JP6109509B2 - Article alignment supply device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an article alignment and supply apparatus, and more specifically, in order to effectively process an article in an apparatus such as a subsequent packaging machine, in particular, thin plate-like articles are conveyed at random intervals. The present invention also relates to an article alignment and supply apparatus that conveys the articles while aligning them in one column at regular intervals and supplies the articles to the next apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, packaging machines have been put to practical use in which flaky articles such as rice crackers, which are randomly conveyed, are arranged in a line and then sequentially packed. In the case of a packaging process such as bag-filling packaging, it is necessary to supply the article into the bag so that the article occupies a predetermined position in the bag. It is required to arrange them so that they are lined up at the front and back at regular intervals in the middle, and sequentially supply them to the packaging machine in that state. In order to arrange them in a line in the front-rear direction, for example, the lateral width of the conveyance path may be gradually reduced to match the width of the flaky article, but in order to make the conveyance pitch in the front-rear direction constant, the conveyance pitch of the flaky article If the pitch is shorter than the fixed pitch, the front and rear intervals are widened by temporarily stopping the transfer in the middle of the process, and conversely, when the transport pitch is longer, the interval is narrowed. Furthermore, it is necessary to cope with the fact that the supply of the flaky article from the upstream itself is temporarily stopped or the conveying pitch is continuously increased.

  By the way, conventionally, a servo loop device has been used as a device that converts a plurality of articles conveyed in a vertical row into a state in which a plurality of articles are arranged horizontally and ejects them. In the servo loop device, sprockets are arranged on both sides of the conveyance path, endless chains are spanned over the sprockets, buckets are attached to the endless chains at regular intervals, and the sprockets rotate to attach endless chains. It is an apparatus that can be rotated and reciprocated in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the transport path. On the carry-in side of the servo loop device, articles conveyed in a vertical row are sequentially fed into the bucket, and on the carry-out side, articles contained in a plurality of continuous buckets are arranged side by side, that is, grouped. It is carried out to the next stage.

  As an apparatus for aligning thin plate-like articles at regular intervals, there is an article transport and supply apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1. This article transport and supply apparatus uses the servo loop device described above as a storage device, and when the transported pitch is shorter than the discharge pitch (that is, the article is transported densely) In the case where the article is stored in the case where the supplied pitch is longer (that is, the article is sparsely conveyed), the article stored on the servo loop device is discharged at random. The thin plate-like article can be discharged at a constant interval regardless of the receiving timing of the conveyed article. The storage device includes a pair of rotating bodies (corresponding to “sprockets”) arranged across the extension line of the conveying means on the article carry-in side, and endless power transmission means (“endless chain”) spanning the rotating bodies. And the conveyor means having a plurality of buckets attached to the endless power transmission means.

  Laminar articles are more stable when they are laid sideways than when they are placed vertically, but if they are transported and aligned while they are laid down horizontally, the width of the bucket (space between them) provided in the servo loop device is large because the width is large. ) Becomes larger and the entire device becomes larger. Therefore, in the article conveying and supplying apparatus, the thin plate-like article is conveyed and aligned in a vertical direction, and the inner surface of the side wall of the bucket that can be rotated on a horizontal plane is inclined to form a thin plate shape. The article is also transferred onto the carrying means on the carry-out side while standing up at a predetermined inclination angle. When transferring from the servo loop device onto the carrying means on the carry-out side, the lower end of the inclined thin plate-like article is located near one side edge of the carrying surface of the carry-out carrying means, and the pushing finger is on the rear side of the thin plate-like article Since the direction in contact with the central portion can be stably fed, the opening formed on the carrying surface of the carry-out side conveying means for securing the moving path of the pushing finger is necessarily near the center. Such a structure prevents a thin plate-like article that contacts in the vicinity of the side edge from falling into the opening.

  As described above, the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a servo loop as an article conveyance supply apparatus that sequentially unloads a thin plate-like article carried into a subsequent processing apparatus at regular intervals in the conveyance direction. The apparatus is provided, and can be processed regardless of the reception timing by an appropriate reciprocating motion of the servo loop device.

  However, in the article transport and supply device disclosed in Patent Document 1, the servo loop device used as a storage device includes a bucket having a special structure in which the inner surface of the side wall is configured in an inclined shape, Furthermore, between the conveying device on the carry-in side composed of a flat conveyor and the servo loop device, a pair of endless belts and a first and a second for bridging the endless belts are used to stand up the thin plate article at a predetermined inclination angle. A posture reversing device comprising a pulley, the first pulley on the upstream side (first belt conveyor side) arranged to extend in the horizontal direction, and the second pulley on the downstream side arranged to extend obliquely in the vertical direction It is necessary to arrange. In addition, between the servo loop device and the carry-out side conveyance device composed of a flat conveyor, the thin plate-like article in an obliquely standing state is transferred to the carry-out side conveyer in the bucket, so that both devices are straddled. It is provided with a transfer mechanism comprising a small Yagula conveyor device having a pusher on the upper side and a guide member for gradually lowering the inclination of the thin plate-like article pushed forward from the inside of the bucket as the pusher moves. is necessary.

  Therefore, the servo loop device itself has a complicated structure and a manufacturing cost is increased by including a bucket with a special structure. Further, the servo loop device has a posture reversing device on the carry-in side of the servo loop device and a small on the carry-out side. It is necessary to arrange a transfer mechanism equipped with a YAGURA conveyor device and a guide member, which causes a significant increase in the number of parts and an increase in manufacturing cost. It is necessary to constantly monitor a certain thing, and a great burden is imposed on maintenance.

