JPH0346366B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a packaging device for rod-shaped objects such as straws,
The present invention relates to a packaging device that is particularly suitable for packaging two-stage rod-shaped objects such as straws in which a small-diameter inner cylinder is telescopically arranged in a large-diameter outer cylinder.

The following devices are conventionally known as packaging devices for rod-shaped objects. That is, the rod-shaped bodies to be packaged are stored in a hopper, and the rod-shaped bodies are sequentially supplied from the hopper to the grooves of a rotating drum that has many grooves around its circumference, and the film is supplied to other drums that have grooves. Then, by suctioning it, it is adsorbed on the drum circumferential side and in the groove, and then the rod-shaped body is moved into the groove where the film is attracted, and then another film is supplied and covered, and both films are inserted between the rod-shaped bodies. This is a device in which each rod-shaped body is packaged by sealing it by heat welding at both ends.

Conventional bar packaging machines with this structure use a hopper to feed the bars, so the packaging machine must be operated after storing the pre-formed bars in the hopper. It is also necessary to replenish the rods during packaging. Furthermore, due to the structure in which a plurality of drums are used, it is troublesome to deal with troubles that inevitably occur. Furthermore, it is difficult to take measures to preheat the film and to keep the temperature constant. Furthermore, in the case of a two-stage rod-shaped body, if the inner cylinder is not fitted to the outer cylinder with appropriate firmness, if it is too loose, the inner cylinder will fall out during use, and if it is too hard, it will not extend properly. becomes difficult. Therefore, in conventional packaging machines, the hopper must be fed with pre-inspected products. For this reason, it is not possible to immediately transfer the molded rod-shaped body to the packaging line after molding and assembling.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances. The present invention provides a packaging device for rod-shaped bodies that is configured to allow inspection and packaging, thereby making it possible to immediately transfer molded rod-shaped bodies to a packaging line and package them.

The details of the rod-shaped object packaging apparatus of the present invention will be explained above. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the packaging device of the present invention, and shows an embodiment for packaging a two-stage rod-shaped body. In this figure, 1 is a molding and assembling machine for automatically forming and assembling a telescopic double pipe by inserting and combining a small-diameter inner cylinder into a large-diameter outer cylinder, 10 is an automatic product inspection line, 30 is a missing item replenishment device, 40 is an automatic packaging line, and 60 is a winding line.

In such a packaging device, the two-stage rod-shaped body formed and assembled in the molding and assembling machine 1 is
It is moved on a conveyor of an automatic product inspection line 10. During the movement, the fit of the inner cylinder to the outer cylinder is inspected, and defective products are removed from the line. In this automatic product inspection line, a holding block that no longer has a bar due to the removal of defective products is replenished with a bar by the missing product replenishing device. The rod-shaped bodies inspected by the automatic product inspection line are then packaged at regular intervals between upper and lower films by the next automatic packaging line.

Next, each of the above lines will be explained in more detail. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an automatic product inspection line, in which reference numeral 11 denotes a groove 12a into which the rod-shaped body 10 is inserted and held.
A first conveyor 13 is a conveyor 1 in which a large number of holding blocks 12 (see FIG. 3) are connected.
It is a brush roller that is placed near the starting point of 1 and has brushes embedded in the roller-shaped body.For example, in the molding assembly machine 1, when the inner cylinder is not inserted into the outer cylinder, both cylinders are in a predetermined position, that is, the holding block This is to remove rod-like bodies that have not been inserted into the grooves 12a for some reason, such as those that were not inserted into the grooves 12a of the 12 grooves, and exclude them from the automatic product inspection line. Reference numeral 14 denotes a guide plate, and 15 denotes a gauge plate. These plates ensure that all rod-like bodies that reach the position where the gauge plate 15 is placed are transported with one end in contact with the gauge plate 15. Regulated and aligned. Reference numeral 16 denotes a bar-shaped presser belt having a structure in which a spring or a round rope 16a or the like is placed around rollers 16b and 16c; 17 a first pressing portion for pushing the inner cylinder into the outer cylinder with a weak force; 18
is a second pressing part that pushes the inner cylinder into the outer cylinder with strong force,
20 is a defective product detector, 21 is a defective product detection circuit, 2
2 is a solenoid valve provided in the middle of a tube 23 that sends high-pressure air, and 24 is a shutter for removing defective products.

