JPS6252425A - Pre-treatment method in detection of leakage of liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for detecting leakage of liquid such as beer filled in a container, and in particular, it not only reliably detects minute leaks, but also detects the potential of a sealing mechanism. The present invention relates to a liquid leakage detection method that can detect even major defects.

[Prior art and its problems]

In liquid containers, particularly beer kegs, the sealing mechanism of the spout opening has a structure as shown in FIG. 1, for example. Referring to FIG. 1 in detail, 1 is a beer barrel, the top 2 of which is provided with a cylindrical spout 3, and the bottom of the cylindrical spout 3 having an opening 4 formed therein.

Further, a bushing 5 is fitted into the cylindrical spout 3 through the opening 4, and a head portion 7 of a down tube 6 is housed inside the bushing 5.

A down tube 6 extends downward from the bottom of the portion 7 toward the bottom of the beer barrel 1. A cylindrical gas plug 8 with a hole in the center is housed in the top of the head portion 7 so that it comes into contact with the inner surface of the bushing 5 by the elasticity of a spring 10 at the rubber backing 9 on the outer periphery. At the bottom of the tap 8, a beer tap 11 contacts the inner peripheral edge 8a of the gas tap 8 by the elasticity of a spring 13 with a rubber banking l2 attached to the periphery of the beer tap 11, so as to seal the opening portion 8b of the gas tap 8. is stored in. 14 is spring 1
0 is a pedestal, 15 is a pedestal for the spring 13, 16 is a sealing, 17 is an O-ring, 18 is a hole, 19 is a cylindrical spout 3
It is the internal space part of . In the beer barrel 1 described above, normally, a beer pouring device (not shown) is fitted into the space 19 and the gas stopper 8 is opened, carbon dioxide gas is introduced into the beer barrel 1 through the hole 18, and the beer stopper is opened. 11 is also opened, and beer is poured out through the down tube 6.

In beer barrels with such a sealing mechanism, gas is generated inside and the internal pressure is high, so the rubber backings 9 and 12 of the beer tap 11 and gas tap 8 may be defective, or
Or, if the beer has aged, etc., beer will leak from that part, resulting in inconveniences such as mold growth, gas leakage, and lack of contents in the market. A leak detection test is required.

Conventionally, as the above-mentioned detection method, the space portion 1 of the cylindrical spout 3
A known method is to inject a predetermined amount of a diluted liquid into a tube and then measure the electrical conductivity of this diluted liquid. With this method, if there is a beer leak, the electrical conductivity of the diluted liquid increases sharply, so even minute leaks can be reliably detected. , it was not possible to detect potential defects in the sealing mechanism that did not cause leakage but did pose a risk of leakage.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a method for detecting liquid leakage that not only reliably detects minute leaks but also detects potential defects in the sealing mechanism, which improves the drawbacks of the above-mentioned known techniques. It is in.

[Key points of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a cylindrical spout having an opening at the bottom, and a stopper is applied to the opening from inside the container by the elastic force of a spring to open the opening. In a liquid container that is tightly closed, leakage of the liquid filled in the container from the opening is measured by injecting a predetermined amount of the diluent into the cylindrical spout, and then measuring the electrical conductivity of the diluent. In the detection method, before injecting the diluent into the cylindrical spout, the stopper is pressed from outside the container in a direction opposite to the elastic force of the spring to reduce the elastic force of the spring. It is characterized by temporarily reducing the amount of water and alleviating the tightness of the plug.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The liquid container according to the present invention is, for example, a beer barrel having a sealing mechanism as shown in the first drawing.

A cylindrical spout 3 having an opening 4 at the bottom is provided, and a gas tap 8 and a beer tap 11 are applied to the opening 4 from inside the beer barrel 1 by the elastic force of a spring 10113 to seal the opening 4. Since the details are as described above, the explanation will be omitted here to avoid duplication.

Further, in the present invention, the beer barrel stopper includes both the gas stopper 8 and the beer stopper 11 in FIG. 1, for example, but only the beer stopper 11 will be described here to simplify the explanation.

In Figure 1, the internal pressure of beer barrel l is normally 2 kg/c.
tl, the elastic force of the spring 13 is about 5 to 6 kg. Leakage of beer filled into the beer barrel 1 from the opening 4, that is, leakage from the opening 8b of the gas stopper 8, usually occurs in the space 19 of the cylindrical spout 3, as described above.
Detection is performed by injecting a predetermined amount of the diluent into the water and then measuring the electrical conductivity of the diluent; however, in the present invention, the detection is performed at a stage before the dilution water is injected into the space 19 of the cylindrical spout 3. This is characterized in that the beer stopper 11 is pressed from outside the beer barrel 1 in a direction opposite to the elastic force of the spring 13 to temporarily reduce the elastic force of the spring 13 and relieve the tightness of the stopper. .

After beer kegs are filled, they are usually conveyed by a keg conveyor to a washer, where they are cleaned and then conveyed to a leak detection device. In the present invention, the stage before injecting the diluent into the space 19 of the cylindrical injection port 3 is the position after passing through the above-mentioned washer and before reaching the leak detection device, and the stage when the diluent is pressed against the conveyor at this position. Equipment is installed. An example of this pressing device is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 denotes a pressing device, which is placed in a storage frame 21 installed in a container (not shown). The beer barrel 1 is conveyed into the storage frame 21 by a conveyor (not shown) and is temporarily stagnated therein. 22 is a cylinder, and the operation of this cylinder 22 lowers the pressing device 20 until the centering member 23 comes into contact with the cylindrical spout 3. Next, by operating the cylinder 24, the press rod 25 is lowered until the tip 26 contacts the beer tap 11. This condition is clearly shown in the enlarged view of FIG. In this state, a weight 27 is placed on the upper end of the press rod 25 to press the beer tap 11 from outside the beer barrel 1. This pressing force is in a direction opposite to the elastic force of the spring 13. Also,
The magnitude of this pressing force should be large enough to relieve the tightness of the beer tap 11 due to the elastic force of the spring 13, and should not be a large force that would cause the beer tap 11 to open.

