JPH08156904A - Method for filling of packing container - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce cost and to prevent that excessive force is applied to the whole of a seal part and a housing container. CONSTITUTION: A housing container 11 made of a resin having an opening at its upper end and having a deformable part formed to the wall thereof and freely regulated in its inner vol. is filled with liquid food and a lid member 13 is arranged to the upper end of the housing container 11 to be sealed thereto by allowing a seal device to fall from above. At the time of sealing, the deformable part of the housing container 11 is deformed to raise the liquid surface of the liquid food to the upper end level of the housing container 11. Since a gap is formed between the liquid surface of the liquid food and the upper end of the housing container 11 at the point of time when the housing container 11 is filled with the liquid food, the liquid food does not overflow from the opening during a period when the housing container 11 is moved from a filling station to a sealing station.

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 packaging container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a resin packaging container is formed by filling a cup-shaped container with liquid food and sealing the container with a lid. . A rotary type filling device is usually used, and the storage container supplied to the filling device is placed on a turntable and moved in accordance with the rotation of the turntable. Further, a filling station and a sealing station are set in the turntable, the liquid food is filled from the opening at the upper end of the container at the filling station, and the lid is sealed at the upper end of the container at the sealing station. By doing so, the container is sealed.

By the way, the container is moved on the turntable with its upper end opened until it reaches the sealing station after being filled with the liquid food at the filling station. Then, since the turntable is rotated at a relatively high speed in order to speed up the filling, the stored liquid food may overflow from the opening due to vibration or the like. The lid is sealed while the liquid food remains attached.

Therefore, the upper end of the container is raised by a predetermined amount from the liquid surface of the liquid food when the liquid food is filled to form a head space in the upper part of the container.
A dropping lid is used as the lid body so that the filling is completed.

[0005]

However, in the conventional method for filling a packaging container described above, since high filling accuracy is required for completion filling, the work is troublesome and the cost is high. In addition, when trying to seal the drop lid in the fully filled state, not only the internal pressure of the container increases due to the liquid food that is about to overflow, but also the resin is melted with the seal of the drop lid and the volume of the container is increased. Even if it is reduced, the internal pressure of the storage container becomes high. Therefore, excessive force is applied to the entire seal portion and the storage container.

The present invention can solve the problems of the conventional packaging container filling method, reduce the cost, and prevent the excessive pressure from being applied to the seal portion and the container. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

Therefore, in the method of filling a packaging container according to the present invention, a resin container having an opening at the upper end, a deformable portion is formed on the container wall, and the inner volume is adjustable. The container is filled with the liquid food, the lid is arranged on the upper end of the container, and the sealing device is lowered from above the lid to seal the lid on the upper end of the container.

Then, at the time of sealing, the deformable portion of the container is deformed to raise the liquid level of the liquid food to the level of the upper end of the container.

[0009]

According to the present invention, as described above, in the method of filling the packaging container, the opening is formed at the upper end and the deformable portion is formed on the vessel wall so that the inner volume can be adjusted. A liquid container is filled with a liquid food, a lid is provided on the upper end of the container, and a sealing device is lowered from above the lid to seal the lid on the upper end of the container.

At the time of sealing, the deformable portion of the container is deformed to raise the liquid level of the liquid food to the level of the upper end of the container. In this case, the storage container is arranged at the filling station of the turntable, and when the storage container is filled with the liquid food, for example, since the deformable portion of the bottom of the storage container is not pushed upward, the liquid food A gap is formed between the liquid surface of the container and the upper end of the container. Then, the container is moved to the sealing station, and the lid is sealed on the upper end of the container.

Therefore, since the gap is maintained until the container is moved from the filling station to the sealing station, even if the turntable is rotated at a relatively high speed, the contained liquid food is opened by vibration or the like. Never overflows. As a result, the filling can be speeded up. Further, at the time of sealing, for example, the deformable portion of the bottom portion of the storage container is pushed upward to raise the liquid level of the liquid food to the level of the upper end of the storage container. When the container is closed, the bottom will try to move downwards. However, since a negative pressure is generated in the storage container, the bottom is left in a state of moving upward.

