Sheet fixing device

Abstract

To suppress reduction in efficiency of a sheet feeding operation.SOLUTION: A sheet anchoring part presses and anchors a sheet on a sheet feeding path for feeding the sheet from a raw fabric roll to a position higher than the installation position of the raw fabric roll in the gravity direction. A first operation unit allows the sheet anchoring part to switch between pressing / anchoring and releasing the pressing and is provided on the installation position side of the raw fabric roll. A second operation unit allows the sheet anchoring part to switch between pressing / anchoring and releasing the pressing and is provided on the sheet feeding path.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0006] , ,

[0001] The present invention relates to a sheet fixing device.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, absorbent articles such as disposable diapers and sanitary products are known. The absorbent article includes an absorber formed of pulp fibers and absorbs excreted fluids such as urine excreted by the wearer. Patent Document 1 describes a manufacturing apparatus for an absorbent article that forms an absorber by crushing sheet-like pulp with a crusher to process it into pulp fibers and then supplying the pulp fibers to a molding drum.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] In paper products such as absorbent articles, it is common to supply a sheet-like material (hereinafter simply referred to as "sheet") as a raw material from a mother roll to a processing machine such as a crusher. The sheet pulled out from the mother roll is passed through a paper passage above the gravity direction from the installation position of the mother roll and then supplied to the processing machine. During the paper passage operation of passing the sheet, there may occur a problem that the sheet drops by its own weight in the middle of the paper passage. The dropping of the sheet has a problem of causing a decrease in the efficiency of the paper passage operation.

[0005] <000,0028>The present disclosure aims to provide a technique for suppressing a decrease in the efficiency of the paper passage operation.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] A sheet fixing device according to one aspect of the present disclosure comprises: a sheet fixing unit that pressurizes and fixes a sheet in a paper path that feeds a sheet from a raw material roll upward in the direction of gravity from the installation position of the raw material roll; a first operating unit that can switch between pressurizing and releasing the sheet fixing unit, the first operating unit being provided on the installation position side of the raw material roll; and a second operating unit that can switch between pressurizing and releasing the sheet fixing unit, the second operating unit being provided in the middle of the paper path. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to this disclosure, it is possible to suppress the decrease in efficiency of paper feeding operations. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of drawing sheets from a raw material roll and supplying them to a processing machine. [Figure 2] Figure 2 is a pneumatic circuit diagram of a sheet fixing device according to an embodiment. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] The sheet fixing device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the configurations of the following embodiments are illustrative, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

[0010] <Embodiment> This embodiment describes a sheet fixing device used in the process of supplying sheets drawn from pulp rolls, which are the raw materials for absorbent articles such as disposable diapers and sanitary napkins, to an absorbent article manufacturing apparatus. Absorbent articles generally consist of an absorbent body formed from pulp fibers. The absorbent body is produced by sending sheet-like pulp to a crusher, and then supplying the crushed pulp fibers to a forming drum. The forming drum forms the absorbent body from the crusher. When supplying sheets from pulp rolls to a crusher, it is common practice to first pass the sheets through a paper path upward in the direction of gravity from the installation position of the pulp rolls before supplying them to the crusher.

[0011] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of drawing sheets from a raw material roll and supplying them to a processing machine. The raw material roll 100 is made of sheet-like pulp wound into a roll. The raw material roll 100 is transported within the factory using transport equipment such as forklifts and installed in a designated location. The sheets 101 drawn from the raw material roll 100 are fed into the paper feed path 102. The sheets 101 are materials for absorbent articles. Guide rollers 103 and 104 are provided in the paper feed path 102. Guide roller 103 is a roll for drawing sheets 101 from the raw material roll 100. Guide roller 103 is installed on a horizontal line approximately at the same level as the upper end of a new raw material roll 100. Guide roller 104 is installed above the raw material roll 100 in the direction of gravity (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as "above"). Guide rollers 104 guide the sheet 101 above the installation position of the raw material roll 100. Within the paper path, the sheet 101 passes at the highest position at the installation position of the guide rollers 104. After passing through the guide rollers 104, the sheet 101 is sent downward in the direction of gravity (hereinafter simply referred to as "downward"), passes through a pair of rollers 105 and 106 located above and below the sheet 101, and is supplied to the crusher 107. The crusher 107 crushes (pulvers) the pulp sheet 101 into fibers to form fluff pulp. The fluff pulp is supplied to the forming drum 109. A case 108 covers the space between the crusher 107 and the forming drum 109 to prevent the fluff pulp from leaking out. The fluff pulp supplied from the crusher 107 fills the case 108, is sucked up by the forming drum 109, and accumulates on its surface to form an absorbent. The starting point of the paper path 102 is the installation position of the raw material roll, and the ending point of the paper path 102 is just before the shredder 107.

