JPH10137987A - Container volume reducing method, and connection piece for volume reduction - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the volume of a container for deformation by providing an air flow passage on an insertion part of a connection piece having a plurality of insertion parts, inserting the insertion part in a mouth of' the container, storing the insertion part in a non-permeable bag, and evacuating the air in the bag. SOLUTION: An insertion part of a connection piece 2 is inserted in a mouth of a container 1. A recessed groove of V-shaped section extending over the whole length is formed in an outer circumferential surface of the insertion part. The container 1 and the connection piece 2 are stored in a non-permeable bag 3 made of polyethylene. A suction port of a hose 61 of a cleaner 6 is inserted in an opening part 30 of the bag 3. The opening part 30 of the bag 3 is closed by a fastener 5. The air in the bag 3 and the container 1 is evacuated by the cleaner 6. The air pressure in the bag 3 and the container 1 is dropped, and the container 1 is reduced in volume and deformed by the differential air pressure. When the volume reduction and deformation of the container 1 is completed, the hose 61 is drawn from the bag 3, and the fastener 5 is closed. Because the air flow passage is provided on the insertion part, the inner side of the bag 3 is not attached to the mouth 12 of the container 1, and the mouth 12 is not covered thereby.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a volume reduction method for reducing the volume of a container such as a PET bottle, and to a volume reduction connector used to connect a plurality of containers in such a volume reduction process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, as a device for crushing a container such as a PET bottle, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-284998, a pressure receiving plate and a rocking plate in a direction close to the pressure receiving plate are disclosed. A pressing plate, and a foot lever for swinging the pressing plate, and by pressing down the foot lever, the pressing plate is swung to the pressure receiving plate side via a leverage mechanism, and the container is brought into contact with these pressure receiving plates. 2. Description of the Related Art A crushing device has been proposed in which a crushing device is mechanically crushed by being sandwiched by a pressing plate.

[0003]

In order to mechanically crush the container as described above, it is necessary not only to separately prepare the crushing device, but also to crush the container by the pressure receiving plate and the pressing plate. This type of device that is mechanically crushed by being sandwiched between them has a problem in terms of worker safety, and cannot be easily performed particularly at home.

The inventor of the present application puts a container such as a PET bottle in a non-breathable bag, and discharges the air in the bag to the outside with a vacuum cleaner at home, for example. By reducing the pressure inside and inside the container, a method of reducing the volume of the container by the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the bag was considered. However, in the above method, the posture of the plurality of containers accommodated in the bag is not constant, and the mouth of the container is likely to face the inner surface of the bag, and from this state the air in the bag is removed by, for example, a vacuum cleaner. When sucked and discharged out of the bag, it turned out that the inner surface of the bag stuck to the mouth of the container and closed the mouth, the air in the container could not be discharged, and the container could not be sufficiently reduced in volume and deformed. It is.

[0005] The present invention has been developed in view of the above circumstances, and an object is to place a container in a bag.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a volume reduction processing method that can surely perform volume reduction deformation, and a connector that can connect a plurality of containers accommodated in the above bags in a fixed posture.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector having a plurality of insertion portions into a mouth of a container, wherein the insertion portions have an air flow passage. By connecting a plurality of containers, these containers are accommodated in a non-air permeable bag, and the air in the bag and the container is discharged to the outside of the bag by the exhaust means to reduce the volume of the bag and the container. It was made to do.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector for volume reduction processing which is housed in an air-impermeable bag 3 and reduces the volume of the plurality of containers 1 by discharging air from the bag 3. In addition, a plurality of insertion portions 21 into the mouth 12 of the container 1 are provided, and the insertion portion 21 is provided with the flow passage 4 that allows the internal space of the container 1 into which the insertion portion is inserted to flow outside the container. is there.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the embodiment shown in the figures, a PET bottle made of polyethylene terephthalate used for holding soft drink is taken as an example of a container 1 for volume reduction processing. As is known, the plastic bottle 1 is provided with a small-diameter mouth 1 into which a cap (not shown) can be screwed, at the upper end of a cylindrical bottle body 11. A plurality of bottles 1 are supported by a connector 2 to be described later and accommodated in a non-breathable bag 3, and the air in the bag 3 is sucked by an exhaust unit 6 such as a household vacuum cleaner. The bag 3 is discharged to the outside, and the bag 3 and the plastic bottle 1 are reduced in volume.

