JP5456509B2 - Article dropping structure of boxing equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an article dropping structure of a boxing device.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a packing device using a paddle mechanism is known as a boxing device that packs a plurality of articles in a state where they are arranged (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  This packing device is disposed so as to face each other, a storage conveyor, an array conveyor arranged to extend in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the storage conveyor, and an overhead conveyor disposed above the array conveyor and having a flight. A pair of paddle mechanisms and a box conveyor for positioning the boxes at predetermined positions below the pair of paddle mechanisms. And when boxing, a box is located in a predetermined position with a box conveyor. Then, a plurality of bags are arranged in a plurality of rows on the array conveyor by moving the bags to be packed one by one to the array conveyor by the storage conveyor while operating the array conveyor. The arranged bags are transferred onto the paddles at a time by a flight of an overhead conveyor, and the bags arranged on the paddles are dropped into the box by rotating the paddles.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-220405

  By the way, even if the bags to be packed are simply transported toward the paddle by the conveyor, the transported bags stay in the vicinity of the end of the conveyor, and the plurality of transported bags are arranged in the axial direction of the paddle. It is not possible. Therefore, in the above-described conventional example, a plurality of bags are transferred in the axial direction on a paddle using an overhead conveyor. Although the operation of this overhead conveyor is not clear, the above-described conventional technique employs such an overhead conveyor as a means for transferring bags onto the paddle, so that the structure of the transfer means is complicated.

  As described above, the conventional boxing device has a problem that the configuration of the transfer device for transferring a plurality of bags to be boxed in a row is arranged on the paddle. This problem is common to not only bag dropping devices that employ a paddle mechanism, but also article dropping devices that drop general articles.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the article dropping structure of the boxing device according to the present invention includes a transporter that transports an article on a transport path and a speed controller that controls the transport speed of the article in the transporter. And an article placement member provided so that the article delivered from the end of the conveyance path of the transfer device can slide on the article, and the article placement member is moved to move the article A dropping device configured to drop an article on the placement member downward, and the speed controller sets the conveyance speed so that the article is arranged in the movement direction on the article placement member, It is comprised so that it may reduce in order to the speed according to the order in which articles line up.

  According to this configuration, the speed controller sequentially reduces the transport speed of the transport device to a speed corresponding to the order in which the articles are arranged so that the articles are arranged in the movement direction on the article placement member of the dropping device. The articles conveyed by the container can be transported so as to be arranged on the article placing member. Since the transfer device only needs to include a transporter that transports articles on the transport path and a speed controller that controls the transport speed of the articles in the transporter, the configuration of the transport apparatus can be simplified. .

  The dropping device may include a stop mechanism that stops the article sliding on the mounting member.

  According to this configuration, since the stop position of the article transferred from the transfer device onto the placement member can be defined by the stop mechanism, the article placement of the dropping device can be performed even when the article transport speed is roughly controlled. Articles can be arranged on the member in the moving direction. This facilitates control of the conveyance speed.

  In the article dropping structure according to the invention, the transporter may be a belt conveyor or a roller conveyor.

  According to this structure, a transfer apparatus can be comprised with the apparatus used widely.

  In the article dropping structure according to the above configuration, the dropping device includes a rotation shaft and a predetermined number of three or more flat blades arranged to extend from the center to the periphery in a rotationally symmetrical manner about the center of the rotation shaft. A pair of impellers arranged to oppose each other, and each of the rotation directions in which the respective blades move downward on the sides facing each other (hereinafter referred to as predetermined individual rotation directions). For each angle obtained by dividing 360 degrees by the predetermined number, any one blade of the pair of impellers (hereinafter referred to as the pair of blades) is substantially horizontal with the pair of blades. A plurality of the plurality of blades on the pair of blades stopped at the reference angle position as the article placement member by the transfer device. The articles are transferred so as to be sequentially arranged, and then the dropping device rotates the pair of blades in the predetermined individual rotation direction, so that the plurality of arranged articles fall downward from the pair of blades. You may comprise.

  According to this configuration, articles arranged on the article placement member (the pair of blades) can be dropped without disturbing the posture.