For example, the elastic force of the spring 13 is 5 kg/cI11,
When the internal pressure of the beer barrel 1 is 2 kg/c:tA, the pressure from inside the tank applied to the beer tap 11 is 7 kg/c.
Ii, the external pressing force on the beer tap 11 is about 5 to 6 kg/cd, and in this case, the pressure from the inside of the beer tap 11 is reduced to 1 to 2 kg/cd,
The sealing force is relaxed.

By relaxing the sealing force of the beer tap 11 in this way, if the spring 13 is weak, the shape is defective, or the rubber banking 9 is aged,
If there is a potential defect in the sealing mechanism, such as insufficient seating, there may also be internal pressure generated by the beer in the beer barrel 1, and this may cause beer to leak into the space 19. from the bottom of the beer tap 1
arises from 1.

Next, the beer barrel 1 is conveyed by a conveyor to a leak detection device (not shown), where the space 19 of the cylindrical spout 3 is detected.
A beer leak detection test is performed by injecting a diluted liquid into the tank and measuring the electrical conductivity of this diluted liquid.

In the present invention, if the sealing mechanism has the above-mentioned latent defect, the beer keg 1 has already been exposed to the press device 2 by the time it is conveyed by the conveyor to the leak detection device via the press device 20.
Beer leaks into the space 19 of the cylindrical pouring spout 3 due to the pressure applied to the beer stopper 11 by the pump 0. In this state, the diluent is injected into the space 19, and its electrical conductivity is measured. Therefore, potential defects in the sealing mechanism can also be detected.

The electrical conductivity of the diluted liquid may be measured by any known method, for example, by immersing an electrode in the diluted water in the space 19. This electrical conductivity measurement has high detection accuracy and is extremely easy to operate. For example, if 25ml of water is used as a diluent and there is no beer leakage, the electrical conductivity is 4%, and the beer leakage is Q, 5m
In the case of Il, the beer/diluent is 2%, and the electrical conductivity is 8%, and the beer leakage is l m.In the case of Il, the beer/diluent is 4%, and the electrical conductivity is 11%. The value of electrical conductivity increases as the amount of beer leaks, and this change appears sharply. Therefore, the present invention can reliably detect even minute leaks. Note that in the present invention, the diluent is not limited to water, and any diluent may be used as long as it mixes with the leakage detection solution and dilutes the solution.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention temporarily reduces the elastic force of the spring by pressing the stopper from outside the container in a direction opposite to the elastic force of the spring before injecting the diluent into the cylindrical spout. This invention is extremely useful in practice, as it is possible to detect not only minute leaks reliably but also potential defects in the sealing mechanism.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 shows a sectional view of a beer barrel sealing mechanism used in the present invention, Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of a specific example of a pressing device used in the invention, and Fig. 3 shows a beer tap by the pressing device. A cross-sectional view showing a pressed state is shown. 1. Beer barrel, 2. Top, 3. Cylindrical spout, 4.
・Opening part, 8...Gas cock, 8a...Inner peripheral edge of gas cock, 8
b...Gas valve opening part, IO...spring, 11.
・Beer tap, 13... Spring, 19... Space part,
20...Press device, 22.24...Cylinder, 23
...Centering member = 25...Press rod, 26...Tip, 27...Weight. Patent Applicant Toddwell & Co., Ltd. Suntory Ltd. Answer 1 and Answer 3 Proceedings December 11, 1985 Director General of the Patent Office Michibe Uga 1, Indication of Case 1985 Patent Application No. Relationship to case No. 191788 Patent applicant Dosodowell End Combany Ltd. (and 1 other person) 4. Agent 6. Number of inventions increased by amendment None. (1) The name of the claimed invention is corrected to "pretreatment method for liquid leak detection." (n) The specification of the present application is amended as follows. (1) Add "Preprocessing in" between "Detection" (first line) and "Method" in the second line of the second page. (2) On the second page, line 4, between “Detection” and “Method”, “
"Preprocessing" is added. (3) On page 4, line 14, the scope of the claim that features "preprocessing in" between detection J and "method" is corrected as follows. [Claims] A liquid container comprising a cylindrical pouring spout having an opening at the bottom, the opening being tightly sealed by applying a stopper to the opening from inside the container by the elastic force of a spring, A method for detecting leakage of a liquid filled in a container from the opening by injecting a predetermined amount of the diluent into the cylindrical spout and then measuring the electrical conductivity of the diluent. Before injecting the diluent into the spout, the stopper is pressed from outside the container in a direction opposite to the elastic force of the spring to temporarily reduce the elastic force of the spring and seal the stopper. A method for detecting leakage of a liquid filled in a container, characterized by reducing the risk of leakage. ”

Claims (1)

[Claims] A liquid container that is equipped with a cylindrical spout having an opening at the bottom, and that is sealed by applying a stopper from inside the container to the opening using the elastic force of a spring, the container being filled with liquid. A method for detecting leakage of liquid from the opening by injecting a predetermined amount of diluent into the cylindrical spout and then measuring the electrical conductivity of the diluent, wherein the diluent is injected into the cylindrical spout. at a stage before injecting the stopper from outside the container in a direction opposite to the elastic force of the spring to temporarily reduce the elastic force of the spring;
A method for detecting leakage of a liquid filled in a container, characterized by relaxing the seal.