JP3498202B2 - Bottle sorting equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sorting device for sorting glass bottles according to size in the field of packaging container recycling.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Up to now, all of the waste that has been disposed of as waste is disposed of in landfills except those that can be burned. However, since there are only a few years remaining in the landfills of wastes nationwide, it is necessary to reduce the amount of wastes by actively selecting and recycling those that can be recycled and recycling them. (Three types of glass bottles and PET bottles are now subject to the obligation of commercialization by businesses under the "Container and Packaging Recycling Law" that came into effect in April this year.) ,
Examples include iron, aluminum, glass, plastic (including plastic bottles), and paper. Among these, regarding glass bottles, it is targeted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry that 55% or more of recycled materials are mixed. For this reason, glass bottles are collected at recycling facilities around the world. This glass bottle needs to be collected in different colors for recycling, and manual selection and collection have been the mainstream, but an automatic color selection device started to be introduced one to two years ago.

The automatic color selection of glass bottles is performed by image processing, but in order to accurately perform the automatic color selection, it is necessary to perform image processing with an appropriate field of view that matches the size of the bottle.

Looking at the size of the discarded bottles at present, there are oversized bottles such as seaweed and plum wine bottles, one large bottle, a beer bottle medium bottle, and a drink bottle.

Of these bottles as a whole, the oversized bottles and the distribution ratio of the number of large bottles are only a few percent,
Extra large bottles and large bottles are excluded from recycling, and only medium and small bottles are recycled. Therefore, the current bottle sorting apparatus is mainly for removing extra large bottles and large bottles from the entire bottle. The following is known as such a sorting device.

A A method in which several taper rolls are arranged in a slit shape and a bottle is fed from the side with a narrow gap, and the size is selected according to the gradually widening gap b The size is determined by a slit provided on the outer peripheral portion of the cylinder. Sorting type c Roller bar type conveyor has a structure in which the roller bar spacing is variable, and the size sorting is based on the spread of the spacing.

[0007]

Due to the enforcement of the Container and Packaging Recycling Law, it has become necessary for large bottles to be recycled as a request of the local government.

When color-selecting the medium bottles and the small bottles, by setting the image processing device in the medium bottle field of view, the color selection of both the medium bottles and the small bottles can be maintained with a certain degree of accuracy. If a large bottle is to be added to this, it is necessary to set the image processing device in the large bottle field of view. However, in the large bottle field of view, it becomes difficult to perform accurate color selection even for small bottles. Therefore, the large bottles should be color-separated separately from the medium and small bottles, and an image processing device dedicated to the large bottles should be added, but the large bottles account for a small number of the entire bottles. This is a problem because the operating rate of the image processing apparatus for bottles decreases.

An object of the present invention is to provide a bottle selection device capable of selecting bottles of appropriate sizes in order to accurately perform color selection on all large bottles, medium bottles and small bottles.

[0010]

A bottle sorting apparatus according to the present invention comprises a sorting means for separately sorting a small bottle, a medium bottle and a large bottle from bottles to be sorted, a selected small bottle, and a medium bottle. And a transfer means for separately transferring the large bottle and the dedicated color selection device.

In the small bottle color selection device, the small bottles are set in the small field of view, and the small bottles are accurately color-selected. In the large and medium bottle color selection device, the large bottles are set in the large field of view. Be sorted. Therefore, without reducing the operating rate of both color sorting devices,
All small bottles, medium bottles and large bottles can be accurately color-selected.

The sorting means has a bottle conveying conveyor, and the conveying path of the conveyor is inclined so that one edge of the conveyor is lower than the other edge, and the bottle slides along the lower edge of the conveying path. A moving guide member is provided between the lower edge of the transport path and the lower end of the bottle slide guide member to allow a bottle of a size to be sorted to pass through, but to prevent a bottle of a size larger than that, there is a bottle sorting gap. It is preferably formed.

By setting the bottle passing gap to the small bottle gap and the medium and large bottle gaps, the small bottle and the medium bottle and the large bottle can be separately selected.

Further, the selecting means has a bottle transfer conveyor, and the conveyor has two transfer paths arranged in parallel with a predetermined gap, and the two transfer paths face each other. One edge is inclined so as to be lower than the other edge, and a bottle slide guide member is provided along each lower edge of both transport paths, corresponding to the lower edge of both transport paths. A bottle selection gap may be formed between the lower ends of the bottle slide guide members that allow the size of the bottle to be selected to pass, but prevent the passage of a larger size bottle.

