JPH0331108B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Field of Application) This invention relates to an apparatus for sorting elongated plants by weight. It belongs to the industrial field of weighing and sorting equipment during transportation.

(Prior art) Various devices are known for weighing and sorting eggs, oranges, etc. while they are being transported.In most of these devices, when the object to be sorted moves to a weighing position, its base plate etc. The structure was such that it could be moved and the openings etc. opened.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, it is difficult to transport plants with long stems, such as chrysanthemums, carnations, and roses, one by one to the weighing position, and even if they are transported, it is difficult to transport them one by one to the weighing position. There are no specific proposals regarding the means of weighing. Therefore, the inventor of this application transported the plants horizontally one by one, and rotated the support at the weighing position so that the plants could be dropped and accumulated according to weight. The above-mentioned horizontal placement of plants is performed on the outbound side of the conveyance device, whether automatically or manually.Next, weighing must be performed on the return side. Therefore, when changing direction, it is necessary to lower the plants while stably supporting them and continue them to the return route.

In the above structure, the plants are sorted by weight on the sorting line, and since the plants are long and slender, it is preferable to rotate the support and let them fall while the plants are placed horizontally. However, there is a problem in that the support is likely to rotate when the direction of the conveyance device is changed. The point was hot.

The plants are sorted by weight and must have a constant length in order to be sold as a product, but there is also the problem that it is difficult to trim the plants to a uniform length while supporting them on a support. In addition, when weighing plants, if they do not fall parallel to each other, there is a risk of damaging leaves, etc.Furthermore, if plants are not taken out of the sorting line from each sorting and accumulation position, packaging becomes difficult and workability is poor. It was hot.

(Means for Solving the Problems) However, the present invention provides a transportation device for horizontally transporting plants, a cutting device for trimming them, a parallel lowering device for plants, a weighing device, a carrying-out device, etc. This automatically solved each of the above problems.

That is, in this invention, a conveyance device having a support for supporting a long and thin plant horizontally is installed on the top of the machine frame, and the length of one end of the plant is trimmed at the top of one side of the conveyance device on the forward path side. A cutting device is provided, and an elevating guide device is provided for lowering the support in parallel to a direction change position on the return path side of the transfer device, and one side of the return path side of the transfer device is provided so that plants can be dropped by weight. A sorting device was constructed by sequentially installing a plurality of weighing devices each having a size of 1,000,000,000, and a plant carrying device below each weighing device for pulling out the plants to the outside of the conveying device.
The conveyance device also includes two chains laid in parallel at predetermined intervals, four sprockets attached to the chains, and supports rotatably supported at both ends at right angles to the chains and at predetermined intervals. It was composed of

Next, the support was composed of a horizontal rod that was perpendicular to the chain, and a plurality of support rods that were perpendicular to the horizontal rod and whose base ends were fixed at predetermined intervals. Further, the cutting device was constructed by mounting two bearing rings and a cutting blade facing each other. Further, the elevating guide device includes an elevating rod having a guide piece fixed to its upper end, a tilting rod interlocked with power, and a link rod connecting the lower end of the elevating rod and the tip of the tilting rod. Next, in the weighing device, a guide rod that guides the protrusion of the support is fixed at a right angle to one end of the arm, a weight is attached to the other end of the arm, and the middle part is rotatable toward the machine body using a support shaft. It was constructed and constructed.

Next, the plant carrying out device is a cradle or a belt conveyor that slides in a direction perpendicular to the conveying device. One side (outside) of the receiving ring in the cutting device is circular, the other side is fan-shaped, and the outer circumferential side has:
It has many grooves into which the lids of plants can be fitted loosely.

(Function of the invention) This invention stably transports a long and slender plant in a horizontal position using a transport device with a support, trims the base end of the plant using a cutting device, and uses a lifting guide device to stably transport a long and slender plant horizontally. The plants can be lowered while lying horizontally, sorted by weight by a weighing device, and the sorted plants can be carried out laterally from below the conveyance line by a carrying-out device.

It should be noted that since all of the above operations are performed synchronously, there is no confusion.

