JPH0369591B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention is a heat-shrinkable label attached to bottles that is automatically cut and removed in the middle of an automatic processing line. This invention relates to a method for cutting labels using hot air.

(Prior art) Labels made of heat-shrinkable films attached to various bottles are generally peeled off and reused after cleaning the bottle surface when used bottles are washed and reused. However, such a label is conventionally peeled off using a knife or the like (Prior Art Example 1).

Alternatively, instead of the mechanical peeling means described above, a container such as a bottle is introduced into a combustion chamber, heated, and changed to a state where foreign objects such as labels can be easily separated, and then the container is washed with water to remove the foreign object. The method for removing it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 50-117587.
(Conventional Example 2).

Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 77426/1983 discloses that a synthetic resin material wound around an article is cut by hot air jetted from a nozzle (Conventional Example 3).

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In recent years, it has become common practice to coat the surfaces of bottles with synthetic resin materials to prevent them from bursting and scattering. If a knife is applied to the same as in Conventional Example 1, there are problems such as damaging the coating, and some kind of countermeasure is required to replace this. Also, even for ordinary bottles that are not coated, the trouble of being scratched by a knife cannot be covered, and mechanical methods such as using a knife to remove the coating cannot be said to be sufficient.

In Conventional Example 2 above, the container is introduced into a combustion chamber and heated, so if the label wrapped around the container is made of heat-shrinkable film material, it will further heat-shrink and adhere firmly to the bottle. , and it becomes difficult to separate because it is welded, and there is also a problem in terms of energy saving because the entire bottle is heated. Furthermore, since it is heated and washed with water, there is a problem of pollution.

Furthermore, in Conventional Example 3, synthetic resin binding strings and bobbin waste threads are melted and cut using hot air, and this is used as a device to automatically cut and peel off heat-shrinkable labels on the surfaces of bottles. cannot be used.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention automatically cuts and cuts the heat-shrinkable labels of bottles covered with heat-shrinkable labels in the middle of an automatic processing line.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method that saves energy, prevents pollution, and performs efficient work on an industrial scale by peeling and appropriately removing the peeled label.

(Means for Solving the Problems) As a means for achieving the above object, the present invention sequentially places bottles covered with heat-shrinkable labels, which have been continuously conveyed on a conveyor, on a rotary table surface. Then, hot air is blown in the axial direction of the bottle from a nozzle having a narrow groove located at the center of the rotary table to melt and cut the heat-shrinkable label on the blown part, and then the heat shrinkable label from the nozzle is blown onto the bottle. The heat-shrinkable labels that have been peeled off from the bottles are blown away by the pressure of the hot air into a collection duct located on the outer circumference of the rotary table, facing the nozzle, and are further removed by suction. We adopted a configuration in which it is loaded onto a conveyor and transported.

(Example) The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to illustrated embodiments. What is shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 shows one example of the apparatus used in carrying out the method of the present invention. To explain the method of the present invention with reference to these figures, an empty bottle 1 with a heat-shrinkable label 20 attached to the body surface as shown in the first figure is loaded on an entry side conveyor 2 and conveyed one by one, conveyor 2
By the information screen 3 installed in parallel with
Supply star wheel 4 with constant bin spacing
Through the rotation of the wheel 4, the empty bottle 1 is transferred onto the table surface 13 of the rotary table 7, where a hot air jet nozzle 5 in the form of a vertically long thin slit is applied to the label 20 surface of the empty bottle 1. You will be exposed to hot air, but at this time empty bottle 1
The upper part of the empty bottle 1 is fixed by the chucking head 6, and the bottom of the empty bottle 1 is also fixed by the positioning stand 14 provided on the table surface 13, so that its attitude and position are maintained stably and immovably. be done. Next, the hot air jetting nozzle 5 moves forward and approaches the empty bottle 1, and blows hot air from the slit to hit the label 20, thereby releasing the label 20.
will be fused. In the above process, the bottle delivery pitch in the input screw 3 and the rotation delivery pitch of the supply star wheel 4 are the same, and under the same pit as the pitch, the rotary table 7 has the hot air jetting nozzle 5, It rotates together with the tracking head 6 and the positioning stand 14. Therefore, in the illustrated example, the rotary table 7 equipped with the hot air jet nozzle 5 positioning stand 14 supports the tracking head 6 so that it can move up and down. Together with the large head 6a, it is rotatably provided about the substantially central part of the frame 11 installed between the pillars 12, 12 as a fulcrum.
By using such mechanical means, the empty bottles 1 are placed on the table surface 1 of the table 7 at regular intervals.
3, the label 20 is lowered and locked by the positioning stand 14, and faces the hot air jet nozzle 5, where the label 20 is blown by hot air and the label 20 is fused. Become.

