JP2000043807A - Article casing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an article casing apparatus that is capable of executing certainly works for picking up and casing of articles and widely usable, being accommodative to various arrangement patterns. SOLUTION: For an article casing apparatus wherewith a plurality of articles F pooled in one line on a storing device are picked up by a movement body 50 serving as a pick-up means equipped in a line with sucking pads 52 for holding the articles and the picked up articles in the plural number are cased in a specified arrangement into a casing container waiting at a specified casing part, intervals for each of the adjoining sucking pads 52 arranged in a line of the movement body 50 are made variable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a box packing apparatus for articles which can pick up a plurality of articles to be packed in a box and rearrange them into a predetermined arrangement during the transfer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an apparatus for picking up a predetermined number of articles waiting on a conveyor, changing the arrangement to a predetermined arrangement, and packing the articles in a box, for example, an apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-203317 is known. The automatic fruit and vegetable packaging device described in this publication picks up fruits and vegetables that stand by in a fixed array on a rowing device by a fruit pick-up head configured to be slidable back and forth and left and right, and packs the picked fruits and vegetables into a box. During transfer to the upper part of the container, the container is slid back and forth and right and left by a pattern set arrangement mechanism, rearranged into a predetermined arrangement, and then packed in a box. The above pattern group arrangement mechanism slides the fruit picking head back and forth and left and right using many actuators,
There is a problem that the mechanism becomes complicated. In order to solve such a problem, the present applicant has previously described Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei.
No. 56820 proposes a box packing device.

The article arrangement changing mechanism described in the above publication is
The guide portions of a plurality of link arms having holding portions for holding the articles are configured to be slidable within the cam grooves of the pattern cam, and the pattern cam is rotated by a predetermined angle by one actuator. The holding unit is configured to be changed to a predetermined arrangement pattern.

[0004]

The above-mentioned JP-A-3-256
According to the article arrangement changing mechanism described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 820, there is a maximum effect in that a predetermined arrangement pattern can be realized with the simplest configuration, but depending on the type of the article to be packed in a box, for example, In order to have a highly versatile configuration that can correspond to several types of arrangement patterns such as one row, two rows, or different rows, prepare a pattern cam having a cam groove of a predetermined arrangement pattern according to a plurality of arrangement patterns. There was a problem that must be kept.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for picking up articles and packing them in a box, and to provide several kinds of arrangement patterns. It is an object of the present invention to provide a highly versatile box packing apparatus for articles that can cope with the problem.

Another object of the present invention is to provide, in addition to the object of the first aspect, a mechanism which can easily cope with several types of arrangement patterns, further enhances versatility, and has high versatility. The object is to provide a relatively simple mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a box packing device for articles which can cope with several types of arrangement patterns while preventing damage to agricultural products, in addition to the object of the present invention. Is to do.

[0008]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a box packing apparatus for articles, comprising: a plurality of articles pooled in a row on a storage device; A box packing device for picking up a plurality of articles to be picked up by a pick-up means provided in a row, moving the pick-up means, and packing a plurality of picked-up articles in a predetermined arrangement in a boxed container waiting at a predetermined box packing section. Wherein the pickup means is:
It is characterized in that the adjacent intervals of the holding portions arranged in a line are changeable.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the pick-up means for picking up the one row of articles comprises:
It is characterized in that articles are packed in a box container by repeating the operation of picking up / moving the one row of articles.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the articles pooled on the storage device are agricultural products placed on a saucer, and the pick-up means for picking up the one row of articles is The spacing between the holding units arranged in a line is provided so as to be changeable between the spacing between the trays pooled in a row on the storage device and the substantially close spacing between the agricultural products.

