Strain bottling machine

Abstract

According to the technical scheme, the strain bottling machine is characterized by comprising a strain bottle conveying mechanism, a loading mechanism, a compaction mechanism, a bottle opening plugging mechanism and a capping mechanism, the strain bottle conveying mechanism comprises a plurality of conveying rollers and a conveying frame borne on the conveying rollers, and a plurality of strain bottles are placed in the conveying frame; the charging mechanism comprises a material storage box, a quantifying device and a charging pipe, the material storage box is used for storing strain materials, the quantifying device is used for conveying the strain materials in the material storage box into the charging pipe according to the set amount, and a charging pipe cleaning rod is arranged above the charging pipe; and the material in the material charging pipe is filled into the strain bottle by the material charging pipe cleaning rod. According to the automatic bottling device, automatic bottling of the strain materials can be achieved, the production efficiency is improved, and the problem that the strain materials with humidity and viscosity are difficult to be automatically bottled into narrow-mouth bottles is solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of automation equipment technology, and more specifically to a microbial culture bottling machine. Background Technology

[0002] With the increasing market demand for various edible fungi, the demand for spawn bottles, which provide spawn to edible fungi farmers, is also gradually increasing. Spawn bottles are sealed containers used to cultivate mother cultures, primary cultures, and spawn for edible fungi. Current spawn materials include main materials such as sawdust and straw, nitrogen-rich auxiliary materials such as wheat bran and soybean meal, mineral auxiliary materials such as gypsum and lime, and additives such as sucrose and glucose. A certain amount of water needs to be added during mixing to maintain moisture content, resulting in a certain degree of humidity and stickiness in the spawn material. Spawn bottles generally have small openings to minimize contact with external air when retrieving the spawn.

[0003] Currently, bottling of microbial spawn mainly relies on manual labor. However, with rising labor costs and increasing market demand, manual bottling is not only labor-intensive but also inefficient and cannot meet the demand. There is currently no automated equipment specifically designed for microbial spawn bottling. The main challenge lies in the fact that microbial spawn is a solid material with many internal pores, and it is moist and sticky. This makes it difficult to quantify the microbial spawn and it is prone to clogging in the equipment. In particular, the bottle openings of the microbial spawn bottles are designed to be relatively small to reduce air contact during subsequent spawn collection. This means that the overall material outlet of the equipment must be made relatively small to accommodate the bottle openings, which further increases the problem of clogging at the outlet.

[0004] Based on this, the applicant submits this application to resolve the aforementioned issues. Summary of the Invention

[0005] In view of the shortcomings of the existing technology, the present invention provides a microbial bottling machine that can realize automated bottling of microbial materials, improve production efficiency, and solve the problem that microbial materials with moisture and stickiness are difficult to automatically bottle.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides the following technical solution: a spawn bottling machine, comprising a spawn bottle conveying mechanism, wherein a filling mechanism, a compaction mechanism, and a bottle-stopping mechanism are provided on the conveying path of the spawn bottle conveying mechanism; the spawn bottle conveying mechanism includes a plurality of conveying rollers and a conveying frame supported on the conveying rollers; a plurality of spawn bottles are placed in the conveying frame; a positioning notch is provided at the bottom of the conveying frame; and the spawn bottle conveying mechanism is provided with positioning components at the corresponding workstations of the filling mechanism, the compaction mechanism, and the bottle-stopping mechanism; the positioning components engage with the positioning notch to achieve fixation. The feeding mechanism includes a storage box, a metering device, and a feeding tube. The storage box is used to store the inoculum material. The metering device is used to deliver the inoculum material in the storage box to the feeding tube according to a set amount. A feeding tube cleaning rod is provided above the feeding tube. When the mouth of the inoculum bottle is aligned with the feeding tube, the feeding tube cleaning rod fills the residual material in the feeding tube into the inoculum bottle.