  In addition, as a related technique, a set of articles for collecting bag-packed articles supplied at predetermined intervals, and transporting and supplying the aggregated articles in batches to the next process such as a boxing machine. A conveying device is disclosed in Patent Documents 2 and 3. This collective conveying apparatus for articles allows a pair of endless conveying means arranged in parallel to the article conveying direction to be independently driven, so that the group of articles held by the holding member group of one endless conveying means can be discharged. In order to improve the high-speed conveyance processing and work efficiency of the article by simultaneously receiving the subsequent article into the holding member group of the other endless conveyance means while carrying the article until the article is discharged and receiving the article. . That is, the holding means of one endless conveying means arranged in parallel faces the receiving position of the article, and the conveying means is independently driven to advance, thereby sequentially receiving the articles in the holding means facing the article conveying direction, When a predetermined number of articles are received by the holding means, the holding means is moved to the discharge position of the article at a high speed, and the other endless transfer is performed while the holding means in one endless transfer means is moved to the discharge position. The holding means of the means faces the receiving position, and by being independently driven and advanced, the articles sequentially supplied to the holding means from the previous step are received without interruption. Each time a predetermined number of articles are supplied to the holding member group disposed in the endless chain that is one endless conveying means, the holding member group is moved forward at a stroke to the position facing the article discharge position, and then positioning is stopped. Then, the article is discharged out of the machine by the operation of the pusher operating in the direction crossing the endless chain.

  Patent Document 4 discloses a structure of a servo loop device. In the servo loop device, a moving body is disposed on a horizontally long machine frame so as to be reciprocally movable in a horizontal direction within a predetermined range along a longitudinal direction thereof. The moving body is horizontally spaced apart by a predetermined interval in the moving direction. A sprocket is arranged, and a drive sprocket as a drive rotator is attached to an output shaft of a servo motor capable of forward and reverse rotation as a rotation drive source on each of the carry-in position side and the carry-out position side. By moving the endless chain around the horizontal sprocket and the drive sprocket and controlling the output of the rotation direction, rotation speed, rotation amount, etc. of the servo motor, the movement / stop of the article carrier relative to the loading position, and the article carrier The movement and stop of the unloading position are independently performed in terms of timing.

Japanese Patent No. 4112698 JP-A-7-285654 Japanese Patent No. 2651564 Japanese Patent No. 4131922

  Therefore, an article alignment and supply device that includes a servo loop device and that sequentially delivers thin plate-like articles that are randomly loaded to a subsequent processing apparatus at regular intervals by appropriate reciprocation of the servo loop apparatus. Therefore, the servo loop device itself should not be configured in a special structure, and the structure should be solved in that it can obtain a simple article alignment and supply device that does not require a posture changing device on the carry-in side or a transfer mechanism on the carry-out side. There are challenges.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problem, and the servo loop device itself does not have a special structure in order to align the articles that are randomly loaded using the servo loop device at a constant interval. The structure is simple, and no special equipment such as a posture change device or a transfer mechanism is required on the carry-in side and the carry-out side, the number of parts can be reduced, and maintenance can be minimized. It is an object to provide an article alignment and supply apparatus that can be completed with a thing.

In order to solve the above problems, an article alignment and supply apparatus according to the present invention includes a carry-in conveyor that is disposed on the carry-in side and conveys the articles, a carry-out conveyor that is disposed on the carry-out side and conveys the articles, and A plurality of buckets disposed between the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor, each of which receives the articles conveyed from the carry-in conveyor and accommodates the articles in an upright or inclined state; The article received in the bucket is conveyed along a loop in a state of being accommodated in the bucket, and the articles accommodated in the bucket and conveyed can be aligned at regular intervals and carried out to the carry-out conveyor. A servo loop device, and the article conveyed by the carry-in conveyor is interposed between the carry-in conveyor and the servo loop device. An input chute is provided in the bucket that has arrived at the article receiving position of the servo loop device in a standing or inclined state, and the servo loop device is interposed between the servo loop device and the carry-out conveyor. An unloading chute is provided for unloading the article, which is stored in the bucket in an upright or inclined state and is conveyed to the article delivery position, to the unloading conveyor, and the servo loop device includes the unloading conveyor And the carry-out conveyor are inclined in the up-down direction, and the inclination of the servo loop device changes the receiving direction of the article by the charging chute and the delivery direction of the article to the carry-out chute. The bucket is characterized in that it follows the accommodation height direction of the bucket .

  According to this article alignment and supply apparatus, when an article is conveyed by the carry-in conveyor disposed on the carry-in side, the article is thrown into the bucket that has arrived at the article receiving position of the servo loop device by the throwing chute. In the servo loop device, it is conveyed along the loop while being stood or tilted in the bucket, and further delivered in a state of being stood or tilted in the bucket. The articles conveyed to the position are unloaded to the unloading conveyor through the unloading chute so as to be aligned at a predetermined interval. A drive source is required for the operation of the servo loop device, but receiving and delivery of other articles are not performed by a device having a special drive mechanism, but are performed by a chute using gravity. Therefore, the receipt and delivery of the article in the servo loop device can be performed with a simple structure and energy saving that does not require a drive source.

