JP3556880B2 - Staggered article transfer equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention, for example, tableware, at the end of the annealing furnace conveyor in the course of manufacturing glass products such as containers, staggered arrangement suitable for use when, for example, to transfer the glass containers flowing on the annealing furnace conveyor to another conveyor The present invention relates to a corresponding article transfer device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
9 to 11 relate to a conventional transfer device 30. FIG. 9 is a top view, FIG. 10 is a sectional view, and FIG. 11 is a front view. This transfer device 30 is a device for transferring the glass product 23 flowing on the annealing furnace conveyor 21 to another conveyor 22 at the end of the annealing furnace conveyor 21 in the process of manufacturing the glass product 23, It comprises a beam 10, a lifting cylinder 5, a lower beam 11, a holding frame 3, a manifold 19, a plurality of vacuum heads 4, a timing sensor 7, and control means (not shown).
[0003]
The traveling rails 2 are provided along the length direction above both sides of the annealing furnace conveyor 21. The traveling carriage 6 travels in the length direction along the traveling rail 2 by a drive motor (not shown). The upper beam 10 is horizontally installed on the traveling carriages 6 on both sides, and moves together with the traveling carriage 6. An elevating cylinder 5 is vertically provided below the upper beam 10, and a lower beam 11 is horizontally fixed to a tip of the shaft, and the lower beam 11 moves up and down by the operation of the elevating cylinder 5. I have. The holding frame 3 is provided horizontally on the lower beam 11 via a suspending member 31, and the manifold 19 and the plurality of vacuum heads 4 are fixed to the holding frame 3. The vacuum head 4 is connected to a manifold 19, and the manifold 19 is connected to a pressure reducing device (not shown). The control means controls the traveling of the traveling vehicle 6, the elevation of the elevating cylinder 5, and the opening and closing of the valve of the vacuum head 4 based on the timing signal of the timing sensor 7.
[0004]
The traveling carriage 6 is waiting at a location where the vacuum head is to adsorb the glass product. When the timing sensor 7 detects a glass product, it sends a timing signal to the control means. Upon receiving the timing signal, the control means operates the elevating cylinder 5 to lower the vacuum head 4, and further opens the valve of the vacuum head 4 to vacuum-adsorb the glass product 23. Next, the elevating cylinder 5 is operated to raise the vacuum head 4, and the traveling carriage is operated so that the vacuum head 4 runs just above the conveyor 22. Further, the elevating cylinder 5 is operated to lower the vacuum head 4, and further, the valve of the vacuum head 4 is closed to open the glass product on the conveyor 22. Subsequently, the elevating cylinder 5 is operated to raise the vacuum head 4, and the traveling carriage 6 is operated to travel to a predetermined standby position.
[0005]
The annealing furnace conveyor 21 slowly conveys the formed glass product in the annealing furnace, and the glass product is cooled slowly in the annealing furnace, and the thermal distortion is eliminated. Glass products are usually aligned vertically and horizontally on the annealing furnace conveyor, but in the case of thick glass products, it takes time to eliminate thermal distortion. Are staggered arrangements shifted by one half of the interval (p) of the glass products in the width direction. In FIG. 8, the A arrangement and the B arrangement are alternately arranged, and the B arrangement is shifted to the right by p / 2 in the width direction from the A arrangement.
[0006]
Conventionally, when transferring staggered glass products, the number of vacuum heads is twice (14 in this case) the number of glass products in one row (7 in this case). That is, a vacuum head for adsorbing glass products in the A-array and a vacuum head for adsorbing glass products in the B-array are separately provided.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the case of transferring articles in a staggered arrangement, since the number of vacuum heads in a conventional transfer apparatus is twice the number of articles in one row, when suctioning the articles with the vacuum head, half of the vacuum heads are in a state where the valve is open. Become. For example, if there are seven articles in one row, there are 14 vacuum heads, and the seven vacuum heads adsorb the articles, but the remaining seven remain open. For this reason, there is a problem that the whole vacuum pressure is reduced, the suction force of the vacuum head is reduced, and the article is easily dropped.
