Measuring and testing – Sampler – sample handling – etc. – Capture device
Reexamination Certificate
1998-02-10
2001-12-25
Raevis, Robert (Department: 2712)
Measuring and testing
Sampler, sample handling, etc.
Capture device
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332369
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a device for collecting gas in sealed containers that are to be controlled, and in particular in cans, especially small preserve cans, or in hermetically sealed flexible packs, such as, for example, packs of the TETRAPAK® type containing foodstuffs.
In order to guarantee consumer safety, the Authorities require that preserves be subjected to very strict controls, in particular defined by the AFNOR standards NFV 08 401 and NFV 08 402.
Those controls, which aim to check the consumable nature of preserves, basically involve placing several cans or jars from the same batch in an oven at a temperature favouring the development of micro-organisms, and then analysing their contents, after opening them, at the end of a specific incubation period.
Those analyses, which are especially measurements of differences in pH, are carried out in such case on a series of at least three cans, namely a control can, a can which has been incubated for seven days at 55° C. and a can which has been incubated for seven days at 37° C. or for twenty-one days at 32° C.
When the measured difference in pH is less than 0.5 and if no change in appearance or texture is detected, the preserve is considered to be stable and perfectly consumable; if this is not the case, the preserve is declared to be unfit for consumption and the entire batch has to be thrown away.
Under those conditions, and except where a deformation (swelling) of the analysed preserve cans is observed after emission of carbon dioxide due to microbe proliferation, the deterioration in the preserve cans is not detected until the end of the eighth or twenty-second day. This leads to obvious problems of loss and stock management.
In order to overcome that disadvantage, the document FR-A-93 12 829 has already proposed a device permitting continuous control of the contents of preserve cans in order to check the consumable nature thereof by collecting gases in the container or in the can without having to open it.
A disadvantage of the prior art device is associated with the fact that it cannot be adapted to all packaging and, in particular, to small preserve cans or flexible packs of the TETRAPAK® type, the use of which is becoming ever more widespread in the food industry.
The aim of the present invention is to overcome that disadvantage by proposing a device for collecting gas in sealed containers that are to be controlled, which device has the advantage of being both simple and universally applicable.
According to the invention, the device is characterised in that it comprises:
an annular collector body composed of a substantially cylindrical principal portion delimiting, at its internal portion, a collecting chamber which is open to the outside and which is extended by a threaded portion, and of a collar surrounding the collecting chamber at its opposite end to the threaded portion and defining a support surface which is to be secured hermetically, especially adhesively bonded, to a wall of the can or pack to be controlled,
a tubular connecting screw which is connected to continuous analysis devices and which is provided, on its external periphery, with a thread which is to cooperate with the threaded portion of the collector body in such a manner as to enable it to project into the collecting chamber by one of its ends or its first end, and
collecting means which are capable of cutting or piercing the wall of the can or pack to be controlled at right-angles to the collecting chamber in order to enable any gases, especially carbon dioxide, emitted in the can or pack to penetrate via the opening so obtained into the chamber and then into the internal passage of the connecting screw so that they can be collected by the continuous analysis devices.
The device according to the invention is especially adapted to the control of packaging containing foodstuffs but could of course be used to control and analyse the contents of any sealed container, such as, for example, the contents of drums containing chemical products (solvents, paints, . . . ).
An important feature of the invention is associated with the fact that all the containers of a batch can be controlled simultaneously simply by securing the device to one of the containers of the batch.
By way of example, the continuous analysis devices may be constituted by devices capable of measuring and, where appropriate, representing graphically the variations as a function of time of the conductivity of a solution, especially a potash solution in contact with the collected gases, especially carbon dioxide.
This is a control by impedometry based on the fact that the conductivity of the solution analysed is a function of its concentration of CO
2
, the principle of a control of this type is known per se.
According to a further feature of the invention, the collecting means comprise, on the one hand, perforating devices closing the internal passage of the connecting screw in the area of the first and thereof and, on the other hand, receiving ducts connecting the passage to the collecting chamber.
The nature of the perforating devices of course depends on the type of material that is to be pierced or cut; by way of example, it is possible to use a single tip but also a set of two tips effecting the cutting of a circular orifice, following the rotation of the connecting screw, or a tip having a configuration of the drill bit type.
According to the invention, the receiving ducts are generally distributed over the periphery of the connecting screw, in the immediate vicinity of the first end thereof; by way of variation, they may also be placed in the area of the first end of the connecting screw, between several tips.
It should also be noted that, depending on the nature of the container to be controlled, the device may be for one-off use and may be mounted routinely on the container, in which case the collector body is generally produced from plastics material. The device may also be intended for repeated use, the collector body then generally being produced from metal; in the latter case, the user must himself adhesively bond the support surface of the collector body to the wall of the container after previously disinfecting the latter in order to prevent any contamination which could distort the results obtained.
During the mounting of the device, whether this is effected in the factory or by the user at the time the control is to be carried out, the connecting screw is generally introduced into the annular collector body in a position in which the receiving ducts open at right-angles into the threaded portion of the body.
From that rest position, and according to a basic feature of the invention, the connecting screw can be displaced, by rotation at the internal portion of the collector body, between, on the one hand, a collecting position in which the perforating devices are capable of cooperating with the wall of the container or pack to be controlled in order to pierce or cut the wall and, on the other hand, a control position in which the opening so obtained is freed and the receiving ducts open into the collecting chamber so that any gases, and especially carbon dioxide, emitted in the container or pack to be controlled can penetrate into the chamber and then into the internal passage of the connecting screw so that they can be collected by the continuous analysis devices.
Tests carried out in a production unit have shown that the average time taken to detect contamination is 48 hours. For security, it is expedient to prolong the test for approximately four days, which nevertheless constitutes a substantial time-saving compared with the devices according to the prior art.
The device according to the invention therefore enables the deterioration in cans or packs belonging to the same batch to be detected very rapidly, so that it is possible to treat the causes of deterioration as soon as possible in the production chain and to limit the number of cans or packs that are unfit for consumption and that have to be destroyed.
The value of the device will therefore be readi
Bombe Didier
Delebecque Olivier
AES Laboratoire, Societe Anonyme Ayant Son Siege Social
Hughes & Schacht, P.S.
Raevis Robert
Schacht Michael R.
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