JP4190403B2 - Pallet washing and dewatering equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention cleans a rectangular workpiece (hereinafter simply referred to as a pallet) such as a pallet or a similar tray / container in an upright state with one side as a bottom surface, and reduces the amount of cleaning liquid adhering to the cleaning process. It is related with the pallet washing | cleaning dehydration apparatus improved so that it could remove by.

In a pallet washing / dehydrating apparatus configured to wash this kind of pallet in the standing state and remove the cleaning liquid adhering in the washing process and then to return the pallet to the horizontal state by the overturning means and carry it out, the pallet is moved in the standing state. In the middle of the work process of cleaning and removing the cleaning liquid and transferring it to the overturning means, a draining part is installed to shake off the liquid adhering to the pallet by applying a large impact by stopping the pallet by inclining rapidly. Is known (Patent Document 1). However, in this prior art, the pallet is washed while the draining part is upright, disposed in the middle of the work process in which the cleaning liquid is removed and transferred to the overturning means, and the liquid adhered to the surface of the pallet at the draining part. Since the work procedure of drying by blowing hot air etc. after removing the pallet was adopted, the pallet was tilted from the standing state to a certain angle separately from the falling means to return the pallet from the standing state to the horizontal state. A rocking means to return was needed. Therefore, in the case of this prior art, it is necessary to provide the tumbling means and the oscillating means having the same function in duplicate, and accordingly, there is a technical problem that the equipment cost increases and the installation area is increased. there were.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-52973

  In view of the above-described conventional technical situation, the present invention has reviewed a work content of each working unit constituting the pallet washing and dehydrating apparatus and an arrangement between the working units, and is a mechanism having a similar operation form. The purpose is to reduce the equipment cost and the installation area of the equipment.

The present invention was developed by adding a swing motion of the pallet in order to more accurately remove the cleaning liquid adhering during cleaning, and paying attention to the fact that the swing motion has the same operation mode as the pallet falling motion. A cleaning means for cleaning the pallet in an upright state with one side as a bottom surface, a dehydrating means for removing the cleaning liquid from the upright pallet that has been cleaned by the cleaning means, and a horizontal position of the pallet from the upright state. In the pallet washing and dewatering device provided with the overturning means for bringing the pallet into a state, when the pallet is brought down from the standing state to the horizontal state by the overturning means, the pallet is swung so that it remains unremovable by the dewatering means. The technical means of removing the cleaning solution was adopted. As the operation mode of the overturning means, it may be a mode of carrying out after repeating the overturning operation of tilting the pallet from the standing state to the horizontal state, or may be carried out at an appropriate inclination angle, for example, within a range of 45 degrees from the vertical. It is also possible to carry out a swinging operation and then to carry out by falling down horizontally. In addition, the pallet in the standing state is rotated once in the direction opposite to the falling direction and then rotated in the falling direction to fall to the horizontal state and carried out, or set in the falling direction across the standing state. Also possible to operate within the range between the tilt angle set in the opposite direction and the tilt angle set in the opposite direction, i.e., swinging the pallet on both sides across the standing state and then carrying it down to the horizontal state and carrying it out It is. A tipping means is constituted by a support frame that holds the pallet, a support shaft that rotatably supports an end portion of the support frame, and an air cylinder that rotates the support frame about the support shaft. Can do. Further, by adopting a multistage air cylinder or a plurality of air cylinders as the air cylinder, the swing range of the support frame may be changed. For example, a falling air cylinder and a swinging air cylinder are provided, and a two-stage air cylinder is used as the swinging air cylinder to control switching of compressed air supplied to each chamber in the air cylinder. If comprised in this way, it is also possible to set the rocking | fluctuation range in two steps.

  In the present invention, with respect to the removal of the cleaning liquid remaining inside the pallet, etc., which is difficult to remove by the dehydrating means with respect to the cleaning liquid adhering to the surface of the pallet, the inclination of the adhering surface of the liquid due to the swing of the pallet or the impact at the stop Since the draining action is adopted and the pallet tipping means is also used as a rotating means for swinging the pallet to remove the residual liquid, the pallet overturning means is unified so that the cleaning liquid adhering to the cleaning can be removed. It can be removed accurately and efficiently, and the equipment cost and the installation area of the apparatus can be reduced.

