JPH032437B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION ``Industrial Application Field'' The present invention relates to a pellet loading device, and more particularly to a pellet loading device for inserting pellets on a pellet tray into a cladding tube.

``Prior Art'' Conventionally, when inserting pellets on a pellet tray into a cladding tube using this type of pellet loading device, the pellet tray is first placed on a pellet tray holder and the pellet tray and cladding tube are connected. It is aligned with the pellet guide installed in between. This positioning work is necessary because a large number of pellet trays are used in sequence, and each pellet tray has a slightly different shape due to manufacturing errors, deformation, etc. Next, after inserting the cladding tube from one side of the guide hole drilled in the pellet guide and positioning the cladding tube,
The pellets on the pellet tray are manually pushed into the cladding tube through the pellet guide from the other side of the guide hole of the pellet guide using a pusher. At this time, the guide hole of the pellet guide is formed into a tapered shape to easily accept the pellets, but if there are fragments of pellets, etc.
The pellets may become stuck in the pellet guide or the pellets may not flow properly. In such cases, the pellet pushing operation is interrupted each time, and the causing pellet fragments are removed.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" The problems to be solved by the present invention are as follows.

(1) Conventionally, pellets were pushed out manually, and the degree to which the pushing force was sensed varied depending on the worker, making it difficult to quickly and accurately detect abnormal conditions such as pellet clogging.

(2) It was extremely inefficient as it was necessary to align each pellet tray with the pellet guide.

(3) In an attempt to remove fallen pellet fragments that cause pellet clogging, if the pellet tray and pellet guide are positioned at a distance of approximately 1/3 of the pellet length, pellets may not transfer from the pellet tray to the pellet guide. Things didn't go smoothly and work efficiency was poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is capable of quickly and accurately detecting abnormalities in the pellet pushing force, and flexibly dealing with production errors and deformations of pellet trays. It is an object of the present invention to provide a pellet loading device that can remove debris and the like and smoothly fill pellets into a cladding tube.

``Means for Solving the Problems'' The present invention provides a pellet tray holder on which a pellet tray is placed, a pellet guide that guides the pellets into the cladding tube, a pellet fragment removing means for removing pellet fragments, etc. a pellet extrusion means for pushing the pellet into the pellet, an extrusion force detection means for detecting the extrusion force of the pellet, and the extrusion force detection means detects a plurality of extrusion force upper limit values preset based on the number of pellets to be pushed into the cladding tube. The apparatus is further provided with a control device which stops the pellet extrusion means when the detected value exceeds the upper limit value of the extrusion force for each number of pellets filled.

``Operation'' The pellet loading device of the present invention uses a pellet extrusion means to push out pellets from a pellet tray, and a pellet fragment removal means to remove fragments of the pellets transferred together with the pellets, thereby passing the pellets through a pellet guide. While guiding the pellets into the cladding tube, the extrusion force detection means monitors the extrusion force during pellet filling, and the detection value detected by the extrusion force detection means is When a plurality of set extrusion force upper limit values are exceeded, the pellet extrusion means is stopped by the control device.

"Embodiment" Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 8.

1 to 3 are a perspective view, a plan view, and a side view showing the entire pellet loading device of the present invention. To explain the outline, pellet extrusion means 2, pellet tray holding table 3 are placed on a moving base 1. , a pellet fragment removing means 4, and a pellet guide 5 are disposed in this order, and an extrusion force detection means 6 is provided on the upper part of the pellet extrusion means 2, and the extrusion force detection means 6 is provided in front of the pellet guide 5 (in FIGS. 2 and 3). On the left side), a cladding tube mounting table 7 is provided.

The movable board 1 is horizontally moved by a rail 10 having a U-shaped cross section fixed to the base end side of the lower surface thereof and a rotatable roller 13 installed on the first horizontal surface 11a of the pedestal 11 via a floor plate 12. freely supported. The floorboard 12 extends from the first horizontal surface 11a through a vertical surface 11b connected thereto to a second horizontal surface 11c located one step higher than the first horizontal surface 11a.
It is laid down to the end of the pipe. Further, the tip of the rod 14a of the feed cylinder 14 disposed on the floor plate 12 of the first horizontal surface 11a and the lower surface of the tip of the movable board 1 are connected via a mounting member 15. And feed cylinder 1
4 rods 14a are attached to the floor plate 1 of the vertical surface 11b.
2 and 3, the moving board 1 moves from right to left in FIGS. 2 and 3, and receives the cladding tube C on the cladding tube mounting table 7 into the pellet guide 5. It's becoming like that.

