JPH0448688B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an article delivery method and apparatus for delivering articles with smooth surfaces such as boxes such as cardboard boxes, flat plates, packages, etc. between predetermined locations. Figures 1 and 2 are diagrams showing conventional ones,
1 is a package; 2 is a conveyor that is operated synchronously with a filling device (not shown) and continuously conveys the package 1 at a conveyance speed of _V1 ; 3 is installed orthogonally to the conveyor 2;
A discharge conveyor that is operated in synchronization with the conveyor ₂ and continuously conveys the packages 1 at V2, 4 is a package delivery device that can move on the arrow line as shown in Fig. 2, and has six vacuum suction cups 5. It consists of a vacuum chamber 6 equipped with a vacuum chamber 6 and a drive device (not shown), etc.
The individual packages 1 are simultaneously transferred from a conveyor 2 to a discharge conveyor 3.

In the conventional device described above, the package delivery device 4
is designed to suck up six packages 1 on the conveyor 2 at the same time, move along the arrow line, and place them on the discharge conveyor 3. In this case, in order to improve productivity, the conveyor 2 and The conveyance speeds V ₁ and V ₂ of the discharge conveyor 3 will be increased. but,
Increasing the speed of the package delivery device 4 is a major obstacle to improving productivity. That is, the suction of the package 1 by the vacuum suction cup 5 and the releasing and falling operation by natural falling cannot cope with the increase in speed. In particular, when a partition plate (not shown) is installed on the discharge conveyor 3 to partition the packages 1,
There was a problem in that the package 1 was not stored in a predetermined position, and placement errors such as riding up on the partition plate were likely to occur.

Furthermore, when the vacuum suction cup 5 sucks the package 1 on the conveyor 2, if one or more of the six packages 1 has a missing tooth, the suction force of the vacuum suction cup 5 will decrease and The adsorption capacity of the product may not be fully utilized and adsorption errors may occur. Therefore, if a missing tooth detecting means (not shown) (phototube, detection rod, etc.) is attached to the transfer device 4 and there is a missing tooth, the detecting means is activated to stop the operation of the transfer device 4 and correct the normal state. However, the problem was that the entire line had to be stopped each time a tooth fell out, resulting in a drop in productivity.

The present invention was proposed in view of the above points, and
The purpose is to provide an article delivery method and device that eliminates the problems of conventional methods, enables higher capacity, and can reliably deliver articles even in the case of high capacity.

The present invention provides an article delivery method for delivering an article having a smooth surface fed into a first position to a second position on a conveyor running in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the same article. The article is suctioned by a vacuum suction cup and transferred to an intermediate loading device located above the conveyor at the second position, and then the intermediate loading device is tilted to cause the article to slide down, and the article is moved by the tilting operation of the intermediate loading device. The object delivery method is characterized in that the object is delivered to the second position while forcibly pushing the rear of the object, and the object is transferred to the intermediate loading device as described above. This is transferred to the second position by forcibly pushing it from the rear while tilting the intermediate loading device, which shortens the delivery time and improves productivity through increased capacity. At the same time, goods can be reliably delivered to a predetermined position even when the capacity is increased.

The present invention also provides an article delivery device for delivering an article having a smooth surface fed into a first position to a second position on a conveyor running in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the same article. an intermediate placement device disposed above the conveyor to set an intermediate placement position and to swing an article support member so as to cause the article on the intermediate placement position to slide down to the second position; and a vacuum suction cup. an article suction device which is movable between the first position and the intermediate loading device so as to transfer the article suctioned by the vacuum suction cup at the first position to the intermediate loading device; The object delivery device is characterized in that it is equipped with a pusher device that pushes the rear of an object that slides down in synchronization with the swinging of an object support member of the device, and is suitable for carrying out the above-mentioned object delivery method. A suitable article delivery device can be obtained using the present invention.

The present invention will be explained below based on the illustrated embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 7.

In the figure, 1 is a packaging body, 2 is a conveyor, 3 is a discharge conveyor, 11 is a vacuum chamber, which is equipped with a predetermined number of article suction devices 12 as shown in FIG. It is integrally supported by a shaft 14 that is rotatably supported via a bearing, and maintains the article suction device 12 in an upright posture at all times.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the article suction device 12 includes a connecting member 16 fixed to the vacuum chamber 11 with bolts 15, a flanged guide pin 17 screwed into the connecting member 16, a bolt 18 on the guide pin 17, etc. The outer cylinder 19 fixed with the guide pin 1
7 and a plunger 20 that is slidable on the outer cylinder 19.

