JP3134715B2 - Liquid metering filling method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for filling a container with a liquid such as a shampoo or a rinse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional liquid filling methods for repeatedly filling a container with a fixed amount of liquid include, for example, a measuring and filling method (piston type), a weight measuring method (weight filler method), and a measuring and filling method using a flow meter. Methods are known. In particular, of the conventional liquid filling methods described above, the metering filling method is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
JP-A-2-191193 and JP-A-5-5-2
Various weighing and filling methods have been proposed in, for example, 23627.

[0003] In the method of filling a liquid at a constant flow rate described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
As shown by the dashed lines in (a) and (b), the filling valve is fully opened to fill the liquid at a large flow rate, and at the start of filling, the flow meter is operated to measure the flow rate, and the flow rate reaches a constant flow rate. Then, the filling valve is half opened to fill the liquid with a small flow rate, and the filling valve is closed when the set flow rate is reached.

Further, the filling method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-191193 predicts the amount of liquid flowing out while the filling valve is closed, and outputs a closing signal for the filling valve before the flow rate of the flow meter reaches a fixed amount. This is the output method. As a method of estimating the amount of liquid flowing out during closure, the outflow amount of the liquid to be subsequently filled is obtained by arithmetic processing based on the difference between the liquid outflow amounts at the time of filling before and after, and the predicted value is calculated for the next filling. I use it sometimes. Therefore, this filling method is a filling method by feedback control.

The quantitative distribution method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-223627 is a method in which the weight injected into a container is compared with a reference weight to be filled, and a liquid is injected based on the difference. .

[0006]

However, in the method of filling a liquid at a constant flow rate described in JP-A-56-151695, since the filling valve is fully opened from the start of the filling, the liquid in the container is filled with the liquid. It was easy to foam, and there was a risk that bubbles would overflow when the container was full. Further, in this method, when switching the filling valve from the large flow rate to the small flow rate, there is a problem that a part of the liquid is not injected into the container but overflows. Further, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), the liquid flows out even during the operation of closing the filling valve from a small flow rate, and the amount of the effluent (the hatched portion in the figure) becomes overfilled. There was a problem of causing variations. There is a problem in that the smaller the small flow rate is, the smaller the flow rate is in order to reduce the overfilling, the longer the entire filling time of filling the liquid in the container becomes.

The filling method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-191193 is effective in the case of a filling device configured as a series such as a filling tank, a flow meter, and a filling valve. However, in the case of a filling device in which a flow meter and a filling valve are provided in n series for one filling tank, 1
Filling is performed after the filling of the (n-1) series before filling with the second flow meter and the filling valve and again using the flow meter of the series, etc., during which the physical properties of the liquid and the filling environment If there is a sudden change such as a decrease in the viscosity of the liquid or a change in pressure, for example, the initial predicted value may not be useful, and there has been a problem that accurate filling cannot be performed.

In the case of the quantitative distribution method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-223627, the weight is measured for each container. There was a problem that must not be.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for filling a fixed amount of liquid accurately and at high speed without any waste, without being affected by disturbance changes such as physical properties of the liquid and a filling environment. To provide.

The present inventors have conducted various studies on foaming at the start of filling in the conventional liquid filling method, liquid overflowing from the mouth of the container when switching the flow rate, and excessive filling at the end of filling. I found that. That is,
With regard to, it was found that, since the valve was fully opened from the start of the filling, the flow rate increased at a stretch and flowed vigorously into the container, and foaming was caused by stirring at that time. When switching from a large flow rate to a small flow rate, the valve piston moves rapidly, so a large pressure is momentarily applied to the liquid from the filling valve, and the liquid column swells greatly at the outlet, and the swelling is caused by the opening of the container Part of the liquid was not injected into the container but overflowed. Also, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), when the filling valve is closed from a small flow rate, the liquid flows out of the filling valve within a response time from the transmission of the fully closed command signal to the closing of the valve. It turns out.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made based on the above findings, and is a liquid flow filling method for filling a liquid by a specific opening / closing operation of a filling valve. That is, the present invention relates to the relationship between the filling time and the flow rate registered in the control device in advance.
Therefore, it is a liquid fixed amount filling method in which the filling amount of the liquid in the container is controlled by a flow meter and a linearly driven filling valve,
With the filling valve closed and the liquid outlet aligned with the mouth of the container, the filling valve is gradually opened based on the filling start signal, and the flow rate of the liquid that has started flowing out of the filling valve outlet is measured. measured by meter, to fully open the filling valve at the stage of reaching a predetermined filling amount, after that state, close to the target fill weight
Once it has been moved, the opening just before the filling valve is fully opened
Throttle, and thereafter gradually closing the filling valve, and when the filling amount reaches a target value, closing the outlet by closing the filling valve based on a signal of completion of filling to provide a liquid fixed amount filling method. Thus, the above object has been achieved.