At this time, if the container is not sufficiently sealed by the lid, the negative pressure in the container disappears and the bottom part moves downward. Therefore, the quality of the sealing property of the packaging container can be determined by determining whether or not the bottom portion is still moving upward. Further, since a negative pressure is generated in the container, it is possible to prevent excessive force from being applied to the seal portion and the container due to melting of the resin.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the packaging container according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the packaging container according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a modification of the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a bottom sectional view of a packaging container in which a possible portion was formed in the bottom.

In the figure, reference numeral 11 is a container made of a transparent thermoplastic material having a high gas barrier property for containing a liquid food, and has a cup-like shape with an open upper end. The container 11 is formed by deforming a resin multilayer sheet formed by a coextrusion molding method, a blown film molding method, or the like into a cup shape by a tip expansion method as a thermoforming method, and has a tubular cross section. Body 11a of the body, body 1
Flange portion 11 extending radially outward at the upper end of 1a
b, a bottom portion 11c formed at the lower end of the body portion 11a. Further, a deformable portion is formed on the container wall of the storage container 11 so that the internal volume can be changed. In the present embodiment, the bottom portion 11c has a bellows portion P1 formed adjacent to the lower end of the body portion 11a,
And a flat portion P2 formed radially inward of the bellows portion P1. By deforming the bellows portion P1, the inner volume of the container 11 can be changed.

The bellows portion P1 has a plurality of curved waveforms P1.
It is composed of a and P1b, and is formed so as to be inclined so that the curved waveform inward in the radial direction becomes higher. Therefore, the lid 13
At the time when the sealing of the container 11 by the
Since the position of the flat portion P2 is higher than the lower end of the sleeve 12, when the packaging container is placed on a table or the like (not shown), a heat insulating space is formed between the bottom portion 11c and the table or the like.

By the way, in the above-mentioned tip expansion method, since the multilayer sheet is formed after being heated to about 180 [° C.] above the melting point, it is not necessary to sterilize the container 11 before filling the liquid food. In addition, the storage container 1 when retorting
1 does not shrink or deform due to the molecular orientation effect. Note that a vacuum blow molding method, a pressure blow molding method, or the like can be used as the thermoforming method.

The multi-layer sheet has, for example, the following layer structure. PP / adhesive layer / EVOH / adhesive layer / recycled PP Also, instead of this, PP / recycled PP / adhesive layer / EVOH / adhesive layer / recycled PP
A layer structure such as / PP PP / recycled PP / adhesive layer / EVOH / adhesive layer / APET EVA / EVOH / EVA PS / EVOH / PE PS / EVOH / PS PP / EVOH / PP can also be used. Thus, since EVOH is used for the layer structure, the gas barrier property of the multilayer sheet can be improved.

The following layer structure may be used. PS / PE PS / PETG PS / PE / PS The sleeve 12 formed of a material having higher rigidity and heat insulation than the container 11 is provided outside the container 11.
Is arranged. The sleeve 12 has a tubular shape, holds the shape of the storage container 11, and holds the storage container 1
Insulation is performed so that heat does not transfer between the liquid food stored in 1 and the outside air.

By the way, the container 11 and the sleeve 1
2 has a double structure. In this case, first, the sleeve 1
2 is formed, and then the storage container 11 is formed in the sleeve 12 by a thermoforming method, and subsequently, the storage container 11 can be sealed by the lid 13 after filling the liquid food. Alternatively, the container 11 may be formed by thermoforming, the container 11 may be fitted into the sleeve 12, the container 11 may be filled with liquid food, and then the container 11 may be sealed with the lid 13. it can.

Further, the storage container 11 is formed by a thermoforming method, and the storage container 11 is filled with a liquid food.
It is also possible to fit 1 into the sleeve 12 after sealing it with the lid 13. The sleeve 12 is made of expanded polypropylene, and in this case, the diameter of bubbles formed by expansion is set to about 150 μm.

