METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING BEVERAGE CONTAINERS WITH RECOOLING AND GAS FEED

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for producing liquid containers by: producing a plastic container by a blow moulding process; filling the plastic container with a flowable medium, such as a liquid; and at least partially closing the container, which is filled with the liquid, with a container closure. After the at least partial closing of the container, a gaseous medium is fed to the interior of the container via at least one opening introduced into at least one portion of a wall of the plastic container or a circumferential wall of the container closure or via an intermediate space which exists between a mouth and the container closure.

Claims

1. A method for producing liquid containers and in particular beverage containers, comprising the steps of: producing a plastic container by a blow moulding process; filling the plastic container with a flowable medium, and in particular with a liquid; at least partially closing the container, which is filled with the liquid, with a container closure; wherein, after the at least partial closing of the container, a gaseous medium is fed to the interior of the container via at least one opening introduced into at least one portion of a wall of the plastic container or a circumferential wall of the container closure.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein after the production of the container the opening is introduced into the portion of the wall of the container and/or the wall of the container is pierced in an upper half of the container and in particular in an upper third of the container.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plastic container is filled with a heated liquid.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid-filled plastic container is cooled.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the opening via which the gaseous medium is fed to the container is closed after the feeding of the gaseous medium.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the closing is carried out by a method selected from a group of methods consisting of melting of a portion of the container wall, melting of a portion of the circumferential wall of the container closure and/or a relative rotation of the container closure relative to the container.

7. The method according to claim 5, characterised in that a closing of the container is checked by an inspection device.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the gaseous medium is fed to the container in such a way that after the feeding of the gaseous medium a pressure which is above the ambient pressure prevails inside the container.

9. The method for producing liquid containers and in particular beverage containers, comprising the steps of: at least partially transforming a plastic container by action of a liquid medium; filling the plastic container with a preferably heated liquid, in particular with the liquid used for the transforming; at least partially closing the container, which is filled with the liquid, with a container closure; wherein, after the at last partial closing of the container, a temperature regulation of the container and/or of the liquid located in the container takes place and a gaseous medium is fed to the interior of the container, in particular the head space of the container.

10. An apparatus for producing containers filled with a liquid with a transforming device, which transforms plastic parisons into plastic containers, with a filling device which is arranged downstream of the transforming device in a transport direction of the plastic containers and which fills the plastic containers with the liquid, wherein the filling device is preferably suitable and intended for filling the containers with a heated liquid, and with a closing device which closes the liquid-filled plastic containers at least partially with container closures, characterised in that the apparatus has a gas feed device which feeds a gaseous medium to the containers during or after the closing process, wherein the gas feed device is suitable and intended for feeding the gaseous medium to the containers through an opening which is formed in a container wall or a circumferential wall of the container closure.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the apparatus has a cooling device which is arranged downstream of the filling device in the transport direction and which cools the containers filled with the liquid.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has a penetration device which is suitable and intended for piercing at least one portion of the wall of the container or at least one portion of the circumferential wall of the container closure, wherein this penetration device is preferably arranged downstream of a cooling device which cools the containers filled with the liquid.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has at least one sealing device which is suitable for closing the opening through which the gaseous medium has been fed to the container.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has a clean room, inside which the containers are at least at times transported.

15. The apparatus for processing plastic containers closed with container closures and in particular for carrying out a pressure equalisation in such containers, with a penetration device which is suitable and intended for introducing an opening into a wall of the container or into a circumferential wall of the container closure, and with a gas feed device which is suitable and intended for feeding the gaseous medium through this opening to the containers, wherein the apparatus has at least one sealing device which is suitable for closing the opening through which the gaseous medium has been fed to the container.

Description

[0104] Further advantages and embodiments are apparent from the appended drawings.

[0105] In the drawings:

[0106] FIGS. 1a to 1c show a schematic sequence of a method according to the invention;

[0107] FIGS. 2a to 2c show three representations for illustration of a gas feed through a container closure;

[0108] FIG. 3 shows a representation for introduction of a hole into a wall of the container;

[0109] FIG. 4 shows a roughly schematic representation of an apparatus according to the invention; and

[0110] FIG. 5 shows a view of a detail of a piercing and gas feeding device.

[0111] FIGS. 1a to 1c show a schematic representation of a method according to the invention. As shown in FIG. 1a, first of all a plastic parison 11 is blow moulded to form a plastic container 1. This takes place particularly preferably by means of a blow moulding machine. In this case this blow moulding machine can preferably have a moving and in particular rotatable carrier, on which a plurality of transforming stations are arranged for transforming plastic parisons into plastic containers and in particular plastic bottles. FIG. 1b shows a representation of a filling process. In this case a filling device such as a filling channel 62 is provided which introduces liquid into the container 1.

[0112] FIG. 1c shows schematically a piercing operation. Here the container 1 is pierced by means of a penetration tool 54, such as a needle, in the region of the mouth thereof. The reference 14 relates to the opening produced by this piercing operation which is configured in particular as a small hole. The reference 12 designates the wall of the container 1. The reference numeral 2 designates a container closure which is already attached to the container 1. Thus the opening 14 produced by the penetration device 54 preferably constitutes the single opening of the container 1, since the mouth of the container 1 is already closed by the container closure 2. At this stage a gas, such as for example nitrogen, can now be fed to the container 1. In this case this feed can take place by means of the penetration tool 54 or by means of a further channel 52 which feeds the gas to the container by means of the opening 14 introduced by the penetration tool 54. It is also possible that a wall region 12 in which the said opening 14 is located is sealed relative to the environment by means of a sealant and so a space surrounding the opening is produced, to which the gaseous medium is then fed under pressure, so that said medium flows from this space through the opening 14 into the interior of the container 1.