  The present invention can be widely applied to the removal of cleaning liquid adhering to a cleaned square or rectangular pallet. Here, the breakdown of the cleaning liquid adhering to the cleaned pallet is not limited to the type of cleaning liquid used in the cleaning process, but generally includes detergents and abrasives. This includes the case of ordinary water without detergent. In addition, in the case of a cleaning process consisting of pre-cleaning, main cleaning, rinsing, etc., this includes cases where the cleaning liquid used in each of these cleaning processes is mixed, or contaminated soil components are mixed in. It is. Incidentally, in the case of a resin pallet, one having a weight of about 10 to 30 kg and a thickness of about 130 mm to 150 mm is generally used, but it is not limited to these forms and can be widely applied. It is. In addition, there are two-way pallet and four-way pallet for the fork insertion form, but it goes without saying that it can be applied to both forms. Note that the direction in which the pallet is turned over horizontally by the overturning means may be set to return to the same side as the carry-in side, or set to be carried out to the side opposite to the carry-in side. Alternatively, it may be set so as to be carried out in an orthogonal direction.

  With regard to the cleaning means, when the processing capacity may be low, a small number of cleaning nozzles are moved two-dimensionally to clean the entire surface of the pallet in a standing state, and when it is desired to increase the processing capacity, the pallet What is necessary is just to comprise so that the whole surface of a pallet may be wash | cleaned by preparing the number of washing nozzles which can spray the height for this at a time, and making it move relatively in the conveyance direction. In addition, with regard to the dehydrating means for removing the cleaning liquid from the erected and cleaned pallet, for example, the blow nozzle injection port is formed in a slit shape so that the gas is injected in the direction opposite to the traveling direction. May be set. Other dewatering means may be used, such as an impact dewatering method, a vibration dewatering method, a centrifugal dewatering method, or a combination thereof. The cleaning nozzle and the blow nozzle may be fixed, and the pallet may be continuously conveyed through the cleaning unit and the dehydrating unit and processed continuously. In the case of this continuous treatment, it is effective for simplifying the washing section and the dewatering section, and thus effective for reducing the installation area of the apparatus. Since the part is arranged in the middle, it is difficult to realize. In the case of the present invention, by setting the required time for the swinging operation, the overturning operation, and the return operation for the pallet by the overturning means within the processing time of the cleaning process and the dehydration process, Smooth continuous processing is possible through the section and the overturning section.

  Next, the operation of the overturning means will be described by taking as an example the case where an air cylinder is employed as the driving means. The operation control related to the swinging movement of the pallet is performed by providing a sensor at the position of the piston where the pallet has a predetermined inclination angle, and executing switching control related to the supply of compressed air to the air cylinder based on the detection signal from the sensor. It is configured to repeat the swinging, or is configured to execute the switching control related to the supply of compressed air to the air cylinder based on the operation time required for the pallet to reach a predetermined inclination angle to repeat the swinging. Is possible. Further, the switching control may be performed by detecting the position of the support frame and the angle of the support shaft. For example, when the required time or the required number of times related to the swinging operation set in advance is reached, the entire operation time related to the swinging operation of the pallet is stopped by canceling the switching related to the supply of compressed air to the air cylinder. Can be set within a predetermined range. Furthermore, a sensor is provided in the middle of the stroke of the piston, and when the number of times detected by the intermediate sensor reaches a predetermined number of times, the switching of the supply of compressed air to the air cylinder is stopped to stop the pallet It is also possible to set the entire operation time related to the swinging operation within a predetermined range.

  With regard to the configuration of the air cylinder, for example, two air cylinders are connected in series, and the swinging operation is performed by one cylinder, and the falling operation from the standing state to the horizontal state is performed by the addition stroke of both cylinders. It is also possible to configure. In this case, the stroke of the oscillating cylinder is determined according to the inclination angle of the pallet in the oscillating operation, and the remaining stroke becomes the stroke of the other cylinder. Note that the inclination angle of the pallet in the swing operation is, for example, within 45 degrees, and preferably within 25 degrees. As for the specific arrangement itself of these two cylinders, as long as they are in a serial form in which the operations of both cylinders are added, they may be simply arranged side by side in the vertical direction, or the output side of one cylinder May be arranged in the horizontal direction in a state of being connected to the main body side of the other cylinder. In addition, a swinging air cylinder is provided separately from the overturning air cylinder, and the swing range can be changed by using a multistage air cylinder or multiple air cylinders as the swinging air cylinder. It is also possible to do. Incidentally, more effective removal of liquid can be achieved if it is configured to suddenly start and stop so that the acceleration during the swinging motion with respect to the pallet increases. Further, if a gap between the outer surface of the pallet and the support portion of the pallet made of a support frame is set to be loose, an impact action due to the play is added when the swinging direction is reversed, and dehydration is performed. The effect can be improved.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a schematic front view showing an arrangement of main parts of a pallet washing / dehydrating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view thereof. As shown in the drawing, the pallet washing / dehydrating apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a standing means 2 for raising the unpalleted pallet 1 carried in a horizontal state in a vertical state, and a pallet 1 in a standing state from both sides. Compressed from both sides and above the cleaning section 5 having cleaning means including cleaning nozzles 3 and 4 for spraying cleaning liquid and the standing pallet 1 in which the cleaning processing has been completed in the cleaning section 5 A dehydrating section 9 having dehydrating means comprising blow nozzles 6-8 for removing the cleaning liquid adhering to the surface of the pallet 1 by spraying gas, and a tipping means 10 for depressing the pallet 1 from a standing state to a horizontal state; It is composed of