Further details of these pressing parts, defective product detectors, etc. will be described below. The first pressing portion 17 has a pressing piece 17
a is pushed in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the conveyor 11 by a spring housed inside, and is restricted by a limiter 17b so that it does not come out beyond a certain position. For example, if the inner cylinder 10a of the straw 10 is fitted to the extent that it does not fall off under its own weight, the strength of this spring is such that when the tip of the inner cylinder 10a hits the tip 17a of the pressing part 17, the pressing part The spring pressure adjuster 17c is used to adjust the force so that the spring 17 is pushed back an appropriate length. The second pressing part 18 has the same structure as the first pressing part 17, but the strength of the spring stored therein is such that the inner cylinder 10a of the straw 10 can be moved against the outer cylinder 10b by a normal finger. If the fitting is so tight that it cannot be moved by the force of 1, the spring pressure regulator 18c is adjusted to such an extent that it will be pushed back. Further, the tip portion 18a is a limiter 18.
b, it is regulated so that it does not move beyond the reference position. Therefore, when the straw 10 is transferred by the conveyor 11 and passes through the first and second pressing parts, the first pressing part first detects defective products whose fitting of the inner cylinder 10a to the outer cylinder 10b is too loose. is inner cylinder 10
a is pushed into the outer cylinder 10b, but if the straw is normal or too hard, the pressing piece 1 of the first pressing part
7a is pushed back and transferred as is. Next, normal straws are pushed to the reference position by the second pressing section 18, but straws that are too hard push back the pressing piece 18a of the second pressing section 18 and are transported as they are. In this way, the straw 10
When the straw passes through the second pressing part, the tip of the inner cylinder 10a of a normal straw is located at the reference position, a straw that is too loose is located inside the reference position, and a straw that is too tight is located outside the reference position. Furthermore, the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder are not combined in the molding machine, and the concave groove 12 of the holding block 12 of the conveyor 11
Anything inserted and transferred into a is the first
It is located inside the reference position by the pressing part 17 of. In this way, only the normal straw has its tip at the reference position, and the tips of all other straws are not at the reference position.

Note that the strength of the springs of the first and second pressing portions can be set not only in the above-mentioned order of weak and strong, but also in order of strength and weakness.

FIG. 4 is a diagram that simply shows the above, and shows a loose straw 10A, a normal straw 10A, and a normal straw 10A.
B. Too tight straw 10C and inner cylinder 10
a shows the state of the outer cylinder 10b after passing through the first and second pressing portions 17 and 18. As shown in this figure, the loose straw 10A is pushed into the inner cylinder 10a by the first pressing part 17.
is pushed into the outer cylinder 10b, and its tip is located at the same position as the tip of the first pressing portion 17 (dashed line b). In addition, the normal straw 10B pushes back the first pressing part 17 and passes through, but its inner cylinder 10a is pushed into the outer cylinder 10b by the second pressing part 18, and its tip is located at the tip of the second pressing part 18, i.e. It is at the reference position (dashed line a). Furthermore, the straw 10c, which is too tight, pushes back both the first pressing part 17 and the second pressing part 18 and passes, so that the straw 10c is at the position before passing, for example, the position indicated by the chain line c. Other inner cylinders 1 that were not inserted
0a and the one with only the outer cylinder 10b are both located at the dashed line b or closer to the gauge plate 15 than the dashed line b.

Next, the defective product detector 20 includes a detection piece 20a whose tip is loosely pushed toward the conveyor 11 side by a spring, and a light shielding device having a slit that rotates in unison with the rotation of the detection piece 20a about the shaft 20b. It is composed of a light detecting section, etc., consisting of a plate 20c, a light source 20d and a light receiving section 20e arranged opposite to each other, and the first and second pressing sections 1
When the straw 10 that has passed through 7 and 18 reaches the defective product inspection machine 20, the straw 10 pushes and rotates the inspection piece 20a, and the light shielding plate 2 rotates together with this.
The movement of 0c is detected by the photodetector. Based on this detection, a signal indicating whether the product is good or defective is input to the defective product detection circuit 21. On the other hand, although not shown, a magnet is embedded in each holding block, and a magnetic sensor is placed near the conveyor 11, or a photodetector consisting of a light source and a light receiving part is placed near the conveyor 11 to move the holding block. By arranging a detector, the moving state of the holding block 12 is detected (counting each holding block one by one), and the detection signal is inputted to the defective product detection circuit 21 as a reference signal. Based on this reference signal and the signal from the defective product detector, the microcomputer circuit 21 generates an operating pulse signal, opens the high-speed solenoid valve 22, and sends high-pressure air to the conveyor 11.
Air is sent from the ventilation hole 12b of the holding block 12 into which the defective product is inserted, and the defective straw is removed from the automatic product inspection line 10 through the discharge coater 24. In the above manner, defective products are detected and removed from the line.