[0008]
In particular, when the article is a glass product, the drop and the surrounding products cause defects such as cracks, chips, scratches, etc., which not only deteriorates the production yield, but also eliminates the defective products. An inspector is required.
[0009]
The present invention prevents the vacuum pressure of the vacuum head from dropping even when the articles are transported in a staggered arrangement, prevents the articles from falling, and makes it easy to manufacture by modifying the conventional transfer device. It is an object to provide a transfer device having a simple structure.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention includes a suction unit of an article having a multiple vacuum heads, a holding frame for holding a vacuum head, a lifting means for vertically moving the holding frame, a moving means for moving the holding frame, the holding frame transport A sliding means for sliding a predetermined amount in the width direction of the device, and an article transfer device for suctioning and holding a row of articles flowing in an aligned state on a transport device such as a conveyor and moving it to another location, A control means for controlling the sliding means, wherein the article is an A-array, and the A-array is a staggered arrangement of a combination of an A-array and a B-array which is shifted to the right by half the width of the article in the width direction; An A sensor for detecting the leftmost article in the A array and a B sensor for detecting the rightmost article in the B array are provided near the position where the transfer device adsorbs the article, and the A sensor is an article. When detecting, the control means operates the slide means (or not) to set the holding frame to a position corresponding to the A arrangement, and when the B sensor detects an article, the control means operates the slide means. (Or without operating) the holding frame to the position corresponding to the B arrangement, and when both the AB sensors do not detect the article, the control means operates the sliding means to move the holding frame to the current position. A staggered array-compatible article transfer device characterized by sliding to the position of FIG.
[0011]
Since the holding frame slides in the width direction of the transfer device, the number of vacuum heads can be the same as the number of products in one row by sliding the holding frame in accordance with the arrangement of the rows to be sucked, and the vacuum pressure of the vacuum head decreases. I can't.
[0012]
The holding frame can be slid alternately left and right by p / 2 (1/2 of the widthwise article interval) each time one row is transferred. In rare cases, the same sequence may be consecutive. However, such a case can be dealt with by configuring as follows.
[0013]
The control means for controlling the slide means when the articles are the A arrangement and the staggered arrangement of the A arrangement and the combination of the B arrangement shifted to the right by p / 2 (one-half of the article interval in the width direction). And an A sensor for detecting the leftmost article in the A array and a B sensor for detecting the rightmost article in the B array near the position where the transfer device adsorbs the articles. When the A sensor detects the article, the control means operates (or does not operate) the slide means to set the holding frame at a position corresponding to the A arrangement, and when the B sensor detects the article, the control means operates the slide means. By operating the slide means (or not), the holding frame is set to the position corresponding to the B arrangement. By doing so, even when the A arrangement or the B arrangement is continuous, the holding frames can be accurately set at the corresponding positions and the articles in that row can be sucked.
[0014]
The conveyed articles may be in a toothless state, that is, one or several articles may be missing in one row. For example, if the leftmost article in the A array is missing, both AB sensors will not detect the article. In such a case, the control means operates the slide means to slide the holding frame to a position opposite to the current position. This is because, in principle, the A-array and the B-array are alternately arranged in the staggered array, so if the previously transferred row is the B-array, the next row is the A-array. It is conceivable that such a missing state may occur at the same time when the same arrangement is continuous. However, such a case is an extremely rare case and has no practical problem.
[0015]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
1 is a plan view of an installed state of the transfer apparatus 1 of the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the same, FIGS. 3 and 4 are front views of the same, FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a slide shaft 12 and a fixing member 13, and FIG. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the slide shaft 12 and the bearing 14, FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the slide cylinder 15, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a signal flow to the control means.
[0016]
The transfer apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 8 is installed at the end of an annealing furnace conveyor 21 in a glass product manufacturing line, and transfers a glass product 23 conveyed by the annealing furnace conveyor 21 to a conveyor 22 for sending to the next process. It is.