The connecting device 2 for connecting the PET bottles 1 is inserted into the mouths 12 of the two PET bottles 1 so that the two PET bottles 1 are opposed to each other by opening the mouths 1 at a predetermined interval. Three insertion portions 21 for supporting the
A support portion 22 is formed by connecting the intermediate portions in the length direction of the insertion portions 21 and supporting the insertion portions 21 in parallel at a predetermined interval.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, both the insertion portion 21 and the support portion 22 constituting the connecting member 2 are formed in a columnar shape, and the diameter of the insertion portion 21 is set to The both ends of the insertion portion 21 in the longitudinal direction can be inserted into the mouth 12 of the PET bottle 1 by making the diameter substantially the same as or slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the insertion portion 21. On the surface, the insertion portion 21
Forming three concave grooves 23 having a V-shaped cross section extending over the entire length in the longitudinal direction, and allowing the internal space of the plastic bottle 1 supported by the insertion portion 21 to flow through the concave grooves 23 to the outside of the bottle. Road 4.

The cross-sectional shape and depth of the groove 23 are not particularly limited, but have a V-shaped cross-section as in the embodiment, and the depth is a quarter of the diameter of the support portion 21. It is desirable to be about one. In addition, although the above-mentioned connecting tool 2 is formed from polyethylene, it may be formed from other resin materials.

On the other hand, the bag 3 for accommodating the above-mentioned PET bottle 1 is formed of a non-breathable film made of polyethylene, and the inner surface of the opening 30 has, as schematically shown in FIG. A first fastener piece 5a protruding 51;
The fastener 5 comprising a second fastener piece 5b having a fitting groove 52 into which the ridge 51 can be fitted is inserted into the opening 30.
The opening 30 of the bag 3 is closed by fitting the ridge 51 into the fitting groove 52.

Next, a method of reducing the volume of the plastic bottle 1 using the above-described bag 3 and the connecting tool 2 will be described. First, the insertion portion 2 of the connecting tool 2 is inserted into the mouth 12 of the plastic bottle 1.
2, two PET bottles 1 are inserted and supported in the respective insertion portions 21 so that the mouths 12 thereof are opposed to each other with a predetermined interval as shown in FIG. .

As shown in FIG. 3, the plastic bottle 1 supported by the insertion portion 21 of the connecting tool 2 is
While being housed in the bag 3, the suction port side of the hose 61 of the vacuum cleaner 6 used as an exhaust means is inserted into the opening 30 of the bag 3, and
The opening 30 of the bag 3 is closed except for the insertion part of the hose 61, and the vacuum cleaner 6 is driven.

Thus, by driving the vacuum cleaner 6,
As the air in the bag 3 and the plastic bottle 1 housed in the bag 3 is exhausted to the outside of the bag 3 via the hose 61 and the air pressure in the bag 3 and the plastic bottle 1 decreases, the bag 3 When the volume reduction of the plastic bottle 1 is completed, the hose 61 of the vacuum cleaner 6 is connected to the opening of the bag, as shown in FIG. By pulling out from the part 30, the opening where the hose 61 has been inserted is closed with the fastener 5 to prevent air from entering the bag 3. By the way, in the above embodiment, each insertion portion 21 of the connecting tool 2 is
Since the mouths 12 of the individual PET bottles 1 are supported so as to face each other with a predetermined space therebetween, the plurality of PET bottles 1 housed in the bag 3 are held in a fixed posture, and the Since the inside of the bag 3 is restrained from touching the inner surface of the bag 3, the inside of the bag 3 sticks to the mouth 12 of the plastic bottle 1 as the air in the bag 3 is exhausted by the vacuum cleaner 6.
The air inside the plastic bottle 1 can be reliably discharged from the inside of the bag 3 to the outside of the bag 3 through the flow passage 4 of the insertion portion 21 without blocking the bag 2.