In this article alignment and supply apparatus, the servo loop device is disposed so as to be inclined in the vertical direction with respect to the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor. The input conveyor and output conveyor, the installation space of the apparatus, the positional relationship and working ease with other devices, have preferably be arranged so that there is no great difference in the transport height. In such a case, by using the servo loop device tilted vertically with respect to both conveyors, gravity is used for connection from the carry-in conveyor to the servo loop device and from the servo loop device to the carry-out conveyor. By doing so, a chute that does not require a drive source can be used.

In the article alignment and supply apparatus, due to the inclination of the servo loop device, the receiving direction of the article by the charging chute and the delivery direction of the article to the carry-out chute are imitated in the accommodation height direction of the bucket. Yes . According to this article alignment and supply device, since the receiving and delivery directions of the articles in the servo loop device follow the accommodation height direction of the bucket, the articles are in a state where the posture is almost maintained from the input chute into the bucket. Received smoothly. Further, since the delivery direction of the article to the carry-out chute is also similar to the height direction of the bucket, the article is smoothly delivered from the inside of the bucket to the carry-out chute with almost no change in posture. By determining the inclination direction of the servo loop device, the traveling direction of the bucket at the article receiving position of the servo loop device can be the upward direction. By making the traveling direction of the bucket at the article receiving position an upward direction of inclination, it is possible to arrange the carry-in conveyor and carry-in chute using the space above the servo loop device, and to convey and carry articles in the servo loop device. The status can be easily checked. Further, the traveling direction of the bucket at the article delivery position of the servo loop device can be set to the inclined downward direction. By setting the traveling direction of the bucket at the article delivery position to be an inclined downward direction, the carry-out chute and the carry-out conveyor can be arranged using the space below the servo loop device.

In this article alignment supply apparatus, the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor are arranged horizontally, and the carry-in conveyor can be arranged at a position higher than the carry-out conveyor. When there may be a relatively high level difference between the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor , the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor are arranged horizontally, and the carry-in conveyor is placed at a higher position than the carry-out conveyor. connections from servo loop device connected and inclined to the servo loop arrangement which is inclined from the conveyor to the discharge conveyor, can be utilized chute does not require a drive source by utilizing gravity.

Further, in this article alignment supply device, the servo loop device is provided with inclined surfaces arranged in a vertical direction and parallel to each other on the left and right sides and placed on a common surface. A slide body that is slidably disposed in the slanting / lifting direction of the base between the two slanting surfaces, and is disposed to be supported in a rotatable manner in the slanting / lifting direction with respect to the slide body. Two rotating bodies rotatable in a plane parallel to the inclined surface, two winding traveling paths wound around the two rotating bodies, and a carry-in traveling path and a carrying-out traveling that connect the both winding traveling paths. An endless belt that includes a path and forms the loop, and the bucket is mounted side by side along the loop so as to be movable along the inclined surface of the base, and the carry-in The article is disposed on each of the travel path and the unloading side travel path, and independently controls the travel of the endless belt of the carry-in travel path and the endless belt of the unloading travel path. It is possible to provide two servo motors for controlling the timing of receiving the article to the bucket and delivering the article from the bucket to the carry-out conveyor.
Receipt of articles arriving at random from the carry-in conveyor into the bucket is performed at the article receiving position on the carry-in side travel path, and delivery of articles from the bucket to the carry-out chute is at a fixed timing at the article delivery position on the carry-out side run path. It is done at intervals.
According to this article alignment supply device, the feed of the endless belt in the carry-in side travel path and the carry-out side travel path is controlled independently by the servo control of the servo motors arranged in the respective travel paths. Articles can be sequentially received in the bucket at the article receiving position even if they are transported randomly, and the articles stored in the bucket are delivered from the bucket to the carry-out chute at a certain timing interval at the article delivery position. Can do. When there is a difference in the feed amount of the endless belt between the carry-in side travel path and the carry-out side travel path, the slide body that supports the endless belt and the two rotating bodies slides in an inclined direction with respect to the base according to the difference. Even if the number of articles to be stored in the bucket varies between the article receiving position and the article delivery position of the loop, it is automatically absorbed by the slide of the slide body.

  Further, in this article alignment supply device, the base has a discharge hole connected to the carry-out chute corresponding to the article delivery position, and the bucket traveling on the carry-out side travel path is formed in the discharge hole. When aligned, the article stored in the bucket can be transferred from the bucket to the carry-out chute through the discharge hole. According to this article alignment and supply apparatus, what is formed on the base is only a discharge hole through which articles pass, and the structure can be extremely simplified together with the carry-out chute. Also, the articles in the bucket are delivered to the carry-out chute through the discharge hole when the bucket is aligned with the discharge hole. When the bucket travels on the carry-out side travel path, the article accommodated in the bucket slides on the inclined surface of the base so that the article can be delivered through the discharge hole. By devising, when traveling on a travel path other than the carry-out side travel path, it is possible to avoid as much as possible that the article avoids direct sliding contact with the inclined surfaces of the base and the slide body.

Further, in this article alignment supply device, in order to counter the falling force in the downward direction that acts on the slide body, an air cylinder that applies an upward air force to the slide body, and the pressure in the air cylinder is precisely controlled. And a precision regulator.
It is conceivable to use a spring to counter the downward falling force acting on the slide body, but since the restoring force of the spring fluctuates with its extension, the upward direction of the slope acting on the slide body by the spring The power of fluctuates depending on the position of the slide body in the up / down direction. Due to the fluctuation of the spring force, the net output by the servo motor that is applied to the endless belt to raise and lower the slide body along the inclination varies depending on the position of the slide body in the up-and-down direction. The situation is not good. Regardless of the position of the slide body in the up-and-down direction, that is, the piston position of the air cylinder, the pressure of the air cylinder that applies the upward air force to the slide body is always precisely controlled by the precision regulator, so that the servo loop device The operation of the slide body can always be accurately controlled.