The pellet extrusion means 2 includes an extrusion drive mechanism 20, a moving table 21, and a push plate up/down mechanism 22.
, a push plate 23, and first, second, and third position detectors 24,
25 and 26. In this extrusion drive mechanism 20, a pellet extrusion motor 20a installed on the movable substrate 1 is operated by a torque limiter 2.
0b to the reducer 20c, and this reducer 20c is connected to the coupler 20 via the connecting rod 20d.
e, as well as the reducer 20c and the coupler 2.
0e, a support member 2 on the moving board 1 is shown, respectively.
A pair of ball screws 20g supported at 0f are connected. Further, the moving table 21 includes a support leg 21a screwed onto a ball screw 20g, and a moving plate 21b fixed on the support leg 21a, and the extrusion drive mechanism 20
By rotating the pellet extrusion motor 20a, the moving table 21 is moved along the ball screw 20g.
is adapted to move in the left and right directions (see FIGS. 2 and 3). Furthermore, the push plate up and down mechanism 2
2, the base end of the press plate upper and lower cylinder 22a is rotatably pin-coupled onto the movable table 21, and a press plate holding block 22d is attached to the tip of the rod 22b via a connecting member 22c, and A plurality of rollers 22e (in this embodiment The support shafts 23a of the push plate 23 are slidably inserted into the drilled holes via springs 22h. By advancing the rod 22b of the press plate upper and lower cylinder 22a, the roller 22e moves from the lower right to the upper left in FIG. 3 along the groove 22g of the press plate upper and lower guide 22f. 23 also moves from the lower right to the upper left. Furthermore, the first position detector 24
1, and the second position detector 25 detects the operation timing of the push plate upper and lower cylinders 22a.
Further, the third position detectors 26 detect the backward limit positions of the movable base 21, and are respectively installed at appropriate positions on the movable board 1.

Further, the extrusion force detection means 6 includes a push plate 23
A guide shaft 61 is fixed at one end to the upper part of the push plate holding block 22d, and is slidably provided on a fixing member 60 fixed to the push plate holding block 22d. Detection objects 62, 63
and first and second extrusion force detectors 64 and 65 attached to the upper part of the fixing member 60. When the push plate 23 moves toward the push plate up/down mechanism 22 against the spring 22h, the first detection body 62 comes into contact with the actuator of the first push-out force detector 64, so that the first setting push-out is performed. detect force,
Next, the second detection body 63 comes into contact with the actuator of the second extrusion force detector 65, thereby detecting a second set extrusion force that is larger than the first set extrusion force. Further, the detection cladding tube of each of the extrusion force detectors 64, 65 is inputted to a control device (not shown), and in this control device, the number of pellets P to be filled into the cladding tube C is set in advance. The two extrusion force upper limit values and the extrusion force detectors 64, 6
These detected values are compared with each detected value of 5.
When the extrusion force exceeds the upper limit value for each number of pellets P filled, the pellet extrusion means 2 is stopped. That is, in the case of the above control device, pellets P to the first half of the cladding tube C are
If the first extrusion force detector 64 is activated when inserting (for example, pellet trays T1 to T3), it is determined that there is an abnormality and the extrusion operation by the push plate 23 is stopped, and the second half of the cladding tube C is inserted. Insertion of pellet P (e.g. pellet tray T4)
~7 sheets), the second extrusion force detector 6
5 is activated, it is determined that there is an abnormality and the pushing operation by the push plate 23 is stopped.

In the pellet tray holding base 3, one end of the pellet tray holding plate 30 is rotatably connected to the movable base plate 1 with a pin, and the other end is connected to the pellet tray upper and lower cylinders 31 on the movable base plate 1 and to the pellet tray upper and lower cylinders 31. A pellet tray holding cylinder 33 for holding the pellet tray T on the pellet tray holding plate 30 is installed on the pellet tray holding plate 30 and supported by the connected upper and lower cams 32. On the grooved guide plate 34 and the support plate 35,
The pellet tray T is placed on the pellet tray holding plate 30 by aligning the legs Ta.
Furthermore, a pellet stopper Tb is provided at one end of the pellet tray T to prevent pellets P from falling. The pellet tray T is formed in a wave shape and has multiple rows (25 rows in this example).
pellets P are placed in the grooves of a corrugated pallet tray T. Further, the intervals between each row of pellets P and the intervals between the respective push plates 23 are made to match.

The pellet guide 5 has a plurality of (25 in this embodiment) guide holes 50, and both openings of the guide holes 50 are connected to the cladding tube mounting table on the second horizontal surface 11c of the pedestal 11, respectively. The pellet guide 5 is tapered to facilitate insertion of the cladding tube C placed on the pellet tray T and the pellet P on the pellet tray T, and a pellet receiving tray 51 is provided on the end surface of the pellet guide 5 on the cladding tube mounting table 7 side. It is said to be composed of Further, the pellet fragment removing means 4 includes a plurality of round bar rails 40 supported horizontally between the pellet guide 5 and a support member 41 on the side of the pellet tray holder 3. P is supported by two round bar rails 40 and is connected to each guide hole 50.
Pellet flow grooves 42 and guide holes 50 formed by each round bar rail 40 are arranged so that the pellets are guided smoothly to the pellets.
It is designed to coincide with the center of moreover,
Pellet P falling down from pellet flow groove 42
A chip tray 43 is installed below the round bar rail 40 to receive debris and other unwanted material.

