Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B7/00—Closing containers or receptacles after filling
  • B65B7/16—Closing semi-rigid or rigid containers or receptacles not deformed by, or not taking-up shape of, contents, e.g. boxes or cartons
  • B65B7/28—Closing semi-rigid or rigid containers or receptacles not deformed by, or not taking-up shape of, contents, e.g. boxes or cartons by applying separate preformed closures, e.g. lids, covers
  • B65B7/2807—Feeding closures
  • B65B7/2814—Feeding closures the closures being interconnected
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B55/00—Preserving, protecting or purifying packages or package contents in association with packaging
  • B65B55/02—Sterilising, e.g. of complete packages
  • B65B55/04—Sterilising wrappers or receptacles prior to, or during, packaging
  • B65B55/10—Sterilising wrappers or receptacles prior to, or during, packaging by liquids or gases
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B7/00—Closing containers or receptacles after filling
  • B65B7/16—Closing semi-rigid or rigid containers or receptacles not deformed by, or not taking-up shape of, contents, e.g. boxes or cartons
  • B65B7/162—Closing semi-rigid or rigid containers or receptacles not deformed by, or not taking-up shape of, contents, e.g. boxes or cartons by feeding web material to securing means
  • B65B7/164—Securing by heat-sealing
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B7/00—Closing containers or receptacles after filling
  • B65B7/16—Closing semi-rigid or rigid containers or receptacles not deformed by, or not taking-up shape of, contents, e.g. boxes or cartons
  • B65B7/28—Closing semi-rigid or rigid containers or receptacles not deformed by, or not taking-up shape of, contents, e.g. boxes or cartons by applying separate preformed closures, e.g. lids, covers
  • B65B7/2842—Securing closures on containers
  • B65B7/2878—Securing closures on containers by heat-sealing