By adopting such a sorting means, it is possible to increase the size sorting processing amount.

The bottle selection gap may be gradually or continuously increased from upstream to downstream of the transport path.

If the chutes are arranged so as to be able to receive the bottles that have passed through the bottle selection gaps between the lower edges of the respective bottles and the lower ends of the bottle slide guide members corresponding to the bottles, the two bottles can be conveyed. The bottle falling from the container can be efficiently received without being crushed, and the device can be made compact.

If the bottle sliding guide member is provided with a bottle engaging projection upstream of the bottle selection gap, the bottle fed laterally to the conveying path is engaged with the projection and extends in the vertical direction. You can turn to.

Upstream of the bottle selection gap, a braking plate is arranged facing the transport path from the upper edge of the transport path toward the bottle slide guide member so as to allow the transported bottle to ride up. If there is a passage gap between the sliding guide member and the tip of the braking plate that allows the large bottle to be sorted to pass, when the bottles are conveyed in a double stack in the width direction of the conveying path, the upper side is conveyed. When the bottle of (1) rides on the brake plate, the bottle is displaced to the upstream side in the transport direction by the braking action of the brake plate, and the double stacking of the bottle is eliminated.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the following description, the front and rear sides are referred to as the front side (the right side in FIG. 1) of the bottle being conveyed and the opposite side to the rear side, and the left and right sides are the left and right sides as viewed from the front. Left and right.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, from the front to the back, a supply station S1, a size selection station S2 and a color selection station S3 are sequentially provided.

At the supply station S1, a bottle supply conveyor 11 and a cullet hopper 12 are arranged at the front and rear. A cullet passage grid 13 is arranged at the inlet of the cullet hopper 12, and a cullet recovery box 14 is arranged at the outlet thereof.

At the size selection station S2, two rows of size selection conveyors 21 extending in the forward direction are arranged side by side at predetermined intervals in parallel. An oversized bottle chute 22 is arranged below the front ends of both size selection conveyors 21. An oversized bottle collection box 23 is arranged below the oversized bottle chute 22. Small bottle transporting conveyors 24 are arranged below the right size sorting conveyor 21 and medium / large bottle transporting conveyors 25 are arranged from below the left size sorting conveyor 21 toward the color sorting station S3.

As shown in FIG. 3, the left and right size selecting conveyors 21 are belt conveyors having the upper belt moving path as a conveying path, and the inner edges of the two conveying paths facing each other so as to form a V-shaped vertical section. The parts are inclined so that they are lower than their outer edges.

The tilt angle is set so as to satisfy the following condition. If the corner side of the cullet (fragment of the bottle) hits the belt surface, it will not slip, and this will remove the cullet and the oversized bottle, and the round side of the cullet and round corner bottles such as coffee bottles It is good to slip off.

Both conveyors are provided with left and right bottle slide guide plates 26 arranged so as to be located above the inner edges of their respective conveying paths. The left and right bottle slide guide plates 26 are orthogonal to the corresponding transport path and are integrated with each other at the upper end.

Referring to FIG. 4, a front open stepped notch 31 is formed at the front lower edge of the bottle sliding guide plate 26 so that
A small bottle passage gap 32 and a medium / large bottle passage gap 33 communicate with each other and are formed side by side behind and in front of each other.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the small bottle transport chute 41 extends obliquely downward to the right from below the small bottle passage gap 32 of the left bottle sliding guide plate 26 to pass the small bottle passage of the right bottle sliding guide plate 26. Vial under the gap 32
It has reached the rear end of 24 transportation routes. On the other hand, the medium / large bottle transport chute 42 extends diagonally downward to the left from below the middle / large bottle passage gap 33 for the right bottle sliding guide plate 26 to pass the middle / large bottle for the left bottle sliding guide plate 26. The bottom of the gap 33 is reached to the rear end of the transfer path of the medium / large bottle transfer conveyor 25. Vertical plate-shaped ejection prevention plates facing the lower end openings of the small bottle transfer chute 41 and the medium / large bottle transfer chute 42, respectively.
43 and 44 are provided.

