WO2017110501A1

WO2017110501A1 - Sterilization system

Info

Publication number: WO2017110501A1
Application number: PCT/JP2016/086568
Authority: WO
Inventors: 芳原和希; 東山堅一; 冨永健太; 平山裕二; 飯塚利昭; 守家智士
Original assignee: サントリーホールディングス株式会社
Priority date: 2015-12-25
Filing date: 2016-12-08
Publication date: 2017-06-29
Also published as: JPWO2017110501A1

Abstract

A sterilization system (100) that comprises a sterilization device (1) comprising a gas supply part (30) which supplies a mixed gas containing oxygen, a steam supply part (40) which supplies steam, a plasma generation part (11) which generates ozone-containing plasma from oxygen supplied by the gas supply part (30), an active oxygen generation part (13) which generates active oxygen through a reaction between the plasma and steam supplied by the steam supply part (40), and a discharge part (12) which discharges the plasma and active oxygen as a sterilizing agent (70) , and a transport part (110) which transports subjects (80) being sterilized, wherein a pitch-reducing mechanism (120) for reducing the interval between the subjects (80) being sterilized by the sterilization device (1) is provided .

Description

Sterilization system

The present invention relates to a sterilization system that generates plasma and sterilizes an object to be sterilized using the obtained plasma.

In the PCT / JP2015 / 005185, the present applicant, as a new technique for sterilizing an object to be sterilized such as a cap of a PET bottle, generates active oxygen generated by reacting the plasma with water vapor by generating plasma. We have proposed a sterilizer that uses and sterilizes with plasma. The active oxygen produced in this way contains a large amount of highly reactive hydroxy radicals, and therefore has a high sterilizing effect. Therefore, sterilization can be performed effectively by using this. For this reason, although sterilization using this sterilizer is desired, since this method is a novel method, there is room for further improvement.

Therefore, it is desired to realize a sterilization system that can efficiently perform sterilization using active oxygen.

The sterilization system according to the present invention is
A sterilization system that generates plasma and sterilizes an object to be sterilized using the obtained plasma,
A transport unit for transporting the article to be sterilized;
A gas supply unit for supplying a mixed gas containing oxygen;
A water vapor supply unit for supplying water vapor;
A plasma generation unit for generating plasma containing ozone from the mixed gas supplied from the gas supply unit;
An active oxygen generator that generates active oxygen by reacting the plasma with the water vapor supplied from the water vapor supply unit;
A plurality of sterilizers provided in parallel along the conveying direction of the article to be sterilized, and a discharge unit that discharges the plasma and the active oxygen to the article to be sterilized as a sterilizing agent,
A pitch stuffing mechanism is provided to pack the interval between the objects to be sterilized by the sterilizer.

When the inventor continuously sterilizes the articles to be sterilized in this manner, if the interval between the articles to be sterilized is equal to or larger than a certain interval, the air flow is likely to be disturbed due to the interval. If the plasma and active oxygen are not smoothly applied to the object to be sterilized, and the interval between the objects to be sterilized is reduced, the turbulence of the air current can be effectively reduced, and as a result, the sterilization effect is improved. I found out. In view of this, in this configuration, a pitch filling mechanism that closes the interval between the articles to be sterilized by using a suitable technique found by the inventor is provided. Thereby, the bactericidal effect with respect to a to-be-sterilized thing can be improved. Therefore, sterilization using active oxygen can be performed efficiently.

As one aspect, it is preferable that a plurality of the sterilization apparatuses are arranged in parallel along the conveyance direction of the article to be sterilized.

According to this configuration, since a plurality of sterilization apparatuses are arranged in parallel along the conveyance direction of the object to be sterilized, by discharging plasma and active oxygen from the plurality of sterilization apparatuses to the object to be sterilized, While maintaining the amount of plasma and active oxygen applied to the object, the number of objects to be sterilized per unit time can be increased.

As one aspect, it is preferable to provide an air spraying device that blows air against the object to be sterilized from behind in the transport direction as the pitch filling mechanism.

According to this configuration, the interval between the sterilized objects can be reduced with a simple configuration in which air is blown to propel the sterilized object forward in the conveyance direction.