[0007] The present invention is further configured such that: the metering device includes an extruder, the extruder being used to meterly extrude the material in the storage bin into the vibration channel, the vibration channel conveying the material to the loading pipe.

[0008] The present invention is further configured such that: the metering device includes a movable plate, a first vibration channel, and a second vibration channel; the bottom of the storage box is configured as an opening; the first vibration channel is disposed below the opening; the movable plate is disposed between the opening and the first vibration channel and is movable relative to the opening to achieve the closing and opening of the opening; the second vibration channel is disposed at the outlet of the first vibration channel and the outlet of the second vibration channel is connected to the loading pipe.

[0009] The present invention is further configured such that: a first vibration module and a second vibration module are respectively disposed below the first vibration channel and the second vibration channel, and the vibration frequency of the first vibration module and the second vibration module is independently adjustable.

[0010] The present invention is further configured such that the cross-section of the first vibration channel is configured as a triangular structure or any geometric shape adapted to the material conveying.

[0011] The present invention is further configured such that the cross-section of the second vibration channel is configured as a funnel-shaped structure or any geometric shape adapted to material conveying.

[0012] The present invention is further configured such that: the quantitative device further includes a pusher rod, which is retractable relative to the first vibration channel and is used to push the microbial material in the first vibration channel toward the outlet.

[0013] The invention is further configured such that the opening degree of the relative opening of the movable plate is adjustable.

[0014] The present invention is further configured such that: the inoculum bottle conveying mechanism is provided with a lifting component at the work station corresponding to the filling mechanism, the lifting component being used to lift the conveying frame upward so that the bottle mouth of the inoculum bottle is fitted into the filling tube.

[0015] The invention is further configured such that: the lifting component is positioned below the positioning component at the corresponding loading mechanism station, and the lifting component lifts the conveying frame by lifting the positioning component.

[0016] In summary, the present invention has the following beneficial effects: This invention achieves automated bottling of microbial spawn materials. It features a microbial spawn bottle conveying mechanism that uses a combination of conveying rollers and a conveying frame to transport multiple microbial spawn bottles in batches. Furthermore, the conveying frame design allows for easy adjustment of the internal dimensions of the conveying frame when dealing with microbial spawn bottles of different sizes, while maintaining a consistent external structure. This eliminates the need to adjust the mechanical structure of the microbial spawn bottle conveying mechanism, making it more adaptable.

[0017] Meanwhile, the bottling mechanism of the present invention stores materials through a storage bin, then conveys only the required amount of materials through a metering device, and then fills the bottles through a filling tube and a filling tube cleaning rod. By conveying materials in batches and only conveying the amount required for one bottle, the total amount of materials in the conveying channel or pipeline is reduced. Finally, the filling tube cleaning rod actively provides filling power in the final stage of bottling to avoid material blockage. Attached Figure Description

[0018] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the machine.

[0019] Figure 2 This is a partial structural diagram of the bottling mechanism.

[0020] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of a partial cross-sectional structure of the bottling mechanism.

[0021] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the positioning and lifting components of the bottling mechanism station.

[0022] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the compaction mechanism.

[0023] Figure 6 A partially enlarged schematic diagram of the compaction mechanism.

[0024] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram of the bottle stopper mechanism.

[0025] Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram of the conveyor frame with a cover.

[0026] Reference numerals: 1. Spawn bottle conveying mechanism; 11. Conveying roller; 12. Conveying frame; 121. Positioning notch; 122. Lid; 13. Positioning component; 2. Loading mechanism; 21. Storage bin; 22. Metering device; 220. Movable plate; 2201. Driving component; 221. First vibration channel; 222. Second vibration channel; 223. Push rod; 23. Loading pipe; 231. Loading pipe cleaning rod; 3. Compacting mechanism; 4. Bottle stopper mechanism; 41. Cotton ball conveying channel; 42. Cotton ball stopper rod; 43. Cotton ball rack; 5. Spawn bottle; 6. Lifting component; 7. First vibration module; 8. Second vibration module; 9. Conveying frame lid-adding mechanism. Detailed Implementation