Although not shown in the drawings, there is a device in front of the missing item replenishment device 30 in the automatic product inspection line 10, that is, in FIGS. 1 and 2.
An end thickening device may be arranged at a portion indicated by reference numeral 25 in the figure. This end thickening device heats one end of the straw (the end on the gauge plate side) to make the wall thicker, thereby narrowing the opening diameter of the outer cylinder and preventing the inner cylinder from coming off from the outer cylinder. It is for.

The next step, the missing item replenishment device 30, will be described. As shown in the figure, this device includes a hopper 31,
(partially cut away in the drawing), many grooves 3
drum 32 with 1a, a number of holding blocks 3
It is composed of a conveyor 33 consisting of four parts, etc. Hopper 31 is filled with straw,
The straws are sequentially supplied into the grooves 32a of the drum 32 rotating in the direction of the arrow. This groove 32a
The inner straw fits into the groove 34 of the holding block 34 of the conveyor 33 that comes into contact with it when it reaches the lowest position.
It is forcibly dropped and transferred into the interior a by the guidance of the guide plates 32b and 32c. In this way conveyor 3
When all the holding blocks 34 of 3 are filled with straws, the straws supplied to the groove 32a of the drum 32 do not move to the holding block 34 even when they reach the lowest position, but are inserted into the groove 32a as the drum 32 rotates. move while being Therefore, the groove 3 of the drum 32
The drum 32 and the holding block 34 are moved in a state in which all the grooves 2a and the grooves 34a of the holding block 34 are filled with straws. In such a state, a defective product is detected and removed in the automatic product inspection line 10 described above, and when the holding block 12 with the missing straw comes under the conveyor 33, the holding block 3 is removed.
The straws in 4 fall and are transferred to the holding block 12 to be replenished. When the holding block 34, which has run out of straws, rotates further and comes into contact with the drum 32, it is replenished by the straws in the grooves 32a of the drum 32, and as a result, the missing grooves 32a are filled with hoppers. It is replenished by the straw in 31. In this way, the holding blocks 12 that are missing due to defective items etc. are reliably replenished by the missing item replenishing device 30, and therefore the conveyor 11
Automatic packaging line 4, which is the next process for straws
Transfer to 0 is always carried out reliably without defective products or missing products. The straw in the hopper 31 used here is obtained as follows. Before starting the packaging operation in this packaging apparatus, the present apparatus is operated without supplying film for packaging in the automatic packaging line, which will be described in detail below. As a result, the straw from the molding and assembly machine 1 is transferred to the automatic product inspection line 10 by being inserted into the groove 12a of the holding block 12 of the conveyor 11.
During the transfer by the conveyor 11, straws that have not been inserted into the grooves 12a of the holding block 12 as described above are removed from the line by the brush roller 13, and defective products are transferred to the first pressing section 1.
7. The defective product is detected by the second pressing unit 18 and the defective product detector 20 and removed from the line by the defective product removal mechanism. Therefore, all the straws transferred to the end of the conveyor 11 are normal products. Only the good straws that have been inspected in this manner are collected at an appropriate location and placed in the hopper 31 before the packaging operation is started. Even if there is a missing item in the holding block 12 of the conveyor 11 during this replenishment straw inspection work, there is no problem because no packaging is performed during this work. In addition, 35 of this missing parts replenishing device 30 is a guide plate to prevent the straws in the groove 32a from flying out during rotation of the drum 32, 36 and 37 are guide plates for the conveyor 33 and conveyor 11, respectively, and 38 is a guide plate for forcing the straws. Next, details of the automatic packaging line 40 will be explained. In FIG. 5, 41 is a conveyor formed by connecting a large number of holding blocks 42.
The lower film 43 is fed onto the conveyor 41 by the film feeding means via a roller 44 disposed at a certain angle (for example, 45 degrees) with respect to the moving direction of the conveyor 41. 45 is a film suction device connected to a vacuum pump through a duct tube 46, and by its action, the lower film 43 is sucked through the ventilation hole formed in the holding block 42 of the conveyor 41, and the lower film 43 is drawn into the holding block 42. It is attached along the surface and inside the groove 42a. Note that the film may be appropriately heated by a heating means (not shown) before or at the same time as the suction. 47
is located below the terminal end of the conveyor 11 as shown in FIG.
The groove 47 of this drum 47
The straw that has been inserted and moved is transferred to the groove 42a of the holding block 42 (the lower film 43 is attached to this groove 42a in a concave shape along the groove). Next, the upper film 48 is transferred to the roller 4 arranged at an arbitrary angle with respect to the moving direction of the conveyor 41 by the second film supply means.
9 and onto the conveyor 41. 50
51 is a chain guide plate, and 51 is a first sealer for welding the lower film 43 and the upper film 48 at the portion between each straw by heating.
52 is a second sealer for thermally welding both edges of the lower film 43 and the upper film 48 (portions outside both ends of the straw), and 53 is a roller cutter for cutting both edges of the upper and lower films. ,5
4 is a cover that covers the entire packaging line.
Note that the sealer may be a first sealer and a second sealer integrated to seal both vertically and horizontally at the same time.

