US 6,655,114 B2Granted

Apparatus and method for sealing and inspecting a seal portion of a packaging bag

AssigneeToyo Jidoki Co., Ltd.

InventorsShinichi Hiramoto, Yasuhiro Masuoka, Keizou Hirata, Takehiro Fujitomi

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Abstract

A method of sealing an opening portion of a packaging container by utilizing fusion bonding of the base material, together with an apparatus and method for inspecting the sealed portion. The container material has a welding layer as the innermost layer. The welding layer is melted at a seal portion defined along the edge of the opening portion of the container. A part of the melt from the welding layer is allowed to flow out from the edge of the opening portion, thereby sealing the seal portion and also forming an efflux layer outside the opening portion by the melt flowing out and solidified. An image of at least a part of the sealed portion and its vicinities is taken. At least a part of the image is defined as an inspection region. The image of the inspection region is subjected to predetermined image processing to calculate data concerning the efflux layer formed outside the sealed portion. The calculated data is compared with a preset condition for judgment to judge the sealing quality of the sealed portion.

Claims11

Dependent claims

An apparatus for sealing and inspecting a seal portion of a packaging bag formed by using a base material formed from a stack of a plurality of layers in which at least an innermost layer is a welding layer made of a thermoweldable material, said seal portion being defined along an edge of an opening portion of said packaging bag, said apparatus comprising:

a sealing apparatus for sealing said seal portion and an inspecting apparatus for inspecting said seal portion;
said sealing apparatus for sealing said seal portion comprising:
melting means for melting said welding layer at said seal portion;
and
allowing means for allowing a part of a melt from said welding layer to flow out from the edge of said opening portion at a predetermined position along said edge, whereby said sealing apparatus seals said seal portion and also forms an efflux layer outside said opening portion by said melt flowing out and solidified, and
said inspecting apparatus comprising:
an imaging device having a field of view capable of taking an image of an imaging subject including at least a part of said seal portion and its vicinities including at least a part of said efflux;
and
a controller;
said controller including:
a defective range setting unit for setting inspection conditions and a criterion for judgment of sealing quality of said seal portion;
a sealing quality judging unit;
and
a central control unit;
wherein said central control unit controls said apparatus, captures the image taken with said imaging device, defines an inspection region including at least a part of said image in accordance with said inspection conditions, divides said inspection region into a plurality of pixels of a predetermined size, and judges whether or not each pixel located outside said seal portion is filled with an efflux layer formed by a melt of said material flowing out of said seal portion, and said sealing quality judging unit compares a result of judgment made by said central control unit with said criterion for judgment to judge sealing quality of said seal portion.

12 more elements

A method of sealing and inspecting a seal portion of a packaging bag formed by using a base material formed from a stack of a plurality of layers in which at least an innermost layer is a welding layer made of a thermoweldable material, said seal portion being defined along an edge of an opening portion of said packaging bag, said method comprising the steps of:

melting said welding layer at said seal portion;
allowing a part of a melt from said welding layer to flow out from the edge of said opening portion at a predetermined position along said edge, thereby sealing said seal portion and also forming an efflux layer outside said opening portion by said melt flowing out and solidified;
taking an image of an imaging subject including at least a part of said seal portion and its vicinities including at least a part of said efflux layer;
defining at least a part of said image as an inspection region;
subjecting an image of said inspection region to predetermined image processing to calculate data concerning an efflux layer formed outside said seal portion by a melt of said material flowing out of said seal portion;
and
comparing said data with a present condition for judgment to judge sealing quality of said seal portion.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/783,768Filed 15 Feb 2001
Priority: JP 2000-04543223 Feb 2000
Published: US 2001/0015056 A123 Aug 2001
Granted: 2 Dec 2003
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification34 codes

B65B 43/50
Feeding or positioning bags, boxes, or cartons in the distended, opened, or set-up state; Feeding preformed rigid containers, e.g. tins,…
B29C 65/18
By heating, with or without pressure: using heated tools
B29C 65/305
Electrical means: involving the use of cartridge heaters
B29C 65/7882
Said parts to be joined moving in a closed path, e.g. a rectangular path: said parts to be joined moving in a circular path