JP2003126787A - Weight sorting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To hardly cause a perpendicular component of force during the transfer or delivery of objects to be weighed of a weighing conveyor and to permit sufficient taking of the effective time for weighing even if the weighing conveyor is made shorter. SOLUTION: This weight sorting device consists of the weighing conveyor 34 having an endless traveling body 41 moving while supporting articles 36 and article feeding and conveying means 31 mounted with article conveying containers 38 and provided with another endless traveling body 37 traveling at nearly the same speed as the speed of the endless traveling body, in which a feed conveyor 33 having an endless traveling body 41 for supporting the articles on a common or respectively separated conveying and supporting surfaces is disposed in the fore stage of the weighing conveyor; the beginning end of this feed conveyor has a rising inclined section 43 and the inclined section of the feed conveyor is intersected with the conveying loci L of the under surfaces of the objects to be weighed housed and conveyed in the conveying containers, by which the articles housed in the conveying containers are transferred onto the feed conveyor.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to sending and receiving of articles to be weighed, which are stored and conveyed in a conveying container in a weight sorter, onto a weighing conveyor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A weighing conveyor is attached to a weight sorter,
The weighing conveyor is composed of a stationary weighing platform and an endless traveling body such as a belt and a chain that is driven to rotate on the weighing platform, and the weight of the object to be weighed is conveyed on the weighing platform by the endless traveling body. . Generally, the purpose of a weight sorter is to automatically weigh many articles per unit time, so it is necessary to automatically feed the articles to be weighed to the weighing platform continuously in a short time. In operation, it is not possible to weigh individual articles if there are two articles on a weighing platform of a given length at the same time. It is necessary to feed two or more articles onto the weighing table with a certain distance or more between them so that at least two articles do not stay on the weighing table during the weighing operation.

However, although there is no hindrance to the weighing operation by keeping a gap of a certain length or more, in order to maximize the weighing capacity, the articles are continuously fed at the smallest weighable interval. Therefore, a device called a constant interval feeding device for supplying articles to the weight sorter while keeping them at constant intervals is attached. 3 and 4 show conventional cases. The weight sorter 1 includes a supply device 3 including the above-mentioned constant interval feeding device for the articles 2 to be weighed, a device 4 for loading the articles to be weighed into the weight sorter, and a weighing conveyor 5.

In the supply device 3 for the articles 2, a large number of long plates 7 are mounted close to each other at a predetermined interval in a direction perpendicular to the running direction on an endless running body 6 such as a rotating chain. The rotational movement of 6 translates in the direction of arrow 8. The articles 2 to be weighed are manually arranged in section A for each dish 7. In this case, since the distance between the dishes 7 is short, the traveling speed of the dishes 7 in the section A supplied with the articles 2 to be weighed can be slow under a certain capacity. Therefore, it is possible to manually supply the dish 7. The articles 2 to be weighed in the tray 7 are conveyed, and after being rotated along the guides 9, they fall by gravity in the section B of transfer.

At the lower part of the feeding device 3, a carry-in device 4 corresponding to the above-mentioned constant interval feeding device is installed, and the carry-in device 4 is also equipped with endless running bodies 10 such as chains in parallel on both sides in the carrying direction. It is rotating in the direction of arrow 11.
The transfer claws 12 are attached to the endless traveling body 10 at regular intervals,
The tray 7 of the supply device 3 and the transfer claw 12 of the carry-in device 4 are rotated so that the section B always meets one to one in the section. As a matter of course, the speed of the endless traveling body 10 becomes higher than that of the endless traveling body 6 in accordance with the ratio of the interval length of the conveying claws 12 to the distance between the dishes 7, and the articles 2 to be weighed dropped in the section B are conveyed claws 12.
You can receive it at. Transport claw 12
Has a rotatable shaft attached to the endless traveling body 10, but a guide roller 13 is attached to the bottom of the conveying claw 12 so that the guide roller 13 advances on a guide rail 14. Therefore, the conveyance claw 12 is in a posture of receiving the article 2 to be weighed, which falls from the upper portion in the section B by the guide rail 14. The received articles 2 to be weighed are stacked and stored on the conveying claw 12, and are conveyed in a fixed posture in the direction of the arrow 15 by the guide rails 14 installed parallel to the moving direction of the endless traveling body 10 and supporting the conveying claw 12. It

