JP6780977B2 - Cloth thrower - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a cloth throwing machine. More specifically, when washing and ironing washed sheets and wrapping cloth (bag-shaped items such as two-piece cloth duvet cover), pillowcases, towels, tablecloths, clothing, etc. A cloth unfolding device is used to unfold the cloth into a square shape and supply it to a next process device such as a press or a folding machine. Then, a cloth loading machine is used to load the washed cloth into the cloth deploying device or the like. The present invention relates to such a cloth throwing machine.

A large amount of sheets are used in hotels and hospitals, and the used sheets are generally washed and ironed in laundry factories and then used again in hotels and hospitals.
In a laundry factory, quadrangular cloths such as sheets having a relatively large size are washed and then pressed by a press or folded by a folding machine. In order to supply the cloth to those processing devices, it is necessary to expand the cloth into a quadrangle in advance.
When a worker performs the work of unfolding the cloth in a quadrangle, a large amount of time and labor is required for the work. Therefore, in recent years, the work is performed by an unfolding device that automatically performs this work. In addition, the washed cloth must be loaded into this deploying device first, but the loading is also mechanized and the loading machine is used.

The basic configuration of the conventional deploying device and the throwing machine described in Patent Document 1 is roughly configured as follows.
In FIG. 5, reference numeral 80 denotes a cloth throwing machine for sheets and the like, which is provided at both left and right ends of the deploying device. When the worker grabs the sheets Y on the hanger 81 of the cloth throwing machine 80, the hanger 81 once rises to the uppermost end, moves a little to the back side, and when it descends a little again, the traverse chuck 20R of the deploying device, Hand over the sheets Y to 20L. Then, one side of the cloth is grasped by the traverse chuck 20R or 20L and dragged onto the belt conveyor 10, and the belt conveyor 10 is driven forward to hang the cloth on the front surface of the apparatus, and another extension chuck 40R, Grasp both ends of the cloth in the width direction with 40L and pull to hang it. In this way, the cloth is pulled into the device and discharged in a quadrangular state and sent to a press or the like.

Chuck 82s are attached to both ends of the hanger 81. This conventional chuck 82 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.
The chuck 82 includes a chuck main body 83 and a claw piece 84. The chuck body 83 includes a lower projecting piece 85 and an upper projecting piece 86 so as to form a recess that is recessed in the lateral direction. A claw piece 84 is rotatably supported by a pin 87 on the upper projecting piece 86, and a spring 88 is stretched between the upper portion of the claw piece 84 and the chuck body 83.

The lower projecting piece 85 and the upper projecting piece 86 have the same width and the same length. As shown in FIG. 6, when the claw piece 84 is pulled up by the spring 88, the lower end portion of the claw piece 84 hits the surface of the lower projecting piece 85, so that sheets or the like can be sandwiched between them.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, there are the following problems.
As shown in FIG. 7, when the worker hooks the sheets on the chuck 82, he / she looks down at the chuck 82 from diagonally above (about 45 °), and the tip and the lower protrusion of the upper protrusion 86 orthogonal to this line of sight. Since the distance w between the tip and the tip of the 85 is narrow, the lower projecting piece 85, which is a member that supports the sheets from below, is not clearly visible by the upper projecting piece 86. In this case, an operation error that the sheets cannot be properly inserted into the upper surface of the lower projecting piece 85 is likely to occur. This problem is easy to avoid if you are skilled, but it is still not perfect and has been an obstacle to improving work efficiency.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-106893

In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a cloth throwing machine capable of greatly reducing gripping errors of cloth such as sheets. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cloth throwing machine capable of improving the efficiency of gripping operation.

The cloth throwing machine of the first invention is a throwing machine for gripping and suspending cloth and then delivering it to another device, and includes a chuck for gripping the edge of the cloth. A lower projecting piece and an upper projecting piece are formed on the lower surface and the upper surface of the recess into which the edge of the cloth is inserted, and the claw opens and closes in the recess. The lower projecting piece has the lower projecting piece. It is characterized by having a guide piece having a width wider than that of the lower projecting piece and extending forward from the tip of the lower projecting piece.
The cloth throwing machine of the second invention is characterized in that, in the first invention, the chuck includes a spring that constantly urges the claw in the closing direction and a claw opening / closing cylinder that operates the claw in the opening direction. To do.
In the second invention, the cloth throwing machine of the third invention contracts the claw opening / closing cylinder based on the sensor that detects that the cloth piece is inserted into the recess in the chuck and the detection signal from the sensor. It is characterized by having a control circuit incorporating a sensor to operate.

