JPH085536B2 - Product transport order rearranging device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for rearranging goods randomly conveyed on a conveyor line in a predetermined order.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of merchandise distribution, for example, assorting work is carried out to sort a large number of merchandise into predetermined storage areas, and in that case, goods randomly distributed from the upstream side of a transportation line leading to the storage areas. Electronically or artificially distinguishing the type of each product at the storage location for each product, and distributing the transport route of the product to the storage location by mechanical means such as a pusher, or manually picking up the product on the transport line. The reality is that they are transferred to the corresponding storage place.

[0003]

By the way, in identifying the types of products, if the products randomly flowing on the transport line are rearranged in the order according to a certain rule, the sorting work in the latter stage can be performed efficiently. It is expected that this can be done, but conventionally there has been no device for rearranging the transport order.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to realize an apparatus capable of rearranging goods randomly conveyed on a conveyor line in a predetermined order.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] That is, a product transport order rearranging apparatus according to the present application is provided with a first transport device for aligning and transporting products in one direction, and a product arranged in parallel with the first transport device to reverse the products. And a transfer for transferring the products on the first transfer device onto the second transfer device at a timing at which the transfer order of the products in the second transfer device becomes a predetermined order. And mounting means.

[0006]

According to the above-mentioned structure, the products carried on the first carrying means are carried by the second carrying means on the second carrying means by the transfer means which operates at a timing in which the order of carrying the goods on the second carrying means becomes a predetermined order. Transferred to means. As a result, even if the products are randomly supplied to the first carrier, the products are rearranged in the specified order and discharged from the second carrier, so that the product sorting efficiency is significantly improved. Will be improved.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a product sorting system.

First, the overall structure of the sorting system will be described with reference to FIG. 1. This system includes a work conveyor 3 for tact-transporting products after the barcodes are read by a barcode scanner 2 provided on a console 1. , The product pushed out by the first pusher 4 installed on the other side of the conveyor 3 is disposed on one side of the downstream end of the work conveyor 3 in such a manner that the upstream portion thereof is orthogonal to the downstream end side. And a discharge conveyor 7 for discharging the products sorted in the designated order in the sorter 5 described above. On the downstream end side of the first intermediate conveyor 8 for direction change, which is connected to the downstream end side of the discharge conveyor 7, a large number of pockets 9 ... The second intermediate conveyor 11 for changing the direction of the goods toward the 10 and 10 is connected and the second
The downstream end of the intermediate conveyor 11 is connected to a sorting conveyor 12 for sorting products, which is installed between the two collection shelves 10 and 10. A sorting unit 13 is provided for sorting the products on the sorting conveyor 12 into the pockets 9 ... 9 of the collection shelves 10, 10. The sorting unit 13 includes a carriage 14 that moves back and forth along the sorting conveyor 12 by the operation of a drive motor (not shown), and a sorting conveyor 15 capable of forward and reverse rotation that receives products conveyed on the conveyor 12 and sorts them right and left. Have and.

Here, the sorter 5 which is a characteristic part of the present invention
This sorter 5 is arranged such that the upstream portion overlaps with one side of the downstream portion of the supply conveyor 6 and is pushed out by the second pusher 16 installed on the other side of the conveyor 6. The first tact conveyor 17 for tact-transporting the stored product toward the downstream part, and the second tact conveyor 18 for tact-transporting the product in the opposite direction which is arranged in parallel on one side of the first tact conveyor 17. A plurality of (10 in the illustrated example) pushers 19 ... 19 provided in a row on the other side of the 1-tact conveyor 17. That is, when the pushers 19 ... 19 are operated, the products on the first tact conveyor 17 corresponding to the operated pushers 19 ... 19 are transferred onto the second tact conveyor 18.

On the upstream side of the first pusher 4, a first passage sensor 20 for detecting the presence or absence of passage of goods is installed,
A second passage sensor 21 for detecting the presence or absence of passage of a product is also installed near the downstream end of the second intermediate conveyor 11.

Next, the control system of the sorting system will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The sorting system is provided with a control unit 22 for controlling the entire operation. The control unit 22 includes a CPU 23 that executes various arithmetic processes and control processes, a ROM 24 that stores operation programs and the like in advance, a rewritable RAM 25 that stores arithmetic results and other data, and an input / output interface. 26 and. And the CPU 23
Takes in the read signal from the bar code scanner 2 and the product passage signals from the first and second passage sensors 20 and 21 via the interface 26, and supplies the work conveyor 3 based on these signals. Conveyor 6,
The operations of the discharge conveyor 7, the first and second intermediate conveyors 8 and 11, the first and second pushers 4 and 16, the sorter 5 and the sorting unit 13 are controlled via the interface 26.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3, in the predetermined area of the RAM 25, for each location code indicating a location number assigned to each pocket 9 ... Pocket 9 ...
A search table in which the product codes of the products to be stored in 9 are set is registered. The location number is a number from the upstream to the downstream of the collection shelves 10, 10 such that the leftmost pocket 9 of the uppermost stream of the collection shelves 10, 10 is number 1 and the right pocket 9 is number 2. Are set to be larger alternately.

The sorting process performed by the CPU 23 will be described below.

That is, the CPU 23 compares the product code of the product contained in the read signal from the bar code scanner 2 with the search table to determine the location code of the pocket 9 in which the product is sorted. Then, each time the bar code of the next product is read, the location code is sequentially shifted to a large number of registers virtually formed in the RAM 25, and the bar code for a predetermined number (for example, 10) of products is bar-coded. When the code reading work is completed, add one dummy code,
The location codes corresponding to the products to be read subsequently are stored sequentially. Of course, two or more dummy codes may be added. And C
The PU 23 stops the operation of the first pusher 4 once when the number of products passing in front of the first passage sensor 20 reaches 10. As a result, 10 products are continuously sent to the supply conveyor 6, and the next 10 products are continuously sent by opening a blank portion corresponding to the dummy code. Therefore, the data having a set of 10 location codes is sequentially shifted in synchronization with the tact transfer operation of the work conveyor 3 or the supply conveyor 6 with one dummy code interposed therebetween.

