ES2748905B2 - HIGH PRODUCTIVITY AND SECURITY PALLET LABELING EQUIPMENT - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

HIGH PRODUCTIVITY PALLET LABELING EQUIPMENT AND

SECURITY

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention, as the title of the invention establishes, is a labeling machine or equipment for labeling palletized goods, also known as pallets, which uses a robotic arm to stick labels on previously palletized goods, in which the labels could be previously printed or printed just before their application on the products, that is, it works with both pre-printed labels and printed labels.

The present invention is characterized by the special design of the elements used in the design of the equipment, as well as the joint and combined arrangement in such a way that a high-production and high-productivity equipment is achieved, where, in addition, all consumable replacement operations are carried out. performed in a short time and safely for the operator.

Therefore, the present invention is circumscribed within the scope of the machines in charge of applying the labels on the products, in an operation called labeling, and particularly on palletized goods, that is, grouped on a transport pallet. .

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the labeling process, customers seek to be able to label each and every one of the production units, which can be of different types and sizes, in addition, the production capacity can be variable depending on the products, therefore, must be labeled with printed labels with the necessary information for each type of product and batch.

At present, this type of production is solved with traditional application systems which:

• They are not sufficiently robust and reliable

• The application is carried out by means of unreliable systems with mobile arms applying by means of pneumatically actuated turns.

• Hardly adaptable to customer lines where they must be integrated.

• Current systems require numerous maintenance resources, with high downtime and low productivity. • High consumption of compressed air, which is expensive and requires a continuous supply for its use.

• They are not suitable for high production in 24-hour working conditions.

In the labeling process, downtime or downtime due to changes in consumables (paper, tape), changes in label formats or changes in item formats must be zero. The production line cannot stop, where consumable changes can be quick and easy.

Another important aspect is safety in maintenance operations, especially replacement of consumables, given the importance of downtime in the replacement of consumables, these operations must be carried out with maximum speed, and must be carried out in the safest way possible. .

Also, it happens that the displacement means used in the robotic arms subject the guides to bending forces and vibrations, causing the guides or the arms to end up breaking, as well as the Accuracies achieved in positioning are likely to be improved.

On the other hand, the labeling machines known from the state of the art are limited in terms of the speed of application of the labels by the electromechanical characteristics of the application devices.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks of lack of safety in handling, difficulties in accessing consumables, generation of bending forces and vibrations in guides and robotic arm, in addition to seeking an improvement in the final productivity, consequently developing equipment such as the one described below and is included in its essentiality in the first claim.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is a pallet labeling equipment that has high productivity and safety.

The equipment comprises a structure built in protected, folded and welded steel that provides great weight and rigidity to the equipment. Weight that is necessary to counteract the inertia caused by the rapid movements of the arm.

The structure has a lower part and an upper part. The upper part has a rectangular prismatic shape, where two of its facing lateral faces have security doors for access to the interior where two printing sets are housed, each one consisting of a print head and a printer, each set being impression capable of being able to rotate about a vertical axis, the security doors only open by simultaneously activating two buttons, each pressed with one hand.

Also, inside there is a robotic arm equipped with an applicator and endowed with three degrees of freedom in charge of capturing the labels printed by the printing sets, and that moves along a guide system that allows continuous support. , more stable without being subjected to bending and avoiding vibrations, which results in a more precise application of the labels.

The device can perform a complete cycle with two-sided labeling in 8 seconds (with label preparation and not counting the pallet positioning time that will depend on the customer's line).

The label applicator of the robotic arm has a suction cup that has a sensorized vacuum system as well as a blower to ensure the correct placement of labels on the pallets.

The equipment integrates two barcode readers:

• One at the bottom of the suction plate, which will check that a readable barcode label has been affixed.

• Another in the lower part of the printer at the exit of the labels, which verifies that the barcode is correct before being applied.

In the lower structure of the machine there are two cabinets: one to include a terminal block for external signals and another for different uses (manual desktop printer for pico pallets, UPS...)

With the equipment object of the invention it is achieved:

- A Guiding System in which the arm has a continuous and linear support, which results in better support, greater speed and positioning precision.

