Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With means applying wave energy or electrical energy...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-22
2003-08-12
Ball, Michael W. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With means applying wave energy or electrical energy...
C156S580200, C310S323190, C310S348000, C228S001100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06605178
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic sealing apparatus provided with an elongated sealing face for sealing a packing material, specifically a tubular packing material filled with content such as a liquid beverage, and more particularly to an ultrasonic sealing apparatus having at least one horn and plural converters and to a transverse sealing apparatus provided with the ultrasonic sealing apparatus.
2. Background Art
Hitherto, there has been known a packing machine in which a sterilized packing material web is used for a rectangular parallelepiped packing container filled with juice, etc. as shown in
FIG. 1
see also (Japanese Patent Publication No. 23368/1989). In brief, the filling/packing machine as a whole comprises a reel
2
supporting a packing material web
1
in a rolled state, a sterilization, device
3
for sterilizing the tabular packing material web successively unwound from the reel
2
, a longitudinal sealing section
4
for sealing the longitudinal edges of the sterilized packing material web and thereby forming a tubular packing material web, a liquid supply tube
5
for filling a fluid content into the tubular form, a transverse sealing device
7
for sealing the tubular packing material web in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction thereof while feeding downward the tube filled with the content by a length substantially corresponding to one container and, at the same time, continuously forming pillow-shaped containers
6
which are rectangle in section, and a container shaping device
8
for forming the pillow-shaped containers
6
into rectangular parallelepiped containers which are the final form by folding its end portions. The above-mentioned transverse sealing device
7
is composed of a sealing unit, a sealing jaw for fixing the said sealing unit, and a driving means for driving the said sealing jaw.
The following ultrasonic sealing apparatuses are known.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2231/1995 discloses an ultrasonic sealing apparatus which comprises a piezoelectric driving unit having a piezoelectric ceramic plate or a magnetostriction driving unit, which is connected to an AC supply source, and a horn having an elongated sealing surface, and which is further characterized with one or more reaction bodies forming a half wavelength together with the horn.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 22784/1987 discloses an ultrasonic welding apparatus for a container body comprising a longitudinal groove on the center line of a butting face which has a substantially rectangular form in a side sealing portion of an ultrasonic welding horn, wherein the horn includes steps with small differences provided toward the center of both side faces of the longitudinal groove for side sealing by ultrasound a container body of card board laminated with plastic film.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2544450 discloses a hermetic sealing method for sealing a paper container for liquid characterized in that the method for sealing the open end portions of a container having a thermoplastic layer on its paper surface comprises sealing the upper and lower portions of the tubular body by affixing each end portion of one sheet, whereby an entire face of the open end to be sealed is simultaneously heated in an oven and subsequently preparatively sealed by applying pressure, and finally ultrasonically sealed.
Japanese Model Laid-Open Application No. 147408/1988 discloses an ultrasonic sealing apparatus for liquid containers, wherein a band-shaped ridge is provided nearly at the center of a face of the horn butting against a portion to be sealed, a concave groove perpendicular to the ridge is provided nearly at the center of a face of the anvil butting against the portion to be sealed, a bottom portion of the concave groove is made into a two-step structure and its step portion and both end portions are tapered, and an acute-shaped protruded slant face extending sideward is provided at an end portion of the center of the bottom portion on the ultrasonic sealing apparatus for sealing upper and lower open end portions of a tubular liquid container, which is rectangular in section, having an overlapping bonded portion nearly at a center of a body consisting of a horn and an anvil.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 501543/1987 corresponding to (PCT/US85/02564) discloses an ultrasonic horn apparatus used for dissolving reagent tablets in a cuvette, comprising a horn body, which is generally a rectangular horn body, having a front end face and a rear end face, for transmitting acoustic waves substantially at a right angle to the front end face to interact with a content in the cuvette which moves in the vicinity of the front end face, in response to vibrations applied to the rear end face, a converter means fixed to the rear end face of the horn body at the center position in the direction of the width of the rear end face for applying the vibrations to the horn body in response to electrical energy supplied to the converter means, and a pair of resonating members each having an acoustic length equal to a half wave length of the acoustic waves transmitted from the horn body and fixed to the end regions in the direction of width of the rear end face and extending at a right angle from the rear end face, for causing acoustic waves transmitted nearly at a right angle from the front end face to propagate at a nearly uniform amplitude along the direction of width of the front end face, wherein the content in the cuvette moving along the direction of width of the front end face at a certain distance from the front end face is subjected to nearly uniform acoustic waves.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 33121/1995 discloses a sealing apparatus for packing containers comprising an anvil supporting packing materials for the packing containers on whose surface a sealant layer is formed, a horn transmitting ultrasonic vibrations to packing materials by applying pressure pressing the packing materials against the anvil, and an ultrasonic vibration absorbing means provided between, the tip end of the horn and the edge portion of the packing material, so that the horn transmits the ultrasonic vibration to the packing materials, and is able to weld sealant layers to each other, while preventing a side of the edge portion of the packing materials from being excited, and accordingly preventing dust from occurring at the end surfaces of the paper substrates exposed at the edge portions of the packing materials.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 92046/1981 discloses an ultrasonic sealing machine comprising an ultrasonic welding apparatus for a container body comprising a horn including steps at one side edge of a sealing face facing the sealing portion of the horn, wherein the steps are open at the portions corresponding to the vicinity of the top end of the sealing portion for side sealing paper containers of a plastic film laminate and the like.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 15741/1994 discloses an ultrasonic sealing apparatus for manufacturing packing containers from thermoplastic materials, comprising a giant magnetostrictive powder composite (GMPC) made of magnetostrictive materials, and wherein the vibration generator is wound around by a coil generating a magnetic field and secured on to a sealing jaw, and has a cross sectional area which progressively reduces when seen from an anchorage point against the jaw, and a free face of an end portion is provided on a narrow surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,351 discloses a device for ultrasonic treatment of a workpiece, the device comprising a horn (sonotrode) having a first side and a second side both contacting the workpiece; and a drive unit for the horn, whereby the drive unit includes first and second ultrasound oscillating units, and first and second connecting means arranged spaced apart for individually connecting the first and second oscillation units respectively to said second face of the horn.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.
Hamaguchi Tadayoshi
Iseki Takeshi
Kume Satoshi
Shinohara Mitsuhiko
Tamamoto Osamu
Ball Michael W.
Haran John T.
Kinberg Robert
Shikoku Kakoki Co. Ltd.
Venable LLP
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