective coating. Inlet passage 44
Has an internal thread 44a for connection to the line 52. As shown in FIG. 5, the direction of the inlet passage 44 is at an angle of 90 ° with respect to the inner hole 38 a of the holder 38. Also, as shown in FIG. 6, the passage 44 has two tubular members 34,
It is located in a plane including the central axis of 36. The inlet passage 44 also has a portion 44b, the diameter of which is smaller than the diameter of the inlet of the inner threaded portion 44a, leading to the annular passage 42.

To pack the adhesive product by the method according to the invention, the liquefied adhesive product is removed from the tank 10 by the metering pump 20 and sent to the extruder 30 by the line 22. The adhesive product flows into a tubular member having an inlet port 34 of the extruder 32. At the same time, a suitable conveying device takes out the non-adhesive material for protective coating from the tank 50 and pushes out the extruder 30.
Send to The non-stick material flows into the inlet passage 44 having the large diameter portion 44a, then into the small diameter portion 44b, and from there into the annular passage 42. Thus, the non-stick material from tank 50 continuously coats the adhesive product passing through tubular members 34,36. In this way, an extruded product E is produced, and the extruded product E is supplied to the outlet 3
6 directly into the water tank of the cooling passage 62. In the water tank, the product E to be extruded is caught by the tightening cylinders (rollers) 66a and 66b and is divided into a continuous chain-like separated product packet EP to be extruded. To achieve the cooling method, a chain of various extruded product packets EP is held below the surface by a drawing device 68. After passing through the drawing device 68, the extruded product packet EP reaches the water surface, from where it is transported by the spray nozzle 70 along the spiral cooling passage 62 towards the outlet conveyor belt 80. The extruded product packets EP are dried by a drying device at the outlet conveyor belt 80, and cut into individual packets by the separating device 100.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an installation according to the invention for performing a method according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the installation according to the invention shown in FIG. 1 in the direction of arrow X in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view showing the equipment of FIG. 1 in the direction of arrow Y in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the equipment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an extruder that can be used in the method and equipment according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing an extruder according to the present invention.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Nicholas Bobisshon France. 92310 Severes, Liu Croix Bothell 30

Claims (25)

[Claims] 1. A method for packaging a liquid adhesive product or the like, particularly a hot-melt adhesive product, wherein the liquid adhesive product is coated with a protective coating comprising a non-tacky material. Wherein the extruded product thus formed from the adhesive product and the protective coating is subjected to a solidification treatment, at least for the protective coating. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the coagulation process is performed immediately after the co-extrusion process. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the product to be extruded is guided a predetermined distance for the purpose of the solidification. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the solidification process comprises a cooling process. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the cooling is performed by immersing the extruded product in a water tank. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the product to be extruded immediately flows into the water tank after flowing out of the co-extrusion extrusion tool. 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the extruded product is subjected to a drying treatment after the cooling treatment. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the individual packets are separated from the extruded product after the coagulation process. 9. The product to be extruded, after flowing out of the co-extrusion extruder, is first subdivided into a continuous chain of discrete packets prior to final solidification. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8. 10. A liquid adhesive product or a similar product,
In particular, in an adhesive product packaging facility for applying a protective coating of a non-tacky material to a hot melt adhesive product, in particular for achieving a method according to any of the preceding claims, said facility comprises an extrusion tool (32). ), The adhesive product is supplied to the extruder in a liquid state, and the non-tacky material constituting the protective coating is adhered onto the liquid adhesive product by co-extrusion to form the liquid adhesive. Coating the agent product and the coagulation path (60)
Equipment located after 2), whereby at least the protective coating is solidified. 11. The installation according to claim 10, characterized in that the solidification path (60) is located immediately after the outlet (36) of the product to be extruded from the extruder (32). 12. The solidification path (60) spirally extending in a plane.
Equipment described in. 13. The installation according to claim 10, wherein the solidification path comprises a cooling path (60). 14. The installation according to claim 13, wherein the cooling path (60) comprises a water tank (62). 15. The installation according to claim 14, wherein the extruded product outlet (36) of the extruder (32) discharges directly into the water bath (62). 16. The installation according to claim 14, wherein the water bath (62) has rollers (68a, 68b) for drawing out the product to be extruded (E). 17. The product to be extruded (E) is movable in the water bath (62) by a water spray nozzle (70) at least in part over the entire length of the cooling path (60). The equipment according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that: 18. A method according to claim 14, wherein a drying path is located after the water tank.
The equipment according to any one of the above items 7. 19. The solidification path (62) is provided with a clamping device (6).
6), and a separation packet (E) in which the shapes of the extruded products (E) flowing out of the extruding tool (32) are connected to each other in a chain by the tightening device (66).
10. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method is changed to P).
The equipment according to any one of the above items 8. 20. The tightening device (66) comprises: an extruded product outlet (36) of the extruder (32); and the draw-out rollers (68a, 68b) in the water tank (62).
20. It is located between the following.
Equipment described in. 21. A device according to claim 10, wherein a separating device is located behind the cooling channel and separates individual packets from the product to be extruded. Equipment according to any of the above. 22. The extruder (32) includes an adhesive product inlet port (34) and the extruded product outlet port (3).
6), the inlet port (34) and the outlet port (3
6) and an annular outlet port (42) for the non-tacky material constituting the protective coating, wherein the adhesive product inlet port and the extruded product outlet port are at least substantially The equipment according to any one of claims 10 to 21, wherein the equipment is connected coaxially. 23. A packaged adhesive product, especially a hot melt adhesive product, covered by a non-stick protective coating applied by a coextrusion method to at least the in-process adhesive product in the liquid state. 24. The packaged adhesive product of claim 23, wherein said non-tacky material for said protective coating is chemically compatible with said adhesive product. 25. The adhesive coating of claim 1, wherein said protective coating comprises about 1 part of said adhesive product.
25. The packaged adhesive product according to claim 23 or claim 24, wherein the content is from 5 to 5% by weight.