As one aspect, it is preferable that the conveyance unit is inclined downward toward the front in the conveyance direction, and the article to be sterilized is conveyed using its own weight.

According to this configuration, the system configuration can be simplified without using mechanical means. Further, because of the magnitude relationship between the dynamic friction coefficient and the static friction coefficient, the object to be sterilized is further promoted in a state where the object to be sterilized advances by its own weight, compared with the force for propelling the object to be sterilized with respect to the transport unit. Since the force is small, when combined with a configuration including an air blowing device as the pitch filling mechanism, there is an advantage that pitch filling by blowing air can be easily performed.

As one aspect, the article to be sterilized has at least a first width portion having a first width and a second width portion having a second width larger than the first width, The transport unit is preferably configured such that the two rod-like members are arranged in parallel with each other with a width that is substantially the same as or larger than the first width and smaller than the second width. It is.

According to this configuration, the object to be sterilized can be supported by the rod-shaped member by setting the width of the rod-shaped member as described above. The object to be sterilized is sterilized not only on the surface to be treated with plasma and active oxygen directly from the sterilizer, but also on the part other than the surface to be treated with the plasma and active oxygen dissipated to the surroundings. When transporting the object to be sterilized above, the part of the installation surface with the plate-shaped transport part of the object to be sterilized cannot be sterilized by the plasma and active oxygen dissipated to the surroundings, but it is sterilized by the rod-shaped member. If it is the structure which supports an object, the area | region where a conveyance part interferes in sterilization can be made very small, and the whole to-be-sterilized object can be sterilized effectively.

Here, the first width portion has at least the first width portion having the first width and the second width portion having the second width larger than the first width. The diameter may be gradually increased, for example, in a tapered shape toward the second width portion, and the change from the first width portion to the second width portion may be continuous, or the second width portion The shape may protrude from the first width portion, and the change from the first width portion to the second width portion may be discontinuous.

Schematic configuration diagram of a sterilizer that performs sterilization using active oxygen Device configuration block diagram of a sterilizer that performs sterilization using active oxygen Perspective view of sterilization system Side view of sterilization system Front view of sterilization system

Embodiments of a sterilization system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The sterilization system 100 of the present embodiment sterilizes a cap 80 of a container such as a PET bottle as an example of an object to be sterilized, generates plasma, and sterilizes the cap 80 with the obtained plasma. The sterilization system 100 includes a gas supply unit 30 that supplies a mixed gas containing oxygen, a water vapor supply unit 40 that supplies water vapor, and a plasma generation unit that generates ozone-containing plasma from the mixed gas supplied from the gas supply unit 30. 11, active oxygen generation unit 13 that reacts plasma and water vapor supplied from water vapor supply unit 40 to generate active oxygen (Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), for example, OH radical or singlet oxygen), plasma and activity A sterilizer 1 including a discharge unit 12 that discharges a sterilizer containing oxygen, and a transport unit 110 that transports a cap 80 are provided. The sterilization system 100 is provided with a pitch filling mechanism 120 that closes the gap between the caps 80 conveyed by the conveyance unit 110. Thereby, it is possible to improve the sterilizing effect on the sterilized product while increasing the number of sterilizable products per unit time, and to efficiently sterilize using active oxygen. Below, the apparatus structure of the sterilizer 1 for performing sterilization using active oxygen is demonstrated first.

FIG. 1 shows a mechanism for generating active oxygen by the sterilizer 1. The sterilizer 1 has a nozzle 10 that generates active oxygen and discharges (irradiates) a sterilizing agent 70 containing active oxygen to the cap 80. The nozzle 10 includes a plasma generation unit 11 that generates plasma, a discharge unit 12 that discharges a bactericide 70 containing plasma and active oxygen, and active oxygen that is disposed between the plasma generation unit 11 and the discharge unit 12. And a generation unit 13.

This nozzle 10 generates so-called atmospheric pressure plasma as plasma in the apparatus. By using atmospheric pressure plasma, it is possible to reduce the cost of the apparatus without requiring a vacuum vessel or the like necessary for generating low-pressure plasma, and the work efficiency is high because continuous processing is possible. Moreover, since it can produce | generate also under low temperature, there also exists an advantage that it is not necessary to expose to-be-sterilized material to high temperature. Hereinafter, generation of atmospheric pressure plasma (hereinafter simply referred to as plasma) by the nozzle 10 and generation of active oxygen using the plasma will be described.