(Example 1) Next, an example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. Rotating shafts 2, 3, 3a are installed horizontally on both left and right sides above the machine frame 1 in Figures 1 and 2 (on the right side, two rotating shafts 3, 3a are installed on the same straight line). ), each rotating shaft 2, 3, 3a,
Two sprockets 4, 4 are fixed at predetermined equal intervals, and chains 5, 5 are attached to each corresponding sprocket 4, 4.

Both ends of horizontal rods 6, 6 are rotatably installed on the chains 5, 5 at predetermined equal intervals perpendicular to the direction of movement of the chains. (parallel to the direction) A support 23 is constructed by fixing the base ends of support rods 7, 7 at a predetermined interval. After one end of the support rods 7, 7 rises from the fixed portion, the sides thereof are bent in an inverted U-shape in order to support the plant 8. A balance weight 22 is attached to each of the horizontal rods 6 in a direction opposite to the protruding direction of the support rods 7, a bracket 9 is fixed to one side of the horizontal rod 6, and a support piece 10 made of an elastic material is attached onto the bracket 9. Fix one end of
The tip of the branch piece 10 projects toward the chain 5 side,
The tip of the branch 10 is brought into contact with a guide rail 11 fixed to the machine frame 1. The return side (lower stage) of the chain 5 is the weighing side, and the chain 5 is located below.
A frame 12, 12a, 12b, 122 in the shape of an accumulation section divided into several sections in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the
c are arranged in parallel, a part of the guide rail 11 is cut out corresponding to each frame, and the support piece 10 is attached to the part.
The guide rods 13 are each supported by an arm 14 so as to be tiltable about a support shaft 15 (in the direction in which the guide rod 13 side descends), and the arm 14 has a fixed weight 16 and a movable weight. weight 16
A is attached to constitute a weighing device 24, and the weighed weight can be accurately set by moving the movable weight 16a. Also, the chain 5
Lifting guide pieces 17 and 18 are installed to raise and lower the support piece 10 in parallel with each other when the direction is changed.

On the bottom plates of the frames 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, a predetermined plurality of support rings 19, 19 are rotatably installed at predetermined intervals, and on the support rings 19, 19, pedestals 20 for the plants 8 are respectively mounted. A rail 20a is mounted on the rail 20a. The pedestal 20 is a planar rectangular plate that fits loosely into the frame 12, and two rails 20a are fixed in parallel to the lower surface of the pedestal 20 at positions corresponding to the support ring 19, and the chain 5 It is designed so that it can slide at right angles to the direction of movement.

In addition, the branch piece 10 is attached to the bracket 9 by screws 21.
The branch piece 10 is fixed upward, and one end 10a of the branch piece 10 is hooked to the edge of the bracket 9, and the other end of the branch piece 10 extends in the direction of the chain 5, and its angle is adjusted by an adjustment screw 47.

The guide piece 17 is fixed to the upper end of the lifting rod 25, the lower end of the lifting rod 25 is connected to the upper end of the link rod 26, the lower end of the link rod 26 is connected to the tip of the tilting rod 27, and the base end of the tilting rod 27 is connected. is the shaft 28 on the machine frame 1.
It is installed in Further, the cam roller 29 attached to the middle part of the tilting rod 27 is in contact with the side wall of the cam 30 installed on the machine frame 1, and has a sprocket 31 fixed to the shaft of the cam 30 and a sprocket fixed to the shaft of the motor 32. A chain 35 is commonly attached to the sprocket 33 and the sprocket 34 fixed to the rotating shaft 2 to transmit power synchronously.

The lifting guide piece 18 is fixed to the upper end of the lifting rod 36, the lower end of the lifting rod 36 is connected to the tip of a tilting rod 38 via a link rod 37, and the base end of the tilting rod 38 is connected to the machine frame 1 as a support shaft. 65 and is rotatably mounted. A side wall of the eccentric cam 40 is brought into contact with a cam roller 39 attached to the middle part of the tilting rod 38, and a common chain is formed between the sprocket 41 fixed to the shaft of the eccentric cam 40 and the sprocket 42 fixed to the rotating shaft 3. 43 is installed to synchronously transmit the power of the cam.

