JPH0585313B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention relates to a process of packaging cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and inner boxes containing a plurality of these products, into an outer cardboard box for distribution. This relates to a robot hand used for.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, automatic or semi-automatic box packing machines for packing inner boxes and the like into outer boxes made of cardboard boxes for distribution are typified by horizontal box packing machines and vertical box packing machines. A horizontal boxing device is a device that stacks one layer of products in an outer box in the horizontal direction and packs the products all at once into a box. The vertical box packing device stacks the contents of one layer in the outer box in the vertical direction and packs them all together into boxes using a vacuum suction cup.

Since these packaging devices all insert one stage of box-like objects at once, a frame-shaped jig called a mouse is placed inside the outer box so that the flap of the outer box does not get in the way of insertion. It must be inserted into the mouth. Furthermore, due to differences in the dimensions of the outer box, the dimensions of the inner box, the packaging pattern, etc., parts such as the inner box insertion head and the mouse must be replaced, and it is also time-consuming to adjust the replacement parts. Therefore, in today's world of diversifying products, frequent switching causes a significant drop in productivity.

Therefore, we thought of using a robot to pack each inner box one by one. In this case, the outer box is tilted in order to stably pack the inner box containing cosmetics and the like with a high center of gravity into the outer box with no space between the inner boxes.

Conventional gripping robot hands include mechanical chuck type gripping hands that grip an inner box with a pair of opposing gripping claws, vacuum suction cups, and the like.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, a method using clamping claws cannot be used because the clamping claws interfere with the side wall of the outer box.

With the vacuum suction cup type, the gripping force is greatly reduced when tilted, so if you try to pack the boxes in a tilted position, there is a risk that they will fall due to inertia, making it impossible to increase the speed. Also, when you go to pick up the inner box from the supply device,
It is not possible to pick it up from the side and transport it, so you have to pick it up from directly above. Therefore, the transport route for the inner box tends to become long, which also reduces work efficiency. Furthermore, when packing inner boxes one by one into an outer box with poor dimensional accuracy, such as a cardboard box, there is not enough free space left when inserting the last item in each column or row. In many cases, the box must be inserted while being pressed against the inner surface of the outer box, but vacuum suction cups cannot withstand such lateral loads.

The object of this invention is to be able to grip an object in an oblique position or to pick up a conveyed object from the side without problems such as misalignment or falling due to inertia, and to apply a pressing force in the lateral direction. To provide a robot hand that can be packed in a box.

[Means for solving problems]

The robot hand of the present invention includes a vacuum suction cup that is attached to a robot arm and connected to a suction device to suction one side of a box-shaped object to be transported, and a vacuum suction cup that extends from the vacuum suction cup to the front of the vacuum suction cup and is connected to a suction device. and a support plate that supports an adjacent surface adjacent to the one surface of the object.

[Effect]

According to the configuration of the present invention, a support plate is provided that extends from the vacuum suction cup to the front of the vacuum suction cup, and the vacuum suction cup suctions one side of the box-shaped object to be conveyed, and the support plate is used to attract an adjacent surface of the object to be conveyed. , the supporting plate can receive a load that is inclined with respect to the direction in which the suction force is applied by the vacuum suction cup. Therefore, the objects to be transported can be sucked in an oblique position and packed in boxes, etc., and falling due to inertia can be prevented, allowing high-speed transport. Moreover, the conveyed object can be picked up from the side, and the conveyance path can be shortened. Furthermore, it is possible to pack the product into a box while applying a lateral pressing force using the support plate, and it is possible to smoothly pack the product into an outer box with poor dimensional accuracy and limited space. In addition, since it is supported by the support plate, it is possible to prevent the objects to be transported from shifting when packing them into boxes, and it is possible to accurately box them at predetermined positions.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 9. This robot hand 6 has a vacuum suction cup 31 that suctions one side of a box-shaped object to be transported.
It has a support plate 32 extending forward from the vacuum suction cup 31 and supporting an adjacent surface adjacent to one surface of the conveyed object. The vacuum suction cup 31 is fixed to the tip of a pipe 33, and the pipe 33 has a flange 3 at the base end for attachment to a robot arm 35 (FIGS. 2 and 3).
It has 4. The pipe 33 is covered with a conical cover 36 that extends from the tip end to the outer circumference of the flange 34 and widens on the flange 34 side. The pipe 33 also serves as a suction path communicating with the vacuum suction cup 31, and a suction hose nipple 39 protruding from the cover 36 is provided via a branch pipe 38. 38' is branch pipe 38
This is the connection port.