Further, instead of the expanded polypropylene,
It is possible to use a paper material as well as a layered structure including a polypropylene layer and a foamed polypropylene layer. In this case, printing can be performed on the surface of the polypropylene layer or paper material. And the sleeve 1
When 2 is made of a transparent material, the liquid food item contained in the container 11 can be seen through.

After the container 11 is filled with the liquid food, the lid 13 is sealed to the flange portion 11b by a sealing means such as heat sealing or ultrasonic sealing, and the container 11 is sealed. The resin film forming the lid 13 is molded to a thickness of 30 to 50 [μm] by a coextrusion molding method, a blown film molding method, or the like. The resin film formed by the coextrusion molding method has, for example, the following layer structure.

PP / adhesive layer / EVOH / adhesive layer / PP Furthermore, the lid 13 may be formed of a transparent resin plate having a high gas barrier property. In this case, the resin plate is molded by a hot pressing method, an injection molding method or the like.
A pouring port 13a for pouring out the liquid food contained in the container 11 is formed at a predetermined position of the lid body 13,
The spout 13a is closed by a pull tab 15. The pull tab 15 is made of a material having high gas barrier properties, rigidity and tensile strength, and can be colored.

Further, the pull tab 15 has, for example, the following layered structure. Biaxially Stretched PP / Peelable Adhesive Layer Then, on the outer surface of the sleeve 12, a glossy film made of a heat-shrinkable material is formed. The film is printed with predetermined characters and pictures. Also,
For the film, a stretched PP film having a thickness of less than 20 [μm] can be used. The film is not necessary when the surface of the sleeve 12 is printed.

In this embodiment, the packaging container has a double structure consisting of the storage container 11 and the sleeve 12, but it is also possible to configure the packaging container with only the storage container 11. Next, a method for filling the packaging container having the above configuration will be described.
1 is a perspective view showing a sealing process of a lid body in a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a filling process of a liquid food product in a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing a lid body setting step in the first embodiment, FIG. 7 is a first state diagram showing a lid body sealing step in the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a first embodiment of the present invention. The 2nd state figure showing the sealing process of the lid in an example, and Drawing 9 are sectional views of a storage container in a 1st example of the present invention. Note that the sleeve 12 (FIG. 2) is not shown for convenience of description.

First, the storage container 11 is supplied to a supply station on a turntable (not shown), and is moved to a filling station as the turntable rotates. In the filling station, as shown in FIG. 5, a metering supply pipe 31 of a filling machine (not shown) is arranged above the container 11, and the measured liquid food is supplied to the container 11 by the metering pipe 31. Is filled.

In this case, the liquid food is filled with a gap δ formed between the upper end of the container 11 and the liquid surface. As a result, a head space is formed in the upper part of the container 11. Next, the container 11 is moved to the lid setting station. In the lid setting station,
A lid applicator (not shown) sets the lid 13 above the container 11 as shown in FIG.

Subsequently, the container 11 is moved to the sealing station. At the sealing station, as shown in FIG. 7, the lid 13 is placed on the upper end of the sleeve 12 (actually, the flange portion 11b) (FIG. 2). Further, in the sealing station, a sealing device 32 is arranged above the lid 13 and a pusher 33 is arranged below.
Since the head space is formed in the upper part of the container 11 from the filling station to the seal set station, even if the turntable is rotated at a relatively high speed, the stored liquid food vibrates. It does not overflow from the opening due to factors such as. Therefore, the filling can be speeded up.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 8, the sealing device 32 is lowered to move the peripheral portion of the lid 13 to the container 1.
It is pressed against the upper end of 1 to seal the lid 13 on the container 11. In this case, the pusher 33 is raised and pushes up the flat portion P2 of the bottom portion 11c of the storage container 11.
Therefore, the bellows portion P1 is extended, and the flat portion P2 moves upward to raise the liquid level of the liquid food to the level of the upper end of the container 11.

