JPH02215883A - Seal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the proliferation of fungi at a place in piping, etc., where a liquid stays and to make sterilization unnecessary by giving antifungal properties to that surface of a seal which is brought into contact with the liquid when the seal is installed. CONSTITUTION:An ion exchanger to which a metal ion such as of Ag, Cu, Sn, or Zn is attached is dispersed on that surface of a seal which is brought into contact with a liquid when the seal is installed; thus the surface is made antifungal. The seal is used as a packing, O-ring, gasket, etc., to prevent leakage of the liquid from various parts such as a connecting part between pipings, a connecting part of a piping with a vessel or valve, and an opening between a valve rod and a valve casing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to liquid leakage from connections between pipes, between pipes and containers, between valves, etc., and between the valve stem and valve body of a valve. Seals such as gaskets, O-rings, and gaskets are used to prevent various types of liquid leakage, such as liquid leakage, and are used in industrial fields that require sterility, such as pure water production, ultrapure water production, food production, and drug production. Concerning something useful.

[Conventional technology]

Due to the installation of the seal, liquid retention areas such as recesses and gaps are inevitably formed at the locations where the seals are installed, such as the aforementioned connection areas. Especially when it is loosened in Patsukin,
This creates very small gaps. Such a retention area becomes a breeding area for bacteria. Therefore, in the fields that require sterilization as mentioned above, current efforts are to achieve sterilization by thermal sterilization using heated water or chemical sterilization using chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, etc. It is.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned sterilization, since the retention area is a narrow place such as a recess or gap, it is extremely difficult to reliably spread the heated water and chemicals over the entire area, and it is almost impossible to reliably sterilize the retention area. Met. Therefore, even after sterilization, viable bacteria remain and multiply, so it is necessary to sterilize regularly within a relatively short period of time.

Furthermore, when connecting stainless steel piping, a sanitary joint that can be easily disassembled may be used as a connection joint, and the sanitary joint may be disassembled to carry out the above-mentioned sterilization.

In this case, sterilization can be performed reliably, but since the bacteria in the liquid will re-enter the retention area during use after assembly, the interval between sterilizations can be longer than in the above case, but periodic sterilization is still necessary. There is.

An object of the present invention is to provide a seal that can eliminate the need for such sterilization.

[Means to solve the problem]

A feature of the structure of the seal according to the present invention is that the surface in contact with the liquid has antibacterial properties.

[For production]

That is, in the present invention, when the seal is installed, the liquid contact surface of the seal faces the retention part, so the liquid in the retention part, that is, the bacteria in the liquid, comes into contact with the antibacterial contact surface. Become.

On the other hand, it is now well known that ion exchangers to which metal ions such as silver, copper, tin, and zinc are bound have an antibacterial effect that kills bacteria or inhibits their growth. From the above, by dispersing such an ion exchanger in the contact surface, it is possible to easily impart antibacterial properties to the contact surface.

[Effects of the Invention] Therefore, the present invention can prevent the proliferation of bacteria in the retention area,
We were able to provide a seal that eliminates the need for sterilization.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

The seal shown in this example includes a connecting flange (1),
There is a gasket (2) interposed between (1) and made of ethylene propylene rubber mixed with antibacterial agent powder. In other words, the entire surface has antibacterial properties.

The antibacterial agent is a synthetic zeolite, which is an ion exchanger loaded with silver and zinc ions.

[Experiment example]

Examples of experiments conducted by the present inventors to prove that ion exchangers to which metal ions are bound have antibacterial properties are shown below.

<Experimental example 1> [1] Preparation of sample Synthetic zeolite was used as an ion exchanger, and silver ions and zinc ions were added to it in a ratio of 2.5 to 3 (1:3).
%, it was dried and pulverized to a particle size of 1 μm to 2 μm (hereinafter referred to as pulverized synthetic zeolite). The synthetic zeolite pulverized product was added to polypropylene resin in an amount of 2%,
Three types of resin plates (A), (B) with 6% and 0% dispersion
, (C) was created. Each resin plate (A).

The sizes of (B) and (C) were 1 cm x 1 cm x 3 mm.

[Preparation of 2 test solutions Pseudomonas bacteria isolated from dechlorinated tap water that had been left to stand was cultured at 25° C. for 2 days in a standard TGE medium. Add 20 to this culture solution to 99 to pure water.
80d was added and stirred well, which was used as a test solution.

[3] Operation The three types of resin plates (A) and (B) are added to the test solution.

After adding (C) and leaving it at room temperature for 6 days, the resin plate (
A), (B), and (C) were taken out and air-dried, and then the surface of the resin plate was observed using a scanning electron microscope.

[4 Results As shown in Table 1, the entire surface of the sample (C) that was not mixed with pulverized synthetic zeolite was covered with bacteria, but that of the samples (A) and (B) that were mixed with pulverized synthetic zeolite. In this case, the resin surface was observed to cover most of the area.

This shows that the pulverized synthetic zeolite according to the present invention has antibacterial activity.

〈Table 1〉 Experimental Example 2〉 [Creation of Samples] Three types of pulverized synthetic zeolite similar to that prepared in Experimental Example 1 were dispersed in resin at 2%, 6%, and 0%, respectively. FRP resin board (A').

(B') and (C') were created. FRP resin board (
A').

The size of (B') and (C") is 5cmX5cmX
It was 5 mm.

[Preparation of 2 Test Solutions A Pseudomonas bacterial solution adjusted to have a closed mass of 10' cells/- was used as a test solution.

[3] Operation FRP resin plate (A'), (B'), (C')
17 nl of bacterial solution was dropped onto each of the samples, and after holding at 37°C for 18 hours, the bacterial solution was washed with physiological saline, and the number of bacteria in the washing solution was measured by a culture method.

[4] Results As shown in Table 2, the number of viable bacteria in the samples mixed with the ground synthetic zeolite was 1/100 to 1/1000 or less compared to the samples without the mixture.

This clearly shows that the synthetic zeolite pulverized product has antibacterial activity.

Table 2> [Another example] Another example of the present invention will be shown below.

<1> In the above examples, synthetic zeolite was shown as the ion exchanger, but other examples of the ion exchanger include natural zeolite and ion exchange resins.

2> In the above examples, the metal ions include silver ions,
Although zinc ions are shown, the metal ions may also be copper ions or tin ions.

<3> In the above embodiment, an ion exchanger to which silver ions are added and an ion exchanger to which zinc ions are added are used in combination, but they may be used alone.

<4> In the above embodiment, a gasket interposed between the flanges (1) was shown as the seal (2), but the present invention can be applied to various gaskets used in a form different from the above-mentioned form, In addition, the seals covered by the present invention include:
In addition to gaskets, gaskets can also be mentioned.

<5> Note that although reference numerals are written in the claims section for convenient comparison with the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in the accompanying drawings.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the seal according to the present invention. (2) Gasket (seal). 1.7 Rashida 2 Near 7” 2g,,,) (Shirno

Claims (1)

[Claims] A seal that has antibacterial properties on the surface that comes in contact with the liquid.