The weighing conveyor 5 comprises a weighing platform 16 and an endless traveling body 17 such as a conveyor belt or a chain which rotates on the weighing platform 16, and the entire conveyor has a weight sensor 18.
Supported by. The conveying claws 12 and the articles 2 to be weighed stored in the conveying claws 12 travel parallel to the endless traveling body 17 by the linear guide rail 14 until just before the weighing conveyor 5.
The guide rail 14 has a structure in which the guide rail 14 is gradually curved downward from immediately before the weighing conveyor 5. The transfer claw 12 is arranged on the weighing conveyor 5 along the curve of the guide rail 14 with an arrow 19a.
Since the articles 2 to be weighed are stored in the conveying claws 12, the articles 2 to be weighed, which have been accommodated in the conveying claws 12, are transferred downward from an upward direction or an obliquely upward direction with respect to the weighing conveyor 5.

Endless traveling body (belt) 1 of the weighing conveyor 5
4 travels in the same direction as the endless traveling body 10 of the carry-in device 4 at substantially the same speed, so that the conveying claw 12 moves to the weighing conveyor 5
The article 2 to be weighed transferred onto the weighing conveyor 5 is weighed while being conveyed on the weighing conveyor 5. Since the guide rail 14 is curved upward in the exit side of the weighing conveyor 5, the conveying claw 12 is rotated in the direction of the arrow 20, and the articles 2 to be weighed that have been weighed are scooped upward and the weighing conveyor is again carried out. It returns to the posture on the side of entering 5, and is conveyed to the sorting device (not shown) installed in the subsequent stage. Regarding such a configuration, more specifically, Japanese Patent Publications 2-16978 and 2-52810.
Discloses the movement of the transfer claw 12 and the shape of the guide rail 14.

[0008]

In order to measure an object to be weighed with high accuracy, it is necessary to transfer the object to be weighed from the transfer container to the weighing conveyor so as not to disturb the weighing conveyor as much as possible. is there. When a large disturbance input is applied to the measuring section, the peak of the vibration waveform of the transient response becomes larger and the error in the measured value occurs. Since a weight sorter is generally required to perform high-speed weighing processing, the time given for weighing is extremely short, and in most cases there is no time to acquire weighing data after the transient response vibration wave has completely converged. It is clear that the smaller the amplitude of the vibration wave that causes the error, the better the measurement accuracy.

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, the conveying claw 12
The goods 2 to be weighed conveyed by the weighing conveyor 5
The movement of the article 2 to be weighed when it is transferred onto the weighing article 2 is placed on the weighing conveyor 5 by the downward rotation movement of the conveying claw 12 on the weighing conveyor 5. This is a transfer operation in which the article 2 to be weighed is moving downward from the obliquely upward direction with respect to the weighing conveyor 5, and a vertical component force is generated on the weighing conveyor 5 during transfer. In order to transfer the vertical component force as little as possible, the guide rail 14 of the conveying claw 12 is made extremely gentle and the object to be weighed 2 is gradually placed on the weighing conveyor 5 and the conveying claw 12 is moved downward. However, if this is done, then the time during which the articles 2 to be weighed are in contact with the conveying claws 12 on the weighing conveyor 5 becomes long, and the articles 2 to be weighed do not easily come off from the conveying claws 12. However, there is a problem that the effective measurement time, which must be free with respect to the conveying claw 12, cannot be obtained. The same applies to the case where the article 2 to be weighed is received from the weighing conveyor 5 by the conveying claw 12. Squeezing the article 2 on the weighing conveyor 5 from diagonally below by the movement of the transfer claw (container) 12 gives an upward component force, which is the load detection direction, to the weight sensor 18, which causes a disturbance to the weighing conveyor. It adversely affects the weighing accuracy of goods.