  The present invention is configured as described above, and has the effect of simplifying the configuration of a transfer device that transfers a plurality of articles to be packed in a row on an article placement member of a dropping device.

It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the boxing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the impeller with which the boxing apparatus of FIG. 1 is provided. It is a block diagram which shows roughly the structure of the control system of the belt conveyor with which the boxing apparatus of FIG. 1 is provided. It is a flowchart which shows the drive control of the belt conveyor with which the boxing apparatus of FIG. 1 is provided. It is a time chart which shows operation | movement of the belt conveyor with which the boxing apparatus of FIG. 1 is provided.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout all the drawings, and redundant description thereof is omitted.

[overall structure]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a boxing apparatus 100 including an article dropping structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. The boxing apparatus 100 is an apparatus that boxes an article packaged with a packaging material such as a pillow bag. Moreover, the boxing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, for example, stacks 12 articles in a horizontal direction for each stage, stacks them in six stages, and packs them.

  In FIG. 1, the boxing device 100 includes a belt conveyor (conveyor) 1, a boxing device main body 2, and a box supply device 3. Further, the boxing device 100 includes a control device (speed controller) 4 at an appropriate place.

[Configuration of belt conveyor]
The belt conveyor 1 is disposed so as to convey articles in the horizontal direction. That is, the belt conveyor 1 forms a conveyance path. In this embodiment, a general “belt conveyor” is used as the belt conveyor 1. That is, the belt conveyor 1 is hung between the main driving roller 16 driven by the article transfer device driving motor 15, the driven roller 17 arranged in parallel to the main driving roller 16, and the main driving roller 16 and the driven roller 17. And an annular conveying belt 18 that has been passed. The article transfer device drive motor 15 is, for example, a servo motor and includes an encoder that detects a rotation angle. The belt conveyor 1 is horizontally supported at a predetermined height by a support base (not shown). In the following, the side on which the articles are conveyed by the belt conveyor 1 is referred to as the upstream side, and the side on which the articles are conveyed is referred to as the downstream side.

  Then, an article passage sensor 12 is provided on the side of the downstream end portion of the belt conveyor 1 to detect an article passing through the downstream end portion of the belt conveyor 1. The article passage sensor 12 is constituted by an optical sensor, for example.

[Configuration of the boxing device itself]
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the boxing device main body 2 includes a dropping device 20, a temporary holding device 40, and a support frame 60. The boxing device main body 2 is arranged on the downstream side of the belt conveyor 1, and as will be described later, the articles transferred from the belt conveyor 1 to the dropping device 20 at the speed V1 or V2 are the first and second impellers 21 and 22. It is arranged to be placed on the blades.

  The support frame 60 includes a leg portion 61, a dropping device support portion 62, and a temporary holding device support portion 63.

  The leg portion 61 includes a first leg portion 61a disposed on one side in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the article in plan view, and a second leg portion 61b disposed on the other side. The first leg 61a includes a bar 61aa extending in the vertical direction on the upstream side, a bar 61ab extending in the vertical direction on the downstream side, and a bar spanned between the bar 61aa and the bar 61ab. Material 61ac. The second leg portion 61b includes a bar 61ba extending in the vertical direction on the upstream side, a bar 61bb extending in the vertical direction on the downstream side, and a bar spanned between the bar 61ba and the bar 61bb. Material 61bc. The dropping device support part 62 includes an upstream support plate 62a and a downstream support plate 62b. Each of the upstream support plate 62a and the downstream support plate 62b is a plate body. The upstream support plate 62a is spanned between the bar 61aa and the bar 61ba. The downstream support plate 62b is spanned between the bar 61ab and the bar 61bb. The temporary holding device support portion 63 includes an upstream support plate 63a and a downstream support plate 63b. Each of the upstream support plate 63a and the downstream support plate 63b is a plate body. The upstream side support plate 63a is located below the upstream side support plate 62a, and is spanned between the bar 61aa and the bar 61ba. The downstream side support plate 63b is located below the downstream side support plate 62b, and spans the bar material 61ab and the bar material 61bb.