The plasma generator 11 has a known structure and includes an internal electrode 11a and an external electrode 11b. In the plasma generation unit 11, an electric field is generated in the plasma generation unit 11 by applying a high voltage (for example, an effective voltage of 20 kV at a frequency of 14 kHz) between the internal electrode 11 a and the external electrode 11 b by the AC power supply 20. . In the present embodiment, oxygen (O ₂ , oxygen) is supplied into the plasma generation unit 11 together with air (air), and oxygen is passed through the generated electric field, thereby generating plasma containing ozone from the supplied oxygen. To do. Then, the generated plasma is sent to the active oxygen generator 13. Specifically, oxygen radicals and ozone (O ₃ ) are generated by the plasma, and these are sent to the active oxygen generator 13.

The active oxygen generation unit 13 is connected to an evaporator (corresponding to a water vapor supply unit) 40, and further water vapor is sent to the active oxygen generation unit 13. As a result, the active oxygen generation unit 13 can generate active oxygen by reacting the plasma (oxygen radicals and ozone) sent from the plasma generation unit 11 with the water vapor (vapor) supplied from the evaporator 40. In the present embodiment, by reacting plasma (oxygen radicals and ozone) with water vapor, hydroxy radicals (.OH) having a particularly high reactivity among active oxygens are mainly generated.

More specifically, when water vapor and plasma react, hydrogen radicals (.H) and hydroxy radicals are generated from H ₂ O as shown in the following formula (4).

H ₂ O → H + OH (4)

Further, the hydrogen radical reacts with ozone to generate a hydroxy radical and oxygen (O ₂ ) as shown in the following formula (5).

・ H + O ₃ → ・ OH + O ₂ (5)

(4) and (5) can be combined into the following (6).

H ₂ O + O ₃ → 2.OH + O ₂ (6)

That is, by reacting plasma and water vapor, the reaction of the above formula (6) can be caused to generate hydroxy radicals (.OH) efficiently. As a result, the generated active oxygen mainly contains hydroxy radicals. In particular, a high bactericidal effect can be achieved by mainly including highly reactive hydroxy radicals. Then, the generated active oxygen, water vapor, and unreacted plasma (oxygen radicals and ozone) are discharged from the discharge unit 12 to the cap 80 as the sterilizing agent 70, and the cap 80 is sterilized.

Next, the device configuration of the sterilizer 1 that performs sterilization using the active oxygen shown in FIG. 2 will be described. The sterilizer 1 includes a nozzle 10, a generator 21 and a transformer 22 that constitute an AC power supply 20, a gas supply machine (corresponding to a gas supply unit) 30 that supplies various gases such as oxygen to the nozzle 10 and the evaporator 40, active oxygen The evaporator 40 which supplies water vapor | steam to the production | generation part 13, the pump 50 which supplies water to the evaporator 40, and the chiller 60 which supplies cooling water to the nozzle 10 are provided.

Generator 21 generates an alternating current. For example, in this embodiment, the frequency is 13 kHz, the effective voltage is 350 V, and the effective current is 11 A. The voltage of the alternating current supplied from the generator 21 is increased from 300 V to 20 kV by the transformer 22. Thereby, a high voltage of 20 kV is applied between the internal electrode 11a and the external electrode 11b in the plasma generation unit 11.

The gas supply unit 30 is connected to the plasma generation unit 11 and supplies oxygen together with air to the nozzle 10 (plasma generation unit 11). Further, the air for supplying the water vapor generated by the evaporator 40 to the active oxygen generator 13 is supplied to the evaporator 40. The gas supply machine 30 has a control panel 31. By operating the control panel 31, the supply amount of various gases to the target can be adjusted. In this embodiment, by operating the control panel 31, for example, the air is supplied to the nozzle 10 at 6 L / min and oxygen at 3 L / min so that the air: oxygen ratio is 2: 1. In 40, air is sent at 3 L / min.

