JP2779660B2 - Automatic pipe connection device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to, for example, an automatic connection attaching / detaching device for performing a pipe connection between a moving tank and a fixed tank in a moving tank type multipurpose batch system.

[Background of the Invention]

Conventional printing is based on the premise of a small-volume, high-volume production system, where the tank is fixed, and the pipes connecting the tanks are manually corrected for misalignment at the time of operation, or are corrected using flexible tubes (bellows) or the like. Each pipe fixed after absorption was connected. Therefore, if the number of tanks and processes is large, the pipes between many tanks will be in a spider web shape. In addition, in the case of multi-product production, it will be necessary to reconnect pipes for each type, so operation management and maintenance management Is not only complicated, but also requires an intermediate tank to connect each unit operation, thus complicating the overall layout. The liquid may accumulate, and the above-mentioned residual liquid may be mixed into the next product. In addition, the washing operation for the piping becomes complicated, and it takes a long time and productivity is deteriorated.

Recently, with the diversification of the demand structure, the development of a moving tank type multi-purpose batch system based on the premise of a multi-product small-lot production system has been required, and the applicant has developed this innovative production system and has already proposed it. I have.

In this method, the main tank is loaded on a transfer vehicle or the like, moved as a moving tank, positioned near the required fixed tank, automatically connected to the fixed tank and the moving tank by piping, and each operation is performed. After the operation is completed, the pipe is automatically disconnected, moved to another fixed tank for the next operation, and the above-described pipe connection and operation disconnection are repeated.

(Prior art)

2. Description of the Related Art A pressure-operated valve and a diaphragm valve which press an elastic body by fluid pressure to shut off a flow path are well known in the prior art. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 58-221078, 62-151474, and 62-151474. JP-A-63-15655 discloses that an elastic body is pressed against a valve seat by fluid pressure and mechanical force to shut off or open a flow path. However, all of these techniques only open and close the flow path, and there is no description about the connection of the pipe. JP-A-57-83760 and JP-B-58-17900 disclose a technique for opening and closing a flow passage by applying and reducing pressure to a valve body made of an elastic material.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In the batch system using the above-mentioned moving tank, connection and disconnection of pipes can be performed in a short time with conventional mechanical means, such as bolts and clamps, and it is difficult to save labor. It is.

The present invention can reliably maintain airtightness in a short time without relying on humans, by expanding and contracting the elastic body with fluid pressure for attaching and detaching operations without using complicated mechanical means. It is intended to provide a device.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, an automatic pipe line connection device according to the present invention includes an outer pipe having a communication hole and an elastic body attached to the outside, and a communication hole formed with the communication hole. Forming a double pipe with the inner pipe equipped with the opening / closing elastic body, providing a partition plate for circumferentially dividing the flow of the fluid supplied into the double pipe, an elastic body attached to the outer pipe; The fluid for operating the passage opening / closing elastic body attached to the inner tube is supplied separately, and the elastic body attached to the outside of the outer tube is actuated so that it can be freely contacted with and separated from the fixed side channel, The raw material passage is opened and closed freely by operating a passage opening / closing elastic body attached to the inner pipe.

[Action]

In the present invention, in automatically connecting the moving-side pipe and the fixed-side pipe, the moving-side pipe is formed as a double pipe of an outer pipe and an inner pipe provided with a communication hole, At the outside of the pipe, an elastic body capable of expanding the intermediate part is attached, and an elastic body for opening and closing the passage of the raw material and the like is mounted inside the inner pipe, and the flow of the pressure fluid in the double pipe is controlled. A partition is made in the circumferential direction, and the elastic body outside the outer pipe and the elastic body for opening and closing the passage mounted in the inner pipe can be separately operated. Connected to the outer pipe, pressurized fluid is applied to the elastic body attached to the outside of the outer pipe to expand the pipe, and the moving pipe and the fixed pipe are integrated with the fixed pipe in close contact with the fixed pipe. The fluid pressure in the inner pipe is reduced to release the close contact of the elastic body for opening and closing the passage so that the raw material can pass through. A fluid acts on the elastic body for opening / closing the passage to expand the elastic body, thereby closing the raw material passage. Then, the fluid pressure acting on the elastic body on the outer side of the appearance is reduced by contraction, and the moving side pipeline is contracted. And the connection to the fixed side pipeline.

