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CN-122029123-A - Closure head for applying screw caps to containers, in particular containers in sterile space

CN122029123ACN 122029123 ACN122029123 ACN 122029123ACN-122029123-A

Abstract

A capping head (201) for applying screw caps to containers, wherein, in order to eliminate the redundancy of the guidance and support structure of the rotary translational shafts (13, 14, 15, 16) for applying rotary translational movements to the caps for the capping, a torsional rigidity compensation joint (220) is provided between a connecting part (12) and a cap handling part (220), wherein the connecting part (12) transmits the movements generated by a drive system (10) to the cap handling part (11) and the cap handling part (11) performs the movements, the compensation joint (220) is adapted to perform relative movements of angular misalignment and parallel misalignment to compensate for angular and plane misalignment errors of the shafts (16, 14) connected to each other by the joint (220) with respect to the axis of the container. Preferably, the capping head (201) is adapted to operate on a container located within the sterile space, and its drive system (10) and connecting member (12) are located outside the sterile space.

Inventors

  • Mark Kaffa
  • Francisco Palo
  • Massimiliano Skaglione

Assignees

  • AROL公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20241230
Priority Date
20240102

Claims (6)

  1. 1. A rotary translational capping head (201) for applying screw caps to containers, comprising: A drive system (10) for driving the capping head (201) to move along the rotation axis and rotate around the rotation axis; a cover processing part (11) whose rotation and translation are driven by the drive system (10); A connecting member (12) transmitting motion from the drive system (10) to the cap handling member (11) and comprising clutch means for controlling the torque applied to the cap and elastic means for applying a preset axial load to the cap; a rotary translation shaft (13, 14, 15, 16) connecting the drive system (10), the connecting part (12) and the cap handling part (11) together and maintained in mutual alignment by guiding and supporting means (102, 103) forming a statically indeterminate structure, and A compensation joint (220) interposed between a pair of rotary translation shafts (13, 14, 15, 16) for compensating for angular and plane offset errors of said shafts with respect to the axis of the container; Characterized in that the compensation joint (220) is arranged between the connecting part (12) and the cover processing part (11) and connects the output shaft (16) of the clutch device to the shaft (14) fixed with the cover processing part (11).
  2. 2. The capping head (201) according to claim 1 wherein the means for connection to the shafts (16, 14) in the joint (220) are constituted by a pair of elongated parallel horizontal plates (223 a, 223 b) and a pair of vertical plates (224 a, 224 b), wherein the longitudinal direction of the parallel horizontal plates (223 a, 223 b) is oriented along the radial movement direction of the joint, respectively, for compensating offset errors, the vertical plates (224 a, 224 b) acting as supports for the means (221, 222) for effecting the radial movement.
  3. 3. The capping head (201) of claim 2 wherein said (220) is made of aluminum.
  4. 4. The capping head (201) of claim 2 wherein said joint (220) is made of plastic.
  5. 5. A capping head (201) according to any one of the preceding claims adapted to cap a container located within a sterile space, wherein the connection member (12) is located outside the sterile space.
  6. 6. Capping machine (100) for applying screw caps to containers, comprising one or more capping heads (201) according to any one of the preceding claims.

Description

Closure head for applying screw caps to containers, in particular containers in sterile space Technical Field The present invention relates to a capping apparatus and, more particularly, to a capping head for applying a screw cap to a container, the capping head being particularly suitable for operating on containers located in sterile spaces. The invention also relates to a capping machine comprising one or more such capping heads. Background A capping head is a device capable of applying a cap or seal to the finish of a container, such as a bottle, vial, or the like. They are commonly used in capping assemblies or capping machines that typically include a movable support that moves a plurality of the capping heads along the transport path of the containers. For example, the capping head is mounted on the outer periphery of a support member, and the container and capping head are sequentially moved to the capping position by rotation of the support member. During their movement, the capping heads undergo a translational vertical downward movement to reach the mouth of the container to be capped and lift up again after capping is completed. Furthermore, when the screw cap is applied, the capping head is also rotated to screw the cap onto the mouth of the container, and this translational movement also applies a compensating axial load (top load) to firmly fix the container during the capping operation. For the capping heads of the food industry, it is necessary to ensure high hygienic conditions in the capping area. In particular, it is desirable to isolate the sterile cover application area from the drive area to prevent contaminants that may be present in the drive area from entering the sterile area. For a capping head for applying screw caps, a cap handling member and a connecting member are provided inside a capping region thereof, wherein the connecting member transmits rotation and translation movements generated by a driving system to the cap handling member and mainly comprises a clutch means for controlling torque applied to the cap and an elastic means for applying an axial load. Thus, the cap processing part and the connection part are directly connected to each other. This arrangement has the serious disadvantage that after the clutch means or elastic means have been adjusted as required to the sterile field, the field must be subjected to a washing and sterilizing cycle, which can lead to machine interruption and even a considerable duration. To overcome this drawback, it has been proposed to arrange said connecting means outside said sterile field, leaving the cap handling means only in the sterile field. A capping head of this type is disclosed in WO 2020/249286 Al. Since the connecting part and the cap handling part are separate, an additional shaft is required to connect these parts, which shaft extends through the whole sterile field and the whole extension of which is enclosed in a bellows-like element which separates the shaft from the sterile space in which the capping operation is performed. The main problem with this solution is redundancy. In fact, to maintain the correct alignment of the various rotary-translation axes that transmit the rotary-translation motion to the cover, these axes are supported by bearings mounted on bushings rigidly connected to parallel support flanges integral with the capping machine frame, and also centered on these flanges. Thus, the various bearings are associated with the different components of the capping head (in particular the clutch means and the cap handling means) and the two support flanges are also provided on the different components of the capping machine frame, which results in a technical inability to ensure that the outer race of the bearing is perfectly centered and perfectly parallel to the support flanges. The greater the position and parallelism errors, the more severe the stresses, deformations and unnecessary wear in the capping head, which can cause damage to the service life of the system, and the extent and adverse effects of which are unquantifiable, or at least difficult to quantify, during the design phase. It is well known to those skilled in the art that hyperstatic structures cannot compensate for such position and parallelism errors. Moreover, the price itself is high. An embodiment is also disclosed in the above cited document which solves the hyperstatic problem by eliminating bearings associated with the lid handling part. However, in this solution, the offset of the correct alignment between the cover handling member and the container is almost certainly too great, taking into account the total length of the rotary translation shaft and the distance between the clutch device and the bearing. To compensate for angular and plane offset errors between the shafts in a statically indeterminate structure, it is known to connect the shafts by means of compensation joints whose structure depends on the type of movement that m