[Configuration of drop device]
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the first and second impellers 21 and 22.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the dropping device 20 includes first and second impellers 21 and 22 (a pair of impellers) and a dropping device drive motor (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 2, the first impeller 21 includes a rotating shaft 23, blades 24, 25, 26 (article placement member), three angle members 36, and an end plate 27 (stop mechanism). doing.

  The rotating shaft 23 is formed in a hexagonal prism shape, and is arranged extending in parallel with the conveyance direction of the article. The rotating shaft 23 is formed to be sufficiently longer than a dimension in which, for example, two articles oriented in the longitudinal direction in the direction orthogonal to the conveying direction in plan view are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the rotating shaft 23. The upstream end and the downstream end of the rotary shaft 23 are rotatably supported by the upstream support plate 62a and the downstream support plate 62b, respectively. A plurality of screw holes (not shown) for attaching angle members 36 to be described later are formed at predetermined intervals on three side surfaces that are not adjacent to each other among the six side surfaces of the rotating shaft 23.

  The angle member 36 is formed in a shape in which a plate member is bent 90 degrees along a center line extending in the longitudinal direction of the angle member 36, and a rotary shaft attachment portion 36a is formed on one side through the bent portion, and the other side. A blade attachment portion 36b is formed. Therefore, the rotating shaft attachment portion 36a and the blade attachment portion 36b are orthogonal to each other. The angle member 36 is formed to have substantially the same length as the rotation shaft 23. Each of the rotating shaft attachment portion 36a and the blade attachment portion 36b has a plurality of screw insertion holes (not shown) at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction. The angle member 36 is inserted into the screw insertion hole of the rotation shaft attachment portion 36 a and attached to the rotation shaft 23 by a screw 37 screwed into a screw hole formed on the side surface of the rotation shaft 23.

  The blades 24, 25, and 26 are plate materials each formed in a substantially rectangular shape, and are formed in substantially the same shape. The length in the longitudinal direction of the blades 24, 25, 26 is formed substantially the same as the length of the angle member 36, and the length in the width direction of the blades 24, 25, 26 is the same as that of the rotating shaft 23 of the first impeller 21. It is formed to be shorter than ½ of the distance from the rotation shaft 23 of the second impeller 22 described later. One surface of the blades 24, 25, and 26 is a surface on which the article is placed, and is smoothly formed so that the article can be slid. The blades 24, 25, and 26 are each formed with a plurality of screw insertion holes (not shown) at predetermined intervals along one end portion in the longitudinal direction. The blades 24, 25, and 26 are respectively attached to the blade attachment portion 36b by screws 38 that are inserted into the screw insertion holes of the blades 24, 25, and 26 and screwed into the screw holes of the blade attachment portion 36b. Accordingly, the blades 24, 25, and 26 are disposed so as to extend from the center portion of the rotating shaft 23 to the peripheral portion, and are disposed at 120 ° intervals in the circumferential direction with respect to the rotating shaft 23. Further, the tips of the blades 24, 25, 26 constitute free ends.

  The end plate 27 is formed in a disc shape, and is fixed to the downstream end of the rotating shaft 23 coaxially with the rotating shaft 23. The radius of the end plate 27 is formed substantially the same as the length from the central axis of the rotating shaft 23 to the tips of the blades 24, 25, 26. In the present embodiment, the shape of the end plate 27 is a disc shape, but is not limited to this, and may be a triangular or hexagonal plate.

  Therefore, the 1st impeller 21 is formed in the rotational symmetry which overlaps with the 1st impeller 21 located in the original position whenever it rotates 120 degree | times.

  The second impeller 22 is formed in a mirror image symmetrical form with the first impeller 21. Therefore, detailed description is omitted.