Furthermore, in this article alignment and supply apparatus, the article may be a thin plate-like food such as rice cracker. The conveyor, chute, and bucket are all easy to handle thin plate-like articles and are suitable for aligning and feeding. Further, the processing step in the next stage can be a packaging step by a horizontal bag making filling and packaging machine for packaging the food . The horizontal bag making filling and packaging machine forms a belt-like packaging film into a cylindrical shape by a cylinder making machine, forms it into a cylindrical packaging film with a center sealer, and places the article in a cylindrical packaging film that is fed in the horizontal direction. A packaging machine that continuously manufactures a bag package that contains and packs an article inside by sealing the cylindrical packaging film on both sides in the front-rear direction of the article by feeding and an end sealer, and may be a well-known machine .

The article aligning and supplying apparatus according to the present invention is configured as described above, and when aligning the incoming articles at regular intervals, the articles received by the input chute from the carry-in conveyor are arranged between the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor. A servo loop device is provided that accommodates and conveys and delivers the article to the carry-out chute in order to carry it out to the carry-out conveyor at regular intervals. Even when an article is randomly loaded, the servo loop device can receive the article at random timing. Therefore, the servo loop device itself does not have a special structure for receiving an article to the servo loop device and delivering an article from the servo loop device, and each of the articles can be received and accommodated in an upright or inclined state. The structure is simple because only a plurality of buckets are provided. Also, there is no need for a special device with a drive source such as a posture changing device or a transfer mechanism when receiving and delivering the article to the servo loop device, and driving using the gravity that acts on the article such as a loading chute and a carrying chute. A simple structure that does not require a source is adopted. The input of the article into the bucket of the servo loop device and the discharge of the article from the bucket can be performed by a chute having such a simple structure. The entire article alignment and supply device can be manufactured inexpensively with a small number of parts for the servo loop device and its peripheral devices, which are the main components, and the operation and maintenance costs can be minimized. it can.
In addition, since the servo loop device is disposed so as to be inclined in the vertical direction with respect to the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor, the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor are the installation space of the device, the arrangement relationship with other devices, and the work. Because it is easy to operate, it can be arranged so that there is no big difference in transport height, and gravity is used for connection from the carry-in conveyor to the servo loop device and from the servo loop device to the carry-out conveyor. It becomes easier to use a chute that does not require a drive source.
Further, since the receiving and delivery directions of the articles in the servo loop device follow the bucket receiving height direction, the articles can be smoothly received from the charging chute into the bucket while maintaining almost the posture. Moreover, since the delivery direction of the article to the carry-out chute follows the bucket height direction, the article can be smoothly delivered from the bucket to the carry-out chute with almost no change in posture.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of an article alignment and supply apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a top view of the article alignment and supply apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a top view of a servo loop device used in the article alignment and supply apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the servo loop device shown in FIG. 3 cut along line AA. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the arrangement of packets used in the article alignment and supply apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 6 is a side view showing an example of a support structure of a slide body of a servo loop device used in the article alignment and supply apparatus shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 7 is a side view showing another embodiment of the article alignment and supply apparatus according to the present invention.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an article alignment and supply apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of an article alignment and supply apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a top view thereof.

  The article alignment and supply apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a carry-in conveyor 2 arranged on the carry-in side, a carry-out conveyor 3 arranged on the carry-out side, and a gap between the carry-in conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3. The servo loop device 4 is provided. The carry-in conveyor 2 discharges a thin plate-like article P (hereinafter referred to as “article P”), which is a food product such as rice cracker, which is an upstream process, from the production apparatus or from the accumulation apparatus. For example, the sheet is conveyed randomly, that is, in a state where the intervals in the feeding direction are not uniform. The servo loop device 4 serves to carry out the articles P that are conveyed at random onto the carry-out conveyor 3 in an aligned state at regular intervals.

  The servo loop device 4 includes a plurality of buckets 5 each capable of receiving an article P conveyed from the carry-in conveyor 2. The article P received in the bucket 5 is transported along the loop in the accommodated state in the bucket 5. The articles P conveyed in the bucket 5 in the accommodated state are sequentially carried out from the bucket 5 to the carry-out conveyor 4 so as to have a predetermined interval when being carried by the carry-out conveyor 4.

  The servo loop device 4 is disposed so as to be inclined in the vertical direction with respect to the carry-in conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3. That is, the carry-in conveyor 2 is arranged at a higher position than the carry-out conveyor 3, but the servo loop device 4 has an end on the carry-in conveyor 2 side as shown in FIG. It is disposed at a position lower than the carry-in conveyor 2 and inclined in the vertical direction so that the end on the carry-out conveyor 3 side is placed at a position higher than the carry-out conveyor 3. The conveyance loop of the article P in the servo loop device 4 is a loop portion that carries the article P carried in from the carry-in conveyor 2 to the carry-out conveyor 3 through a path closer to the upper side of the inclination. As shown in FIG. 2, which is a top view, the carry-in conveyor 2 is arranged along the inclined upward path of the servo loop device 4, and the carry-out conveyor 3 is arranged along the inclined downward path of the servo loop device 4. The conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3 are arranged offset in the lateral direction.