[0027] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0028] This embodiment discloses a microbial culture bottling machine, such as... Figure 1-8 As shown, the system includes a culture bottle conveying mechanism 1, and a filling mechanism 2, a compaction mechanism 3, and a bottle-stopping mechanism 4 are arranged along the conveying path of the culture bottle conveying mechanism 1. (Refer to...) Figure 1 At both ends of the inlet and outlet of the spawn bottle conveying mechanism 1, lifting and rotating palletizing robotic arms 01 are installed to achieve automated spawn bottle handling. The spawn bottle conveying mechanism 1 includes several conveying rollers 11 and conveying frames 12 supported on the conveying rollers 11. Several spawn bottles 5 are placed in the conveying frames 12. The conveying frames 12 drive the spawn bottles through all mechanisms and can stop at the corresponding workstations for the corresponding bottling process. By moving the spawn bottles 5 with the conveying frames 12, it is possible to batch-fill the spawn bottles 5. Furthermore, when bottling spawn bottles 5 of different specifications in subsequent operations, there is no need to adjust the layout of the spawn bottle conveying mechanism 1. Only the conveying frames 12 with different internal specifications need to be replaced, while keeping the external structure of the conveying frames 12 consistent, so that normal conveying can be carried out. This makes it more versatile and convenient to use.

[0029] To ensure that the conveyor frame 12 stops at the corresponding workstation, the culture bottle conveying mechanism 1 is equipped with positioning components 13 at the workstations of the corresponding filling mechanism 2, compaction mechanism 3, and bottle capping mechanism 4. This embodiment takes the filling mechanism as an example, referring to... Figure 4 The bottom of the conveyor frame 12 is provided with a semi-circular positioning notch 121, and the positioning component 13 has a semi-circular protrusion of the same shape. Driven by the positioning cylinder 131, the protrusion engages with the positioning notch 121, thereby fixing and stopping the conveyor frame. After the conveyor frame 12 and the culture bottle 5 are stopped at the corresponding workstation, the filling, compaction and bottle capping can be carried out, which will be described below.

[0030] In terms of loading, the loading mechanism 2 includes a storage bin 21, a metering device 22, and a loading tube 23. The storage bin 21 is used to store the inoculum material, and the metering device 22 is used to deliver the inoculum material in the storage bin 21 to the loading tube 23 according to a set amount. A loading tube cleaning rod 231 is provided above the loading tube 23. When the mouth of the inoculum bottle is aligned with the loading tube 23, the loading tube cleaning rod 231 fills the material in the loading tube 23 into the inoculum bottle 5. In the above structure, the metering device 22 delivers only the set amount required for one inoculum bottle at a time, thereby ensuring that no excess material is left in the conveying channel or pipe, and avoiding internal blockage by materials with moisture and stickiness. Then, the material delivered is actively loaded into the bottle through the loading tube 23 and the loading tube cleaning rod 231. Because the loading tube cleaning rod 231 actively provides power, material blockage is also less likely to occur at the loading tube 23. At the same time, the metering device 22 has two embodiments to meet different usage requirements.

[0031] First embodiment: When dealing with materials with relatively low moisture content or a small total amount of bottling culture material, the metering device 22 can be an extruder combined with a vibrating channel. The extruder can be a screw extruder with its inlet connected to a storage tank. Preliminary metering control is achieved by controlling the number of rotations of the screw extruder. A metering valve can then be installed at the outlet for secondary metering control, ensuring relatively accurate metering. Because the material in the culture bottle undergoes a subsequent compaction step, there is a certain amount of redundancy in the material quantity; as long as the material is neither too little nor too much, it is acceptable. The extruder meteringly feeds the material into the vibrating channel for vibration feeding, or the extruder directly conveys it to the loading pipe 23. Because the current extruders have a large extrusion force, they are suitable for conveying materials with relatively low moisture content and preferably not too much material. Otherwise, the internal friction of the extruder will generate heat during long-term operation, which will also affect the material. Therefore, the first embodiment is a relatively convenient embodiment, suitable for small-scale bottling of microbial culture in small-scale microbial culture factories or small-scale bottling of microbial culture in laboratories. However, it is difficult to deal with the bottling of microbial culture materials with relatively high moisture content and large material volume. Therefore, a second embodiment is proposed.