  The first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 are arranged to face each other. The first and second blades 24, 25, and 26 of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are arranged such that the surfaces formed smoothly when the blades 24, 25, and 26 are located on the sides facing each other. It is attached to the impellers 21 and 22. Thus, the 1st and 2nd impellers 21 and 22 comprise a pair of impellers. And the space | interval of the rotating shaft 23 of the 1st impeller 21 and the rotating shaft 23 of the 2nd impeller 22 is formed sufficiently long, for example than the length of the longitudinal direction of articles | goods. Further, as described above, the length in the width direction of each of the blades 24, 25, 26 is ½ of the distance between the rotation shaft 23 of the first impeller 21 and the rotation shaft 23 of the second impeller 22. Since the gap is formed between the blades positioned at a reference angle position, which will be described later, and the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 rotate, the first impeller 21 is formed. The blades of the second impeller 22 do not overlap with each other. This gap is set to a sufficiently small dimension with respect to the longitudinal dimension of the article.

  The downstream end (terminal) of the belt conveyor 1 and the upstream ends of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are disposed adjacent to each other in plan view. Moreover, the rotating shafts 23 and 23 of the 1st and 2nd impellers 21 and 22 are each arrange | positioned in the substantially same height or the downward direction as the conveyance surface of the belt conveyor 1. Thus, the articles conveyed by the belt conveyor 1 are transferred from the belt conveyor 1 to the first and second impellers 21 and 22. Therefore, the belt conveyor 1 constitutes the “transfer device” of the present invention.

  The rotation shaft 23 of the first impeller 21 is directly connected to the output shaft of the dropping device drive motor. Then, when the output shaft of the dropping device drive motor 28 rotates, the first impeller is rotated so that the rotating shaft 23 of the first impeller 21 and the rotating shaft 23 of the second impeller 22 rotate in the opposite directions in synchronization. The rotation shaft 23 of 21 and the rotation shaft 23 of the second impeller 22 are connected via a gear, a pulley, and a timing belt.

  In the present embodiment, the rotation shafts 23 of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 are arranged to extend in parallel with the conveyance direction of the article in a side view, but are not limited thereto. It only has to be arranged extending in parallel with the conveying direction of the article in plan view.

  In this embodiment, the rotating shaft is formed in a hexagonal column shape, and the number of blades of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 is three. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the rotating shaft May be formed in a quadrangular prism shape, the number of blades of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 may be four, and the four blades may be attached to the four side surfaces of the rotating shaft, respectively. In such a case, each of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 is formed in a rotationally symmetrical manner that overlaps with the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 that are originally located each time the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 are rotated 90 degrees.

[Configuration of temporary holding device]
As shown in FIG. 1, the temporary holding device 40 includes a pair of third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 and a temporary holding device drive motor 48. The third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 and the temporary holding device drive motor 48 have the same configuration as the first and second impellers 21 and 22 of the dropping device 20 and the dropping device drive motor 28, respectively. Therefore, detailed description is omitted.

  And the upstream edge part of each rotating shaft 23 of the 3rd impeller 41 and the 4th impeller 42 is rotatably supported by the upstream support plate 63a. And the downstream end part of each rotating shaft 23 of the 3rd impeller 41 and the 4th impeller 42 is rotatably supported by the downstream support plate 63b.

  A boxing position P is set below the temporary holding device.

[Configuration of box feeder]
The box supply device 3 includes a roller conveyor 65. Since the configuration of the roller conveyor 65 is well known, detailed description thereof is omitted. The roller conveyor 65 is provided to extend in parallel with the belt conveyor 1 so as to pass through the boxing position P.

  A boxing position detection sensor 66 is provided on the side of the downstream end of the boxing position P, and detects that the downstream end of the box conveyed by the roller conveyor 65 is positioned at the downstream end of the boxing position P. To do. The boxing position detection sensor 66 is constituted by an optical sensor, for example.

