EP0201481A1

EP0201481A1 - Closure head of a filling board device for beverage bottles

Info

Publication number: EP0201481A1
Application number: EP19840904082
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ernst Wiedmer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1984-11-16
Filing date: 1984-11-16
Publication date: 1986-11-20
Also published as: WO1986002917A1

Abstract

La tête de fermeture comprend un cylindre de centrage (3) qui sert à visser le capuchon (2) sur la bouteille (1) et qui est freiné abruptement à la fin de l'opération de vissage. Il est relié avec une cloche (5) qui porte une couronne supérieure d'aimants permanents (14). Une couronne inférieure d'aimants (16) se trouve à une distance donnée de la couronne supérieure pour former un accouplement à glissement, la distance entre les deux couronnes servant à définir la valeur d'enclenchement. La couronne inférieure (16) est montée sur un manchon de réglage (18). Le manchon est mobile axialement grâce à un filetage (19) ce qui permet de régler la distance entre les deux couronnes (14, 16) et ainsi la sensibilité de l'accouplement.The closure head comprises a centering cylinder (3) which is used to screw the cap (2) onto the bottle (1) and which is abruptly braked at the end of the screwing operation. It is connected with a bell (5) which carries an upper crown of permanent magnets (14). A lower ring of magnets (16) is located at a given distance from the upper ring to form a slip coupling, the distance between the two rings being used to define the engagement value. The lower crown (16) is mounted on an adjustment sleeve (18). The sleeve is axially movable by means of a thread (19) which makes it possible to adjust the distance between the two crowns (14, 16) and thus the sensitivity of the coupling.

Description

Sealing head on a bottling plant for beverage bottles

The invention relates to a closure head on a filling. systems for beverage bottles.

The bottles to be closed are pushed one after the other under the closure head, and after a bottle has been positioned, the latter moves downwards so that the closure is pressed onto the bottle; for screw caps that cannot be pressed on, there is also a rotary movement to screw the cap onto the external thread of the bottle. The bottle is then moved on and the next one is pushed under the cap. In the following only screw caps will be considered.

In view of the enormous hourly output of such filling systems, it is clear that the closure has to be unscrewed in a fraction of a second. The rotary movement of the locking head must therefore take place extremely quickly. On the other hand, the rotary movement of the closure ends abruptly when it is completely screwed on, that is when it comes to sit on the mouth of the bottle. It is obvious that the locking head, with its moment of inertia, which is considerably larger than that of the plastic lock, cannot be stopped suddenly. Since the

inside of the closing head carries a shooting organ that takes care of the screwing on, usually in the form of a so-called centering bolt, a slip clutch is provided between this shooting organ and the rest of the closing head. This can be done differently; Both mechanical slip clutches (with brake pads) and magnetic or sometimes even electromagnetic clutches are in operation.

In the magnetic couplings, a ring of magnets, which is connected to the closing element, is usually opposite another ring, which is rigidly connected to the rest of the closing head. The effect of this slip clutch is mainly determined by the distance between the two magnetic rings.

The problem now is to set this distance exactly, which can essentially only be done by experiment. The manufacturing tolerances in the closing head on the one hand and in the shooting organ on the other hand may be as small as possible, but nevertheless lead to the optimum value of the distance not being achieved, and even more precise machining would lead to an unacceptable manufacturing effort. For this reason, spacer rings are used with which this distance can be set precisely, since spacer rings can be machined to a very precise thickness with considerably less effort

O PI become. It is therefore in your hand to get the most favorable distance for a certain bottle type or for its closure by choosing the appropriate spacer ring.

If, however, another type of bottle has to be processed on the filling machine, the closure of which, for example, has a different thread, the distance between the two magnetic rings must also be changed. Up to now, this adjustment could only be carried out by replacing the relevant spacer ring with another, which is complex and time-consuming and, above all, has resulted in the entire bottling plant being shut down for a long time.

But not only changing the bottle type can lead to the replacement of the spacer ring. This can also be due to the wear of the slip clutch itself. In the case of couplings with permanent magnets, this need can be imposed by the decrease in the field strength, that is to say by the fact that the magnets become weaker.

The present invention seeks to avoid these disadvantages. It provides a sealing head which is characterized by the features of claim 1.

An exemplary embodiment of the locking head according to the invention is shown in section in the only accompanying drawing. Everyone is there Details of the same, which are not necessary for understanding the invention, are either shown schematically or omitted, since these parts are already known.

As can be seen, there is a beverage bottle 1 under the closure head, which was brought to this point by a conveyor device (not shown) and on which a closure 2 was previously loosely placed. This closure 2 must now be screwed onto the bottle 1 through the closure head. For this purpose the locking head executes a movement which is symbolized by a straight arrow A and by a curved arrow B; So it's a screw! inienför i ge feed movement downwards. In this case, the locking head detects the locking mechanism 2 by means of a shooting element, the so-called centering bolt 3, which has a cutout 4 for the purpose of centering. It is surrounded by a part 5, which is called the bell because of its conically widening opening. The bell is connected by means of several screws 6, only one of which is shown, to a ring 7 which receives the inner cage 8 of a ball bearing 9. The outer cage 10 of the ball bearing 9 is supported axially on one side essentially against a connecting piece IT which extends upwards in the drawing and connects to the connection part, not shown, of the closing head to the corresponding drive.