As the rotary table 7 rotates, the empty bottle 1 with the label 20 cut off as described above is moved to the second
As is clear from the figure, the melted labels 20 move sequentially, and are blown off by the pressure of the hot air and peeled off from the empty bottle 1, and fly into the collection duct 8, where they are further sucked by a suction device (not shown). The table 7 is discharged to the outside and removed.
The empty bottle 10 from which the label 20 has been removed is conveyed to the next process by the discharge star wheel 9 provided adjacent to the table 7 at a position where the label 20 is rotated approximately once. At this time, when the empty bottle 1 is transferred to the discharge star wheel 9, the chuck head. 6 thinks about it and releases the bottle, and the hot air jet nozzle 5 also retreats, leaving a distance from the bottle.

As is clear from the above process description, the empty bottle 1, the chuck head 6, and the hot air jet nozzle 5 on the rotary table 7 move synchronously as one set.
It is preferable that the distance between the nozzle 5 and the nozzle 5 is constant during fusing. Therefore, when fusing the label 20 attached to a curved bottle shape, the nozzle 5 having a slit curved along the bottle shape is used. It is desirable to use In the above process, the reason why the hot air jetting nozzle 5 moves back and forth toward the bottle surface is because it moves from the supply star wheel 4 to the table surface 1.
Immediately after being transferred to the empty bottle 3, the empty bottle 1 is shaking slightly, and if the hot air jet nozzle 5 is not fixed at a fixed position, it may collide with the empty bottle 1 and cause damage.
In the above state, it is preferable that the nozzle 5 is moved backwards and away, but it is of course possible for the nozzle 5 to move forward and backward as long as other measures are taken to prevent damage even if it collides with an empty bottle. It is.

Re-explaining the above process using the explanatory diagram of FIG. 4, the position indicated by line A-A in FIG. As shown in Figure A, in this position, the chucking head 6 descends to hold the upper part of the empty bottle 1, and also holds the empty bottle 1.
The bottom of the positioning stand 1 on the table surface 13
4, and the hot air jet nozzle 5 is in a state immediately before moving forward toward the empty bottle 1. The next advancing position, the position on the line B-B in FIG. Hot air is blown close to the heat-shrinkable label 20 to begin fusing it. In addition, the next advancing position, the position on line C-C in Figure 2, is the position where the empty bottle 1 moves and passes through the collection duct 8. At this position, as shown in Figure 4 C, the label that has been fused and peeled off is 20 is shown in a state immediately before being sucked into the recovery duct 8. Subsequently, at the next advancing position, the position taken along line D-D in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2D, the chucking head 6 rises to release the empty bottle 1, and the hot air jetting nozzle 5 also retreats away from the empty bottle 1. As described above, one cycle of automatic fusing of the heat-shrinkable label 20 in the method of the present invention is completed through the rotation of the rotary table 7.

As a result of repeated various experiments and studies, the present inventors have repeatedly conducted various experiments and conducted research to blow hot air onto the heat-shrinkable label 20 from the slit of the hot-air blowing nozzle 5 to fuse the label 20 as described above. In order to achieve a fusing effect with high reliability and stability, the hot air blowing opening in the hot air blowing nozzle 5 is shaped like a slit, and the width of the slit, the hot air temperature, the hot air speed (spraying speed), Furthermore, we discovered that there is an important relationship between the distance between the hot air jet nozzle 5 and the bottles (distance), and as a result of repeated research on these combination conditions, we found that it is preferable to implement the following specific conditions. In other words, the slit width in the hot air jet nozzle 5 is set to 0.1.
~2 mm; preferably 0.2 to 1 mm, the temperature of the hot air at the time of jetting is 150°C or higher; preferably 160 to 250°C, the speed of the hot air at the time of jetting is 30 m/sec or higher; preferably 50 to 250 m/sec, and The distance between the hot air jet nozzle 5 and bottles is 15 mm or less; preferably 1 to 8 mm.
By doing so, it has been confirmed that, for example, heat-shrinkable labels with full back printing can be completely fused from bottles within 2.5 seconds at the latest, and within 1.5 seconds on average. be.