〔Example〕

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a fixed-side pipeline, and 2 denotes a moving-side pipeline connection nozzle (hereinafter simply referred to as a connection nozzle).
The connection nozzle 2 is configured as follows.

Reference numeral 3 denotes an outer tube having a communicating hole 3a formed therein, and reference numeral 4 denotes an inner tube having a communicating hole 4a formed therein. The inner tube 4 is provided inside the outer tube 3 and communicates with the communicating hole 4a of the inner tube 4. The communication hole 3a of the tube 3 is accommodated so as to be at a position opposite to each other in the circumferential direction to form a double tube. Reference numeral 5 denotes an outer elastic body having an upper portion and a lower portion closely attached to the outer tube 3 outside the outer tube 3 and an intermediate portion capable of swelling. A passage opening / closing elastic member attached to the upper flange 7 and the lower flange 8 for attaching the pipe 3 and the inner tube 4 and mounted in the inner tube 4 to open and close a passage for a fluid or the like. It is preferable to provide several guides and the like in the axial direction for giving directionality for close contact when closing by applying fluid pressure from the outside of the cover.

The upper flange 7 is provided with the elastic member 5 for the outer surface.
Further, fluid supply ports 3 and 10 for driving the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 are provided separately.

The lower flange 8 is provided with a guide tube 11 inserted into the fixed-side conduit 1.
The outer periphery thereof is formed with a tapered surface 11a having a tapered tip so that self-alignment can be performed with respect to insertion into the fixed-side conduit 1. The inside is provided with a passage 11b serving as a passage for raw materials and the like. I have.

Reference numerals 12, 12 'denote partition plates for dividing the inside of the double pipe formed by the outer pipe 3 and the inner pipe 4 into two parts in the circumferential direction, and the inside of the double pipe divided into two parts by the partition plates 12, 12'. The space forms drive fluid passages 5 'and 6' for driving the outer surface elastic body 5 and the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 described above.

The connection nozzle 2 configured as described above is mounted on a mounting body 13 provided with a moving pipeline driving device on the fixed tank side so as to be able to move up and down. Reference numeral 14 denotes a pedestal. The connection nozzle 2 is attached to one (lower) of the pedestal 14, and an upper flexible hose 15 is connected to the other (upper). 18 ... (see Fig. 6).

FIG. 7 shows a system diagram of the above-mentioned mobile batch system. In FIG. 7, a moving-side pipe section is installed at the pipe end of the fixed tank side of 2FL, and the fixed side is connected to a pipe terminal of the mobile tank C side of 1FL. The pipeline 1 is arranged, and the movable tank C first connects the pipe to the fixed tank 16, and then connects and disconnects the pipes sequentially to 17, 18, 19, and 20 to perform a predetermined unit operation.

The operation of connecting / disconnecting the pipes will be described based on this embodiment.

The moving pipe driving device provided on the mounting body 13 is operated to lower the connecting nozzle 2 while extending the upper flexible hose 15, and the guide pipe 11 at the tip of the connecting nozzle 2 is inserted into the fixed side pipe line 1. At this time, when the pressure fluid for activating the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 is switched to the connection nozzle 2 by the fluid switching device Y and the pressure fluid is supplied from the fluid supply port 10, the pressure fluid flows from the passage 6 ′ to the communication hole of the inner pipe 4. The raw material passage is closed by expanding and closely adhering the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 mounted in the inner pipe 4 through 4a (FIGS. 1 and 4 (a)).
(B)).

Since the inside of the double pipe formed by the outer pipe 3 and the inner pipe 4 is partitioned by the partition plates 12 and 12 'divided into two in the circumferential direction, the outer pipe 3 on the side of the communication hole 3a and the inner pipe 4 are separated from each other. The pressurized fluid does not flow through the space passage 5 ′ with the inner pipe 4, and therefore has no effect on the outer surface elastic body 5 (FIG. 1, FIG. 4).
(See (a) and (b)).

Since the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 is provided with a broken line or a positioning for giving directionality as described above, when fluid pressure is applied, a portion positioned as shown in FIG. The material is expanded and deformed as shown in (a), (b) and (c), and the elastic body 6 for opening and closing the passage is tightly sealed and the raw material is closed.

