Abstract:
A cover sterilizing mechanism for bottle filling device includes a sterilizing chamber (II) in which a cover sliding passage ( 102 ) is arranged. A cover blocking mechanism which will periodically hold the cover ( 94 ) to stay on the sliding passage ( 102 ) for a certain time, and multiple groups of nozzles ( 62 ) corresponding to the place in which the cover ( 94 ) is held on the sliding passage( 102 ) are also arranged in the sterilizing chamber (II). The cover sterilizing device can uniform the sterilizing time of each cover, conduce to install covers orderly and improve efficiency of the bottle filling device.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a cap sterilizing mechanism for a linear type bottle filling device. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     For the purpose of higher production efficiency of a linear type bottle filling device used to fill milk and milk beverages, bottles are normally arranged in a line, where filling, capping and cap tightening are conducted simultaneously. In this case, plastic caps after arrangement are required to be secondarily distributed to their corresponding slideways in an even manner After being sterilized, the plastic caps are precisely put on bottle openings subject to the predetermined requirements in order to facilitate the following tightening process. Conventionally, bottle caps are branched in the manner that the number of passageways increases geometrically, in other words, one passageway branches into two passageways, two into four, four into eight and the like. The capping is achieved by a power-free cap grabbing, more specifically, the bottle caps sliding off the preset slideways are blocked by two leaf springs at the front end of a grabbing head when the bottle caps are in an inclined state. As the front edge of a bottle cap is lower than the level of the bottle opening while the rear edge is higher than said level. When the bottles horizontally pass through the cap grabbing head, the bottle openings grab the front edges of the bottle caps, which are then carried away and fall on the bottle openings, during which the leaf springs block the following cap. 
     The aforesaid solution has the disadvantages that: 1. As the cap passageways increase geometrically, this will bring about huge-sized passageways in case of a great number of bottles are in the line; 2. The bottle caps are not blocked when passing through a sterilizing chamber, therefore the bottle caps are arranged all over the cap slideways. It is no problem for sterilization during normal working process but unfavorable for the beginning. When the bottle caps pass though the cap slideways rapidly due to less bottle caps distributed therein, consequently, the sterilizing is incomplete, the hygienic quality of the final products will be affected; 3. When grabbing is used for capping, if the bottle caps fail to precisely fit with the bottle openings, the bottle caps would not be covered properly. It will affect the following tightening effects. Furthermore, the grabbing head is disposed with the leaf springs for plastic caps, it is sometimes unreliable that the following cap may be carried over together with the previous one. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the abovementioned problems, it is one object of the invention to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art by providing a cap sterilizing mechanism featuring complete sterilization for a linear type bottle filling device. 
     To achieve aforesaid object, the adopted technical solution is described below: 
     A cap sterilizing mechanism for a linear type bottle filling device, in accordance with the present invention, comprises a sterilizing chamber, in which a chamber body is disposed with a row of cap slideways extending downwards, a cap blocking mechanism is disposed to periodically block and hold caps standing in sequence on the cap slideways for a certain time, a plurality groups of nozzles are also disposed to face a section of the cap slideways where the caps are held still. When the technical solution provided herein is adopted, the sterilizing time for each cap is uniform, therefore the working quality of the linear type bottle filling device is improved. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a partially side view of a cap sterilizing mechanism for a linear type bottle filling device in accordance with an example of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is an enlarged view of Portion A of  FIG. 1  of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a partially sectional view of  FIG. 1  of the present invention viewed from the right; and 
         FIG. 4  is an enlarged view of Portion B of  FIG. 3  of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     As shown in attached drawings, a cap sterilizing mechanism for a linear type bottle filling device, in accordance with the present invention, comprises a sterilizing chamber II, in which a chamber body is disposed with a row of cap slideways  102  extending downwards, a cap blocking mechanism is disposed to periodically block and hold caps standing in sequence on the cap slideways for a certain time, a plurality groups of nozzles are also disposed to face a section of the cap slideways where the caps are held still. The number of the cap slideways equals to that of bottle lines within the bottle filling device. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , said cap slideways are disposed with sections which extend vertically downwards. The cap blocking mechanism is disposed facing such sections so that the caps can be held on these sections. Lower ends of the sections extending vertically downwards are further disposed with arc-shaped transition cap slideways bending downwards to connect with a capping apparatus. In this way, the sterilized caps slide under the gravity to the capping apparatus and then are put onto bottles. 
     Cap blocking functional pieces within the cap blocking mechanism provided in this example swing to periodically block the caps. Alternatively, said cap blocking functional pieces can also move circularly or linearly. The cap blocking functional pieces in a swinging motion are cap blocking claws  8  which block and hold the caps to stay on the cap slideways. As shown in the attached drawings, at least two rows of the swingable cap blocking claws  8  are disposed in the cap sliding direction within the cap blocking mechanism to form two cap parking sections on vertical sections of the cap slideways. 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , a cylinder for driving the cap blocking claws to swing is numbered  12  and a drive mechanism is numbered  9 . 
     The swinging of the cap blocking claws coincides with the transportation of the bottles which are transported by the bottle filling device to capping positions, more specifically, when one bottle is transported to the capping position by the bottle filling device, the cap blocking claws also act once to let one cap pass through. In this manner, uniform sterilization and smooth capping are achieved by avoiding jammed caps in the cap slideways. 
     As shown in the attached drawings, the cap slideways  102  are assembled from a plurality of bar profiles and have a hollowed groove bottom facilitating the cooperation between the cap blocking claws and the cap slideways to block the caps. In addition, positions where the cap blocking claws are inserted into the cap slideways depart from the cap slideway center, in other words, the cap blocking claws are inserted into the cap slideways via a clearance at the non-central portion formed between two adjacent caps by radians. 