[0017]
The transfer apparatus 1 is an improvement of the conventional transfer apparatus 30 shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, and includes means for adsorbing an article (glass product) having a plurality of (in this case, seven) vacuum heads 4, and a vacuum head. A holding frame 3 for holding the holding frame 4, an elevating unit (elevating cylinder 5) for moving the holding frame 3 up and down, a moving unit (a running rail 2, a running trolley 6) for moving the holding frame 3, and a transport device A slide means (slide cylinder 15) for sliding a predetermined amount in the width direction of the (annealing furnace conveyor 21). The suction means includes a vacuum head 4, a manifold 19, a decompression device (not shown) such as a compressor, and hoses (not shown) for connecting these devices.
[0018]
Also in the transfer device 1, the traveling rails 2 are provided on both sides above the annealing furnace conveyor 21 along the length direction. The traveling carriage 6 travels in the length direction along the traveling rail 2 by a drive motor (not shown). The upper beam 10 is horizontally installed on the traveling carriages 6 on both sides, and moves together with the traveling carriage 6. An elevating cylinder 5 (air cylinder) is vertically provided below the upper beam 10, and a lower beam 11 is horizontally fixed to a tip of the shaft, and the lower beam 11 moves up and down by the operation of the elevating cylinder 5. It has become. Such a configuration is exactly the same as the conventional transfer device 30.
[0019]
A support plate 18 is vertically fixed to the lower beam 11, and the holding frame 3 is coupled to the support plate 18 horizontally and slidably in the width direction of the lehr conveyor 21. As shown in FIG. 3, the slide mechanism of the holding frame 3 is composed of two slide shafts 12 and one slide cylinder 15 (air cylinder). The slide shaft 12 is fixed to the holding frame 3 by a fixing member 13 as shown in FIG. 5, and is slidably supported by a bearing 14 fixed to a support plate 18 as shown in FIG. . As shown in FIG. 7, the cylinder portion of the slide cylinder 15 is fixed to the holding frame 3 by a fixing member 16, and the tip of the shaft portion is fixed to a support plate 18 by a fixing member 17. Thus, by operating the slide cylinder 15, the holding frame 3 slides left and right. A manifold 19 and seven vacuum heads 4 are fixed to the holding frame 3.
[0020]
An A sensor 8 and a B sensor 9 in addition to the timing sensor 7 are provided in the annealing furnace conveyor 21 near the position where the transfer device 1 sucks the articles. The A sensor 8 is provided on the left side of the annealing furnace conveyor 21 and detects the leftmost product of the A array, and the B sensor is provided on the right side of the annealing furnace conveyor 21 and detects the rightmost product of the B array.
[0021]
The operation control of the transfer device 1 is performed by control means such as a computer and a sequencer. Control of the control means when the glass products 23 flow on the annealing furnace conveyor 21 in a staggered arrangement in which the A arrangement and the B arrangement are alternated as shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The traveling carriage 6 is waiting at a location where the vacuum head is to adsorb the glass product. When the row of glass products flows to the position of the timing sensor 7, the timing sensor 7 detects the glass product and sends a timing signal to the control means. At this time, the control means confirms a detection signal generated when the A sensor 8 and the B sensor 9 detect the leftmost or rightmost product. If the A sensor 8 has sent the detection signal, the control means activates the slide cylinder 15 (does not operate if the previously transferred row is the A arrangement), as shown in FIG. , The support frame 3 corresponding to the A arrangement is shifted to the left side, and if the B sensor 9 sends a detection signal, the arrangement is the B arrangement, so that the control means operates the slide cylinder 15 (or does not operate). As shown in FIG. 4, the support frame 3 corresponding to the B arrangement is shifted to the right. When both the A sensor 8 and the B sensor 9 do not send a detection signal, the end product is in a toothless state. Therefore, the slide cylinder 15 is operated, and the support frame 3 is brought into a state opposite to the state of the previous transfer. Slide. Next, the control means operates the elevating cylinder 5 to lower the vacuum head 4 and opens the valve of the vacuum head 4 to vacuum-adsorb the glass product. Further, the elevating cylinder 5 is actuated to raise the vacuum head 4, and the traveling carriage 6 is actuated so that the vacuum head 4 travels just above the conveyor 22. Further, the elevating cylinder 5 is operated to lower the vacuum head 4, the valve of the vacuum head 4 is closed, and the glass product is opened on the conveyor 22. Subsequently, the elevating cylinder 5 is operated to raise the vacuum head 4, and the traveling carriage 6 is operated to travel to a predetermined standby position. By repeating this control, the glass products 23 on the annealing furnace conveyor 21 can be automatically transferred onto the conveyor 22.