Definitions

• the invention relates to a device for sealing lids, in particular lids made of films coated with sealable material, onto the openings of packings which are arranged at a distance from one another and are intermittently conveyed by first conveying means in a first running direction.
• the invention has for its object to provide a similar device with a higher performance and to design it so that the device allows the delivery of the lid to the packs easier to perform despite the increased performance.
• a) transport means are provided in order to transport the lids in a row one behind the other and transversely to the running direction of the packs intermittently through the openings of at least three packs located in a row of sealing stations and spaced apart in a machine division;
• the means of transport has a belt guided over drive rollers, on which the covers are detachably attached one behind the other via holding webs at a spacing of a belt division and which carries positioning means; and
• measuring and display devices are fixed in front of and behind the row of sealing stations.
• the covers are fed according to the invention in the form of a cover strip, in which the covers are partially punched out and, in addition, are detachably attached one behind the other via holding webs.
• the measuring and display devices allow the lid band to be precisely adjusted and stopped at the right moment.
• cover tape is that the covers can be fed, moved and stopped as if they were in one piece. As a result, their handling is not only easy to move, but can also be precisely positioned in connection with the measuring and display devices.
• the performance of the new device is also increased compared to the conventional devices in that at least three packs are simultaneously supplied and sealed with the lids by the measures according to the invention.
• the operation is even easier when changing the magazine, because if either a supply roll with a cover tape has run out during operation and needs to be replaced with a new supply roll, or if a different cover shape or size is required, only the roll with the cover tape is required to be taken out and replaced with a new one. This process takes considerably less time than replacing pillars of stacked lids.
• the performance of the device according to the invention can be easily further increased in this way by arranging the cover tape not only simultaneously over three packs but also over a longer row of several packs arranged one behind the other and then sealing it. It has proven to be useful here if you combine 4, 6 or 8 packs into a row and provide them with a lid at the same time.
• a sealing station of which a number of sealing stations corresponding to the number of packs is to be arranged.
• the sealing stations are also arranged in a row according to the packs. If you imagine that you are looking at a row of eight packs that are spaced apart from one another by a machine division, then the row of eight sealing stations above it is easy to imagine.
• "Above” means here - that mostly filled packs have their filling and pouring opening at the top, so that the lid is applied from above, because then in particular flowable filling goods can be packaged. Therefore, the sealing station must come into engagement with the upper area of the pack and above be arranged.
• the direction of transport of the cover tape running in the direction of the row of packs and transversely to their running direction is straight and coincides with the longitudinal direction of the row of sealing stations.
• each sealing station has a band bridge arranged above the packs and driven relative to them and a sealing head driven movably relative to the band bridge.
• the movement of the bridge and head should be thought from top to bottom and vice versa, i.e. in the vertical direction.
• the band bridge With the help of the band bridge, the lid band can be moved in the correct positions over the packs and then even lowered relative to the openings of the packs.
• the drive of the sealing head which is switched independently of the drive of the belt bridge, ensures its operation, in particular the possibility of the lid being sealed on the package; then lifting and releasing the parts from the pack so that all packs in the row can be led out of the row of sealing stations.
• the sealing device is further characterized in that an expansion device is arranged at the outlet-side end of the cover strip from the series of sealing stations and between drive rollers for the strip.
• the cover tape is brought into the desired position by a drive roller on the inlet side with respect to the row of sealing stations and an outlet roller on the opposite side at a distance therefrom. Therefore, the positioning of the cover tape would already be sufficiently precise when you consider that the very precisely acting means of transport with mandrel wheels, tapes with transport holes, etc. are used.
• tolerances of the cover tape under consideration are often found already by the production of such a film. A tolerance of ⁇ 1!
• the expansion device mentioned is arranged at the outlet-side end of the row of sealing stations.
• a cover tape which may have been deliberately too short, is stretched to the desired length.
• This stretching is achieved, for example, by giving the essentially horizontally running lid band a vertical component over a certain distance, whereby the lid band is stretched, elongated and thus also stretched. It is understood that the stretch can be adjusted precisely.
• the expansion device can remain in this adjusted state over a longer period of operation, so that after each stop during the intermittent feed movement of the cover tape, the latter always has the correct length, with the result that the centers of the covers also come to rest on the centers of the package openings.
• the band division is not always the same as the machine division.
• the machine division is three times the band division when the band is stretched.