Accordingly, each of the plastic bottles 1 in the bag 1 is sufficiently deformed to reduce its volume, and as shown schematically in FIG.
In addition, the plurality of plastic bottles 1 supported in the bag 3 via the coupling tool 2 are substantially thin as a whole, and thus the loading efficiency when collecting the reduced-sized plastic bottles 1 is improved. In the above embodiment, the insertion portion 21 constituting the connecting tool 2 is formed in a columnar shape. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as schematically shown in FIG. When the insertion portion 21 is inserted into the mouth 12 of the plastic bottle 1, the side surface of the insertion portion 21 is prevented from contacting the inner peripheral surface of the mouth 12 of the plastic bottle 1. The flow passage 4 described above may be defined on the side surface of the passage 21.

In the above embodiment, the connecting member 2
Is composed of three insertion portions 21 and a support portion 22 for connecting and supporting the insertion portions 21 in parallel at predetermined intervals, but is not limited thereto. For example, as shown in FIG. A number of such connecting devices 2 (2 in FIG. 8)
And a plurality of connecting tools 2 may be prepared and connected in a plurality of steps (two steps in FIG. 8) by a support 20. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, one end of each of the insertion portions 21 in the length direction may be connected to each other, and the insertion portion 21 may be radially arranged at equal angular intervals.

Further, in the above embodiment, the plastic bottle used to hold the soft drink is taken as an example of the container 1 to be subjected to the volume reduction processing. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
What is necessary is just to be able to reduce the volume by exhausting the air in the container 1.

[0019]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of containers are connected by the connecting member, and these containers are accommodated in the air-impermeable bag. By discharging the air in the container to the outside of the bag and reducing the volume of the bag and the container, the plurality of containers 1 accommodated in the bag 3 are held in a fixed posture by the coupling tool 2,
Moreover, since the mouth 12 is prevented from touching the inner surface of the bag 3, when the air in the bag 3 is exhausted by the exhaust means 6, the container 1
Is not closed by the bag 3 and therefore
Since the air in the container 1 is surely exhausted by the exhaust means 6 through the flow passage 4, the plurality of containers 1 can be sufficiently deformed in the bag 3 in a predetermined posture. is there.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the container 1
Insertion part 21 into the mouth 12 of the container 1
The insertion portion 21 has a structure in which a flow passage 4 is provided to allow the internal space of the container 1 in which the insertion portion is inserted to flow out of the container, so that at least two Not only can the mouth 12 of the container 1 touch the inner surface of the bag 3, but also as the air in the bag 3 is discharged to the outside, the inside of the container 1 Air can be reliably discharged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a coupler.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the plastic bottle is supported by the connecting device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which the plastic bottle supported by the connecting device is stored in a bag.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the plastic bottle is reduced in volume by exhausting air in the bag.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of the coupler.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a main part of the bag with a part cut away.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state in which a plastic bottle is supported on a coupler of another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view of a coupler according to another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view of a coupler according to another embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Container (PET bottle) 11 Bottle main body 12 Port 2 Connector 21 Insertion part 22 Support part 23 Concave groove 20 Support 3 Bag 30 Opening 4 Flow passage 5 Fastener 5a First fastener piece 5b Second fastener piece 51 Ridge 52 Fitting groove 6 Vacuum cleaner (exhaust means) 61 Hose

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A container having a plurality of insertion portions into a mouth of a container, and a plurality of containers are connected by a connector provided with an air flow passage in the insertion portion. A method for reducing the volume of a container, comprising storing and deforming the bag and the container by reducing the volume of the bag and the container by discharging the air in the bag and the container to the outside of the bag by an exhaust unit. 2. A volume-reducing connector for storing a plurality of containers in a non-breathable bag by discharging air from the bag, the container being inserted into a mouth. Multiple parts,
A connector for reducing the volume of a container, characterized in that the insertion portion is provided with a flow passage for allowing the internal space of the container into which the insertion portion is inserted to flow outside the container.