Method of sterilizing drink filling apparatus and drink filling apparatus
AssigneeDai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
InventorsAtsushi Hayakawa, Shuta Ito
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To reduce the time required to start a drink filling operation or the time interval between productions. In a method of sterilizing a drink filling apparatus that includes drink supply piping that feeds a drink into a filling machine through a heating sterilization part, a heated liquid or heated steam is fed to the drink supply piping, temperatures of the drink supply piping at a plurality of positions are detected at predetermined time intervals, a lowest temperature is selected from the detected temperatures, an F value is calculated for the selected lowest temperature, the calculated F value is integrated, and a sterilization step is ended when the integrated F value reaches a target value.
Claims6
A method of sterilizing a drink filling apparatus that includes drink supply piping that feeds a drink into a filling machine through a heating sterilization part,
- passing a heated liquid or heated steam through the drink supply piping to sterilize the drink supply piping during a sterilization step,
- detecting a plurality of temperatures of the drink supply piping at a plurality of positions by a plurality of temperature sensors at predetermined time intervals,
- selecting only a lowest temperature from the detected temperatures,
- calculating an F value for only the selected lowest temperature,
- integrating the calculated F value, and
- ending the sterilization step when the integrated F value reaches a target value indicative of a sufficient application of the heated liquid or the heated steam at a temperature and for a time to achieve sterilization, wherein
- wherein the F value is calculated according to the following formula:
- F
- =
- ∫
- t
- 0
- t
- 1
- 10
- (
- T
- -
- 121.1
- )
- /
- 10
-
- dt
- [
- Formula
-
- 1
- ]
- where T denotes an arbitrary sterilization temperature (° C.), 10(T-121.1)/10 represents a fatality rate at an arbitrary temperature T and corresponds to a heating duration (in minutes) at 121.1° C., which is a reference temperature, and 10 denotes a Z value (° C.).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.