- A more ergonomic and safe equipment by limiting access to the machine area with moving parts, increasing the operator's safety.

- A team that facilitates the replacement of consumables (rolls of paper with labels to print, and printer ink) reducing downtime for replacement of consumables.

The equipment has two printing sets so that a second head starts printing when the first one stops. To do this, the servo-motorized arm must be able to fetch the label from the head that has a consumable.

The stop of the first head must occur in an orderly manner so that the second head does not stop labeling any pallet and vice versa.

The conditions by which a head stops and the one applied in the second must be started can be due to:

• Change of consumable

• Head error

• Technical stop.

In order to make an orderly stop, we must anticipate the end of the roll. For this we will have a series of sensors that will detect when the roll is finished and another one to know when the roll has finished.

The head change must also be able to occur on demand by the operator. In this way, the stop must also be ordered, finishing the cycle and starting the next one taking the label from the second head.

Once we have stopped the head, we must reduce the consumable change times as much as possible.

The label roll change can take an experienced operator in the order of 3-4 minutes.

As we can see, this is not the problem that would justify the investment. This system is justified in minimizing consumable search times when it is not available relatively close to the equipment. And also when a failure occurs in the print head.

The proposed guide system seeks to avoid the bending that would appear in double-supported cylindrical guides for linear recirculating ball bearings.

The guidance system uses linear guides and recirculating ball slides supported throughout its base, so the base plate has a high level of flatness, and therefore the starting material of said plate will be rectified ST52 hot-rolled steel.

Unless otherwise indicated, all technical and scientific elements used herein have the meaning ordinarily understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains. Methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein may be used in the practice of the present invention.

Throughout the description and claims the word "comprise" and its variants are not intended to exclude other technical characteristics, additives, components or steps. Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in part from the description and in part from the practice of the invention.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES

To complement the description that is being made and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred example of practical embodiment of the same, accompanies as an integral part of said description, a set of drawings where, by way of illustration and not limitation, the following has been represented.

Figure 1 shows a general representation of the equipment where the main components can be seen.

Figure 2 shows the previous equipment with the robotic arm displaced.

Figures 3 and 4 show details of the machine where barcode readers are located.

Figure 5 shows a detail of one of the sides of the equipment where a print head can be seen together with its printer and some means of turning and blocking the head.

Figure 6 shows the head turning and locking mechanism.

In Figure 7 a printhead is shown along with its rotated printer.

Figure 8 shows the guiding means of the robotic arm.

Figure 9 shows in detail the three degrees of freedom that the robotic arm has.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION.

In view of the figures, a preferred embodiment of the proposed invention is described below.

In Figure 1 we can see that the equipment object of the invention comprises:

- A lower structure (1) that serves as support for the rest of the equipment and for housing the control and actuation means of the equipment.

- An upper structure (2) assembled and attached to the lower structure (1) provided on two of its facing faces with security doors (17) on another of its sides with a control cabinet (7) and on the lateral side opposite that of the control cabinet (7) with an opening for the exit of a robotic arm (8). The upper structure houses inside: o a robotic arm (8) (figure 2) movable along a guide system (6) where the robotic arm (8) is provided with a suction label applicator (5) . o Two printing sets where each one comprises: a printing head (3) where the rolls of labels to be printed are arranged, and a printer (4)

Where the printing sets are rotatable with respect to a vertical axis, emerging from the side walls through the security doors (17).

Figure 2 shows how the robotic arm (8) emerges from one side of the upper structure (2), which is provided at its end with an applicator (5) consisting of a sensorized vacuum system as well as a blower to ensure the correct placement of labels on the pallets.

Figures 3 and 4 show details of the equipment where it is shown that two barcode readers are integrated:

• A first barcode reader (9) at the bottom of the applicator suction plate (5), which will verify that a label with a readable barcode has been placed.

• A second barcode reader (10) placed in the lower part of the printer (4) at the exit of the labels, which verifies that the barcode is correct before being applied.