When the guide tube 11 of the connection nozzle 2 is inserted into the fixed-side pipe 1, since the outside of the guide pipe 11 has a tapered tapered surface 11 a, the guide pipe 11 is fixed to the fixed-side pipe 11. To automatically insert without requiring special positioning. When the insertion is completed, the outer surface elastic body 5 is driven from the fluid supply port 9 of the connection nozzle 2. When the pressure fluid is supplied into the passage 5 'in the outer tube 3 by switching the fluid pressure switching device X, the pressure fluid is supplied into the outer surface elastic body 5 through the communication hole 3a of the outer tube 3,
The elastic body for outer surface 5 is inflated and adheres to the inner wall surface of the fixed-side pipe 1 so that the fixed-side pipe 1 and the moving-side pipe are connected to the connection nozzle 2.
Will be connected via the.

The flow path of the pressure fluid supplied from the fluid supply port 9 is divided by partitioning plates 12 and 12 ′ that divide the inside of a double pipe formed by the outer pipe 3 and the inner pipe 4 into two in the circumferential direction. Therefore, the pressure fluid supplied to the passage 5 'does not flow through the passage 6'.

After confirming that the connection between the fixed-side pipe 1 and the connection nozzle 2 of the moving-side pipe has become tight, the pressure fluid acting on the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 is changed to fluid pressure switching. The device Y is switched to reduce the pressure, thereby contracting the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 to release the close contact, that is, opening the passage, and allowing the fluid to flow through the upper flexible hose 15 from the fixed tank side to the inner pipe 4 and the guide pipe. It flows into the fixed-side pipeline 1, that is, into the movable tank C through the internal passage 11 b of FIG. 11 (see FIGS. 2 and 3 (a) and (b)).

When a predetermined raw material is charged, the fluid for driving the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 is switched by the fluid pressure switching device Y to the fluid supply port.
10, the fluid pressure is supplied as described above, and the fluid pressure is introduced from the passage 6 'through the communication hole 4a of the inner pipe 4, and the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 is expanded and mounted to close the passage. (Fig. 4 (a) (b), Fig. 5 (a) (b)
(C)).

Next, the pressure fluid for driving the outer surface elastic body 5 is switched by the fluid pressure switching device X to reduce the pressure, thereby contracting the outer surface elastic body 5 and raising the connection nozzle 2 by the moving side pipeline driving device. The connection between the fixed side pipeline 1 and the drive side pipeline is released.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the moving-side pipeline is moved and connected has been described.If necessary, the portion described as the fixed-side pipeline is moved, and the portion described as the moving-side pipeline is fixed. It may be.

Further, in this embodiment, the fluid flowing through the inner pipe 4, ie, the passage opening / closing elastic body 6, can be used in a wide range of fields such as powder, bellet, and solid, and is mounted so as to stick to the inner pipe 4. Since the opened / closed elastic body 6 opens and closes the passage by expansion and contraction, if the handled product is a powder, even if the clogging of the powder occurs in the opened / closed elastic body 6, as described above, the passage is closed. Since the opening / closing elastic body 6 repeats expansion and contraction, clogging can be eliminated.

The elastic body used in this embodiment is made of a material having high elasticity and excellent chemical resistance and wear resistance.

The operation of the driving device, the fluid pressure device, and the expansion and contraction of the elastic body are all controlled by the central control device.

More specific examples of the expansion of the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 are as follows: Specific example 1 Inner tube diameter 1B, passage opening / closing elastic body length L = 400 Material of passage opening / closing elastic body: natural rubber Working pressure for expansion: air pressure 0.5Kgf / cm ² G When operated under the above conditions, the elastic body for opening and closing the passage was deformed and adhered, and the sealing property was good.

Example 2 Inner tube diameter 5B, length of elastic body for passage opening / closing L = 300 Material of elastic body for passage opening and closing: Natural rubber Working pressure for expansion: air pressure 0.2 kgf / cm ² G When operated under the above conditions, elastic body for passage opening and closing Was deformed and adhered, and the sealing property was good.

