Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Filling means with receiver or receiver coacting means – With receiver support – guide means – or shield
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-12
2003-04-15
Jacyna, J. Casimer (Department: 3751)
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Filling means with receiver or receiver coacting means
With receiver support, guide means, or shield
C141S077000, C141S114000, C141S260000, C141S263000, C141S374000, C053S289000, C053S469000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06546973
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for filling flexible containers with viscous materials such as construction sealant or adhesives; a system for conveying cylindrical members as flexible containers; and a system for filling them with a viscous material; a method for filling flexible containers with a viscous material; and equipment for filling them with a viscous material; and a container filled with a viscous material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Widely used containers filled with construction sealant, such as the filled container
100
illustrated in
FIG. 23
, comprise a hard cylindrical container main body
103
with an open proximal end, a discharge hole
102
for discharging the sealant
101
formed at the distal end, and a plunger
104
fitted into the proximal opening. In such a filled container
100
, the sealing lid member
105
for sealing the discharge hole
102
is opened, the virgin film
106
is then cut, a nozzle not shown in the figure is then mounted on the discharge hole
102
, the container is then mounted in a special discharge gun, and the lever of the discharge gun is operated to move the plunger
104
gradually toward the inside distal end of the container main body
103
, thereby allowing the sealant
101
to be extruded and discharged.
Means widely used as a method for filling this type of container main body
103
with the sealant
101
comprise vertically holding the container main body
103
, usually with the proximal end on top, filling the container in this state with a fixed amount of sealant
101
in such a way as to prevent air bubbles from being mixed in through the proximal end opening, then forcibly evacuating the air between the plunger
104
and sealant
101
out through the sliding component between the container main body
103
and plunger
104
as the plunger
104
is inserted into the container main body
103
and against the sealant
101
in such a way that no air is left over.
Filled containers
100
with this type of structure are widely used at present because the air between the plunger
104
and sealant
101
can be almost completely evacuated, and the air-tightness between the plunger
104
and the container main body
103
can be satisfactorily preserved, but since the container main body
103
is hard, the filled container
100
cannot be squeezed to a smaller size after use, and is thus limited in terms of volume reduction, resulting in the problem of bulky waste.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai) 7-171461 proposed a flexible container in which the intermediate drum portion of the container main body was made of a flexible film, and a relatively hard upper molded part and bottom molded part were integrally formed with the distal and proximal ends of the container main body. This flexible container is mounted on the outer tube of a discharge gun, and the bottom molded part is moved toward the upper molded part side, so that the sealant is extruded and discharged from the discharge hole formed in the upper molded part as the intermediate drum component is squeezed, thereby allowing the flexible container to be squeezed into a smaller size after use to reduce the volume of waste.
The method described for filling the container with the sealant in this publication was a filling method in which the sealant was charged into the container main body through the opening of the bottom molded part formed in the shape of a ring, and the opening was then closed off in an air-tight manner after the material had been charged therein.
With hard cylindrical container main body
103
such as the aforementioned filled container
100
, the container main body can be positioned perpendicular to the direction of conveyance on a conveyor to be transported from the molding equipment to the filling equipment, but flexible container main bodies such as that described in the aforementioned publication, in which the intermediate drum portion is made of a flexible film, are sometimes deformed while conveyed when transported by a similar conveying means, and there is thus a need for a conveying system capable of efficiently conveying such container main bodies.
Although the sealant is discharged from the flexible container described in the above publication as the container main body is squeezed, allowing the volume of the container to thus be reduced after use, the following problems nevertheless occur.
That is, it is possible to fit the lid member and bottom molded part together and fix them in an air-tight manner by means of an annular lock fitting component, for example, to improve the air-tightness between the bottom molded part and the lid member, but when such a structure is used, the position in which the lid member is fixed to the bottom molded part is fixed, so that when the amount of sealant charged into the container main body is not precisely established, there are problems in that air remains in the flexible container, causing the sealant to harden or to cure in the flexible container when a small amount of sealant has been charged in, whereas the sealant leaks out when the container is capped with the lid member when larger amounts of material have been charged in. Even if the container is filled with more precise amounts, when the lid member is fitted in an air-tight manner to the container main body, the air must be completely evacuated from between the container main body and the lid member, but it is difficult to thus fit the lid member in such a way as to leave no air.
The inventors took note of the fact that, when container main bodies were filled with larger amounts of sealant, virtually all the air was evacuated from between the container main body and the lid member even though excess sealant leaked out, and they discovered that virtually all of the air can be evacuated from between the container main body and the lid member when the lid member is fitted by pressing the container main body midway in the longitudinal direction while it is filled with sealant so as to cause the surface of the sealant to bulge in the container main body and thereby increase the apparent amount of sealant charged therein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The filling system comprises container conveying means for conveying a container main body of which at least the drum body is made of a flexible film, charging means for charging a viscous material into the container main body, pressing means for pressing the drum body of the container main body to cause the surface of the viscous material to bulge, and capping means for capping the opening of the reinforcing component of the container main body with a lid member.
In this filling system, a viscous material is charged by the charging means into the container main bodies conveyed by the container conveying means, the drum body of the container main body is pressed by the pressing means to cause the surface of the viscous material to bulge, and the opening of the reinforcing component of the container main body is capped with a lid member by the capping means.
More specifically, when the viscous material is charged by the charging means into the container main body, the surface of the viscous material forms a peak with the center swelling up. Thus, when the drum body of the container main body is pressed to cause the surface of the viscous material in this state to bulge, the surface of the viscous material bulges while generally retaining a peaked shape when the viscous material has been charged in. In other words, the drum body is pressed to increase the apparent amount of the viscous material charged into the container main body. Since the opening of the reinforcing component of the container main body is capped with the lid member while the surface of the viscous material is thus bulging outward, the lid member first fits closely to the apex of the surface of the viscous material, the tight fit between the surface of the viscous material and the lid member spreads outward as the apex of the surface of the viscous material is the
Hattori Eiji
Murase Masaaki
Nakayama Kiyoshi
Yazaki Osamu
Armstrong Westerman & Hattori, LLP
Jacyna J. Casimer
Sunstar Engineering Inc.
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