JP2003103223A - Selecting device for farm product - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a novel selecting device for farm products decreasing the number of secondary manual selecting person and capable of enhancing an installation efficiency of the selecting device. SOLUTION: A plurality of graduated drawing conveyors 4 are provided in adjacent to each other along a conveying passage of a selection conveyor 2 every in ranks and are divided into groups in which a conveying direction is a reverse direction each other. A manual selection part area R for transferring the farm products of which the grade is to be changed from the farm products conveyed by the respective drawing conveyors 4c, 4d to the drawing conveyors 4b-4d of corresponding grade is set near a downstream side of the drawing conveyors 4c, 4d of one group and near an upstream side of the drawing conveyors of the other group.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an agricultural product selection device for selecting agricultural products such as mandarin oranges and persimmons according to preset categories such as grade and rank, and particularly mechanical selection by an inspection device such as a camera. The present invention relates to a novel agricultural product sorting device that allows an operator to efficiently perform visual inspection (secondary selection) on the produced agricultural products.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the selection work of mandarin oranges, etc.
A method is adopted in which a portion (outside the field of view) that cannot be captured by an image capturing device such as a camera is supplemented by visual inspection by an operator, and a sorting device for this type of agricultural product is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-73478. Are known.
This sorting device, as shown in FIG.
In the sorting section set for each class along the transport path of 2,
Discharge conveyor 103 to which a plurality of transport paths are connected according to grades
Are provided in the left-right direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the sorting conveyor 102. The respective discharge conveyors 103 are provided by setting the conveyance directions of the adjacent discharge conveyors 103 according to grades to be different from each other, so that the box packaging device provided for each sorting along the conveyance direction of the sorting conveyor 102. 104 are arranged at substantially equal intervals.

On the downstream side of the discharge conveyor 103, a grade correction section 105 in which an operator for visually inspecting the appearance of the agricultural products conveyed by the discharge conveyor 103 (referred to as a secondary selection person M) is arranged. Are provided on both sides of the discharge conveyor 103. The grade correction unit 105 has a range within which the secondary selection person M can reach the agricultural products conveyed by the discharge conveyors 103 adjacent to each other at most from 2 to 3 articles.
Since there are only about four articles, the discharge conveyor 103 with four or more articles
When they are adjacent to each other, they are provided on both sides of the four discharge conveyors 103, respectively. The secondary handpicker M disposed in the grade correction unit 105 downgrades the agricultural products to be downgraded by visually inspecting the appearance of the agricultural products transported by the respective grade-based transportation paths of the discharge conveyor 103. The secondary hand selection work of transferring to the discharge conveyor 103 corresponding to the grade is performed.

[0004]

However, in such a sorting device 101, when the discharge conveyors 103 adjacent to each other by grade have three or more articles (three grades), or only from one side of the discharge conveyor 103. Secondary hand picker M
When it is not possible to reach, the grade correction units 105 need to be provided on both sides of the discharge conveyor 103, so that at least two secondary handpickers M are required. There is a problem that at least two people are needed regardless of the large amount of selection of agricultural products, which contributes to an increase in personnel costs. Is desired.

Further, when the above-described system of the sorting apparatus 101 is adopted and, for example, two or more sorting conveyors 102 are arranged, grade correction sections 105 are provided on both sides in the width direction of the sorting conveyors 102 of each series. Since it is necessary to arrange each of the secondary hand selectors M, the work space of the grade correction unit 105 requires a large installation space in the width direction of the two series of sorting conveyors 102, and the sorting field of the sorting apparatus 101 is required. There is a problem that installation efficiency is poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a novel agricultural product sorting apparatus which can reduce the number of secondary selection persons and improve the installation efficiency of the sorting apparatus. To provide. In addition, in addition to the above-mentioned purpose, another purpose is to easily and efficiently carry out the downgrade work of agricultural products, efficiently use a plurality of series of selection conveyors, and agricultural products that can easily cope with various boxing forms and the like. Is to provide a sorting device.

