JP7828780B2 - Cutting device - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to a cutting device for cutting out individual objects.

As an example of a device equipped with the above-mentioned dispensing device, a foreign object detection device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-305745 (see Patent Document 1 below). This foreign object detection device consists of a hopper that contains a large number of drug capsules to be inspected, a chute that sequentially sends the drug capsules downward from the hopper at predetermined intervals, a judgment mechanism that images the drug capsules falling from the chute through a guide tube and determines whether or not they are deformed, and a discharge mechanism that removes the drug capsules from the fall path based on the judgment result of the judgment mechanism.

The drug capsules contained in the hopper are sequentially supplied to the chute at regular intervals through the distribution pipe. The chute consists of a cylinder pipe connected to the lower end of the distribution pipe, and a pair of front and rear stopper claws that alternately insert into and remove from the cylinder pipe from the front and rear directions.

The cylinder tube has an inclination angle with respect to the horizontal plane, and is configured for the drug capsule to pass through. The front stopper claw is positioned further forward than the rear stopper claw. These stopper claws are driven by a drive mechanism consisting of a cam driven by a belt driven by a gearbox's rotating wheel, a roller arm that rolls on the outer circumference of the cam, biased by a spring, and a support base connected to the roller arm and pivotally supported by the frame, which supports the bases of all the stopper claws in a series. The mechanism causes the claws to oscillate back and forth in a constant cycle.

Thus, the pair of front and rear stopper claws, by swinging alternately, alternately insert and withdraw from the cylinder tube at regular intervals, appropriately preventing the drug capsules from falling out of the cylinder tube. This, in turn, sequentially delivers the drug capsules to the guide tube below at predetermined intervals. Because this pair of stopper claws alternately stops the drug capsules in two stages for a certain period of time, the drug capsules are delivered accurately and intermittently, without becoming stuck together in a chain.

Thus, in conventional foreign object detection devices, the dispensing device is composed of a pair of front and rear stopper claws and a drive mechanism that drives them. The movement of these front and rear stopper claws dispenses one drug capsule at a time.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-305745

However, the conventional cutting device described above uses a pair of front and rear stopper claws that swing alternately, moving forward and backward along the object's fall path to cut it out. This method presented the following problems.

In other words, for example, if objects are in contact with each other and are successively retained upstream of the rear stopper claw, the oscillating motion of the rear stopper claw could cause it to insert itself between the object being cut and the objects upstream, potentially damaging them.

If the object is hard, the problem may be minor. However, if the object is soft, contact with the stopper claw could cause significant damage, in which case the object would be considered defective.

This invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a cutting device that can cut out even soft articles without damaging them.

The present invention, which solves the above problems,
A sorting chute that lines up a large number of supplied objects in a row and discharges them,
A cutting device comprising a cutting unit provided so as to face the discharge path of the aforementioned alignment chute, and which cuts out and delivers objects moving within the discharge path one by one,
The cutting section comprises a first and second set of gears having teeth formed on their outer circumference with the same pitch circle and the same number of teeth, the teeth facing each other in the discharge path and arranged so that their rotation axes are parallel, and a drive unit for rotating the first and second gears.
The first gear and the second gear are arranged side by side such that the rotational phases of their valleys and peaks coincide, and are driven by the drive unit to rotate synchronously in the feed direction.
Furthermore, the cutting device is characterized in that the first gear and the second gear have a spacing between their grooves that allows for the holding of one object, and a tooth profile.

According to this embodiment (the first embodiment), a large number of objects are supplied to an alignment chute. The objects are then aligned in a line on the alignment chute, and then cut out one by one by the cutting unit and sent downstream.

In the cutting section, a first gear and a second gear, each having teeth formed on their outer circumference with the same pitch circle and the same number of teeth, are arranged so that their teeth face each other within the discharge path and their rotation axes are parallel to each other. The first gear and the second gear are arranged side-by-side so that the rotational phases of their grooves and their peaks coincide, and they are driven by a drive unit to rotate synchronously in the discharge direction. Furthermore, the first gear and the second gear have a spacing and tooth profile between their grooves that allows for the holding of one of the aforementioned objects.

Thus, the objects, lined up in a row along the discharge path of the alignment chute, are sequentially fitted and held between the grooves of the synchronously rotating first and second gears during their movement. The objects held between these grooves move downward as the first and second gears rotate, and are sequentially discharged downstream from the mutually separated grooves.

