JP2001322792A - Object transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To hold each object in suction certainly regardless of the plane shape of the object to be held with suction. SOLUTION: If a communication hole 57 is opened upon applying the oversurface of each object only to a left-hand opening 46 so as to block it, a left-hand recess 45 and a lower chamber 42b are put immediately in negative pressure simultaneously, so that a valve element 50 does not close a suction port 49, and the object comes in tight attachment to a resilient piece 47. On the other hand, the right-hand opening 46 remains unclosed, and the suction port 49 mating with the right-hand opening 46 is closed automatically by the valve element 50 sucked toward the suction port 49 because inside the lower chamber 42b is put in negative pressure.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article transfer device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as this kind of article transfer apparatus, there has been known an article transfer apparatus comprising a casing connected to a suction machine for making the inside a negative pressure and having a large number of suction ports on a lower wall.

[0003]

Disadvantages of the prior art The conventional article transfer apparatus has the following disadvantages. When all the suction ports are not closed by the upper surface of the article when suctioning and holding the article by the article transfer device, air flows from the unblocked suction port and the inside of the casing does not reach a predetermined negative pressure. Therefore, it is not possible to hold the article by suction, and as a result, in the conventional article transfer apparatus,
There is a drawback that only an article having a planar shape corresponding to the article transfer apparatus (or an article group having a stacking pattern corresponding to the article transfer apparatus) can be sucked and held.

[0004]

The present invention employs the following means to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks. The invention according to claim 1 is a casing which is connected to a suction device for making the inside a negative pressure and has a plurality of suction ports on a lower wall;
A valve body for opening and closing each suction port, wherein the suction port that is not closed by the upper surface of the article is closed by the valve body when the article is sucked and held. The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that a plurality of downwardly opened recesses are formed in the lower wall of the casing, and an elastic body having an opening opened corresponding to the recess is attached to the lower surface of the lower wall. A suction port is formed in the top wall of the recess, and a valve body is provided in the recess so as to be vertically movable. In a normal state, the suction port and the opening are not closed, and the suction device is operated. When the opening is not closed by the upper surface of the article when the article is sucked and held, the suction port corresponding to the opening is automatically moved by the valve body which is sucked toward the suction port because the inside of the casing becomes a negative pressure. 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is closed. In the invention of claim 3, the casing is divided into an upper chamber on the suction port side and a lower chamber on the suction port side of the suction device by a partition plate having a communication hole, and the communication hole is made openable and closable by a valve body, 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein only the upper chamber has a negative pressure while the communication hole is closed by the valve body. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an article transfer apparatus for repeatedly transferring an article received by a load receiving section to an unloading section, wherein the upper chamber is negatively moved while returning from the unloading section to the load receiving section. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a control device for controlling the pressure.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained by the above configuration. According to the first aspect of the invention, when suction-holding the article, the suction ports that are not closed by the upper surface of the article are closed by the valve body, so that all the suction ports are closed by the upper face of the article. In other words, it is possible to reliably hold the article without being restricted by the planar shape of the article to be suction-held (or the stacking pattern of the group of articles). In addition, since the article can be reliably sucked and held, the article transfer apparatus that sucks and holds the article can be moved at a high speed, so that the article transfer time can be shortened and the operation efficiency of the article transfer apparatus can be improved. I can do it. According to the second aspect of the invention, when the suction device is operated to suck and hold the article, the suction port that is not blocked by the upper surface of the article can be automatically closed by the valve body. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the article can be sucked and held at a high speed by setting the upper chamber to a negative pressure in advance as a step before sucking and holding the article. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the upper chamber can be set to a negative pressure during the play time of the article transfer device (while returning to the load receiving portion) to prepare for suction holding, the operation efficiency can be improved. Can be done.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In this description, left means the left side in FIG. 1 and right means the right side in FIG.

The article transfer device 40 is attached to a robot arm (not shown) or the like. For example, a load receiving station (load receiving section, not shown) to which articles to be stacked on a pallet are sequentially conveyed, and a pallet (unloading section). , Not shown).

The casing 42 of the article transfer device 40
Is connected via a connecting pipe 39 to a suction device 38 (fixed to the upper wall 44 of the casing 42) for making the inside a negative pressure.

As shown in FIG. 1 (FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the structure of the article transfer device 40, and does not show the structure as it is), the lower wall 43 of the casing 42 has many downwards. An open recess 45 is formed, and a sheet-like elastic body 47 having an opening 46 opened corresponding to the recess 45 is attached to the lower surface of the lower wall 43. The casing 42 has, for example, a length L of one side of 1140 m.
m, and the diameter D of the opening 46 is about 20 mm.

