JPH0131433B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> This invention is applicable to an apparatus for sorting solid materials such as agricultural products such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, green peppers, and carrots, and fruits such as citrus fruits and chestnuts, and transporting them in predetermined weight units. In particular, several sorting belt conveyors and a delivery belt conveyor perpendicular to these and located at a lower position than these are provided, and the solids, that is, to be sorted, conveyed on each sorting belt conveyor are provided. At the intersection with each delivery belt conveyor, the objects are sorted by a sorting device for those of a class specific to that delivery belt conveyor, and the objects to be sorted are placed on the delivery belt conveyor from above the sorting belt conveyor. , relates to an unloading device.

<Prior Art and Problems> Conventionally, in this type of known sorting device, the sorted items at the intersection of the two types of belt conveyors are sequentially discharged or thrown onto a delivery belt conveyor, and are then collected from another sorting belt conveyor. The loaded items are conveyed in a mixed state on the same delivery belt conveyor, and at the conveying end of this delivery belt conveyor, 10Kg and 20Kg are transferred again.
It is weighed and packaged.

In addition, in recent years, when carrying out weight sorting, the weight of the objects to be measured is measured sequentially as they are carried into each sorting belt conveyor, and these are accumulated sequentially by class, and at the intersection of each sorting belt conveyor and transport conveyor,
A device is used that simply mechanically sorts the objects into weight classes. When such a device is used, the sorted objects to be measured are fed into a common delivery belt conveyor from several series sorting belt conveyors. If they are mixed, the cumulative calculation for each sorting belt conveyor will be completely wasted, and it will have to be weighed again when feeding from each conveyor belt into each packaging box (cardboard box).
Having to perform such work twice increases the labor and equipment costs, which is uneconomical.

In addition, in the case of potatoes, which are weak against impacts and easily damaged, for example, when the objects to be sorted are dropped from the sorting belt conveyor to the delivery belt conveyor and from the delivery belt conveyor to the cardboard box for packaging, there is a large drop when the objects are introduced one by one. The impact causes scratches and degrades quality.

In this way, the applicant's company has developed a method and device for reducing the number of work steps and simplifying the device in the conventional device, and also for preventing the objects to be sorted from being damaged during sorting and conveyance. Developed and first filed patent application No. 1983-62537
No. 178112), but we further improved this and developed a device that can be easily controlled.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The present invention is provided with several parallel sorting belt conveyors and a plurality of parallel delivery belt conveyors which are orthogonal to these and located below these and which convey by class. The objects to be sorted conveyed on each sorting belt conveyor are sorted by a sorting and sorting device at the intersection with each sending-out belt conveyor, and items of a class specific to that sending-out belt conveyor are sorted, and then the objects are sorted out from the sorting belt conveyor. In a device for feeding materials to be sorted into a delivery belt conveyor, the delivery belt conveyor is a flat belt conveyor, and each intersection has an upper and lower two-stage type storage that can temporarily store a set weight of materials to be sorted. A partition door is provided between the bottom of each storage box and the upper and lower storage sections, and a bottom door is provided at the bottom of the lower storage section. If a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the items to be sorted in the box reached the set weight and the bottom doors of other storage boxes on the same delivery belt opened, the bottom door of the storage box that reached the set weight immediately opened. If the predetermined time has not elapsed since the bottom door of the other storage box was opened, the intermediate partition door is temporarily closed, and after the predetermined time elapses, the bottom door is opened, and after releasing the material to be sorted, the bottom door is opened. This solid material group sorting and conveying device is characterized by being provided with a partition door and a bottom door driving device that close the door and open the partition door.

<Example> The invention will now be described on the basis of an example of an apparatus capable of carrying out the illustrated method.

In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes several parallel sorting belt conveyors, and a delivery belt conveyor 11 consisting of several flat belts perpendicular to these belts is provided at a lower position than these. A sorting and sorting device 20 is provided.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a typical structure of this sorting and sorting device 20 is as shown in FIG.
1 is attached, and the shaft 22 of this motor 21 is installed directly above the sorting belt conveyor 10 and parallel to the conveying direction.
Blade plates 23 of the same size are fixed radially, and the locus of the tips of these blade plates 23 is provided so as to pass close to the upper surface of the sorting belt conveyor 10, and one operation command signal is transmitted. When the blade plates 23 of the sorting and sorting device 20 are stopped, the objects to be sorted A on the sorting belt conveyor 10 are moved by one blade plate interval angle and then stopped. 23, and when the object A to be sorted just passes the position of the blade plate 23, if it makes one movement, that is, if there are four blade plates 23, it will rotate 1/4. , the material to be sorted A is conveyed by a sorting belt conveyor 10.
It is brushed off from above.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a storage box, which is used to temporarily store the objects A that have been sorted and brushed off by the sorting and sorting device 20 provided at each intersection.
It is installed at a position outside the sorting belt conveyor 10 at each of the intersections, and this storage box 30 has a two-tier structure, upper and lower, with a double-opening partition door 31 and a bottom door 32 in the middle and bottom. For example, air cylinder devices 33 and 34 are used to open and close the container, and the upper and lower storage volumes are large enough to store, for example, 10 kg or 20 kg of objects to be sorted. In addition, the inner surface of the storage box 30 and the surfaces of the partition door 31 and the bottom door 32 are lined with a cushion material 37 to prevent damage to the objects A, and is usually made of cushion material such as soft polyurethane foam or mesh. It is made of wood. The bottom door 32 is connected to the delivery belt conveyor 1, respectively.
It is located directly above 1.

