JP2694483B2 - Liquid leak inspection device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inspection device for determining the quality of a container filled with a liquid. More specifically, the inconvenience that a liquid as a filling material leaks out from a container made of paper or other flexible material and filled with various beverages such as lactic acid bacteria beverages as a liquid is automatically detected. The present invention relates to a liquid leak inspection device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art If liquids such as lactic acid beverages filled in containers leak out, the production line becomes unsanitary, contaminates transportation facilities after shipment, and when the products reach the consumer's hand, the production line becomes unsanitary. There are various inconveniences, such as giving consumers discomfort. Here, the leakage of the contents is caused by various causes, such as a defect in the container itself, or a failure of a mechanism for performing a sealing operation after filling the liquid.

In order to prevent such inconvenience due to liquid leakage, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-129233, there has been proposed a liquid container leakage inspection method by a decompression method. According to this technique, the liquid container conveyed by the first conveyor is pushed out by the first pusher into the stacking unit, and then the liquid container is pushed into the decompression unit by the second pusher to depressurize the sealed space and leak the container. Liquid is forced to be extracted from a position where the liquid container may be generated, and then the liquid container is pushed out to the second conveyor by the third pusher, and the liquid container is conveyed to the leak inspection section by the second conveyor, The leak is electrically detected because the liquid leaked in the leak inspection section acts as a conductor having resistance.

According to this technique, a manual inspection for judging whether or not the contents leak out by pushing each container by hand, and a visual inspection for observing the presence or absence of liquid leakage by an operator (physical inspection) It is possible to handle a large amount of containers and to automate the inspection work compared to the case where the observation is performed by consciously applying external pressure.

However, the above technique is not yet satisfactory because of the following problems. That is, since it is based on the depressurization method, a sealed space must be formed, and therefore the lid for forming the sealed space must be raised and lowered each time the liquid container is put in and taken out of the depressurization section, and therefore the lifting for that is required. It required a mechanism and took a considerable amount of time to obtain a predetermined vacuum pressure. In addition, since the decompression unit for causing a leak in the liquid container and the leak inspection unit are separate, both parts must be provided,
Moreover, it required a pusher and a conveyor for transferring the liquid container between the two parts. Further, even if water droplets adhere to the container surface or the electrode surface due to dew condensation or the like and the contents do not leak, the power may be turned on to cause a malfunction (wrong inspection).

Further, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-294333, an optical sensor detects the collapse of the container caused by pressing the hermetically-sealed packaging container with a pressing member and leaking the contents from the hermetically-sealed packaging container. Therefore, there has been proposed a hermetically sealed package inspection device for inspecting the quality of hermeticity. However, the method of detecting the collapse of the container with an optical sensor and inspecting the collapse of the container is similar to a container made of a flexible material such as paper,
It cannot be used for liquid leak inspection of containers that partially deform even if liquid leak does not occur. Further, in order to detect a slight liquid leakage according to the above-described aspect, it is necessary to have a highly accurate device structure.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the problems of the prior art, and when contents leak from a container made of a flexible material filled with liquid, the fact is accurately, promptly and automatically detected. Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid leakage inspection device that can be inspected with a simpler device.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a liquid leakage inspection device for detecting leakage of a liquid from a container made of a flexible material and filled with the liquid,
An extracting unit provided on the side surface of a line for conveying a container filled with liquid to extract the container in a horizontal direction at every predetermined cycle, an elevating mechanism for taking in the container extracted by the extracting unit, and an upper part of the elevating mechanism. The container holding means for accommodating the container placed on the elevating mechanism, the pressing means for pressing the container held in the container holding means, and the inner wall surface of the container holding means are arranged and electrically connected to each other. It comprises two electrodes which are not provided, a drying means for keeping the container and the electrode in a dry state, and a notification means for notifying when the two electrodes are conducted by the leaked liquid and the circuit is closed. .

In practicing the present invention, the flexible material forming the container is preferably paper, for example. However, it is not limited to this.