Almost the entire front surface of the vacuum suction cup 31 has a suction port 31.
The suction port 31a is covered with a ventilation material 40, and a suction pad 41 is provided around the outer periphery of the suction port 31a. The suction pad 41 is
Inner box B (Fig. 8), which is the object to be transported and stuffed into the box.
The material is preferably urethane resin because of its ability to follow the distortion of the cardboard surface, and in this example, a 5 mm thick one is attached with double-sided tape. Although a metal mesh is used as the ventilation material 40, a perforated plate or a lattice material may also be used.

The robot hand 6 is attached by fixing a fixing screw inserted through the attachment hole 42 (FIG. 6) of the flange 34 to the hand attachment flange 43 of the robot arm 35.

The robot 4 is a multi-axis type (6 axes in this example) general-purpose robot that realizes box-packing operations similar to those of humans. That is, as shown in Figure 3,
Horizontal rotation of the support 45 on the base 44 (arrow a),
The robot arm 35 moves up and down at the shoulder (arrow b), the robot arm 35 bends up and down at the joint (arrow c), and the wrist 47 (Fig. 2) rotates around the arm center axis p (arrow d), bending of the wrist portion 47 around the axis q perpendicular to the axis p (arrow e), and the hand attachment flange 4 at the rotary joint 48;
It is possible to rotate around the central axis r of No. 3 (arrow f). Various other types of robots can be used for the robot 6.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a packaging device using a robot 4 equipped with the robot hand 6. This packaging device includes a conveyor 1 that conveys the outer box A, and a conveyor 1 that transports the outer box A.
a stopper 2 for stopping the outer box A at a predetermined position; a tilting device 3 for tilting and positioning the stopped outer box A;
The robot 4 has a robot 4 that packs the inner boxes B into the outer boxes A, and an inner box cutting and feeding device 5 that sequentially supplies the inner boxes B is attached. A width adjusting device 7 is provided on the upper side of the tilting device 3 in the conveying direction.

The conveyor 1 consists of a driven roller conveyor, and is provided with a guide 1b to prevent the outer box A from falling.
The stopper 2 can be pushed out and retracted from between the conveyor rollers 1a by driving an air cylinder or the like. Width adjustment device 7
In this example, the outer box A is pressed against the side reference guide 17 by the width adjusting guide 16 to which a torque in the opposite direction to the conveying direction is applied.

The tilting device 3 includes a comb-shaped bottom lifting means 19 protruding from between the conveyor rollers 1a and a side reference plate 20, fixed at right angles to each other and rotatably supported together with a rotating shaft 22 on a bearing 21. The bottom lifting means 19 is rotated up and down by a tilting drive device (not shown) such as an air cylinder. The side reference board 20 is a flexible tube 2
It has a suction port 24 connected to a blower at 5.

The outer box A carried onto the conveyor 1 is positionally regulated by the width shifting device 7, and then lifted to an inclined position by the tilting device 3 as shown in FIG. 3, and fixed by suction at the suction port 24.

The middle box cutting and feeding device 5 includes a conveyor table 8 that places the middle boxes B on a belt conveyor (not shown) and feeds them in one line, and a cut-out pusher 9.
are supplied one by one to a predetermined position. The middle box cutting and feeding device 5 includes a fixed guide 10 and a middle box stopper 1.
1. It has movable guides 12, 13 and their shift devices 14, 15.

Operation FIG. 10 shows the process of taking out the inner box B by the robot hand 6. Robot 6 is A~ in the same figure.
As shown in C, the support plate 32 is set substantially horizontally, and the middle box B at the take-out position of the middle box cutting and supplying device 5 is moved so as to be scooped up from below, and the middle box B is sucked by the vacuum suction cup 31.

Thereafter, the robot hand 6 is lowered and the inner box B it is holding is packed into the oblique outer box A on the tilting device 3 as shown in FIG. In this case, the vacuum valve is closed when the robot hand 6 reaches the target position. Then, the inner box B slides down on the support plate 32 and is packed in a predetermined position. The vacuum valve may be closed after carrying the inner box B to the packing position in the outer box A to release the suction without letting it fall.