<Effect> Next, the usage and operation of this device will be explained.

First, a material to be sorted A consisting of a large number of solid matter groups, for example, potatoes, is transferred to each sorting belt conveyor 1.
0 at predetermined intervals. Normally, the weight of each potato is measured by a weighing device B before each potato is sent to the sorting belt conveyor 10, and the measured values are classified into several classes according to weight value and cumulatively calculated for each class. The objects to be sorted A sent onto each sorting belt conveyor 10 after having their weights measured are classified according to their weight.To explain using the illustrated example, the sorting and sorting device 2 on the most incoming side
The sorting and sorting device 20 is designed to sort large items at zero, medium items at the middle, and small items at the most unloading side, each corresponding to their weight.
When the object to be sorted A reaches the place corresponding to
An operation command signal acts on the sorting and sorting device 20, drives the motor 21, rotates the blade plate 23 by one angle, and the blade plate 23 rotates the object A to be sorted.
is swept away into a storage box 30 provided at each position. In this case, in principle, the partition door 3
1 is in an open state (see the rightmost storage box 30 in FIG. 2).

In the illustration, the sorting belt conveyor 10 is the first
In the figure, there is one belt conveyor for each system, and in the ones in FIGS. 2 and 3, a pair is provided for each system. At the intersection of the belt conveyors 11, a common storage box 30 is provided between the pair of sorting belt conveyors 10.

As described above, when the objects A to be sorted stored in each storage box 30 reach a predetermined weight, the partition door 31 is closed, and then the bottom door 32 of the other storage box 30 is closed. After a predetermined amount of time has passed after opening,
Bottom door 3 of the storage box 30 with the partition door 31 closed
2 is opened, and the objects A to be sorted in the lower storage chamber 36 of the storage box 30 are sent out at once to the belt conveyor 11.
Then close the bottom door 32 again and open the partition door 31.
Open and continue with the next storage.

Thereafter, similar operations are repeated for each storage box 30 of each delivery belt conveyor 11.

The objects A to be sorted discharged onto each delivery belt conveyor 11 are slightly spread in the conveyance direction, but are conveyed as a group and are thrown into a packaging container C such as a cardboard box all at once at the discharge end. Item to be sorted A
The loaded packaging container C is replaced with an empty container.

In the above-described embodiment, the signal for confirming that the object A to be sorted stored in each storage box 30 has reached a predetermined weight is given to each storage box 30, especially the lower storage chamber 36.
is used as a weight measuring device, and the signal may be a signal indicating that a predetermined weight value of this scale has been reached, but in an example of a device for implementing this method, the value measured by the weight measuring device B on the input side of each sorting belt conveyor 10 is used. The measured value is divided into classes according to weight, and each class is independently accumulated. If this value reaches a predetermined set value, for example 10Kg or 20Kg, and the last object to be sorted A that reaches the predetermined value is sorted. A signal input into the storage box 30 by the dispensing device 20 serves as a signal to confirm that the predetermined weight has been reached. The control device that sends and receives these signals and performs calculations is performed by a computer provided for each sorting belt conveyor 10, and receives various signals from this computer to operate the partition door 31 and the bottom door 32. Activate the drive unit to perform.

Furthermore, the timing of opening the bottom door 32 of each storage box 30 on each delivery belt conveyor 11 is determined based on the layout of the storage box 30 in advance so that the bottom door 32 of each storage box 30 on each delivery belt conveyor 11 is not mixed with the contents discharged from other storage boxes 30. A control device is provided which operates based on a program corresponding to the conveyance speed of the delivery belt conveyor 11, and these control devices are operated by a computer provided for each delivery belt conveyor 11.

The storage box 30 is measured by the above-mentioned weight measuring device.
The signal flow up to the opening/closing operation of the bottom door 32 is illustrated in FIG. 5. In the example of this figure, the timing of the bottom door 32 is shown as a timer signal for convenience of explanation, but the point is that it is sufficient to provide an interval equal to or more than a predetermined time difference, and the timing is not limited to the numbers in the figure. .

