JPH0620937B2 - Container alignment device - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an apparatus for aligning containers, such as bottles, which are grouped together in a predetermined pattern for boxing or the like.

"Prior Art" The manufactured bottles are subjected to various molding inspections while being conveyed by a conveyor, and are then gathered and arranged in a predetermined pattern, for example, packed in a predetermined number of units and shipped.

FIG. 14 shows an example of a conventional bottle aligning device. The bottles 1 which have undergone the molding inspection are arranged vertically in a line along the bottle guides 3 on both sides while being vertically erected and conveyed in the direction of the arrow A, and are directed along the curved discharge portion 4 of the bottle guide 3. It is converted and discharged from the discharge port 4a onto the central portion of the front end of the conveyance of the wide alignment conveyor 5 while standing upright. The aligning conveyor 5 connects a large number of plate pieces 5a in a caterpillar shape to form an endless belt 5b.
A plurality of b are stretched in parallel so as to be circulated at the same time, and the bottle 1 discharged from the bottle guide 3 is conveyed in a direction B substantially orthogonal to the conveying direction A of the supply conveyor 2.

A pattern guide plate 6 is installed in parallel over the both side edges of the aligning conveyor 5 along the carrying direction, and a plate-like pattern stopper 7 is provided above the front end of the aligning conveyor 5 at a right angle thereto. The bottle 1 installed on the aligning conveyor 5 is not conveyed before the pattern stopper 7. The pattern stopper 7 is for determining the arrangement pattern of the bottles 1, and in the example shown in the drawing, corrugated concavities and convexities 8 and 9 are formed on one long side edge.

The bottle 1 that has flowed from the supply conveyor 2 onto the central portion of the rear end of the alignment conveyor 5 is conveyed by the alignment conveyor 5 and pushed by the subsequent bottle 1 so that the pattern guide plates 6 and the pattern stoppers 7 on both sides are formed. They are sequentially pushed into the enclosure formed by and, and are naturally aligned and accumulated in the form of islands in accordance with the wavy irregularities 8 and 9 of the pattern stopper 7.

When the bottles 1 are aligned and accumulated on the aligning conveyor 5 over a predetermined range, a grip hand of a carriage (not shown) moves to a position directly above the aligning conveyor 5, and the bottles 1 that have been accumulated and aligned are accumulated in a predetermined range. Picked up in area units and removed from the alignment conveyor 5. At this time, the aligning conveyor 5
Is temporarily stopped.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, conventionally, as described above, bottles 1 are fed one by one from the supply conveyor 2 onto the central portion of the rear end of the alignment conveyor 5 and then on the alignment conveyor 5. Since it was naturally aligned by its transportation, the alignment order is not constant, and it is affected by the shape and surface treatment of the bottle, and it is difficult to align it smoothly and evenly, especially in the case of bottles with low lubricity. Met. When the alignment conveyor 5 is stopped and the bottle 1 is picked up as described above, the bottle 1 from the supply conveyor 2 stays on the rear end of the alignment conveyor 5. Therefore, when the aligning conveyor 5 is restarted, the remaining bottles 1 flow at once and collide with the bottles remaining on the aligning conveyor 5 that are not picked up at the time of the previous pickup and randomly press the bottles. There is a problem in that the bottles are bridged, that is, in the vicinity of the pattern guide plate 6, that is, a bottle-crossing phenomenon, that is, a missing portion where there is no bottle (so-called tooth loss) occurs, because the bottles are misaligned.

To illustrate this principle, in the case of natural alignment in FIG. 15, the bottle 1 first substantially aligns in the rear part from the central part of the pattern stopper 7, and then flows radially to the left and right, and the central part is already present. After the completion of the alignment in, the bottle whose final alignment position is z ₃ advances diagonally from z _{1 at} the center of the alignment conveyor 5 to z ₂ and reaches z ₃ , but at z ₂ it is aligned. The flow direction of the conveyor 5 is the b direction, and the force in this direction and the diagonal c direction temporarily disappears, so that it stops at z ₂ . Such a state may occur when the bottle that has stayed as described above flows at once.
Since three rows occur at the same time, it stays at z ₂ before reaching the final alignment position z ₃ , and tooth loss occurs at z ₃ .