[0011]

According to the packing apparatus for articles according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of articles to be lined up and pooled on the storage device are provided with a plurality of holding portions for holding the articles in a line. Are taken simultaneously in a row. The plurality of picked-up articles are arranged in a predetermined manner in a box container in which the adjacent interval of the picked-up plurality of holding sections is changed while the pick-up means moves to a predetermined box packing section, and the box holding section waits at the box packing section. Packed with. In other words, the pick-up means sets the interval between the holding units to the adjacent interval in a row suitable for the pool of articles on the storage device, and sets the adjacent interval according to the predetermined arrangement pattern when packing the boxes, The pick-up and packing of various articles can be performed reliably, and various types of arrangement patterns can be handled, so that versatility is improved.

[0012] According to the article packing apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the pick-up means for picking up the articles to be pooled and pooled on the storage device is only controlled by repeating the operation of picking up and moving the row of articles. In this way, a plurality of articles to be pooled and pooled can be easily accommodated in, for example, one row, two rows, or a plurality of different rows or other arrangement patterns, and at the same time, it is only necessary to move a holding part of a minimum required mechanism in one row. The entire box packing device can have a simple configuration.

[0013] According to the apparatus for packing articles according to the third aspect of the present invention, since the trays on which the agricultural products are placed are on standby in a state of being adjacent to each other on the storage device, they are placed on the trays. There is no fear that the agricultural products are in contact with each other and the agricultural products are not damaged. In addition, the adjoining interval (bucket pitch) between the saucers is achieved by adopting a standard shaped saucer.
Can be secured accurately, and the operation of picking up agricultural products can be performed reliably. Furthermore, when packing the picked-up agricultural products, the distance between adjacent holding parts is changed from the distance between adjacent saucers (bucket pitch) to the substantially close distance between agricultural products (close contact pitch between articles). The container can be smoothly packed in a predetermined arrangement.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a box packing apparatus M for articles according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view seen from the direction A in FIG. FIG. 3 is a side view seen from the direction B in FIG. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, an article boxing apparatus M according to the present invention comprises a row of articles F (for example, cucumber) from a plurality of buckets 1 which are aligned and pooled in a row on a storage device 3 to be described later. , Eggplants, etc.), and the picked-up row of articles F is transferred to a predetermined packing unit, and sequentially packed in a box in a boxed container waiting at the packing unit.

The apparatus M for packing articles has a drive cam 10 rotating at a predetermined angle, a first cam 20 having a guide groove 21 of a predetermined shape, a second cam 30 having a plurality of guide grooves 31, As shown in FIG. 1, a moving body 40 as a pickup means movable in the Z-axis direction and the X-axis direction along the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20 is combined with the guide groove 31 of the second cam 30. The main body includes a plurality of moving bodies 50 as pickup means that can move in the Y-axis direction with respect to the moving subject 40.

Incidentally, the Y-axis direction in this specification refers to FIG.
The X-axis direction means a direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 3 (left-right direction in FIG. 3), and the Z-axis direction means the vertical direction (vertical direction) in FIG. Therefore, these X axis, Y axis, and Z axis have the X axis and the Y axis as horizontal axes,
The three axes are perpendicular to each other with the Z-axis direction as a vertical direction.

First, the moving subject 40 will be described.
Reference numeral 41 denotes a guide shaft, and four guide shafts are provided in parallel along the Y-axis direction as shown in FIG. 1, and both ends thereof are fixed by brackets 49, 49. One support shaft 42 extends outside the brackets 49 of the guide shaft 41, respectively.
2, rotors 43, 43 such as bearings that move along the guide grooves 21 of the first cam 20, and long groove-shaped cam grooves of the driving cam 10 at both outer positions of the rotors 43, 43. Rotors 44, 44 that move along 11 are pivotally connected to each other. At both ends of the support shafts 42, block members 45, 45 on which a slide shaft 46 to be described later is supported, are attached.

Here, since the configurations of the drive cam 10 and the first cam 20 on both sides of the second cam 30 are the same, the configuration of the other side will be described in the following description of the configuration on one side. Description is omitted.

Reference numeral 46 denotes two slide shafts which are erected in parallel from the upper part of the block member 45 upward (in the Z-axis direction). Reference numeral 47 denotes a support shaft, which is a fixed frame 60.
Two are installed in parallel along the X-axis direction. Reference numeral 48 denotes a sliding member. The slide shaft 46 is slidable in the Z-axis direction, and the support shaft 47 is supported so as to be slidable in the X-axis direction.

