Automatic package inspecting system

Details Automatic package inspecting system Automatic package inspecting system

2000-04-07

2004-03-30

Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)

Package making

With means responsive to a sensed condition

Of receptacle or cover feed or adjunct feed or application

C053S502000, C053S551000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06711874

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package inspecting system for automatically inspecting the package of a product to determine if the product is properly packaged.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An exemplary package inspecting system according to the prior art will be discussed with reference to
FIG. 1
which also shows one of preferred embodiments of the present invention. Referring to
FIG. 1
, quantities of articles M successively discharged from a combination weighing apparatus
1
and then falling onto a chute
203
are successively packaged by a combined bagging and packaging machine
200
. The combined bagging and packaging machine
200
includes a vertical sealer (a vertical sealing device)
201
for sealing together opposite longitudinal side edges of a web of film F that is used as a packaging material so that that web of film F can be formed into a tubular form, and an end sealer (an end sealing device)
202
for thermally sealing a downwardly oriented end of the tubular film F and also for subsequently thermally sealing and cutting an upwardly oriented end F
1
of the tubular film F after the individual quantity of the articles M have been received within the tubular film F, thereby producing a bagged product M
1
. Thus, the combined bagging and packaging machine
200
successively produces bagged products M
1
each containing the quantity of the articles M, and the bagged products M
1
so produced are successively transported to a weight checker
300
that checks the bagged products M
1
one at a time to determine if the weight of the articles M in each bagged product M
1
falls within an acceptable tolerance. After the bagged products M
1
have been checked at to their weight by the weight checker
300
, the bagged products M
1
are successively transported to a seal checker
400
where a sealing condition of each of the bagged products M
1
is checked.
It has, however, been found that mere inspection of the sealing condition of the respective bagged product M
1
is ineffective to provide an indication of which one of the longitudinal side sealer
201
and the end sealer
202
has failed to operate properly. In order to specify one of the longitudinal side sealer
201
and the end sealer
202
that has in effect failed to operate properly, a problem has hitherto been encountered in that substantial amounts of labor and time are required, resulting in reduction in productivity of the system as a whole.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has for its primary object to facilitate identification of one of the sealers that has failed to operate properly so that the productivity of the package inspecting system and the yield of the bagged products being produced can be increased.
To this end, the present invention in one aspect thereof provides a package inspecting system which includes a packaging machine and a seal checker for inspecting a sealing condition of the packaging material of the bagged product. The package inspecting system also includes a bite detecting means provided in the packaging machine for detecting whether or not the articles are bitten in the end of the packaging material. In this construction, the presence or absence of an abnormal condition or a content of abnormality in each of the sealing devices is diagnosed based on a result of detection, performed by the bite detecting means, and a result of inspection performed by the seal checker with respect to the same bagged product.
With this structure according to the present invention, by diagnosing the presence or absence of abnormality in one or both of the sealing devices based on the result of detection, performed by the bite detecting means, and the result of inspection performed by the seal checker with respect to the same bagged product, and then by indicating the result of diagnosis, an operator can quickly diagnose (determine) the presence or absence of abnormality in one of the sealing devices for forming the longitudinal side seal and the end seal and, also, the presence or absence of abnormality in the seal checker. Accordingly, the productivity of the system and the yield of production of the bagged products can be increased. Moreover, since the above described diagnosis can be implemented in a simple manner merely by adding a microcomputer executable program, the cost will not increase so much.
Preferably, the result of diagnosis can be informed by an indicating means.
The bite detecting means detects whether or not a bite has occurred at an end of the packaging material (i.e., an end of the packaging material in a longitudinal direction of the bagged product). On the other hand, the seal checker detects the presence or absence of leakage (i.e., leakage of air) from the packing material of the bagged product. If the articles are bitten in the sealed portion of the packaging material, leakage generally occurs. Accordingly, where with respect to the same bagged product leakage occurs although no bite has been detected, it can be generally inferred that a trouble may have occurred in the vertical sealing device.
The term “article (or articles)” hereinbefore and hereinafter employed is intended to mean an aggregation of items that are weighed and bagged, and the term “bagged product” is intended to mean the aggregation that has been bagged. The wording “to diagnosis an abnormal condition or a content of abnormality” is intended to mean presumption or estimation in any way whatsoever in connection with abnormality of any one of the sealing devices and, for example, presumption of which one of the sealing devices has suffered from an abnormal condition. The term “indicating means” is intended to encompass, for example, a liquid crystal display device, a cathode ray tube display device or a warning lamp.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a package inspecting system including a packaging machine, a weight checker, a seal checker for inspecting a sealing condition of the packaging material of the bagged product, a determining means for diagnosing the abnormal condition or the content of abnormality occurring in each of the sealing devices based on respective results of detection and inspection performed by the seal checker and the weight checker with respect to the same bagged product, and an indicating means operable to indicate a result of the diagnosis.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, by diagnosing the presence or absence of abnormality in one or both of the sealing devices based on the result of detection performed by the weight checker and the result of inspection performed by the seal checker with respect to the same bagged product, and then by indicating the result of diagnosis, an operator can quickly ascertain the presence or absence of abnormality in one of the sealing devices for forming the longitudinal side seal and the end seal. Accordingly, the productivity of the system and the yield of production of the bagged products can be increased. Moreover, since the above-described diagnosis can be implemented in a simple manner merely by adding a microcomputer executable program, the cost will not increase very much.
In this alternative system, depending on the overweight and the underweight detected by the weight checker, for example, depending on whether or not excess and deficiency of the bagged product weighed previously and those of the bagged product weighed currently have a complemental relation with each other (which is hereinafter referred to as “fore-and-aft symptom”), it is determined which one of the vertical sealing and end sealing devices is abnormal in operation.
The term “to have a complemental relationship” means that an overweight and an underweight are found in the advancing and following bagged products and, at the same time, the sum of the excess and deficiency of the previously weighed bagged product and the excess and deficiency of the currently weighed bagged product is equal to or close to zero.
Such complemental re

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Automatic package inspecting system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Automatic package inspecting system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automatic package inspecting system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3239386