Further, in FIG. 16, if the bottles are arranged in the order of x to x'and y to y ', missing teeth will not occur, but before the bottle of x reaches x', When it moves larger than the bottle and overtakes this to reach y ',
Missing teeth occur. Such a state also occurs when the bottle of y advances straight along the flow direction a of the alignment conveyor 5. That is, the x bottle will try to align with x'and the y bottle will rotate with y'simultaneously. Here, ∠AOB is 30 °, whereas ∠AOC is 60 °.
Is. At this time, since the bottle of x is pressed straight by the bottle of y, the bottle of y is preceded by y ′ before the bottle of x.
Reach

In the related art, tooth loss is likely to occur in this way, and therefore the presence of the tooth loss has been constantly monitored by an observer, and bottles have been manually refilled at the tooth loss points. The replenishment work has been a cause of quality deterioration such as scratching and contamination of the bottle.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to align containers in a predetermined alignment pattern without causing tooth loss, and to smoothly feed them onto an alignment conveyor. It is to be able to change easily.

"Means for Solving the Problems" The container aligning apparatus according to the present invention, referring to FIGS.
Feeding device 13 forcibly feeding onto the aligning conveyor 11
And a container guide 37 that guides the fed container on the alignment conveyor 11, and a guide passage that regulates the conveyance by the alignment conveyor 11 and arranges the containers in a line between the container guide 37. With a gate 38 to
The angle of 37 is adjustable on the alignment conveyor 11 toward the downstream side in the conveying direction, and the gate 38 is mounted on the container guide 37 so that it can be opened and closed vertically.

Further, a supply stop stopper 21 for stopping the container to be supplied from the supply conveyor 10 to the alignment conveyor 11
A sensor 47 for detecting whether or not a predetermined number of containers have entered the guide passage, and a supply stop actuator for operating the supply stop stopper 21 from the retracted position to the stop action position based on the detection by the sensor 47. 23 and the same sensor
A gate opening / closing actuator 46 that opens the gate 38 based on detection by 47 is provided.

[Operation] The operation of the aligning device will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6, and the container 17 supplied by the supply conveyor 10 will be described.
Is forcibly fed onto the aligning conveyor 11 by the feeding device 13, and is not immediately transported by the aligning conveyor 11, while the transport is restricted by the gate 38 in the closed state, the gate 38 and the container guide. The line between 37 and this is arranged in a line. When it is detected by the sensor 47 that the number of arrays is a predetermined number, the supply stop actuator 23 is operated and the supply stop stopper 21 is operated from the retracted position to the stop action position, and the supply on the alignment conveyor 11 is performed. Stops. At the same time, when the gate opening / closing actuator 46 is activated to open the gate 38 upward,
The predetermined number of containers 17 arranged in a line are conveyed to the stacking alignment position by the alignment conveyor 11 while keeping the alignment angle according to the angle of the container guide 37.

Since the container guide 37 and the gate 38 can integrally adjust the angle on the downstream side in the conveying direction on the aligning conveyor 11, the inclination of the container rows to be stacked can be arbitrarily changed by adjusting the angle. Further, when the containers are supplied from the supply conveyor 10 to the alignment conveyor 11, the conveyance by the alignment conveyor 11 is regulated by the gate 38, but the container guide 37 and the gate 38 are inclined to the downstream side of the alignment conveyor 11. Therefore, it is possible to smoothly feed the container to the tip of the guide passage between the container guide 37 and the gate 38 by utilizing the carrying force of the alignment conveyor 11.

[Examples] Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall planar arrangement of the aligning device according to the present invention. The supply conveyor 10 continues to the rear end of the wide alignment conveyor 11, and a fullness detection device 12 and a feeding device 13 are arranged in the middle of the conveyance of the supply conveyor 10, and the supply conveyor 10 and the alignment device are arranged. A supply stopping device 14 is attached to the conveyor 11, and an arraying device 15 is mounted above the rear end of the aligning conveyor 11. Guide plates 16 are arranged in parallel on both side edges of the supply conveyor 10 along the same, and the bottles 17 are conveyed by the supply conveyor 10 in a standing state in a line.

The feeding device 13 has a servo motor 18 as shown in FIG.
By rotating the star wheel 19 and feeding conveyor
The bottles 17 on 10 are forcibly sent one by one onto the aligning conveyor 11. At this time, since the end portion of the guide plate 16 is bent, the bottle 17 is transferred from an oblique direction onto one side corner of the rear end of the alignment conveyor 11.