  Between the carry-in conveyor 2 and the servo loop device 4, an input chute 7 for delivering the article P conveyed by the carry-in conveyor 2 to the bucket 5 arriving at the article receiving position 6 of the servo loop device 4 is arranged. Has been. Further, between the servo loop device 4 and the carry-out conveyor 3, a carry-out chute for delivering the article P accommodated in the bucket 5 of the servo loop device 4 and conveyed to the article delivery position 8 to the carry-out conveyor 3. 9 is disposed.

  Therefore, according to the article alignment supply device 1, when the articles P are randomly conveyed by the carry-in conveyor 2, the articles P reach the bucket 5 that has arrived at the article receiving position 6 of the servo loop device 4 by the input chute 7. By being thrown in, it is received in the bucket 5. In the servo loop device 4, the article P is conveyed in the bucket 5 along the loop portion while being accommodated. Then, the article P conveyed to the article delivery position 8 while being accommodated in the bucket 5 is delivered from the bucket 5 to the carry-out chute 9 and is carried out to the carry-out conveyor 3 through the carry-out chute 9. Driving the servo loop device 4 requires a drive source (servo motor, which will be described later). Gravity is used for both receiving the article P from the input chute 7 and delivering it to the carry-out chute 9 in the servo loop device 4. It is charging / unloading by a chute and is not performed by a device having a special drive mechanism. Therefore, the receipt and delivery of the article P in the servo loop device 4 can be performed with a simple structure and energy saving that does not require a drive source.

  In the article alignment and supply device 1, the servo loop device 4 is fixed to the machine frame and tilted in the vertical direction, as shown in detail in FIGS. And a slide body 11 which is placed so as to be inclined in the vertical direction and is slidable with respect to the base 10 in the upward and downward directions. The base 10 includes inclined surfaces 12 and 12 extending in the inclination direction on the left and right sides with respect to the inclination direction. The inclined surfaces 12, 12 are surfaces that are placed in a common surface that is flush with each other. The slide body 11 also has inclined surfaces 13 and 13 that are connected to the left and right inclined surfaces 12 and 12 on the both ends in the inclination direction, respectively. A rail 15 extending in the inclined direction is attached to the base 10 at the recess bottom of the recess 14 formed between the left and right inclined surfaces 12 and 12. Further, the slide body 11 includes a slide member 16 that is fitted to the rail 15 and is slidable in a direction in which the rail 15 extends. Accordingly, the slide body 11 can slide in the tilt direction with respect to the base 10. The inclined surfaces 12 and 12 of the base 10 and the inclined surfaces 13 and 13 of the slide body 11 define a conveying surface of the servo loop device 4.

  The servo loop device 4 includes two rotating bodies 17 and 18 that are spaced from the slide body 11 in the upward and downward directions and are rotatably supported. The rotators 17 and 18 are rotatable in a plane parallel to the inclined surfaces 12 and 13. An endless belt 19 is wound around the rotating bodies 17 and 18 to form a loop. A plurality of buckets 5 are attached to the endless belt 19 at equal intervals along the loop. Each bucket 5 can move along the inclined surfaces 12 and 13 directly above the inclined surfaces 12 and 13 of the base 10 and the slide body 11. In this embodiment, the rotators 17 and 18 and the endless belt 19 are two sprockets and a chain that meshes with and engages with the sprockets, and by this meshing, reliable position control without slipping of each bucket 5 is possible. I have to. The base 10 and the slide body 11 can be appropriately divided in consideration of the article P being a food, and can be removed from the machine frame for hygiene such as cleaning, cleaning, and disinfection. You can also take action. It is also possible to use a toothed timing belt / timing pulley instead of the chain / sprocket.

  The endless belt 19 has two winding travel paths 20 and 21 wound around the two rotary bodies 17 and 18 and a straight carry-in side travel path 22 that connects the both winding travel paths 20 and 21 and unloading. A circulating loop including the side travel path 23 is formed. The carry-in side travel path 22 is in the upward slope path of the servo loop device 4, and the carry-out side travel path 23 is in the downward slope path of the servo loop device 4. Rotating bodies (sprockets) 26 and 27 engaged with and engaged with the endless belt 19 are disposed on the outer side of the carry-in side travel path 22 and the carry-out side travel path 23 of the endless belt 19, and servomotors 24 and 25, respectively. Driven by. The rotating bodies 26 and 27 can be driven independently by the output control of the servo motors 24 and 25, respectively. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the rotating bodies 26 and 27 are disposed in recesses 28 and 29 formed in the base 10.

  When the servo control is performed so that the outputs of the servo motors 24 and 25 become the same, the rotation amounts of the rotating bodies 26 and 27 become the same, the endless belt 19 travels according to the rotation amounts, and the bucket 5 moves. As the bucket 5 moves along the loop, the article P accommodated in the bucket 5 is conveyed. When the servo control is performed so that the outputs of the servo motors 24 and 25 are different, the slide body 11 moves in the inclination direction according to the difference in the rotation amount because the rail 15 and the slide member 16 are in sliding engagement. To do. The movement amount of the slide body 11 corresponds to half the travel amount of the endless belt 19 corresponding to the difference in the rotation amount. Receipt of the article P that randomly arrives from the input chute 7 into the bucket 5 is performed at the article receiving position in the carry-in traveling path 22, and delivery of the article from the bucket 5 to the carry-out chute 9 occurs in the carry-out traveling path 23. This is done at the article delivery position.