[0012]

According to the present invention, when filling a container with a liquid,
After aligning the liquid outlet with the mouth of the container with the filling valve closed, the filling valve is gradually opened based on the signal of the filling start, whereby the liquid starts flowing out from the filling valve outlet, The flow rate of the liquid is measured with a flow meter,
At this stage, since the outflow of the liquid is small, the liquid can be filled gently without foaming the liquid in the container.
Then, when the filling valve is fully opened when the liquid reaches the predetermined filling amount, the liquid is filled in a short time, but after that state, the filling valve is gradually opened this time as the filling amount approaches the target filling amount. When the filling amount reaches the target value, the filling valve is closed based on the signal indicating the completion of the filling. Since the flow rate of the liquid is small when the filling valve is closed as described above, the excess filling amount flowing out after the closing of the filling valve can be reduced.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. In each of the figures, FIG. 1 is a graph showing changes in the flow rate and the filling amount when the liquid is filled by the liquid quantitative filling method according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 2 (b) is a graph showing the relationship between the filling amount and the filling time, FIG. 2 (c) is a graph showing an enlarged portion surrounded by a circle in FIG. 2 (a), FIG. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a liquid filling apparatus used in the method of the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing a filling valve of the liquid filling apparatus shown in FIG.

Before describing the liquid filling method of the present invention, an example of a liquid filling apparatus used in the liquid filling method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2, the present liquid filling apparatus includes a pressurized tank 10 for storing a liquid for filling such as shampoo and rinse.
And a filling mechanism 20 arranged in n series around the pressurized tank 10. In FIG. 2, only one series of the filling mechanism 20 is shown, and the other is omitted. The filling mechanism 20 includes, as shown in FIG.
And a flow meter 23 attached to a pipe 21 connecting the filling valve 22 and the pressurized tank 10 to a signal from the flow meter 23. And a control device 24 for controlling the driving of the filling valve 22 based on the program. The filling valve 22 opens and closes in accordance with a sequence of a program registered in the control device 24 in advance to fill the container 30 with the liquid.

The flow meter 23 converts the flow rate of the liquid flowing through the pipe 21 into pulses, and expresses the current flow rate by the number of pulses. The flow meter 23 transmits a pulse signal corresponding to the flow rate to the control device 24. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 40 denotes an air pipe, and the inside of the pressurized tank 10 is maintained at a constant pressure via the air pipe 40.
The liquid L in the pressurized tank 10 is supplied by the pressure.

FIG. 1A shows the control device 24.
A program representing the relationship between the filling time and the flow rate indicated by the solid line is registered in advance, and the drive of the filling valve 22 is controlled in accordance with the flow rate measured by the flow meter 23.

The filling valve 22 will be described in more detail. As shown in FIG. 3, the filling valve 22 includes a linear drive motor 22A, a piston 22B having an upper end connected to the linear drive motor 22A, and a piston 22B.
A piston 22B is vertically moved by a linear drive motor 22A driven in accordance with a sequence of a program registered in advance in the control device 24. The piston 22B is housed in the casing 22D, and the lower end thereof is
It is housed in a nozzle 22E attached to the lower end of D, and the outlet 22F of the nozzle 22E is opened and closed by the valve 22C by the vertical movement of the piston 22B.
The pipe 21 is connected to the peripheral surface of the nozzle 22E. In FIG. 3, 22G is a casing 22D.
A sealing member for maintaining liquid tightness between the nozzle and the nozzle 22E.

Next, the liquid filling method of this embodiment using the liquid filling apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. It should be noted that each of the n-series filling mechanisms 2
The liquid can be filled with 0 by the following operation.

When the liquid is filled into the container 30 by the liquid filling method according to the present embodiment, first, when the valve 22C of the filling valve 22 is closed (t ₀ ), the outlet of the nozzle 22E is discharged. Align the mouth 31 of the container 30 with 22F. Thereafter, when a control signal S1 for starting filling is transmitted from the control device 24 to the linear drive motor 22A, the motor 22A is driven from that moment, the piston 22B rises, and the valve 22C starts opening gradually. Thereby, the pressurized tank 10
Of the liquid L through the pipe 21 and the filling valve 22
It begins to be supplied inside.

Then, the flow meter 23 starts measuring the flow rate of the liquid L in the pipe 21, and transmits a pulse signal S 2 corresponding to the measured flow rate to the control device 24. And the flow meter 23
Keeps transmitting the pulse signal S2 to the control device 24 while the liquid L is being filled. The control device 24 transmits a control signal S1 based on the pulse signal S2 to the linear drive motor 22A according to a registration program.
The valve 22C rises via 2B, gradually opens the outlet 22F, and fills the container 30 with the liquid L from the pressurized tank 10.

At this time, since the opening degree of the outlet 22F of the nozzle 22E is small, the flow rate is small, and the liquid column does not expand more than the diameter of the outlet 22F and a narrow liquid column (slightly smaller than the diameter of the outlet 22F). Then, the liquid L reaches the bottom of the container 30 and is connected by the liquid column to the outlet 22F and the bottom of the container 30, so that the liquid L can be smoothly filled into the container 30 without foaming. At this time, since the opening of the outlet 22F gradually increases, the filling flow rate gradually increases as shown by the line in FIG.