[0012] In this manner, the sheet 101 drawn from the pulp roll 100, which is the raw material for the absorbent, is fed through the paper path 102 to the crusher 107. The leading edge of the sheet 101 is drawn from the pulp roll 100 by a worker in the factory and fed through guide rollers 103 and 104 to the crusher 107. Stairs and passageways (stairs and passageways are not shown) for workers are provided along the paper path 102, and workers use these stairs and passageways to perform the paper feeding work. The reason why the sheet 101 is fed above the point from which it is drawn from the pulp roll 100 is that the crusher is installed above that point. The point from which the sheet 101 is drawn is near the floor of the absorbent material manufacturing plant, and the sheet supply port of the crusher is generally about 3m higher than that floor.

[0013] When a new roll of raw material 100 is installed in its designated position, the worker pulls out the leading edge of the raw material sheet 101 and feeds it through the paper path 102. The guide roller 104 is installed more than 2m above the floor of the absorbent material manufacturing plant, and if the sheet 101 is not secured during the paper feeding operation from the guide roller 103 to the guide roller 104, there is a risk that the sheet 101 will fall due to its own weight. The sheet fixing device according to this embodiment prevents the sheet 101 from falling due to its own weight during the paper feeding operation.

[0014] As shown in Figure 1, the sheet fixing device 1 includes a sheet fixing section 2 that pressurizes and fixes the sheet 101. The sheet fixing section 2 moves the sheet 101 from the raw material roll 100 to the raw material roll 10 The sheet fixing section 2 is located in the middle of the paper path 102, which passes paper above the installation position of 0, and can pressurize and fix the sheet 101 at that position. The sheet fixing section 2 has a rubber nip pad 3 and a sheet receiving plate 4. The nip pad 3 (an example of the "pressurizing section" as referred to in this application), which is positioned above the sheet 101, is driven vertically by a pneumatic circuit and moves downward, thereby clamping the sheet 101 with the sheet receiving plate 4, which is positioned below the sheet 101. In this way, the sheet fixing section 2 can pressurize and fix the sheet 101.

[0015] During the paper feeding operation, in which the sheet 101 is fed from the raw material roll 100 to the shredder 107, the sheet 101 is manually fed from the raw material roll 100 to the shredder 107 by the worker. If the worker tries to feed the sheet from the raw material roll 100 to the shredder 107 all at once during the paper feeding operation, it consumes a great deal of physical strength, and if the leading edge of the sheet 101 falls during the paper feeding operation, the paper feeding operation must be restarted.

[0016] Therefore, a sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment is provided in the middle of the paper feed path 102. The sheet 101 is fed from the raw material roll 100, and the leading edge of the sheet 101 can be fixed by the sheet fixing part 2 provided between the guide roller 103 and the guide roller 104. The operation of pressurizing and releasing the pressure of the sheet fixing device 1 can be performed by operating parts provided in two locations. The sheet fixing device 1 comprises a first operating part 20 provided on the side of the installation position of the raw material roll 100 (the starting point side of the paper feed path 102), and a second operating part 21 provided at a higher position than the first operating part 20 and in the middle of the paper feed path 102. The first operating part 20 and the second operating part 21 are button-type switches that can switch between pressurizing and releasing the pressure of the sheet fixing part. The first operating part 20 is installed at a height of about 1 m from the floor. For example, when the worker has fed the leading edge of the sheet 101 about halfway down the paper path 102, they operate the first operation unit 20 located near the raw material roll 100 to set the sheet fixing unit 2 to a pressurized and fixed state. Then, they climb the stairs provided along the paper path 102 to the installation position of the second operation unit 21 and operate the second operation unit 21 to release the pressurization of the sheet fixing unit 2. After that, the worker holds the leading edge of the sheet 101 and feeds the sheet 101 to the shredder 107. The pressurization and release operations of the sheet fixing unit 2 can be performed at two locations: the first operation unit 20 on the raw material roll 100 side and the second operation unit 21 on the sheet fixing unit 2 side. The sheet fixing device 1 is a mechanism that allows the sheet 101 to be pressurized and fixed by operating the first operation unit 20 at the height position where the raw material roll 100 is installed, and allows the pressurization to be released by operating the second operation unit 21 even at the position of the sheet fixing unit 2, which is far from the raw material roll 100. As a result, the paper feeding process, which previously required feeding the paper all the way to the crusher 107 in one go, can now be divided into two steps: feeding the paper to the sheet fixing section 2, and feeding the paper from the sheet fixing section 2 to the crusher 107. Furthermore, since the sheet fixing section 2 pressurizes and fixes the sheet 101 during this process, there is no risk of the sheet 101 falling due to its own weight. Thus, the sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment can suppress a decrease in the efficiency of the paper feeding process. In addition, since the sheet fixing device 1 operates on compressed air, no electrical work is required during installation, making it inexpensive and easy to install.Furthermore, operating the sheet fixing device 1 only requires a small amount of compressed air used in the manufacturing equipment for absorbent articles, and the sheet fixing device 1 may be configured to be driven by this compressed air. The sheet fixing device 1 can be operated at low cost.