[Configuration of control system]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the control system of the boxing device 100. Hereinafter, the control system of the boxing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The control device 4 included in the boxing device 100 includes, for example, a control unit 71 composed of a CPU and a storage unit 72 composed of ROM, RAM, and the like. The controller 71 controls the operations of the article transfer device controller 74 (speed controller) that controls the operation of the belt conveyor 1, the dropping device controller 75 that controls the operation of the dropping device 20, and the temporary holding device 40. A temporary holding device control unit 76 and a box supply device control unit 77 for controlling the operation of the box supply device 3 are provided. The article transfer device controller 74 controls the drive of the article transfer device drive motor 15 and thus the belt conveyor 1. That is, the belt conveyor 1 and the article transfer device control unit 74 constitute a transfer device. The dropping device control unit 75 controls the driving of the dropping device drive motor 28 and thus the first and second impellers 21 and 22 through a driver, and the temporary holding device control unit 76 temporarily holds through the driver. The device drive motor 48 and thus the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 are controlled, and the box supply device controller 77 controls the box supply device drive motor 68 and then the roller conveyor 65 via a driver. A predetermined control program is stored in the storage unit 72, and the operation of the boxing device 100 is controlled by the control unit 71 reading and executing these control programs. The article transfer device control unit 74, the dropping device control unit 75, the temporary holding device control unit 76, and the box supply device control unit 77 are functions realized by executing the control program in this way. The article passage signal output from the article passage sensor 12 is input to the article transfer device controller 74 and the dropping device controller 75. The box passage signal output from the boxing position detection sensor 66 is input to the temporary holding device control unit 76 and the box supply device control unit 77.

  The storage unit 72 stores the above-described predetermined control program, speed information (r1 and r2 to be described later) of the belt conveyor 1 input to the control device 4 from an input device (not illustrated), and a waiting time (T1 to be described later). doing.

  In addition, the arrow in a figure shows the transmission direction of a signal.

[Operation example]
Next, an operation example of the boxing device 100 will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control of the belt conveyor 1 and shows an operation example of the belt conveyor 1.

  FIG. 5 is a time chart showing the operation of the belt conveyor 1.

  First, before starting the operation, the speed information of the belt conveyor 1 (described later, r1 and r2) and the waiting time (described later) are input from the input device (not shown) to the control unit 71 of the control device 4 as operation parameters. T1) is input. The control unit 71 stores these operation parameters in the storage unit 72. Thereby, these operation parameters are set in the control device 4.

  Then, in the initial state, the dropping device control unit 75 is in a reference angular position where any one of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 is substantially horizontally aligned as shown in FIG. Any one of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 is stopped.

  The “reference angular position” is an angular position where any one of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 is arranged substantially horizontally in a direction perpendicular to the rotation shaft 23 in plan view. Specifically, the reference angular position is relative to an angular position where any one of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 is horizontally aligned in a direction perpendicular to the rotation shaft 23 in plan view. Thus, the rotation angle position is rotated 0 to 25 degrees upward or downward.

  Further, in the initial state, the temporary holding device control unit 76 has the third and fourth impellers at the reference angular position where any one of the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 is substantially horizontally aligned. Any one of the impellers 41 and 42 is stopped.

  Further, the box supply device control unit 77 starts the roller conveyor 65, conveys the box B1 that does not contain the article opened upward, and stops the roller conveyor 65 when the boxing position detection sensor 66 detects the box. The box B1 is positioned at the boxing position P.

  Hereinafter, in the present operation example, in the initial state, the pair of blades (the pair of blades) 24 and 24 having the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are positioned at the reference angular position, and the third and fourth The pair of blades 24 and 24 having the impellers 41 and 42 are assumed to be positioned at the reference angular position.

  Next, the belt conveyor 1 is activated, and the article transfer device controller 74 accelerates the conveyor belt 18 to the speed V1 (S100). Then, articles are transferred onto the belt conveyor 1 at predetermined time intervals from a belt conveyor (not shown) arranged adjacent to the upstream end of the belt conveyor 1. Then, the belt conveyor 1 transfers (sends) the article A1 to the dropping device 20 from its downstream end (terminal). The article A1 is detected by the article passage sensor 12 when it passes the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1 (S101) (see FIG. 1), and the initial speed is transferred onto the blades 24 and 24 at the speed V1. . Then, the article A1 slides on the smooth blades 24 and 24 of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 while reducing the speed by friction, and collides with the end plate 27 and stops. Therefore, the stop position of the article A1 is defined by the end plate 27. Further, the speed V1 is set to a speed at which the article A1 slides on the smooth blades 24, 24 of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 and stops by colliding with the end plate 27. The Specifically, the speed V1 is, for example, that the article A1 transferred from the belt conveyor 1 to the blades 24, 24 of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 collides with the end plate 27 and is bounced back. The posture of A is set so as not to be greatly disturbed.