When a predetermined amount of liquid L accumulates in the container 30 (t ₁ second), for example, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the pulse signal S2 from the flow meter 23 at that time. The control signal S1 based on the
To the linear drive motor 22A, and instructs the valve 22C to fully open. Then, the valve 22C operates for the filling time (t
₁ second), the outlet 22F is fully opened at a stretch from the opening at the time of
As shown by the line in FIG. 1A, the flow rate sharply increases and reaches the flow rate at the time of full opening at the time of the filling time (t ₂ seconds). Thus, even when the flow rate of the liquid L is rapidly increased, a liquid column is already formed between the outlet 22F and the bottom of the container 30 unlike at the start of filling, and the liquid L is filled without expanding according to the liquid column. In addition, there is no possibility that the liquid L overflows from the mouth 31. In this fully opened state (the state of the line in FIG. 1A), the liquid L
Continue filling.

The liquid L is continuously filled and the target filling amount (FIG. 1)
(Shown by a broken line in FIG. 1B) (in this embodiment, FIG.
(If the filling time reaches t ₃ seconds in the graph of (a)), the control device 2 is controlled based on the pulse signal S2 from the flow meter 23 at that time.
4 to the linear drive motor 22A, and the filling valve 22 is closed in two stages. That is, when approaching the target filling amount, as the first stage, the control signal S1 is transmitted from the control device 24 to the linear drive motor 22A, and the opening of the outlet 22F is immediately increased by the valve 22C to the opening just before the valve 22C is fully opened. The throttle and the flow rate of the liquid L are rapidly reduced as shown by the line in FIG.

Thereafter, in the second stage, as shown by the line in FIG. 1A, the valve 22C is gradually closed to gradually reduce the flow rate. The control signal S1 of the fully closed command is transmitted to the valve 22A, the outlet 22F is closed by the valve 22C, and the liquid L
Is completed. However, there is a slight response time from the time when the control device 24 transmits the fully closed command signal at the time of completion of filling to the time when the valve 22C is fully closed, and during this time, the liquid L is filled into the container 30. Become. However, in the present embodiment, when the fully closed command signal is received, the nozzle 22C descends to a state close to the fully closed state, and the outlet 22F is narrowed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. Compared with the related art, the number can be significantly reduced and almost negligible.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, after the filling port 22 is closed and the outlet 22F of the liquid L is aligned with the opening 31 of the container 30, the control signal of the control unit 24 to start filling is set. The filling valve 22 is gradually opened based on S1, and the flow rate of the liquid L that has begun to flow out of the outlet 22F of the filling valve 22 is measured by a flow meter 23. When the predetermined filling amount is reached, the filling valve 22 is fully opened. And after that state,
When approaching the target filling amount, immediately open the filling valve 22 fully.
The filling valve 22 is gradually closed to the previous opening, and then the filling valve 22 is gradually closed. When the filling amount reaches the target value, the filling completion signal is output.
The outlet is closed by closing the filling valve 22 based on S1.
By closing 22F , a constant amount of liquid L can always be filled accurately and at high speed without being affected by disturbance changes such as the physical properties of liquid L and the filling environment.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and is included in the present invention unless it is contrary to the gist of the present invention.

[0027]

According to the liquid filling method of the present invention, a fixed amount of liquid can always be filled accurately and at high speed without being affected by disturbance changes such as physical properties of the liquid and the filling environment. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a graph showing a change in a flow rate and a filling amount when a liquid is filled according to an embodiment of the liquid filling method of the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) shows a relationship between a filling flow rate and a filling time. FIG. 4B is a graph showing the relationship between the filling amount and the filling time, and FIG. 4C is a graph showing an enlarged portion circled in FIG. 4A.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a liquid filling apparatus used in the method of the present embodiment.

3 is an enlarged sectional view showing a filling valve of the liquid filling device shown in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 20 filling mechanism 22 filling valve 22C valve 22F outlet 23 flow meter 24 controller 30 container 31 mouth S1 control signal

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-85291 (JP, A) JP-A-49-1348 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A charging time and flow rate registered in a control device in advance.
A liquid metering filling method in which the filling amount of liquid in a container is controlled by a flow meter and a linearly driven filling valve in accordance with the relationship of the amount , wherein the liquid outlet is aligned with the mouth of the container with the filling valve closed. After that, the filling valve is gradually opened based on the signal of the filling start, the flow rate of the liquid that has begun to flow out of the outlet of the filling valve is measured by a flow meter, and when the predetermined filling amount is reached, the filling valve is fully opened. After that state, when it approaches the target filling amount, the opening just before the filling valve is fully opened
A liquid filling method characterized by closing the filling valve gradually , and then gradually closing the filling valve, and when the filling amount reaches a target value, closing the filling valve based on a filling completion signal to close the outlet.