According to the servo loop device 4 of the article alignment and supply device 1, the two servomotors 24 and 25 servo the travel of the endless belt 19 on the carry-in side travel path 22 and the travel of the endless belt 19 on the carry-out side travel path 23. I have control. Randomly arrived articles P are detected by a sensor, and the servo motor 24 is controlled based on the detected information, whereby the travel of the endless belt 19 on the carry-in travel path 22 is controlled via the output of the rotating body 26. . Thereby, the timing control for receiving the article P that arrives at random in the bucket 5 at the article receiving position is performed. Further, by controlling the servo motor 25, the travel of the endless belt 19 on the carry-out side travel path 23 is controlled via the output of the rotating body 27. Thereby, timing control for delivering the article P from the bucket 5 to the carry-out chute 9 at regular intervals at the article delivery position is performed. By both control of the servo motors 24 and 25, the bucket 5 advances as the endless belt 19 travels, and the article P accommodated in the bucket is conveyed. If there is a difference between the travel amount of the endless belt 19 on the carry-in side travel path 22 and the travel amount of the endless belt 19 on the carry-out side travel path 23, the slide body 11 moves to receive the article P (article The number of buckets 5 existing between the bucket 5 occupying the receiving position 6 ) and the bucket 5 occupying the position where the article P is delivered (article delivery position 8 ), that is, the amount of the article P stored in the loop, The fluctuation in the number of articles P can be absorbed.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the bucket 5 is a cylindrical body having a generally rectangular long cross section that is open at the top and bottom. Each bucket 5 is attached to an attachment pin 30 erected on the endless band 19 on one short side of the long square, and the long side of the long square extends toward the lateral outer side of the endless band 19. About the attachment pin 30, the pin used for a chain can be provided in the aspect extended in the axial direction. The thin plate-like article P is accommodated in the bucket 5 so that the surface direction of the plate is along the long side of the quadrangle and the plate thickness direction is along the short side of the quadrangle. That is, the thin plate-like article P is accommodated in a standing state or an inclined state in the bucket 5, and is conveyed in a dense state according to the number of buckets 5. Since the servo loop device 4 is inclined, the article P is conveyed in an inclined state where it is trapped on the inner wall surface on the long side while traveling on the carry-in traveling paths 22 and 23.

  In the article alignment and supply device 1, the servo loop device 4 is inclined, and the degree of the inclination is the direction in which the article P is received from the charging chute 7 (that is, the loading direction of the article P by the charging chute 7; B) and the delivery direction of the article P to the carry-out chute 9 (that is, the carry-out direction of the article P by the carry-out chute 9; indicated by C in FIG. 1) follows the accommodation height direction of the bucket 5. It has become. The accommodation height direction of the bucket 5 is the vertical direction in which the opening is opened, and is indicated by D in FIG. By setting the inclination of the servo loop device 4 and the height direction of the bucket 5 as described above, the article P is smoothly received from the charging chute 7 into the bucket 5 while maintaining almost the posture. Further, regarding the delivery of the article P from the bucket 5 to the carry-out chute 9, the article P is smoothly delivered from the bucket 5 to the carry-out chute 9 with almost no change in posture.

  As shown in FIG. 2, in the article alignment and supply device 1, the loading direction B of the article P into the servo loop device 4 by the loading chute 7 and the traveling direction E of the bucket 5 at the article receiving position 6 of the servo loop device 4 are The horizontal direction follows the forward direction without shaking in the horizontal direction. Before and after the receipt of the article P by the bucket 5, the movement of the article P is the same in the horizontal direction, and the impact on the article P and the damage caused thereby are reduced, so that the bucket 5 is smoothly received. In addition, the traveling direction E of the bucket 5 at the article receiving position 6 of the servo loop device 4 is an ascending direction, and the carry-in conveyor 2 and the input chute 7 are arranged using the space above the servo loop device 4. The servo loop device 4 can easily carry the article and check the carrying state. In this embodiment, the carry-in direction F of the article P by the carry-in conveyor 2 is also a direction that follows the forward direction without swinging in the lateral direction with respect to the feed-in direction B of the article by the input chute 7. The arrangement of the carry-in conveyor 2, the loading chute 7 and the servo loop device 4 is simple and space-saving, and the movement of the article P follows the same horizontal movement, so the degree of impact on the article P Can be further reduced.

The traveling direction G of the bucket 5 at the article delivery position 8 of the servo loop device 4 and the delivery direction C of the article P from the bucket 5 to the carry-out chute 9 of the servo loop device 4 do not swing horizontally in the horizontal direction. It follows the reverse direction. Even before and after the delivery of the article from the servo loop device 4 to the carry-out chute 9, even if the movement of the article P is in the reverse forward direction, the impact of the article P in the lateral direction and the damage caused thereby are small and smooth. Delivery can be performed. Further, since the traveling direction G of the bucket 5 at the article delivery position 8 of the servo loop device 4 is an inclined downward direction, the carry-out chute 9 and the carry-out conveyor 3 are arranged using the space below the servo loop device 4. be able to. In this embodiment, the unloading direction H of the article P by the unloading conveyor 3 is also a direction that follows the forward direction without swinging laterally with respect to the unloading direction C of the article P by the unloading chute 9. Since the arrangement of the servo loop device 4, the carry-out chute 9 and the carry-out conveyor 3 is simple and space-saving, and the movement of the article P is also aligned linearly in the horizontal direction, The degree of direction impact can be reduced.