OMPI shaft of the bottling plant. This connecting piece is surrounded by a bearing sleeve 12, which comprises the outer cage 10 of the ball bearing 9. The bearing sleeve 12 is rigidly connected to the connecting piece 10 and supports the outer cage 10 from below.

The screws 6, which connect the bell 5 to the ring 7, pass through an upper magnetic bearing disk 13, which is thus rigidly connected to the bell 7 and the ring 7. It carries on its lower end face a ring of permanent magnets 14. This upper magnetic bearing disk 13 is opposite a lower magnetic bearing disk 15. It also carries a ring of permanent magnets 16 and is fixed in position by means of pins 1 * 7 on an adjusting sleeve 18. This adjustment 1 sleeve has an internal thread 19 at its upper end. With this, it is screwed onto the bearing sleeve 12. A circlip 20, which is mounted in a groove 21 in the adjusting sleeve 18, holds the inserted magnetic bearing disk 15 against axial displacement and at the same time serves as a stop which limits the screwing on of the adjusting sleeve 18 and thus the minimum distance between the magnets 14 and 16 sets. The magnets are secured against falling out by cover plates 22.

During operation, the aforementioned feed movement according to arrows A and B ensures that the closure 2 is screwed onto the bottle 1. At the end of the screwing on, this movement comes to an abrupt stop. Thanks to the ball bearing 9, the entire flywheel mass of the locking head is now not braked, but only the centering pin 3, the bell 5 and the upper magnetic bearing disk 13 and the bearing sleeve 12 and further parts of the closing head, which are not mentioned here, can rotate a little further together with the lower magnetic bearing disc 15. However, it is also stopped quickly by the permanent magnets 14, 16, which have built up magnetic fields between them. These rings of magnets thus act as a slip clutch.

So far, it has been the case that the distance between the upper ring of magnets 14 and the lower ring of magnets 16 has been set invariably by means of spacer rings. These spacer rings were turned to the required size. If now however because of other closures and other Fla¬ rule the response of the slip clutch change had nothing remained other choice than the respective D istanzring ^'expand and replace it with a new one. However, this was not only necessary in this case, even a weakening of the field strength of the permanent magnets could result in them having to be moved closer together, that is to say the distance mentioned had to be reduced, which in turn required a replacement of the distance ring. This replacement was time-consuming and resulted in the bottling plant being shut down for a long time.

With the connection shown between the bearing sleeve 12 and the lower ring of the permanent *

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OMPI magnets 16 carrying adjustment sleeve 18, however, this problem is solved. By rotating the latter, it is continuously adjusted axially to the bearing sleeve 12 and thus the distance of the lower magnets 16 from the upper magnets 14 also changes. In this way, an optimal value can easily be determined, especially by repeated attempts. The repeated installation and removal of the spacer rings is no longer necessary, which results in considerable time savings. In the optimal position, that is to say at the correct distance, a screw 23 is tightened, which presses against the bearing sleeve 12 and thus fixes the adjusting sleeve 18. As already mentioned, stepless axial adjustability is thus ensured. If necessary, recesses 24 can be provided for particularly preferred distance values, the arrangement of which is adapted to the pitch of the internal thread 19 and into which the screw 23 can engage, so that an even more secure locking is obtained. In general, however, it is sufficient to tighten the screw 23 »

Claims

1. Sealing head on a filling system for beverage bottles, for sealing each filled bottle (1) fed individually to it by a loosely seated closure (2), the closure head rotating about its axis of rotation opening the closure (2) the bottle is screwed on by means of a shooting element (4), which is connected to the body of the closing head * via a slip clutch (13, 14, 15, 16), which at the end of the screwing-on process makes a relative rotation between the shooting element (4) and Closure body (11, 12) and whose response value is determined by the distance between two slip clutch elements (14, 16), one (16) of which with the closure head body (11, 12), the other (14) of which Shooting element (4) is connected, characterized in that the slip coupling element (16) connected to the closing head body (11, 12) is fastened to a part (18) which is axially stepless relative to the closing head body is adjustable.

Capping head according to claim 1, characterized in that said part is an adjusting sleeve (18) which is attached by means of an internal thread (19) to a bearing sleeve (12) rigidly attached to the closing head body (11, 12) and which ¬ se grips over part of its length.

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OMPI 3. Capping head according to claim 2, characterized in that the adjusting sleeve (18) has a screw (20) which extends through its jacket and can be adjusted from the outside and which, when screwed in, onto the outside of the bearing sleeve (12 ) presses to fix the adjustment sleeve (18) in its once set position.

Capping head according to claim 3, characterized in that in the bearing sleeve (12) there are recesses (21) distributed around the circumference, the arrangement of which is adapted to the pitch of the internal thread (19) and into which the screw (20) can penetrate in order to particularly fix selected positions of the adjusting sleeve (18) and thus of the one slip clutch element (16).