According to the present embodiment, the connection shape between the fixed-side pipeline 1 and the moving-side pipeline is an internal insertion type, and the inner diameter of the fixed-side pipeline is larger than the allowable misalignment dimension due to an alignment error between the fixed and movable sides. Even if there is a clearance between the connection nozzle 2 and the outer diameter of the connection nozzle 2, the self-aligning action works and the insertion can be easily performed. The fixed side pipe and the movable side pipe can be integrally connected by exerting a sealing function, and the connecting nozzle is formed as a double pipe structure to open and close the passage in the inner pipe 4 of the double pipe. The raw material passage is closed and opened by expanding and contracting the elastic body by an external pressure fluid, and furthermore, the outer surface elastic body 3 and the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 The drive can be operated instantly by turning on and off the fluid pressure. Complex mechanical connection method for example the conventional method, according to the bolt and clamp system requires a minimum of ten minutes of the detachable time, in which can be performed in several seconds time when according to the present embodiment.

In addition, automation can be easily performed by using mechanical means for driving the moving-side conduit and inserting the connection nozzle 2 of the moving-side conduit into the fixed-side conduit through the centering guide means 9. is there.

Further, in terms of operation, for example, when the material to be handled is powder, conventionally, the powder adheres and grows on the inner wall surface of the fixed pipeline, adversely affects the quality due to alteration and the like, and also removes the powder. In this embodiment, since the outer elastic body 5 of the connection nozzle 2 is in close contact with the entire inner wall surface of the fixed-side pipe, powder does not adhere thereto. Even if the passage opening / closing elastic body 2 is clogged with powder, the passage opening / closing elastic body 6 repeats expansion and contraction, so that the clogging can be eliminated.

〔The invention's effect〕

The automatic pipe line connection device according to the present invention, the connecting nozzle of the moving-side pipe, the outer pipe and the inner pipe provided with a communication hole, to connect the moving-side pipe and the fixed-side pipe. And a double tube of
An elastic body capable of swelling is attached to the outside of the outer pipe, and an elastic body for opening and closing a passage of a raw material or the like is mounted in the inner pipe, and a pressure fluid supplied to the double pipe is provided. The flow is partitioned so as to divide the flow into two in the circumferential direction, and the elastic body outside the outer tube and the elastic body mounted in the inner tube can be separately operated. Since the connection was made so as to be inserted into the fixed-side pipe, the elastic body attached to the outside of the outer pipe was expanded by applying a pressure fluid to the outside pipe, so that the elastic body was closely connected to the fixed-side pipe. The moving side and the fixed side can be tightly and tightly sealed, and a pressure fluid is supplied so that the passage opening / closing elastic body mounted in the inner pipe is expanded and brought into close contact with each other to close the raw material passage, and the pressure fluid is closed. Pressure to shrink the elastic body for opening and closing the passage to release the close contact to form the passage. The pressure fluid for operating the outer elastic body and the closing elastic body in the inner pipe can be operated as separate passages by a double pipe and a partition divided into two in the circumferential direction. The opening and closing of the raw material passage and the opening and closing of the connected state can be easily, easily, and reliably performed in one apparatus.

With the above configuration, the apparatus can be automated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a state before connection between a connecting tool and a fixed-side pipe, and FIG. 2 is a state when connecting the connecting tool and a fixed-side pipe. FIG. 3 (a) is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of FIG. 2, and FIG. 3 (b) is a third embodiment.
FIG. 4 (a) is a sectional view taken along the line III-III, FIG. 4 (a) is an enlarged sectional view of a main part in a state where the connection between the connecting tool and the fixed-side conduit is released,
FIG. 4 (b) is an IV-IV sectional view of FIG. 4 (a), and FIGS. 5 (a), (b) and (c) are explanatory views showing the closed state of the passage opening / closing elastic body in order. FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of an automatic pipeline connection unit,
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a system of a fixed tank and a moving tank. 1: fixed side pipe, 2: moving side pipe connection nozzle 3: outer pipe, 3a: communication hole 4: inner pipe, 4a: communication hole 5: elastic body for outer surface, 12, 12 ': partition plate 6: passage Elastic body for opening and closing

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A double pipe is formed by an outer pipe having a communicating hole and an elastic body attached to the outside, and an inner pipe having a communicating hole and an elastic body for opening and closing a passage inside. A partition plate for circumferentially dividing the flow of the fluid supplied into the double pipe is provided, and the fluid for operating the elastic body attached to the outer pipe and the passage opening / closing elastic body attached to the inner pipe is provided. A separate supply is performed, an elastic body attached to the outside of the outer tube is actuated so as to be able to freely contact and separate from the fixed side pipe, and a passage opening / closing elastic body attached to the inner tube is actuated to supply the raw material. An automatic pipe line connection device characterized in that it can be freely opened and closed.