JPS622873B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a container for storing and transporting items to be transported, such as mail, and in particular for sorting large, irregularly shaped envelopes and mail with a bandage according to their destination. It relates to containers used in conveyor devices.

In the past, the task of sorting large irregular-sized envelopes and mail pieces with envelopes according to their destinations relied exclusively on manual labor, which was extremely complicated and inefficient. It was hot.

The present invention provides a conveyor device that circulates and moves several containers as appropriate in order to sort and process these non-standard envelopes, mail items with banding, etc. according to their destination, and designates the containers at the input section of the conveyor device. We provide a container for transporting items such as mail to a location, transporting them to a discharge section, and discharging them to a designated stacking section at the discharge section, thereby reliably discharging the transported items to the designated stacking section and in a short time. The object is a container that can sort and process a large amount of transported objects.

Next, drawings showing embodiments of the present invention will be described.

The box-shaped main body 1 made of lightweight steel has an opening 2 at its upper end, and has several partition plates 3 installed therein.
A compartment 4 is formed which is separated by a predetermined interval. At the bottom of each compartment 4, there is provided a rotatable pivot 6 with one end protruding from one side plate 1a of the main body 1 and the other end supported by a support shaft 5 located near the other side plate 1b of the main body 1. A bottom plate 7 bent into a substantially valley shape is fixed to each pivot shaft 6. The bottom plate 7 can be opened and closed by rotating the pivot 6.

A rotating piece 8 provided with a coil spring 9 is fixed to one end of a pivot 6 of each compartment 4 protruding from one side plate 1a of the main body 1. The coil spring 9 always presses the rotating piece 8 downward, and urges the bottom plate 7 of the pivot 6, which is integrally fixed with the rotating piece 8, in the opening direction. Further, a stopper 10 made of rubber is fixed at a lower portion of the rotating piece 8 to restrict the range of rotation of the rotating piece 8 when the bottom plate 7 is rotated to open.

A pedestal 12 is located above the rotating piece 8 of each compartment 4 and fixed thereto, and a shaft 13 is provided on each pedestal 12, and a rod-shaped locking mechanism 11 that is rotatable about the shaft 13 is provided. Attach. Each lock mechanism 11 has a hook portion 14 at its lower end that engages with the lower edge of the rotating piece 8 of the bottom plate 7, and a circular head 15 at its upper end. The shaft rod 13 is equipped with a spring 16 for returning the locking mechanism 11 to its rotation, and the pedestal 12 is equipped with a spring 16 for returning the locking mechanism 11 to rotation.
Two stopper rods 17 are provided protrudingly with 1 in the middle to restrict the range of rotation of the lock mechanism 11 which rotates around the shaft rod 13. In addition, the lock mechanism 11
The head 15 of each locking mechanism 11 is installed in two different lengths, long and short, alternately.
It shall be located in a step.

A vertical roller 21 made of nylon resin that supports the main body 1 and upper and lower horizontal rollers 22 are protruded from one side plate 1a of the main body 1 at an appropriate position, and a drive chain 20 and the main body 1 are driven in circulation near the upper horizontal roller 22. A connecting body 23 is provided to connect the two. The vertical rollers 21 and horizontal rollers 22 facing the upper and lower guide rails 24, which are installed in circulation in the same way as the drive chain 20, support the load of the main body 1 in the vertical and horizontal directions via the guide rails 24,
It prevents the main body 1 from swinging and the drive chain 20
The main body 1 connected to the main body 1 moves according to the upper and lower guide rails 24.

A marker 18 for each compartment 4 is provided projecting from the upper part of the other side plate 1b of the main body 1. A proximity detector 19 is provided at a predetermined position facing the marker 18 and along the movement path of the main body 1.

Then, an unlocking mechanism 30 of the lock mechanism 11, which is operated by a signal from the proximity detector 19, is placed at a predetermined position along the movement path of the main body 1, facing each of the lock mechanisms 11 provided on one side plate 1a of the main body 1. Install. The unlocking mechanism 30 has two upper and lower locking mechanisms 11.
Upper and lower two-stage operating bodies 31 that can move forward and backward are provided at positions facing each head 15 of the upper and lower operating bodies 31. It is supported so as to be movable back and forth by support pins 33 located in the middle and protruding up and down from each elongated hole 32, and the elongated hole 32 has a length longer than the diameter of the support pin 33. One end of each of the upper and lower link plates 34 is fixed to each tip of the upper and lower actuating bodies 31, and both link plates 3
The tips of each transmission plate 37 connected to an electromagnetic solenoid 36, which is a driving source, provided above and below the frame member 35 are fixed to the other end of the frame member 4. Further, between the upper and lower link plates 34, a support shaft 3 passing through each center of both link plates 34 is provided.
8, and the upper and lower link plates 3 are arranged around the support shaft 38.
Make 4 freely rotatable. The support shaft 38 is attached to the frame member 35 by an arm plate 39, and upper and lower springs 40 for returning each operating body 31 are provided between the upper and lower link plates 34 and the frame member 35, respectively. In this unlocking mechanism 30, a transmission plate 37 transmits the movement of an electromagnetic solenoid 36 that operates backward to a link plate 34, and a link plate 34 that rotates around a support shaft 38 moves an operating body 31.
The actuating body 31 that has moved forward returns to its original position due to the elastic force of the spring 40. Working body 31
The forward and backward movement range of the actuating body 31 is adjusted by the length of the elongated hole 32 formed in the actuating body 31 and a rubber stopper 41 against which the rear end edge of the actuating body comes into contact.

