JPS6144774B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention is capable of erecting a glass tube housed in a horizontal position in a hopper, storing a plurality of the erected glass tubes in an upright position, and dispensing them. This invention relates to a storage and supply device for glass tubes.

For example, flare glass sealed at the bulb end of an incandescent light bulb or fluorescent lamp is designed to produce a large number of flares of a predetermined size from a single long glass tube. This flare manufacturing machine has a plurality of heads, for example nine heads, arranged along the circumferential direction on a turntable, each of which supports a long glass tube upright, and each time the turntable moves intermittently. By simultaneously moving the glass tubes supported by each head to the next step, the lower ends of all the glass tubes are subjected to predetermined processing at their respective positions. In other words, if we briefly explain the process for each corresponding position of each head along the direction of rotation of the turntable, position _P1 and
P ₂ is preheating for forming the lower end of the glass tube, and position P ₃ is main heating for forming, position
P ₄ is the position where the lower end is expanded into a skirt shape, position P ₅ is cooling and solidification, position P ₆ is the flare height regulation, position P ₇ is preheating for cutting, position P ₈ is the main heating for cutting, position _P9 is the position for cutting and separating. Therefore, this flare manufacturing machine holds nine glass tubes at the same time in each head, and manufactures flares in sequence at the bottom end of each glass tube, completing one flare for each pitch of the turntable. It is designed to produce nine flares per rotation. When the glass tube becomes shorter than a predetermined size, the glass tube is replaced and a new long glass tube is supplied.

However, it is extremely inefficient to manually feed glass tubes to such a flare manufacturing machine, and especially when feeding glass tubes, it takes 90 minutes.
There is a problem in that the glass tubes are installed one after another, and once the supply is finished, the glass tubes have to wait until they are shortened to a specified size or less.Furthermore, the flare manufacturing machine uses a gas burner, so the head part They are often very hot, and if you touch them you will get burns, and if you touch them while you are holding the glass tube, you may accidentally drop the glass tube and cause it to break. Also, since glass tubes are installed in the head upright, it is necessary to stand the glass tubes vertically in advance, but normally storing a large number of glass tubes upright poses the risk of them falling over. In addition, it is difficult to automatically chuck and remove upright glass tubes one by one unless the positions of the glass tubes are defined.

Therefore, it is necessary to store the glass tubes lying horizontally and then take them out one by one and stand them upright. However, if you apply a shock to the glass tubes when you stand them up, they may break. There is a problem with this.

This invention was made based on the above circumstances, and its purpose is to take out a large number of glass tubes stored horizontally in a hopper one by one, stand them up vertically, and To provide a tube in which a plurality of glass tubes are stored, kept on standby, and dispensed as needed, and the glass tubes can be efficiently erected and fed without the need for manpower by preventing damage when erecting the tubes. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a storage and supply device for glass tubes for industrial use.

In other words, the present invention comprises a hopper that stores and stores a large number of glass tubes horizontally and sends them out one by one, an upright mechanism that vertically stands up the glass tubes sent out from the hopper, and an endless running system that moves intermittently. a storage mechanism having a plurality of support members provided at intervals on the body, each of which supports and stores the erected glass tube; and a storage mechanism provided at a fixed position in the traveling direction of the traveling body. a mechanism for sending out the glass tube supported by the support member; The present invention is characterized by comprising a lifting mechanism that hangs the support tool and raises the support tool as a center of rotation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings in which it is applied to an automatic tube flare manufacturing apparatus.

First, FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing the whole, in which 1 is a hopper, 2 is a lifting mechanism, 3 is a standing mechanism,
Reference numeral 4 indicates a storage standby mechanism, 5 indicates a delivery mechanism, and 6 indicates a flare manufacturing machine.

