Patent Application
20220106070
The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle formed by attaching a shrink label to a bottle filled with a content liquid.
As containers for containing, as contents liquids, seasonings such as soy sauce and sauces, soft drinks such as tea and juice, toiletries such as shampoos and hair conditioners, and liquid detergents, bottles made of a synthetic resin material such as polypropylene (PP) resin or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin are often used. Such a bottle has a shape including a mouth portion, a shoulder portion that expands in a direction away from the mouth portion, a barrel portion, and a bottom portion. After the bottle is filled with a content liquid, a shrink label carrying information such as a trade name is usually attached to a region from the shoulder portion to the barrel portion to obtain a content liquid containing bottle.
For example, the content liquid containing bottle can be manufactured in the following manner: A synthetic resin-made preform formed in a bottomed tubular shape by injection molding is blow molded to form a bottle, and the molded bottle is filled with a content liquid through the mouth portion. After this, a cap is attached to the mouth portion to close the bottle, and then a shrink label is attached to a region from the shoulder portion to the barrel portion of the bottle. Alternatively, the content liquid containing bottle can be manufactured in the following manner: A synthetic resin-made preform is blow molded using, as a pressurized medium, a liquid that is a content liquid, to form a content liquid containing bottle. A cap is attached to the mouth portion to close the bottle, and then a shrink label is attached to a region from the shoulder portion to the barrel portion of the bottle.
In such content liquid containing container manufacturing method, the shrink label is typically attached to the bottle by a method whereby the cylindrical shrink label is placed over the outside of the region from the shoulder portion to the barrel portion of the bottle to which the cap is attached so as to surround the region, and, in this state, the shrink label is heated by hot air or the like to be thermally shrunk, thus tightly fixing the shrink label to the outer peripheral surface of the bottle (for example, see PTL 1).
In the foregoing conventional content liquid containing container manufacturing method, the shrink label is thermally shrunk to be attached to the bottle in a state in which the upper end of the shrink label is located above (i.e. higher than) the liquid surface of the content liquid located at the shoulder portion of the bottle. Accordingly, when thermally shrinking the shrink label, the region of the air layer not filled with the content liquid in the shoulder portion of the bottle and the region of the liquid layer filled with the content liquid in the shoulder portion of the bottle are heated by hot air. Here, since the region of the air layer has lower heat capacity than the region of the liquid layer in the shoulder portion, the temperature of the shoulder portion increases more in the region of the air layer than in the region of the liquid layer. If the amount of heat applied to the shrink label is increased to increase the shrinkage rate of the shrink label depending on, for example, the shape of the shoulder portion, the temperature difference between the air layer and the liquid layer of the shoulder portion increases, and the difference in thermal shrinkage between the air layer and the liquid layer may cause a sink mark (depression) to form at the boundary between the air layer and the liquid layer of the shoulder portion of the bottle. This problem is particularly noticeable in the case where the bottle is thin-walled.
This problem might be solved by thermally shrinking the shrink label in such temperature setting that does not cause a sink mark to form in the shoulder portion of the bottle. In this case, however, there is a possibility that the shrinkage of the shrink label is insufficient in the upper end part of the shrink label where the shrinkage is supposed to be greatest, and the shrink label is wrinkled in this region and the appearance of the bottle is impaired.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle with which the appearance of the content liquid containing bottle can be improved by suppressing the wrinkling of the shrink label while preventing the formation of a sink mark in the shoulder portion of the bottle.
A method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to the present disclosure comprises: a molding step of blow molding a synthetic resin-made preform into a bottle that includes a mouth portion, a shoulder portion expanding in a direction away from the mouth portion, a barrel portion, and a bottom portion; a cap attachment step of attaching a cap to the mouth portion of the bottle filled with a content liquid; and a label attachment step of placing a tubular shrink label over outside of the bottle to which the cap is attached, and thermally shrinking the shrink label to attach the shrink label to the bottle, wherein in the label attachment step, the shrink label is thermally shrunk in a state in which one end of the shrink label is located at a region of the shoulder portion in which an inner surface is in contact with the content liquid.
Preferably, in the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to the present disclosure, the content liquid with which the bottle is filled has high viscosity, the content liquid having high viscosity is caused to adhere to the inner surface of the shoulder portion above a liquid surface of the content liquid, in a state in which the bottle is in an upright position, and in the label attachment step, the shrink label is thermally shrunk in a state in which the end of the shrink label is located at a region of the shoulder portion in which the content liquid having high viscosity adheres to the inner surface.