With the above configuration, the moving subject 40 moves in the Z-axis and X-axis directions in FIG.

The moving body 50 is partially fitted in the guide groove 31 of the second cam 30 and is combined with the guide shaft 41 of the moving body 40 so as to be movable in the Y-axis direction. And is configured as follows.

That is, reference numeral 51 denotes a slider body which is slidable by a slide bearing or the like (not shown) along the guide shaft 41 direction (Y-axis direction) in a number corresponding to picking up the article F (10 in the drawing). Has been lubricated. A rod-shaped support member 53 is attached to the slider body 51 in the vertical direction (Z-axis direction), and the upper portion thereof slides in the guide groove 31 of the second cam 30 described later. Are combined. The width (Y-axis direction) of the slider main body 51 is formed to be smaller than the outer diameter of the article F, and when the slider main bodies 51 come close to each other (the close contact pitch of the article), they interfere with each other. ing.

Numeral 52 is a suction pad as a holding portion provided below each slider body 51. The suction pad 52 is provided downward at the lower end of the support member 53 and is made of a soft member such as rubber. According to the suction pad 52, the article F can be picked up from the bucket 1 without being damaged by vacuum suction or the like. In this embodiment, the suction pad is used for the holding unit. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and other holding means can be used according to the article.

Next, the structure of each cam will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the drive cam 10 is moved by a predetermined angle (180 °).
The main body 40 is driven so as to move along the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20 by engaging with the rotor 44 of the first cam 20 and is configured as follows.

That is, reference numeral 12 denotes an interlocking shaft provided in parallel with the Y-axis direction. The interlocking shaft 12 is rotatably connected to the lower part of the frame 60 and a part of the member constituting the first cam 20 via the bearing 13. Supported. The base end of the driving cam 10 having a small width is fixed to the interlocking shaft 12.
By the rotation of 2, the drive cam 10 rotates by a predetermined angle. The drive cam 10 is provided with a long groove-shaped cam groove 11 along the longitudinal direction of the small width plate. The cam groove 11 is provided in the rotor 4 of the moving subject 40.
4 is incorporated so as to be movable along the longitudinal direction. 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a drive shaft provided on the upper portion of the frame 60 in parallel with the interlocking shaft 12, and as shown in FIG. 2, the left and right interlocking shafts 12, 10 are operated so that the left and right driving cams 10, 10 operate synchronously. 12 is driven in conjunction with a sprocket 15 and a chain 16.

Reference numeral 70 denotes a driving device for rotating the driving cam 10 by a predetermined angle. The driving device 70 includes a motor 71, a crank arm 72 attached to an output shaft of the motor 71, and a crank arm 72. A guide 74 on which the cam follower 73 supported by the shaft slides, and the guide 7
4 and a pinion 76 that meshes with the rack 75.

According to the driving device 70, when the motor 71 operates and the crank arm 72 rotates, the guide 74
And the drive shaft 14 by the action of the rack 75 and the pinion 76.
Rotates. When the drive shaft 14 rotates, the interlocking shafts 12 and 12 rotate synchronously via the sprocket 15 and the chain 16. As a result, the drive cam 10 rotates a predetermined angle about the interlocking shaft 12. In the driving device 70, the rack 75 is moved straight or backward by rotating the crank arm 72 by the guide 74, so that the speed can be reduced at both ends of the straight movement or the backward movement. Therefore, the rotation speed of the drive cam 10 at the start end and the end thereof in the rotation operation is smoothly reduced, and the article F can be picked up and transferred smoothly.