[0007]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is such that a plurality of drawer conveyors classified by grade are adjacent to each other along a conveying path of a sorting conveyor. With the plurality of drawer conveyors, the plurality of drawer conveyors are divided into groups in which the conveying directions are opposite to each other, in the vicinity of the downstream side of the drawer conveyor of one group and the upstream side of the drawer conveyor of the other group, in each of the drawer conveyors. It is characterized by setting a hand selection section area for transferring the agricultural products to be changed in grade from the conveyed agricultural products to the drawer conveyor of the corresponding grade.

With this configuration, the agricultural products conveyed by the sorting conveyor are imaged by, for example, an image pickup device to determine their rank and grade, and are discharged onto the corresponding drawer conveyors. It is conveyed in a predetermined direction by a drawer conveyor of a predetermined grade that is grouped in opposite directions. At this time, since the hand selection area is set near the downstream side of the pull-out conveyor of one group and near the upstream side of the pull-out conveyor of the other group, the secondary hand selection placed in this hand selection area. A person visually inspects the appearance of agricultural products on the pull-out conveyor of one group, and the agricultural products that are judged to have to be changed in grade by this visual inspection are secondary Transferred by the elector. As a result, it is possible for one secondary person to transfer the agricultural products on the drawer conveyor having three or more articles, and the number of the secondary persons can be reduced. In addition, since the hand selection section area may be provided on one side of the sorting conveyor in the conveying direction, not on both sides, the space for installing the sorting device can be reduced.

Further, as in the invention according to claim 2, the plurality of groups are an upper grade group and a lower grade group, and the agricultural products conveyed by the upper grade drawer conveyor in the hand selection section area. It is preferable to transfer the agricultural products to be downgraded to the pull-out conveyor of the corresponding grade. With this configuration, among agricultural products that are transported by the upper-grade drawer conveyor, the agricultural products that have been judged to be downgraded by visual inspection of the hand selection area will fall into the same area by the secondary handpicker. Since it is transferred to a pull-out conveyor, it is possible to efficiently carry out a lot of downgrading work when manually selecting agricultural products.

Further, in the invention according to claim 3, it is preferable that each of the upper grade group and the lower grade group is set to at least two types of grades. By configuring in this way, for example
When setting to the group of the upper grade of "excellent" and the group of the lower grade of "good" and "normal", "excellent" to "excellent", "excellent" to "good" in one hand selection area Since it is possible to perform downgrade work from "excellent" to "moderate", at least three types of downgrade work can be performed by one secondary handpicker, and the secondary handpicking work can be efficiently performed.

Further, in the invention according to claim 4, it is preferable that a plurality of series of the selection conveyors are arranged and the variety of agricultural products in each series is different. As in the invention described in (1), it is preferable that the products are classified by type at a predetermined position along the conveying direction. With this configuration, since a plurality of varieties of agricultural products are sorted by the sorting conveyors arranged in a plurality of lines, it is possible to sort different agricultural products at substantially the same time, and the sorting processing capacity can be improved. The sorting conveyor can be efficiently used by sorting the products according to types at predetermined positions along the line.

[0012] Further, as in the invention according to claim 6, it is preferable that the sorting conveyors are arranged in a plurality of series, and the varieties of agricultural products in each series are the same. In this case, the sorting conveyors in the plurality of series are According to the seventh aspect of the invention, it is preferable that the agricultural products are sorted according to the packing form at a predetermined position along the carrying direction. By configuring in this way, since the agricultural products of the same variety are selected by the selection conveyors arranged in a plurality of series, it is possible to improve the selection processing capacity of the agricultural products of the same type, and the selection conveyors are arranged along the conveying direction by a predetermined value. By classifying the packaging forms according to the positions, it is possible to easily cope with various packaging forms such as packaging by weight.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a basic form of a sorting apparatus according to the present invention. In addition, ~ shown in the weighing box packing device in the figure indicates the grade of the agricultural product packed in the box packing device, and in this example, is "excellent" for convenience.
Means "excellent" means "good" means "normal". The same applies to the following figures.

In FIG. 1, a sorting device 1 has a sorting conveyor 2 of, for example, 6 rows and 1 system for sorting agricultural products, and discharge devices 3 are provided corresponding to a large number of sorting positions of the sorting conveyor 2. At the same time, a pull-out conveyor 4 is provided for each of the discharging devices 3. It should be noted that the discharge device 3 simply indicated by a circle in FIG. 1 is composed of six discharge devices corresponding to each line of the sorting conveyor 2.