An object of the present invention is to prevent the vertical component force from being generated on the weighing conveyor when transferring the articles to be weighed, and the vertical component force to be hardly generated when the articles to be weighed are sent from the weighing conveyor. Even if the length is shortened, the effective weighing time should be sufficient.

[0011]

Means for Solving the Problems The first means of the present invention comprises:
Supply of articles provided with a weighing conveyor having an endless traveling body for supporting and transferring an article on a conveyance support surface, and another endless traveling body equipped with a container for conveying articles and traveling at substantially the same speed as the endless traveling body A weight sorter configured to measure the weight of articles conveyed by the supply / conveyance means of the article by the measurement conveyor, in a stage before the measurement conveyor, which is common to the measurement conveyor or each A feeding conveyor having an endless traveling body for supporting an article on another conveying support surface and feeding it to a weighing conveyor is provided, and the conveying support surface has an inclined portion which is elevated in the article conveying direction on the starting end side of the feeding conveyor. Transferred by crossing the inclined part of the feeding conveyor so that it moves from the lower side to the upper side with respect to the transfer trajectory of the lower surface of the article to be weighed stored in the transfer container. Characterized by being configured to transfer to the conveyor feed the accommodated article to vessel.

[0012] In this means, a feed-in conveyor is provided upstream of the weighing conveyor, that is, at the rising slope of the feed-in conveyor, for example, from a conveying container of a means for feeding / conveying articles that moves horizontally. The conveyor transfers the articles, and the articles are transferred from the feeding conveyor to the weighing conveyor to measure the weight of the articles.
When the goods to be weighed are transferred from the transfer container to the infeed conveyor, the bottom surface of the goods to be weighed supported by the transfer container comes into contact with the transfer surface of the infeed conveyor at the intersection, and at this time, the infeed conveyor receives some impact. When the transport container further advances, the article to be weighed is separated from the transport container, is transported by the endless traveling body of the feed-in conveyor, and is then sent to the weighing conveyor for measurement. The feed-in conveyor is configured to support articles on the same or different conveyance support surface as the weighing conveyor and feeds the articles to the weighing conveyor. Therefore, the articles can be fed and transferred horizontally without any impact. The impact that the conveyor receives on the ascending slope is not transmitted to the weighing conveyor. In this configuration, the impact at the time of transferring the articles to be weighed is completely absorbed by the infeed conveyor.

That is, since the articles to be weighed are fed horizontally to the weighing conveyor, there is a force acting in the vertical direction due to the article load itself. Equivalently, as in the device construction, a dynamic load is applied vertically (in the load-sensing direction) to the weighing conveyor at least at a certain speed. Therefore, unfavorable disturbances to the weighing do not occur, and more accurate weighing can be performed. In addition, since the articles to be weighed do not touch the weighing conveyor or other equipment that impairs weighing accuracy on the weighing conveyor, it can be used to obtain weighing data except for the time required to transfer from the infeed conveyor to the weighing conveyor. preferable. In addition, the guide rails can be manufactured easily because it is sufficient to prepare a linear shape.

The second means of the present invention comprises a weighing conveyor provided with an endless traveling body for supporting and transferring an article on a conveyance supporting surface, and a traveling container mounted with an article conveying container for traveling at substantially the same speed as the endless traveling body. In the weight sorter configured to measure the weight of the article conveyed by the article supply / transport means by the weighing conveyor, the article sorter comprising another endless traveling body A delivery conveyor provided with an endless traveling body that supports an article on a transportation support surface common to or different from the weighing conveyor and sends the article from the weighing conveyor is provided at a stage subsequent to the weighing conveyor, and the transportation support surface is provided at the end side of the delivery conveyor. It has an inclined portion that descends in the conveying direction, and the inclined portion of the delivery conveyor moves from the upper side to the lower side with respect to the conveyance locus of the lower surface of the article to be weighed stored and conveyed in the conveyance container. Characterized by being configured articles supported on feed conveyor by crossing the so that to accommodate the transport container.

