JP2001301970A - Tray holder and tray feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tray holder applicable for various shapes of trays. SOLUTION: This tray holder of the present invention is a device capable of holding the trays to be stacked layeredly, and has supporting parts 12, 12 in its lower end. The parts 12, 12 are members for supporting the central parts of end edges in two opposite sides of the tray, and has flexible parts 16, 16 to hold the tray 101 in the condition where elasticity is imparted. When the tray is taken out from the tray holder, the flexible parts 16, 16 are deflected, for example, by pulling the tray 101 using a suction cup 18, to release the holding for the tray 101, and the tray 101 is taken out thereby. The tray holder of the present invention is applicable for the various shapes of the trays, since the holding for the tray is released by applying force to the tray to deflect the flexible part as the flexible part is provided in the supporting part, even when the supporting part is formed into a shape to lock the supporting part firmly to the end part of the tray.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for holding trays and an apparatus for feeding trays one by one.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an apparatus for supplying plastic trays one by one includes, for example, a support section 52 for holding a tray 90 and a tray 9 from the support section 52 as shown in FIG.
There is an apparatus having a tray extracting means 54 for extracting 0 one by one. In this device, the support portion 52 is
Are locked by the flanges at both ends thereof, and the tray 90 is pulled out by being pinched down by the tray pulling-out means 54 to such an extent that the tray 90 is bent.

However, in this tray supply device, since the supporting portion 52 holds the tray 90 by locking the collar of the tray 90, the tray having a small brim is not locked properly, and a plurality of trays are taken out at one time. Sometimes. Also, this device cannot be used for trays without brims. Further, the tray 90 must be flexible enough to be pulled out of the support portion 52. On the other hand, if it is too soft, it will bend under the weight of the stacked trays 90 themselves, and each tray 90
The collar may not be locked by the support portion 52, and a plurality of trays 90 may be taken out at one time. Further, since the tray extracting means 54 clamps the side surface of the tray 90, it cannot be extracted unless the tray 90 has a predetermined height. For this reason, in the apparatus shown in FIG. 6, the tray cannot be satisfactorily supplied unless the tray has a brim of a predetermined size or more, has a shape of a predetermined height or more, and has appropriate rigidity.

[0004]

Therefore, in the present invention,
It is an object to provide a tray holding device and a tray supply device applicable to trays of various shapes.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for holding a tray, comprising a support for holding the tray at an end of the tray. Provides a tray holding device provided with a flexible portion.

According to the present invention, since the supporting portion has the flexible portion, the end of the supporting portion on the tray contact side can support the end of the tray with elasticity added. Further, when a force for detaching the tray acts while holding the tray, the flexible portion bends and the holding state is easily released. Further, when the flexible portion is restored, the tray can be supported again. Therefore, in this holding device, trays of various shapes can be held by the support portion in a state where the holding can be released. In this tray holding device, it is preferable that the flexible portion is provided at a portion of the support portion that comes into contact with the tray. In addition, it is preferable that the flexible portion is provided in a portion that comes into contact with the tray and is formed in a brush portion. In the present invention, the end of the tray is not limited to the brim of the tray, but also includes the edge of the tray, the boundary between the bottom and the side of the tray, or a portion forming the periphery thereof.

[0007] Further, any of the above tray holding devices,
Provided is a tray supply device having a tray moving unit that takes out a tray held by the support unit.

[0008]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tray supply device provided with a tray holding device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The tray supply device 1 is a device for supplying the trays 100 one by one. The tray supply device 1 has a tray holding device 3 at an upper portion, and a tray moving means 5 and a tray feeding portion 7 are provided below the tray holding device 3.

The tray holding device 3 includes a plurality of trays 100.
Is a device that can hold in a stacked state.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a rectangular parallelepiped storage unit 10 having upper and lower surfaces formed with openings, and support units 12 provided at the lower end of the storage unit 10 is provided. Storage unit 10
Are formed so as to surround the periphery of a plurality of stacked trays 100, and a guide 11 for always arranging the trays 100 in a fixed position and direction is provided.
The guide 11 is a plurality of rod-shaped members extending downward from the upper end of the storage unit 10 to the inner surface, and is configured to contact one or two positions on each side of the tray 100.