Further, the pull-out conveyor 4 is provided below the sorting conveyor 2 in the direction orthogonal to the conveying direction (a) of the sorting conveyor 2 by four grades of pulling conveyors 4a to 4d for each grade.
Are arranged in a penetrating state and are grouped into two groups from the upstream side of the sorting conveyor 2. That is, the conveying directions (b) of the pull-out conveyors 4a and 4b of the upstream two-row group are set to the right in FIG. 1, and the conveying directions of the next two-row group of the pull-out conveyors 4c and 4d are left in FIG. Is set to the direction. By setting this state in the same manner toward the downstream side of the sorting conveyor 2, the transport directions B and C are made up of two groups in mutually opposite directions, for a total of 4
A block is formed having strip pull-out conveyors 4a to 4c.

On the left side of FIG. 1 of the four pull-out conveyors 4a to 4d forming this block, a secondary hand selector M is arranged and a hand selection section area R for performing the secondary hand selection work. Are provided respectively. This hand selection area R
Is provided near the upstream side of the drawer conveyors 4a and 4b and near the downstream side of the drawer conveyors 4c and 4d.

In the hand selection area R, the drawer conveyors 4c and 4d are located on the downstream side and the drawer conveyors 4a and 4a.
A work area for the secondary handpicker M, which is formed by a corner space having a relatively small area and is formed by the end face on the most upstream side of 4b, is provided, and the secondary handpicker M is arranged in this work area. By doing so, the distance to each of the drawer conveyors 4a to 4d becomes the shortest distance, and the downgrade work by the secondary handpicker M is facilitated. Further, on the downstream side of the pull-out conveyors 4c and 4d, a slightly wide hand-selected conveyor 5 is provided. A weighing box packing device 6 (box packing packaging device) is provided on the downstream side of the hand selection conveyor 5 and on the downstream side of the drawing conveyors 4a and 4b. A product transport conveyor 7 that transports a cardboard box (referred to as a product box) containing a predetermined amount of agricultural products by the weighing and boxing device 6 is connected to each.

Next, the operation of the sorting apparatus 1, that is, the basic operation of the present invention will be briefly described. In addition, the grades of agricultural products corresponding to the drawer conveyors 4c and 4d are higher than "excellent S" (-S in the figure) and "excellent S" (-S in the figure), and the grades of agricultural products corresponding to the drawer conveyors 4a and 4b. "Good S" (-S in the figure) "Normal S"
(-S in the figure). The agricultural products supplied to the sorting conveyor 2 are conveyed by the sorting conveyor 2 after the appearance and internal quality are measured by the image pickup device 8 (see FIG. 2) provided on the upstream side of the sorting conveyor 2 to determine the class and grade. By operating the discharging device 3 at the positions of the corresponding pull-out conveyors 4a to 4c, the pull-out conveyors 4a to 4c
is discharged onto c.

Among the agricultural products discharged on the pull-out conveyors 4a to 4c, the lower grade agricultural products of "good S" and "normal S" are directly conveyed to the downstream side by the pull-out conveyors 4a and 4b, and weighed and packed in the weighing box 6a. Then, it is packed in a cardboard box and sent to the product conveyor 7 on the right side of FIG. on the other hand,
Agricultural products of higher grades of “excellent S” and “excellent S” are conveyed to the downstream side by the drawer conveyors 4c and 4d and supplied to the hand selection conveyor 5. Then, the external appearance is visually inspected by the secondary hand picker M who is arranged in the work area of the hand picking section area R. Then, the agricultural products that are judged not to be downgraded by this visual inspection are directly transported to the downstream side and supplied to the weighing and boxing device 6, and are boxed in a corrugated cardboard box in the same manner as the lower-grade agricultural products, and are left side in FIG. The product is conveyed to the product conveyor 7.