This means is usually applied together with the first means. In this means, a delivery conveyor is provided at the downstream of the weighing conveyor, that is, on the downstream side, the measured articles are transferred to the delivery conveyor, and at the descending slope of the delivery conveyor, for example, the supply of articles that proceed horizontally
The articles are transferred from the delivery conveyor to the transport container of the transport means, and the articles are distributed by the supply / transport means or the distribution section provided subordinate thereto. Since the sending-out conveyor is configured to support the article on the same or different transport supporting surface as that of the weighing conveyor and to be transferred from the weighing conveyor, the sending-out and transportation of the article can be horizontal movement with almost no impact. , When the articles are transferred from the weighing conveyor to the delivery conveyor without impacting the weighing conveyor, and when the articles are transferred to the transport container of the feeding / transporting means at the descending slope of the next delivery conveyor, vertical due to removal of the articles An upward impact acts on the delivery conveyor, but is received by the delivery conveyor and the impact is not transmitted to the weighing conveyor. That is,
The delivery conveyor absorbs the impact of the delivery of the articles to be weighed from the weighing conveyor and the transfer to the supply / transport means.

[0016]

1 shows an embodiment of a weight sorter of the present invention. The weight sorter 31 includes a supply / conveyance means 32, a feeding conveyor 33, a weighing conveyor 34, a feeding conveyor 35, and the like.

The supply / conveying means 32 is provided with a portion for conveying the articles 36 to be weighed horizontally in a prescribed direction at prescribed intervals, and includes a conveying chain 37, a conveying container 38, guide rollers 39, and guide rails 40. Etc. The transport chain 37 is an endless traveling body provided in parallel on both sides, is stretched so as to have a predetermined horizontal straight traveling portion, and supports the transport container 38 at predetermined intervals.
The support intervals of the transport containers 38 are set to the weighing conveyor 34 described later.
It is formed to be slightly longer than the length of the weighing platform 45 in the conveyor traveling direction. The transfer container 38 is a pair of claw-shaped members on both sides, and one of them is shown in FIG. 1. The transfer container 38 is rotatably supported by the transfer chain 37 and extends obliquely rearward and downward and then obliquely upward rearward. A guide roller 39 provided at a lower portion of the guide rail 40 is supported by a guide rail 40 so that the guide roller 39 extends downward and has a predetermined posture in which the upper surface is concave. The guide rail 40 has a horizontal linear shape and is used for the transport chain 3
When 7 travels, the transport container 38 is guided by the guide rails 40 and travels horizontally with the upper surface of the container 38 in a concave shape. Figure 1
The horizontal straight line L in (a) is the locus of the lower surface of the article 36 when the article 36 to be weighed is stored in the transport container 38 and moves horizontally.

The infeed conveyor 33 receives the articles 36 to be weighed from the supply / conveying means 32, and the weighing conveyor 34.
The feeding / measuring / feeding-out chain 41 (hereinafter also referred to as the combined-use chain 41) provided on both sides of the feeding / conveying means 32 in parallel with the feeding direction, and the feeding-in chain guide 42. The dual-purpose chain 41 is an endless traveling body that supports and conveys the article 36 to be weighed on its upper surface, and is guided by the feed-in chain guide 42 to form the feed-in conveyor 33. The feed-in chain guide 42 is located inside the guide rail 40, has an ascending slope portion 43 at the start end portion in the transport direction, and has a horizontal portion 44 following it. Ascending slope 43
The upper surface of the dual-use chain 41 passing through intersects with the locus L as seen from the side surface so as to move from the lower side to the upper side at the point Q1. The height of the horizontal portion 44 is higher than the height of the rear end of the concave surface that supports the article 36 of the transport container 38 that moves horizontally. As a result, the articles 36 stored in the transport container 38 and transported are delivered to the infeed conveyor 33.

The weighing conveyor 34 supports the weighing table 45 with a chain guide and the dual-purpose chain 4 which supports the articles 36 to be weighed and runs on the weighing table 45 along the chain guide.
1 and a weight sensor 46 capable of measuring the weight of the article 36 to be weighed on the weighing platform 45. The dual-purpose chain 41 guided by the chain guide of the weighing platform 45 runs horizontally following the horizontal portion 44 at the end of the feeding conveyor 33.