[0032] Second embodiment: Refer to Figure 2 and Figure 3The quantitative device 22 includes a movable plate 220, a first vibration channel 221, and a second vibration channel 222. The bottom of the storage box 21 is set as an opening. The movable plate 220 can be opened and closed relative to the opening. When the movable plate 220 is opened by the driving component 2201, the inoculum material in the storage box falls into the first vibration channel 221 below through the opening. Both the first vibration channel 221 and the second vibration channel 222 adopt a vibration feeding method. When dealing with inoculum material with relatively high moisture content and stickiness, the squeezing and pushing method is easy to make the material stick together and squeeze out the moisture in the material. The vibration feeding method can retain the looseness and moisture of the material to the greatest extent. In terms of quantity control, when the movable plate is opened and closed again, the inoculum material just fills the first vibration channel 221. Since the cross-sectional area of ​​the first vibration channel 221 is known, the quantity of material can be controlled by adjusting the opening size of the movable plate 220 relative to the opening. In practical use, the movable plate 220 opens to a certain extent as needed, and then the material enters the first vibration channel 221. With vibration feeding, the material continues to fall from the outlet of the first vibration channel 221 into the second vibration channel 222. The second vibration channel 222 continues to vibrate and feed, sending the material from its outlet to the loading pipe 23. Then, the loading pipe cleaning rod 231 pushes the material downwards into the inoculum bottle 5. It should be noted that the loading mechanism in the attached diagram has two sets (refer to...). Figure 1 It has multiple parallel first vibration channels 221, second vibration channels 222, and filling tubes 23, which are designed for filling a large number of culture bottles at once. In practice, the number of filling mechanisms 2 and the corresponding number of channels can be increased or decreased as needed for flexible adjustment. For clarity, only one set of filling tube cleaning rods 231 is shown in the attached diagram to illustrate the principle; in reality, all filling tubes 23 have filling tube cleaning rods 231 on top.

[0033] Furthermore, refer to Figure 1The enlarged view shows that a first vibration module 7 and a second vibration module 8 are respectively installed below the first vibration channel 221 and the second vibration channel 222. These two modules allow for independent adjustment of the vibration frequencies of the two channels. Specifically, the vibration frequency of the first vibration channel 221 can be adjusted to a relatively high level because the material has just fallen from the storage bin into the first vibration channel and is relatively compact. High-frequency vibration helps to loosen the material, further preventing blockages. The material in the second vibration channel 222 has already been conveyed by the vibration of the first vibration channel 221, so the compactness of the material is less of a concern. Its vibration frequency is mainly adjusted according to the speed of the material being conveyed. Within a reasonable range, the faster the better, but it cannot be too fast, otherwise the material may reach the loading pipe 23 too quickly, causing blockages. Therefore, the vibration frequencies of the two channels have different functions, and optimally, they are controlled independently. This method effectively avoids material blockages and controls the material conveying speed.

[0034] To ensure better feedback of vibration effects to the material, the cross-section of the first vibration channel 221 is designed as a triangular structure. This allows vibration to be evenly transmitted to the material from three directions, ensuring that the internal structure of the microbial material remains loose. Meanwhile, the cross-section of the second vibration channel 222 is designed as a funnel shape. The top of this structure primarily receives the material from the first vibration channel 221, while the flat bottom provides the best vibration effect, thus enabling faster material transport.