Regarding the above hopper 1 and lifting mechanism 2,
As shown in the figure. In other words, the hopper 1 is formed into a box shape by the frame 11, and the inclined arm 1 is attached to the lower end of the hopper 1.
It has 2. A chute 13 is provided at the bottom of the inclined arm 12 with a gap therebetween, and on this chute 13 there is a row of glass tubes 10 stored and loaded in a horizontal state on the inclined arm 12 in the hopper 1. They are arranged in parallel with each other and are moved in the direction of arrow A. Note that a swing cylinder 14 and a swing lever 1 are installed at the entrance of the chute 13.
5 constitutes a glass tube feeding mechanism that feeds the glass tubes 10 onto the chute 13 one by one. At the outlet of the chute 13, a column 16 is erected at a distance from the vertical frame 17 of the hopper 1, and a lifting bar 18 is attached to the column 16 so as to be moved up and down by a cylinder 19. ing. Scooping levers 20 are swingably supported on the lift bar 18 at equal intervals in the vertical direction.
Rotation of each scooping lever 20 is restricted by stopper pins 21. Further, support levers 22 are pivotably supported on the vertical frame 17 at equal intervals in the vertical direction, and the rotation of these support levers 22 is also restricted by stopper pins 23. It's summery. Therefore, the glass tube 10 sent to the outlet of the chute 13 is lifted in the direction of arrow B by being supported by the scooping lever 20 at the lowest end as the lifting bar 18 rises, and this glass tube 10 is lifted up in the direction of arrow B. When it hits the lower surface of the support lever 22, the support lever 22 is pushed up and rotated, and when the glass tube 10 reaches above the support lever 22, the support lever 22 returns to rotation under its own weight and is supported by the stopper pin 23. .
Next, when the lifting bar 18 descends, the glass tube 10 supported by the scooping lever 20 is received by the support lever 22, and the scooping lever 20 becomes empty. It is located below the glass tube 10 beyond the glass tube 10 of. When passing over this glass tube 10, the scooping lever 20 hits the glass tube 10 and automatically rotates.

By repeating such an operation, the glass tube 10 moves one time per vertical movement of the lifting bar 18.
It is lifted up step by step while being supported by the support levers 22, and is finally supported by the support lever 22 at the uppermost stage.

The glass tube 10 received by the uppermost support lever 22 in this manner is raised vertically by the upright mechanism 3. In other words, the glass tube 10 received by the uppermost support lever 22 is
The feed roller 30 rolls on the top in the direction of arrow C and is supported on top of the feed roller 30. As shown in FIG. 3, the feed rollers 30 are wound around and driven by belts or ropes 30a and 30b, and are adapted to move the glass tube 10 placed on the rollers 30 along the axial direction. It is designed to be sent in the direction of arrow D. One end of the glass tube 10 fed in the direction of arrow D is abutted and supported by a lower support 53, which will be described later. Further, a sprocket 31 is arranged between these rollers 30, 30, and a plurality of sprockets 32 are arranged in correspondence with this sprocket 31.
... are arranged obliquely upward and approximately on the same circumference. Note that 33 and 33 are driven sprockets. A chain 34 is wound around these sprockets 31, 32...33.
A hook lever 35 is attached to 4 with a space therebetween. As the chain 34 travels in the direction of arrow E, the other end of the glass tube 10 is hooked on the hooking lever 35, and the other end is successively lifted upward and erected in the vertical direction.

The glass tube 10 thus erected is supported by the storage standby mechanism 4. This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. The storage standby mechanism 4 is formed within a case 7 as shown in FIG. That is, 40 and 41 are an upper plate and a lower plate, and a drive shaft 42 is spanned between these upper and lower plates 40 and 41. A ratchet wheel 43 is integrally attached to the drive shaft 42, and the ratchet wheel 43 is intermittently rotated by a ratchet 45 that is varied as the cylinder 44 operates. . Therefore, the drive shaft 42
It is also rotated intermittently. This drive shaft 4
There are sprockets 4 at the top and bottom of 2, respectively.
6,47 are attached. Further, sprockets 48 and 49 on the driven side are arranged horizontally apart from these sprockets 46 and 47 and facing each other in the vertical direction. A chain 50 is spanned between the upper sprockets 46 and 48, and a chain 50 is spanned between the lower sprockets 47 and 4.
Another chain 51 is also spanned between the chain 9 and the chain 9. The upper chain 50 includes a glass tube 10
Approximately U-shaped holders 52 for holding are provided at intervals, and supports 53 are attached to the lower chain 51 facing the holders 52. . This support 53 has a bottomed shape with an open top and bottom. Note that these holders 52 and 53 constitute the support member of the present invention. The holders 5 are attached to the outer peripheries of these chains 50 and 51.
2 and the guide 54 with a small gap between them and the support 53.
(only one is shown), and these guides 54 are arranged from the position where the glass tube 10 is erected to the position where the glass tube 10 is sent out.