The two electrodes are not electrically connected,
They are distributed on a predetermined inner wall surface of the container holding means at a minute distance from each other, and even if a minute amount of the liquid as the content leaks out, the two electrodes are surely brought into contact with each other and the electrodes are energized to It is supposed to inform you. For example, it is preferable that both the two electrodes are distributed in the shape of comb teeth. Here, since the liquid leakage often occurs at the joint of the flexible material forming the container, it is preferable that the two electrodes are arranged on the surface in contact with the joint of the container.

Further, it is preferable that the predetermined cycle is, for example, one cycle in which five containers pass through the liquid leakage inspection device.

In addition to this, the content liquid is not particularly limited as long as it is a conductive liquid such as an electrolyte solution.

The drying means is preferably provided at at least one place. In other words, the drying means may be provided as a single member or a plurality of drying means may be provided.

[0014]

According to the liquid leakage inspection apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, the so-called extraction inspection is carried out, in which the container is extracted by the extracting means at every predetermined cycle and the extracted container is inspected. Then, the extracted container is accommodated in the container holding means, and the container accommodated by the pressing means is pressed from the side surface. When there is a defect in the container or the sealing portion and there is a high possibility of liquid leakage even under normal conditions, the contents are leaked from the defective portion by being pressed. When the contents leak and spread on the inner wall surface of the container holding means and come into contact with both of the two electrodes, the contents act as a conductive member, so that the two electrodes are energized. Therefore, by determining whether or not the two electrodes are energized, it is determined whether or not the contents have leaked. Here, water droplets may adhere to the container surface or the electrode surface due to condensation, etc.
According to the present invention, since the container and the electrode are kept in the dry state by the drying means, the malfunction that the two electrodes are energized even when the contents do not leak is prevented.

Further, since it is possible to easily automate the determination as to whether or not the power is supplied by a publicly known means, it is possible to automate the determination of the presence or absence of the liquid leakage, which has been conventionally performed by the operator's eyes. Therefore, according to the apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to automate the liquid leakage inspection, which cannot be done by the conventional technique.

Further, according to the present invention, since the sampling inspection is performed as described above, it is possible to reduce the size of the pressurizing means and the detecting means as compared with the conventional inspection method of inspecting all 30 pieces at once. I can. Moreover, it is easy to discharge defective products (automatic discharge).

Here, the leakage of the contents may occur when the contents (beverage or other liquid) are filled, and there is a problem in the sealing work after the filling, or there is a problem in the container itself. In any case, if the contents leak out, the defective containers from which the liquid leaks continue to be transported through the production line until the cause of the leak is found and repair is performed. Therefore, it is not necessary to inspect all the containers, and practically sufficient inspection accuracy can be obtained by the sampling inspection.

When a defective product is detected, it is highly possible that all the containers following it are defective products, and the line is immediately stopped to investigate the cause of the liquid leakage, repair or adjust, etc.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the drawings, corresponding parts are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicate explanations are omitted.

In FIG. 2, for example, containers 14 made of paper (flexible material) filled with lactic acid beverage are conveyed on the line 12. Then, the liquid leakage inspection device 10 of the present invention is provided. In FIG. 2, the left side is the upstream side and the right side is the downstream side.

The liquid leakage inspecting apparatus 10 has a following container 14 ...
The stopper 18 for stopping the liquid is the liquid leakage inspection device 1
It is provided upstream of 0. The stopper 18 is composed of a piston / cylinder mechanism, and is arranged to stop the container 14 when the piston 20 projects. The container 14 on the downstream side of the stopped container 14 can be moved to the holding means by the extracting means described later with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 30 indicates a control box which is a control unit of the liquid leakage inspection apparatus 10.

Next, with reference mainly to FIG. 1, the details of the liquid leakage inspection apparatus 10 for determining whether or not liquid leakage will occur in the container 14e subjected to the sampling inspection will be described.