At the color selection station S3, a small bottle color selection conveyor 51 extends forward from the lower end of the transport path of the small bottle transport conveyor 24, and a medium / large size extends forward from the lower end of the transport path of the medium / large bottle transport conveyor 25. Bottle color selection conveyors 52 and 52 are respectively arranged. A small bottle color selection device 53 is provided at the rear end of the conveyance path of the small bottle color selection conveyor 51.
Is arranged, and the small bottle reject devices 54 are sequentially arranged on the downstream side. Similarly, a medium / large bottle color selection device 55 is arranged at the rear end of the conveyance path of the medium / large bottle color selection conveyor 52, and a medium / large bottle reject device 56 is sequentially arranged on the downstream side thereof. Has been done. A color-specific bottle recovery chute 57 is arranged between the small bottle reject device 54 and the medium / large bottle reject device 56. A residue collecting chute 58 is arranged over the front ends of the conveying paths of the small bottle color selecting conveyor 51 and the medium / large bottle color selecting conveyor 52.

The bottles to be sorted are bottle supply conveyors.
It is conveyed by 11 and falls onto the cullet passage grid 13 from the front end of its conveying path. The cullet mixed in the bottle passes through the cullet passage grid 13 and is stored in the cullet collection box 14 through the hopper 12.

Bottles that have not passed through the cullet passage grid 13 are distributed to the left and right size selection conveyors 21,
The two conveyors 21 convey them in a forward direction. When the small bottle among the bottles conveyed on both conveyors 21 reaches the small bottle passage gap 32 of both bottle slide guide plates 26, the small bottle passes through the small bottle passage gap 32 and is received by the small bottle conveyance chute 24. To be The received small bottle falls in the small bottle conveying chute 41 and is received at the rear end of the conveying path of the small bottle conveying conveyor 24.

The medium / large bottles that could not pass through the small bottle passage gap 32 eventually reach the medium / large bottle passage gap 33, pass through the medium / large bottle passage gap 33, and reach the medium / large bottle. Medium / large bottle transport conveyor 25 that falls inside the transport chute 42
Can be received at the rear end of the transport path. The oversized bottles that could not pass through both the small bottle passing gap 32 and the medium / large bottle passing gap 33 are conveyed to the front end of the conveyance path of the size selection conveyor 21, from which they fall in the chute 22 to reach the box 23. Will be collected.

The small bottles placed on the small bottle conveying conveyor 24 are conveyed to the color selecting station S3. At the color selection station S3, the vial color selection device 53
It is sorted into four kinds of small bottles of brown, blue-green and transparent, and by the operation of the rejector device 54, it is put into the chute 57 from above the conveyor 51 according to the sorted colors. Like the small bottles, the medium / large bottles conveyed to the color selection station S3 by the medium / large bottle conveyor 25 are color-sorted and then collected by the chute 57.

Next, various modifications will be described.

FIG. 5 shows a modified example of the bottle slide guide plate 61. A notch 62 is formed at the lower edge of the bottle slide guide plate 61, and the upper edge of the notch 62 is inclined forward and upward. In FIG. 4, the small bottle passage gap 32 and the medium / large bottle passage gap 33 are formed so that the sizes thereof are changed stepwise, but in this modification, the small bottle passage gap 32 and the medium / large bottle are formed. The small, medium, and large bottle passing gaps 63 corresponding to the passing gaps 33 are continuously changed so as to gradually increase toward the front.

FIG. 6 shows a portion upstream of the notches 31 and 62 of the bottle slide guide plates 26 and 61 shown in FIG. 3 or 4. On the guide surfaces of the bottle sliding guide plates 26, 61 in this portion, a plurality of ridges 71 having a triangular cross section are formed so as to intersect the conveyor conveyance path and at predetermined intervals in the conveyor conveyance direction. With such a ridge 71, when the bottle is laid horizontally on the conveyor conveyance path, the bottle being conveyed is engaged with the ridge 71 to correct its posture vertically.

Similar to FIG. 6, FIG. 8 shows the bottle sliding guide plate 2
Although the portions upstream of the notches 31 and 62 of 6 and 61 are shown, it may be the same portion as the portion shown in FIG. 6 or a different portion. A plurality of braking plates 81 are arranged from the upper edge of the transport path of the bottle selection conveyor 21 toward the bottle slide guide plates 26, 61 at predetermined intervals in the conveyor transport direction.
The braking plate 81 faces the conveyor transportation path in parallel with the conveyor transportation path at a slight distance. A gap 82 is formed between the bottle slide guide plates 26, 61 and the tip of the braking plate 81, which is large enough to pass a vertically oriented large bottle. In FIG. 9, when the large bottle and the small bottle overlap each other in the width direction on the conveyor conveyance path as shown on the upstream side of the conveyor conveyance path, the small bottle rides on the braking plate 81 as it is conveyed, so that the braking plate 81 The rearward force is exerted on the small bottle by the braking action of, whereby the small bottle 81 falls behind the large bottle, and the overlap is eliminated.