Thus, with this cutting device, the rotational movement of a pair of first and second gears holds the object between its grooves, and cuts it out one piece at a time. Therefore, even when the objects are moving sequentially in contact with each other, they can be cut out without impacting them. Consequently, with this cutting device, even soft articles can be cut out one by one without damaging them.

In the cutting device of the first embodiment described above, at least one of the first gear and the second gear may be formed from two gears arranged side by side at a predetermined distance in the direction of its rotation axis.

According to this embodiment (the second embodiment), the cutting device can stably hold the object in its grooves using two gears arranged at a predetermined interval, and can stably cut out one piece of the object at a time.

Furthermore, in the cutting apparatus of the first and second embodiments described above,
The object has a cylindrical or spherical shape.
The valleys of the first gear and the second gear can be formed as concave curved surfaces with the same curvature as the radius of the object.

According to this embodiment (the third embodiment), when the object has a cylindrical or spherical shape, it can be stably held between the grooves of the first and second gears, thereby enabling the stable cutting of one object at a time.

As described above, the cutting device according to the present invention holds the object between the grooves of a pair of first and second gears through rotational movement and cuts them out one by one. Therefore, even when the objects are moved sequentially in contact with each other, they can be cut out without impacting them. Consequently, this cutting device allows for the cutting of even soft articles without damaging them.

This is a perspective view showing a drop-type inspection device according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 is a front view showing the drop-type inspection device. This is a perspective view showing the vibratory feeder and cutting device according to this embodiment. This is a front view in the direction of arrow A in Figure 3. This is a perspective view showing the cutting mechanism of the cutting device according to this embodiment. This is a front view in the direction of arrow B in Figure 5.

The following describes specific embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the drop-type inspection device 1 in this example consists of a hopper 2 supported by a frame structure, a vibrating feeder 3, a dispensing device 10, an optical inspection device 40, and a sorting device 50. Note that in Figures 1 and 2, the external covers are removed to illustrate the internal structure. Furthermore, in this example, a spherical capsule is used as the object to be inspected (target object) K, but naturally, the object to be inspected K is not limited to such a spherical capsule.

The hopper 2 is configured to receive a large number of objects to be inspected K and supply a predetermined amount of these objects K to the vibratory feeder 3 through its lower opening. The vibratory feeder 3, as shown in Figure 3, consists of a feed section 4 that receives the objects K supplied from the hopper 2 and transports them forward (in the direction of arrow C) by vibration, and an discharge section 5 located at the transport end of the feed section 4, which discharges the objects K transported to the transport end by the feed section 4 diagonally downwards via an inclined surface.

The cutting device 10 consists of an alignment chute 11 and a cutting mechanism 20. The alignment chute 11 is provided vertically and, as shown in Figure 4, comprises a storage section 12 having a fan-shaped space that widens upwards at the top and narrows downwards at the bottom; an alignment section 13 connected to the lower end of the storage section 12, having a passage (discharge path 18) through which one object to be inspected K can pass; and a rotating roller 19 provided at the connection between the storage section 12 and the alignment section 13.

The storage section 12 and the alignment section 13 are formed from components such as a support plate 14, upper guide plates 15a, 15b and lower guide plates 16a, 16b provided on the support plate 14, and a cover plate 17 provided on the upper surfaces of these upper guide plates 15a, 15b and lower guide plates 16a, 16b.

The thickness of the upper guide plates 15a, 15b and the lower guide plates 16a, 16b is slightly greater than the diameter of the object to be inspected K, allowing it to move within the storage section 12 and the alignment section 13. The width between the lower guide plates 16a, 16b is slightly wider than the diameter of the object to be inspected K, allowing one object to pass through. Thus, the space enclosed by the support plate 14, the lower guide plates 16a, 16b, and the cover plate 17 forms the discharge path 18 through which the object to be inspected K falls. For illustrative purposes, the cover plate 17 is shown as a transparent material in Figures 3 and 4.

Furthermore, the rotating roller 19 is positioned between the upper guide plate 15a and the lower guide plate 16a with a gap sufficient for one object to be inspected K to pass through, and is driven by an appropriate motor (not shown) to rotate in the direction indicated by arrow D.