By the above-mentioned automatic packaging line 40, each straw is wrapped with upper and lower films and formed into a strip.
It is transferred to the next winding line 60 shown in the figure. That is, the rollers 61 and 62 are further passed through an air floating conveyor 63 to form a drum 6 having a structure described later.
4, and is sent by the rotation of this drum. 68 is a shooter that rotates around the rotation axis of the drum 64, 71 is a reel, 72 is a bobbin hopper, 73 is a bobbin shooter, 74 is a bobbin piston, 75 is a bobbin insert piston, 7
6 is a drive motor, and 77 is a torque converter that rotates the bobbin via a pulley and a belt. 7
8 is a product extrusion piston, and 79 is a shooter for feeding the product wound onto a bobbin.

The operation of this automatic winding line will be explained. After wrapping, the band-shaped package is transferred to a roller 61,
62, air floating conveyor 6
3, it is levitated by air and sent forward. Furthermore, it is attracted to the package transfer drum 64 and transferred. This drum 64 has a structure as shown in FIG. That is, an internal drum 66 fixed to a hollow shaft 65 having a partition 65a in the center.
It has a double structure consisting of an external drum 67 rotatably held around the external drum 67 and having a ventilation hole 67a. Then, air is sucked from one side of the shaft 65 and sucked through the ventilation holes 66a of the internal drum 66 and the ventilation holes 67a of the external drum 67, and the air is sent from the other side to the ventilation holes 66b, 6.
7a. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7B, which is a cross-sectional view taken along the line B--B in FIG. 7A, when the package F is sent to this drum, the upper part of the drum is sucked through the ventilation hole, and thus is attracted to the drum. Here, when the external drum 67 is rotated by an appropriate means, the package is fed. In this way, when the package goes to the underside of the drum 64, the adsorbed package is separated from the drum by the air flow discharged through the vents. In this way, the band-shaped package is attracted by the rotation of the drum, separated, and sequentially fed, and further wound onto the bobbin of the reel.
When the product is fully wound onto the bobbin, it is cut by a cutter 69, and a product extrusion piston 78 works to extrude the product from a reel 71 and send it to a belt conveyor 81.

When winding onto this bobbin, the shutter 68
is rotatable around a shaft 65, so that the tip of the shooter 68 is always located on the outer surface of the wound package depending on the amount of the package wound onto the bobbin, and the torque converter Since the rotational speed and torque of the bobbin are controlled by 77, the product package can be wound up correctly.

When winding is completed and the product is pushed out, the next bobbin is supplied to the winding position by the bobbin insert piston 75. As a result, the lowest bobbin in the bobbin shooter 73 disappears, so that the entire bobbin falls down, and a state becomes available where bobbins can be supplied again. On the other hand, the leading end of the band-shaped package after being cut reaches the bobbin located at the center of the reel 71 and winding is started again. During continuous production, the band-shaped package containing the straws as described above is wound around a bobbin in fixed amounts and sent on a belt conveyor 81.

Although each line, such as the automatic product detection line and the automatic packaging line, has been explained in detail above, the operation of the entire packaging apparatus of the present invention will be described next.