Preferably, in the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to the present disclosure, in the label attachment step, the shrink label is thermally shrunk in a state in which the bottle is in an upright position and the end of the shrink label is located at a region of the shoulder portion below a liquid surface of the content liquid.
Preferably, in the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to the present disclosure, in the label attachment step, a region of the shoulder portion above the end of the shrink label is covered with a cover member.
Preferably, in the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to the present disclosure, in the label attachment step, the shrink label is thermally shrunk in a state in which the bottle is in an inverted position.
Preferably, in the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to the present disclosure, in the molding step, the preform is blow molded using, as a pressurized medium, a liquid that is the content liquid.
It is thus possible to provide a method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle with which the appearance of the content liquid containing bottle can be improved by suppressing the wrinkling of the shrink label while preventing the formation of a sink mark in the shoulder portion of the bottle.
In the accompanying drawings:
The presently disclosed technique will be described in more detail below, with reference to the drawings.
A content liquid containing bottle 1 illustrated in
Herein, the vertical direction (up-down direction) of the content liquid containing bottle 1 denotes the vertical direction in a state in which the content liquid containing bottle 1 is in an upright position as illustrated in
The bottle 10 is a blow-molded container made of polypropylene (PP) resin, and has a shape including: an approximately cylindrical mouth portion 11; a shoulder portion 12 integrally connected to the lower end of the mouth portion 11 and gradually increasing in diameter in a direction away from the mouth portion 11 in an approximately truncated conical shape; an approximately cylindrical barrel portion 13 integrally connected to the lower end of the shoulder portion 12; and a bottom portion 14 integrally connected to the lower end of the barrel portion 13 and closing the lower end of the barrel portion 13. In
The bottle 10 is filled with a content liquid L to contain the content liquid L. The bottle 10 has a headspace H for containing gas such as air or nitrogen above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L. The liquid surface S of the content liquid L is located at the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10.
The content liquid L may be of any of various types. In this embodiment, the content liquid L is, for example, a high-viscosity liquid such as a sauce or a shampoo. Herein, “high-viscosity liquid” denotes a liquid having a viscosity of 100 mPa·s or more. The upper limit of the viscosity of the high-viscosity liquid applicable in this embodiment is 2000 Pa·s, which is the limit value of viscosity within which blow molding can be performed using the liquid as a pressurized medium. That is, in this embodiment, the viscosity of the high-viscosity content liquid L contained in the bottle 10 is in a range of 100 mPa·s to 2000 Pa·s.
The cap 20 is formed of a synthetic resin material in a topped cylindrical shape, and attached to the mouth portion 11 of the bottle 10 by screw connection to close the mouth portion 11.
The cap 20 is not limited to being attached to the mouth portion 11 by screw connection, and may be attached to the mouth portion 11 by other means such as undercut engagement (capping). The cap 20 may include a discharge tube, a discharge pump, or the like for discharging the content liquid, as long as the cap 20 can be attached to the mouth portion 11 to close the mouth portion 11.
The shrink label 30 is formed of a thermally shrinkable synthetic resin material, such as polystyrene (PS) resin or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin, in a film shape. The shrink label 30 is shaped like a tube slightly larger in diameter than the barrel portion 13, and thermally shrunk in a state of being placed over the outside of the part of the bottle 10 from the shoulder portion 12 to the bottom portion 14 via the barrel portion 13, to be attached to the outer surface of the bottle 10 in a tightly fixed state. For example, the shrink label 30 may carry information about the content liquid L.
The upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located at the part of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 above (i.e. higher than) the liquid surface S of the content liquid L. The lower end 32 of the shrink label 30 is located on the surface of the bottom portion 14 facing downward. The lower end 32 of the shrink label 30 may be located at the barrel portion 13.
How the content liquid containing bottle 1 having the above-described structure is manufactured by the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to one of the disclosed embodiments will be described below.
In
First, a preform 40 for blow molding illustrated in
Next, in a molding step, the preform 40 is blow molded into the bottle 10 of the above-described shape. The blow molding used in this embodiment is liquid blow molding that involves blow molding the preform 40 using, as a pressurized medium, the liquid that is the content liquid L contained in the bottle 10.