As shown in FIG. 6, the supply stop device 14 has a plate-shaped supply stop stopper 21 pivotably attached to the tip of a bent plate 20 forming the bent portion at the end of the guide plate 16 so as to be openable and closable.
21 is configured to be opened / closed by a pneumatic cylinder 23 that is a stopper actuator pivotally attached to a column 22. The supply stop stopper 21 opens and closes the end of the guide passage by the guide plates 16 on both sides, and when this is closed, the bottle 17 sent from the supply conveyor 10 is stopped immediately before the alignment conveyor 11, and the following bottle 17 is also stopped. Stay in line.

The fullness detecting device 12 includes an inverted L-shaped bracket 24 fixed to the outer surface of the guide plate 16 as shown in FIGS.
A lever 25 is vertically oscillated toward the guide plate 16, and a resin flap 26 longer than the diameter of the bottle 17 is fixed to the lower end of the lever 25. A tension spring 27 is attached to the upper end of the lever 25, and the flap 26 is attached to the guide plate 16
It is urged in a direction to enter between the guide plates 16 on both sides from a slit 28 formed between the lower end edge of the and the supply conveyor 10. A switch actuator 29 is fixed to the upper end of the lever 25, and a proximity switch 30 sensitive to the switch actuator 29 is attached to the bracket 24. When the bottle 17 is full between the supply detecting device 12 and the supply stopping device 14, the full detecting device 12 detects it as follows.

When the bottles 17 are continuously supplied to the aligning conveyor 11 side by the supply conveyor 10, the bottles 17 smoothly flow along the guide plates 16 on both sides without receiving the braking force, and thus the fullness detection device 12 When it passes through, it is pushed laterally by the flap 26 and slides on it to proceed. That is,
The bottle 17 passes through while sliding on the flap 26,
Since the flap 26 is urged by the tension spring 27, the flowing bottle 17 has no force for retracting the flap 26 to the outside of the slit 28, and the lever 25 and the switch actuator 29 are indicated by the solid line in FIG. The state becomes as shown, and the proximity switch
30 is on. Therefore, when the bottle 17 is flowing to the aligning conveyor 11 side, the proximity switch 30 maintains the ON state.

When the supply stop stopper 21 closes (at this time, the feeding device
The servo motor 18 of 13 stops), and the bottle 17 is pushed by the subsequent bottle 17 by the subsequent conveying action of the supply conveyor 10, and there is some margin between the guide plates 16 on both sides. Stay in zigzag. When this state reaches the flap 26, the flap 26
Is pushed by the bottle 17 to the outside of the slit 28 against the tension spring 27, the lever 25 rotates, and the switch actuator 29
Is separated from the proximity switch 30 as shown by the chain line, the proximity switch 30 is turned off, and full detection is performed.

When the fullness is detected in this way, the pneumatic cylinder 23 operates in the supply stopping device 14 to open the supply stopping stopper 21, and the feeding device 13 causes the servo motor 18 to operate.
Are driven and the bottles 17 are sequentially fed onto the aligning conveyor 11.

The aligning conveyor 11 has the same structure as the conventional one shown in FIG. 14, and as shown in FIG. 6, a large number of plate pieces 31 are connected in a caterpillar shape to form an endless belt 32. A plurality of cables are stretched in parallel so that they can be circulated at the same time. Then, above both side edges of the aligning conveyor 11, pattern guide plates 33 are installed in parallel and parallel to each other along the carrying direction, and above the front end of the aligning conveyor 11,
A plate-shaped pattern stopper 34 is installed so as to be convertible at a right angle to it. The illustrated pattern stopper 34 has corrugated irregularities 35 and 36 on one long side edge thereof.

The arranging device 15 is an aligning conveyor as shown in FIGS.
Above the rear end of 11, a container guide 37, which is a C-shaped member, is installed substantially horizontally, and a gate 38 is mounted on the container guide 37 so as to be openable and closable. The container guide 37 is the both guide plates.
From the end of the guide passage by 16 to the width of the conveyor 11 for alignment, the groove plate 39 protruding at both ends is provided with the adjusting screw 40.
It is held by the vertical conveyor and the position thereof can be adjusted in the vertical and longitudinal directions, and the inclination in the horizontal direction can be adjusted with respect to the aligning conveyor 11 by using one end (the end side of the guide passage) as a fulcrum. . The gate 38 has three inverted L-shaped arms 41 whose base ends are supported by a support shaft 42 via a bracket 41a.
The guide bar 43 is laterally fixed to the ends of these arms 41. And the gate 38 has its support shaft
By bearing 42 on the upper ends of three pedestals 44 fixed onto the container guide 37, the pedestals 44 are pivotally attached to these pedestals 44 so as to be vertically rotatable (openable and closable). A pneumatic cylinder 46, which is an actuator for opening and closing a gate, is mounted on the substrate 45 of the central installation table 44 of the three installation tables 44, and the gate 38 is opened and closed by the pneumatic cylinder 46.

