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(11) | EP 0 285 875 A2 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | A rotary machine for the dosed filling of flasks and the like |
| (57) A rotary machine for filling bottles and the like in a dosed manner, comprising a
base (1) and a hollow supporting column (2) around which column (2) a number of syringes
(4) of vertical axis are arranged in a circle; the syringes (4) have each a cylinder
chamber and, disposed in said chamber, a valve whose valve stem (5) extends out of
the top of said cylinder chamber, and a piston whose piston rod (6) extends out of
the bottom thereof, the machine being equipped with a centralized drive device for
causing all of the piston rods (6) and/or all of the valve stems (5) to be moved simultaneously
to pass from a working position to a position for sterilization and conversely. |
[0001] This invention relates to a rotary machine utilizing a number of syringes for the dosed filling of flasks, bottles and the like. More especially, the invention relates to a centralized drive device for moving the main components of said syringes and bringing them to positions suitable for sterilization.
[0002] As is known, in such rotary machines, syringes are arranged with their axis in a vertical direction, and are disposed around a circumference concentric to the axis of the machine.
[0003] Each syringe has an inlet conduit and an outlet conduit, which conduits are selectively communicated, via a valve, with an inner chamber of a double-acting cylinder slidingly receiving a piston which, in a first stage, draws liquid from the inlet conduit, and, in a subsequent stage, discharges the drawn liquid into a container via the outlet conduit. Owing to these syringes being usually used for handling medicinal substances, they require frequent sterilization. Sterilization is, for example, essential whenever a cycle of production is changed, that is whenever a medicinal substance is changed, and also in order to avoid bacterial formation.
[0004] An usual practice in sterilizing such syringes is to cause the syringe valves and pistons to move to enlarged recesses in the syringes such that the sterilizing steam supplied via the same inlet conduits as used during a working step, may impinge upon the inner surfaces of said syringe components.
[0005] For further details as to the positioning of the syringe valves and pistons during a sterilization step, reference may be had to, for example, Italian Utility Model Applications N. 23676 B/83 of 11/28/1983 and N. 23258 B/86 of 10/1/1986 both in the name of Applicant CAPSULIT S.P.A.. In the first mentioned design application, the syringe valves and pistons, in a sterilizing step, are unidirectionally moved downwards, and in the second mentioned design application, they are moved in opposite directions, namely the valves are lowered and the pistons are raised.
[0006] In known filling machines, the valves and pistons of the different syringes have to be moved individually to bring them to their sterilizing positions. This procedure is time consuming and, thus, requires extended "down time" of the machine at each sterilization. It is also noted that movements of said syringe components are to be very slow in order to prevent application of high compressive stresses on the syringes, which could lead to breaking of their glass parts, and to avoid damages to the valve pistons and the cylinders at the time of their coupling again together.
[0007] It is a main object of this invention to drastically reduce the time required for the syringe valves and pistons to be brought to a sterilizing position and for the same syringe components to be returned to a working position once sterilization is achieved.
[0008] This object is attained by a rotary machine for filling flasks, bottles and the like according to this invention, which is characterized in that a centralized drive device is provided whereby the syringe pistons and/or valves are moved simultaneously together to bring them to a sterilization position and to return them to their working position.
[0009] Said centralized drive device comprises a threaded spindle on which two associated nuts are threadingly engaged and are caused to vertically move therealong by rotations of said threaded shaft in either of two directions thereby to transmit said movement, via appropriate driving gears, to the piston rods of all the piston means and the valve stems of all the valve means.
[0010] Further features of a rotary machine for the dosed filling of flasks or the like, according to this invention, will be better understood by the aid of the following detailed description of embodiments thereof shown, by way of example only, in the accompanying drawings, in which :
Figure 1 is a front elevation and part sectional view of an embodiment of a rotary machine in accordance with the present invention;
Figure 2 is a view similar to figure 2 of a second embodiment of the invention.
[0011] Referring now first to figure 1, which shows a rotary machine for the dosed filling of flasks and the like in a very diagram matic manner, the machine of the invention comprises a base foot 1 and, extending upwardly therefrom, a hollow column 2 forming a supporting structure for the machine. Arranged at the top of column 2 is a conveniently supplied tank 3 for a liquid substance to be introduced into syringes used to fill the concerned bottles.
[0012] The syringes are of vertical axis and are disposed around a circumference that is concentric with the axis of column 2. In figure 1 only one of the syringes is shown schematically and is designated by reference numeral 4.
