Patent ID: 8618503

Claim:
An electron beam sterilizer for sterilizing a bottle made of resin by being irradiated with an electron beam generated from an electron beam irradiation means during conveyance of a bottle while being held by a bottle holding means, wherein the bottle holding means is provided with a rotation shaft positioned on a central axis of the resin bottle held by the bottle holding means and has an axis extending in a same direction as the central axis of the held resin bottle and a gripper mounted to one end of the rotation shaft and adapted to hold the resin bottle by clamping a neck portion of the resin bottle from both sides thereof by a pair of gripping portions opposed to each other, moving means that circularly moves the rotation shaft of the bottle holding means, rotating means that rotates the rotation shaft around the axis thereof are provided, and the resin bottle held by the gripper is rotated by approximately 180Â° by the rotation of the rotation shaft of the rotating means on the central axis of the resin bottle by rotating the rotation shaft in front of the electron beam irradiation means that irradiates the resin bottle with the electron beam and, thereafter, the resin bottle is reversely rotated by approximately 180Â° by the rotating means to thereby release the resin bottle from the gripper at a discharge position, wherein the gripper holds the resin bottle at an extension of the rotation shaft, the resin bottle is pushed into and held in the gripping portions of the gripper at a given supply position, the resin bottle is pulled out and released from the gripping portions of the gripper at a given discharge position, there are arranged bottle supply means that pushes the resin bottle to the moving gripper from a direction substantially perpendicular to the rotation shaft and bottle discharge means that pulls out the resin bottle from the moving gripper in the direction substantially perpendicular to the rotation shaft, the electron beam irradiation means is arranged along a bottle conveying path extending from a supply position at which the resin bottle is pushed into the gripper by the bottle supply means to the discharge position at which the resin bottle is pulled out by the bottle discharge means and the resin bottle is rotated by an angle of substantially 180 degrees by the rotation of the rotation shaft.