Thus, with this alignment chute 11, the objects to be inspected K discharged from the discharge section 5 of the vibrating feeder 3 fall into the storage section 12 and are stored there. As they enter the discharge path 18 of the alignment section 13, which is connected to their lower ends, they are aligned in a single line and then naturally fall downwards through the discharge path 18 of the alignment section 13. The rotating roller 19 plays a role in releasing any jamming caused by the objects K entering the alignment section 13 from the storage section 12, thereby allowing the objects K to enter the alignment section 13 from the storage section 12 without jamming.

As shown in Figures 5 and 6, the cutting mechanism 20 consists of a pair of first and second gears 21 and 25 positioned to face the discharge path 18 at the lower end of the alignment section 13 of the alignment chute 11, and a drive unit 29 including a motor that rotates the first gear 21 and the second gear 25 via the rotation shaft 24 of the first gear 21 and the rotation shaft 28 of the second gear 25.

The first gear 21 consists of a pair of front gears 22 and rear gears 23 arranged side by side at a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 24. Similarly, the second gear 25 consists of a pair of front gears 26 and rear gears 27 arranged side by side at a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 28.

Furthermore, the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) have teeth formed on their outer circumference with the same pitch circle and the same number of teeth. These teeth are arranged to face each other within the discharge path 18 of the alignment section 13, and the respective rotating shafts 24 and 28 are arranged to be parallel to each other.

Furthermore, the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) are arranged side by side such that the rotational phases of their troughs and crests coincide, and are driven by the drive unit 29 to rotate synchronously in the feeding direction (indicated by arrows E and F). Moreover, the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) have a gap between their troughs sufficient to hold one workpiece K, and the troughs of the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) are formed as concave surfaces with the same curvature as the radius of the workpiece K.

Thus, in this cutting mechanism 20, the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27), which are provided at the lower end of the alignment section 13 of the alignment chute 11, rotate synchronously in the feeding direction (indicated by arrows E, F) such that the rotational phases of their grooves coincide. As shown in Figure 6, the objects to be inspected K, which are aligned in a line within the discharge path 18 of the alignment section 13 and stacked sequentially upward in contact with each other, are then... As the wheels 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) rotate, the objects to be inspected K are sequentially fitted into and held between the grooves of the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27), starting from their lower ends. The objects held between these grooves move downward as the wheels 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) rotate, and are sequentially released downward from the gaps between the grooves, eventually falling naturally downwards.

Furthermore, although a detailed explanation will be omitted, the optical inspection device 40 is a device that captures images of the objects to be inspected K, which are cut out one by one by the cutting device 20 and fall downward, at a predetermined imaging position, under appropriate illumination, using a camera, and then analyzes the obtained images to determine whether their appearance is satisfactory.

Furthermore, the sorting device 50 is equipped with a sorting mechanism such as an air nozzle, and, according to the inspection results, drives the sorting mechanism to separate and store the inspected items K, which have been inspected by the optical inspection device 40, into good product areas, retained product areas, and defective product areas.

According to the drop-type inspection device 1 of this example, which has the above configuration, the objects to be inspected K stored in the hopper 2 are discharged to the alignment chute 11 via the vibrating feeder 3. In the alignment chute 11, the objects to be inspected K discharged from the discharge section 5 of the vibrating feeder 3 are stored in the storage section 12, and are aligned in a single line as they enter the alignment section 13 from their lower ends. They then naturally fall downward through the discharge path 18 of the alignment section 13, and are continuously stacked upward while sequentially contacting the first gears 21 (22, 23) and the second gears 25 (26, 27) of the cutting mechanism 20.

In the cutting mechanism 20, the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) rotate synchronously in the feeding direction (indicated by arrows E and F). Therefore, the stacked objects K to be inspected are sequentially fitted into the grooves of the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) as they rotate, starting from the bottom. The objects K held between these grooves move downwards as the gears rotate, and are sequentially released downwards from the gaps between the grooves, falling naturally downwards. In other words, the objects K to be inspected are cut out one by one by this cutting mechanism 20.

The object K to be inspected, cut out by the cutting mechanism 20, is then inspected for any suitability of its appearance by an optical inspection device 40 located below it. After inspection, the object K is sorted into good products, retained products, and defective products by a sorting device 50 according to the inspection results.