However, the agricultural products for which the secondary selection person M in the selection area R has determined that the downgrade is necessary are downgraded as follows. That is, in the case of downgrading from "Shu S" to "excellent S", the agricultural product is moved as shown by the arrow D and the pulling conveyor 4c of grade "excellent S" is moved from the downstream side of the pulling conveyor 4d of grade "excellent S". Manually transfer to the downstream side. Further, when downgrading from "excellent S" to "good S" or "normal S", the agricultural product concerned is graded "good S" from the downstream side of the pulling conveyor 4c of grade "excellent S" as shown by arrows E and F. Similarly, it is transferred to the upstream side of the drawing conveyor 4b of No. 4 or the upstream side of the drawing conveyor 4a of grade "Normal S". As a result, three types of downgrade work from "Shu S" to "Yu S", "Yu S" to "Good S", and "Yu S" to "Normal S" are performed by one of the secondary members of the hand selection section area R It is performed by the hand picker M, and the number of secondary hand pickers M can be reduced as compared with the conventional case.

The above is the basic form of the present invention and its operation. Next, a concrete embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. It should be noted that the same portions as or the portions corresponding to those in FIG. In this example, two sorting conveyors 2 of, for example, 6 articles and 1 series in the sorting apparatus 1 are arranged, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show the installation state in the sorting field.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, two series of sorting conveyors 2A and 2B are for sorting agricultural products of different varieties A and B, respectively. The sorting conveyor 2A has, for example, an intermediate position Sa in the carrying direction B. By providing the discharge device 3 on the upstream side (for example, the switching instruction unit) (or by making only the discharge device 3 on the upstream side operable), it is possible to sort A-type agricultural products, and the sorting conveyor 2B
Enables the selection of agricultural products of B type by providing the discharge device 3 on the downstream side of the intermediate position Sb in the transport direction (or making only the discharge device 3 on the downstream side operable). That is, the downstream side of the intermediate position Sa of the sorting conveyor 2A does not participate in the sorting of the agricultural products of A type, and the upstream side of the intermediate position Sb of the sorting conveyor 2B does not participate in the sorting of the agricultural products of B type, only the transport function. Will have.

The pull-out conveyor 4 arranged below the two series of sorting conveyors 2A and 2B is arranged so as to penetrate the two series of sorting conveyors 2A and 2B in the orthogonal direction.
The weighing box packing device 6 is provided on the downstream side of each drawer conveyor 4 as described above. Then, on the downstream side of each weighing and packaging device 6, the product transport conveyors 7A, 7A
B is connected to each, but this product conveyor 7
A and 7B are the intermediate positions S of the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B.
It is set so that it is divided by a and Sb and the conveyance directions G and C are in opposite directions.

That is, the product conveying conveyor 7A connected to the weighing box packing device 6 upstream of the intermediate positions Sa and Sb of the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B is set such that the conveying direction is set in the arrow direction of FIG. The downstream side is connected to the merging portion 9A for A type. Also, the sorting conveyors 2A, 2B
The product conveyor 7B connected to the weighing and boxing device 6 on the downstream side of the intermediate positions Sa and Sb is set in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 3, and the downstream side is connected to the merging portion 9B for the B product. Has been done.

Then, at the merging portions 9A and 9B of the product conveying conveyors 7A and 7B, the conveying conveyor 1 for sticking labels is provided.
0 are connected to each other, and further, this transfer conveyor 10 has a plurality of rows (two rows in the figure) of conveyors 13a and 13 having a conveyor 11 for a weight checker and a box sealing machine 12.
b, and a conveyor 14 for conveying the sealed product box
Etc. are connected to the product pool section 15, respectively.

Each of the transfer conveyors 10 has a number detector 16 for detecting the number of a predetermined form of the weighing and box filling device 6 attached to the product boxes conveyed by the transfer conveyors 10.
And an inkjet printer 17 that prints the class, grade, etc. on the label based on the information detected by the number detector 16, and a label sticking machine 18 that sticks the label printed by the printer 17 on the product box. Are provided respectively. A weight checker 19 is provided on each of the conveyors 11, a bar code reader 20 is provided on the upstream side of the weight checker 19, and a measured weight is provided on the downstream side of the weight checker 19. A pop-out line 21 for rejecting a product box that is not appropriate is provided.