According to the first invention, when a worker stands in front of the chuck and looks down from diagonally above, the lower projecting piece is obstructed by the upper projecting piece and cannot be clearly seen, but there is a guide piece larger than the lower projecting piece. , You can use it as a guide to find out where the lower projectiles are. Therefore, since the cloth can be gripped, the operation of inserting the cloth into the chuck can be easily and surely performed, and the productivity is improved.
According to the second invention, in addition to the claw closing operation in the catch being performed by the spring, the claw opening operation is performed by the claw opening / closing cylinder, so that no manual operation for the opening operation is required, and the work efficiency is improved. To do.
According to the third invention, when the worker inserts the claw into the recess of the catch, the claw opening / closing cylinder operates by the drive signal from the sensor that detects the insertion to close the claw. Since the claw closing operation is automatically performed in this way, the cloth piece can be gripped efficiently.

It is the drawing of the chuck A in the cloth throwing apparatus which concerns on this invention, (A) is a side view, (B) is a plan view, (C) is a front view. It is an operation explanatory view of the chuck A shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the gripping mechanism of a chuck A. It is explanatory drawing of the gripping operation of a chuck A. It is a front view of the cloth deploying apparatus and the cloth loading machine which concerns on a prior art example and this invention. It is a structure explanatory drawing of the conventional catch. It is explanatory drawing of the problem of the prior art.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The cloth unfolding device to which the throwing machine of the present invention is applied is a device for unfolding cloth Y having various shapes and forms that have been washed and supplying it to another device in the next process such as an ironer. Then, it is the loading machine that loads the freshly washed cloth into this deploying device. The "separate device" in the claims corresponds to the next process device such as an ironer.
In the present specification, the front-back, left-right, and up-down directions of the cloth unfolding device A are defined as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7.

Since the basic configuration of the cloth deploying device shown in FIG. 5 is inherited in the present invention, the basic configuration will be described again with reference to FIG. The cloth unfolding device shown in the figure receives the cloth Y such as sheets loaded from the cloth throwing machine, unfolds the entire cloth Y in a square shape, and removes the wrinkles of the unfolded cloth Y. It is a device that performs a discharge operation for delivering the cloth Y after removing the wrinkles to the next process device.

Among the basic configurations of the cloth deploying device A in the present embodiment, those similar to those in the prior art have the same reference numerals to the same members, and the reference numerals are given below.
10: Loading platform 11: Loading conveyor
20L, 20R: Traverse chuck

As shown in FIG. 5, the loading platform 10 is a platform for transferring the cloth Y forward after taking in the cloth Y from the loading machine, and is composed of the loading conveyor 11. The loading conveyor 11 is composed of a plurality of belts, and the cloth Y can be forwarded by these belts. The loading platform 10 is longer than the long side of the cloth Y to be processed.

In the deploying device A of the present embodiment, the cloth Y is supplied from the side shown in FIG. The cloth Y may be supplied from both the left and right sides, or either the left or right side. The present invention is characterized by a cloth throwing machine attached to this deploying device.

Next, the characteristic portion of the cloth throwing machine will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, and the characteristic portion is on the chuck 2 attached to the hanger 81.
The chuck 2 includes a chuck body 3 and a claw piece 4. The chuck main body 3 is a side view U-shaped block body in which a recess 3h recessed from the front to the back is formed, and is composed of a base portion 3a, a lower projecting piece 3b, and an upper projecting piece 3c. A pin 7 is passed through the tip of the upper projecting piece 3c, and a substantially intermediate portion of the claw piece 4 is rotatably supported by this pin. Further, a spring 8 is stretched between the upper portion of the claw piece 4 and the chuck body 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the claw piece 4 is pulled up by the spring 8, the lower end of the claw piece 4 hits the surface of the lower projecting piece 5, so a cloth Y such as a sheet is sandwiched between them. Can be done.

A guide piece 9 is attached to the lower surface of the lower projecting piece 3b. The shape of the guide piece 9 is arbitrary, but in the illustrated embodiment, it has a U-shaped cross section with standing walls rising on both sides, and the standing walls on both sides are attached with the lower projecting piece 3b sandwiched between them. Further, attachment to the chuck main body 3 including the lower protrusion piece 3b of the guide piece 9 is optional, and means such as screwing and adhesion can be adopted without particular limitation.

The guide piece 9 has a width wider than that of the lower projecting piece 3b and a length that is longer than that of the lower projecting piece 3b and projects forward.
For example, the total width is about 20 to 40 mm, which is about 2 to 10 mm wider than the lower projecting piece 3b. Further, it protrudes forward by about 2 to 40 mm from the tip of the lower projecting piece 3b.

The height of the upper surface of the tip of the guide piece 9 is slightly higher than the height of the lower projecting piece 3b, for example, about 1 mm. By doing so, if a step is provided, when the cloth Y such as sheets is inserted, it is possible to feel that the cloth such as sheets can be properly inserted as far as it is felt by the hand.