Next, the operation of the pellet loading device configured as described above will be explained.

With the pellets P arranged on the pellet tray T having 25 rows of equally spaced grooves, the pellet tray T is placed on the pellet tray holding plate 3.
Put it on top of 0. In this case, the pellet tray T is set so that the V legs Ta of the pellet tray T fit into the V grooves of the V grooved guide plate 34 on the pellet tray holding plate 30. Also, at this time, the tip of the pellet tray holding plate 30 is in the raised position by the pellet tray upper and lower cylinders 31 and the upper and lower cams 32, and although the pellet tray T is tilted, the pellets P are lifted from the pellet tray T by the pellet stopper Tb. It won't fall outside.

Next, the pellet tray holding cylinder 33
is activated to hold down the pellet tray T and firmly hold it on the pellet tray holding plate 30.

Next, the pellet tray upper and lower cylinders 31
is driven to rotate the upper and lower cams 32 and lower the tip of the pellet tray holding plate 30. As a result, the tip of the groove of the pellet tray T and the pellet flow groove 42 formed by the round bar rail 40 match (see FIGS. 4 and 5).

Further, the feed cylinder 14 is driven to move the movable substrate 1 until the tip of the rod 14a of the feed cylinder 14 hits the stopper 16. As a result, each cladding tube C on the cladding tube mounting table 7 is inserted into the guide hole 50 of the pellet guide 5 and positioned.

Next, by driving the pellet extrusion motor 20a, each push plate 23 is simultaneously moved toward the cladding tube C side. At this time, the press plate 23 is set to the raised position by the action of the press plate upper and lower cylinders 22a, and therefore the press plate 23 is placed in the upper position of the pellet stopper fixed to one end of the pellet tray T.
It passes above Tb and hits the end face of pellet P (see the two-dot chain line in Figure 6A). As the press plate 23 moves to the left, the pellet P is pushed out. When the press plate 23 moves to a position approximately 5 cm away from the pellet stopper Tb, the second position detector 25 is activated and the press plate upper and lower cylinders are activated. 22a
The rod 22b moves backward. Therefore, the push plate 23 descends while moving to the right with respect to the movable plate 21b. During this time, the pellet extrusion motor 20a continues to drive the push plate 23 in the forward direction (to the left), but the push plate 23 is moved to the right with respect to the moving plate 21b by the push plate upper and lower cylinders 22a. As it descends, the press plate 23 temporarily separates from the pellet P, and after completing its descent to the bottom of the groove of the pellet tray T, it moves the pellet P again.
The pellet P is pushed out (see Figures 6 and 7).

When the push plate 23 moves to the most extreme position, the pellets P are completely pushed out from the pellet tray T. When the first position detector 24 detects that the push plate 23 has reached the most extreme position, the pellet extrusion motor 20a is reversely rotated and the push plate 23 starts to move backward. In addition, since the push plate 23 is moved to the raised position by the push plate upper and lower cylinders 22a during the retreat, the push plate 23 does not hit the pellet stopper Tb of the pellet tray T.

When the push plate 23 has completely retreated to the position where the third position detector 26 is activated, the pellet tray upper and lower cylinders 31 and the upper and lower cams 32 cause the tip of the pellet tray T to rise and return to the pellet tray receiving position. And this pellet tray T
is carried out, and a new pellet tray T carrying pellets P is placed on the pellet tray holding plate 30.

By the way, if the extrusion force becomes excessive for some reason during the pellet P extrusion operation, the push plate 23 will excessively compress the spring 22h and pull it into the push plate holding block 22d. Therefore, the first detection body 62 is connected to the first extrusion force detector 6.
4, or the second detector 63 is connected to the second actuator.
This corresponds to the actuator of the extrusion force detector 65. In this case, a control device (not shown) detects the operation of the first extrusion force detector 64 or the second extrusion force detector 65 and stops the extrusion operations of all the push plates 23 depending on the situation. That is, in the first step, when the first extrusion force detector 64 is activated when the pellets P are inserted into the first half of the cladding tube C (for example, three pellet trays T), it is determined that there is an abnormality, and as the second step, When inserting the pellets P into the latter half of the cladding tube C (for example, seven pellet trays), the second extrusion force detector 6
5 is activated, it is determined that there is an abnormality. This is because the cladding tube C is approximately 3.8 m long, and the insertion resistance increases as the amount of pellets inserted increases (normal insertion force is 0 to 25 kg). This is to determine the force and detect excessive insertion force for early detection of abnormalities. Note that the number of detection bodies 62, 63 or push-out force detectors 64, 65 is not limited to this embodiment, and may be three or more, or a position detector such as an encoder may be used to
By continuously detecting the position of the extrusion force, the extrusion force may be continuously measured and compared with the number of pellets P filled to determine an abnormality. In this way, when the control device detects an abnormal extrusion force, only the cladding tube C clogged with the relevant pellets P is removed, and then the pellet filling operation is restarted.