When the gate 38 is closed as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, its guide bar 43 becomes parallel to the container guide 37, between which the guide passage by the guide plates 16 is followed by the bottle 17.
A guide passage that guides the vehicle in a line is formed. Therefore, at this time, the bottles 17 sent from the supply conveyor 10 onto the alignment conveyor 11 are restricted from being conveyed by the alignment conveyor 11 by the guide bar 43, and arranged in a line by the guide bar 43 and the container guide 37. While the standing state is maintained, the alignment conveyor (11) is slidably guided along the above from the supply conveyor (10) side to the opposite side in a direction intersecting the conveying direction.

At the tip of the upper surface of the container guide 37, a sensor for detecting the first bottle 17 of the bottles 17 which are thus slidably guided.
47 is attached. In the illustrated example, a reflective photoelectric sensor is used as the sensor 47. When the sensor 47 detects the first bottle 17, a predetermined number of bottles 17 are arranged in a line between the guide bar 43 and the container guide 37,
Therefore, the sensor 47 detects whether or not the number of arranged bottles 17 reaches a predetermined number between them. When the detection is performed, at the same time as the supply stop stopper 21 is closed by the operation of the pneumatic cylinder 23 in the supply stop device 14, the servo motor 18 is stopped in the feeding device 13, and then the pneumatic cylinder 46 is operated and the gate 38 is moved to the first position. As shown in FIG. 8, the predetermined number of bottles 17 which are opened upward and whose conveyance is regulated by the guide bar 43 are released from the regulation, and are conveyed all at once by the alignment conveyor 11 while being arranged in a line.

Next, the overall operation will be described.

The angle of the container guide 37 is adjusted according to the desired alignment pattern. If the alignment pattern is a so-called zigzag pattern as shown in FIG. 12, ∠B
The OC is 30 °, and if the bottles 17 are gathered together at this angle, the same zigzag pattern will be obtained. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, the angle θ of the container guide 37 is set to 30 °. Further, as shown in the figure, at the corners between the pattern stopper 34 and one of the pattern guide plates 33, the bottles 17 are initially manually arranged in a triangular shape in advance.

When the supply is performed by the supply conveyor 10, the bottle 17 becomes full between the closed supply stop stopper 21 and the full detection device 12, and when this is detected by the full detection device 12, the pneumatic cylinder 23 Is activated to stop supply 21
At the same time as the opening, the servomotor 18 is driven, and the bottles 17 are sent one by one onto the aligning conveyor 11 by the star wheel 19, and as shown in FIG.
They are arranged in a line along 43 and the container guide 37. When the first bottle of the arrayed bottles 17 is detected by the sensor 47, after the supply stop stopper 21 is closed and the servo motor 18 is stopped, the pneumatic cylinder 46 is operated to open the gate 38 and the container guide 37. A predetermined number of bottles 17 arranged in a line at an angle according to are conveyed forward by the aligning conveyor 11 while maintaining the arrangement state as shown in FIG. 10, and already aligned on the aligning conveyor 11. It directly overlaps the last row of bottles 17.

When the gate 38 is opened and one row of bottles 17 is conveyed, the sensor 47 is turned off, so that the gate 38 is closed again by the pneumatic cylinder 46. Even while the gate 38 is opened and closed in this way, the bottles 17 are successively supplied by the supply conveyor 10 and are pushed in line to the closed supply stop stopper 21 side. When the fullness detection device 12 detects that the bottle is full, the supply stop stopper 21 is opened in the same manner as above, and the servomotor 18 is driven to feed the bottle 17 in the same manner as above and the gate 38 is opened. The predetermined number of bottles 17 in the next row are conveyed by the aligning conveyor 11 while being arranged in a row at an angle according to the container guide 37, and similarly stacked on the last row of the bottles 17 already aligned.

