JPH0530020Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a bottle holding and rotating device used in a bottle inspection machine and the like, and particularly to a bottle holding and rotating device suitable for a bottle barrel inspection machine.

[Prior art and its problems]

Generally, in a bottle inspection machine, the bottle being transported is rotated around a certain circumference and rotated on its own axis as it passes through an inspection area, and during this time an optical inspection device consisting of a light source, camera, etc. is used to detect damage to the bottle and foreign objects. It is now possible to check for the presence or absence.

This type of conventional bottle holding and rotating device for bottle inspection machines consists of a bottle stand that is set to revolve around the same circumference, a drive device that rotates the bottle stand around its axis, and a bottle opening that can be attached and removed. The apparatus is equipped with a bottle mouth holding device that holds the bottle at the top of the bottle, and the entire surface of the bottle body is inspected by rotating the bottle stand on which the bottle is placed about its axis. However, when placing the bottle on the bottle stand, if it is not placed in the center of the bottle stand and there is a misalignment,
If the center misalignment is large, the bottle opening cannot be held down by the bottle opening presser cup, and even if the center misalignment is small, the rotation axis of the bottle will shift, making the bottle unstable and impairing the inspection accuracy of the bottle body. A problem arises in which the amount of water is significantly reduced. Conventionally, in order to center the bottle placed on the bottle mouth, a large star wheel was placed in the center of a turntable to revolve the bottle mouth, and the bottle body was brought into contact with the bottle receiving recess. has been done. This method can be used to inspect the mouth and bottom of bottles, but cannot be used with bottle body inspection machines. Therefore, bottle body inspection machines do not consider supporting the bottle body, and in order to accurately place the bottle in the center of the bottle stand, a timing screw with high processing precision and an infeed star wheel are used to ensure as accurate processing as possible. Efforts were made to maintain a good distance between the bottles, and to process the surface of the bottle stand so that the bottle could easily be placed in the center of the stand.

However, in recent years, inspection technology for bottle bodies has improved.
The entire circumference of the bottle can be inspected by rotating the bottle once within the field of view of the camera and scanning the center of the bottle in the axial direction during this period. Therefore, in the present invention, it has been conceived that by arranging two rollers away from the axial center of the bottle body, the bottle can be accurately centered without interfering with the inspection of the bottle body.

In addition, the bottle opening holding device that holds the bottle opening in a removable manner uses a cam mechanism consisting of a cam rail and a cam roller to raise and lower the bottle opening presser cup, so it is necessary to manufacture a complicated cam, and the cam rail, roller, pulling, The problem is that the device is expensive because it requires a large number of components such as guides.

Furthermore, since the lifting and lowering stroke of the bottle opening holding cup is determined by the cam, there is a drawback that if the type of bottle changes and the bottle height differs, the bottle opening holding device cannot hold the bottle opening unless the cam is changed. That is, conventional devices cannot meet the demand for holding bottles of a wide range of sizes without requiring replacement parts.

[Purpose of invention]

The present invention was devised in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to solve the problems of the conventional bottle holding and rotating device described above, to have a simple structure, and to accurately center the bottle. Another object of the present invention is to provide a bottle holding and rotating device that can hold bottles of a wide range of sizes without requiring replacement parts.

[Summary of the idea]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a bottle stand provided on the turntable so as to revolve along the same circumference, and one running surface along the turntable that includes a bottle inspection area. a rotation device that has a belt disposed so as to be able to touch a pulley on the shaft and rotates the bottle stand around its axis; and a rotation device that is placed close to the bottle stand and positions the bottle in the center of the bottle stand. and a bottle opening holding device that is driven by an air cylinder and holds the bottle opening in a removable manner. It is characterized by having a bottle mouth presser cup rotatably at the lower end of a piston rod which is arranged to freely rotate in synchronization with the piston rod and move up and down by the operation of this cylinder, and which is rotatable along the same circumference. The bottle is positioned in the center of the revolving bottle stand by a centering roller, and the air cylinder is driven to hold the bottle opening by the bottle opening holding device while the bottle stand is rotated once by the rotating device. This is to inspect.