Packing is done in this way, but Robot Hand 6
Since the support plate 32 is provided extending from the vacuum suction cup 31 to the front of the vacuum suction cup 31, the support plate 32 can receive a load that is inclined with respect to the direction in which the suction force of the vacuum suction cup 31 is applied. . Therefore, the inner box B can be sucked in an oblique position and packed into boxes, etc., and falling due to inertia can be prevented, allowing high-speed conveyance. Moreover, the inner box B can be picked up from the side as shown in FIG. 10, and the transport path can be shortened compared to the conventional case where the box B is picked up from directly above.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 9, when packing the inner boxes B into the narrow space at the end of the first stage, the boxes can be packed while applying a lateral pressing force F by the support plate 32. Therefore, there is more space, and the suction surface can be prevented from peeling off, allowing for smooth packaging. Further, since the inner box B is supported by the support plate 32, it is possible to prevent the inner box B from shifting during packing, and it is possible to accurately pack the inner box B in a predetermined position.

As shown in FIG. 8, when the inner box B made of cardboard is sucked by the vacuum suction cup 31, the inner box B is attached to the suction port 3.
However, the ventilation material 40 prevents the inner box B from being excessively deformed, thereby preventing poor suction due to deformation. The ventilation material 40 also provides a dustproof effect.

Furthermore, the conical cover 36 prevents the flap 50 of the outer box A from interfering with the flange 34 of the robot hand 6 when packing the lowermost box. This interference can also be achieved by making the pipe 33 longer, but in that case, the torque acting on the hand attachment flange 43 of the robot arm 35 will increase, and the movement of the robot hand 6 within the outer box A will also be affected. limited. The cover 36 does not have this problem.

In this way, each inner box B can be packed one by one into an outer box A that does not have enough room. Vacuum suction cup 3
1, by adjusting the dimensions to the smallest inner box B, there is no need to adjust the dimensions or replace parts even if the inner box B is changed to one with different dimensions. Since parts replacement and adjustment are not necessary in this way, the switching time when changing the type of inner box B is shortened, and productivity is improved. In addition, by packaging the robots one by one, the structure can be simplified and lightened, and the robot 4 can be attached to a robot 4 with a small payload, making it easy to select the robot 4.

In the above embodiment, one vacuum suction cup was provided for each support plate 32, but if another vacuum suction cup is stacked and provided on top of this vacuum suction cup 31, two inner boxes B can be packed in each box. Work efficiency is further improved.
Moreover, although the vacuum suction cup 31 is box-shaped, it may be, for example, a plurality of circular unit vacuum suction cups arranged side by side. Also, this robot hand 6
can be used not only for packing in boxes but also for various handling purposes.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The robot hand of this invention is provided with a support plate extending from a vacuum suction cup to the front of the vacuum suction cup, and the vacuum suction cup suctions one side of a box-shaped object to be conveyed, and the support plate holds an adjacent surface of the object to be conveyed. Since it is supported, the support plate can receive a load that is inclined with respect to the direction of action of the suction force by the vacuum suction cup. Therefore, the objects to be transported can be sucked in an oblique position and packed in boxes, etc., and falling due to inertia can be prevented, allowing high-speed transport. Moreover, the conveyed object can be picked up from the side, and the conveyance path can be shortened.
Furthermore, it is possible to pack the product into a box while applying a lateral pressing force using the support plate, and it is possible to smoothly pack the product into an outer box with poor dimensional accuracy and limited space. Further, since the support plate is used to support the conveyed objects, the objects to be transported can be prevented from shifting when packed in boxes, and the objects can be packed in boxes accurately at predetermined positions.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the robot arm in its attached state, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a packaging device using the robot.
4 to 6 are respectively a side view, a top view, and a front view of the robot hand, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the robot hand in an adsorbed state.
Fig. 8 is a partially enlarged sectional view of the same state, Fig. 9 is a sectional view of the boxing process, Fig. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the process of picking up the inner box, and Fig. 11 is also a sectional view of the boxing process. It is an explanatory diagram. 4... Robot, 6... Robot hand, 31... Vacuum suction cup, 32... Support plate, 35... Robot arm, 36... Cover, A... Outer box, B... Inner box which is the object to be transported.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A vacuum suction cup attached to a robot arm and connected to a suction device to suction one side of a box-shaped object to be transported; and a support plate that supports an adjacent surface.