Thus, according to the cutting device 10 (cutting mechanism 20) provided in the drop-type inspection device 1 of this example, the object to be inspected K is held between the grooves of a pair of first gears 21 and second gears 25 through synchronous rotational movement, and one piece is cut out at a time. Therefore, even when the objects to be inspected K are moved sequentially in contact with each other, they can be cut out without impacting the objects to be inspected K. Consequently, with this cutting device 10, even if the object K is a soft article, it can be cut out one piece at a time without damaging it.

Furthermore, in the cutting device 10 (cutting mechanism 20) of this example, the first gear 21 is composed of a pair of front gears 22 and rear gears 23 arranged side by side at a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 24. Similarly, the second gear 25 is composed of a pair of front gears 26 and rear gears 27 arranged side by side at a predetermined distance in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 28. Therefore, when the object to be inspected K is cylindrical, the distance between the front gears 22 and rear gears 23, and the distance between the front gears 26 and rear gears 27 can be increased to stably hold the object to be inspected K between the grooves.

Furthermore, when the object to be inspected K is a sphere, by appropriately adjusting the spacing between the front gear 22 and the rear gear 23, and between the front gear 26 and the rear gear 27, the spherical object to be inspected K can be supported and held between the front gear 22 and the rear gear 23, and between the front gear 26 and the rear gear 27, thereby stably holding the object to be inspected K between the grooves.

Furthermore, since the grooves of the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) are formed as concave surfaces with the same curvature as the radius of the object K being inspected, in this sense as well, when the object K being inspected is a cylinder or a sphere, it can be stably held between the grooves.

Although one specific embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the embodiments that the present invention can adopt are not limited to the above example, and other embodiments can be adopted within the scope that can achieve the objectives of the present invention.

For example, in the above example, the first gear 21 is composed of a front gear 22 and a rear gear 23, and similarly, the second gear 25 is composed of a front gear 26 and a rear gear 27. However, it is not limited to this; either the first gear 21 or the second gear 25 may be composed of a single gear, or both the first gear 21 and the second gear 25 may be composed of a single gear.

Furthermore, in the above example, the valleys of the first gear 21 (22, 23) and the second gear 25 (26, 27) were formed as concave surfaces with the same curvature as the radius of the object K under inspection. However, this is not limited to this; the curvature of the valleys may be slightly larger or slightly smaller than the radius of the object K under inspection.

1. Drop-type inspection device 2. Hopper 3. Vibration feeder 4. Feed section 5. Discharge section 10. Cutting device 11. Alignment chute 12. Storage section 13. Alignment section 14. Support plates 15a, 15b Upper guide plates 16a, 17b Lower guide plate 17. Cover plate 18. Discharge path 19. Rotating roller 20. Cutting mechanism 21. First gear 22. Front gear 23. Rear gear 24. Rotating shaft 25. Second gear 26. Front gear 27. Rear gear 28. Rotating shaft 29. Drive unit 40. Optical inspection device 50. Sorting device

Claims (2)

A cutting device comprising an alignment chute and a cutting section,
Numerous supplied spherical capsules are lined up in a row, and the cutting section, which is provided facing the discharge path of the alignment chute, cuts out and sends out the spherical capsules moving within the discharge path so that they fall downwards one by one , and the spherical capsules are imaged as they fall downwards .
The aforementioned cut-out portion is
First gear and second gear,
The system comprises a drive unit for rotating the first gear and the second gear,
Each of the first gear and the second gear is formed from two gears, a front gear and a rear gear, arranged side by side at a predetermined distance in the direction of its rotation axis.
Each front gear and each rear gear has teeth formed on its outer circumference with the same pitch circle and the same number of teeth.
The first gear and the second gear are arranged such that the teeth of each front gear face each other within the discharge passage, the teeth of each rear gear face each other within the discharge passage , and the rotation axis of the first gear and the rotation axis of the second gear are parallel.
The first gear and the second gear are arranged side by side such that the rotational phases of their valleys and peaks coincide, and are driven by the drive unit to rotate synchronously in the feed direction.
Furthermore, the first gear and the second gear have a spacing and tooth profile between their grooves that allows for the holding of one spherical capsule , and the rotational phases of the four gears, the front gear and rear gear of the first gear and the front gear and rear gear of the second gear, coincide so that the spherical capsule supplied from the alignment chute is held between the grooves of the four gears and cut out so as to fall downward from between the grooves . The cutting device according to claim 1, characterized in that the valleys of the first gear and the second gear are formed on a concave curved surface having the same curvature as the radius of the spherical capsule .