Continuous rotary type filling and packing machine provided with printing mechanism

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9850015-B2
Application number	US-201113578079-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2011
Priority date	Feb 16, 2010
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A high-speed continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine can identifies a defective filling head and a defective seal head and it also identify which part of a seal working surface in the seal head has a defect. In a sealing device of the high-seed continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine that covers a container body, which is filled with liquid contents, with a molded lid and seals the container body and the molded lid to produce a sealed container, a filling head number and a seal head number are inkjet-printed, desirably transparent ink, which can be read by irradiation of an ultraviolet ray, on a container body in which a seal working surface in the seal head and the top surface of the container molded lid are brought into press-contact and a positional relation between a seal working surface and the sealed container is fixed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine that fills a container body with liquid contents, covers the container body filled with the liquid contents with a molded lid, and seals the container body and the molded lid to produce a sealed container, the filling and packaging machine comprising:
a filling device provided with a plurality of filling heads for filling a container with the liquid contents while the container body rotationally moves;
a lid supplying device that supplies the molded lid to an upper end opening of the container body filled with the liquid contents and conveyed from the filling device;
a sealing device provided with a plurality of seal heads that seal the upper end opening of the container body while the container body on which the molded lid is placed rotationally moves with the molded lid to produce the sealed container, and a lifting and lowering means including a lifting and lowering mechanism for a container table on which the container body is placed or for the seal head, and configured to bring the molded lid on the container body and a seal working surface of the seal head into press-contact with each other; and
a printing means provided with an identification printing mechanism that prints a filling head number and a seal head number related to the sealed container on all of the sealed container bodies during a sealing step by the sealing device while the sealed container body is in a state in which the seal working surface of the seal head and a top surface of the molded lid of the sealed container are brought into press-contact with each other and a positional relation between the seal working surface and the sealed container is fixed,
wherein the identification printing mechanism includes a control means including a calculation unit that calculates the filling head number and the seal head number to be printed on the container,
wherein the calculation unit further includes a filling machine control board including a filling head number shift register that stores the filling head number and a seal head number shift register that stores the seal head number, and an inkjet printer control board including a filling head number ring counter that stores the filling head number and a seal head number ring counter that stores the seal head number, and
wherein the filling head number and the seal head number are printed on a lower side circumferential surface of the container.

2. The continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine according to claim 1 , wherein the printing by the identification printing mechanism is a printing with an invisible ink.

3. The continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine according to claim 2 , wherein the printing means includes the identification printing mechanism including an inkjet printer in which an invisible ink readable by irradiation of an ultraviolet ray is used.

4. The continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine according to claim 3 , wherein the printing means includes, on an upstream side of the inkjet printer, a water drop removing mechanism for removing a water drop adhered to the container to prevent ink from oozing during printing on a side circumferential surface of the container.

5. The continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine according to claim 1 , wherein the sealing device is an ultrasonic sealing device that ultrasonically seals the upper end opening of the container body with the molded lid to produce the sealed container, the ultrasonic sealing device including an ultrasonic horn that causes to act an ultrasonic rotational vibration in a rotating direction, of which a central axis is in a pressurizing direction, for pressurizing the molded lid and the container body.

6. The continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine according to claim 1 , comprising on a downstream side of the sealing device:
a defective container-detecting device disposed to detect a defective container; and
a defective container-discharging device that discharges a container in which a defect is detected from a conveyance line.

7. A method for producing a sealed container comprising filling a container body with liquid contents, covering the container body filled with the liquid contents with a molded lid, and sealing the container body and the molded lid by using the continuous rotary type filling and packaging machine according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Hayashi Kouji
• Masuda Tomoyuki
• Mifune Tadashi
• Nishitani Mitsuhiro
• Yakult Honsha Kk
• Shikoku Kakoki Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hayashi Kouji
• Masuda Tomoyuki
• Mifune Tadashi
• Nishitani Mitsuhiro

Classifications

• B41J2/2117

  Ejecting white liquids · CPC title

• B41J2/2114

  Ejecting specialized liquids, e.g. transparent or processing liquids (B41J2/211 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B65B7/2878

  by heat-sealing · CPC title

• B65B51/225

  by ultrasonic welding · CPC title

• B65B7/285

  by deformation of the closure · CPC title