The support portions 12 are engaged with the ends of the lowermost tray in the storage portion 10 and support the whole of the plurality of trays 100 stacked thereon to be held in the storage portion 10. is there. The support portion may hold the tray at a fixed position at least at two positions on the tray end, and the position of the tray end to be engaged, the contact area, and the like can be appropriately selected. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, two members 12, 12 protrude inward and upward from the center of two opposing sides at the lower end of the storage unit 10.

[0011] The supporting portions 12 and 12 are provided with flexible portions 16 and 16.
Having. The flexible portion is a portion that applies elasticity when the supporting portion engages with the end of the tray 100, and the flexible portion bends by applying a force to the tray to release the engagement of the tray. It is formed as follows. The flexible portions 16, 16
It is preferable to have rigidity enough to support the weight of a large number of trays stored in the storage unit 10 and to stably hold the trays.

The flexible portion may be provided anywhere on the support portion. However, it is preferable to provide the flexible portion at a portion which comes into contact with the tray because the flexible portion can satisfactorily engage with various shapes of tray ends. In addition, it is preferable that the tip portion in contact with the end of the tray be a flexible portion, because the flexible portion is easily bent by applying a force to the tray, and the engagement is easily released. Further, the flexible portions need not be provided for all the support portions, and for example, the flexible portions may be provided for at least one support portion.

The shape and material of the flexible portion are not particularly limited.
For example, a brush, an elastic lip, an elastic block, or a spring member can be used. When the flexible portion is a brush portion and is provided at a portion that comes into contact with the tray, when the tray moves in the direction in which the tray is disengaged, the next tray starts from the brush bristles that have been disengaged with the moving tray. Can be engaged. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the engagement from being released at a time in a state where a plurality of trays overlap. In particular, if the material of the tray is soft, the tray may be bent by its own weight, or may not be locked by bending. However, by engaging the ends of the trays with brush bristles, even a soft tray can be stably stored, and the engagement of a plurality of trays can be prevented from being released at once.

It is preferable that the support portion is provided so as to protrude toward the center of the tray from the end of the tray, so that trays of various shapes and materials can be stably engaged. That is, by supporting the end of the tray inside the tip of the support portion, a tray with a small brim can be favorably held. Further, even when a soft tray bends under its own weight in which a plurality of stacked trays are stacked and the distance between the end portions of the trays facing each other is reduced, stable engagement can be achieved.

In the present embodiment, the flexible portions 16, 16 are formed as brush portions at the tips of the support portions 12, 12 which come into contact with the tray 100. Since the flexible portions 16 and 16 are formed in the brush portion, the tray 100 is formed by a plurality of brush bristles.
Can be stably held. In the present embodiment, the bristle implantation direction is the direction in which the trays 100 are stacked.
By providing in this manner, the flexible portions 16, 16
The tray 100 satisfactorily catches on the end of the
, The plurality of trays 100 can be stably held against the gravity.

The tray holding device or the tray supply device of the present invention can be used to determine the shape of the tray end, such as the size of the brim, and the presence or absence of the brim,
The present invention can be applied to various trays regardless of the depth of the concave portion or the outer shape of the entire tray. In this embodiment,
The tray 100 has a brim length of 1 mm and a concave depth of 15 mm.
The outer shape of mm was a rectangular thin box. Further, the tray holding device or the tray supply device of the present invention can be applied to trays having various rigidities. In the present embodiment, the tray 100 is made of plastic which hardly bends and has higher rigidity than the flexible portions 16. The tray is
The support may be held in any position and direction, and the recess of the tray may be downward or upward. In the present embodiment, the tray 100 is a storage unit 10 of the tray holding device 3.
It is stored with the concave portion facing downward, and the support portion 12,
The edge of the tray 100 is engaged with the 12 flexible portions 16 and 16.