The delivery conveyor 35 is the weighing conveyor 3
4 receives the articles 36 to be weighed, and supplies / conveys means 32
The combined chain 41 and the supply chain guide 47 are provided. The feed-out chain guide 47 has a horizontal portion 48 following the chain guide of the weighing platform 45 and a descending inclined portion 49 following the horizontal portion so as not to interfere with the weighing platform. The combined chain 41 passing through the descending inclined portion 49 has the locus L and the point Q when viewed from the side.
It crosses at 2 in order to shift from the upper side to the lower side. As a result, the article 36 conveyed by the delivery conveyor 35 is delivered to the conveyance container 38.

The weight sorter 31 thus constructed operates as follows. From the upstream of the feeding conveyor 33, the feeding / conveying means 32 feeds the feeding containers 38 one after another, and on the way to the feeding conveyor 33, as shown in FIG. The article to be weighed 36 is supplied from above by the supply device (3). The lower surface of the article 36 to be weighed stored in the transport container 38 in accordance with the transport motion of the transport container 38 draws a linear locus L. Since the ascending slope portion 43 of the feed-in conveyor 33 intersects the conveyance locus L on the lower surface of the article 36 to be weighed as shown in FIG. 1A, the article 36 to be weighed contacts the dual-use chain 41 at the point Ql. Then, as the transport container 38 further advances toward the weighing conveyor 34, the dual-purpose chain 41 is gradually positioned above the transport container 38, and the article 36 to be weighed is on the dual-purpose chain on the weighing conveyor 34 side from the point Q1. It is transferred onto 41 and is conveyed by the combined chain 41. Even if there is an impact when the article 36 to be weighed is transferred, since the feed chain guide 42 of the feed conveyor 33 is fixed and supported on the installation surface of the weight sorter 31, it does not affect the weighing accuracy.

The articles 36 to be weighed conveyed by the feed-in conveyor 33 reach the horizontal portion 44, and when further advanced, they are moved to the weighing conveyor 34. Since the horizontal portion 44 of the feed-in conveyor 34, the weighing conveyor 34 and the feed surface of the feed-in conveyor 33 are substantially at the same height, the articles 36 to be weighed are carried in in a direction substantially perpendicular to the load detection direction N of the weighing conveyor 34. It Therefore, the weight sensor 46 is most unlikely to be affected by a force other than the static load of the article 36 to be weighed, which enables weighing with high accuracy.

Since the feed-out conveyor 35 arranged at the subsequent stage of the weighing conveyor 34 has the descending sloped portion 49 while the feed-in conveyor 33 has the ascending sloped portion 43, the transport surface and the transport trajectory of the feed-in conveyor 33. L and Q
Cross at two points. Therefore, the articles 36 to be weighed transported by the delivery conveyor 35 are received by the transport container 38 that has been traveling while maintaining the same posture and height position as when passing through the weighing conveyor 34 while traveling on the descending inclined portion 49, and is delivered. Remove from the conveyor 35. Item to be weighed 3
6 is received not on the weighing conveyor 34 but on the delivery conveyor 35, and the delivery conveyor 35 is fixedly supported on the installation surface of the weight sorter 31, so that the articles 3
The impact caused by receiving 6 does not affect the weighing accuracy at all. Then, the sorting section (not shown) provided in the supply / transport means 32 sorts the articles.

In this way, when the object 36 to be weighed is unloaded from the transport container 38 or placed on it, the generated impact has no influence on the weighing accuracy. Since it is carried out at this location, all the articles 36 to be weighed can be used for weighing during the staying time on the weighing conveyor 34. Moreover, the posture of the transport container 38 may be a fixed posture upstream of the feeding conveyor 35, while passing through the feeding conveyor 33, while passing through the weighing conveyor 34, and passing through the feeding conveyor 35.
Since 0 should be linear, it is easy to manufacture.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment, in which 51 is a weighing conveyor, 52 is a feeding conveyor, 53 is a feeding conveyor, 54 is a weighing chain, and 55 is a feeding / feeding chain. The weighing conveyor 51 is an endless traveling body that constitutes a conveyance support surface of the article 59.
4 is provided separately from the feed-in / feed-out chain 55 and is different from the above embodiment. Also in this example, the infeed conveyor 52 and the outfeed conveyor 53 have the ascending slope portion 56 and the descending slope portion 57 respectively intersecting the transportation locus L of the bottom surface of the article to be weighed, so that the article to be weighed from the transport container 58 at a place other than the weighing conveyor 51. It is configured so that 59 can be exchanged and the effect is the same as that of the embodiment of FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 60 designates a transport chain of supply / transport means,
Reference numeral 61 is a weight sensor.