The evaporator 40 is connected to the active oxygen generator 13 and sends water vapor to the active oxygen generator 13. Specifically, a built-in heating wire (not shown) is heated to 180 ° C., and water supplied from the pump 50 is heated by the heating wire to generate water vapor. Then, water vapor is mixed with the air supplied from the gas supplier 30, and the water vapor is supplied to the active oxygen generator 13 together with the air. In the present embodiment, for example, the pump 50 supplies water to the evaporator 40 at a rate of 1.2 mL / min.

The chiller 60 cools the nozzle 10 that generates heat when a high voltage is applied by supplying cooling water to the nozzle 10.

In the sterilization apparatus 1 configured as described above, oxygen supplied together with air from the gas supply device 30 to the nozzle 10 is turned into plasma by the plasma generation unit 11 of the nozzle 10, and the generated plasma is the active oxygen generation unit 13. , The active oxygen mainly composed of hydroxy radicals is continuously generated by reacting with water vapor supplied together with air from the evaporator 40. Then, active oxygen, water vapor, and unreacted plasma continuously generated in the active oxygen generation unit 13 are continuously discharged from the discharge unit 12 as the sterilizing agent 70, thereby enabling continuous processing of the cap 80. It becomes. In the present embodiment, for example, the bactericide 70 containing plasma and active oxygen is discharged from the discharge unit 12 at a temperature of 50 to 80 ° C. and a flow rate of 50000 mm / sec.

The following advantages are obtained by sterilization using active oxygen. For example, when a sterilizing agent containing hydrogen peroxide is used, it is necessary to subsequently clean the sterilizing agent so that it does not remain on the article to be sterilized. However, it is difficult to remove all the sterilizing agent by washing, and there is a risk that the sterilizing agent remains on the article to be sterilized. In addition, since the sterilizing agent spray and the subsequent cleaning are mainly performed at a high temperature, when the material to be sterilized is a material that causes heat shrinkage such as a resin material, various sterilization processes are performed in order to prevent excessive heat shrinkage and deformation. There will be constraints. On the other hand, active oxygen does not remain because it disappears with the passage of time, and sterilization using active oxygen does not need to give heat to the object to be sterilized so as to cause heat shrinkage. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the above-mentioned problem of the sterilizing agent residue and the heat shrinkage / deformation of the sterilized material.

The above is the apparatus configuration for sterilization using active oxygen. Next, the sterilization system 100 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the following, only the region where the cap 80 is sterilized by the sterilization apparatus 1 will be described, and the configuration before and after that will not be specifically described. There are no particular limitations on how the configurations before and after that can be selected as appropriate according to the purpose.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sterilization system 100 includes a transport unit 110 that transports the cap 80, and a plurality of the sterilizers 1 are arranged in parallel along the transport direction T of the cap 80. An air blowing device 130 that blows air against the cap 80 from the rear in the conveyance direction T is provided as a pitch filling mechanism that closes the gap between the caps 80 conveyed by the conveyance unit 110. Since a plurality (5 in this embodiment) of the sterilizers 1 are arranged in parallel along the transport direction T of the cap 80, the cap 80 is transported by the transport unit 110 without stopping the cap 80. Plasma and active oxygen can be discharged to the cap 80 in sufficient time and amount by the plurality of sterilization apparatuses 1 arranged in the transport direction T. Thereby, the quantity of the to-be-sterilized thing which can be sterilized per unit time can be increased.