A boxing machine 12 is provided on each of the transfer conveyors 13a and 13b.
The downstream side of 13b is connected to each of the transport conveyors 14 via a merging section 22. Then, as shown in FIG.
The downstream side of the transport conveyor 14 is connected to the product pool section 15 via a merging section 23. The product pool section 15 includes a sorting conveyor 24 for sorting product boxes,
The sorting conveyor 24 is composed of a large number of pool lines 25, etc., which are connected to the discharge devices at the sorting positions and pool the sorted product boxes.

Next, the operation of the sorting apparatus 1 of this embodiment will be described. Since the basic operation is the same as that of the sorting apparatus 1 in FIG. 1, the operation concerning the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B arranged in two lines will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 4, with respect to the agricultural products of A type conveyed by the sorting conveyor 2A, the operation of the discharge device 3 of the predetermined sorting upstream of the intermediate position Sa (indicated by a circle X in the figure).
Are discharged onto the corresponding pull-out conveyors 4, are packed by the weighing and packing device 6 on the downstream side thereof, and are sent to the left and right product transport conveyors 7A, respectively. At this time, the discharging device 3 located downstream of the intermediate position Sa of the sorting conveyor 2A is in a non-operating state (indicated by a circle in the figure).

In addition, the agricultural products of the B type conveyed by the sorting conveyor 2B are operated by the discharge device 3 for predetermined sorting on the downstream side of the intermediate position Sb (indicated by a circle X in the figure), and the corresponding pulling conveyor 4 is operated. It is discharged upward, packed in the weighing and packing device 6 on the downstream side thereof, and sent to the left and right product transport conveyors 7B, respectively. At this time, the sorting conveyor 2B
The discharge device 3 located upstream of the intermediate position Sb is not operated (indicated by a circle in the figure), and the discharge of the agricultural products of the B type onto the drawer conveyor 4 upstream from the intermediate position Sb. prohibited.

That is, in the case of this embodiment, the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B are divided into two blocks along the transporting direction a at the position of the one-dot chain line in FIG. 4, and are transported by the sorting conveyor 2A. The incoming agricultural products of the A type are discharged onto a predetermined withdrawing conveyor 4 in the block by the operation of only the discharging device 3 located in the upstream block of the selecting conveyor 2A, while being conveyed by the selecting conveyor 2B. The incoming agricultural products of B type are discharged onto the pulling conveyor 4 in the block by the operation of only the discharging device 3 located in the block on the downstream side of the sorting conveyor 2B. Then, in each block, the drawer conveyor 4 for each group
By arranging the secondary handpicker M in correspondence with a to 4d, the downgrade work as described above becomes possible, and at the same time the agricultural products of the A and B varieties can be selected almost simultaneously.

When switching the type of agricultural products conveyed by the two series of sorting conveyors 2A and 2B, switching supporters are arranged at the intermediate positions Sa and Sb respectively, and the switching instructor is instructed. It is also possible to perform the switching setting of each device that needs to be switched automatically by allowing the switching instructor to flow, for example, a dummy box onto the conveyors 7A and 7B at the time of switching, based on the switching instruction. You can also

As described above, in the sorting apparatus 1 of the above-described embodiment, the pull-out conveyors 4a to 4d are provided below the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B in the direction orthogonal to the transporting direction a corresponding to each sorting section. The pull-out conveyors 4a to 4d are arranged in a penetrating manner, and each of the pull-out conveyors 4a to 4d is grouped into two groups so that the pull-out conveyors 4a to 4d in the adjacent groups can be conveyed in the direction b.
C are set in opposite directions, and the drawer conveyor 4c,
Since the hand selection area R is set in the vicinity of the downstream side of 4d and the upstream side of the drawer conveyors 4a and 4b, one secondary hand selection person M placed in this hand selection area R can It is possible to properly perform the three types of downgrade work of agricultural products on the drawer conveyors 4a to 4d.

Particularly, "excellent" to "excellent", "excellent" to "excellent" or "normal" that are often used in agricultural products such as mandarin oranges.
Since the downgrade work to (1) can be performed by one secondary hand selector M who is placed in the hand picking section area R, the number of the secondary hand choosers M placed in the fruit selection field is Compared to this, the cost can be cut in half and labor costs can be reduced. As a result, it is possible to reduce the selection cost of agricultural products such as mandarin oranges.