  Thus, the unpalleted pallet 1 carried in a horizontal state is first erected by the erection means 2 and placed on the conveyor 11 in an erected state with one side as the bottom surface. Next, the pallet 1 is conveyed to the cleaning unit 5 in an upright state by an intermittent traveling operation of the conveyor 11. In the cleaning unit 5, an appropriate cleaning liquid sprayed from the cleaning nozzles 3 and 4 is sprayed from both sides of the pallet 1 to perform a cleaning process. The cleaning nozzles 3 and 4 of the present embodiment are configured to be movable up and down and left and right, and perform spray cleaning on the entire surface while moving along the pallet 1. Further, the cleaning nozzles 3 and 4 are configured so that the injection angle can be changed, and when the cleaning liquid is sprayed on the upper end portion of the pallet 1, the upper end surface of the pallet 1 is also simultaneously sprayed slightly downward. Can be washed. Further, when the cleaning nozzles 3 and 4 reach the left and right end portions of the pallet 1 and reverse the injection angle to the left and right to start moving in the opposite direction, the left and right end surfaces of the pallet 1, that is, the pallet 1 in the transport direction. The front and rear end faces can be cleaned.

  The cleaned pallet 1 that has been subjected to the cleaning process in the cleaning unit 5 is transferred onto the transfer conveyor 12 in an upright state due to the intermittent running of the transfer conveyor 11 and the transfer conveyor 12. The sample is transferred onto the conveyor 13 by intermittent travel of the conveyor 13. At the time of transfer from the conveyor 12 to the conveyor 13, the pallet 1 passes through the blow nozzles 6 to 8 installed in the dewatering unit 9 in an upright state, and is ejected from the blow nozzles 6 and 7. The cleaning liquid adhering to both surfaces of the pallet 1 and the front and rear end surfaces in the transport direction is removed by an appropriate compressed gas, and the cleaning liquid adhering to the upper end surface of the pallet 1 is removed by an appropriate compressed gas ejected from the blow nozzle 8. Thereafter, the pallet 1 from which the cleaning liquid adhering to the surface by the blow nozzles 6 to 8 has been removed is transferred onto the conveying conveyor 14 while being in an upright state by the intermittent running of the conveying conveyor 13 and the conveying conveyor 14. At the time of transfer onto the conveyor 14, the pallet 1 in the standing state enters and is held in the support space formed in the support frame of the overturning means 10, and the residual liquid is removed by the swinging of the overturning means 10. After going through the process, it falls to a horizontal state and is carried out to the outside. Incidentally, a blow nozzle is provided on a support frame, which will be described later, constituting the overturning means 10 so that the liquid remaining in the lower end of the pallet located below in the standing state can be removed at the time of carrying out, or from the overturning means. It is also possible to remove the remaining liquid by blowing gas as appropriate to the lower end of the horizontal pallet after unloading.