As the first cam 20, a thin plate-like member, for example, a synthetic resin plate or another lightweight member is preferably used. The first cam 20 is provided with a guide groove 21 of a predetermined shape with a width that allows the rotor 43 of the moving subject 40 to move in order to move the moving subject 40 in a predetermined stroke. The shape of the guide groove 21 is set based on a process from picking up the article F on the storage device 3 to transferring the picked-up article F to the box 2 and lowering it. The first cams 20 are provided with a moving subject 40.
The rotors 43, 43 at both ends of each of them are slid into the guide grooves 21, respectively, so that the respective plate surfaces are arranged in parallel.

That is, the moving subject 40 is the driving cam 10
Is rotated, a driving force is given by the rotor 44 of the moving body 40 that slides in the cam groove 11 of the driving cam 10, and the given driving force causes another rotor 43 to pass through. First cam 2 with which lever 43 slides
It will move along the zero guide groove 21.

The second cam 30 is connected to the first cam 2
It is formed of a thin plate-like member similar to that of the first cam 20 and is installed over the first cams 20 so that the plate surface is horizontal. As shown in FIG. 4, the second cam 30 has a plurality of guide grooves 31 of a predetermined shape (ten in FIG. 4).
The support member 53 of the moving body 50 is penetrated from the lower surface side to the upper surface side through the guide groove 31 so that the support member 53 slides. When the moving subject 40 moves in the X-axis direction, each support member 53 slides in the guide groove 31 and moves each moving body 50 in the X-axis and Y-axis directions.

FIG. 4 shows the guide groove 3 of the second cam 30.
1 and 10 guide grooves 31
Are formed so that the pitch from the bucket pitch (the interval between the trays adjacent to each other) to the close contact pitch of the articles (the approximate close interval between the agricultural products). The shape and number of the guide grooves 31 can be arbitrarily engraved according to the form of packing and the application.

The second cam 30 is detachably provided. Therefore, by preparing a plurality of second cams corresponding to various boxing patterns, the same apparatus can cope with a plurality of boxing patterns. This means that it is possible to cope with a plurality of boxing patterns simply by replacing the second cam and to increase the versatility of the apparatus, as compared with a conventional apparatus designed and manufactured each time according to the boxing pattern. it can.

FIG. 5 shows another example of the guide groove 31. Eight guide grooves 31 are formed from the bucket 1 to the boxed container 2 arranged longitudinally in the longitudinal direction.

The box packing apparatus M for articles configured as described above
The operation of will be described.

In describing the operation of the box packing device M, each point of the operation will be described with reference to FIG. Each point of the operation is set by the rotation angle of the driving cam 10, respectively. O is the origin. P is an adsorption bottom dead center slightly lower than the origin. Q is the bottom dead center of the box set 180 ° opposite to the bottom dead center of the adsorption. The drive cam 10 at the time of non-operation is waiting at the origin O.

When an operation command (not shown) is input to the driving device 70, the motor 71 operates to rotate the crank arm 72. When the crank arm 72 rotates, the rack 7
5 and the pinion 76 rotate the drive shaft 14 to rotate the drive cam 10 from the origin O to the suction bottom dead center P. When the drive cam 10 rotates, the rotor 44 combined with the cam groove 11 and the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20
The moving subject 40 moves to the suction bottom dead center P along the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20 by the cooperative action with the rotor 43 combined with. Thus, the suction pad 52 of the moving body 50 combined with the moving subject 40 comes into contact with the article F and sucks and holds the article F.

The motor 71 is operated continuously, and the drive cam 10 turns back the suction bottom dead center P, passes through the origin O, and moves to the box bottom bottom dead center Q on the opposite side around the support shaft 12. Move continuously. With the rotation of the driving cam 10, the moving subject 40 moves to the guide groove 2 of the first cam 20.
After moving up from the suction bottom dead center P (Z-axis direction) along the first direction, it moves a predetermined distance in the horizontal direction (X-axis direction) and descends (Z-axis direction). When the moving subject 40 moves in the horizontal direction, the moving body 50
The supporting member 53 moves along the guide groove 31 of the second cam 30. Thereby, the suction pad 5 holding the article F
2 moves in the Y-axis direction so as to reduce the adjacent space. Then, when the drive cam 10 reaches the bottom dead center Q of the package, the moving subject 40 descends in the Z-axis direction along the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20. Thereby, the suction pads 52 picking up the articles F pooled at the bucket pitch on the storage device 3 change the intervals between the respective suction pads 52 to substantially the close contact intervals of the articles F and pick up the articles F picked up in the container 2. Transfer up.