This operation is repeated a predetermined number of times, and the alignment conveyor
When the number of aligned bottles 17 on 11 reaches a predetermined number, the aligning conveyor 11 is stopped, and the bottles 17 in the area from the pattern stopper 34 to the line I-I shown in FIG. 10 are carried (not shown). It is picked up as it is by the grip head and is transported to another place by the carriage. During this time,
Since the gate 38 is closed, the bottles 17 to be fed are arranged in a line as described above. Since the bottle 17 behind the line I-I is not picked up, a triangular pre-pattern as shown in FIG. 11 remains on the aligning conveyor 11. When the aligning conveyor 11 is driven again, this pre-pattern is conveyed as it is, and the same state as in FIG. 9 is obtained. After that, the series of operations described above is repeated.

When the alignment pattern is a so-called zigzag pattern as shown in FIG. 13 (at this time, the pattern stopper 34 is uneven
∠FOG is 60 ° for those without 35 and 36)
become. Therefore, if the angle θ of the container guide 37 is set to 60 °, a predetermined number of bottles 17 arranged in line are guided by this.
When they overlap, they will be in a staggered pattern, so
A dedicated correction device such as a pattern destroyer or a pattern adjuster conventionally used for aligning the patterns is unnecessary.

Further, in the case of a so-called regular array pattern in which the bottles 17 are regularly arranged in a grid pattern, the angle of the container guide 37 may be set to zero.

In addition, although a bottle is taken as an example in the above-mentioned embodiment, the present invention can be applied to a container other than a bottle.

"Effects of the Invention" According to the alignment apparatus of the present invention as described above in detail, the container fed from the supply conveyor onto the alignment conveyor is regulated by the closed gate while being conveyed by the alignment conveyor. Guide in any direction to be patterned by the gate and container guide, and after arranging and arranging the number of one row, open the gate and convey it with an alignment conveyor in an array state of any angle to stack and align. As a result, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of missing teeth, eliminate the need for work and personnel for replenishing missing teeth, and solve problems such as container damage and contamination associated with the work.

In addition, since the container guide and the gate can be integrally angled on the downstream side in the transport direction of the alignment conveyor, the inclination of the container rows to be stacked can be arbitrarily changed by adjusting the angle, so that the same staggered pattern or It is possible to easily change an alignment pattern such as a staggered zigzag pattern or a regular pattern. Moreover, when the containers are supplied from the supply conveyor to the alignment conveyor, the transportation by the alignment conveyor is regulated by the gate, but since the container guide and the gate are inclined to the downstream side of the alignment conveyor, the alignment conveyor It is possible to smoothly feed the container to the tip end of the guide passage between the container guide and the gate by utilizing the conveying force of.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 13 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the entire apparatus, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a fullness detector, FIG. 3 is a sectional view thereof, and FIG. Its plan view, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a feeding device, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a supply stopping device and an arraying device, FIG. 7 is a side view of the arraying device with a gate closed, and FIG. Side view with the open,
9 to 11 are plan views showing bottle alignment procedures,
12 and 13 are explanatory views showing the alignment pattern of bottles. FIG. 14 is a plan view of a conventional example, and FIGS. 15 and 16 are explanatory views explaining that tooth loss occurs during alignment of the bottles. 10 …… Supply conveyor, 11 …… Aligning conveyor, 21 ……
Supply stop stopper, 23 ... pneumatic cylinder (supply stop actuator), 34 ... pattern stopper, 37 ... container guide, 38 ... gate, 46 ... pneumatic cylinder (gate opening / closing actuator) 47 ... sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A container such as a bottle conveyed by a supply conveyor 10 is transferred onto a belt-shaped aligning conveyor 11 and conveyed by the pattern stopper 34 at a predetermined position while being conveyed by the aligning conveyor 11. The alignment conveyor by controlling the
In a container aligning device that collects and aligns on 11, a container that has been conveyed by the supply conveyor 10 is forcibly fed onto the aligning conveyor 11
13, a container guide 37 that guides the fed containers on the alignment conveyor 11, and a guide passage that regulates the transportation by the alignment conveyor 11 and arranges the containers in a line between the container guides 37. With the gate 38 to be formed, the container guide 37 can be adjusted in angle to the downstream side in the conveying direction on the alignment conveyor 11, and the gate 38 is mounted on the container guide 37 so as to be openable and closable vertically, and further for the supply. Conveyor 10
From the supply stop stopper 21 for stopping the containers to be supplied from the alignment conveyor 11, from the sensor 47 to detect whether the number of containers entered the guide passage has reached a predetermined number, based on the detection by the sensor 47 A container including a supply stop actuator 23 that operates the supply stop stopper 21 from the retracted position to the stop action position, and a gate opening / closing actuator 46 that opens the gate 38 based on detection by the sensor 47. Alignment device.