[0035] Furthermore, although the first vibration channel 221 in the second embodiment has effectively solved the material conveying problem, due to the viscosity of the material, some material may still adhere to the channel wall. Therefore, a pusher rod 223 is also provided. The pusher rod 223 is retractable relative to the first vibration channel 221 and is used to push the microbial material in the first vibration channel 221 towards the outlet. It should be noted that most of the material is still conveyed by vibration. Therefore, the pusher rod 223 is only used to clean up the residual material. Thus, the pusher rod 223 does not compress the material, making it compact and squeezing out moisture. Instead, it only cleans up the remaining residual material, ensuring more accurate quantitative control of the material.

[0036] Furthermore, to ensure accurate material entry into the bottle during filling, a lifting component 6 is installed at the station of the inoculum bottle conveying mechanism 1 corresponding to the filling mechanism 2. This lifting component 6 drives the positioning component 13 from below via a cylinder and a slide rail slider. After the positioning component 13 locks the conveying frame 12, the lifting component 6 lifts the positioning component 13 upwards, indirectly causing the conveying frame and the inoculum bottle to rise, thus allowing the bottle opening to fit into the filling tube 23. This ensures more accurate material filling, which is especially important for inoculum bottles with particularly small openings.

[0037] Regarding material compaction, after the culture bottles are filled, the material inside the bottles needs to be compacted to provide a stable supporting environment for subsequent mycelial growth. Compaction also helps retain moisture better. However, since the bottle opening is small while the internal space of the bottle is large, a specially designed compaction mechanism 3 is required to compact the material. (Refer to...) Figure 5-6 The compaction mechanism 3 includes several compaction components 31. For ease of illustration, only one is shown in the attached diagram; the actual number of compaction components 31 corresponds to the number of culture bottles. The specific structure also includes a lifting plate 32 that controls the overall raising and lowering of the compaction components 31, and a control plate 33 that controls the swinging of the pressure foot 313 of the compaction components 31. Each compaction component 31 includes two relatively movable first plates 311 and second plates 312. Both first plates 311 and second plates 312 are hinged to the pressure foot 313, but the hinge points are eccentrically positioned. The first plate 311 is fixed to a rotating shaft 314 and passes through the control plate 33 before being rotatably connected to the lifting plate 32. The second plate 312 is rotatably connected to the control plate 33. During operation, the presser foot is initially in the retracted position on the adjustment lever. The lifting plate 32 then drives the entire compaction component 31 through the smaller bottle opening into the culture bottle. Next, the control plate 33 moves downwards, causing the second plate 312 to move relative to the first plate 311, thereby causing the bottom presser foot 313 to swing around the hinge point on the first plate 311. This unfolds the presser foot 313, increasing its downward pressure surface for better material compaction. During compaction, the lifting plate 32 frequently moves up and down (the control plate 33 moves up and down along with the lifting plate 32) to compact the material. The rotating shaft 314 is driven by an external motor to ensure complete coverage and compaction of the entire surface of the material in the round bottle. When the compaction component needs to exit the bottle, the control plate 33 first controls the presser foot to retract, and then the lifting plate 32 rises away from the bottle opening.

[0038] Regarding the bottle cap, refer to Figure 7 , Figure 7 The bottle-stopping mechanism 4 includes a cotton ball conveying channel 41 for conveying cotton balls and a cotton ball-stopping rod 42 for inserting cotton balls into the bottle mouth. The existing cotton rope is fed into the cotton ball conveying channel 41 through a roller group, and forms a cotton ball by natural rolling. Then it falls into the hole corresponding to the bottle mouth of the cotton ball holder 43. Subsequently, the cotton ball-stopping rod 42 moves downward to insert the cotton ball into the corresponding inoculum bottle mouth, thus completing the bottle-stopping process.