<Effects> The computer constituting the above-mentioned control device uses a small and small capacity computer for each sorting belt conveyor 10 and delivery belt conveyor 11, but if a medium-sized computer is used, the transmission and reception of these signals and calculations can be easily performed. One computer is sufficient. Moreover, there is no substitute for this invention even if the control is performed by an electric or electronic sequence control device instead of a computer.

In the present invention configured as described above, in addition to being able to carry out the method described above, each delivery belt conveyor 11 is a flat belt and has a simple structure, so that it is not affected much by the individual shape of the objects A to be sorted. In addition, since the objects A to be sorted are discharged from the individual storage boxes 30 and the objects A to be sorted in a set weight are discharged or put into the packaging container from the delivery belt conveyor 11 at once, the objects A to be sorted are
have a buffering effect on each other, and the degree and rate of damage is much lower than that of the conventional sequential injection device. Furthermore, since the device is capable of transferring a predetermined amount in units and loading the contents into packaging containers all at once, there is no need to re-weigh the contents when pouring into packaging containers.

In other embodiments, the partition door 31 and the bottom door 32 of each storage box 30 have the above-mentioned functions. Control can be performed simply by setting the time or timing according to the transfer size of the delivery belt conveyor 11 without using a special belt conveyor.

Furthermore, in the embodiment, since the computer is used as the control device for operating the partition door 31 and the bottom door 32 as described above, these controls can be easily performed simply by setting a program.

Furthermore, in the illustrated embodiment, the sorting and sorting device 2
Elastic cushioning materials 24 or 37 are attached to the contact surfaces of the blade plates 23 of 0, the inner surfaces of the storage chambers 35 and 36, and the upper surfaces of the partition door 31 and the bottom door 32, respectively. Even in a collision, there is almost no damage.

In this invention, the transfer speed of the sorting belt conveyor 10 and the delivery belt conveyor 11 and the blade plate 23 of the sorting and sorting device 20 may vary depending on the type, shape, or size of the objects A to be sorted.
However, in the case of potatoes, for example, the limit is about 40 m/min, and the maximum head when dropping is about 90 cm, which is usually about 10 to 30% less than this. is safer.

In addition, if there is a possibility that the class distribution of the objects A to be sorted may be concentrated in a specific class, a program may be programmed and controlled in advance so that objects of the same class are conveyed by two or more delivery belt conveyors 11. The objects A to be sorted are concentrated in the class, a predetermined weight of objects A are stored in the lower storage chamber 36 of the storage box 30, and after the partition door 31 is closed, the bottom door 32
If there is a risk that the next object A to be sorted will reach a predetermined amount on the partition door 31 in the upper storage chamber 35 until the opening of the line, the sorting belt conveyor 10 weight measuring device or other transport The means is controlled by a control device such that the means is temporarily stopped until the bottom door is opened, the lower storage chamber 36 is emptied, and the bottom door 32 is closed again and the partition door 31 is opened. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show typical embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall outline, and FIG.
The figure is a cutaway sectional view of the section taken along the line 2-2 in Figure 2.
4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the storage box section, FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional front view of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of signals of the control device. Main symbols in the figure: A...Object to be sorted, B...Weighing device, C...Packaging container, 10...Sorting belt conveyor, 11...Delivery belt conveyor, 20...Sorting and sorting device, 30 ...Storage box, 3
1... Middle partition door, 32... Bottom door.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. There are several parallel sorting belt conveyors and a plurality of parallel delivery belt conveyors that are perpendicular to these conveyors and located lower than these conveyors for conveying by class. At the intersection with each delivery belt conveyor, the objects to be sorted are sorted by a sorting and sorting device at the intersection with each delivery belt conveyor, and items of a class specific to that delivery belt conveyor are sorted, and then transferred from the sorting belt conveyor to the delivery belt conveyor. In the device for feeding materials, the delivery belt conveyor is a flat belt conveyor, and each intersection has a storage box having upper and lower storage sections capable of temporarily storing a set weight of materials to be sorted. A partition door is provided between the bottom of each storage box and the upper and lower storage sections, and a bottom door is provided at the bottom of the lower storage section to separate the objects to be sorted in the lower storage box. If a predetermined time has elapsed since the storage box reached the set weight and the bottom door of the other storage box on the same delivery belt conveyor was opened, the bottom door of the storage box that reached the set weight is immediately opened and the other storage box is opened. If a predetermined time has not elapsed after the bottom door of the box was opened, the middle partition door is temporarily closed, the bottom door is opened after the predetermined time has elapsed, the material to be sorted is released, the bottom door is closed, and the middle partition is closed. A solid material group sorting and conveying device characterized by being provided with a partition door for opening the door and a bottom door driving device. 2. The solid material group sorting and conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the delivery belt conveyor is a flat belt conveyor that is flat or slightly curved in the shape of a gutter at the conveying section.