[0017] Next, the drive source of the sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment will be described. Figure 2 is a pneumatic circuit diagram of the sheet fixing device according to this embodiment. The nip pad 3 is driven up and down by the pneumatic circuit shown in Figure 2.

[0018] As shown in Figure 2, this pneumatic circuit is for operating a double-acting cylinder 10 (an example of a "pneumatic actuator" as referred to in this application). The double-acting cylinder 10 is an actuator that drives the nip pad 3 shown in Figure 1 up and down. The nip pad 3 is fixed to the tip of the piston rod of the double-acting cylinder 10.

[0019] This pneumatic circuit includes a first operating unit 20, a second operating unit 21, and an air-operated valve 13 that supplies compressed air to the double-acting cylinder 10 to switch the double-acting cylinder 10 to pressurized drive (downward drive) or pressurized release drive (upward drive) by operating the first operating unit 20 or the second operating unit 21.

[0020] The first operation unit 20 includes a push-button type direction switching valve 20A for performing a pressurization and fixing operation, a push-button type direction switching valve 20B for performing a pressure release operation, and pneumatic sources 20C, 20D such as compressors. Similarly, the second operation unit 21 includes a push-button type direction switching valve 21A for performing a pressurization and fixing operation, a push-button type direction switching valve 21B for performing a pressure release operation, and pneumatic sources 21C, 21D such as compressors. Here, the direction switching valve 20A for performing the pressurization and fixing operation of the first operation unit 20 and the direction switching valve 21A for performing the pressurization and fixing operation of the second operation unit 21 are connected to the same shuttle valve 18. Compressed air is supplied to each of the two input-side ports of the shuttle valve 18 from either the direction switching valve 20A or the direction switching valve 21A, and this compressed air is supplied to the air-operated valve 13. Also, the direction switching valve 20B for performing the pressure release operation of the first operation unit 20 and the direction switching valve 21B for performing the pressure release operation of the second operation unit 21 are connected to the same shuttle valve 19. Compressed air is supplied to each of the two input-side ports of the shuttle valve 19 from either the direction switching valve 20B or the direction switching valve 21B, and this compressed air is selectively supplied to the air-operated valve 13.

[0021] The air-operated valve 13 is a 5-port 2-position type direction switching valve. The switching of the air-operated valve 13 is switched by the supply of compressed air from the shuttle valves 18, 19. Compressed air is supplied to the P port of the air-operated valve 13 from a pneumatic source 16 such as a compressor. This compressed air is supplied to the double-acting cylinder 10 in order to drive the double-acting cylinder 10 by pressurization or release the pressure by pressurization.

[0022] Between the air-operated valve 13 and the double-acting cylinder 10, flow control valves (speed controllers) 11 and 12 are provided. In the pneumatic circuit of this embodiment, a meter-out system is adopted as the speed control method of the double-acting cylinder 10. The meter-out system is a method of adjusting the flow rate of the air flowing out from the double-acting cylinder 10. Compressed air flows into the flow control valve 11 during the pressurization and release drive of the double-acting cylinder 10. Compressed air flows into the flow control valve 12 during the pressurization drive of the double-acting cylinder 10. Also, the A port of the air-operated valve 13 is connected to the double-acting cylinder 10 via the flow control valve 11, and the B port of the air-operated valve 13 is connected to the double-acting cylinder 10 via the flow control valve 12.

[0023] Such a pneumatic circuit operates as follows. When an operator presses the button of the direction switching valve 20A of the first operation unit 20 or the direction switching valve 21A of the second operation unit 21, the P port and the A port of the air-operated valve 13 are connected, and the B port and the R port are connected. As a result, compressed air is supplied from the pneumatic source 16 to the double-acting cylinder 10 through the A port, and the compressed air from the double-acting cylinder 10 flows into the B port of the air-operated valve 13 through the flow control valve 12 and is discharged from the R port. By the operation of this pneumatic circuit, the double-acting cylinder 10 performs a pressurization drive, and the nip pad 3 shown in FIG. 1 presses and fixes the sheet 101.