     The nozzles include a nozzle  62   a  connecting sterilizing agent pipes and a nozzle  62   b  connecting sterilized hot air ducts, in which the nozzle  62   a  is located above the nozzle  62   b . Upper ends of the cap slideways  102  are connected to cap outlet passages  101  of cap distributing apparatuses one to one. The cap distributing apparatuses includes a cap storage chamber  1  which is located within a cabinet I. Lower portion of the cap storage chamber is disposed with a row of cap outlets which let out the caps as many as the bottle lines. The cap outlets are designed to let out only one cap  94  for each time. Inside the cap storage chamber, cap shifters are disposed above the cap outlets. 
     By stirring or shaking the caps  94 , the cap shifters timely separate or shake away other caps which have unfavorable effects on the caps in preferential positions directing to the cap outlets, consequently, jammed cap outlets  101  due to cross-affected caps are avoided and the caps orderly slide out of the cap outlets under the gravity one by one. 
     The cap shifter is a device capable of stirring or shaking the caps. In accordance with this example, cap shifter wheels  74  as a part of the cap shifters function to shift the caps, therefore, the cap shifters are simple in structure and easy to rotate. Meanwhile, the cap shifter wheels can be conveniently added based on different cap distribution needs for the bottle filling devices with varied production capacities. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the cap shifter wheels  74  are located at the left and right sides of the cap outlets, at the left side and the right side of each cap outlet are respectively provided with a cap shifter wheel. On the surface of the cap shifter wheels are circumferentially disposed with friction threads or a groove  740 , allowing better shaking or stirring effects under the friction. 
     The cap storage chamber is an irregular cap storage space. The division plates  103  are disposed within the cabinet I to form the cap storage chamber, whose thickness is equal to the cap height. In other words, the caps enter into the cap storage chamber and then leave it from the cap outlets as shown in  FIG. 1 . As the thickness of the cap storage chamber is equal to or a little more than the cap height, only one cap can slide through its thickness direction at one time, therefore it is helpful for the cap shifters to function well and reduce their work difficulties, and meanwhile it is also helpful to prevent the jammed cap outlets. The rotation axis of the cap shifter wheels is perpendicular to a plane determined by both the length direction and the height direction of the cap storage chamber. The thickness refers to a horizontal width of the cap storage space shown in  FIG. 1 , the length direction refers to a horizontal direction of the cap storage chamber shown in  FIG. 3  and the height direction refers to a direction from top to bottom shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the distance between the two cap shifter wheels which are respectively disposed at the left and right sides of the cap outlets is equal to or a litter more than a cap diameter, so that only one cap slides out of each cap outlet at one time. 
     The cap outlets extend to form cap outlet passages  102 , which start bending downwards from an entrance between the cap shifter wheels respectively at left and right sides of the cap outlets. A blocking plate  78  under the cap shifter wheels defines boundaries of the cap outlet passages. At the both sides of the cap storage chamber are disposed with guide side plates  84 . 
     The cap sterilizing mechanism provided herein also includes air shield pipes  93 , which are connected with the sterilized air ducts and disposed with a plurality of fine vents. Each group of such vents separately faces the cap outlet passages from the lateral side. Sterilized air ejected from the air shield pipes  93  forms a sterilized air shield, such sterilized air shield stops the atomized sterilizing agent escaping from the sterilizing chamber II, where the cap slideways  102  is located and meanwhile stops the outside unsterilized air entering into the sterilizing chamber. 
     On the cap outlet passage side is disposed with a movable inspection door  97  which can be opened for clearing up when the cap outlets are obstructed. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 3 , the air shield pipes are located outside one side of the cap storage chamber, the movable inspection door is located at the side where the air shield pipes locate, and a drive device driving the cap shifter wheels to rotate is disposed at the other side of the cap storage chamber within the cabinet I. Such drive device is a belt drive device or a chain drive device which is disposed with a plurality of pulleys or chain wheels  75 . A shaft  67  of the cap shifter wheels is coaxial with the pulleys or chain wheels. 
     During operations, plastic caps transported by cap arrangement devices enter into the cap storage chamber  1 . When the drive device is driven by a motor  89 , the cap shifter wheels  74  rotate in the same direction (the cap shifter wheels are assumed to rotate clockwise), so that the plastic caps shake in an irregular manner. As shown in  FIG. 4 , when both cap  94   a  and cap  94   b  reach to the cap outlets, the cap  94   a  is at the left side. Because the cap shifter wheels rotate clockwise, the cap  94   a  at the left side is located in a preferential position and carried by the cap shifter wheel at the left side into the cap outlet passages, and meanwhile the cap  94   b  at the right side are stirred to separate from the cap outlets. As a result obstructed cap outlet passages due to mutual impact between the cap  94   a  and the cap  94   b  are avoided. 
     To begin with the works, an upper row of cap blocking claws retract to block the plastic caps, which are then sterilized by the atomized sterilizing agent ejected from the nozzles. After that, a lower row of cap blocking claws retract while the upper row of cap blocking claws release, so that the bottle caps slide along the cap slideways to the lower row of the cap blocking claws and then the bottle caps are blocked. The bottle caps are dried by sterilized hot air ejected from the nozzles, in this way, sterilizing agent residue is removed. Then the lower row of the cap blocking claws release, the bottle caps slide along the cap slideways and the arc-shaped transition cap slideways bending downwards, finally the bottle caps reach to the capping apparatus. The above procedures are carried out repeatedly until the cap slideways are full of bottle caps, and then the capping process get started. In the following course, the upper and lower rows of cap blocking claws, based on the same procedures as described above, act in coincidence with the transportation of the bottles which are transported by the bottle filling device to the capping positions.