As described above, when the guide piece 9 is large, when the worker stands in front of the chuck 2 and looks down from diagonally above, the distance between the tip of the upper projecting piece 3a and the tip of the guide piece 9 That is, since the frontage W of the recess 3h is widened, the location of the lower protrusion 3b can be easily recognized. For this reason, the work of holding the sheets to the chuck 2 can be easily and surely performed, and the work efficiency is improved.

The chuck 2 shown in FIG. 1 is configured to grip the cloth Y or the like by the elastic force of the spring 8. The nail piece 4 is usually pulled by a spring 8, but when the cloth Y is pushed in by hand, the nail piece 4 is pushed and moved, and the cloth Y enters the depth of the recess 3h, and the nail piece 4 is in that state. The cloth Y can be sandwiched between the bottom end of the cloth and the lower projecting piece 3b.

Next, an automatic opening / closing mechanism that automatically opens / closes the claw piece 4 in the chuck 2 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 3, a claw opening / closing cylinder 5 is attached to the chuck 2. This claw opening / closing cylinder is composed of an air cylinder, and includes a cylinder body 51, a piston rod 52, and a push metal fitting 53. The push metal fitting 53 is attached to the tip of the piston rod 52 via a bolt, and the tip position of the push metal fitting 53 can be adjusted to be long or short. Therefore, the opening amount of the claw 4 can be adjusted.

The expansion and contraction operation of the claw opening / closing cylinder 5 is automated by using a sensor.
For example, if the non-contact sensor (photoelectric sensor or the like) detects that the cloth Y such as sheets is inserted into the recess 13h of the chuck 2, the claw opening / closing cylinder 5 is contracted, and the chuck 2 of the cloth Y is contracted. The claw 4 can be closed in conjunction with the insertion into. The claws may be opened so that the claw opening / closing cylinder 5 is extended by detecting that the chuck 2 has reached the position where the cloth Y is delivered to the next process mechanism by a limit switch or the like.

The automatic control as described above can be performed by using a control circuit that drives the solenoid of the directional control valve incorporated in the air circuit of the claw opening / closing cylinder 5 by the input of the sensor signal.

The chuck 2 can be swung in the front-rear direction (horizontal direction in the drawing) about the support shaft 61 by a rotating cylinder 6 composed of an air cylinder. This is to make it easier to insert the cloth Y with the opening side of the chuck 2 facing the worker, or to make it easier to deliver the cloth Y to the next process mechanism by turning it backward.

FIG. 4A shows a state in which the chuck 2 is open and the cloth Y is about to be inserted. The operator holds the cloth Y in his hand and inserts the edge of the cloth Y toward the openings (recesses 3h) of the pair of left and right chucks 2. At this time, if the guide piece 9 is large, the location of the lower projecting piece 3b can be easily recognized even if the worker's line of sight is looked down from diagonally above, as described above.

FIG. 4B shows a state in which the chuck 2 is closed. As described above, the closing operation of the chuck 2 is linked to the insertion of the cloth Y into the chuck 2 by contracting the claw opening / closing cylinder 5 when the sensor detects that the cloth Y has been inserted into the recess 13h of the chuck 2. The claw 4 can be closed. For this reason, since the claw opening operation in the catch is performed by the claw opening / closing cylinder, the work efficiency is improved by eliminating the need for manual operation for the opening operation.

The above embodiment has been described as being applied to a cloth deploying device for square cloth, but the cloth throwing machine of the present invention is not limited to this, and is used for non-square cloth (yukata, sick clothes, etc.). It can also be applied to a throwing device.
Further, even in the cloth deploying device, the present invention can be applied not only to the deploying device shown in FIG. 5 but also to a throwing machine for a deploying device having a different configuration. Further, the basic configuration of the throwing machine itself is not limited to the one shown in the figure, and the present invention can be applied as long as it uses a chuck.

1 Hanger 2 Chuck 3 Chuck body 3a Base 3b Lower projecting piece 3c Upper projecting piece 4 Claw piece 5 Claw opening / closing cylinder 8 Spring

Claims (3)

It is a throwing machine for grasping and hanging cloth and then handing it over to another device.
Equipped with a chuck that grips the edge of the cloth
The chuck has a structure in which a lower projecting piece and an upper projecting piece are formed on the lower surface and the upper surface of the recess into which the edge of the cloth is inserted, and the claws open and close in the recess.
A cloth throwing machine characterized in that the lower projecting piece has a guide piece that is wider than the lower projecting piece and extends forward from the tip of the lower projecting piece. The chuck
A spring that constantly urges the claw in the closing direction,
The cloth throwing machine according to claim 1, further comprising a claw opening / closing cylinder for operating the claw in the opening direction. It is provided with a sensor for detecting that a cloth piece is inserted into the recess in the chuck and a control circuit incorporating a sensor for contracting the claw opening / closing cylinder based on a detection signal from the sensor. The cloth throwing machine according to claim 2, which is characterized.

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