When the vacuum in the suction pad 52 is broken at the bottom dead center Q of the box, the sucked article F is packed in the box 2. When the crank arm 72 of the motor 71 further rotates after packing the articles F in a box, the drive cam 10 rotates from the bottom dead center Q of the box to the origin O. When the position of the origin O is reached, the operation of the driving device 70 is stopped by a detection signal from a sensor (not shown) for detecting the position, and the system enters the next operation waiting state.

One cycle of operation of the drive cam 10 is origin O → adsorption bottom dead center P → box bottom dead center Q → origin O. This cycle is performed by one rotation of the crank arm 72. Each point of operation is the motor 7
By detecting the rotation angle of one rotation shaft with a sensor (not shown), the operation of the motor 71 can be stopped or decelerated.

FIG. 6 is a partial plan view of an agricultural product sorting facility in which a plurality of the above-described article boxing devices M are arranged. FIG. 7 shows FIG.
It is sectional drawing in alignment with CC of FIG. FIG. 8 is a front view of the storage device 3. FIG. 9 is a plan view of the same. FIG. 10 shows D in FIG.
It is sectional drawing which followed -D. FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along line EE in FIG.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 4 denotes a sorting conveyor.
While the article F is being conveyed, a predetermined sorting section is determined by a determination device (not shown) provided in the middle, and the sorting is performed according to grade and class from a predetermined sorting discharge position. 5
Is a curved conveyor for transferring the articles F sorted from the sorting conveyor 4 by 90 ° to the side of the sorting conveyor 4, and is connected to a supply conveyor 98 described later.

The storage device 3 is for holding a plurality of articles F to be packed in a box in a line and in a stand-by state. In this embodiment, the bucket 1 on which the articles F are placed can be individually moved and stopped on a transport surface. It is configured.

More specifically, reference numeral 80 denotes a first conveyor, which comprises two small-width belts 81, 81 arranged in parallel at a predetermined distance in the width direction of the conveying surface, the front and rear in the longitudinal direction of the frame 82. Pulley 83 and driven pulley 8 provided in
4 and the drive pulley 83 is rotated by the drive motor 85 to form two narrow belts 81 and 8.
1 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the figure. Although not shown, the narrow belts 81 are transported on a slide rail.

The bucket 1 is formed in a long saucer shape in which a lateral direction perpendicular to the traveling direction is elongated for mounting a long object such as a cucumber. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, two rollers 1 are provided on each of the left and right sides.
7 are rotatably supported, and each bucket 1 is individually in a free state.

Reference numeral 86 denotes a second conveyor arranged side by side at a predetermined position below the first conveyor 80, and has the same configuration as that of the first conveyor 80. The same components as those of the first conveyor 80 are denoted by the same reference numerals as those of the first conveyor 80, and the description thereof is omitted. Then, the driving pulley 83 of the first conveyor 80 and the driving pulley 83a of the second conveyor 86 are driven by a driving motor 85 via a chain 87 and a sprocket 88 so as to rotate in opposite directions. It has become.

Numeral 89 is a clamping means provided between the end of the second conveyor 36 and the start of the first conveyor 80. The empty bucket 1 transferred by the second conveyor 86 And conveys it in reverse to the start end side transfer path of the first conveyor 80. As shown in FIG. 11, the holding means 89 is composed of a reversing roller 91 attached to a driven shaft 90 and a reversing rail 92 provided along the outer peripheral side of the driven pulley 84 and outside thereof.