  Next, the article transfer device controller 74 waits for T1 time after the article passage sensor 12 detects the article A1 (S102). T1 is a time set based on the time from when the article passage sensor 12 detects the article A to when the upstream end of the article A2 passes the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1. This time is determined based on calculations, experiments, simulations, and the like.

  Next, the article transfer device controller 74 decelerates the conveyor belt 18 to the speed V2 (S103). Then, the article A2 conveyed by the belt conveyor 1 next to the article A1 is detected by the article passage sensor 12 when passing the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1 (S104) (see FIG. 7), and the initial speed is the speed. It is transferred onto the blades 24, 24 at a speed of V2. Then, the article A2 transferred to the blades 24, 24 of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 is increased in speed on the smooth blades 24, 24 of the first impeller 21 and the second impeller 22 by friction. It slides and moves while decreasing, and stops at an adjacent position on the upstream side of the article A1.

  The speed V2 is set smaller than the speed V1. The speed V2 is, for example, when the article A2, which is transferred from the belt conveyor 1 to the dropping device 20 at the initial speed of the speed V2 and then slides while reducing the speed by friction, reaches a position adjacent to the article A1. The speed is set to take 0 or a value close to 0. That is, the speed V2 is set so that the article A2 gently collides with the article A1, or the article A2 does not collide with the article A1 and stops at a position immediately before the article A1. These speeds V1 and V2 are determined based on calculations, experiments, simulations, and the like. When the article A2 collides with the article A1, as described above, the stop position of the article A1 is defined by the end plate 27, and the position of the article A1 is held by the end plate 27. That is, at this time, the stop position of the article A2 is also defined by the end plate 27 via the article A1.

  As a result, the articles A1 and A2 are arranged in a row in the moving direction of the articles on the blades 24, 24. Thus, since the surface which mounts the articles | goods of the blade | wing of the 1st impeller 21 and the 2nd impeller 22 is formed smoothly, an article is conveyed by transferring an article from the belt conveyor 1 to the dropping device 20. Can be slid and moved on the surface on which the blades of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are placed, and can be arranged in a line. The articles A1 and A2 are transported on the transport path of the belt conveyor 1 in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction in plan view with the longitudinal direction thereof directed.

  Next, the article transfer device controller 74 waits for T1 time after the article passage sensor 12 detects the article A2 (S105). Then, the article transfer device controller 74 operates again with the transport belt 18 being accelerated to the speed V1 (S100).

  On the other hand, the dropping device controller 75 determines that the number of articles detected by the article passage sensor 12 has reached two, and the pair of blades of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 rotate downward. The first and second impellers 21 and 22 are rotated 120 degrees in synchronization with the same phase (predetermined individual rotation direction). Then, as the first and second impellers 21 and 22 rotate, the articles A1 and A2 supported by the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are dropped (dropped) downward. Then, the next pair of blades 25 are positioned at the reference angular position.

  Here, the unit angle of 120 degrees is an angle obtained by dividing 360 degrees by the number of the pair of blades of the first and second impellers 21 and 22, that is, three. Thereby, in a state where the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are stopped, the pair of blades 24 and 24 of the first and second impellers 21 and 22, the pair of blades 25 and 25, or the pair of blades One pair of blades 26 and 26 is positioned at the reference angular position, and the article is transferred from the transfer device 1 onto one of the pair of blades.

  Next, the temporary holding device 40 receives the articles A1 and A2 dropped from the dropping device 20 by the pair of blades 24 and 24 of the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42. At this time, as described above, the blades 24 and 24 are located at the reference angular position.

  When it is determined that the box is located at the boxing position P based on the signal from the boxing position detection sensor 66, the temporary holding device control unit 76 determines that the pair of blades of the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 are present. The third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 are rotated 120 degrees in synchronism with the same phase in the downward rotating direction. Here, “rotate in the same phase” means that the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 rotate so as to be mirror-symmetric with respect to the center planes of the respective rotation shafts 23 and 23. means. Note that the first and second impellers 21 and 22 of the dropping device 20 also rotate in the same phase and rotate so as to be mirror-symmetric with respect to the center planes of the respective rotation shafts 23 and 23. Then, the next pair of blades 25 are positioned at the reference angular position.

