JP3433895B2 - Screw conveyor - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a screw type conveying device for aligning bottles of soft drinks at predetermined intervals. [0002] In order to wash bottles for soft drinks and the like before filling them with soft drinks, when carrying them into a washing apparatus,
In order to prevent the empty bottles from colliding with each other during the washing or to prevent the work from being hindered due to the space being too empty, it is necessary to send the empty bottles to the cleaning device in a state of being arranged at a predetermined interval. A screw-type transfer device is used for such alignment and transfer. Empty bottles that have been sent at irregular intervals on a conveyor etc. are sent to a screw type transport device having a screw with a spiral groove formed, and along the groove of the screw rotating at a predetermined rotation speed By being moved, it is brought into an aligned state arranged at a predetermined interval, and is continuously sent to the next cleaning step. Thus, when the cleaning bottle is fed into the cleaning device, the cleaning can be efficiently performed without causing the following empty bottle to collide with the empty bottle being cleaned or causing a problem that the interval is too large. If it is necessary to temporarily suspend the cleaning work due to reasons such as a change in the bottle size during the cleaning work, it is naturally necessary to stop the alignment and transport of the empty bottles. Is provided with a stopper at a position upstream of the screw. The stopper is at a retracted position that does not hinder the feeding of the empty bottle during the cleaning operation, but moves to a blocking position that prevents the feeding of the empty bottle when the cleaning operation is interrupted. As the bottle stopping mechanism of the stopper, there are a type using a simple rod-shaped stopper, a type using two flat plate-shaped stoppers to sandwich the bottle from both sides, and the like. [0003] In recent cleaning apparatuses, there is a strong demand for an improvement in processing speed.
Those that reach 50 bottles per minute are also being launched. Therefore, naturally, the transfer speed of the screw transfer device has also been increased. However,
The conventional screw-type transfer device as described above has the following problems if the feeding of empty bottles is interrupted or the feeding of empty bottles is restarted during such high-speed transfer. That is, in the case of a rod-shaped stopper, since the empty bottle collides with the stopper at high speed, the empty bottle is easily flipped and falls down, which may hinder the subsequent steps. Also, in the case of a pinch type stopper, it is necessary to pinch and stop the empty bottle moving at high speed, and the pinching force for braking increases sharply in proportion to the square of the speed. ,
The side of the empty bottle is easily damaged by the holding portion. Furthermore, when the feeding of the empty bottle is resumed, it is necessary to retract the stopper at a timing corresponding to the phase angle (groove position) of the screw that has started rotating so that the empty bottle fits into the groove of the screw. In any of the above types of stoppers, it is difficult to set such timing.
An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem. According to the present invention, a screw is divided into two parts, front and rear, without providing a dedicated stopper as in the prior art, and the screw on the front side is aligned with the screw on the front side during the work of aligning empty bottles. The phase angle of the screw on the rear side is adjusted so that the front and rear grooves can smoothly and continuously transfer empty bottles from the front side to the rear side without interfering with the front and rear grooves, and they are synchronized at the same rotation speed. To rotate,
Also, when interrupting the empty bottle alignment work, only the screw on the front stage is stopped, and the helical groove of this prevents the empty bottle from moving back and forth so as to perform the stopper function. By doing so, the above problem is solved. In other words, the screw-type transport device of the present invention moves a large number of empty bottles that have been transported at irregular intervals from the upstream side along the spiral groove of the rotating screw so that the predetermined intervals are maintained. The screw is composed of an upstream front screw (14) and a downstream rear screw (16), and the front screw (14) ) And a clutch / brake device (18) capable of switching the rear screw (16) to one of the engaged and released states and braking the released front screw (14), and a front screw (14). And a position detector (20, 20) capable of detecting the rotational angle position of each screw of the rear screw (16).
21) is provided, and when starting the operation of aligning empty bottles, the clutch is determined at a predetermined timing based on a signal from the position detector (21) on the side of the rear screw (16) being rotated. By engaging the clutch of the brake device (18), the groove (1) of the front screw (14) is
5) With the grooves (17) of the rear screw (16) connected smoothly, the two screws (14, 16) are rotated synchronously to enable alignment and conveyance of empty bottles, while aligning empty bottles. If the work is interrupted, the first screw (1
4) The front stage screw (14) is stopped at a predetermined absolute angular position by releasing the clutch of the clutch / brake device (18) and operating the brake based on the signal from the position detector (20) on the side. In this case, the empty bottle is restrained by the groove (15), and alignment and conveyance of the empty bottle by the front-stage screw (14) are interrupted. Note that reference numerals in parentheses indicate corresponding members of the embodiment. During the work of aligning empty bottles, the two front and rear screws are adjusted to adjust the phase angle so that the front and rear grooves do not cross each other and maintain a continuous state. And synchronously rotate at the same rotational speed. Thereby, the empty bottles are smoothly transferred from the grooves of the first screw to the grooves of the second screw, and are moved along these grooves to be aligned and conveyed at predetermined intervals.
