APPARATUS AND METHOD OF FILLING CONTAINERS WITH CLEANING DEVICE

• US 20120018030A1
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Krones AG (Krones)
• Original Assignee: Krones AG (Krones)
• Inventors: Laumer, Roland, Schmid, Manfred, Soellner, Juergen
• Granted Patent: US 8,844,585 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 141/1
• CPC Class Codes: B67C 3/001 Cleaning of filling devices

Abstract

An apparatus (1) for filling containers (6) with a liquid and, in particular, with a beverage, with a plurality of filling elements (5) which in each case have an outlet (37) in order to pour the beverage into the containers (10), as well as a valve device (38) in order to control the supply of the liquid into the containers (6), with a conveying device which conveys the containers (10) along a pre-set conveying path at least for a time during the filling thereof with the liquid, and with a cleaning device which acts with a cleaning medium upon at least one region contacted by the liquid to be filled. According to the invention at least one filling element (5) is designed in such a way that the cleaning medium is freely discharged out of this filling element (5) during a cleaning operation.

Claims

1. An apparatus for filling containers with a liquid and, in particular, with a beverage, with a plurality of filling elements which in each case have an outlet in order to pour the beverage into the containers, as well as a valve device in order to control the supply of the liquid into the containers, with a conveying device which conveys the containers along a pre-set conveying path at least for a time during the filling thereof with the liquid, and with a cleaning device which acts with a cleaning medium upon at least one region contacted by the liquid to be filled, wherein at least one filling element is designed in such a way that the cleaning medium is freely discharged out of this filling element during a cleaning operation.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has a clean room and the at least one filling element is arranged in such a way that the cleaning medium is discharged into this clean room during the cleaning operation.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the clean room has an outflow for the removal of the cleaning medium.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has a separating device for separating gaseous and liquid media discharged from the clean room.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has a liquid conveying device which is movable with respect to the outlet and which is capable of being placed in a cleaning mode on the outlet.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the liquid conveying device has an opening.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has at least one supply device in order to supply a gaseous medium to the containers, and the apparatus is arranged in such a way that this gaseous medium is capable of being released into the clean room.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the apparatus has a valve device for releasing the gaseous medium into the clean room.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus has at least one cleaning device for cleaning the clean room.

10. A plant for the treatment of containers with an apparatus according to claim 1 and a sterilization device arranged upstream with respect to this apparatus in a conveying direction of the containers in order to sterilize the containers.

11. A method of operating an apparatus for filling containers with liquids, wherein containers to be filled are conveyed along a pre-set conveying path and are filled with a liquid medium using a plurality of filling elements at least for a time during this conveying, and wherein a cleaning mode is provided in which at least parts of the filling elements are acted upon with a cleaning medium, wherein after the cleaning medium has acted upon the parts of the filling elements it is freely discharged out of the filling elements.