  Then, due to the rotation of the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42, the articles A1 and A2 supported by the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 are dropped downward, and below the temporary holding device 40. Is put into the box B1 located in the position.

  On the other hand, when the box B1 is not positioned at the boxing position P due to replacement of the boxed completion box and the empty box described below, the temporary holding device control unit 76 does not position the box at the boxing position P. Is determined. In this case, the temporary holding device controller 76 does not rotate the third and fourth impellers 41 and 42 until the box is located at the boxing position P. Even in this state, as described above, the belt conveyor 1 transfers the articles A3 and A4 to the dropping device 20, and the dropping apparatus 20 drops the transferred articles A3 and A4 to the temporary holding device 40. Accordingly, the further dropped articles A3 and A4 are stacked on the articles A1 and A2. Then, when the roller conveyor 65 eventually positions the box B1 at the boxing position P, the temporary holding device controller 76 determines that the box is positioned at the boxing position P, and drops the articles A1 to A4 downward. . As a result, the articles A1 to A4 are put into the box B1 positioned below the temporary holding device 40. As a result, the box supply device 3 transfers the articles from the belt conveyor 1 to the dropping device 20 without stopping the belt conveyor 1 while exchanging the boxes and empty boxes that have been packed with a predetermined number of articles. And the processing capability of the boxing device 100 can be improved.

When the above operation is repeated and the box B1 is stacked with six articles of two articles arranged one by one and packed with 12 articles, the box feeder control unit 77 operates the roller conveyor 65, A new box B2 is positioned at the boxing position P.
As described above, according to the boxing device 100 according to the present embodiment, the article transfer device control unit 74 has the blades 24, 25, 26 of the first and second impellers 21, 22 of the dropping device 20. Since the conveying speed of the belt conveyor 1 is sequentially decreased to the speeds V1 and V2 corresponding to the order in which the articles A1 and A2 are arranged so that the articles A1 and A2 are arranged in the moving direction, the article A1 conveyed by the belt conveyor 1 , A2 can be transferred in a line on the blades 24, 25, 26 of the first and second impellers 21, 22. Since the transfer device only needs to include the belt conveyor 1 and the article transfer device controller 74, the configuration of the transfer device can be simplified.

  Moreover, since the end plate 27 is provided in the 1st and 2nd impellers 21 and 22, it transfers on the blade | wings 24, 25, and 26 of the 1st and 2nd impellers 21 and 22 from a transfer apparatus. Since the stop position of each of the articles can be defined, even if the conveyance speed of the articles A1 and A2 is roughly controlled, the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are placed on the blades 24, 25 and 26. Articles A1 and A2 can be arranged in the moving direction. This facilitates control of the conveyance speed.

  In the above description, the belt conveyor 1 is exemplified as the “conveyor” of the “article transfer device”. However, the “conveyor” is not limited to this, and may be configured by, for example, a roller conveyor.

  Further, in the above, as shown in FIG. 5, after the conveyor belt 18 is accelerated or decelerated to V1 or V2, the conveyor belt 18 is kept at a constant speed of V1 or V2 until it is decelerated again to V2 or accelerated to V1. Although what was comprised so that it might drive was illustrated, it is not restricted to this, The speed of the conveyance belt 18 should just be V1 or V2 at the time of an article being transferred to the dropping device 20 from the belt conveyor 1. FIG. For example, the conveyor belt 18 may be driven at a higher speed than V1 and V2 until immediately before the downstream end of the article conveyed by the belt conveyor 1 reaches the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1.

  In the above description, the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1 and the upstream ends of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are exemplified so as to be adjacent to each other in plan view. For example, a chute may be interposed between the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1 and the upstream ends of the first and second impellers 21 and 22.