  As shown by a broken line in FIG. 1, the base 10 has a discharge hole 31 connected to the carry-out chute 9 corresponding to the article delivery position 8 placed on the carry-out side travel path 23. When the bucket 5 traveling on the carry-out side running path 23 is aligned with the discharge hole 31, the article P stored in the bucket 5 is delivered to the carry-out chute 9 through the discharge hole 31. Corresponding to the article delivery position 8, the base 10 only needs to be formed with a discharge hole 31 through which the article P passes, and the structure of the base 10 is extremely simple. When the bucket 5 is simply formed in a cylindrical body, the article P accommodated in the bucket 5 is moved to the inclined surface 12 of the base 10 when traveling on the traveling paths 20, 21, 22, 23. 13 is in sliding contact. The shape of the bucket 5, particularly the bottom structure, when traveling on a travel path other than the carry-out travel path 23 by, for example, forming a bottom part on the rear side in the traveling direction, It is possible to avoid as much as possible that P is in direct sliding contact with the inclined surfaces 12 and 13 of the base 10 and the slide body 11.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of a support structure of the slide body 11 of the servo loop device 4 used in the article alignment supply device 1. Since the slide body 11 is slidably supported by the base 10, the slide assembly 35 including the rotary bodies 17 and 18 and the endless belt 19 and the slide body 11 (including the mounting pin 30 and the slide member 16) for supporting them. In addition, a drop force in the downward direction of the slope acts in proportion to the total weight. In order to counter such a drop force, an air cylinder 40 is provided between the base 10 and the slide body 11 to apply an air force in a direction in which the slide assembly 35 is pulled upward. By providing the air cylinder 40, the output required for the servo motors 24 and 25 can be made low. In this example, the cylinder part 41 is attached to the rail 15, and the piston part 42 that slides in the cylinder part 41 is attached to the slide body 11. In order to precisely control the pressure in the air cylinder 40 to a constant pressure, a precision regulator 43 is connected to the air cylinder 40 through an air pipe 44.

  In order to counter the downward falling force acting on the slide body 11, it is conceivable to use a spring as a mechanical means. However, since the restoring force of the spring fluctuates along with its extension, the force that lifts the slide body 11 in the upward direction by the spring fluctuates depending on the position of the slide body 11 in the up-and-down direction. When the spring force fluctuates in this way, the force for moving the slide assembly 35 up and down along the inclination is the sum of the spring force and the output from the servo motors 24 and 25 applied to the endless belt 19, so that the fluctuation of the spring force is reduced. If the outputs from the servo motors 24 and 25 are not controlled so as to compensate, it will fluctuate according to the position of the slide body 11 in the up-and-down direction, which is not preferable in terms of slide control of the slide assembly 35. Therefore, the precision of the pressure of the air cylinder 40 that applies an upwardly inclined air force to the slide assembly 35 is always precisely controlled by the precision regulator 43 regardless of the piston position of the cylinder portion 41. Accordingly, the operation of the slide assembly 35 of the servo loop device 4, that is, the position of the bucket 5 at the article receiving position 6 and the article delivery position 8 is always accurately controlled regardless of the position of the slide assembly 35 in the vertical direction. be able to.

  In the article alignment and supply apparatus 1, the article P to be processed is a thin plate-like food such as rice cracker. The carry-in and carry-out conveyors 2 and 3, the input and carry-out chutes 7 and 9, and the bucket 5 all have a structure that allows easy handling of the thin plate-like article P, and are suitable for aligning and feeding. The next processing step of the article alignment and supply apparatus 1 is, for example, a packaging step by a horizontal bag making and packaging machine for bag-wrapping rice crackers. The horizontal bag filling and packaging machine is not particularly shown, but may be a well-known machine. The belt-shaped packaging film is formed into a cylindrical shape by a cylinder making machine, and both side edges are heat-sealed by a center sealer to form a cylindrical shape. The article P is molded into a packaging film, the article P is fed into a cylindrical packaging film that is fed in the lateral direction, and the cylindrical packaging film is sealed in the transverse direction on both sides in the front-rear direction of the article P by an end sealer. This is a packaging machine for continuously producing a bag package housed and packaged inside.

  FIG. 7 shows a side view of another embodiment of the article alignment and supply apparatus according to the present invention. In the article alignment and supply apparatus 50 shown in FIG. 7, the same reference numerals and names are used for the same elements as those constituting the article alignment and supply apparatus 1 according to the present invention shown in FIG. The detailed explanation is omitted. When there may be a large difference in height between the transport surfaces of the carry-in conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3, the article alignment supply device 50 places the transport surface of the carry-in conveyor 2 at a position higher than the transport surface of the carry-out conveyor 3. The conveying surface of the servo loop device 4 is arranged in the middle of the height direction and parallel to the carry-in conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3, that is, horizontally. A connection chute 7 is used for connection from the carry-in conveyor 2 to the servo loop device 4, i.e., transfer of the article P to the servo loop device 4, and connection from the servo loop device 4 to the carry-out conveyor 3, i.e., the article P. The unloading chute 9 is used for transfer to the unloading conveyor 3, and in any case, a chute that does not require a drive source by using gravity is used.