The rotating shaft 2 includes a circular bearing ring 75 from the outside,
A fan-shaped bearing ring 76 is fixed on the inside thereof at a predetermined interval, and a cutting blade 76 is placed above between the two bearing rings.
7 are fixed to a rotating shaft 78 and installed opposite to each other, and the lower edge of the cutting blade 77 is slightly lower than the outer edge of the receiving ring 76 so as to cut the stem of the plant 8 supported on the receiving rings 75 and 76. It is located in

In the embodiment described above, the tip of the plant (for example, a chrysanthemum) is placed on the support rods 7, 7 at one side A in FIG.
When the plant 8 is moved in the direction shown in FIG.
6, it is cut with a cutting blade 77 to align the base, and then it descends and moves in the direction of arrow 45.

In the above, when the support 23 reaches the end of the forward path of the conveyance device, the branch 10 of the support 23 comes off the rail 11a and moves into the frame 17a of the guide piece 17, and the support 23 moves (descends). The guide piece 7 also descends in synchronization with the movement. When the guide piece 7 reaches the lowest position, the support piece 10 moves to the lower rail 11.
In this way, the support 23 smoothly transitions from the forward path to the return path of the conveying device in the same posture. When the plant 8 reaches the position of the frame 12, the branch 10 is moved onto the guide rod 13 (FIG. 7). In this case, the weight of the plant 8 is
If the weight exceeds the set weight of the guide rod 1, the guide rod 13 on which the branch piece 10 is mounted descends in the direction of arrow 46 (descends as shown by the chain line 13a in FIG. 7), and the support piece 10
3 and descends along the slope 11a of the fixed guide rail 11 as shown by the arrow 49.
The horizontal rod 6 rotates in the direction of the arrow 51 around the mounting shafts 50 at both ends (Fig. 6), and the plants 8 on the support rods 7, 7 rotate.
falls in the direction of arrow 52 (Fig. 1), and the pedestal 20
Supported upwards. If the weight of the plant 8 is less than the set weight, the guide rod 3 remains horizontal, so the branch 10 passes through as it is and moves onto the fixed guide rail 11 as shown by the arrow 53 (Fig. 7). ). As described above, the plants 8 are sorted according to their weights. Once an appropriate amount of plants have been accumulated on the pedestal 20, the pedestal 20 is pulled out in the direction of arrow 54 or 55, and the accumulated plants 8 are taken out and packaged. Since the pedestal 20 is provided with a locking piece 79 that engages with a stopper provided at the center of the frame, there is no fear that the pedestal 20 will be pulled out laterally more than necessary.

In the above, once the support 23 has been rotated, the support piece 10 thereof is guided by the lower part of the rail 11 and the groove 56 formed by the guide rod 48, so that the support 23 moves forward while maintaining the position after rotation. Therefore, there is no risk that the support piece 10 will become unstable during movement or come into contact with other objects and generate noise. Since the adjustment screw 47 has an elliptical shape (or is eccentric), the angle of the support piece 10 can be finely adjusted by rotating it.
Further, since the support piece 10 is made of a spring material and can elastically move in the direction of arrow 58 or 59 in FIG. 6, there is no risk of damage even if some external force is applied while the support piece 10 is moving.

Incidentally, when the support 23 rotates and moves in the direction of the rotating shafts 3, 3a with the plant 8 falling, since the swash plate 60 is provided below the support rod 10, the support rod By proceeding with the lower surface of 10 in contact with the upper surface of swash plate 60, the support 23 sequentially rotates in the opposite direction (direction of arrow 57) to the old position (before rotation). return. Therefore, one side of the bracket 9 sequentially enters the frame 18a of the guide piece 18, and the elevating rod 36
As the bracket 9 rises, the bracket 9 also rises in parallel and moves to the starting end of the forward path of the support.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the elevating device for the guide piece 17.

That is, the guide piece 17 is fixed to the upper end of the lifting rod 61, and the outer wall of the eccentric cam 63 is in contact with the lower surface of the cam plate 62 at the lower end of the lifting rod 61. It is a spring that comes into contact with the