Then, the sealing device 32 is raised,
The pusher 33 is lowered, and as shown in FIG. 9, the sealing of the container 11 by the lid 13 is completed. At this time, the flat portion P2 of the bottom portion 11c tries to move downward, but since the storage container 11 is sealed by the lid 13 and a negative pressure is generated in the storage container 11,
The flat portion P2 is placed in a state of being moved upward.

However, the container 13 is covered by the lid 13.
Is not sufficiently closed, the negative pressure in the storage container 11 disappears, and the flat portion P2 moves downward. Therefore, it is possible to judge whether or not the flat portion P2 is still moving upward, and to judge whether the sealing property of the packaging container is good or bad. Further, since a negative pressure is generated in the container 11, it is possible to prevent excessive force from being applied to the seal portion and the container due to melting of the resin.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. 10 is a bottom sectional view of a packaging container in the second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 11 is a bottom sectional view of a packaging container in the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 12 is a fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a bottom sectional view of the packaging container, and FIG. 13 is a bottom sectional view of the packaging container according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the bellows portion P1 is composed of a plurality of curved waveforms P1c and P1d, and is formed to be inclined so that the curved waveform inward in the radial direction becomes slightly higher. To be done. Therefore, the position of the flat portion P2 is slightly higher than the lower end of the sleeve 12 at the time when the sealing of the storage container 11 by the lid 13 (FIG. 2) is completed, so that the packaging container is placed on the table or the like. At this time, a heat insulating space is formed between the bottom portion 11c and the table or the like.

In the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, the bellows portion P1 has a plurality of sawtooth waveforms P1e and P1f.
And is formed so as to be inclined so that the sawtooth waveform inward in the radial direction becomes higher. Therefore, since the position of the flat portion P2 is higher than the lower end of the sleeve 12 when the sealing of the storage container 11 by the lid 13 is completed, the bottom portion 11c is placed when the packaging container is placed on a table or the like. A heat insulating space is formed between the table and the table.

In the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 12, the bellows portion P1 is composed of a plurality of curved waveforms P1g and P1h, and is formed by extending horizontally inward in the radial direction. Therefore, when the sealing of the container 11 by the lid 13 is completed, the position of the flat portion P2 and the sleeve 12 are
Since the lower end of the container has substantially the same height, the packaging container can be stably placed on a table or the like.

In the fifth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 13, the bellows portion P1 has a plurality of sawtooth waveforms P1i and P1j.
It is formed by sloping so that the sawtooth waveform inward in the radial direction is slightly higher. Therefore, the lid 1
Since the position of the flat portion P2 is slightly higher than the lower end of the sleeve 12 when the sealing of the storage container 11 by 3 is completed, when the packaging container is placed on the table or the like, the bottom portion 11c and the table 11c. A heat insulating space is formed between them and the like.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but various modifications can be made based on the spirit of the present invention, and they are not excluded from the scope of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a sealing process of a lid according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the packaging container according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the packaging container according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a bottom cross-sectional view of the packaging container in which the deformable portion according to the first embodiment of the present invention is formed on the bottom.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a filling process of liquid food according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a lid body setting step in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a first state diagram showing a lid body sealing step in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a second state diagram showing a sealing step of the lid body according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a container according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a bottom cross-sectional view of the packaging container according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a bottom cross-sectional view of the packaging container according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a bottom cross-sectional view of the packaging container according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a bottom cross-sectional view of the packaging container according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Storage Container 11c Bottom 13 Lid 32 Sealing Device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. (a) A liquid container is filled with a liquid food having an opening at the upper end and a deformable portion formed on the vessel wall, and the inner volume of which is adjustable, and (b) the housing. A lid is disposed on the upper end of the container, (c) the sealing device is lowered from above the lid to seal the lid on the upper end of the container, and (d) the container is deformable at the time of sealing. A method for filling a packaging container, characterized in that the liquid surface of the liquid food is raised to the level of the upper end of the storage container by deforming another portion.