[Example of idea]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the bottle holding and rotating device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of the bottle inspection machine 1. In FIG. It's getting old. Entrance bottle guides 4 and 5 are arranged on the upstream side of the bottle inspection machine 1, and the bottle 3 is rotated by the bottle holding and rotation device (members 10, 18, 22, 36, etc.). (consisting of).

Further, on the upstream side of the bottle inspection machine 1, a star wheel 7 and a star wheel 8 are arranged facing each other. The star wheels 7, 8 are upper star wheels 7A, 8, respectively, as shown in FIG.
A and lower star wheels 7B and 8B, and both star wheels 7 and 8 have a plurality of bottle receiving recesses 7C and 8C formed around the entire outer periphery, respectively. The body of the bottle 3 fits into 7C and 8C, and is transferred by the rotation of star wheels 7 and 8.

A turntable 10 is disposed on the side of the star wheel 8, and a drive shaft 11 for rotating the turntable 10 is rotatable by a bearing 13 housed in a cylindrical body 12, as shown in FIG. is supported by. And turntable 10
cylindrical casings 14 are arranged at predetermined intervals along the same circumference near the outer periphery of the casing,
A flanged shaft 16 is rotatably supported within the casing 14 via a bearing 15. A bottle stand 18 is attached to the flange 16a of the shaft 16, and a pulley 19 is integrally attached to the lower part thereof.

Further, a disk-shaped mounting plate 20 is screwed onto the top surface of the turntable 10.
Roller mounting members 21 project outward radially from the roller mounting members 21, and their tips extend between adjacent bottle stands 18. A centering roller 22 is rotatably supported at the upper end of each roller mounting member 21.

On the other hand, the pulley 19 is provided so as to be engageable with an endless running belt 25 of a rotating device 24 shown in FIG. The rotation device 24 has a driving pulley 26 and a driven pulley 27, between which the endless running belt 25 is wound. The tension of the running belt 25 is adjusted by a tension pulley 28, while the running belt 25 is
9, the shaft 16 engages with the pulley 19 and rotates (rotates) around its axis.

Further, a disk-shaped cylinder support plate 31 is suspended above the turntable 10, and a drive shaft 32 for rotating the cylinder support plate 31 is connected to the cylindrical body 3.
It is rotatably supported by a bearing 34 housed in 3. The cylinder support plate 31 and the turntable 10 are connected by a transmission mechanism (not shown) such as a gear so that they rotate (revolution) at the same speed. An air cylinder 3 is placed on the cylinder support plate 31 facing each bottle stand 18.
6 is installed.

A bottle mouth presser cup 38 is rotatably attached to the tip of the piston rod 37 of the air cylinder 36 via a bearing 39. Each air cylinder 36 is communicatively connected to a slip ring 40,
The piston rod 37 of the air cylinder 36 is moved up and down by air supplied from this slip ring.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, outer bottle guides 42 and 43 are provided on the outer circumferential side of the bottle stand 18 so that the bottle 3 placed on the bottle stand 18 is guided. It's getting old. And the above Ryōbotan guide 4
A light 45 is disposed in the space between the conveyor 2 and 43, and a camera 46 is disposed above the conveyor 2 at a position opposite to the light 45. This area is designated as the inspection area, and the entire surface of the bottle body is inspected in this area.

Next, the operation of the bottle holding and rotating device according to the present invention configured as described above will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 1, the bottle 3 is conveyed leftward by the conveyor 2, guided by bottle guides 4 and 5, and indexed by star wheels 7 and 8. The star wheel 8 then transfers the bottle to the bottle stand 18 on the turntable 10, which is rotating at a predetermined speed. At this time, the two centering rollers 22, 22 arranged close to the bottle stand 18 cause the bottle 3 to be moved to the bottle stand 1.
It is placed in the center of 8. Furthermore, since the centering roller 22 also acts to press the bottom of the bottle from the lateral direction, the bottle will not fall off the bottle stand 18 before the bottle opening is supported by the air cylinder 36. At the same time, the air cylinder 36 located at a position corresponding to the bottle stand 18 is driven, and the bottle opening presser cup 38 attached to the tip of the piston rod 37 presses down the bottle opening of the bottle 3.