The transport unit 110 includes two rod-shaped members 111, and the two rod-shaped members 111 are arranged in parallel with each other with a width that can support the ring portion 82 of the cap 80 from below. That is, the PET bottle cap 80 usually has a threaded portion on the inside, a main body portion (corresponding to a first width portion having a first width) 81 to be screwed with the threaded portion in the mouth portion of the bottle, and the cap. A ring portion (second width portion having a second width larger than the first width) 82 remaining on the bottle side when opening 80, and the diameter of the ring portion 82 (the second width portion). (Corresponding to the width) is designed to be larger than the diameter of the main body 81 (corresponding to the first width). For this reason, if the width of the two rod-shaped members 111 is set to be substantially the same as or larger than the diameter of the main body portion 81 and smaller than the diameter of the ring portion 82, the cap 80 is placed on the opening surface side (that is, In the state where the ring portion 82 side is up, the two ring portions (second width portions) 82 are provided as shown in FIG. 5 by passing between the main body portion 81 and the two rod-shaped members 111. It will be in the state supported by the rod-shaped member 111 of this. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the width of the two rod-shaped members 111 is substantially the same as the width of the main body portion 81, so that the ring portion 82 is supported from below by the two rod-shaped members 111. It will be in a state to be. The cap 80 is sterilized not only by the part to which the plasma and active oxygen are directly applied from the sterilization apparatus 1 but also other parts by the plasma and active oxygen dissipated to the surroundings. If it is the structure which supports, the area | region which the conveyance part 110 interferes in disinfection can be made very small, and the whole cap 80 can be disinfected effectively.

And in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the conveyance part 110 inclines below as it goes ahead of the conveyance direction T. As shown in FIG. As described above, the cap 80 is not held by the conveyance unit 110 and the ring portion 82 is supported from below by the two rod-shaped members 111. The cap 80 is transported forward in the transport direction T using its own weight. As a result, the cap 80 can be transported with a simple configuration in which the entire transport unit 110 is inclined.

By configuring the transport unit 110 as described above, the continuously transported cap 80 can be continuously sterilized by the plurality of sterilization apparatuses 1, but the inventor can continuously sterilize the object to be sterilized in this way. When the (cap 80) is sterilized with a plurality of sterilization apparatuses 1, it has been found that the sterilization effect is improved by reducing the interval between the articles to be sterilized. This is because when the interval between the caps 80 is equal to or larger than a certain interval, the air flow is likely to be disturbed due to the interval, so that the plasma and the active oxygen are easily dissipated. This is because the plasma and active oxygen are not smoothly applied. And in this embodiment, the suitable method which the inventor discovered is employ | adopted, the both sides of the conveyance part 110 in the area | region in the back direction of the conveyance direction T with respect to the range in which the sterilizer 1 is provided, or the sterilizer 1 A plurality of air spraying devices 120 are provided. The air blowing device 120 is configured to be able to blow air against the cap 80 from the rear in the transport direction T, and blows air from the rear of the cap 80 when there is an interval (pitch) between the caps 80. Thus, the cap 80 is pushed forward in the transport direction T so as to close the gap. Thereby, the bactericidal effect with respect to a to-be-sterilized thing can be improved. The air blowing device 120 may be operated at all times, or may be operated when it is detected that there is a gap between the caps 80 using an optical sensor or the like. In addition, the air blowing device 120 may be provided only in a region on the rear side in the transport direction T with respect to the sterilization device 1.

3 and 4 show a state in which the gaps are narrowed until the caps 80 come into close contact with each other, but it is not always necessary to bring the caps 80 into close contact with each other. When the space between the caps 80 is reduced, in order to improve the sterilizing effect on the object to be sterilized, the distance between the caps 80 may be close enough to make it difficult to disturb the airflow. The interval varies depending on the size and shape of the object to be sterilized. For example, in the cap 80 (diameter 30 mm) of the present embodiment, if the interval between the caps 80 is within 30 mm, a favorable improvement in sterilization effect can be expected.

Since the sterilization system 100 is configured as described above, it is possible to improve the sterilization effect on the cap 80 while increasing the number of caps 80 that can be sterilized per unit time, thereby sterilizing using active oxygen. Can be performed efficiently.

[Other Embodiments]
Finally, other embodiments of the sterilization system according to the present invention will be described. Note that the configurations disclosed in the following embodiments can be applied in combination with the configurations disclosed in other embodiments as long as no contradiction arises.

(1) In the above-described embodiment, the transport unit 110 is configured such that the two rod-shaped members 111 are separated from each other by a predetermined width and are arranged in parallel to each other, and are inclined downward toward the front in the transport direction. In the above description, the configuration in which the cap 80 is transported using its own weight has been described. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the cap 80 may be conveyed not by its own weight but by driving a conveying device such as a conveyor. Moreover, even when conveying by self-weight, it is not restricted to the structure of said embodiment, You may convey the cap 80 using a self-weight on a roller or a plate-shaped member.