• the most precise results can be achieved with the tape stretched, so that the wall division with the tape stretched is considered when comparing the pitches.
• a band division in the cold state of 50.65 mm has resulted, which could be increased to a desired value of 50.8 mm by machine-related treatments and by stretching. This band division in the stretched band was expected.
• the band bridge is an elongated hollow body with a box profile in cross section for loosely receiving and guiding the cover band, that it is further distributed over the row of sealing stations and centering rings are attached to the band bridge at a distance from the machine division, and that preferably that Front end of the sealing head can be moved through the centering ring.
• the front end is located at the bottom of the sealing head, because this moves towards the opening of the pack at the top.
• the centering rings compensate for other possible tolerances.
• the centering rings provide slight corrections, so that precise positioning is achieved here after the band bridge with the centering rings on the top, in particular on the opening, of the relevant one Package is pressed. Regardless of the movement of the band bridge, the sealing head is then pressed downwards into engagement with the package opening and seals the lid on the package opening. During the engagement of the sealing head with the packing opening, the band bridge is consciously withdrawn upwards from the packing opening relative to the sealing head. However, the lid band is located in the band bridge and is carried along by the box profile, while the lids (except for the holding bars) are held on the packaging opening by the sealing head. In other words, this movement of the strap bridge upwards and away from the packing opening separates or releases the cover from its strap because the retaining webs tear at this moment.
• a measuring and display device is arranged between the outlet-side end of the row of sealing stations and the expansion device.
• This device too is preferably constructed similarly to the devices described first and comes into operative engagement, for example, with positioning means in the cover band.
• the measuring and display device can have photocells, which can be illuminated by positioning holes in the cover band when the positioning hole is exactly above the photocell in a desired position. If, for example, a control sensor indicates an incorrect position, for example because the position hole is not in the correct position above a photocell, then switch-off processes are triggered. For example, the sealing operation is switched off. The same also applies if the cover band is incorrectly guided or even torn. These errors can also be detected by the device according to the invention and further damage can be avoided. This ensures a high level of security for the powerful device despite its simple designs.
• the device according to the invention can also be used for filling foods and in particular for sterile treatment, for example for closing.
• a hygienic room is provided for aseptic filling by means of a hood which is preferably open on one side and encompasses the row of sealing stations and that a sterilization chamber is provided encompassing the feed path of the cover tape. While the cover band can still be kept non-sterile on the supply roll or in the magazine, it is pulled off from there and guided into the sterilization chamber, where a correspondingly long sterilization path of the cover band is provided by deflection rollers.
• the pathways are encapsulated from the sterilization chamber, the drive rollers, the measuring and display devices to the hygiene room, so that the sterile condition of the cover tape is not lost.
• the cover band is of course still in the hygiene room, so that even food can be packed and filled properly and hygienically by the device according to the invention, kept filled and closed.
• the hygiene room is continuously supplied with sterile air, so that no germs can enter this room from the outside even when the closed, filled packs are removed from the hygiene room.
• Figure 1 is a front view of a sealing device with a view in the direction of the
• FIG. 3 schematically, the top view of different rows of packs, if one looks from top to bottom in FIG. 1, namely perpendicular to both the running direction of the packs and the transport direction of the cover tape,
• Figure 4 broken the top view of part of a cover tape with four lids in the form of round blanks
• Figure 5 enlarged a front view from the top of the package with the sealing station arranged above it
• Figure 6 shows the housing shown on the left in Figure 1 with the expansion device on a greatly enlarged scale
• FIG. 7 shows one of the sealing stations shown in FIGS. 1 and 5 with the packing arranged underneath in different phases of movement.
• each pack 1 On packages 1 in the form of bottles, lids 2 in the form of discs are to be sealed. Each pack 1 has an opening 3 at the top, onto each of which a lid 2 is to be sealed.
• the rows 4 of packs 1 spaced apart are seen as horizontal rows.
• Each pack is to be thought of as being arranged under a sealing station 5, so that row 5 'of sealing stations can also be seen in FIG 5 sees.
• conveyor belts 6 are only shown at two points in FIGS. 1 and 3. However, it goes without saying that these conveyor belts 6 are arranged along each processing line b. In addition, a bridge arranged under or above the packs is also conceivable, so that the entire row 4 of packs 1 can be conveyed intermittently in the first running direction 7. 1 shows how the first running direction 7 of the packs 1 is perpendicular to the paper plane and is directed in the direction of the viewer's gaze.
• the transport direction 8 of the cover 2 runs transversely to this first running direction 7 of the packs 1 in the row 5 ′ of the sealing stations 5.
• This horizontal transport direction 8 of the cover 2 which is approximately transverse to the first running direction, is located between the inlet-side drive roller 9 and on the opposite, outlet-side end 10 of cover 2 of outlet-side drive roller 11.