In FIG. 1, an elevating mechanism 22 is provided below the line 12, and the elevating mechanism 22 includes a cylinder 52,
The piston 54 and the mounting portion 56 are included. Further, in FIG. 1, a pickup mechanism 60 constituting a extracting means is arranged on the right side of the line 12 and on the further right side of the elevating mechanism 22.
Is provided. The pickup mechanism 60 also includes a cylinder 62 and a piston 64, and the container to be inspected 14e is provided in the line 1 at the tip end portion (the left end portion in FIG. 1) of the piston 64.
A suction member 66 for taking in from above is provided.

An electrode plate 57 provided with electrodes, which will be described later, is attached to the upper surface of the mounting portion 56, and the electrode plate constitutes the bottom surface of the container holding means.

The pressurizing chamber 24, which constitutes the container holding means above the elevating mechanism 22, has an inner wall surface indicated by reference numeral 24s and an internal space indicated by reference numeral 24i. As shown in FIG. 3, two electrodes 70 and 72 are printed on the inner wall surface 24s and the above-mentioned electrode plate 57 to be arranged or arranged. More specifically, the electrodes 70 and 72 are provided on the surface with which the seam of the container 14e abuts. A pressurizing cylinder 28 is provided at the same height as the pressurizing chamber 24, and a pressing member 76 which constitutes a pressing means is provided at the tip (left end in FIG. 1) of the piston 74 of the cylinder 28. ing. Then, the pressing member 76 is
It is arranged so that it can enter the inside freely.

Although not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the liquid leakage inspection apparatus 10 is provided with a display lamp 78 for displaying a liquid leakage when it occurs. The lamp 78 is shown in FIG. 3 and includes electrodes 70, 72 along with a power source 82, a resistor 84.
Is connected to a conductor wire 80. And, for example, it is configured by an LED or the like. The electrodes 70 and 72 are arranged on the inner wall surface of the pressurizing chamber, and are kept dry together with the container 14 by a known drying means (not shown) such as dry air blown from a nozzle.

The operation of the embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described with reference to FIGS.

Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 4, first, in step S1, it is determined whether or not a predetermined cycle has passed, that is, a predetermined number (for example, 5) of containers 14 ... Then, it is determined whether or not it has been transported. When a predetermined number of containers have passed (YES in step S1), the piston 64 of the pickup mechanism 60, which is the extracting means, is extended and the container to be inspected by the suction member 66 (reference numeral 14e in FIGS. 1 and 2). Adsorb the container indicated by. Then, the container 64e to be inspected (pickup) is stopped by contracting the piston 64 (the state shown by the dotted line in FIG. 5) (step S2).

Next, the piston 54 of the elevating mechanism 22 is extended to raise the placed container 14e and store the inspection target container 14e in the pressurizing chamber 24 (step S3: FIG. 6). Then, the piston 74 of the pressurizing cylinder 28 is extended, and the pressing member 76 at the tip presses the container 14e housed in the pressurizing chamber inner space 24i (step S4: FIG. 7). At this point, it is determined whether or not there is a liquid leak (step S5). That is, when liquid leaks in the container 14e, the liquid content is leaked especially from the seam of the container. Therefore, the liquid leaking from the side with the seam of the container reaches the pressurizing chamber wall surface 24s and is detected by the electrodes 70 and 72 provided there, and the liquid dropped downward reaches the electrode plate 57 and is detected in the same manner. It In this way, those electrodes 7
When 0 and 72 are energized (YES in step S5),
A display lamp 78, which is a display means when the circuit shown in FIG. 3 is closed.
Lights up (step S6). Here, an alarm (not shown) may be provided instead of the lamp.

Then, if necessary, the line 12 is stopped, or a stopper (not shown) separately provided on the upstream side of the liquid leakage inspection apparatus 10 is used to interrupt the transfer of the subsequent container. The cause of the material leakage accident is investigated and repaired (step S7).

If there is no liquid leakage and the electrodes 70 and 72 are not energized (NO in step S5), the piston 74 of the pressurizing cylinder 28 is contracted and the container 14 by the pressing member 76 is contracted.
The pressed state of e is released (FIG. 8).