  As described above, according to the article alignment and supply device 1, even when the articles P are randomly loaded, the articles are arranged between the carry-in conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3 in order to align the articles at a constant interval. A servo loop device 4 is provided. The servo loop device 4 receives the article P from the carry-in conveyor 2 by the loading chute 7, accommodates and conveys the received article P in an upright or inclined state, and carries the article out to the carry-out conveyor 3 at a predetermined interval. Pass to 9. The servo loop device 4 itself does not have a special structure, but includes a plurality of buckets 5 that each receive the article P and can be accommodated in an upright or inclined state, and has a simple structure. Further, when receiving and delivering the article to the servo loop device 4, it does not require a special device with a drive source such as a posture changing device or a transfer mechanism, and acts on the article P such as the input chute 7 and the carry-out chute 9. With a simple structure that does not require a driving source using gravity, the articles P can be loaded into the bucket 5 of the servo loop device 4 and the articles P can be discharged from the bucket 5. The article aligning and supplying apparatus 1 as a whole can be manufactured at a low cost with a small number of parts, has a low operating cost and a minimal maintenance cost, and the articles P are evenly carried in at random. Even if it exists, it is very useful as an apparatus which aligns the said article | item P at a fixed space | interval. The servo loop device 4 may be arranged to be inclined in the vertical direction with respect to the carry-in conveyor 2 and the carry-out conveyor 3, or when the carry-in conveyor 2 is placed at a position higher than the carry-out conveyor 3. May be arranged horizontally in the height direction and horizontally.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,50 Article arrangement supply apparatus 2 Carry-in conveyor 3 Carry-out conveyor 4 Servo loop apparatus 5 Bucket 6 Article receiving position 7 Loading chute 8 Article delivery position 9 Unloading chute 10 Base 11 Slide body 12, 13 Inclined surface 14 Recessed part 15 Rail 16 Slide member 17, 18 Rotating body 19 Endless belt 20, 21 Winding traveling path 22 Loading side traveling path 23 Unloading side traveling path 24, 25 Servo motors 26, 27 Rotating bodies 28, 29 Recess 30 Mounting pin 31 Discharge hole 35 Slide assembly 40 Air cylinder 41 Cylinder part 42 Piston part 43 Precision regulator 44 Air piping P Article A-A Section B Direction of introduction of article P by introduction chute 7 Direction of delivery of article P by delivery chute 9 Direction of accommodation height of bucket 5 E Article Traveling direction of the bucket 5 at the receiving position 6 Out direction of the article P by the running direction H output conveyor 3 of the bucket 5 in the loading direction G article delivery position 8 of the article P by input conveyor 2

Claims (6)

A carry-in conveyor that is arranged on the carry-in side and conveys articles;
An unloading conveyor disposed on the unloading side for conveying the article, and an unloading conveyor disposed between the unloading conveyor and the unloading conveyor, each receiving the articles conveyed from the unloading conveyor and A plurality of buckets capable of accommodating articles in an upright or inclined state are provided, and the articles received in the bucket are conveyed along the loop in the accommodated state in the bucket, and are accommodated and conveyed in the bucket. A servo loop device is provided that enables the articles to be aligned at regular intervals and carried out to the carry-out conveyor,
Between the carry-in conveyor and the servo loop device, an input chute for delivering the article conveyed by the carry-in conveyor in an upright or inclined state to the bucket that has arrived at the article receiving position of the servo loop device Is arranged,
Between the servo loop device and the carry-out conveyor, the article that is housed in an upright or inclined state in the bucket of the servo loop device and is conveyed to the article delivery position is carried out to the carry-out conveyor. A carry-out chute is arranged ,
The servo loop device is disposed to be inclined in the vertical direction with respect to the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor,
The inclination of the servo loop device causes the receiving direction of the article by the charging chute and the delivery direction of the article to the unloading chute to follow the accommodation height direction of the bucket. Article alignment and supply device. The traveling direction of the bucket at the article receiving position of the servo loop device is an ascending direction, and the traveling direction of the bucket at the article delivery position of the servo loop device is an inclined downward direction. The article alignment supply apparatus according to claim 1. The input conveyor and the output conveyor is arranged horizontally, the input conveyor is an article aligning and supplying apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in Tei Rukoto disposed at a position higher than the output conveyor. The servo loop device is
Bases each provided with an inclined surface arranged in a vertical direction and parallel to each other on the left and right sides and placed in a common plane.
A slide body arranged so as to be slidable in the direction of elevation of the base between the two inclined surfaces;
Two rotating bodies that are spaced apart from the slide body in the inclined up-and-down direction and are rotatably supported and arranged in a plane parallel to the inclined surface;
The loop is formed by including two winding travel paths wound around the two rotating bodies and a carry-in travel path and a carry-out travel path that connect the both travel travel paths, and the bucket includes the bucket An endless belt that is mounted side by side along the loop so as to be movable along the inclined surface of the base, and is disposed in the carry-in side travel path and the carry-out side travel path, respectively. Timing of receiving the article to the bucket and delivering the article from the bucket to the carry-out conveyor by independently controlling the running of the endless belt and the running of the endless belt of the carry-out side travel path The article alignment supply apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising two servo motors for controlling the servomotor. The base has a discharge hole connected to the carry-out chute corresponding to the article delivery position,
When the bucket traveling on the carry-out side travel path is aligned with the discharge hole, the article housed in the bucket is transferred from the bucket to the carry-out chute through the discharge hole,
Further, in order to counter the falling force in the downward direction acting on the slide body, an air cylinder that applies an air force upward to the slide body and a precision regulator that precisely controls the pressure in the air cylinder are provided. The article alignment supply device according to claim 4, wherein 2. The article according to claim 1, wherein the article is a thin plate-like food such as rice cracker, and the next processing step after the article is arranged is a packaging process by a horizontal bag making and packaging machine for packaging the food. The article alignment supply apparatus as described in any one of -5.

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