Further, in the hand selection section area R, there is provided a working area composed of a corner space having a relatively small area formed by the downstream side of the drawer conveyors 4c and 4d and the most upstream side end surface of the drawer conveyors 4a and 4b. Since the secondary selection person M is located in this work area, it is possible to easily position the hand of the secondary selection person M on the predetermined drawer conveyors 4a to 4d located at the shortest position. As a result, the work of transferring the downgraded agricultural products by the secondary handpicker M can be performed quickly, and the downgrade work can be performed easily and reliably.

Further, since the conveying directions of the pull-out conveyors 4a to 4d are set in opposite directions for each of the two groups, and the hand selecting section area R is provided on one side in the width direction of the selecting conveyors 2A and 2B, this can be dealt with. For example, it is possible to obtain a low-priced sorting apparatus 1 that is excellent in versatility and that has a minimal equipment cost because it is possible to deal with it only by changing the layout of an existing facility, for example, the introduction of new equipment is unnecessary. .

Further, the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B are arranged in two lines, divided into two blocks on the upstream side and the downstream side, and the drawer conveyors 4a to 4d grouped below the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B are arranged through. by doing,
Since two kinds of agricultural products A and B can be selected almost at the same time, it is possible to improve the processing efficiency of the selection work of various agricultural products. Furthermore, two series of sorting conveyors 2A, 2
B is arranged side by side, and the hand selection area R is provided on one side in the width direction.
Since it is possible to cope with this, it is not necessary to provide the hand selection area R on both sides in the width direction of each of the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B as in the conventional case, and the installation space in the width direction of the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B can be narrowed. As a result, the sorting device 1 can be efficiently installed in the sorting field.

By the way, in the above embodiment, the case has been described in which two kinds of agricultural products of A type and B type are selected substantially simultaneously by the selection conveyors 2A, 2B arranged in two lines. Agricultural products of the same type can be flowed to the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B for sorting. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the discharging device 3 corresponding to each pulling conveyor 4 of both sorting conveyors 2A and 2B.
All of the conveyors 2A, 2A
The agricultural products from B are discharged onto a predetermined drawing conveyor 4.

Then, for example, each sorting conveyor 2A, 2B
The agricultural products in the sorting section corresponding to the product transport conveyor 7A on the upstream side of the intermediate positions Sa and Sb in the transport direction b of
The product box contains 10 kg of weight, and the intermediate positions Sa and Sb
For the agricultural products in the sorting section corresponding to the product transport conveyor 7B on the further downstream side, the stored weight of the product box is set to 5 kg.
Also in this modified example, the hand selection section area R can be provided on one side in the width direction of the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B, and in addition to the substantially same operation and effect as the above-described embodiment,
One kind (A variety) of agricultural products can be packed in the product boxes of 10 kg and 5 kg, and it is possible to easily cope with various packing forms.

Further, in the case of this modified example, even in the case of the same weight boxed form, the same sorting section is set on the upstream side and the downstream side of the conveying direction B of the sorting conveyors 2A, 2B, and the same as in the above embodiment. By disabling the discharge device 3 on the upstream side or the downstream side of the sorting conveyors 2A and 2B, it is possible to sort the same product type by the two sorting conveyors 2A and 2B at the same time.
It is possible to further improve the processing efficiency of the sorting work. Further, for example, when one sorting conveyor 2B fails, the other sorting conveyor 2A can be used to perform the sorting work. Therefore, the excellent sorting device 1 can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the hand selection area R corresponds to the four-drawer conveyors 4a to 4d. However, for example, the width of the drawer conveyor 4 itself is narrow,
Within the reach of the secondary picker M, it is possible to correspond to a total of 6 drawer conveyors as a group for each of 3 drawer conveyors, and the number of drawer conveyors 4 in each group is not necessarily the same. It is not necessary, for example, one group may be a two-row drawing conveyor and the other group may be a three-row drawing conveyor. Further, the number of pull-out conveyors 4 and their grouping, and the class and type of agricultural products are not limited to those in the above embodiments, and can be appropriately set according to the type of agricultural products. Various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[0041]

As described above in detail, according to the invention described in claim 1, the plurality of drawer conveyors adjacent to the sorting conveyor are divided into groups whose conveying directions are opposite to each other,
Since the selection area is set near the downstream side of one group and near the upstream side of the other group, one secondary selection person in the selection area, for example, produce between three or more drawer conveyors. Since the number of secondary hand pickers can be reduced and the hand picking section area can be provided on one side in the conveying direction of the sorting conveyor instead of on both sides, It is possible to save the space for installation in the sorting field.

