Patent ID: 6655114
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: B29C,B29L,B65B

Abstract:
An apparatus for sealing and inspecting a seal portion of a packaging bag formed by using a base material formed from a stack of a plurality of layers in which at least an innermost layer is a welding layer made of a thermoweldable material, said seal portion being defined along an edge of an opening portion of said packaging bag, said apparatus comprising:a sealing apparatus for sealing said seal portion and an inspecting apparatus for inspecting said seal portion; said sealing apparatus for sealing said seal portion comprising: melting means for melting said welding layer at said seal portion; and allowing means for allowing a part of a melt from said welding layer to flow out from the edge of said opening portion at a predetermined position along said edge, whereby said sealing apparatus seals said seal portion and also forms an efflux layer outside said opening portion by said melt flowing out and solidified, and said inspecting apparatus comprising: an imaging device having a field of view capable of taking an image of an imaging subject including at least a part of said seal portion and its vicinities including at least a part of said efflux; and a controller; said controller including: a defective range setting unit for setting inspection conditions and a criterion for judgment of sealing quality of said seal portion; a sealing quality judging unit; and a central control unit; wherein said central control unit controls said apparatus, captures the image taken with said imaging device, defines an inspection region including at least a part of said image in accordance with said inspection conditions, divides said inspection region into a plurality of pixels of a predetermined size, and judges whether or not each pixel located outside said seal portion is filled with an efflux layer formed by a melt of said material flowing out of said seal portion, and said sealing quality judging unit compares a result of judgment made by said central control unit with said criterion for judgment to judge sealing quality of said seal portion.