Below the tray holding device 3, a tray moving means 5 is provided as shown in FIG. The tray moving means 5 is a means for taking out the lowermost tray held by the tray holding device 3, that is, the trays 100 engaged with the supports 12, 12, one by one. The tray moving means 5 may be a conventionally known means such as pulling out or pushing out. In the present embodiment, the tray moving means 5 is a vacuum suction disk which sucks down on the lower surface of the tray and pulls it down. Since the vacuum suction disk can be pulled on the one surface of the tray regardless of the overall shape of the tray, the tray can be supplied in various shapes by combining with the tray holding device of the present invention.

The tray moving means 5, as shown in FIG.
An upwardly directed suction plate 1 provided directly below a tray held by the tray holding device 3 so as to be vertically movable by a hydraulic cylinder or the like.
8 and a vacuum pump 20. The suction plate 18 has an opening in the center, and the opening is connected to a vacuum pump 20 as suction means via an air hose 22.

The tray feeder 7 is a means for transferring the tray disengaged by the supports 12, 12 to a predetermined position. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIGS. A chute extending from below. The tray feeder 7 has two gutters 24 and 26 formed in a long shape. The gutters 24 and 26 have a width that allows the tray 100 to slide, and side walls are provided on both side edges to prevent the tray 100 from falling. As shown in FIG. 5, the gutter 24 extends linearly obliquely downward from below the tray holding device 3. The gutter 26 extends linearly from below the lower end of the gutter 24 so as to be folded back from the gutter 24.
4 is formed in a curved portion that partially surrounds the lower end. The lower end of the gutter 26 extends to a predetermined position where the tray 100 is to be transferred.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG.
In the upper part, the center immediately below the tray holding device 3 is an opening 28
So that the suction plate 18 of the tray moving means 5 installed below the gutter 24 can be raised to the tray engaged with the supports 12,12.

Next, a method of supplying trays one by one using the tray supply device 1 of the present embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1, a large number of trays 100 are stacked and stored as a stacked body in the storage unit 10 of the tray holding device 3. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the lowermost tray 101 of the stacked trays is
The entire tray 100 is held in the storage section 10 by being engaged with the flexible sections 16, 16.

When taking out the trays one by one, the tray moving means 5 moves the lowermost tray 101 in the storage section 10 in the direction in which the engagement with the support sections 12 is released. As shown in FIG. 3, in the present embodiment, first, the suction plate 18 of the tray moving means 5 is raised to lower the lower surface of the tray 101,
That is, it is arranged so that at least the entire outer edge of the suction plate 18 contacts the inner surface of the concave portion. Thereafter, the vacuum pump 20 is operated to suck air in a closed space between the suction disk 18 and the lower surface of the tray 101 from the opening at the center of the suction disk 18 so that the suction disk 18 is sucked to the tray 101.

Next, the suction disk 18 is lowered by a hydraulic cylinder or the like. Since the suction plate 18 is suctioned to the tray 101, a downward force is applied to the tray 101 as the suction plate 18 is lowered as shown in FIG. At this time, the flexible portions 16, 16 of the support portions 12, 12 bend under the downward force of the tray 101. When the suction plate 18 is further lowered, the flexures of the flexible portions 16, 16 become large, and the engagement between the edge of the tray 101 and the support portions 12, 12 is released soon. Is taken out.

In the supporting portions 12 of the present embodiment, the flexible portions 16 are formed as brush portions at portions where they are in direct contact with the ends of the tray. Then, the engagement with the tray 101 is released in order from the brush bristles on the upper part of the brush part. At this time, the brush bristles that have been disengaged from the tray 101 immediately return to their original positions, and are engaged immediately above the tray 101, that is, engaged with the end of the second tray 102 from the bottom. Become. Therefore, when the tray 101 moves, as shown in FIG.
2 are simultaneously engaged at different positions. As a result, when the engagement between the tray 101 and the flexible portions 16 of the support portions 12 is completely released, the tray 102 is stably engaged by the flexible portions 16. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the tray 101 and the trays 102 and higher from overlapping and being taken out at once.