Further, a delivery mechanism 5 is provided opposite the position where the glass tube 10 is delivered. This delivery mechanism 5 has cylinders 60, 60 spaced apart in the vertical direction, and the cylinder rods 6
Gripping claws 63 are attached to the sliding bodies 62 and 62 provided at 1 and 61.
a and 63b are respectively attached to be swingable, and the gripping claws 63a and 63b are biased by a coil spring 64, and when the sliding body 62 is moved backward, the coil spring 64 is applied between the gripping claws 63a and 63b. It is configured to include a cam body 65 that is opened against.

Further, a detection bar 70 is mounted so as to be rotatable and biased by a coil spring 71, facing the terminal end of the guide 54 and located in front of the gripping claws 63a and 63b in the advancing and retracting direction. The number of rotations 70 is detected by a limit switch 72.

A flare manufacturing machine 6 is provided at the tip of such a delivery mechanism 5, and this flare manufacturing machine 6 has a turntable 80 provided with each head P ₁ to P ₉ as described in the conventional explanation section. , and each head P ₁ ~
A chuck 8 provided on the annular plate 81 above P ₉
It has 2... A flare receiving chute 84 is mounted on the base 83 that supports the turntable 80.
A completed flare can be taken out from this chute 84. In addition, shoot 84
In the middle of the process, there is an air jet nozzle 8 for removing defective products.
5 is provided.

The operation of the apparatus configured as described above will now be briefly described. When the glass tube 10 in the hopper 1 is sent out to the uppermost support bar 22 by the lifting mechanism 2 via the chute 13, this glass tube 10
is transferred onto the feed roller 30 of the upright mechanism 3.
Since the feed roller 30 moves the glass tube 10 in the direction of arrow D, one end of the glass tube 10 enters into the support 53 provided at the lower part of the storage standby mechanism 4. As the chain 34 moves in the direction of the arrow E, the hooking lever 35 hooks the other end of the glass tube 10, causing the glass tube 10 to stand up with one end in the support 53 as a reference. The other end of the glass tube 10 erected in this manner is fitted into the upper holder 52 of the storage standby mechanism 4 . Therefore, the glass tube 10 in an upright state has its lower end supported by the holder 53 and its upper end supported by the holder 52 to maintain its upright state. The glass tube 10 thus supported in an upright state between the holder 52 and the support 53 is moved along the guide 54 as the chains 50 and 51 run. That is, when the cylinder 44 is extended or contracted once, the ratchet wheel 43 is intermittently rotated by the ratchet 45, so the sprockets 46 and 47 are integrally rotated intermittently, and therefore the chains 50 and 51 are intermittently rotated. do. Therefore, the glass tube 10 whose upper and lower ends are supported by the holder 53 and the support 52 is displaced. In this case, the guide 54 prevents the glass tube 10 from popping out from the openings of the holder 53 and the support 52.
In this way, the storage standby mechanism 4 stores, for example, nine glass tubes 10 according to the number of heads of the flare manufacturing machine 6, and the glass tubes 10 are stored in the storage standby mechanism 4 when all nine glass tubes are assembled. supply will be stopped.

