Patent Application
20240076084
The present invention relates to a dehumidification device of a package thermal-shrinking oven, and in particular to a dehumidification device that is used in heat-shrinking packaging of a heat-shrinking packaged object and includes heaters provided on a steam conduit that supplies a heat source to a thermal-shrinking oven and outside of the thermal-shrinking oven to assist heating for forming a dry hot gas flow.
Package films have been widely used in packaging applications for various packaged objects, particularly for sealing of the packaged objects that may have different outside contours and shapes, such as meal boxes, noodles, medicinal cuisines, salads, compact disc (CD) boxes, gifts, and so on. Due to the shapes and sizes of the meal boxes that contain therein foodstuffs, or CD boxes, or gift packs being generally different from each other, in the packaging industry, to implement an operation of sleeving a packaged object with a plastic film and depositing into a sealing and packaging apparatus for heat-shrinking to seal and package connection between a box and a cover of the packaged object, it is common practice to first place the heat-shrinkable film over the entirety or a major portion of the packaged object, and then a thermal-shrinking oven or a baking oven is used to thermally shrink the film, such that the heat-shrinkable film can cover the entirety or a major portion of the packaged object for packaging and sealing.
To provide a homogeneous heat source for heat shrinking conducted in a thermal-shrinking oven, high-temperature steam is commonly used as a heat source of the thermal-shrinking oven, in order to develop homogenous heat shrinkage during heat shrinking of the heat-shrinkable film sleeved on the packaged object for ensuring the quality of heat shrinking for the thermal-shrinking packaged object. Since the heat source of the thermal-shrinking oven is high-temperature steam, after the operation of thermal shrinking for the packaged object, liquid water or water droplets will present on the surface of the heat-shrinkable film and the surface of the thermal-shrinking packaged object. This often causes concerns of product hygiene or food safety issues for being potentially affected by mold and mildew due to moisture present on the thermal-shrinking packaged object, and thus, it is often necessary to manually wipe off the liquid droplets, or secondary processing is required by using high-temperature dehumidification apparatus or work station in order to remove the potential issue of liquid water or water droplets existing on the surface of the heat-shrinkable film. Correspondingly, labor or installation must be increased to thereby increase the cost and time of processing. Further, in case that high-temperature secondary processing equipment is applied to remove the water liquid or water droplets existing on the surface of the surfaces of the thermal-shrinking packaged object and the heat-shrinkable film, the high temperature of the secondary processing may cause inhomogeneous heating on the heat-shrinkable film on the thermal-shrinking packaged object to eventually lead to cracking or wrinkling of the film. This severely affects the yield of the heat-shrinking packaging of the thermal-shrinking packaged object. This is a problem to be handled for the known heat-shrinking packaging applying heat-shrinkable films.
Prior art patent documents are known, such as Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 6412937, which proposes a heat-shrinking device for shrinkable label, wherein a known structure of a thermal-shrinking oven including a typical steam based heat source is disclosed. The prior art Japanese Patent aims to eliminate dewing of steam on a heat-shrinking container (PC). In a heating treatment chamber (2), in addition to an existing heat shrinking zone (ZA) in which operation of heat shrinking is conducted with the steam based heat source on the container (PC), a drying zone (ZB) that has a sophisticated structure is arranged posterior to the heat shrinking zone (ZA) for removing moisture. The cost of the entire thermal-shrinking equipment is thus increased, and in addition, the container (PC), after being processed for heat shrinking in the heat shrinking zone (ZA), has to subject to secondary heating by dry and hot air in the drying zone (ZB). Specifically, the Japanese patent proposes a drying blower (26) used for such a purpose, and a tubular label (L) on the surface of the container (PC) may get cracking or wrinkling due to secondary high temperature heating or inhomogeneous heating by the dry and hot airflow of the drying blower (26), and this results in drawbacks in respect of heat-shrinking packaging quality on the surface of the container (PC) and the defect rate thereof. As such, same problems and drawbacks of cracking and wrinkling caused by secondary high-temperature processing or inhomogeneous heating on the heat-shrinkable film on the outside of the heat-shrinking packaged object resulting from the operation of removing moisture in the known thermal-shrinking oven are also present and would severely affects the yield of heat shrinking packaging for the heat-shrinking packaged object.