A suction port 49 is provided on the top wall 45a of the recess 45.
(In FIG. 1, it is drawn large for the sake of simplicity, but it is actually slightly larger than the cross section of the rod 52 to be described later).
Are provided so as to be vertically movable. An elastic body 51 is attached to the upper surface of the valve body 50. Further, the valve element 5
A rod 52 is erected on the upper end of the rod 52, and the rod 52 penetrates through the suction port 49 and protrudes above the top wall 45a. At least three, in this embodiment, four hanging rods 5 every 90 degrees around rod 52
When the lower end of the hanging rod 54 is in contact with the top wall 45a, the valve body 50 does not close any of the suction port 49 and the opening 46. In addition,
An air passage is provided between the adjacent hanging rods 54.

The casing 42 is divided into an upper chamber 42a on the suction port side of the suction device 38 and a lower chamber 42b on the suction port 49 side by a partition plate 56 having a communication hole 57. The communication hole 57 can be opened and closed by a valve body 58 operated by a known actuator 59 such as a fluid pressure cylinder. An opening 61 penetrating in the vertical direction is formed in the upper wall 44 of the casing 42, and the opening 61 is openable and closable by a valve body 62. Is operated by the operating device 64 of FIG. An opening 65 is formed in the partition plate 56 so that the opening 61 has a common axis with the axis.
A ventilation tube 66 is interposed between the edge of the opening 61 and the edge of the opening 61.

With the above configuration, when the communication hole 57 and the opening 61 are closed while the suction device 38 is operated,
The upper chamber 42a can be under negative pressure. In this state, since the valve body 50 does not close the opening 46 and the suction port 49, the lower chamber 42b is at atmospheric pressure. In the above state, the upper surface of the article is applied only to the left opening 46, the opening 46 is closed by the upper surface of the article, and then the communication hole 57 is opened. Therefore, the valve body 50 does not close the suction port 49 and the article is
7 On the other hand, since the opening 46 on the right side is not closed, the suction port 49 corresponding to the opening 46 on the right side is automatically operated by the valve body 50 which is sucked toward the suction port 49 because the pressure in the lower chamber 42b becomes negative. Closed. By this operation, when all the openings 46 are not closed by the upper surface of the article when the article is sucked and held by the article transfer apparatus 40, in other words, the planar shape of the article to be sucked and held (or the shape of the article group). The article can be sucked and held without being restricted by the stacking pattern. To release the suction of the article, the communication hole 57 may be closed and the opening 61 may be opened. Then, since the lower chamber 42b is opened to the atmosphere, the suction holding of the article is released, and the right valve body 50 is released.
Opens the suction port 49.

[0013]

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described. During operation of the article transfer device 40, the suction device 38 is always operating. The article transfer device 40 operates as described above, sucks and holds the upper surface of the article supplied to the load receiving station (not shown), carries it to a pallet (not shown), and releases the suction and hold there to release the article. On the pallet and return to the receiving station empty. The control device (not shown) closes the communication hole 57 while the article transfer device 40 moves back to the receiving station.
, And only the upper chamber 42a is set to a negative pressure so that the article can be sucked and held immediately after returning to the receiving station. Upon returning to the receiving station, the article transfer device 40 sucks and holds the upper surface of the article supplied to the receiving station. Hereinafter, the same operation is repeated.

[0014]

[Modifications and the like] Modifications and the like will be described below. (1) The article transfer device 40 is generally used as a robot hand by attaching it to a robot arm or the like, but it goes without saying that it can be used in other states. (2) The size of the article transfer device 40 is arbitrary.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 38 suction machine 40 article transfer device 42 casing 43 lower wall 49 suction port 50 valve body

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A suction device which has a casing connected to a suction device for making the inside a negative pressure and has a plurality of suction ports on a lower wall, and a valve body for opening and closing each suction port. An article transfer device in which a suction port that is not blocked by an upper surface of an article is closed by a valve body. 2. A lower wall of the casing is formed with a plurality of downwardly open recesses, and an elastic body having an opening formed corresponding to the recess is attached to a lower surface of the lower wall. A suction port is formed in the top wall of the recess, and a valve body is provided in the recess so as to be vertically movable, and the valve body does not close the suction port and the opening in a normal state, and operates the suction machine to remove the article. At the time of holding by suction, if the opening is not closed by the upper surface of the article, the suction port corresponding to the opening is automatically set by the valve body that is sucked toward the suction port because the inside of the casing becomes a negative pressure. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said means is closed.
An article transfer device as described in the above. 3. The casing is divided into an upper chamber on the suction port side and a lower chamber on the suction port side of the suction device by a partition plate having a communication hole, and the communication hole is made openable and closable by a valve body. 3. The article transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein only the upper chamber can be set to a negative pressure with the valve closed by a valve body. 4. An article transfer device for repeatedly performing an operation of transferring an article received by a load receiving section to an unloading section, wherein the upper chamber receives a negative pressure while moving back from the unloading section to the load receiving section. 4. The article transfer device according to claim 3, further comprising a control device for controlling the transfer of the article.