• the covers 2 are fed in the form of a cover strip 12.
• This consists of a plastic film laminated with aluminum, as shown in sections in FIG. 4.
• the covers have the shape of round blanks with a center point M and gripping tabs E.
• the round lines in FIG. 4 are punched lines, along which the covers 2 are punched out from the cover strip 12. Only retaining webs 13 still hold the cover 2 in the composite of the band 12.
• the center M of two successively arranged covers 2 are at a distance from the band division t from each other. You can also see transport holes 14 in the edges of the blanket tape 12 and three groups 15 of position holes, with the help of three arranged one behind the other
• Such a photocell 15 is arranged at the outlet end 10 of the row 5 'of the sealing stations 5 and can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 6, while the triple photocells are located in the housing 17 at the inlet end 16.
• Two guide rollers 18 are located in each case towards the center of the machine, in addition to the photocells 15 and 17.
• the inlet-side drive roller 9 brings about the decisive deflection and the beginning in the essentially horizontal transport direction 8 discussed in the row 5 'of sealing stations 5.
• the sealing stations 5 are located in the hygiene room 27, which is formed by a hood 28 open at the bottom.
• the band 12 leaves the machine without the covers 2, which were previously torn out along the row 5 'of the sealing stations 5, as will be described.
• Figure 2 it can be seen that from the point labeled with a position "4" the band 12 has 2 holes instead of lids. These holes are shown in white in the illustration in FIG. 2 in comparison to the covers 3, which appear more clearly as black dots.
• a toothed belt 30 ensures the synchronous drive of the drive rollers 9 and 11 so that the cover tape 12 does not tear.
• extension device 31 in the form of two tensioning rollers 32 at the outlet-side end 10 of the cover band 12.
• the devices described above make it possible, via the eight packs 1 of the pack row 4 selected in the example shown here, in the row 5 'of the sealing stations 5 to arrange the lids 2 with their centers M over the openings 3 of the packs 1.
• the intermittent feed of the cover band 12 is eight times the band division in one cycle.
• the compressed air cylinder 39 ensures the up and down movement of the sealing head 36, and 40 denotes a device for the central alignment of an inductor, because in the case selected here the sealing head with the aluminum covers is an induction sealing head.
• This alignment device 40 is cooled via the water cooling 41.
• the energy is introduced by the transformer 42 via the HF power supply 43.
• the front end of the sealing head 36 fits, as can be seen from FIG. 5, through the opening of the centering ring 37.
• the sealing is carried out on the basis of the illustration in FIG. 7 in such a way that the pack 1 is first moved under the sealing station 5 in position (a). At the same time, the covers 2 have been drawn into the band bridge 33 in the transverse direction in such a way that a cover is located above the opening 3 of the pack 1.
• the strap bridge 33 is lowered in position (b) in FIG. 7, the packing necks or the openings 3 are centered, and the cover 2 with the strap 12 lies on the opening 3.
• the respective cover 2 has been sealed onto the opening 3 of the pack 1.
• the sealing head 36 is therefore also pulled up to the position (e) in FIG. 7, so that both the cover band 12 and the packs 1 can be conveyed in steps 7 and 8 in cycles.
• the cover band 12 undergoes an expansion which is neutralized by the expansion device 31 located in the outlet-side housing 29.
• a tensioning lever 44 connects two tensioning rollers 32 around the point P, ie the center of rotation of the lower tensioning roller 32, so that the upper tensioning roller 32 can be rotated about the point P along the curved arrow 45.
• the tension band 46 has already informed the cover band 12 of a curvature which can be seen in FIG.
• the band 12 has a pretension, but the precise indentation of the band 12 via the upper tensioning roller 32 ultimately takes place via the compressed air cylinder 47 for the final tension in the band 12.
• the adjustment can be made via the stop screw 48 in order to limit the tension in such a way that the respective cover 2 in the form of the round blank with a center M stands centrally above the opening 3 of the pack 1.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Closing Of Containers (AREA)
• Containers And Plastic Fillers For Packaging (AREA)
• Package Closures (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=7816224

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (12)

Families Citing this family (15)

Family Cites Families (17)

• 1996
  • 1996-12-24 DE DE19654373A patent/DE19654373A1/de not_active Withdrawn
• 1997
  • 1997-11-25 US US09/331,525 patent/US6199347B1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1997-11-25 JP JP52828698A patent/JP2001506568A/ja not_active Ceased
  • 1997-11-25 CN CN97180902A patent/CN1131160C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1997-11-25 EP EP97951970A patent/EP0948444B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1997-11-25 DE DE59706342T patent/DE59706342D1/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1997-11-25 WO PCT/EP1997/006570 patent/WO1998028191A1/fr active IP Right Grant
  • 1997-11-25 BR BR9714085-6A patent/BR9714085A/pt active Search and Examination
  • 1997-11-25 AT AT97951970T patent/ATE212929T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1997-11-25 AU AU55559/98A patent/AU730343B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 1997-11-25 CA CA002274646A patent/CA2274646A1/fr not_active Abandoned
  • 1997-11-25 ES ES97951970T patent/ES2168684T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1997-12-19 TW TW086119360A patent/TW346465B/zh active

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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