In addition, Taiwan Utility Model M335484, which provides a steam based shrinking oven, and Taiwan Utility Model M444345, which provides a steam-based heat-baking shrinking oven structure, propose steam-based thermal-shrinking oven structures having a single steam heat source, wherein an object-to-be-packaged, such as a jar (11) and a bottle (2) is subjected to an operation of heat shrinking by applying high temperature steam thereto. Similarly, there are problems of water liquid and water droplets existing on a surface of a thermally shrunk label (13) or a heat-shrinkable film, and the issue of removal of water liquid or water droplets on the surface of the label (13) or the heat-shrinkable film, or even water accumulation thereon, by means of manually wiping or other high-temperature dehumidification devices or work stations is present similar to those known steam based thermal-shrinking oven. And correspondingly, the processing cost and time are increased due to additional human labor or equipment being applied. Further, cracking and wrinkling caused by secondary high-temperature processing or inhomogeneous heating on the label (13) or the heat-shrinkable film on the outside of the heat-shrinking packaged object resulting from the operation of removing liquid water or water droplets on the surface of the heat-shrinking object of the jar (11) or bottle (2) by applying the secondary high temperature equipment would severely affects the yield of heat shrinking packaging for the heat-shrinking packaged object.
In the moisture removing measures adopted in the previously discussed known package thermal-shrinking oven or the above-mentioned patents, after the operation of packaging through heat shrinking, a large amount of liquid water or water droplets would be present on the surface of the heat-shrinkable film and the surface of the heat-shrinking packaged object, and this leads to concerns about product hygiene or food safety due to mold or mildew caused on the heat-shrinking packaged object by the moisture, and has to be processed through manual wiping or secondary processing by other high temperature dehumidification devices or work stations in order to remove the large amount of liquid water or water droplets from the surfaces of the heat-shrinking packaged object and the heat-shrinkable film. This results in increase of human labor and work hour and installation cost. The heat-shrinkable film on the outside of the heat-shrinking packaged object would get cracking or wrinkling due to the secondary high temperature processing or inhomogeneous heating and this severely affects the yield of heat shrinking packaging for the heat-shrinking packaged object.
Thus, the present invention provides a dehumidification device of a package thermal-shrinking oven, which comprises:
Further, in the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the thermal-shrinking oven body has a top that is formed with at least one ventilation orifice for discharging the hot gas that is applied to implement heat-shrinking packaging on the object-to-be-packaged inside the thermal-shrinking oven body.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the two sides of the lower portion of the thermal-shrinking oven body are each combined with at least one mounting frame for being combined with two sides of the packaging and conveying strip by means of the mounting frames.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the two sides of the lower portion of the thermal-shrinking oven body are each provided with at least one pair of connecting lugs, the connecting lugs being each formed with at least one elongated hole; and the mounting frames each have a top surface that is formed with at least one pair of fastening apertures to respectively correspond to the elongated holes of the connecting lugs of the thermal-shrinking oven body to be fastened thereto and combined therewith by means of at least one pair of bolts.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the mounting frames that are mounted to the lower portion of the thermal-shrinking oven body each have a lower end that is formed with a plurality of elongated connecting holes for each being fastened by at least one bolt to two sides of the packaging and conveying strip.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the two sides of the lower portion of the thermal-shrinking oven body are each combined with at least one mounting frame, the mounting frames each having a lower-portion middle section that is provided with at least one pair of joining portions, the joining portions being each formed with at least one threaded hole; and at least one pair of protective covers are respectively arranged to enclose two sides of the steam conduit and outsides of the first heaters, and two sides of an upper portion of each of the protective covers are each provided with at least one elongated hole, the elongated holes respectively corresponding to the threaded holes of the joining portions of the mounting frames to each receive at least one bolt penetrating through and fastened to the corresponding threaded hole for fixing and combining.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the steam conduit is provided, on a lower end thereof, with an ingress opening so as to connect by means of the ingress opening to the steam device to introduce the hot steam into the steam conduit.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the steam conduit is provided, on an external part of an upper portion thereof, with at least one pair of lugs, the lugs being each formed with at least one threaded fastening hole, and the two sides of the upper portion of the thermal isolation board are each formed with at least one pair of through holes, the through holes corresponding to the threaded fastening holes of the lugs of the steam conduit to each receive at least one bolt to penetrate therethrough for fastening and connecting.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the steam conduit has a cross-section having a Y-shape.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the two sides of the upper portion of the thermal isolation board are each formed with at least one pair of fastening apertures to respectively fasten by means of at least one fastening bolt to two sides of the packaging and conveying strip with which the thermal-shrinking oven body is combined.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the first heaters, the second heater, and the third heaters are formed of silicone rubber electrical heating plates.