According to the invention described in claim 2, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 1, the agricultural products conveyed by the upper-grade drawer conveyor should be downgraded in the hand selection area. Since the determined agricultural products are transferred to the corresponding drawer conveyor by the secondary handpicker in the same area, it is possible to efficiently carry out a lot of downgrade work during the handpicking work of agricultural products.

According to the invention described in claim 3, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 1 or 2, for example, an agricultural product is selected from "excellent" to "excellent" in one hand selection area,
Since it is possible to perform downgrade work from "excellent" to "good" and from "excellent" to "moderate", at least three types of downgrade work between upper and lower grades are possible by one secondary handpicker, Secondary selection work can be performed more efficiently.

According to the invention described in claim 4, in addition to the effects of the invention described in claims 1 to 3, since a plurality of kinds of agricultural products are selected by the selection conveyors arranged in a plurality of series, different kinds of products are selected. It is possible to sort the agricultural products at about the same time and improve the sorting processing ability.

According to the invention described in claim 5, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 4, the sorting conveyors arranged in a plurality of lines are sorted by product type at a predetermined position along the transport direction. Therefore, the sorting conveyor can be used efficiently.

According to the invention described in claim 6, in addition to the effects of the invention described in claims 1 to 3, since agricultural products of the same kind are selected by the selection conveyors arranged in a plurality of series, the same kind of product is selected. It is possible to improve the sorting and processing capacity of agricultural products.

According to the invention described in claim 7, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 6, a plurality of series-arranged sorting conveyors are sorted according to the packing form at predetermined positions along the transport direction. Therefore, for example, there is an effect that it is possible to easily cope with various packaging forms such as packaging by weight.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a basic form of an agricultural product sorting apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a sorting device having the same two series of sorting conveyors.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the main part thereof.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the main part of the same.

FIG. 5 is a plan view similar to FIG. 3 showing a modification thereof.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a conventional sorting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Sorting device 2, 2A, 2B ... Sorting conveyor 3 ... Ejection device 4, 4a-4d ... Drawer conveyor 5: Hand-selected conveyor 6 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Weighing box packing device 7, 7A, 7B ... Product conveyor 8: Imaging device 9A, 9B ... ・ Merging section 10, 11, ... Transport conveyor 12 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Sealing machine 13a, 13b ... ・ Conveyor conveyor 14 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Transport conveyor 15 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Product pool 16 --- Number detector 17 ... Printer 18 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Labeling machine 19 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Weight checker 20 ... Bad Code Reader M ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Secondary selection R: Hand selection area

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of withdrawing conveyors for each grade are provided adjacent to each other along a conveying path of a sorting conveyor, and
The plurality of drawer conveyors are divided into groups in which the conveying directions are opposite to each other, and are conveyed by the respective drawer conveyors in the vicinity of the downstream side of the drawer conveyors in one group and in the vicinity of the upstream side of the drawer conveyors in the other group. An apparatus for selecting agricultural products, characterized by having a hand selection area for transferring the agricultural products to be grade-changed from the agricultural products to a drawer conveyor of the corresponding grade. 2. The plurality of groups are a higher-grade group and a lower-grade group, and the agricultural products to be downgraded are selected from agricultural products conveyed by the upper-grade drawer conveyor in the hand selection section area. The agricultural product sorting device according to claim 1, wherein the agricultural product sorting device is transferred to the drawing conveyor. 3. The agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the upper grade group and the lower grade group are respectively set to at least two types of grades. 4. The agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sorting conveyors are arranged in a plurality of lines, and the types of agricultural products in each of the lines are different. 5. The apparatus for sorting agricultural products according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of series of sorting conveyors are sorted by product type at predetermined positions along the carrying direction. 6. The agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sorting conveyors are arranged in a plurality of lines, and the types of agricultural products in each line are the same. 7. The agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of series of sorting conveyors are sorted according to the form of packing of agricultural products at predetermined positions along the carrying direction.