[0024] On the other hand, when an operator presses the button of the direction switching valve 20B of the first operation unit 20 or the direction switching valve 21B of the second operation unit 21, the P port and the B port of the air-operated valve 13 are connected, and the A port and the R port are connected. As a result, compressed air from the pneumatic source 16 Compressed air is supplied to the double-acting cylinder 10 via port B, and compressed air from the double-acting cylinder 10 flows into port A of the air-operated valve 13 via the flow control valve 12 and is discharged from port R. The operation of this pneumatic circuit drives the double-acting cylinder 10 to pressurize and release, releasing the pressurized fixation of the sheet 101 by the nip pad 3 shown in Figure 1. Thus, the sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment can switch between pressurized fixation and pressurized release of the sheet fixing part 2 by operating either the first operation part 20 or the second operation part 21.

[0025] Furthermore, the sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment is equipped with a separate power supply 22 from the absorbent article manufacturing device that manufactures absorbent articles. In this embodiment, the absorbent article manufacturing device includes the guide rollers 103, 104, the crusher 107, and the forming drum 109 shown in Figure 1. Power voltage is supplied from the power supply 22 to the pneumatic sources 16, 20C, 20D, 21C, and 21D of the pneumatic circuit. As a result, the sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment can perform the sheet feeding operation of the sheet 101 without being affected even if the power supply state of the absorbent article manufacturing device is unstable.

[0026] In this embodiment, the sheet fixing device 1 employs a pneumatic circuit as the drive source for the sheet fixing section 2. The pneumatic circuit drive mechanism can maintain the pressurized fixing of the sheet 101 even if the power supply state of the power supply 22 becomes unstable after pressurizing the double-acting cylinder 10. The pressurization can be released by discharging compressed air from the double-acting cylinder 10, and is less affected by the power supply state. Furthermore, since the pressurized fixing of the sheet 101 can be maintained even if the power supply state of the power supply 22 becomes unstable, the leading edge of the sheet 101 can be prevented from falling, and the paper feeding operation can be continued. For example, even if the power supply state of the power supply 22 becomes unstable, the sheet 101 can be fed to the shredder 107, and the state of the fed sheet 101 can be maintained until the power supply state of the absorbent article manufacturing device stabilizes, eliminating the need for further paper feeding after the power supply state of the absorbent article manufacturing device stabilizes.

[0027] Furthermore, the sheet fixing part 2 can pressurize and fix the leading edge of the sheet 101. The leading edge of the sheet 101, which has been pulled out from the roll 100, is not wound on the roll 100 and is therefore less rigid and more difficult to defibre than the inner part of the roll 100, but the sheet fixing part 2 can pressurize and fix this leading edge. This ensures that the leading edge of the sheet 101 is reliably defibred.

[0028] In this embodiment, an example of using the sheet fixing device to fix sheet material, which is the material for absorbent articles, has been illustrated, but the examples of use of the sheet fixing device are not limited to this. For example, the sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment can also be used to fix sheets of paper products other than absorbent articles. The sheet fixing device 1 according to this embodiment can improve the efficiency of paper feeding operations.

[0029] The embodiments and variations thereof disclosed above can be combined in any way. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0030] 1. Seat fixing device 2. Seat fixing part 3. Nipple Pads 4. Sheet support plate 10. Double-acting cylinder 11, 12... Speed ​​control valve 13. Air-operated valve 16. Pneumatic source 18, 19... Shuttle valve 20...1st operation section 20A, 20B... Directional selector valve 20C, 20D... Pneumatic source 21...Second operation section 21A, 21B... Directional selector valve 21C, 21D... Pneumatic source 22·Power supply 100 rolls of raw material 101 seats 102··Passing Road 103, 104... Guide rollers 105, 106...Laura 107. Crusher 108 ··cover 109 ··Forming Drum

Claims

1. In the paper path along which the sheet is fed from the raw material roll upward in the direction of gravity from the installation position of the raw material roll, there is a sheet fixing section that pressurizes and fixes the sheet, A first operating unit capable of switching between pressurized fixing and pressurized release of the sheet fixing unit, the first operating unit being provided on the side of the installation position of the raw material roll, A second operating unit capable of switching between pressurized fixing and pressurized release of the sheet fixing unit, the second operating unit being located at a height inaccessible from the position from which the first operating unit can be operated, and provided in the middle of the paper path, A seat fixing device equipped with the following features.

2. The aforementioned sheet is a material for an absorbent article, The sheet fixing device is equipped with a separate power supply from the absorbent article manufacturing device that manufactures the absorbent article. The sheet fixing device according to claim 1.

3. The aforementioned seat fixing part is A pressurizing section for pressing and fixing the aforementioned sheet, A pneumatic actuator that drives the pressurizing section, Having, The sheet fixing device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The aforementioned raw material roll is a roll on which sheet-like pulp is wound. The sheet fixing portion is capable of pressurizing and fixing the leading edge of the sheet roll. The sheet fixing device according to claim 1 or 2.

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