(2) In the above embodiment, the configuration using the air blowing device 120 as the pitch filling mechanism has been described as an example. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, basically, the cap 80 is transported using its own weight as described above, and as a pitch filling mechanism, an arbitrary cap 80 such as the top cap 80 moves at a constant speed slower than the traveling speed due to its own weight. The cap 80 that moves at a constant speed, catches up with the cap 80, and the gap between the cap 80 that has moved at the same speed as the cap 80 and the cap 80 that follows the cap 80 may be narrowed. Further, as a pitch filling mechanism, a damming portion for temporarily damming the cap 80 is provided at an arbitrary position upstream (backward in the conveying direction T) from the sterilizing apparatus 1, and the damped cap 80 and the cap 80 following the dammed cap 80 are provided. You may make it close | close a space | interval. Thus, there is no particular limitation as long as the gap between the caps 80 can be reduced.

(3) In the above embodiment, the cap 80 is used as an object to be sterilized, and the cap 80 has a second width larger than the first width as the first width portion having the first width. The configuration having the ring portion as the second width portion has been described as an example. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, what is used as the article to be sterilized can be changed as appropriate. In addition, the first width portion having the first width and the second width portion having the second width larger than the first width are not necessarily required.

(4) In the above-described embodiment, the configuration in which only oxygen is supplied together with air from the gas supply unit 30 to the plasma generation unit 11 has been described as an example. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. It may contain other components in addition to oxygen, and is not particularly limited as long as it contains oxygen.

(5) In the above embodiment, the configuration in which the sterilizer 1 directly discharges the sterilizer 70 containing active oxygen to the cap 80 has been described as an example. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the sterilizing agent 70 is discharged into the chamber through which the cap 80 passes instead of directly discharging the sterilizing agent into the cap 80, and the conveyance unit 110 is allowed to pass through the chamber so that the chamber is filled. The cap 80 may be sterilized indirectly, for example, by sterilizing the cap 80 passing through the chamber with the sterilizing agent 70.

(6) Regarding other configurations, it should be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative in all respects and that the scope of the present invention is not limited thereby. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that modifications can be made as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, other embodiments modified without departing from the spirit of the present invention are naturally included in the scope of the present invention.

The present invention can be used for a sterilization system for sterilizing an object to be sterilized such as a cap.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sterilizer 11 Plasma production | generation part 12 Discharge part 13 Active oxygen production | generation part 30 Gas supply machine (gas supply part)
40 Evaporator (steam supply part)
80 cap (object to be sterilized)
81 Body (first width part)
82 Ring part (second width part)
100 Sterilization system 110 Conveying section 111 Bar-shaped member 120 Air spraying device (pitch filling mechanism)
T Transport direction

Claims

A sterilization system that generates plasma and sterilizes an object to be sterilized using the obtained plasma,
A gas supply unit for supplying a mixed gas containing oxygen;
A water vapor supply unit for supplying water vapor;
A plasma generation unit for generating plasma containing ozone from the mixed gas supplied from the gas supply unit;
An active oxygen generator that generates active oxygen by reacting the plasma with the water vapor supplied from the water vapor supply unit;
A sterilizer comprising: a discharge unit that discharges the plasma and the active oxygen as a sterilant;
A transport unit for transporting the article to be sterilized,
The sterilization system provided with the pitch filling mechanism which packs the space | interval between the said to-be-sterilized objects sterilized by the said sterilizer.
The sterilization system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the sterilization apparatuses are arranged in parallel along a conveyance direction of the article to be sterilized.
The sterilization system according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising an air spray device that blows air against the object to be sterilized from behind in the transport direction as the pitch filling mechanism.
The sterilization system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the transport unit is inclined downward toward the front in the transport direction, and transports the sterilized material using its own weight. .
The article to be sterilized has at least a first width portion having a first width and a second width portion having a second width larger than the first width,
In the transport unit, two rod-shaped members are arranged in parallel to each other, spaced apart by a width substantially equal to or larger than the first width and smaller than the second width. Item 5. The sterilization system according to Item 4.