In the liquid blow molding, the preform 40 heated to a predetermined temperature beforehand is placed in a mold for blow molding (not illustrated), a nozzle 51 of a pressurized liquid supply device 50 is liquid-tightly fitted into the mouth portion 41 of the preform 40, and the pressurized liquid (content liquid) L is supplied into the preform 40 through the nozzle 51 to stretch the stretch portion 42 in the axial direction and the radial direction by the pressure of the liquid L and mold it in a shape along the inner surface of the mold, as illustrated in
The liquid L supplied into the preform 40 as the pressurized medium is a high-viscosity liquid having a viscosity of 100 mPa·s or more, as mentioned above. The viscosity of the liquid L is, however, 200 Pa·s or less, so that the liquid L can be used for the liquid blow molding.
In the molding step, the liquid blow molding may be performed by supplying the pressurized liquid into the preform 40 while stretching the stretch portion 42 of the preform 40 in the axial direction by a stretching rod provided in the pressurized liquid supply device 50.
The bottle 10 formed by the liquid blow molding is in a state of being fully filled with the content liquid L. Hence, after the liquid blow molding, a step of discharging a predetermined amount of the content liquid L from inside the bottle 10 is performed to form the headspace H inside the bottle 10. For example, the step of discharging the predetermined amount of the content liquid L from inside the bottle 10 may be a suck back step using the pressurized liquid supply device 50.
In the suck back step, the pressurized liquid supply device 50 is operated in the reverse direction in a state in which the nozzle 51 remains inserted in the mouth portion 11 of the molded bottle 10, as illustrated in
Next, the nozzle 51 is separated from the mouth portion 11, and outside air is introduced into the bottle 10 through the mouth portion 11, as illustrated in
Since the content liquid L has high viscosity, the content liquid L adhering to the whole inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 in the molding step or the suck back step remains adhering to the whole inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L where the headspace H is formed, even after the liquid surface S of the content liquid L lowers to the shoulder portion 12 and the headspace H is formed inside the bottle 10. That is, in the case where the bottle 10 is formed by performing blow molding using the high-viscosity liquid L as the pressurized medium, the high-viscosity content liquid L adheres to the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L in a state in which the bottle 10 is in an upright position. The region of the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 to which the high-viscosity content liquid L adheres is a wet region W in which the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 is in contact with the content liquid L and is wet by the content liquid L. In
Next, in a cap attachment step, the cap 20 is attached to the mouth portion 11 of the bottle 10 filled with the content liquid L to close the bottle 10, as illustrated in
Next, in a label attachment step, the shrink label 30 is attached to the bottle 10 having the cap 20 attached to the mouth portion 11.
In the label attachment step, first, the shrink label 30 (designated by a dashed-two dotted line in
In the label attachment step, in a state in which the bottle 10 is in an upright position, the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located at the wet region W of the shoulder portion 12 that is above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L and in which the high-viscosity content liquid L adheres to the inner surface. That is, the shrink label 30 is placed so that its upper end 31 will be at a height within the range of the wet region W of the shoulder portion 12 while not in contact with the outer surface of the shoulder portion 12 before shrinkage and, when the shrink label 30 is thermally shrunk, come into contact with the outer surface of the shoulder portion 12 in the wet region W. Meanwhile, the lower end 32 of the shrink label 30 is located at the grounding part of the bottom portion 14. Thus, the shrink label 30 is placed to cover the region of the bottle 10 from the wet region W of the shoulder portion 12 to the bottom portion 14 via the barrel portion 13. The lower end 32 of the shrink label 30 may be located below (i.e. lower than) the bottom portion 14.
After placing the shrink label 30 at the above-described position, hot air is applied to the shrink label 30 from radially outside using a hot air transmission device or the like to thermally shrink the shrink label 30 and thus bring the whole shrink label 30 into close contact with the outer surface of the bottle 10, as illustrated in
The method of thermally shrinking the shrink label 30 is not limited to applying hot air to the shrink label 30, and may be any of various methods. Examples include applying heated steam to the shrink label 30 instead of hot air, and directly heating the shrink label 30 by a heat source such as a heater. In this case, a method of passing the shrink label 30 through a shrink tunnel including a means of transmitting hot air or steam or a heat source such as a heater may be used.
Although hot air is applied to the shrink label 30 in the radial direction in this embodiment, hot air or heated steam may be applied from a plurality of outlets to the shrink label 30 in the circumferential direction. With this method, the bottle 10 is prevented from being heated while sufficiently heating the shrink label 30, so that the bottle 10 can be prevented from being thermally deformed even in the case where the bottle 10 is thin-walled.
The upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 thermally shrunk and attached to the bottle 10 in the label attachment step is located at the wet region W of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L. Thus, in this embodiment, in a state in which the bottle 10 is in an upright position, the wet region W in which the content liquid L adheres to the inner surface above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L is provided, and the shrink label 30 is thermally shrunk in a state in which the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located at the wet region W. Hence, when thermally shrinking the shrink label 30 in a state in which the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L, the wet region W of the shoulder portion 12 above the liquid surface S is heated, so that the parts of the shoulder portion 12 bordering the liquid surface S can be kept from differing in temperature increase. The formation of a sink mark (depression) caused by a difference in thermal shrinkage can thus be prevented in the parts of the shoulder portion 12 bordering the liquid surface S. Moreover, since the parts of the shoulder portion 12 bordering the liquid surface S can be kept from differing in temperature increase, the heating temperature can be increased to further shrink the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30. Therefore, the appearance of the content liquid containing bottle 1 in which the shrink label 30 is attached to the bottle 10 can be improved by suppressing the wrinkling of the shrink label 30 at the shoulder portion 12 while preventing the formation of a sink mark (depression) in the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 as mentioned above.
With the above-described method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle, a high-viscosity liquid is used as the content liquid L, so that the formation of a sink mark in the shoulder portion 12 can be prevented while the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L. Accordingly, the appearance of the bottle 10 to which the shrink label 30 is attached can be further improved by, for example, covering the liquid surface S with the shrink label 30.
In the label attachment step, the region of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end of the shrink label 30 is preferably covered with a cover member 60 made of a heat insulating material as an example. The cover member 60 may have a cylindrical shape and cover the region of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end of the shrink label 30 together with the cap 20 attached to the mouth portion 11 on the whole circumference. The cover member 60 may have any of various shapes that can cover the region of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end of the shrink label 30. The wet region W of the shoulder portion 12 may be not covered with the cover member 60.
In the label attachment step, by covering the region of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 with the cover member 60, the heating of the part of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end of the shrink label 30 and the air inside the headspace H can be prevented or reduced. Consequently, the difference in temperature increase between the parts of the shoulder portion 12 bordering the liquid surface S can be reduced more effectively. The formation of a sink mark in the shoulder portion 12 can thus be suppressed more reliably.
The above-described method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle is effective for manufacturing the content liquid containing bottle 1 having the bottle 10 and the shrink label 30 that satisfy the relational expression “Y≥71.542×ln(X)+91.125”, where Y (%) is the shrinkage rate of the shrink label 30 and X (mm) is the average wall thickness of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 at the middle height position. Here, the shrinkage rate Y (%) of the shrink label 30 is calculated according to Y=((D1−D2)/D1)×100, where D1 is the diameter of the shrink label 30 before the shrinkage and D2 is the diameter of the shrink label 30 in the maximum shrunk part after the shrinkage. By using the method of manufacturing a content liquid containing bottle according to this embodiment to manufacture the content liquid containing bottle 1 having the bottle 10 and the shrink label 30 that satisfy the foregoing relational expression, even in the case where the bottle 10 in the content liquid containing bottle 1 is thin-walled, the formation of a sink mark in the shoulder portion 12 of the thin-walled bottle 10 can be suppressed reliably.
In this embodiment, liquid blow molding the preform 40 can create the wet region W in which the content liquid L adheres to the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 formed. In the case of forming the bottle 10 by blow molding using gas such as air as a pressurized medium, on the other hand, after filling the bottle 10 with the high-viscosity content liquid L and closing the mouth portion 11 by the cap 20, for example, the bottle 10 may be shaken up and down to cause the high-viscosity content liquid L to adhere to the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 above the liquid surface S and thus create the wet region W.
The method of manufacturing a content liquid containing container according to this embodiment can also be used to manufacture the content liquid containing bottle 1 containing a non-high-viscosity liquid of less than 100 mPa·s in viscosity as the content liquid L. A method of manufacturing the content liquid containing bottle 1 containing a non-high-viscosity liquid of less than 100 mPa·s in viscosity as the content liquid L will be described below.
First, in a molding step, the preform 40 of the same shape as in
In the case where the bottle 10 is formed by liquid blow molding using a low-viscosity (for example, less than 100 mPa·s in viscosity) content liquid as a pressurized medium, a wet region formed in the shoulder portion 12 tends to be eliminated in a short time. In the case where the bottle 10 is formed by blow molding using gas such as air as a pressurized medium and then filled with the content liquid L, the content liquid L does not adhere to the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 above the liquid surface S during the filling. Accordingly, in the bottle 10 formed by each of these methods in an upright position, the headspace H is formed above the liquid surface S of the content liquid L located at the shoulder portion 12, but no wet region is formed in the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 in the part that is located above the liquid surface S and in which the headspace H is provided, as illustrated in
Next, in a cap attachment step, the cap 20 is attached to the mouth portion 11 of the bottle 10 filled with the content liquid L to close the bottle 10, as illustrated in
Next, in a label attachment step, the shrink label 30 is attached to the bottle 10 having the cap 20 attached to the mouth portion 11.