[0113] FIGS. 2a to 2c illustrate three procedures for introduction of the gaseous medium by means of the container closure 2. In the variant proposed in FIG. 2a the closure 2 is pierced on its circumferential wall or laterally by the penetration tool 54. The subsequently introduced gas can enter the interior of the container by means of the thread turn of the container. This is conceivable in particular when the closure 2 is not yet completely screwed onto the mouth of the container, in contrast to what is shown in FIG. 2a. However, it would also be conceivable that the penetration tool 54 pierces through both the closure 2 and also the mouth of the container lying below it.

[0114] In the variant illustrated in FIG. 2b several openings are located on the external circumference of the container closure 2. In this way the container closure 2 can be pierced for example at opposing points.

[0115] In the variant configured in FIG. 2c, as shown by the arrow P1, the gas is fed between a container closure 2 and a carrying ring of the container and subsequently fully reaches the actual mouth of the container by means of the said thread turn. In this configuration it is also preferable during the feeding of the gas that the closure 2 is not yet completely screwed onto the mouth.

[0116] FIG. 3 shows a further embodiment in which the penetration tool 54 is introduced into a lateral wall of the container 12. In order to carry this out, the container is preferably transported horizontally.

[0117] FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of a machine 40 according to the invention. In this case first of all a transforming device 42 is provided, which is suitable and intended for transforming plastic parisons into plastic containers. This transforming device can have a heating device, such as for example an oven, which is connected upstream of the actual transforming device and serves to heat the plastic parisons sufficiently so that they can be blow moulded to form containers.

[0118] The reference numeral 44 designates an optionally provided sterilising device, which sterilises the plastic bottles produced by the transforming device 42. The reference numeral 46 designates a filling device which introduces a gas into the produced container.

[0119] The reference numeral 50 designates a closing device which closes the plastic container. The reference numeral 52 designates a gas feed device which is suitable and intended for introducing the gas into the container by means of the above-mentioned opening.

[0120] In this case this gas feed device 52 can simultaneously also have the penetration tool described above.

[0121] The reference numeral 48 designates a cooling device which is suitable and intended for cooling the hot filled containers. As mentioned above, this gas feed device 52 can also be arranged at other positions of the entire apparatus, for instance also already in the region of the closing device 50, or at other positions, in particular upstream of the recooling device 48.

[0122] Finally, FIG. 5 shows a representation of a possible procedure for feeding gas into the container. In this case first of all the penetration device 54 is again provided in the form of a needle which pierces the wall of the plastic container 1. The reference numeral 52 designates the actual gas feed device, which introduces a gaseous medium into the container 1 via the hole produced by the penetration device 54. The reference numeral 64 designates the chamber which serves for supply of the gas by means of the supply conduit 52. In this case this chamber can be intermittently sealed relative to the container 1 in order thus to be able to introduce the gaseous medium under a slight positive pressure into the container 1. The gas which should ultimately enter the container can be fed to this chamber via the opening 14. In this case this gas is preferably fed at a positive pressure to the chamber 64, so that it flows into the container 1 due to the pressure conditions. The reference numeral 72 designates a corresponding sealing device by means of which the chamber 64 can be sealed relative to the environment. In this case this sealing device 72 can also serve simultaneously as a gripping element for the container 1.

[0123] The reference numeral 68 designates a closing or sealing device which closes the hole produced by the penetration device 54, for example by a melting process.

[0124] In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5 the two tools, that is to say the penetration device 54 and the sealing device 68, are arranged one above the other. It would also be conceivable that these tools are arranged adjacent to one another or also obliquely with respect to one another. However, in the mentioned cases the tools should be arranged movably only in such a way that it is ensured that precisely the location which has been pierced is closed/welded. In this view from above, as also already shown in FIGS. 1c and 3, the opening 14 is again evident.

[0125] The applicant reserves the right to claim all the features disclosed in the application documents as essential to the invention in so far as they are individually or in combination novel over the prior art. Furthermore it is pointed out that in the individual drawings features were also described which may be advantageous per se. The person skilled in the art recognises immediately that a specific feature described in a drawing may also be advantageous without the incorporation of further features from this drawing. Furthermore the person skilled in the art recognises that advantages may also result from a combination of several features shown in individual drawings or in different drawings.

LIST OF REFERENCES

[0126] 1 plastic container [0127] 2 container closure [0128] 11 plastic parison [0129] 12 wall of the container [0130] 14 opening [0131] 40 apparatus [0132] 42 transforming device [0133] 44 sterilising device [0134] 46 filling device [0135] 48 cooling device [0136] 50 closing device [0137] 52 gas feed device/feed conduit [0138] 54 penetration tool/penetration device [0139] 62 filling channel [0140] 64 chamber [0141] 68 closing or sealing device [0142] 72 sealing device [0143] P1 arrow