The suction plate 18 of the tray moving means 5
Tray 101 taken out below tray holding device 3
Thereafter, the suction by the vacuum pump 20 is released, and the suction of the suction plate 18 is released. When the suction disk 18 moves down to a position below the gutter 24 of the tray feeding section 7, the tray 101 is received by the gutter 24 and slides downward on the gutter 24 by its own weight as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, the tray 101 slides on the gutter 24 with the concave portion facing downward, and jumps out of the gutter 24 with the same force. The tray 101 that has protruded is a gutter 2
6 and is turned over and received on the gutter 26. The tray 101 whose concave portion is directed upward by the reversal at the curved portion of the gutter 26 slides on the gutter 26 by its own weight, jumps out from the lower end of the gutter 26, and the supply of the tray to a predetermined position is completed.

The tray holding device 3 of the tray supply device 1 according to the present embodiment includes support portions 12, 12 having flexible portions 16, 16.
Therefore, the tray can be held in a state where elasticity is added. For this reason, even if the tray 100 is made of a material that does not bend, when the force in the direction of releasing the engagement is applied, the flexible portions 16, 16 are bent to release the engagement, and the holding can be released. . In addition, the provision of the support portions 12, 12 protruding toward the center of the tray from the end of the tray allows the flange 100 to satisfactorily abut the end of the tray 100 with a small brim and stably engage with the end. The holding can be released by bending the 16,16. Therefore,
The tray supply device 1 includes a tray 100 supporting the trays 12, 12.
And a force for moving the tray 100 by the tray moving means 5 so that the supporting portions 12 and
12 is disengaged, and the tray 100 can be supplied.

Further, since the flexible portions 16 and 16 are formed as brush portions, the lowermost tray (101) is used as the tray moving means 5.
When moving downward, the bristles arranged at the lower part of the flexible portions 16, 16 engage the lowermost tray (101), while the bristles arranged at the upper part are the second from the bottom. Can be held in contact with the end of the tray (102). As described above, since the flexible portions 16 and 16 can hold the two trays at different positions at the same time, it is possible to prevent a plurality of trays from being taken out at one time in a stacked state. For this reason, when trays are continuously supplied, it is possible to save the labor of inspecting one by one, and to reduce the number of times that other devices including the tray supply device 1 are temporarily stopped, thereby improving work efficiency. Can be improved.

As another embodiment of the tray holding device 3 of the present embodiment, there is a case where the supporting portions 12 are provided so as to be movable. This results in a tray holding device that can hold trays of various shapes and sizes. Further, as another embodiment of the tray supply device 1 of the present embodiment, it is further possible to adjust the elevating distance of the suction plate 18 of the tray moving means 5. By providing in this way, the tray supply device 1 is a single unit and has various shapes,
It can be used for trays of size and depth.

The tray holding device and the tray supply device of the present invention are not limited to the above embodiment.
In the tray supply device, the direction in which the trays are stacked is not limited to the vertical direction, and may be appropriately selected, such as horizontal or oblique. Further, the moving direction of the tray by the tray moving means can be appropriately selected from the top to the bottom, from the bottom to the top, the horizontal direction, or the inclined direction, depending on the stacking direction of the trays.

[0031]

According to the present invention, a tray holding device and a tray supply device applicable to trays having various shapes can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a tray supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a tray take-out part of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which a suction plate of a tray moving unit is attached to a tray held by a support unit;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a state in which a tray held by a support unit is pulled out by a tray moving unit;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a tray feeding section of the tray supply device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing how a conventional tray supply device takes out a tray.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tray supply device 3 Tray holding device 5 Tray moving means 7 Tray feed part 10 Storage part 11 Guide 12 Support part 14 Base 16 Flexible part 18 Adsorption board 20 Vacuum pump 22 Air hose 24, 26 Gutter 28 Opening 100, 101, 102 trays

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for holding a tray, comprising: a support section for holding the tray in relation to an end of the tray, wherein the support section is provided with a flexible section. Tray holding device. 2. The tray holding device according to claim 1, wherein the flexible portion is provided at a portion of the support portion that contacts the tray. 3. The tray holding device according to claim 2, wherein said flexible portion is a brush portion. 4. A tray supply device comprising: the tray holding device according to claim 1; and a tray moving unit that takes out a tray held by the support unit.