[0013] Each syringe 4 has a cylinder chamber, and arranged inside this chamber are a valve means and a piston means which cooperate with one another to draw liquid substance from tank 3 to inject the drawn liquid into a container to be filled therewith. The valve means is at an upper position and in figure 1 an associated valve stem 5 is shown to emerge from a top part of the cylinder chamber of syringe 4, while the piston means is at a lower position than the valve means and its piston rod is shown to emerge from a bottom part of the cylinder chamber, as viewed at 6, figure 1.
[0014] Further details as to the construction and operation of syringes 4 can be found in the above-mentioned Italian Utility Model ions Nos. 23676 B/83 and 23258 B/86.
[0015] In the embodiment in figure 1, the syringes 4 are of the type as disclosed in the first one of the two design applications referred to above, namely the valves and the pistons are moved uni directionally both to bring them to a sterilizing position and to return them to a working position.
[0016] According to the invention, all of the valve and piston means in the different syringes 4 are moved simultaneously together to bring them from a working position to a sterilizing position and conversely.
[0017] To this end, axially arranged inside the column 2 is a shaft 7 carrying at the bottom a bevel gear 8 that can be driven by a corresponding bevel gear 9. This bevel gear 9 is carried at an end of a kinematic chain generally designated by reference numeral 10,which can be manually operated by means of a handwheel 11 or which can be automatically operated from a motor 12, for example, an air motor.
[0018] At both an intermediate zone and an upper end zone, the shaft 7 has screw portions 13 and 14 formed thereon, and nuts 15 and 16 are threadingly engaged on said screw portions 13 and 14 respectively.
[0019] The nut 15 has a ring 18 fitted thereto by means of pins 17 and secured to the ring 18 are the upper ends of vertically extending rods, for example four in number, only one of these rods being shown in the cutaway right portion, figure 1. The lower ends of rods 19 are secured to a sleeve 20 surrounding the column 2. As is usual, a ring 21 is pivotally mounted on the sleeve 20 and connected to this ring 21 are vertically extending rods 22 each of which is secured,in turn,to the piston rod 6 of an associated syringe 4.
[0020] In figure 1, the ring 21 is shown to be in a horizontal position, that is the position for the machine to be put in a condition of sterilization, while during a working step, said ring is, in a known manner, arranged to swing about its pivotal axis.
[0021] Similarly, the nut 16 has a first disc 23 fitted thereto which is supporting through vertically extending rods 24, a second upper disc 25 connected by associated vertical rods 26 to the valve stems 5 of the corresponding syringes 4.
[0022] Before describing operation of the centralized drive device according to the invention, it is to be noted that three safety members S1, S2 and S3 are provided and are intended for putting the machine in an emergency state when changing to a condition for sterilization.
[0023] The safety member S2 is a pin which acts to keep the sleeve 20 locked to the shaft 2 when the machine is in a working condition. Thus, in order to have the machine set for sterilization, the pin S2 is loosened whereby this pin S2, which is connected to a control circuit of the machine, will cause the sleeve 20 on the shaft 2 to be unlocked and, at the same time, the machine to be put in an emergency state.
[0024] Once the pin S2 has been unlocked, a lever handwheel 27 is acted upon to move the kinematic chain 10 to the right (in the drawing) so that the normally disengaged bevel gears 8 and 9 are driven into engagement.
[0025] During said movement of the kinematic chain 10,the safety element S1 is operated to further put the machine in an emergency state thereby to prevent the risk of accidental starting thereof.
[0026] Then, by rotation of the handwheel 11 or operation of the motor 12, the kinematic chain 10 is driven in rotation and transmits a reduced rotary motion to the shaft 7 through the pair of bevel gears 9 and 8. Rotation of the shaft 7 is,in this case, in a clockwise direction and the nuts 15 and 16 threadingly engaging the screws 13 and 14 respectively, begin to slowly move downwardly.
[0027] The nut 15 acting via the ring 18, the rods 19, the sleeve 20, the ring 21 and the rods 22, causes the piston rods 6 of all of the pistons to be simultaneously moved down, while the nut 16 acting via the disc 23, the rods 24, the disc 25 and the rods 26, causes all of the valve stems 5 of the corresponding syringes 4 to be simultaneously moved in the same direction.
[0028] When lowering of the piston rods and valve stems is achieved, a stop 28 on the sleeve 20 is brought into contact with the safety element S3 -for example, a microswitch fitted to the shaft 2- as shown by an arrow, figure 1, thereby to further putting the machine in a state of emergency and, at the same time, giving consent for starting sterilization.