The bottle 3 placed on the bottle stand 18 is revolved by the rotation of the turntable 10. When the revolved bottle 3 enters the inspection area, the pulley 19 comes into engagement with the endless running belt 25, and the bottle 3 is rotated (rotated) about its axis. While the bottle 3 is being guided through the inspection area, the pulley 19 is moved by the endless running belt 2.
5 receives the driving force due to the wedge action and frictional force of the V-belt. Thus, the bottle 3 rotates once around its axis while being revolved in the inspection area, and during this period, the entire body of the bottle 3 is inspected for damage or foreign matter using the light 45 and the camera 46. At this time, the bottle opening of the bottle 3 which is revolving and rotating is firmly held down by the bottle opening holding cup 38 of the air cylinder 36.
It is possible to prevent the bottle 3 from flying outward due to centrifugal force. Further, the stroke of the air cylinder 36 is not constant, but moves downward until the bottle mouth presser cup 38 comes into contact with the bottle mouth, so that even if the bottle type is changed and the bottle height is changed, it can be adequately coped with.

The bottles 3 that have passed through the inspection area are guided by the outer bottle guide 43 and the exit bottle guide 47, returned to the conveyor 2, and conveyed by the conveyor 2 to the next process.

[Effect of idea]

As is clear from the description of the embodiments described above, the present invention includes a bottle stand that is provided to revolve along the same circumference, and one running surface along the turntable that includes the bottle inspection area. a rotation device that rotates the bottle stand around its axis; and a rotation device that is placed close to the bottle stand and rotates the bottle in the center of the bottle stand. Equipped with a centering roller for positioning the bottle, and a bottle opening holding device that is driven by an air cylinder and holds the bottle opening in a removable manner, the centering roller allows the bottle to be placed in the center of the bottle stand that revolves along the same circumference. Position the bottle, drive the air cylinder, hold the bottle opening with the bottle opening holding device, and rotate the bottle stand once.
During this time, the entire surface of the bottle can be inspected. Therefore, instead of using a timing screw, star wheel, etc. to perform centering before reaching the bottle stand of the bottle holding and rotating device as in the past, centering can be done accurately and easily using a centering roller, and the inspection machine The overall structure can be simplified.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, the bottle opening holding device that removably holds the bottle opening is driven by an air cylinder, so its stroke is not constant, and the tip of the bottle opening holding device descends until it comes into contact with the bottle opening. Because of the movement, even if the bottle type is changed and the bottle height is different, there is no need to replace the cam as in the conventional case, and in other words, bottles of a wide range of sizes can be held without replacement parts.

Furthermore, as the turntable rotates, the pulley on the axis of the bottle stand comes into contact with one running surface of the belt of the rotation device, giving rotation to the bottle stand, causing the bottle to rotate once. The bottle can be reliably rotated only in the inspection area, and the belt of this rotation device does not interfere with the installation of inspection equipment or the inspection operation, and the structure of the rotation device is located below the turntable. Since it is only necessary to set and install the bottle inspection machine, there is no need to complicate the structure of the bottle inspection machine, and there are various effects such as a simple and reliable bottle rotation operation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a bottle holding/rotating device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the same device, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a starwheel section and a turntable section of the same device. 1... bottle inspection machine, 2... conveyor, 3... bottle,
4, 5, 42, 43, 47... Bottle guide, 7, 8
...Starwheel, 10...Turntable,
16... Shaft, 18... Bottle stand, 19... Pulley, 22... Centering roller, 24... Autorotation device, 25... Running belt, 26, 27, 28...
...Pulley, 31...Cylinder support plate, 36...Air cylinder, 38...Bottle mouth presser cup, 45...
Light, 46...camera.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A bottle stand provided on the turntable so as to revolve along the same circumference, and arranged so that one running surface along the turntable including the bottle inspection area can contact a pulley located on the axis of the bottle stand. a rotation device having a belt that rotates the bottle stand around its axis; a centering roller placed close to the bottle stand for positioning the bottle in the center of the bottle stand; and a centering roller driven by an air cylinder. and a bottle opening holding device that removably holds the bottle opening, and an air cylinder of the bottle opening holding device is disposed above the bottle stand opposite to the bottle stand so as to be able to freely revolve in synchronization with the bottle stand. A bottle holding and rotating device characterized in that a bottle mouth holding cup is rotatably provided at the lower end of a piston rod that moves up and down by the operation of this cylinder.