  In the above description, the rotary shafts 23 and 23 of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 are arranged so as to extend in parallel with the conveying direction of the articles on the belt conveyor 1, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The rotary shafts 23 and 23 of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 may be arranged so as to extend so as to intersect with the article conveyance direction. For example, a chute having a substantially arc-shaped conveyance path that changes the conveyance direction by approximately 90 degrees in plan view is interposed between the downstream end of the belt conveyor 1 and the upstream ends of the first and second impellers 21 and 22. The direction in which the rotating shafts 23 and 23 of the first and second impellers 21 and 22 extend and the conveyance direction of the articles on the belt conveyor 1 may be orthogonal to each other.

  Moreover, although what provided an impeller as an example of "drop apparatus" was illustrated above, "drop apparatus" is not limited to this, has an article mounting member, and was arranged on this article mounting member What is necessary is just to be comprised so that several articles | goods may be dropped by moving the said article mounting member. For example, it has a pair of plates on which articles are placed, and a plurality of articles arranged on the pair of plates are moved downward by sliding the pair of plates sideways or swinging downward. You may comprise so that it may fall.

  Further, the temporary holding device 40 may be omitted.

  Further, the box supply device 3 may be omitted, and the box P may be supplied and carried out manually.

  From the foregoing description, many modifications and other embodiments of the present invention are obvious to one skilled in the art. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be construed as illustrative only and is provided for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode of carrying out the invention. The details of the structure and / or function may be substantially changed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

  The boxing apparatus of the present invention is useful for a dropping structure of an apparatus for boxing articles.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Belt conveyor 2 Box-packing apparatus main body 3 Box supply apparatus 4 Control apparatus 12 Goods passage sensor 15 Goods transfer apparatus drive motor 16 Main driving roller 17 Follower roller 18 Conveying belt 20 Dropping device 21 First impeller 22 Second impeller 23 Rotating shaft 24 Blade 25 Blade 26 Blade 27 End plate 28 Dropping device drive motor 36 Angle material 36a Rotating shaft mounting portion 36b Blade mounting portion 37 Screw 38 Screw 40 Temporary holding device 41 Third impeller 42 Fourth impeller 48 Temporary holding device driving motor 60 Support frame 61 Leg 61a First leg 61aa Rod 61ab Rod 61ac Rod 61b Second leg 61ba Rod 61bb Rod 61bc Rod 62 Dropping device support 62a Upstream support plate 62b Downstream support plate 63 Temporary Holding device support 63a Upstream support plate 63 Downstream support plate 65 roller conveyor 66 packing position detecting sensor 68 Box feeder drive motor 71 control unit 72 storage unit 74 the article transfer device controller 75 dropping device controller 76 temporarily storing device controller 77 box feeder controller 100 packing device

Claims (4)

A transfer device comprising a transporter for transporting an article on a transport path and a speed controller for controlling the transport speed of the article of the transporter;
The article placement member provided so that the article sent from the end of the conveyance path of the transfer device can slide and move thereon, and the article placement member is moved to move the article placement member A dropping device configured to drop the article above,
The article of the boxing device is configured such that the speed controller is configured to sequentially reduce the conveyance speed to a speed corresponding to the order in which the articles are arranged so that the articles are arranged in the movement direction on the article placement member. Drop structure.   The article dropping structure according to claim 1, wherein the dropping device includes a stop mechanism that stops the article sliding on the placement member.   The article dropping structure according to claim 1, wherein the transporter is a belt conveyor or a roller conveyor. The dropping device has a rotating shaft and three or more predetermined number of flat blades arranged so as to extend from the central portion to the peripheral portion in a rotationally symmetrical manner at the center of the rotating shaft so as to face each other. A pair of impellers arranged, and the pair of impellers in the respective rotation directions (hereinafter referred to as predetermined individual rotation directions) in which the respective blades move downward on the sides facing each other. Any one of the pair of impellers (hereinafter referred to as the pair of blades) stops at a reference angular position where the pair of blades are substantially horizontally aligned at every angle divided by the number. Is configured to rotate in sync with
A plurality of articles are sequentially transferred by the transfer device onto the pair of blades stopped at the reference angular position as the article placement member, and then the dropping device transfers the pair of blades to the pair of blades. The boxing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the plurality of arranged articles fall downward from the pair of blades by rotating in a predetermined individual rotation direction.

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