Evacuation and closure device in linear construction

Details Evacuation and closure device in linear construction Evacuation and closure device in linear construction

1998-04-22

2001-03-13

Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)

Package making

With contents treating

Vacuum or inert atmosphere

C053S109000, C053S264000, C053S308000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06199350

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an evacuation and closure device in linear construction. Devices of this kind are used in the pharmaceutical industry for small containers, e.g. vials, injection bottles, or infusion bottles. The known devices, embodied as so-called rotary machines as well as those embodied in linear construction, are disposed above a conveyor section for the small containers and, due to the predetermined number of spaces and the fact that its course of motion is always the same, is bound to a rigid, inflexible machine concept. Furthermore, in the known devices, for the cleaning or sterilizing of the apparatus by means of a sterilizing apparatus, for example when there is a new product charge or at the beginning of a new work shift, in order for the cleaning or sterilizing apparatus to be used in the known devices, interventions or modifications are required. Furthermore, as rotary machines and in linear construction, the known apparatuses are custom adapted to the preceding filling machines, i.e. only with great expense can the known apparatuses be used for other filling machines, which operate continuously, for example, instead of cyclically.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The evacuation and closure device in linear construction according to the invention has the advantage over the prior art that the cleaning and sterilization can take place without additional manual interventions or modifications and that the device can at the same time be simply adapted to a wide variety of filling machines. This object is attained according to the invention by virtue of the fact that a number of evacuation and closure units are combined into a module and that the module can move in three movement axes that are perpendicular to one another. As a result, on the one hand, a virtually arbitrarily large number of required evacuation and closure units can be combined in accordance with the output of a filling machine and due to the mobility of the module, can be used in both continuously operating and cyclically operating filling machines. Because of the mobility, it is simultaneously possible to move the module out of the region of a conveyor section for the small containers so that at the conveying device that transports the small containers, no interventions or modifications are required for the cleaning or sterilizing since the module can be supplied as a whole to a separately disposed cleaning or sterilizing device. In addition, the integration of the closure and evacuation function into one evacuation and closure unit makes a particularly compact construction possible.
Advantageous improvements and updates of the evacuation and closure device in linear construction according to the invention arise from the disclosure set forth hereinafter.
The invention will be better understood and further objects and advantages thereof will become more apparent from the ensuing detailed description of preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the drawings.


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