Patent Application
20120018035
This claims the benefit of German Patent Application DE 10 2010 031 800.0, filed Jul. 20, 2010 and hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to an arrangement of several machine assemblies, whereby the material flow between the machine assemblies is at least technically mutually coupled. The invention furthermore relates to a method for coupling several machine assemblies that are subsequently arranged to form treatment stations and/or processing stations of a machine for processing, treatment and/or filling of containers.
Known container treatment machines or packaging machines use compressed air in different parts of the process. A container treatment machine that comprises a packaging module with a film wrapping device uses compressed air to correctly guide the transported film. The cut film sections are usually transported on a conveyor band in the direction of a further transport band of the film wrapping module. Blowing means are used to subject the conveyor band of the film wrapping module to low or negative pressure. In the further course the film has to cross a section where the support of the film cannot be ensured. Therefore this section has to be bridged to prevent a deviation of the film or a deviation of the beginning of the film. The film can especially deviate downwards because of gravitational forces. The film can also deviate upwards, e.g. because of electrostatic forces or the like. For the transport of the film an air channel can be formed by the use of blowing nozzles. Through the blowing nozzles the film is subjected to low or negative pressure holding the film to the conveyor band. Low or negative pressure is required for the conveyor band of the film separation module. In the further processing high pressure is required for the air assisted transport of the film. This leads to a relatively high consumption of compressed air. Furthermore the compressed air used by both systems requires a certain system pressure
An object of the present invention is to reuse the exhaust air. This can be done by a deviation of the exhaust air and/or another use of exhaust air generated by blowers and/or other sources for low or negative pressured air that are already used in the system. Thereby the energy balance of the container processing device should be improved and the amount of unused compressed air should be reduced, thereby reducing the amount of unnecessarily used energy.
The present invention provides an arrangement of several machine assemblies, whereby the material flow between the machine assemblies is at least technically mutually coupled. The present invention also provides a method for coupling several machine assemblies that are subsequently arranged to form treatment stations and/or processing stations of a machine for processing, treatment and/or filling of containers.
The present invention proposes arranging several machine assemblies in a way that the material flow between the machine assemblies is at least technically mutually coupled. The machine assemblies are subsequently arranged to form treatment stations and/or processing stations of a machine for processing, treatment and/or filling of containers. Each of the machine assemblies comprises components for air conveyance, air cooling and/or compressed air supply, whereby at least one of the machine assemblies is fed with exhaust air from one of the other machine assemblies. The machine assemblies can for example be parts of modules of a container forming system, whereby a filling system and a packaging system are arranged downstream of the container forming system. The several machine assemblies use compressed air as energy supply and/or the compressed air is used to assist the handling of the material or the transport of the film. The compressed air is usually spent and emitted to the surroundings without further use. The use of compressed air generally causes a relatively high expenditure of energy. The expenditure of energy can be reduced with the help of the invention. According to the invention not only the material flow between the different machine assemblies is coupled, but the machine assemblies are also coupled energetically. To achieve this, a module-spanning supply of compressed air is used, the supply being used for several of the different machine assemblies. Especially the exhaust air emerging from single modules or machine assemblies is used for at least one of the other modules or machine assemblies.
The exhaust air provided by at least one of the machine assemblies can be used as compressed air and/or as cooling air for machine parts and/or parts of the containers and/or of packaging means for the containers of another machine assembly.
In a useful embodiment the machine assembly provided with the exhaust air is a film shrinking station. The film shrinking station comprises conveying means for the transport of packs of several containers wrapped in film. The conveyor chains used in the film shrinking stations are permanently and cyclically heated. Before contacting a new pack, the conveyor chains have to be cooled down to prevent excessive softening of the packaging film at the contact surface between chain and pack. Excessive softening of the film in the contact surface area can lead to unwanted adhesion or sticking of the film to the conveyor chain.
In a further embodiment according to the invention the arrangement can comprise an endless circumferential conveyor chain that permanently runs through the film shrinking station. The conveyor chain is heated by the hot air used for heating the packs wrapped in film. The film shrinking station comprises a film shrinking section and a section outside the film shrinking section. The conveyor chain is cooled down with the exhaust air of one of the neighboring machine assemblies in a section outside the film shrinking section. In this way an effective cooling of the conveyor chain is possible, whereby no additional energy is required for the production of the cooling air.
Another useful embodiment of the invention comprises an intercooling device arranged between neighboring machine assemblies that are coupled to each other. The intercooling device cools down the exhaust air exchanged between the different machine assemblies. This is especially useful when the temperature of the exhaust air needs to be reduced before it can be used as cooling air. This energetic advantage is hereby unlimited because most of the energy is required for the production of the compressed air. The intercooling only requires little additional energy.
Furthermore a pressure boosting device can optionally or additionally be arranged between neighboring coupled machine assemblies. The pressure boosting device is used for increasing the pressure of the exhaust air exchanged between the machine assemblies. As pressure boosting device a suitable compressor, a turbo compressor or the like can be used.
