Method for sterilizing a thermo-plastic strip used for the hot-forming of sterile containers and sterile packaging installation using the said method
AssigneePak Pro International N.V.
InventorRoland Torterotot
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Abstract
A method for sterilizing a thermoplastic strip moving forward stepwise and used in the production of hot-formed containers which, after forming, are filled and sealed in a sterile atmosphere, which method consists, before the strip softening operation, in exposing the surface of said strip which is subsequently to constitute the inside face of the containers, evenly and intermittently, in successive portions and for a very short period of time, to a temperature higher than that of the softening point of the said thermoplastic strip and which is dependent on the desired extent of bacterial destruction.
Claims11
In a process for producing hot-formed containers comprising the steps of moving a strip of thermoplastic material forward stepwise, subjecting said strip to a softening heat treatment, hot-forming containers by drawing said softened strip in a sterile atmosphere, filling said containers in said sterile atmosphere and sealing said filled containers, an improved method for sterilizing the surface of said strip which is subsequently to constitute the inside face of said containers, which method comprises subjecting said surface to a sterilizing heat treatment by exposing said surface evenly and intermittently, in successive portions, to radiation thereby causing the temperature at said surface to become higher than that of the softening point of said thermoplastic material, each portion being continuously exposed to said radiation for at least one time period not exceeding 5 seconds.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.