Next, the piston 54 of the elevating mechanism 22 is contracted to move the container 14e to be inspected from the pressurizing chamber 24 to the line 12.
(Fig. 9). Then, the piston 64 of the pickup mechanism 60 is extended to return the container 14e to be inspected to the line 12 (step S8: FIG. 10), the piston 20 of the stopper 18 is contracted, and the transport of the subsequent containers 14 is restarted. (Step S9).

[0035]

The present invention has the following excellent effects.

(A) When inspecting leakage of contents from a container made of a flexible material filled with liquid, automation of liquid leakage inspection can be achieved, and it is suitable for sampling inspection when handling a large number of containers. It can be suitably implemented.

(B) Whether or not the contents leaked can be determined by the presence or absence of energization of the two electrodes, and it is not based on the sense (visual sense) of the worker, so that the observation and determination work can always be performed with a certain high accuracy. Be implemented.

(C) Water droplets may adhere to the container surface or the electrode surface due to dew condensation or the like, but since the container and the electrode are kept in a dry state by the drying means, the two electrodes can be used even when the contents do not leak. An erroneous operation (erroneous inspection) of energizing is prevented.

(D) Since the sampling inspection is performed, the inspection time can be greatly shortened, and defective products can be easily discharged (automatic discharge). In addition, even the sampling inspection is practically sufficient. Inspection accuracy can be obtained.

(E) Forced extraction of the contents from the container is carried out by a pressing means, and it is not necessary to form a sealed space each time the container is carried in and out as in the case of the decompression method. From the fact that the forced extraction of the contents from the container and the liquid leakage inspection are carried out at the same place, and the liquid leakage inspection is carried out simply by the presence or absence of energization of the two electrodes without using an optical sensor or the like. Can be provided at low cost because it is simple and miniaturized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a main part of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of essential parts of the embodiment shown in FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation flowchart of the embodiment shown in FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a side view illustrating one stroke of the operation of the embodiment of FIGS.

FIG. 6 is a side view illustrating one stroke of operation of the embodiment of FIGS.

FIG. 7 is a side view illustrating one stroke of operation of the embodiment of FIGS.

FIG. 8 is a side view illustrating one stroke of the operation of the embodiment of FIGS.

FIG. 9 is a side view illustrating one stroke of the operation of the embodiment of FIGS.

FIG. 10 is a side view illustrating one stroke of the operation of the embodiment of FIGS.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Liquid leak inspection device 12 ... Line 14, 14e ... Container 16 ... Filling machine 18 ... Stopper 20 ... Piston 22 ... Lifting mechanism 24 ... Pressurization chamber 24i・ ・ ・ Pressure chamber interior 26 ・ ・ ・ Displacement sensor 54, 64, 74 ・ ・ ・ Piston 57 ・ ・ ・ Electrode plate 70, 72 ・ ・ ・ Electrode 76 ・ ・ ・ Pressing member

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Eiji Oki 1-1-19 Higashishimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yukihiro Kiyota 1-1-19 Higashishimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP 58-129233 (JP, A) JP 63-294333 (JP, A) JP 62-21033 (JP, A) JP 55-132945 ( JP, A) JP 62-38226 (JP, B2)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A liquid leakage inspection device for detecting leakage of a liquid from a container made of a flexible material and filled with the liquid, the device being provided on a side surface of a line for carrying the container filled with the liquid. And a container holding means for accommodating the container placed on the elevating mechanism above the elevating mechanism, and an ejecting means for horizontally ejecting the container every predetermined cycle, an elevating mechanism for taking in the container extracted by the ejecting means And pressing means for pressing the container held in the container holding means, two electrodes arranged on the inner wall surface of the container holding means and not electrically connected to each other, and the container and the electrode are dried. Due to the drying means for keeping the state and the leaked liquid,
An apparatus for inspecting liquid leakage, comprising: a notification means for notifying when one electrode is conductive and the circuit is closed.