When interrupting the empty bottle alignment operation, only the first screw is stopped at a predetermined absolute angle position. As a result, the empty bottle in the former screw will be stopped while being restrained by the groove, and the empty bottle will be
Stops smoothly without being flipped or hurt. When restarting the empty bottle alignment operation, the first screw is started at the moment when the rotating second screw is positioned at the predetermined absolute rotation position. Thus, the front-stage screw is rotated synchronously at the moment when the front and rear grooves are continuous without any discrepancy. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. The screw-type conveying device 10 includes a frame 12, a front-stage screw 14 rotatably supported by the frame 12, a rear-stage screw 16 similarly rotatably supported by the frame 12, a motor (not shown) for driving the same, and the motor And a rotary encoder (position detector) 20 for controlling the rotation of the motor to one of a state of transmitting (fastening) and a state of breaking (release) to the preceding screw 14. Encoder 2
0 indicates that the rotational angle position of the front screw 14 can be detected. The front-stage screw 14 is configured to be rotated or non-rotated through the clutch / brake device 18 that can be fastened to and released from the drive shaft 22, the driven shaft 23, and the timing belt 26 as described above. The rear-stage screw 16 is configured to be constantly rotated via a motor (not shown), a drive shaft 22 connected thereto, and a timing belt 24. An encoder 21 is provided on the left end side of the drive shaft 22 in the drawing. The encoder 21 can detect the rotation angle position of the rear screw 16. A conveyor 28 is disposed below the screw-type transfer device 10 in the figure, and an empty bottle is fed into the screw-type transfer device 10 from the upstream side (right side in the figure) of the conveyor 28, and the downstream side thereof ( It is possible to carry out an empty bottle from the left side (in the figure) to a cleaning device (not shown). The clutch / brake device 18 can integrally fasten the drive shaft 22 and the driven shaft 23 at the time of engagement, and can disconnect the driven shaft 23 from the drive shaft 22 at the time of disengagement. It is possible to apply a braking force to the front screw 14 via the same. Thereby, when the feeding of the empty bottle is interrupted, it is possible to stop the front-stage screw 14 at a predetermined absolute angle position based on the detection signal (phase angle signal) of the encoder 20. That is, when the bottle is transported, as schematically shown in FIG. 2A, the groove 15 of the front screw 14 and the groove 15 of the rear screw 1
At the moment when the encoder 21 detects a predetermined absolute angle position, the clutch / brake device 18 is engaged and the front-stage screw 14 is synchronously rotated so that the empty bottle can be smoothly and continuously delivered to the groove 17 of the sixth. By moving the empty bottles along the grooves 15 and 17 to align a large number of empty bottles at a predetermined interval, while interrupting the transfer of empty bottles upstream of the pre-stage screw 14, for example, The timing of disengagement by the clutch and braking by the brake are set so as to stop the front-stage screw 14 at a predetermined absolute angular position as shown in FIG. In short, while the two screws 14 and 16 rotate synchronously (while adjusting the phase) while maintaining the state where the grooves 15 and 17 are smoothly connected to each other, the front screw 14 By operating the clutch / brake device 18 at the timing when it is located at the absolute angular position of
By keeping the empty bottle restrained by the groove of 4 and making it impossible to deliver the empty bottle (can not move back and forth),
The supply of empty bottles from the first screw 14 to the second screw 16 is interrupted. Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
At the time of aligning the empty bottles, as schematically shown in FIG.
In order to allow empty bottles to be transferred to and from the groove 17 of the sixth embodiment, they are synchronously rotated with their phase angles matched. That is, in a state where the rear-stage screw 16 is continuously rotating,
Based on the signal from the encoder 21 at the moment when the rear screw 16 is located at the predetermined absolute angle position, the clutch
The clutch of the brake device 18 is switched from the released state to the engaged state. As a result, the first-stage screw 14 starts to rotate synchronously (from a state where it is stopped at the absolute angular position). In this way, empty bottles conveyed at irregular intervals from the carry-in side (the right side in FIG. 1) of the conveyor 28 are successively sent to the screw-type conveying device 10. In the screw-type transfer device 10, the empty bottle includes the first-stage screw 14 and the second-stage screw 1.