In addition to the already described embodiments of the arrangement of several machine assemblies, the invention furthermore comprises a method for energetically coupling several machine assemblies. The arrangement is formed by treatment stations and/or processing stations of a machine for processing, treatment, filling and/or packaging of containers. The machine assemblies each comprises components for air conveyance, air cooling and/or compressed air supply, whereby at least one of the machine assemblies is fed with exhaust air of one of the other machine assemblies. Thereby the machine assemblies are connected by a technical material flow coupling as well as by an energetic coupling. By using exhaust air from one of the machine assemblies for another machine assembly as cooling air and/or as part of the compressed air supply, the energetically expensive production of cooling air and/or compressed air is not required for this associated module. According to a preferred embodiment of the method the exhaust air from at least one of the machine assemblies is therefore redirected and fed to another one of the machine assemblies to be used as compressed air supply and/or as cooling air supply of machine components and/or parts of containers and/or of packaging means for the containers.
The machine assembly provided with the exhaust air can for instance be a film shrinking station that comprises a conveying means for the transport of packs of several containers wrapped in film. The conveying means may especially be formed by a circumferential conveyor chain that permanently runs through the film shrinking station. In the film shrinking station the conveyor chain gets heated by the hot air used for heating the film wrapped packs. The conveyor chain is then cooled down outside the film shrinking section by exhaust air from a neighboring machine assembly. Because of the permanent thermal input in the film shrinking station, the conveyor chain is permanently heated. After some operating time this leads to problems because the chain gets too hot for the contacting film. The film at the contact surface would be heated too much, even before the wrapped pack is introduced into the shrinking tunnel. This leads to unwanted sticking of the film to the conveyor chain.
The exhaust air exchanged between neighboring coupled machine assemblies can either be intercooled and/or its pressure can be increased. The intercooling is required when the temperature of the exhaust air is too high to be used as cooling air. If exhaust air with a higher pressure or a higher air velocity is required for the further use in one of the machine assemblies, the pressure of the exhaust air can be increased by an interposed turbo compressor or radial compressor.
The present invention allows the reduction of the energy used in a container treatment machine that comprises several machine assemblies or modules connected by technical material flow coupling as well as by energetic coupling. To guarantee the correct transport of film in a film guiding device, compressed air is used. In a film separating device the cut film is usually transported via a transport band to a film wrapping station. A low or negative pressure is produced by a blower and impinged on the conveyor band of the film separating device. The film has then to be transported over a section where no support for the film can be guaranteed. Commonly a so called air bed is used to bridge this section and to prevent a deviation of the film or the beginning of the film. An air channel is generated by blowing air through several nozzles generating a so called “air bed conveyor.” Low or negative pressure is required for the conveyor band of the film separation module. In the further processing high pressure is required for the air assisted transport of the film. This leads to a relatively high consumption of compressed air. Both systems furthermore require compressed air with a certain system pressure. Until now the exhaust air generated by the blowers was dispensed into the surroundings. Therefore the exhaust air was wasted and not furthermore used. One aspect of the invention describes the use of the exhaust air emitted by the blower of the film separation station. The exhaust air from the blower can be connected to the blowing nozzles or blowing tubes of the film separation station thereby at least partially replacing the compressed air used so far. The exhaust air from the blower can also be connected to the blowing nozzles or blowing tubes of a film spreading device, where it also at least partially replaces the compressed air used so far. For the described applications it might be necessary to increase the pressure of the exhaust air from the blower. The pressure can be increased by the use of a turbo compressor, a compressor or the like. It is especially useful to adjust the size of the used blower according to the compressed air required in the whole arrangement, especially including the amount of exhaust air required for the film separation station and/or for the spreading of the film.
An especially useful embodiment uses the largely pressure-free exhaust air for cooling of other components without consideration of any remaining pressure. For the cooling only the available volume stream is essential. There is no need to take the pressure conditions into consideration. This pressure-free exhaust air can be used for the cooling of conveyor chains in shrinking stations or shrinking tunnels. The hot air required for shrinking the film around the packs leads to a permanent thermal input into the conveyor chain. The conveyor chain is therefore heated significantly, which leads to problems during contact with the film wrapped around the packs. Therefore the conveyor chains are usually cooled. The exhaust air from other stations can advantageously be used for cooling of the conveyor chain.
In the following passages, the attached figures further illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention and their advantages. The size ratios of the individual elements in the figures do not necessarily reflect the real size ratios. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention.
The schematic representations of
The schematic longitudinal section shown in
The schematic block diagram illustrated in
Optionally, an intercooler 40 can cool down the air 12 or a pressure booster 42 can increase the pressure of air 12.
The packs wrapped in shrinking film can be further processed or handled in subsequently arranged modules, e.g. the packs can be arranged on pallets by a palletization module, the packs can be transported to a storage unit or the like. This further processing is only hinted by the broken arrow on the right side of the shrinking station 38.
The invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous changes and modifications can be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention and that such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is, therefore, intended that the appended claims cover all such equivalent variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2010 031 800.0 | Jul 2010 | DE | national |