The outer periphery of the reversing roller 91 is formed of an elastic member such as sponge, and is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the driven pulley 84. The reversing rail 92 receives the roller 17 of the empty bucket 1 transported by the second conveyor 86 and reverses and guides the roller 17 onto the transport surface of the first conveyor 80. Along with the driven pulley 84, a circular arc of about 180 ° is provided concentrically with the driven pulley 84 at intervals along the outer diameter of the roller 17. The driven pulley 84 has a bearing 93.
The rotation of the driven shaft 90, that is, the rotation of the reversing roller 91 irrespective of the rotation of the driven shaft 90.

Reference numeral 94 denotes a reversing drive motor for rotating the reversing roller 91. When the reversing drive motor 94 operates to rotate the reversing roller 91, the empty bucket 1 transported by the second conveyor 86 is moved to the reversing roller 9.
1 and is inverted and transported upward while being sandwiched between the reversing rail 1 and the reversing rail 92. That is, the bottom of the bucket 1 fed between the rotating reversing roller 91 and the reversing rail 92 is locked by the elastic member of the reversing roller 91, and the roller 17 travels along the reversing rail 92 to move upward. It is inverted and transferred.

When the operation of the reversing drive motor 94 is stopped, the reversing bucket 1 is stopped while being held between the reversing roller 91 and the reversing rail 92.

A holding means 95 is provided between the end of the first conveyor 80 and the starting end of the second conveyor 86. The holding means 95 is provided at the starting end of the first conveyor 80. The same means as the means 89 can be used, and the same components will be denoted by the same reference numerals but will not be described.

As shown in FIG. 10, the holding means 95 includes a drive pulley 83 for the small-width belt 81 and a reversing roller 91a for supporting the bottom of the bucket 1.
Is fixed coaxially to For this reason, during the operation of the first conveyor 80, the reversing rollers 91 are also rotating at the same time, and the empty buckets 1 transferred by the first conveyor 80 are sequentially inverted and transferred to the second conveyor 86.

In this embodiment, the first conveyor 80
Although the same clamping means was used on the start end side and the end end side of
At the end of the first conveyor 80, the first conveyor 80
The chute or the like may be erected using the height difference between the first conveyor 86 and the second conveyor 86, and the bucket 1 may be driven by itself.

Reference numeral 97 denotes a bucket detection sensor provided on the starting end side of the first conveyor 80, and a supply conveyor 98.
When the empty bucket 1 is detected, the operation of the reversing drive motor 94 is stopped such that the bucket 1 is temporarily stopped at a position for receiving the article F supplied from the vehicle.

Reference numeral 99 denotes a first feed conveyor 98 from the upstream supply conveyor 98.
This is an article detection sensor that detects when the article F is supplied onto the bucket 1 on the conveyor 80 of this example. When the article detection sensor 99 detects the article F, the reversing drive motor 94 is driven to feed the empty bucket 1 until it is detected by the bucket detection sensor 97.

With the bucket detection sensor 97 and the article detection sensor 99, the reversing drive motor 94 can be driven as needed to supply the articles F to the bucket 1 one by one.

Numeral 100 denotes a stopper, which temporarily stops the bucket 1 conveyed by the first conveyor 80 on the conveying surface, and lowers the lower belt 81 on the surface of the narrow belt 81 by combining an actuator 101 such as a cylinder. To come and go.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a box supporting device as a box packing portion provided adjacent to the storage device 3.
(For example, a corrugated cardboard box) is raised to a predetermined boxing height and made to stand by, and after boxing is completed, it is lowered to the product transport conveyor 6 and sent out. Note that an empty box transport conveyor 7 for transporting an empty boxed container 2 is provided at the upper stage of the product transport conveyor 6.

As shown in FIG. 2, the box supporting device 110 is combined with an upright guide frame 111 so that a lifting table 112 can be moved up and down by rollers 113. Then, a chain 114 connected to a part of the lift table 112 is wound around a sprocket 116 of a motor 115 provided on the guide frame 111, and the motor 115 is driven forward or reverse to drive the lift table 112. It moves up and down.

The box support device 110 is provided with sensor switches (not shown) for controlling the vertical stop position of the lift 112 in accordance with the height of each.