Then, in the flare manufacturing machine 6, the glass tube 1
0... becomes too short and it becomes impossible to manufacture a flare, an electrical signal sends a command to the storage standby mechanism 4 to activate the delivery mechanism 5.
When the cylinders 60, 60 extend, the gripping claws 63a, 63b move forward and release the restraint of the cam body 65.
The glass tube 10 is gripped between the tubes 3b and sent directly to the flare manufacturing machine 6. And flare manufacturing machine 6
In this case, the short glass tube 10 is discharged and the long glass tube 10 sent as described above is received. When receiving the glass tube 10, the turntable 8
0 advances by one pitch, and at the same time, the cylinders 60, 60 of the delivery mechanism 5 return to their original positions, and the chains 50, 5
1 by one pitch, and the next glass tube 10 is advanced to the delivery position. When the nine glass tubes 10 are delivered to the flare manufacturing machine 6 in this way, the flare manufacturing machine 6 automatically manufactures flares, while the storage standby mechanism 4 receives the glass tubes 10 sent from the hopper 1. It is kept upright and stored on standby until the next supply.

In the case of the flare manufacturing machine 6, when nine new glass tubes 10 are supplied, the lower end of each glass tube 10 is cut and removed at a fixed position while the turntable 80 rotates once. The height of the lower end is made equal, and the glass pieces that are separated and removed and dropped into the chute 84 are removed from the normal flare flow path by blowing out high-pressure air from the air blowing nozzle 85.

However, with such a device, simply by horizontally feeding a large number of glass tubes 10 into the hopper 1, the glass tubes 10 will be automatically erected, and after the required number of glass tubes are put on standby, they will be automatically stored. Since it is directly supplied to the flare manufacturing machine 6, there is no need for manpower.
Eliminates problems such as damage to glass tubes during standing work. Furthermore, when transferring the glass tube 10 to the flare manufacturing machine 6, the straightened glass tube 10 is moved to the delivery position, so that the gripping positions of the gripping claws 63a, 63b in the delivery mechanism 5 are constant, and the glass tube 10 is reliably delivered to the flare manufacturing machine 6. Can be moved. Moreover, the work of standing up the glass tubes 10 and putting them on standby for storage can be carried out while the flares are being manufactured in the flare manufacturing machine 6, thereby improving work efficiency.

In the above embodiment, the glass tube 10 is fed from the storage standby mechanism 4 to one flare manufacturing machine, but according to the above configuration, one storage standby mechanism 4 feeds the glass tube 10 to two or more flare manufacturing machines. Since it is also possible to send the glass tube 10 to the machines 6, 6, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

As detailed above, according to the present invention, a plurality of glass tubes are stored in a horizontal state in a hopper, and the glass tubes are taken out one by one and erected upright using an upright device, making it easy to put the glass tubes into the hopper. Not only can the tubes be removed one by one, they can be reliably taken out and erected. Moreover, this erecting device supports one end of the horizontal glass tube with a support and lifts the other end using a lifting mechanism. Because of this, it is possible to stand up the glass tube without giving any impact to it, and it is possible to prevent breakage. Moreover, multiple glass tubes erected in this way can be stored using the storage mechanism, making it easier to match the timing of the receiving side, increasing the flexibility of supply operations required by the receiving side, and increasing the flexibility of design in automation. There are advantages such as an increase in

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the whole, FIG. 2 is a side view showing the hopper and the lifting mechanism, FIG. 3 is a side view showing the raising mechanism, and FIG. The figure is a sectional view taken along the line - in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a side view showing the storage standby mechanism and the delivery mechanism, and FIG. 6 is a plan view thereof. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Hopper, 2... Ascending mechanism, 3... Erecting mechanism, 4... Storage standby mechanism, 5... Delivery mechanism, 6...
...Flare manufacturing machine, 53... Support, 34... Chain, 35... Hooking lever.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A hopper that stores and stores a large number of glass tubes horizontally and sends them out one by one, an upright mechanism that vertically stands up the glass tubes sent out from this hopper, and an endless traveling body that moves intermittently. a storage mechanism having a plurality of support members provided at the support members, each of which supports and stores the erected glass tube; a mechanism for sending out the supported glass tube, and the upright mechanism includes a support for supporting one end of the glass tube, and a mechanism for hooking the other end of the glass tube, one end of which is locked to the support, to support the glass tube. 1. A storage and supply device for glass tubes for tubes, comprising a lifting mechanism for raising a tool upright around a rotational center.