As illustrated in
In the label attachment step according to the modification, in a state in which the bottle 10 is in an upright position, the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located at a region of the shoulder portion 12 below the liquid surface S of the content liquid L (i.e. a region of the shoulder portion 12 in which the inner surface is contact with the content liquid L and that corresponds to the wet region W). That is, the shrink label 30 is placed so that its upper end 31 will be at a height within the range of the region of the shoulder portion 12 below the liquid surface S while not in contact with the outer surface of the shoulder portion 12 before shrinkage and, when the shrink label 30 is thermally shrunk, come into contact with the outer surface of the shoulder portion 12 in the region below the liquid surface S. Meanwhile, the lower end 32 of the shrink label 30 is located at the grounding part of the bottom portion 14. Thus, the shrink label 30 is placed to cover the region of the bottle 10 from the region of the shoulder portion 12 below the liquid surface S to the bottom portion 14 via the barrel portion 13.
After placing the shrink label 30 at the above-described position, as illustrated in
Thus, in the label attachment step according to the modification, too, the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 thermally shrunk and attached to the bottle 10 is located at the region of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 in which the inner surface below the liquid surface S of the content liquid L is in contact with the content liquid L and wet. The whole part of the shrink label 30 located at the shoulder portion 12 is therefore attached to the region of the shoulder portion 12 in which the inner surface is in contact with the content liquid L and wet. Accordingly, when thermally shrinking the shrink label 30, the wrinkling of the shrink label 30 is suppressed while preventing the formation of a sink mark in the shoulder portion 12, so that the appearance of the content liquid containing bottle 1 in which the shrink label 30 is attached to the bottle 10 can be improved.
In the label attachment step according to the modification, too, by covering the region of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 with the cover member 60, the heating of the part of the shoulder portion 12 above the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 and the air inside the headspace H can be prevented or reduced, as in
The label attachment step according to the modification illustrated in
In the label attachment step, the shrink label 30 may be thermally shrunk in a state in which the bottle 10 that contains the content liquid L and whose mouth portion 11 is closed by the cap 20 is in an inverted position, as illustrated in
In the label attachment step according to this modification, the whole inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 in an inverted position is in contact with the content liquid L, as illustrated in
Therefore, as illustrated in
In the label attachment step according to this modification, by a simple operation of merely inverting the bottle 10 whose mouth portion 11 is closed by the cap 20, the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 located at the shoulder portion 12 can be situated at the wet region of the shoulder portion 12 in which the inner surface is in contact with the content liquid L. This eases the manufacture of the content liquid containing bottle 1 with improved appearance. In the label attachment step according to this modification, an air layer is formed on the bottom portion 14 side of the bottle 10. In this part, however, the shrink label 30 shrinks less than on the shoulder portion 12 side, and also is not heated as much as on the shoulder portion 12 side. Accordingly, such a sink mark that would occur in the shoulder portion 12 is unlikely to occur.
The present disclosure is not limited to the foregoing embodiments, and various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
For example, although the shoulder portion 12 of the bottle 10 has an approximately truncated conical shape in the foregoing embodiments, the present disclosure is not limited to such. The shape of the shoulder portion 12 may be any other shape that gradually expands in a direction away from the mouth portion 11 toward the barrel portion, such as an approximately truncated pyramidal shape or an approximately dome shape. The shapes of the mouth portion 11, the barrel portion 13, and the bottom portion 14 may also be varied.
Although the bottle 10 and the preform 40 are made of polypropylene (PP) resin in the foregoing embodiments, the present disclosure is not limited to such. For example, the bottle 10 and the preform 40 may be made of any other synthetic resin such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin.
The structure, method, etc. for causing the content liquid L to be in contact with or adhere to the inner surface of the shoulder portion 12 may be also varied, as long as the shrink label 30 is thermally shrunk in a state in which the upper end 31 of the shrink label 30 is located at a region of the shoulder portion 12 in which the inner surface is in contact with the content liquid L in the label attachment step.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-016017 | Jan 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2019/045330 | 11/19/2019 | WO | 00 |