In addition, during pellet extrusion operation, if excessive resistance is applied to the entire device for some reason, the torque limiter 2 connected between the pellet extrusion motor 20a and the speed reducer 20c
0b idles and stops the pellet extrusion operation, so there is no problem with the pellet P or the device.

On the other hand, the pellets P pushed out from the pellet tray T pass through a pellet flow path groove 42 constituted by a round bar rail 40. At this time, fragments of the pellets P carried together with the pellets P are dropped onto the chip receiving tray 43, so that no fragments or the like get mixed into the pellet guide 5 or the cladding tube C.

Further, the pellets P are forced into the cladding tube C through the pellet guide 5. And about
In order to fill the 3.8 m long cladding tube C with a predetermined amount of pellets P, pellets P for 8 to 8 pellet trays T7 are required, so the above operations are repeated.

When a predetermined amount of pellets P are inserted into the cladding tube C, it is detected by a pellet fullness detector (not shown) installed at one end of the cladding tube C, and the pellet extrusion operation in this device is stopped.

Next, the feeding cylinder 14 is driven to move the moving substrate 1 backward, and the entire feeding device is moved to the cladding tube C.
away from.

The cladding tube C into which a predetermined amount of pellets P have been inserted is carried out to the next step, and the next empty cladding tube C is loaded onto the cladding tube mounting table 7.

Subsequently, the entire feeding device is moved to the feeding cylinder 14.
The pellet guide 5 moves to the cladding tube C side, and the cladding tube C is inserted into the pellet guide 5 and positioned.

Next, the extrusion operation is continued by restarting the present device, which had been stopped during the previous extrusion into the cladding tube C.

"Effects of the Invention" In summary, the present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) Compare multiple extrusion force upper limit values set in advance based on the number of pellets to be pushed into the cladding tube with the detected value detected by the extrusion force detection means, and determine whether this detected value Since the device is equipped with a control device that stops the pellet extrusion means when the extrusion force exceeds the upper limit, the detection value detected by the extrusion force detection means is set for each number of pellets pushed into the cladding tube. By using the control device to stop the pellet extrusion means when the extrusion force exceeds the extrusion force upper limit, abnormalities in extrusion force can be detected quickly and reliably, and the pellet can be inserted into the cladding tube without applying excessive insertion force. can be inserted into

(2) By providing a means to remove pellet fragments, etc., it is possible to prevent pellet fragments, etc. from entering the cladding tube, and to prevent clogging of the insertion path due to fragments, etc., greatly increasing work efficiency. You can measure your improvement.

(3) Since the tip of the pellet tray does not directly contact the pellet guide inlet side, a pellet fragment removal means is interposed between the pellets, so pellets can be smoothly transferred from the pellet tray to the pellet guide, and some deformation may occur. It can also be used with pellet trays made of pellets, so the pellet trays can be used repeatedly over a long period of time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 8 show one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the entire device, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same, FIG. 3 is a side view of the same, and FIGS. Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the relationship between the pellet tray and the round bar rail, Figure 6 A and B are explanatory diagrams for explaining the initial state of pellet pushing operation, and Figure 7 is A and B for normal pellet pushing operation. The explanatory diagrams in FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C are explanatory diagrams illustrating the operation of the extrusion force detection means. 2... Pellet extrusion means, 3... Pellet tray holding stand, 4... Pellet fragment removal means, 5
...Pellet guide, 6...Extrusion force detection means, C...Coating tube, T...Pellet tray, P...
...Pellet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A pellet tray holder on which a pellet tray is placed, a pellet guide that guides the pellets on the pellet tray into the cladding tube, and a pellet guide provided between the pellet guide and the pellet tray placed on the pellet tray holder to remove pellet fragments, etc. pellet extrusion means for pushing the pellets on the pellet tray into the cladding tube through the pellet debris removal means and the pellet guide; and extrusion force detection means for detecting the force with which the pellets are extruded by the pellet extrusion means. , the detection value detected by the extrusion force detection means is compared with a plurality of extrusion force upper limit values set in advance based on the number of pellets to be filled into the cladding tube, and this detected value is determined for each of the pellets filling number. A pellet loading device comprising: a control device that stops the pellet extrusion means when the extrusion force exceeds an upper limit value.