The connecting member 16 has a vertical hole 22 communicating with the opening 21 of the vacuum chamber 11, and a nut 23.
This allows the flanged guide pin 17 to be positioned in the vertical direction. The flanged guide pin 17 has a hollow hole 24 with a bottom, and a plurality of holes 26 are formed at the bottom of the outer peripheral wall 25. The plunger 20 connects a sliding tube 27 made of synthetic resin that slides on the outer periphery of the guide pin 17 with a pin 28 to an upper tube 29.
The spacer 30 is screwed onto the lower cylinder 31, and the collar 32 holds a compression spring 33 between it and the flanged guide pin 17, and its downward movement is restricted by a retaining ring 34. Note that the space 35 formed by the guide pin, the outer cylinder, and the plunger is communicated with a space 37 inside the plunger through a communication hole 36. 30 is a spacer, and the upper part is plunger 2
0, and a perforated plate 38 made of punching metal or the like is attached to the lower part. A suction cup 39 is attached to the lower end of the plunger 20, and its lip 40 projects downward from the lower end of the spacer 30. 41 is an air pipe connected to a compressed air source (not shown) via a main pipe 42, and is adapted to supply compressed air into the bottomed hollow hole 24 when the package 1 is released.

13 is an arm, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the upper part rotatably supports the shaft 14 via a bearing (not shown) as described above, and the lower part is integrated with the shaft 43 by a key etc. .

44 is a link, the lower part is the shaft 14, the upper part is the shaft 45
are rotatably supported via bearings, respectively.
An arm 46 rotatably supports the shaft 45 via a bearing at the upper side, and is integrated with the shaft 47 at the lower side by a key or the like. 48 is a gear which is integrated with the shaft 43. 49 is a gear and is integrated with the shaft 47. 50 is a drive gear, gears 48, 49
The link mechanism 51, which is in mesh with the shafts 14, 45, 47, and 43 and forms a parallelogram, is indicated by
It is made movable as shown in (c), and the package 1 is transferred from the conveyor 2 to an intermediate placement device 53 which will be described below.

In addition, the gears 48, 49, 50 are attached to the main body frame 5.
It is stored in 2.

Reference numeral 53 denotes intermediate placement devices, which are installed in a predetermined number in correspondence with the article suction devices 12 as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5.
A receiver 54 on which the package 1 released from the article suction device 12 is temporarily placed;
It is composed of a swinging mechanism 55 that swings.

There are a plurality of receivers 54 (6 in this specific example).
A rod 56 is fixed to a shaft 57, and substantially L-shaped plates 58 are fixed to the rods 56 at both ends.

A fixed plate 59 is fixed to the main body frame 52 and rotatably supports the shaft 57. Reference numeral 60 is a lever, one end of which is fixed to the end of the shaft 57, and the other end of which is fixed to the end of the shaft 6.
It is fixed at 1.

61 is a shaft rotatably supported by the swing plate 62. A swing mechanism 55 consisting of the lever 60, shaft 61, swing plate 62, drive source (not shown), etc.
By swinging the swing plate 62 as shown by arrow D (Fig. 5), the shaft 57 and rod 56 are made to swing as shown by arrow H (Fig. 5), and the package 1 is moved over the inclined rod 56. Drop and discharge conveyor 3 partition 3
It is designed to be moved between a and 3a.

63 is a pusher and a rod 64 is the receiver 54.
The other end is fixed to a shaft 65. The shaft 65 is fixed to a swing plate 67 connected to a link mechanism 66 (FIG. 4) that is connected to a drive source (not shown). Therefore, Pushya 63
moves between the rods 56 of the receiver 54 as indicated by the arrow (FIG. 5) while pressing the rear of the package 1 following the tilting movement of the rods 56.

Next, the effect will be explained.

When the package 1 is conveyed to a predetermined position by the conveyor 2, the article suction device 12
By rotating the package 1 counterclockwise in FIG. 3, the package 1 is lowered toward the package 1 on the conveyor 2.