Here, the bottles targeted by the present invention include glass bottles, ceramic bottles, metal bottles, etc., and are not particularly limited, and the heat-shrinkable labels thereof include, for example, thermoplastic films,
It refers to a heat-shrinkable label with printing on its back and/or front surface, and the film raw material is not particularly limited, such as polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polypropylene, etc.
In this case, whether the printing is on the front side or the back side, if it is a transparent unprinted area and this area is difficult to melt, then the entire surface of the label or at least the unprinted area can be Particle size
It is sufficient to apply a composition containing fine particles such as silica of about 0.1 to 10 microns and pre-treat the surface so that it is easily fused in the same way as the uneven parts due to printing, and these can be carried out appropriately as necessary. Next, some specific examples of the method of the present invention will be shown.

Example 1 Polyvinyl chloride film and styrene
For empty bottles covered with heat-shrinkable labels made of butadiene block copolymer film and printed on the entire back side, the used labels are cut by melting, as shown in Figures 1 to 3. Using a device, the slit width of the hot air jet nozzle 5 is 0.5 mm,
The hot air speed (when blowing out) is 82 m/sec, the distance between the surface of bottle 1 and nozzle 5 is 2.5 mm, and the hot air temperature (when blowing out).
When the fusing time of the label was measured under various conditions, the results shown in FIG. 5 were obtained. In the same figure, the horizontal axis shows the fusing time (sec),
The vertical axis shows the hot air temperature (°C), but as the graph curve shows, if the hot air temperature is too low for both y and y, it takes too much time to blow the fuse, making it difficult to operate automated online equipment on an industrial scale. This is not desirable.

Example 2 The apparatus shown in Figs. 1 to 3 was used to melt and cut an empty bottle on which a heat-shrinkable label made of polyvinyl chloride film had been printed on the entire back side. The slit width of the hot air jet nozzle 5 is 0.5 mm, and the distance between the bottle surface and the nozzle 5 is
2.5mm, and the hot air speed at the time of ejection is 96m/sec,
The fusing time was measured by changing the hot air temperature to 82 m/sec and 50 m/sec, as in Example 1, and the results shown in FIG. 6 were obtained. In this figure, the horizontal axis shows the fusing time (sec), and the vertical axis shows the hot air temperature (°C). In this graph, when the fusing time is 2.5 seconds or more, the processing speed is , which is unfavorable from the viewpoint of the operating rate of the machinery.

Example 3 To cut the label of an empty bottle covered with the same heat-shrinkable label as in Example 2, the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 was used, and the slit width of the hot air jet nozzle 5 was set to 0.8 mm. , the distance between the bottle surface and the hot air jetting nozzle 5 is 2.5 mm, and the hot air speed when the nozzle is jetting is:
The fusing time was measured by changing the hot air temperature to 102 m/sec, 79 m/sec, and 68 m/sec as in Example 1, and the results shown in FIG. 7 were obtained. In the figure, the horizontal axis indicates the melting time and the vertical axis indicates the hot air temperature, and the same conclusion as in Examples 1 and 2 can be obtained from this graph curve.

(Effects of the Invention) The present invention enables the labeling of bottles covered with heat-shrinkable labels to be carried out on the rotary table of an automatic processing line consisting of an inlet conveyor, a rotary table, and an outlet conveyor. The heat-shrinkable label is melted by blowing hot air in the axial direction of the bottle from a nozzle with narrow grooves,
Furthermore, since the pressure of the hot air is used for removal, the peeling and removal is reliable, and the work can be done automatically, resulting in high efficiency. Moreover, in the present invention, the peeled and removed labels are sucked into the collection duct provided on the outer circumference of the rotary table using the wind pressure and further by the suction force of the duct, so the entire device is not contaminated and is hygienic. Processing is possible.

Furthermore, the present invention is superior in that it solves the problems described in Conventional Examples 1 to 3, is energy-saving, and can be processed without pollution.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an example of a label fusing device for implementing the method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, Fig. 3 is a side view of the same, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the label fusing process, Figures 6 and 7 are both graph curves showing the relationship between the melting time and the hot air temperature in the embodiments of the method of the present invention. 1...Empty bottle, 20...Heat-shrinkable label, 5...Hot air jet nozzle, 8...Recovery duct.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Bottles covered with heat-shrinkable labels that have been continuously conveyed by a conveyor are transferred one after another onto the surface of a rotary table, and the bottles are removed from a nozzle having a narrow groove located at the center of the rotary table. Hot air is blown in the axial direction of the bottle to melt and cut the heat-shrinkable label at the blown part, and then the heat-shrinkable label peeled off from the bottle by the pressure of the hot air from the nozzle is attached to the nozzle on the outer circumferential side of the rotary table. The heat-shrinkable label is blown away into a collection duct placed on the opposite side, further removed by suction, and then the bottles from which the heat-shrinkable label has been peeled are placed on a conveyor and transported.The heat-shrinkable label is melted and cut with hot air. Method.