[0029] Once sterilization has been carried out, the handwheel 11 is acted upon,or the motor 12 is operated, in a reverse sense so that the pistons and valves of syringes 4 are moved up to set the machine for work.
[0030] Thus, it can be appreciated that, in this case, by a single drive operation performed through the handwheel 11 or the motor 12, both the pistons and the valves of syringes 4 are driven simultaneously.
[0031] In some cases, depending above all upon the cylinder volume of syringes 4, it is preferred that the pistons and the valves are moved in a separate and selective manner, in order to prevent any high compressive stresses which could lead to blowout of syringes 4 owing to the fact that the valve travel is normally shorter than the piston travel.
[0032] This is obtained by the embodiment in figure 2 in which the same references as those in figure 1 designate the same elements.
[0033] The only difference between the embodiment in figure 2 and the embodiment described in relation to figure 1 is that the shaft 7 has been split so that the upper screw 14 is loose with respect to this shaft 7 and can be put in rotation separately by means of a handwheel, not shown in figure 2, or from a motor 29 only diagrammatically viewed in figure 2. If the pistons and valves of syringes 4 have to be given still unidirectional movements in order to bring them in a sterilizing position, first the pistons are lowered exactly in the same manner as shown in figure 1, by action on handwheel 11 or operation of motor 12 and, subsequently, the valves are lowered by operation of motor 29.
[0034] In order to pass from a sterilization position to a working position, the same operations as described above are performed in the reverse order.
[0035] By the embodiment in figure 2, the pistons and valves of syringes 4 may, obviously, be also caused to move in opposite directions, as shown, for example, in the already mentioned Model Application N. 23258 B/86, in which the pistons are to be raised, and the valves lowered, in order to bring them to a sterilization position and, conversely, to be returned in a working position.
[0036] In the embodiment figure 2, a second safety element S3 may be provided to act in a similar manner to that already described, this safety means S3 being arranged close to the drive mechanism for the valves.
[0037] It should be apparent that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described heretofore and shown in the accompanying drawings, and many modifications may be made thereto as to the details of construction without departing from the principle of the invention as defined in the annexed claims.
1. A rotary machine for the dosed filling of flasks, bottles and the like, comprising
a base (1) and a supporting hollow column (2) around which a number of syringes (4)
of vertical axis are arranged in a circle, each syringe having a cylinder chamber
and, disposed in this cylinder chamber, a valve whose valve stem (5) is projecting
upwardly of said cylinder chamber, and a piston whose piston rod (6) is projecting
downwardly thereof, the valves and pistons of syringes (4) having to be displaced
vertically in a unidirectional sense or in opposite senses to pass from a working
condition of the machine to a sterilization condition or conversely, characterized
in that a centralized drive device is provided for causing all of the pistons and/or
all of the valves of syringes (4) to move in a simultaneous manner.
2. The rotary machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said centralized drive device
for imparting movement upon the pistons in syringes (4) is operated by means of a
screw means(13) axially arranged in the inside of said column (2), on which screw
means (13) a nut (15) is threadingly engaged and acts to connect, through a ring (18),
vertical rods (19), a sleeve (20), a ring (21) and vertical rods (22), all of the
piston rods (6) of said pistons, and wherein for causing movement of the valves in
syringes (4), a second screw means (14) is axially arranged with respect to said screw
means (13) inside the column (2) and has a nut (16) threadingly engaged thereon which
acts through a first disc (23), vertical rods (24), a second disc (25) and vertical
rods (26), to connect all of the valve stems (5) in syringes (4).
3. The rotary machine according to claim 2, wherein said screw means (13) and (14)
are carried on a common shaft (7) so as to impart unidirectional simultaneous movement
upon both the piston rods (6) and the valve stems (5) in syringes (4), said shaft
(7) being driven in rotation through a kinematic chain (10) that can be controlled
either manually by means of a handwheel (11) or automatically from a starter (12).
4. The rotary machine according to claim 2, wherein said screw means (13) and (14)
are carried on separate shafts (7), so as to enable said screw means to be driven
selectively in rotation, the shaft of the screw means (13) being driven by a kinematic
chain (10) that can be controlled by means of a handwheel (11) or from a motor (12),
and the shaft of the screw means (14) being driven by means of a handwheel or from
a motor (29).
5. The rotary machine according to any preceding claim, wherein safety elements (S1,
S2 and S3) are provided and act to put the machine in a state of emergency when passing
from a working condition to a condition for sterilization.