First, the device is operated, and the straw from the molding machine 1 (for example, a telescopic double straw in which a small diameter inner cylinder is inserted into a large diameter outer cylinder) is transferred to the first conveyor 11 of the automatic inspection line 10. Ru. During this transfer, as described above, the concave groove 12a of the holding block 12
The straw that was not inserted into the brush roller 1
3, defective products such as straws that are removed outside the line and are too loose or too hard, straws with only an uninserted inner tube, straws with only an outer tube, etc., are removed by the pressing parts 17 and 18, the detection mechanism 20, and defective products. All are removed by the removal mechanism. In this way, only good straws are sent by the first conveyor 11 and subsequently transferred to the packaging line 40. No packaging work is performed on the packaging line 40 during the initial preparatory operation stage. In other words, the lower film 43 and the upper film 48 are not supplied and are only transported by the second conveyor 41. Therefore, the second conveyor 41
The straws that have been sent to the end of the second conveyor 41 fall at the end of the second conveyor 41 because they are not wrapped. If the receiving container is placed in this position, good straws will be stored in the container. Once a certain amount of straws has been accumulated, the device is stopped and the hopper 31 of the missing item replenishing device 30 is filled. Next, when the apparatus is operated again for the main operation, the straws from the molding machine 1 are sent by the first conveyor 11 in the same manner. This time, since the missing item replenishing device is filled with straws, straws are also inserted into the holding blocks that have become empty due to the removal of defective items, and at the end of the first conveyor 11, all the holding blocks 12 are filled. A good quality straw is inserted.
Furthermore, the straws are transferred to the automatic packaging line 40 and the second
It is transported by a conveyor 41. Here, as described above, the lower film and the upper film are supplied and sealed by the first and second sealers 51 and 52. The band-shaped package in which the straw is packaged by being sealed is wound onto a bobbin in fixed amounts by the next winding device and sent by a belt conveyor 81.

As explained above, the rod-shaped body packaging apparatus of the present invention does not use a hopper other than the missing item replenishment device which is an auxiliary means, so that the rod-shaped body formed by the molding machine is immediately placed on the line and packaged. Straw supply is reliable and efficient. Moreover, since the rods are inspected during transportation, there are no defects or missing items in the package after packaging. Furthermore, since a large number of rollers and drums are not used, adjustment processing is simple when a problem occurs, and it is extremely easy to preheat each part of the packaging film, to stabilize the temperature, etc.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the rod-shaped body packaging device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an automatic product inspection line, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a holding block of a conveyor used in the device of the present invention. , FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the position of the rod-shaped body after it is pressed by the first and second pressing parts in the automatic product inspection line, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the automatic packaging line, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the take-up line, and a cross-sectional view of the package transfer drum of the take-up line. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Molding assembly machine, 10... Automatic product inspection line, 11... First conveyor, 17... First pressing section, 18... Second pressing section, 20... Defective product detection mechanism, 30 ... Missing item replenishment device, 40 ... Automatic packaging line, 43 ... Lower film, 48 ... Upper film, 51 ... First sealer, 52 ... Second
Sealer, 60... Winding line.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A two-stage rod-shaped body formed by connecting a number of holding blocks having concave grooves and having a small-diameter inner cylinder molded by a molding machine and extendably arranged in a large-diameter outer cylinder is inserted into the concave groove. a first conveyor for transporting the first conveyor;
a first pressing part that presses with a weak force the inner cylinder of the rod-like body, which is arranged on the side of the conveyor and whose tip is located on the conveyor side from the reference position; The quality of the product is determined by detecting the position of the tip of the inner cylinder of the rod-shaped body that has passed through the second pressing part that presses with force, the first pressing part and the second pressing part, and whether or not it is at the reference position. a detection mechanism that detects a defective product; a defective product removal mechanism that is activated based on the detection of a defective product in the detection mechanism;
An automatic product inspection line consisting of a missing part replenishment device that supplies inspected rods to holding blocks in which rods are not inserted, a second conveyor connected to the holding blocks, and a lower film and a second conveyor connected to the second conveyor. 1st and 2nd, respectively, supplying the upper film.
and a sealer, the rod-like body is supplied from the automatic product inspection line to a holding block of the second conveyor between the first film supply means and the second film supply means. An automatic packaging device for rod-shaped objects, which is equipped with an automatic packaging line that covers a film and then seals it with a sealer.