Reference numeral 117 denotes a box mounting portion provided on the elevating table 112, which is constituted by a reversible conveyor. The box mounting portion 117 is supported rotatably in the horizontal direction by 90 degrees with respect to the elevating table 112. Box mounting part 1
17 is configured to be rotatable by 90 degrees in the horizontal direction, the direction of the boxed container 2 can be changed by 90 degrees in the horizontal direction. This can correspond to various kinds of boxing patterns, for example, a rectangular box can be boxed by changing the direction of a long object by 90 degrees. (See one row in FIG. 4 or two rows in FIG. 5).

The operation of the agricultural product sorting facility configured as described above will be described.

The articles F sorted and discharged on the curve conveyor 5 from the sorting and discharging position of the sorting conveyor 4 are sequentially conveyed to the supply conveyor 98. On the other hand, the empty bucket 1 transferred to the storage device 3 is temporarily stopped at the detection position of the bucket detection sensor 97, and is detected by the article detection sensor 99 each time the article F is supplied from the supply conveyor 98. You. When it is detected, the reversing drive motor 94 is driven and fed until the next empty bucket 1 is detected by the bucket detection sensor 97, and is in a state of waiting for the supply of the article F. Then, the bucket 1 containing the article F is detected by the stopper 100 and pooled on the storage device 3. When the number of buckets 1 pooled on the storage device 3 reaches a predetermined number (10 in the drawing), an operation command (not shown) is input to the driving device 70 of the box packing device M.

When the motor 71 is driven by the operation command,
The drive shaft 14 is rotated by the action of the rack 75 and the pinion 76, and the drive cam 10 is moved from the origin O about the interlocking shaft 12 →
It rotates from suction bottom dead center P → box bottom dead center Q → origin O. With the rotation of the driving cam 10, the moving subject 40 becomes the first
Move along the guide groove 21 of the cam 20. In accordance with the movement of the moving subject 40, each suction pad 52 suctions and holds the article F on the corresponding bucket 1 and lifts the article F upward, and then is transferred in the horizontal direction. The bucket 1 in which the article F is taken out and emptied is sent to the second conveyor 86 with the stopper 100 released.

When the moving subject 40 moves in the horizontal direction along the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20, the support member 53 of each moving body 50 moves along the guide groove 31 of the second cam 30 to move the bucket. The article F is moved so as to narrow the close pitch interval of the article F from the pitch in a row. On the other hand, in the boxing section for articles, the boxed container 2 for boxing is placed in the box supporting device 11.
It is placed on a box-mounting section 117 of 0 and stands by at a predetermined height.

When the drive cam 10 reaches the bottom dead center Q of the box, the moving subject 40 moves to the first cam 20.
Along the guide groove 21. As a result, the suction pads 52 picking up the articles F enter the boxed containers 2 waiting at the box support device 110 with their respective intervals being narrowed. Then, the vacuum in the suction pad 52 is broken at the bottom dead center Q of the box, and the article F is packed in the box 2. When the drive cam 10 rotates from the bottom dead center Q of the box to the origin O after the articles F are packed in the box, the moving subject 40 returns to the origin O along the guide groove 21 of the first cam 20. In this movement process, each suction pad 52 returns to the return interval (bucket pitch) from the suction pitch of the article F and waits for the next operation.

The above operation is repeated when the articles F are stacked in the boxed container 2 or stacked in the second row or in a different arrangement.

On the other hand, the boxed container 2 packed in the box is sent out onto the product transfer conveyor 6 by lowering the box placing portion 117 of the box supporting device 110. After that, the box mounting part 1
The container 17 is raised to the height of the empty box conveyor 7 and the next empty box container 2 is carried in from the empty box conveyor 7 and stands by for the next box.

In the box packing apparatus for articles of this embodiment, the box supporting apparatus 110 can operate independently, and the box packing apparatus M operates to pick up the article F so as to shorten the cycle time for packing. During the transfer, operations such as carrying in / out of the container 2 or changing the direction are performed.