The operation of the present invention will now be explained.

A predetermined number of successive main bodies 1 are driven in circulation by a drive chain 2 following upper and lower guide rails 24.
0 horizontally circulates within the conveyor device at a predetermined speed. At the input section (not shown) of the conveyor device for the conveyed articles M, the conveyed articles M whose destination has been specified temporarily wait for the approach of the main body 1 which is circulatingly moving below the conveyed articles M, When the compartment 4 of the designated main body 1 that matches the destination of the transported object M approaches, the transported object M is loaded into the compartment 4 by a separate synchronous running loading machine (not shown).

Object M accommodated in designated compartment 4 of main body 1
As shown in FIG. 1, it moves forward while being placed on the bottom plate 7 which is closed by a locking mechanism 11 (see arrow A in FIGS. 1 and 3). Lock mechanism 1
1, the bottom plate 7 is not opened even when a heavy object M is received from the synchronous running input machine.

When the main body 1 reaches the discharge part (not shown) for the transported object M where the proximity detector 19 and the unlocking mechanism 30 are installed,
A proximity detector 19 installed at a predetermined location in the discharge section detects the arrival of the designated compartment 4 of the main body 1 via the marker 18. At approximately the same time as receiving the signal from the proximity detector 19, the unlocking mechanism 30 retracts the upper or lower electromagnetic solenoid 36 facing the locking mechanism 11 in the designated compartment 4 to pull the transmission plate 37 rearward. The transmission plate 37 rotates the link plate 34 about its support shaft 38, and moves the actuating body 31 forward against the spring 40. The forward operating body 31 hits the head 15 of the locking mechanism 11 which is at the same height as the working body 31 with its tip, and the locking mechanism 11 that has been hit by the head 15 moves around the shaft 13. The hook portion 14 rotates against the spring 16 to release the engagement with the rotation piece 8 provided on the pivot 6 of the bottom plate 7 (the fourth
(see figure). The head 15 of the lock mechanism 11 is circular in order to ensure operation against the lock mechanism 11 moving at a predetermined speed and to reduce the resistance that the head 15 receives from the operating body 31. belongs to. The rotating piece 8 disengaged from the locking mechanism 11 moves the pivot 6 approximately half a turn downward by the elastic force of the coil spring 9, and immediately releases the bottom plate 7 fixed to the pivot 6. (See Figures 1 and 5).

Then, the designated objects M stored in the designated compartment 4 are discharged downward from the moving main body 1, and the objects M having the same destination are discharged from the discharge chute to a stacking section (not shown). It is something that accumulates.

On the other hand, the actuating body 31 that has moved forward and rotated the locking mechanism 11 returns to its original position due to the elastic force of the spring 40.
After rotating in the direction of releasing the engagement, the spring 16 returns to its original position due to the elastic force of the spring 16. Further, the opened bottom plate 7 is closed by a separate closing body (not shown) installed below the main body 1 and within the moving path of the main body 1.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention described above, lock mechanisms having two different lengths, long and short, are provided alternately,
Although the lock mechanisms are arranged in two stages, upper and lower, the lock mechanisms may have three or more different lengths, and may be installed in three or more stages, with locking mechanisms having three or more different lengths. Further, the driving source of the unlocking mechanism may be any driving source other than an electromagnetic solenoid as long as it can actuate the operating body immediately, and the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

According to the present invention configured as described in detail above, it is possible to sort and process such types of conveyed items, such as large irregular-sized envelopes and mail with banding, according to their destinations. In addition, each compartment formed in the main body can accommodate designated objects depending on the destination, and the bottom plate provided for each compartment can be opened reliably and instantaneously, allowing the main body to be moved easily. It is possible to provide a container that can be accurately discharged from the container to a designated accumulation section, and that can sort and transport a large amount of objects in a short period of time. Furthermore, by installing the locking mechanisms in multiple stages, it is possible to increase the distance between the locking mechanisms that have heads at the same height, and the longer the distance between the locking mechanisms on the moving body, the more easily the locks can be unlocked. This mechanism has features such as allowing more time for the mechanism to operate and ensuring more accurate and instantaneous bottom plate opening operation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front view, FIG. 2 is a sectional side view, FIG. 3 is a plan view, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the lock mechanism. The side view and Figure 5 are enlarged front views of the same.
is the main body, 3 is a partition plate, 4 is a compartment, 6 is a pivot, 7 is a bottom plate, 8 is a rotating piece, 11 is a lock mechanism, 14 is a hook part, 15 is a head, 18 is a marker, 19 is a proximity detection 30 is an unlocking mechanism, and 31 is an operating body.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A pivot with a rotating piece is provided at the bottom of each of the appropriate number of compartments formed in the movable main body, and a bottom plate that can be opened and closed is fixed to each of the pivots, and the rotating piece of each compartment is fixed to each of the pivots. A proximity sensor for detecting the approach of each compartment of the main body, wherein each rotatable lock mechanism is provided and the length of each lock mechanism is different so that the head thereof is positioned in a multi-stage manner. rotating the locking mechanism by an unlocking mechanism activated by a signal from the detector;
A container for a sorting conveyor device, the container being configured to open the bottom plate by disengaging the rotating piece.