[0022]
Since there are seven glass products in one row in each of the A-array and the B-array, and the number of the vacuum heads is also seven, the vacuum pressure does not decrease when the glass products are sucked by the vacuum head, and the suction power is reduced. And the glassware does not fall.
[0023]
Further, if the slide device is not operated, the transfer device 1 can of course be used in a normal vertical and horizontal straight alignment state.
[0024]
The feature of the present invention is that the vacuum head 4 is held by a structure (a traveling vehicle 6, an upper beam 10, an elevating cylinder 5, a lower beam 11, and a support plate 18) that can be called a main frame that can be moved to a transfer location. The holding frame 3 to be slidable can be slid, the structure of the main frame, the structure of the holding frame, the slide mechanism, Whether it is provided on the frame or on the support frame is not limited to the embodiment, and the design can be arbitrarily changed.
[0025]
【The invention's effect】
The transfer apparatus of the present invention can reliably transfer an article without dropping because the vacuum pressure does not decrease during vacuum suction of the article.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a plan view of an installed state of a transfer device 1 according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an installed state of the transfer device 1.
FIG. 3 is a front view of an installed state of the transfer device 1;
FIG. 4 is a front view of an installed state of the transfer device 1.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a slide shaft 12 and a fixing member 13.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of a slide shaft 12 and a bearing 14.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of a slide cylinder 15.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a signal flow to a control means.
FIG. 9 is a top view of a conventional transfer device 30.
10 is a sectional view of the transfer device 30. FIG.
11 is a front view of the transfer device 30. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transfer device 2 Running rail 3 Holding frame 4 Vacuum head 5 Lifting cylinder 6 Traveling trolley 7 Timing sensor 8 A sensor 9 B sensor 10 Upper beam 11 Lower beam 12 Slide shaft 13 Fixing member 14 Bearing 15 Slide cylinder 16 Fixing member 17 Fixing member 18 Support plate 19 Manifold 21 Annealing furnace conveyor 22 Conveyor 23 Glassware 30 Transfer device 31 Suspension member

Claims (1)

And suction means articles having multiple vacuum heads, the width direction of the holding frame for holding a vacuum head, a lifting means for vertically moving the holding frame, a moving means for moving the holding frame, the conveying device holding frame A sliding means for sliding by a predetermined amount to, in an article transfer device for sucking and holding a row of articles flowing in an aligned state on a conveyor such as a conveyor and moving it to another place, The A arrangement and the A arrangement are a staggered arrangement of a combination of the B arrangement shifted to the right by half the width of the article in the width direction. The control means for controlling the slide means and the transfer device An A sensor that detects the leftmost article in the A array and a B sensor that detects the rightmost article in the B array are provided near the position where the article is adsorbed, and the A sensor detects the article. At this time, the control means operates the slide means (or does not operate) to set the holding frame at a position corresponding to the A arrangement, and when the B sensor detects an article, the control means operates the slide means ( Or, without operating the holding frame, set the holding frame to the position corresponding to the B arrangement, and when both the AB sensors do not detect the article, the control means operates the slide means to move the holding frame to the position opposite to the current position. A staggered array-compatible article transfer device characterized by sliding in a staggered manner .

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