[0039] Finally, a cover 122 needs to be installed on top of the conveyor frame 12, as shown in the reference. Figure 8The spare covers 122 are stacked on the frame. The covers 122 are held in place on the frame by the locking components controlled by two locking cylinders 123. One locking cylinder 123 is responsible for locking the last cover, and the other is responsible for locking the second to last cover. When the conveyor frame 12 arrives, the locking cylinder responsible for locking the last cover will activate, causing the last cover to fall onto the conveyor frame 12 and then reset. Then the locking cylinder 123 responsible for locking the second to last cover will activate, causing the second to last cover to fall to the bottom and then locking the second to last cover again to return to the initial state, ready for the next cover to be added to the conveyor frame.

[0040] The above are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the design concept of the present invention should be included within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A microbial culture bottling machine, comprising a microbial culture bottle conveying mechanism (1), characterized in that: A loading mechanism (2), a compaction mechanism (3), and a bottle-stopping mechanism (4) are provided on the conveying path of the spawn bottle conveying mechanism (1). The spawn bottle conveying mechanism (1) includes several conveying rollers (11) and a conveying frame (12) supported on the conveying rollers (11). Several spawn bottles (5) are placed in the conveying frame (12). A positioning notch (121) is provided at the bottom of the conveying frame (12). The spawn bottle conveying mechanism (1) is provided with positioning components (13) at the corresponding work positions of the loading mechanism (2), the compaction mechanism (3), and the bottle-stopping mechanism (4). The positioning components (13) are engaged with the positioning notch (121) to achieve fixation. The loading mechanism (2) includes a storage box (21), a metering device (22), and a loading tube (23). The storage box (21) is used to store the inoculum material. The metering device (22) is used to send the inoculum material in the storage box (21) to the loading tube (23) according to a set amount. A loading tube cleaning rod (231) is provided above the loading tube (23). When the bottle mouth of the inoculum bottle is aligned with the loading tube (23), the loading tube cleaning rod (231) fills the residual material in the loading tube (23) into the inoculum bottle (5).

2. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: The metering device (22) includes an extruder, which is used to meterly extrude the material in the storage bin into the vibration channel and the vibration channel conveys the material to the loading pipe (23), or the extruder directly meterly extrudes the material into the loading pipe (23).

3. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: The metering device (22) includes a movable plate (220), a first vibration channel (221), and a second vibration channel (222). The bottom of the storage box (21) is set as an opening. The first vibration channel (221) is set below the opening. The movable plate (220) is set between the opening and the first vibration channel (221) and is movable relative to the opening to achieve the closing and opening of the opening. The second vibration channel (222) is set at the outlet of the first vibration channel (221), and the outlet of the second vibration channel (222) is connected to the loading pipe (23).

4. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 3, characterized in that: A first vibration module (7) and a second vibration module (8) are respectively provided below the first vibration channel (221) and the second vibration channel (222), and the vibration frequency of the first vibration module (7) and the second vibration module (8) is independently adjustable.

5. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 3, characterized in that: The cross-section of the first vibration channel (221) is set as a triangular structure or any geometric shape adapted to material conveying.

6. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 3, characterized in that: The cross-section of the second vibration channel (222) is set as a funnel-shaped structure or any geometry adapted to material conveying.

7. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 3, characterized in that: The quantitative device (22) also includes a pusher rod (223), which is retractable relative to the first vibration channel (221) and is used to push the microbial material in the first vibration channel (221) toward the outlet.

8. The microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 3, characterized in that: The opening of the relative opening of the movable plate (220) is adjustable.

9. A microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: The inoculum bottle conveying mechanism (1) is equipped with a lifting component (6) at the work station corresponding to the loading mechanism (2). The lifting component (6) is used to lift the conveying frame (12) upward so that the bottle mouth of the inoculum bottle is fitted into the loading tube (23).

10. A microbial culture bottling machine according to claim 9, characterized in that: The lifting component (6) is located below the positioning component (13) of the corresponding loading mechanism station. The lifting component (6) lifts the conveying frame (12) by lifting the positioning component (13).

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