In the above dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention, the second heater has a cross-section having a V-shape.
The efficacy of the dehumidification device of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention is that the first heaters, the second heater, and the third heaters are respectively mounted to the steam conduit and the exterior of the thermal-shrinking oven body to correspond to a path of hot steam conveyance and dry hot gas heat-shrinking packaging operation, in order to remove moisture from hot steam generated by the steam device to which the steam conduit is connected to form dry hot gas to implement a homogeneous and dry-hot-gas-based heat-shrinking packaging operation on the object-to-be-packaged located on the packaging and conveying strip and inside the thermal-shrinking oven body to have the heat-shrinkable film that is sleeved on the object-to-be-packaged thermally shrunk, for one time operation, on and package an outside surface of the object-to-be-packaged, and further, no liquid water and water droplets are accumulated on the surfaces of the heat-shrinkable film and the object-to-be-packaged to ensure clean and hygiene of the outside surfaces of the object-to-be-packaged and the heat-shrinkable film and food safety, and there is no need for manually wiping off or applying other high temperature equipment or workstations to carry out secondary processing, so as to greatly save human labor, working hours, and installation expenditure, and the quality and yield of heat-shrinking packaging of a heat-shrinkable film on an object-to-be-packaged can be enhanced to completely eliminate and overcome the problems and drawbacks of the prior art steam heat source based thermal-shrinking oven that a heat-shrinking packaged object and the heat-shrinkable film thereof have a large amount of liquid water and water droplets remaining on the surfaces thereof to result in increase of human labor working hours and installation expenditure, and that the heat-shrinkable film on the outside of the heat-shrinking packaged object may become cracking or wrinkling due to secondary high temperature processing or inhomogeneous heating to thereby severely affect the yield of heat-shrinking packaging of the heat-shrinking packaged object, and therefore, the industrial utilization and economic interest of the present invention can be further improved.
Referring firstly to
at least one steam conduit 20, which is provided, on a lower end thereof, with an ingress opening 21, the ingress opening 21 being connected to at least one steam device 400, so that hot steam 400A generated in the steam device 400 is conducted into the steam conduit 20 (as shown in
at least one thermal isolation board 30, two sides of an upper portion of which are each formed with at least one pair of fastening apertures 31 to respectively fasten by means of at least one fastening bolt 311 to the two side of the packaging and conveying strip 300 to which the thermal-shrinking oven body 10 is mounted, the two sides of the upper portion of the thermal isolation board 30 being each formed with at least one pair of through holes 32, the through holes 32 corresponding to the threaded fastening holes 221 of the lugs 22 of the steam conduit 20 to each receive at least one bolt 321 to penetrate therethrough for fastening and connecting;
at least one pair of first heaters 40, which are respectively mounted to exterior of two sides of the steam conduit 20 to provide a first heating operation to the hot steam 400A at the two sides of the steam conduit 20 to form moisture-removed dry hot gas 500 for being subsequently guided along the two sides of the upper portion of the steam conduit 20 through the connecting portions 11 of the thermal-shrinking oven body 10 into an interior of the thermal-shrinking oven body 10 to implement a heat-shrinking packaging operation on the object-to-be-packaged 200 located on the packaging and conveying strip by means of the dry hot gas 500 (as shown in
at least one second heater 50, which is mounted on a bottom of interior of the steam conduit 20 to carry out the first heating operation, in synchronization with the first heaters 40, on the hot steam 400A at the bottom of the inside of the steam conduit 20, wherein the second heater 50 is not limited to any specific type, and one that is formed of a silicone rubber electrical heating plate is taken as an example for illustration in the present invention; and the second heater 50 is not limited to any specific shape, and in the present invention, one that has a V-shaped cross section is taken as an example for illustration; and
at least one pair of third heaters 60, which are respectively mounted to two sides of exterior of thermal-shrinking oven body 10 to carry out an enhanced moisture-removing effect in synchronization with the heat-shrinking packaging operation of the dry hot gas 500 in the interior of the thermal-shrinking oven body 10, wherein the third heaters 60 are not limited to any specific type, and one that is formed of a silicone rubber electrical heating plate is taken as an example for illustration in the present invention.
Further referring to
The dehumidification device 100 of the package thermal-shrinking oven according to the present invention is shown in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 111209658 | Sep 2022 | TW | national |