6 are fed so as to fit into the spiral grooves 15 and 17, and the rotational movement of the two screws 14 and 16 is converted to linear movement. 1 (left side in FIG. 1), and is sent to a downstream cleaning device (not shown). In this way, when it becomes necessary to interrupt the supply to the cleaning device due to a change in the size of the bottles during the alignment operation of the empty bottles, the signal from the encoder 20 on the front screw 14 side is output. Based on this, the clutch of the clutch / brake device 18 is switched from the engaged state to the released state and the brake is operated so that the front-stage screw 14 stops at the predetermined absolute angle position. As a result, the front-stage screw 14 is stopped at the predetermined absolute angle position as shown in FIG. Accordingly, the empty bottle restrained by the groove 15 of the front screw 14 is stopped in that state. Therefore, when the empty bottles constrained by the second-stage screw 16 have been sent out, the second-stage screw 16 becomes idle, and the supply of the empty bottle to the cleaning device is stopped. The empty bottle restrained by the groove 15 of the front screw 14 is disengaged from the clutch of the front screw 14,
When the brake is applied, the vehicle is stopped in a restrained state, so that a large impact is not caused at the time of the stop. Therefore, unlike the related art, the empty bottle is not rebounded or damaged during the stoppage. As described above, based on the rotational position detection signals from the encoders 20 and 21, the moment the rear screw 16 is located at the predetermined absolute angle position, the front screw 14
Or synchronously rotating the front stage screw 14 or stopping the front stage screw 14 at the moment when the front stage screw 14 is located at the predetermined absolute angle position, in this way, the encoder 20,
Even if a detection error occurs in the groove 21, the front and rear grooves 1
This is because the rotation angle shifts 5 and 17 need only be shifted by an error each time (normally, this is a minute value that does not cause a problem in practical delivery), and the error adjustment work is simplified ( On the other hand, the phase difference between the encoders 20 and 21;
In other words, when the difference between the relative positions is used for control, synchronous rotation,
While the stopping operation is repeated, two detection errors are accumulated, and the front and rear grooves 1 are transferred at the time of delivery.
There is a possibility that the phases of 5 and 17 are greatly shifted, so that empty bottles cannot be delivered.) In the above description of the embodiment, the rotary encoders 20 and 21 are used as the position detectors. However, the rotary encoders 20 and 21 can detect the rotational angle positions of the front screw 14 and the rear screw 16. If it is, another type of position detector may be used. As described above, according to the present invention, the aligning operation is interrupted while empty bottles sent at irregular intervals are aligned at a predetermined interval. Even if it is necessary to do so, the empty bottle will be stopped while being restrained by the groove of the preceding screw, and the impact at the time of stopping will not cause the empty bottle to be flipped and fall down Therefore, work efficiency can be improved. Further, since the empty bottle does not need to be damaged by the impact at the time of stopping, defective products can be reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of a screw-type transfer device showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 2A and 2B are conceptual diagrams illustrating a phase relationship between a front-stage screw and a rear-stage screw. FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating a state in which grooves of both screws are aligned, and FIG. It is a figure showing the state stopped at a predetermined absolute rotation angle position. [Description of Signs] 10 Screw-type conveying device 12 Frame 14 Front screw 15 Groove 16 Rear screw 17 Groove 18 Clutch / brake device 20, 21 Encoder (position detector) 22 Drive shaft 23 Follower shaft 28 Conveyor

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims 1] A large number of empty bottles conveyed at irregular intervals from an upstream side are moved along a spiral groove of a rotating screw to a predetermined interval. In the screw-type transfer device arranged so as to be sent out to the downstream side while being aligned so that A clutch / brake device (18) capable of switching the screw (14) and the rear screw (16) to one of the engaged and released states and braking the released front screw (14); (14) and a position detector (20, 21) capable of detecting the rotation angle position of each screw of the rear-stage screw (16). In order to start the work of aligning empty bottles, the clutch / brake device (18) is driven at a predetermined timing based on a signal from the position detector (21) on the side of the rear screw (16) being rotated. By engaging the clutch of (1), the groove (15) of the first screw (14) and the second screw (1)
When the grooves (17) of (6) are smoothly connected, the screws (14, 16) are synchronously rotated to enable the alignment and conveyance of the empty bottles. A clutch / brake device (18) based on a signal from a position detector (20) on the front screw (14) side.
By disengaging the clutch and activating the brake, the front screw (14) is stopped at a predetermined absolute angle position, and the empty bottle is restrained by the groove (15) of the front screw (14). ), Wherein the alignment and transfer of empty bottles according to (1) are interrupted.