[0026]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the articles to be weighed are sent to the weighing conveyor, no undesired disturbance is caused in the weighing, so that more accurate weighing can be performed and the articles to be weighed can be obtained. Since there is no state on the weighing conveyor that touches the equipment such as the transfer container that impairs the weighing accuracy, the weighing data is acquired except the time required for transferring the articles from the infeed conveyor to the weighing conveyor during the time when the articles are on the weighing conveyor. It is advantageous for high-speed weighing, and the guide rail may be of a linear shape so that it can be easily manufactured. In the invention described in claim 2, when the articles are sent out and transferred, the articles are transferred from the weighing conveyor to the sending conveyor without giving an impact to the weighing conveyor, and the articles are supplied from the next sending conveyor.
Since the impact is not transmitted to the weighing conveyor even when it is transferred to the transport container of the transport means, an undesired disturbance for weighing does not reach the weighing conveyor, so that it is possible to perform more accurate weighing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which (a) is a schematic side view of a main part and (b) is a schematic plan view of the main part.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a main part showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of a conventional weight sorter,
(A) is a side view of a main part, and (b) is a schematic partial plan view.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged side view of the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

31 Weight Selector 32 Supply / Conveying Means 33 Feeding Conveyor 34 Weighing Conveyor 35 Sending Conveyor 36 Articles 37 to be Weighed Conveying Chain 38 Conveying Container 39 Guide Roller 40 Guide Rail 41 Combined Chain (Feeding / Measuring / Feeding Out Chain) 42 Feeding Chain Guide 43 Ascending slope 44 Horizontal part 45 Weighing stand 46 Weight sensor 47 Sending chain guide 48 Horizontal part 49 Lowering slope

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A weighing conveyor equipped with an endless traveling body for supporting and transferring an article on a conveyance supporting surface, and another endless traveling body mounted with an article conveying container and traveling at substantially the same speed as the endless traveling body. A weight sorter configured to measure the weight of the articles conveyed by the article supply / transport means by the weighing conveyor, the weighing conveyor being provided in front of the weighing conveyor. An infeed conveyor provided with an endless traveling body that supports articles on the same or different conveyance support surfaces and sends the articles to the weighing conveyor, and the inclined portion with the conveyance support surface rising in the article conveyance direction is provided at the start end side of the feed conveyor. And crossing the inclined portion of the infeed conveyor so as to shift from the lower side to the upper side with respect to the transportation locus of the lower surface of the article to be weighed stored and transported in the transportation container. A weight sorter characterized by being configured so that the articles stored in the transport container are transferred to and transferred to the conveyor by the. 2. A weighing conveyor equipped with an endless traveling body that supports and conveys an article on a conveyance support surface, and another endless traveling body that is mounted with a conveyance container for the article and that travels at substantially the same speed as the endless traveling body. In a weight sorter configured to include an article supply / conveying means provided therein, the weight of the article conveyed by the article supplying / conveying means being measured by the measuring conveyor, and a measuring conveyor after the measuring conveyor. An infeed conveyor provided with an endless traveling body that supports articles on the same or different conveyance support surfaces and sends them out from the weighing conveyor, and the inclined portion where the conveyance support surface descends in the article conveyance direction is provided at the end side of the delivery conveyor. And a slanted portion of the feed-out conveyor is crossed so as to move from the upper side to the lower side with respect to the transportation locus of the lower surface of the article to be weighed stored and transported in the transportation container. A weight sorter characterized in that an article supported by a delivery conveyor by means of is stored in a transport container.