  Next, the fall means 10 which is a characteristic part of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 3 is a structural explanatory view showing the overturning means 10, FIG. 4 is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 5 is a right side view thereof. As shown in FIG. 5, the overturning means 10 according to the present embodiment includes a frame body 16 that is rotatably supported by a support shaft 15 that is arranged in parallel with the transport conveyor 14, and the frame body 16. On the other hand, a U-shaped frame 17 is provided integrally with a parallel interval through which the pallet 1 can enter. The frame 16 and the frame 17 constitute a support frame 18 that supports the pallet 1, and the swinging is performed in a state where the pallet 1 is supported in a support space formed between the frames 16 and 17. An operation or a falling operation will be performed. Incidentally, the frame body 16 in the present embodiment integrally connects the frame members 19 and 20 on both sides supported rotatably by the support shaft 15 and the frame members 19 and 20 as shown in FIG. It is comprised so that the chain conveyor for carrying out which consists of chains 22 and 23 can be arrange | positioned between the frame member 19 and the frame member 20, and it is comprised. In addition, on the side of the frame member 19, projecting pieces 24 and 25 projecting laterally from two spaced apart parts, rising parts 26 and 27 bent further at right angles, and these rising parts 26 and 27 are mutually connected. A support member 29 composed of the connected connecting portions 28 is integrally formed, and the base of the frame body 17 is fixed to the support member 29. Further, the frame body 17 in the present embodiment is configured in a U shape from two bar-shaped frame members 30 and 31 that are spaced apart from each other, and a connecting portion 32 that connects the end portions of the frame members 30 and 31 to each other. An inclined guide portion 33 for guiding the pallet 1 as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the frame member 30 on the support shaft 15 side is provided with a locking member 36 that locks the lower end surface of the pallet 1 via the support pieces 34 and 35. Yes.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, driving air cylinders 37 and 38 are installed on the frame members 19 and 20 constituting the frame body 16. In this embodiment, the air cylinders 37 and 38 are used to carry out the desired swinging operation from the standing state to a predetermined angle, for example, 25 degrees, from the standing state, and then fall down to the horizontal state and carry it out. The case where it employ | adopts is demonstrated. FIG. 6 is an operation circuit diagram illustrating an operation circuit of the air cylinders 37 and 38. As shown in the figure, in this embodiment, the two ports of the air cylinders 37 and 38, that is, the direction of travel of the piston 43 are connected to the compressed gas source 39 such as compressed air by the pipes 41 and 42 via the electromagnetic switching valve 40. A front port 45 communicated with the front chamber 44 formed in the front and a rear port 47 communicated with the rear chamber 46 formed in the rearward direction of the piston 43 are connected. Further, sensors 48 and 49 such as proximity switches are disposed at both ends of the stroke of the piston 43, and their detection signals are transmitted to the control device 52 via the transmission circuits 50 and 51, and electromagnetic switching is performed via the control circuit 53. The valve 40 is configured to be used for switching control.

  Thus, the pallet 1 that has been subjected to the dehydration process in the dewatering unit 9 is conveyed by the conveying conveyor 14 to the fall means 10 while standing, and is formed between the frame body 16 and the frame body 17 constituting the support frame 18. When advancing to a predetermined position in the support space, the arrival state of the pallet 1 is detected by a sensor (not shown) and transmitted to the control device 52. In the control device 52, based on the arrival signal of the pallet 1, the electromagnetic switching valve 40 is switched from the state shown in FIG. 6 to a connected state in which the valve body is moved downward and connected via the upper valve flow path. By switching the electromagnetic switching valve 40, the working gas is supplied from the compressed gas source 39 to the front chamber 44 through the pipe line 41 and the front port 45. As a result, the piston 43 operates downward in the drawing, the output rod 54 moves backward, and the overturning operation for tilting the support frame 18 in the horizontal direction is started. Needless to say, when the piston 43 moves downward in the figure, the air in the rear chamber 46 is exhausted through the rear port 47, the conduit 42 and the exhaust port of the electromagnetic switching valve 40. When the elapsed time measured by the timer function of the control device 52 reaches a preset time corresponding to a preset inclination angle of, for example, 25 degrees, the valve body is moved upward with respect to the electromagnetic switching valve 40 from the control device 52. Then, a command to return to the state of FIG. 6 is output, and the connection state is switched to the connection state by the lower valve flow path. By switching the electromagnetic switching valve 40, the working gas is supplied from the compressed gas source 39 to the rear chamber 46 through the pipe line 42 and the rear port 47, the piston 43 is actuated upward in the figure, and the output rod 54 projects. A standing operation for raising the support frame 18 in the standing direction is started. That is, the pallet 1 shifts to a standing operation with an inclination of 25 degrees. Thereafter, when the pallet 1 reaches the standing state, it is detected by the sensor 48, and the electromagnetic switching valve 40 is moved from the state shown in FIG. 6 downward to the connection state in which the valve body is connected via the upper valve passage. In addition to switching, the elapsed time from the switching is timed and the above swinging operation is repeated.