FIG. 10 corresponds to FIG. In FIG. 10, the small bottle transport conveyor 24 is tilted in the same manner as the left size sorting conveyor 21 and the medium / large bottle transport conveyor 25 is tilted in the same manner as the right size sorting conveyor 21. In addition, the two fly-out prevention plates 43 and 44 are also used for the small bottle transport conveyor 24 and the medium / large bottle transport conveyor 25.
It is inclined to correspond with. Further, the gap between the vial transport conveyor 24 and the right pop-out prevention plate 43 is formed so as to become larger as it goes downstream in the transport path, and the cullet and the ultra-small bottle that have flowed into the vial transport conveyor 24 through the gap are removed. I am able to do it. Similarly, the medium / large bottle transport conveyor 25 and the left pop-out prevention plate 44
The gap between them is formed so as to become larger toward the downstream side of the conveyance path, and the bottles including the cullet and smaller than the small bottle can be removed from the gap. The removed cullet, bottle, etc. are discarded as a residue together with the residue of the color identification part.

[0040]

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately color-select large bottles, medium bottles, and small bottles.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a bottle sorting apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical vertical sectional view of the same device.

3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG.

4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 4 showing a modified example of a bottle sliding guide plate of the bottle sorting device.

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing another modified example of the bottle slide guide plate.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line VII-VII in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing still another modification of the bottle slide guide plate.

9 is a sectional view taken along line IX-IX in FIG.

10 is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 3 showing a modified example of the apparatus shown in FIGS.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 size selection conveyor 26 Bottle sliding guide member 32 Small bottle sorting gap 33 Medium / large bottle selection gap

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-7-124522 (JP, A) JP-A-55-149664 (JP, A) JP-A-9-29177 (JP, A) JP-A-8- 323291 (JP, A) Actual Kaihei 7-13469 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B07B 1/00-15/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A selection means for separately selecting a small bottle, a medium bottle and a large bottle from a bottle to be selected, a selected small bottle, a medium bottle and a large bottle, and a dedicated color selection separately. And a conveyor means for conveying to the device, and the sorting means has a bottle conveyor, and the conveyor passage is inclined so that one edge is lower than the other, bottles sliding guide member is provided along the lower edge of the, between the lower end of the lower edge and the bottle sliding guide members of the conveying path, the size of the bottle to be sorted are passing, which is larger than the size of the bottle A bottle sorting device with a bottle sorting gap that prevents the passage of the bottle. 2. A color selection device for separately selecting a small bottle, a medium bottle and a large bottle from the bottles to be selected, and a dedicated color selection for the selected small bottle, the medium bottle and the large bottle. And a conveying means for conveying to the device, the selecting means has a bottle conveying conveyor, and the conveyor has two conveying paths arranged in parallel at a predetermined gap. The two transport paths are inclined so that one edge facing each other is lower than the other edge, and a bottle slide guide member is provided along each lower edge of both transport paths. A bottle selection gap is formed between the lower edge of the path and the lower end of the corresponding bottle slide guide member to allow passage of a bottle of the size to be sorted but prevent passage of bottles of a larger size. apparatus. 3. The bottle sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bottle sorting gap is gradually or continuously increased from upstream to downstream of the transport path. 4. The chute is arranged so as to be able to receive the bottles that have passed through both bottle selection gaps between the lower edges of the respective transport paths and the lower ends of the bottle slide guide members corresponding to the respective lower edge portions. Or the bottle sorting device according to the item 3. 5. A bottle engaging projection is provided on the bottle sliding guide member upstream of the bottle selecting gap.
The bottle sorter according to any one of 4 to 4. 6. A brake plate is arranged upstream of the bottle selection gap from the upper edge of the transfer path toward the bottle slide guide member so as to allow the bottle to be transferred to ride on the transfer path. 6. A passage gap is formed between the bottle slide guide member and the tip of the braking plate so that a large bottle including a medium bottle and a small bottle can pass therethrough.
Bottle sorting device described in 1.