The CPU 23 compares the size of the location numbers for a set of 10 items, and as shown in FIG. 4, assigns temporary numbers such as 1, 2, ... That is, the number with the location number 1 is the smallest and the number 1 is assigned, and the number with the location number 16 is the largest and the number 10 is assigned. If there is a location number with the same number, a temporary number will be assigned in the bar code reading order.

When the temporary number is determined in this way, the sorting operation in the sorter 5 is performed to rearrange the order of the products so that the temporary number is obtained, and the location code is also changed correspondingly. become.

The products rearranged in the sorter 5 are sequentially discharged to the discharge conveyor 7, and these products are conveyed to the sorting conveyor 12 via the first and second intermediate conveyors 8 and 11, and the respective products are conveyed. The operation of the sorting unit 13 is controlled so that the number is inserted into the pockets 9 ... 9 corresponding to the location number. In addition, CPU
When the number of products 23 passing in front of the second passage sensor 21 reaches 10, the next product is stopped from being fed into the sorting conveyor 12 until all the 10 products passed so far are sorted. Thus, the operation of the second intermediate conveyor 11 is stopped.

Next, the sorting operation of the sorter 5 will be schematically described as shown in FIGS.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, when the product is moved to a position corresponding to the fifth pusher 19 from the upstream side by the tact conveyance operation of the first tact conveyor 17, the conveyor 17 is stopped. While doing so, the second tact conveyor 18 moves one pitch toward the downstream side, and accordingly, the data of 1 to 10 shifts the register for the second tact conveyor once. Then, the contents of the register for the first tact conveyor and the contents of the register for the second tact conveyor are sequentially compared. In this case, all pushers 19 ... 19 do not operate because there is no match.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the first tact conveyor 17 moves by one pitch and the register content also changes by one.
Shift times. At that time, since the register contents corresponding to the sixth pusher 19 from the upstream side are the same, the pusher 19 is activated and the product having the temporary number 2 is transferred to the second tact conveyor 18. Become.

Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the second tact conveyor 18 moves one pitch this time, and the contents of the registers shifted accordingly are compared. In this case also, since the register contents corresponding to the fourth pusher 19 from the upstream side are the same, the pusher 19 is activated and the product with the provisional number 1 is transferred to the second tact conveyor 18. It will be. At that time, the above-mentioned product is transferred to the downstream side of the second product transferred last time.

Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the first tact conveyor 17 again moves by one pitch, and the register contents shifted accordingly are compared.

In this way, the register contents are successively compared each time the first and second tact conveyors 17 and 18 move alternately by one pitch, and the first tact is activated by the operation of the pusher having the number corresponding to the register contents. Products are transferred from the conveyor 17 to the second tact conveyor 18.

Finally, as shown in FIG.
It means that all the one set of products are transferred onto the second tact conveyor 18 in a state of being rearranged so as to correspond to the temporary numbers. Further, the location numbers are also exchanged in the order of the temporary numbers as shown in FIG.

In this way, the 10 commodities rearranged in the order of the location number are sent to the sorting conveyor 12 via the discharging conveyor 7, the first and second intermediate conveyors 8 and 11, and are sorted. By the operation of the unit 13, the articles are sorted into the corresponding pockets 9 ... 9 of the collection shelves 10, 10. That is, the CPU 23 stops the carts 14 at the positions indicated by the location numbers and operates the sorting conveyor 15 to sequentially discharge the products to the corresponding pockets 9 ... Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11, the products arranged in the order of the location numbers are sequentially stored in the pockets 9 ... 9 to be stored as the carriage 14 moves to the downstream side.

In this embodiment, the products are rearranged so that the order of the products is the order of the location number indicating the storage location. However, the present invention is not limited to this. They may be rearranged in order of size, or may be rearranged according to size.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the products on the first transfer means are transferred to the second transfer means by the transfer means which is operated at the timing when the transfer order of the products on the second transfer means becomes a predetermined order. Since the goods are transferred to the carrying means, even if the goods are randomly supplied to the first carrying means, the goods are discharged in a state in which the goods are rearranged in a specified order, so that the product sorting efficiency is improved. Will be greatly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic layout diagram of a sorting system.

FIG. 2 is a control system diagram of a sorting system.

FIG. 3 is a memory configuration diagram showing a setting state of a location code corresponding to a product code.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between a location number before sorting and a temporary number.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an intermediate stage of a sorting operation in a sorter.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an intermediate stage of a sorting operation in a sorter.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an intermediate stage of a sorting operation in a sorter.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an intermediate stage of a sorting operation in a sorter.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which a sorting operation in the sorter is completed.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between a location number after sorting and a temporary number.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing an intermediate stage of a collection operation on a collection shelf.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Sorter 17 1st Tact Conveyor 18 2nd Tact Conveyor 19 Pusher 22 CPU 24 RAM

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-61-160369 (JP, A) JP-A-62-205917 (JP, A) JP-A-63-288805 (JP, A) JP-A-3- 61210 (JP, A) JP 62-240216 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first transport means for aligning and transporting products in one direction, a second transport means arranged in parallel with the first transport means for transporting products in the reverse direction, and a product in the second transport means. And a transfer means for transferring the products on the first transfer means onto the second transfer means at a timing when the transfer order is a predetermined order. Replacement device.