  As described above, in the case of the present embodiment, the switching operation of the electromagnetic switching valve 40 by the control device 52 described above switches the overturning operation and the upright operation with respect to the support frame 18, and the pallet 1 is changed from the upright state to the predetermined state. After tumbling to the tilted state, the swinging operation with respect to the pallet 1 is executed to return to the standing state again. For example, the number of swings is calculated from the detection data of one of the sensors 48 and 49, and when the number of swings reaches a preset number of swings, or when the swinging operation is started in the control device 52. When the elapsed time reaches the preset total operation time of the swing operation, the repetition of the subsequent swing operation is stopped, and then the pallet 1 reaches the horizontal state. At this point, the drive to the overturning means 10 by the air cylinders 37 and 38 is stopped by the detection signal from the sensor 49, and the pallet 1 is carried out to the outside.

  As a result of the swinging motion with respect to the pallet 1 described above, the cleaning liquid remaining on the reinforcing ribs 55 and 56 formed inside the pallet 1 as shown in FIG. 7 is effectively removed. FIGS. 8 to 10 are schematic explanatory views regarding the residual liquid removing action by the swinging operation of the pallet 1. In the swinging operation in which the pallet 1 is tilted from the standing state to the predetermined inclined state, as shown in FIG. 8, the cleaning liquid remaining on one of the reinforcing ribs 55 flows down by its own weight with the inclination and falls. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, when the pallet 1 is in the standing state and stopped at the inclined end portion, the cleaning liquid remaining on the reinforcing rib 56 is scattered and falls due to inertia. By performing the above swinging operation a suitable number of times, residual liquid is removed to the outside through the fork insertion openings 57 and 58 formed in the pallet 1 as shown in FIG. Become. Note that the cleaning liquid effectively drops due to an impact at the time of reversal of the swinging direction caused by the gap between the outer surface of the pallet 1 and the support space.

It is the schematic front view which showed the arrangement | sequence of the principal part of the pallet washing | cleaning dehydration apparatus which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is the schematic plan view which showed the same Example. It is structure explanatory drawing which showed the fall means in the Example of this invention. It is the top view which showed the same fall means. It is the right view which showed the same fall means. It is the operation circuit diagram which illustrated the operation circuit of the air cylinder. It is the perspective view which illustrated the inside of a pallet. It is a schematic explanatory drawing about the removal effect | action of the residual liquid by the rocking | fluctuation operation | movement of a pallet. It is a schematic explanatory drawing regarding the removal effect | action of the residual liquid by the rocking | fluctuation operation | movement of the pallet. It is a schematic explanatory drawing regarding the removal effect | action of the residual liquid by the rocking | fluctuation operation | movement of the pallet.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Pallet, 2 ... Standing means, 3, 4 ... Cleaning nozzle, 5 ... Cleaning part, 6-8 ... Blow nozzle, 9 ... Dehydration part, 10 ... Inversion means, 11-14 ... Conveyor, 15 ... Support shaft, 16, 17 ... Frame body, 18 ... Support frame, 19, 20 ... Frame member, 21 ... Connection part, 22, 23 ... Chain, 24, 25 ... Projection part, 26, 27 ... Rising part, 28 ... Connection part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 29 ... Support member, 30, 31 ... Frame member, 32 ... Connection part, 33 ... Inclination guide part, 34, 35 ... Support piece, 36 ... Locking member, 37, 38 ... Air cylinder, 39 ... Compressed gas source, 40 ... solenoid switching valve, 41, 42 ... pipe, 43 ... piston, 44 ... front chamber, 45 ... front port, 46 ... rear chamber, 47 ... rear port, 48, 49 ... sensor, 50, 51 ... transmission circuit, 52 ... Control device, 53 ... Control circuit, 54 ... Output rod, 55,56 ... Reinforcing rib, 7,58 ... opening for fork insertion

Claims (4)

Cleaning means for cleaning the pallet in an upright state with one side as the bottom surface, dehydrating means for removing the cleaning liquid from the pallet in the upright state after cleaning by the cleaning means, and overturning the pallet from the standing state to the horizontal state In the pallet washing and dewatering apparatus comprising the means, when the pallet is tilted from the standing state to the horizontal state by the tipping means, the pallet is swung to remove the remaining cleaning liquid that cannot be removed by the dewatering means. A pallet washing and dehydrating apparatus characterized by being configured as described above.   The pallet washing and dewatering device according to claim 1, wherein the overturning means swings a plurality of times within a range of 45 degrees from the vertical.   The overturning means includes a support frame that supports the pallet, a support shaft that rotatably supports an end portion of the support frame, and an air cylinder that rotates the support frame about the support shaft. The pallet washing and dewatering device according to claim 1, wherein the support frame is configured to be swingable by a cylinder.   The pallet washing and dewatering device according to claim 3, wherein the swing range is set by controlling switching of compressed air supplied to each chamber in the air cylinder.

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