[0072]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the pick-up means is provided such that the distance between adjacent holding portions arranged in a line can be changed, so that the distance between each holding portion can be changed. In the storage device, the adjacent intervals suitable for the pool of articles can be set as adjacent intervals, but when packing the boxes, the adjacent intervals can be set according to the predetermined arrangement pattern, so the picking up and packing of various articles This can be performed reliably, and it is possible to cope with several types of array patterns, thereby improving versatility.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effects of the first aspect, the pick-up means repeats the operation of picking up / moving a row of articles, so that a plurality of pools can be pooled in a row. Can easily correspond to, for example, one row, two rows, or a plurality of different rows or other arrangement patterns, and it is only necessary to move the holding part of the minimum required mechanism in one row, so that the entire packaging device has a simple configuration. Can be.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effects of the first or second aspect, on the storage device, the trays on which the agricultural products are placed are made to stand by in a state of being adjacent to each other. Therefore, on the storage device, the agricultural products placed on the saucer do not come into contact with each other, and there is no risk of damaging the agricultural products. Furthermore, by adopting a fixed-shaped saucer, the interval between adjacent saucers (bucket pitch) can be secured accurately, and the operation of picking up agricultural products can be reliably performed. When packing the picked-up agricultural products, Since the distance between adjacent holding parts is changed from the distance between adjacent trays (bucket pitch) to the substantially close distance between produce (close contact pitch between products), a plurality of produce can be packed smoothly in a predetermined arrangement in a box. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a box packing apparatus M for articles according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view as viewed from a direction A in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view as viewed from a direction B in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing another example of the second cam.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of an agricultural product sorting facility.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line CC of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a front view of the storage device.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of the storage device.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along the line DD in FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line EE of FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

1: bucket 2: packing container 3: storage device 4: sorting conveyor 5: curve conveyor 6: product conveyor 7: empty box conveyor 10: drive cam 11: cam groove 12: interlocking shaft 13: bearing 14: drive shaft 15: Sprocket 16: Chain 17: Roller 20: First cam 21: Guide groove 30: Second cam 31: Guide groove 40: Moving subject 41: Guide shaft 42: Support shaft 43: Rotor 44: Rotor 45 : Block member 46: Slide shut 47: Support shaft 48: Sliding member 49: Bracket 50: Moving body 51: Slider body 52: Suction pad 53: Support member 60: Frame 70: Driving device 71: Motor 72: Crank arm 73 : Cam follower 74: Guide 75: Rack 76: Pinion 80: First control A 81: small belt 82: frame 83: drive pulley 84: driven pulley 85: drive motor 86: second conveyor 87: chain 88: sprocket 89: clamping means 90: driven shaft 91: reversing roller 92: reversing rail 93: bearing 94: reversing drive motor 95: clamping means 96: drive shaft 97: bucket detection sensor 98: supply conveyor 99: article detection sensor 100: stopper 101: actuator 110: box support device 111: guide frame 112: lift frame 113 : Roller 114: Chain 115: Motor 116: Sprocket 117: Box mounting part F: Article O: Origin P: Suction bottom dead center Q: Box bottom dead center

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of articles which are pooled in a row on a storage device are picked up by pick-up means provided with a plurality of holding portions for holding the articles in a row, and the plurality of articles picked up by moving the pick-up means A box packing device for packing articles in a predetermined arrangement in a box container waiting in a predetermined box packing section,
The article picking device is characterized in that the pickup means is provided so as to be able to change the adjacent distance between the holding parts arranged in a line. 2. The article packing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said picking-up means for picking up the row of articles packs the articles in a box by repeating an operation of picking up and moving the row of articles. apparatus. 3. An article according to claim 1, wherein the articles pooled on the storage device are agricultural products placed on a saucer, and the picking-up means for picking up the row of articles is provided by each of the holders arranged in the row. A box packing device for articles, wherein an adjacent interval is provided so as to be changeable between an adjacent interval of trays pooled in a row on the storage device and a substantially close interval of agricultural products.