After the spacer 30 contacts the package 1 on the conveyor 2,
The plunger 20 is pushed upward against the compression spring 33 and the hole 2 of the flanged guide pin 17 is pushed up.
6 and the space 37 are communicated with each other, and the negative pressure in the vacuum chamber 11 acts on the package 1 through the vertical hole 22, the bottomed hollow hole 24, the hole 26, the space 37, and the perforated plate 38.
As shown in the figure, the package 1 is sucked by a suction cup 39.

In this state, by rotating the drive gear 50 counterclockwise in FIG. 3, the link mechanism 51 moves clockwise along arrows A and C, directly above the intermediate mounting device 53 as shown in FIG. Move and stop.

Here, the vacuum chamber 11 is controlled by a switching valve (not shown).
The negative pressure inside is stopped, pressurized air is supplied to the air pipe 41, and the pressurized air flows through the bottomed hollow hole 24 and the space 37.
By acting on the package 1 through the perforated plate 38 and on the collar 32 through the communication hole 36 to push down the plunger 20 together with the compression spring 33, the package 1 is released onto the receiver 54 as shown in FIG. Ru. Next, the article suction device 12 rotates the link mechanism 51 counterclockwise in FIG.
Return to the position indicated by the solid line in FIG.

When the package 1 is placed on the receiver 54,
The swinging mechanism 55 operates to rotate the swinging plate 62 clockwise along the arrow D in FIG. 5, and the rod 56 also rotates clockwise along the arrow H. The state shown by the dotted chain line is reached, and the package 1 begins to slide on the rod 56. In synchronization with the rotation of the receiver 54, the link mechanism 66 operates to rotate the swing plate 67, that is, the pusher 63 counterclockwise in the direction of the arrow in FIG. By pressing , the package 1 is stored between predetermined partitions 3a of the discharge conveyor 3 at a discharge speed corresponding to the speed of the discharge conveyor in continuous operation.

When the package 1 is transferred to the discharge conveyor 3, the receiver 54, pusher 63, etc. return to their initial states.

As is clear from the above, this embodiment provides the following effects.

(1) After temporarily transferring the package 1 to the intermediate loading device 53, the receiver 54 and pusher 63 work together to forcibly discharge the package 1 at a discharge speed corresponding to the transport speed of the discharge conveyor 3. Since the packages 1 are delivered to the conveyor 3 side, the delivery time of the packages 1 is shortened and the packages 1 can be reliably stored within a predetermined partition of the discharge conveyor 3.

(2) By applying the compressed air directly to the package 1, the package 1 can be reliably released in an extremely short period of time.

(3) Even if a tooth falls out of the package 1 on the filling equipment side, the production line can continue operating without stopping, which has the practical effect of significantly improving productivity compared to the past. can be mentioned.

(4) Since the plunger 20 is attached to each suction cup 39, the capacity (capacity) of a vacuum source such as a blower can be minimized, resulting in an energy saving effect.

Conventionally, measures were taken to increase the capacity of the blower, etc. so that even if one or two teeth were missing, other packages could be absorbed, but if the tooth missing rate exceeded a certain level (e.g. 30%). In the case of (above), the drawback that a large-capacity blower or the like cannot handle the problem can be solved by a small-capacity blower or the like.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the conventional device, FIG. 2 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1, FIG. , 5th
The figure is the arrow direction view of Figure 3, and Figure 6 is the - of Figure 4.
The cross-sectional view and FIG. 7 are equivalent cross-sectional views showing the article suction state. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Packaging body, 2... Conveyor, 3... Discharge conveyor, 12... Suction device, 40... Suction cup, 53
...Intermediate mounting device, 63...Pushya.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An article delivery method for delivering an article having a smooth surface fed into a first position to a second position on a conveyor running in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the same article, The article at the position is suctioned by a vacuum suction cup and transferred onto the intermediate loading device located above the conveyor at the second position, and then the intermediate loading device is tilted to allow the article to slide down, and the intermediate loading device is An article delivery method characterized in that the article is delivered to the second position while forcibly pushing the rear of the article in accordance with the tilting movement of the article. 2. In an article delivery device that delivers an article having a smooth surface fed into a first position to a second position on a conveyor running in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the same article, the article is placed above the conveyor at the second position. an intermediate placement device having a vacuum suction cup; an article suction device configured to be movable between the first position and the intermediate placement position so as to transfer the article suctioned by the same vacuum suction cup at the first position to the intermediate placement device; and an article suction device in the intermediate placement device. An article delivery device comprising: a pusher device that pushes the rear of a sliding article in synchronization with the swinging of a support member.