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a carrying-out device in place of a pedestal.
That is, a belt conveyor 66, 66a, 66b, 66c is installed for each frame 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, and each belt conveyor has a sprocket 80 provided at the end of a common drive shaft 67 and a sprocket fixed to the shaft of a motor 68. 81 and both sprockets 8
It is driven by a chain 82 attached to 0,81. The common drive shaft 67 has a sprocket 6
9, 69a, 69b, 69c are loosely fitted, and the clutch plates 70, 70a, 70b, 70c are locked in the rotational direction and fitted so as to be slidable in the axial direction, and the sprockets 69, 69a, 69b, 6
9c, and drive rollers 71, 7 of each belt conveyor.
Chains 73, 73a, 73b, 73c are installed between sprockets 72, 72a, 72b, 72c fixed to the shafts of 1a, 71b, 71c to transmit power in a timely manner. Of course, a motor can also be provided for each belt conveyor. In the embodiment described, starting the motor 68 rotates the common drive shaft 67, which rotation is caused by the clutch plates 70,
Each drive roller 7 via 70a, 70b, 70c
1, 71a, 71b, and 71c.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 11 shows an embodiment in which the support 23 is returned from the rotational position to the old position. That is, the groove 56 is indicated by the arrow 83.
The branch piece 10 that has advanced as shown in FIG. Therefore, the support 23 moves sequentially as the support piece 10 rises, and when the support piece 10 reaches the upper surface of the guide rail 84 that is at the same level as the upper edge of the guide rail 11, the support 23 returns to its old position. It means that he has recovered.

(Effects of the Invention) This invention is provided with a transport device that transports plants horizontally, so it can be transported stably, and the support used for transport is rotatably attached to the chain, so it can be weighed easily. By rotating the device according to the weight, it is possible to easily and automatically sort the items by weight. Moreover, the guide piece allows stable support of the plant when converting to the method of the conveying device. In addition, the sorted plants are transported out of the transport line by the transport device and sent to the next process.
It has the effect of being able to work consistently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a partially omitted front view of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view, Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the cutting device, and Fig. 4 is a partially enlarged perspective view of the support. Figure 5 is a front view of another embodiment of the lifting device for the guide piece, Figure 6 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing the relationship between the weighing device and the support, and Figure 7 is the movement of the guide rod. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of the bottom of the pedestal, FIG. 9 is a plan view of another embodiment of the unloading device, and FIG. 10 is a partially enlarged front view showing the mounting state of the horizontal rod. FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of another embodiment of the support return device. 5...Chain, 6...Horizontal rod, 7...Support rod, 8
... Plant, 10 ... Branch, 11 ... Guide rail,
17, 18...Guide piece, 23...Bearing tool, 24...
...Weighing device, 25... Lifting rod, 26... Link rod,
27... Lifting rod, 30... Cam.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A transport device having a support for supporting a long and slender plant horizontally is installed in the upper part of the machine frame, and the length of one end of the plant is fixed at the upper part of one side of the transport device on the forward path side. A cutting device is provided for trimming the plants evenly, and a lifting guide device is provided for lowering the support in parallel to a direction change position on the return path side of the transport device, and on one side of the return path side of the transport device, plants are dropped by weight. A device for sorting elongated plants, characterized in that a plurality of weighing devices are sequentially installed, and a plant carrying device is provided below each weighing device to pull the plants out of the carrying device. 2. The conveyance device consists of two chains laid in parallel at a predetermined interval, four sprockets attached to the chains, and a support that is rotatably supported at both ends at right angles to the chain and at a predetermined interval. An apparatus for sorting elongated plants according to claim 1, comprising: 3. The support according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the support is constituted by a horizontal rod that is perpendicular to the chain, and a plurality of support rods that are perpendicular to the horizontal rod and whose base ends are fixed at predetermined intervals. A device for sorting long and narrow plants. 4. The device for sorting elongated plants according to claim 1, wherein the cutting device is constructed by installing two receiving rings and a cutting blade facing each other. 5. The elevating guide device includes an elevating rod having a guide piece fixed to the upper end, a tilting rod interlocked with power, and a link rod connecting the lower end of the elevating rod and the tip of the tilting rod. A device for sorting long and narrow plants. 6 The weighing device has a guide rod that guides the projecting piece of the support fixed at right angles to one end of the arm, a weight is attached to the other end of the arm, and the intermediate part is installed so that it can rotate around the machine body using a support shaft. An apparatus for sorting elongated plants according to claim 1, which is constructed as follows. 7. The elongated plant sorting device according to claim 1, wherein the plant carrying out device is a pedestal that slides in a direction perpendicular to the conveying device, or a belt conveyor. 8. The elongated plant sorting device according to claim 4, wherein one receiving ring is circular and the other receiving ring is fan-shaped.