Figure 5 shows a part of the side of the equipment where the security door is open, and inside there is a first printing assembly formed by a printing head (3), which, as previously mentioned, serves to place the label roll to be printed and pick up the roll without labels, below you can see how the robotic arm (8) is protected by a polycarbonate window (11) that prevents access to the moving parts of the machine, above the head (3) there is a rotation and blocking mechanism (13) of the print head (3), which is shown in more detail in figure 6 and which comprises at least one motor (14) in charge of releasing and performing the rotation of the entire printing assembly (head (3) plus the printer (4)).

In order to improve safety and prevent the access of the hands of an operator to the interior of the moving parts of the equipment, it has safety doors (17) that can only be activated when buttons (12) are pressed simultaneously. they will be far enough apart that both hands must be used.

In figure 7 it can be seen how the printing assembly formed by the print head (3) and the printer (4) rotate with respect to a vertical axis in order to facilitate the replacement of consumables.

Figures 8 and 9 show the guidance system used for the movement of the robotic arm (8) and which comprises an arm guide (15) on which the arm moves and therefore placed under the arm at that offers continuous support throughout its length, then has two parallel side guides (16) through which the ends of the arm guide (15) run.

In Figure 9, in addition to the guide system of the robotic arm (8), the degrees of freedom of the arm (8) can be seen, with the first degree of freedom the movement along the arm guide (15) along the "Y" axis, another degree of freedom is the displacement along the "X" axis by displacement of the arm guide (15) along the guides parallel sides (16) and finally, the third degree of freedom is the “Z” rotation of the applicator (5) with respect to a vertical axis.

Having sufficiently described the nature of the present invention, as well as the way of putting it into practice, it is stated that, within its essentiality, it may be put into practice in other embodiments that differ in detail from the one indicated by way of example. , and to which the protection that is requested will also reach, provided that it does not alter, change or modify its fundamental principle.

Claims (4)

1.- High productivity and safety pallet labeling equipment characterized in that it comprises: • A lower structure (1) that serves as support for the rest of the equipment and houses the control and actuation means of the equipment. • An upper structure (2) assembled and joined to the lower structure (1) provided on two of its opposing faces with security doors (17) on another of its sides with a control cabinet (7) and on the lateral side opposite that of the control cabinet (7) with an opening for the exit of a robotic arm (8). The upper structure houses inside: or a robotic arm (8) movable along a guide system (6) where the robotic arm (8) is provided with a label applicator (5) by suction. o Two printing sets where each one comprises: a printing head (3) where the rolls of labels to be printed are arranged, and a printer (4), where the printing sets are rotatable with respect to a vertical axis projecting through the side walls through the security doors (17), when said doors have been opened by actuation, in order to facilitate the replacement of consumables, where the robotic arm (8) is protected by a polycarbonate window (11) that prevents access to the moving parts of the machine, above the print head (3) there is a turning and locking mechanism (13) of the print head (3) comprising at least one motor (14) in charge of deliberating and turning the entire print assembly (head (3) plus the printer (4)), where the security doors (17) are associated with two buttons (12) that allows the opening of the doors when they are pressed simultaneously that are far enough apart so that both hands must be used. 2. - High productivity and security pallet labeling equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that the equipment comprises two barcode readers: • A first barcode reader (9) at the bottom of the applicator suction plate (5), which will verify that a label with a readable barcode has been placed. • A second barcode reader (10) placed in the lower part of the printer (4) at the exit of the labels, which verifies that the barcode is correct before being applied. 3. - High productivity and safety pallet labeling equipment according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the guidance system used for the movement of the robotic arm (8) comprises an arm guide (15) on which the arm moves and therefore placed under the arm and two parallel side guides (16) along which the ends of the arm guide (15) run. 4. - High productivity and safety pallet labeling equipment according to claim 3, characterized in that the robotic arm (8) has three degrees of freedom of the arm (8), the first degree of freedom being the movement along the guide of the arm (15) along the "Y" axis, another degree of freedom is the displacement along the "X" axis by displacement of the arm guide (15) along the parallel side guides (16) and finally, the third degree of freedom the "Z" rotation of the applicator (5) with respect to a vertical axis.