JP2005060056A - Container handling device and inspection device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a container handling device capable of surrounding the periphery of a container without requiring the reciprocating operation of the container in the direction of the centerline thereof. <P>SOLUTION: This container handling device comprises a pair of rotating bodies 26 rotatable about an axis parallel with the centerline CL of a bottle 2, a drive device 21 rotatingly driving the rotating bodies 26 around its axis in a reverse direction at a same speed, a plurality of covering members 45 installed on the outer peripheries of the pair of rotating bodies 26 at equal pitches in the circumferential direction and formed in such a shape that a cylindrical shape extending in the direction of the centerline CL is halved, and a carrying device 23 carrying in and out the bottle 2 forward in the rotating direction so that the bottle 2 can be matched to the rotation of the rotating bodies 26 at the opposed position of the pair of rotating bodies 26 where they are closest to each other. A cylindrical body surrounding the periphery of the bottle 2 is formed of the pair of covering members 45 delivered to the opposed position Pb. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a handling apparatus having a function of surrounding a container being conveyed and a container inspection apparatus using the handling apparatus.

When the container is transported to the inspection position on the transport path, the projector is raised toward the periphery of the container, and the presence or absence of foreign matter is determined from an image obtained by photographing the container illuminated by the projector from the bottom side. An inspection apparatus for inspecting is known (see Patent Document 1).
JP-A-9-119904

  In the conventional inspection apparatus described above, the container and the projector may interfere with each other if the projector does not move up and down in synchronization with the conveyance of the container. Therefore, the present invention provides a container handling device that can surround the periphery of the container without requiring a reciprocating motion in the direction of the center line of the container, and is also being conveyed using the handling device. It is an object of the present invention to provide an inspection apparatus that can uniformly illuminate the container.

  The present invention solves the above-described problems by the following means. In order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, reference numerals in the accompanying drawings are appended in parentheses, but the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment.

  The container handling device (20) of the present invention comprises a pair of rotating bodies (25) that can rotate around an axis parallel to the center line (CL) of the container (2) to be conveyed, and the pair of rotating bodies. Driving means (22) for rotating each of them around the axis in opposite directions, and the outer periphery of each of the pair of rotating bodies are provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction and extend in the direction of the center line The container is carried toward the front in the rotational direction of the rotating body with respect to a plurality of covering members (45) having a shape that halves the cylindrical shape, and an opposing position (Pb) where the pair of rotating bodies are closest to each other. Conveying means (23) for carrying out, the drive means driving the pair of rotating bodies so that the respective cover members of the pair of rotating bodies rotate at the same peripheral speed, and the pair of rotations Each covering member of the body The cylindrical body (6) surrounding the periphery of the container is formed by a pair of cover members that are fed out to the opposing positions, and the conveying means is formed by the cylindrical body. The container is transported so that the container is carried into the facing position in accordance with the operation performed and the container is unloaded from the facing position in accordance with the operation of separating the cylindrical body. 1).

  According to the handling device of the present invention, when the container is carried into the facing position where the rotating body is closest, the pair of covering members take the container into the inside in synchronization with the loading, and the facing position To form a cylindrical body that surrounds the periphery of the container. When the container is unloaded, the pair of covering members are separated from the facing position by rotating the rotating body, so that the cylindrical body is divided, and the container is unloaded from the facing position without interfering with the cylindrical body. When the container is carried out, the next container may be carried into the facing position, and a new cylindrical body may be formed by the next covering member accordingly.

  In the present invention, the cylindrical shape to be the original shape of the covering member includes a cylindrical shape, a square tube and other various cylindrical shapes. The concept of halving is not limited to completely dividing the cylindrical shape along the center line, but can be obtained by dividing the cylindrical shape into approximately half if it is obtained by dividing the cylindrical shape roughly in half. . In any case, any shape that can form a cylindrical body that covers the periphery of the container when it is drawn out to the opposite position is included in the range of the “half-divided shape of the cylindrical shape”. The cylindrical body is not limited to the one that completely covers the container in the circumferential direction, and the range in which the cylindrical body covers the container may be appropriately determined according to the purpose of the cylindrical body. Therefore, a part of the container in the circumferential direction may be exposed from the cylindrical body. Regarding the direction of the center line of the container, the cylindrical body may cover the entire length or only a part thereof.

  In the handling device of the present invention, the covering member may be provided so that ends of the pair of covering members overlap each other at the facing position. If comprised in this way, the cylindrical body which covers the circumference | surroundings of a container without a clearance gap regarding a circumferential direction can be formed. In this case, the inner peripheral surface (45a) of the covering member may be curved in an arc shape, and the curvature radius of the covering member may be different between the left and right rotating bodies (Claim 3). By giving different curvature radii to the pair of covering members, the ends of both can be easily overlapped.

  In the handling apparatus of the present invention, the transport means includes a transport body (25, 34) provided coaxially with one of the pair of rotating bodies so as to rotate integrally therewith, and the container as the one. A container holding means (35, 40) for holding on the transport body in a state of being taken in by the covering member on the rotating body may be provided (claim 4). In this case, since the transport body integrally rotates on the same axis as the one rotary body and the container is held by the transport body, the container is held in the facing position in a state where the container is taken in the covering member on the one rotary body. It is possible to carry it in securely. Therefore, as long as the position of the covering member is correctly adjusted between the pair of rotating bodies so that the cylindrical body can be formed, and the rotational speeds of both the rotating bodies match, the cylindrical body is formed at the facing position. There is no possibility that the synchronization between the operation and the container loading operation is lost. In addition, even when the container is unloaded from the facing position, the synchronization between the operation of separating the cylindrical body and the container unloading operation is not lost.

  The container holding means has the same number of pockets (35) as the cover members provided on the outer periphery of the transport body so as to be aligned with the cover members, and a container pressing mechanism for pressing the containers against the pockets. (40). (Claim 5). According to such a configuration, the container can be taken into the cover member provided in alignment with the pocket by taking the container into the pocket from the outside and pressing it. Such a container pressing mechanism may include, for example, a belt (41) stretched around the outer periphery of the transport body so as to sandwich the container between the pocket and the pocket (Claim 6). If the belt is used, the container can be simultaneously pressed against a plurality of pockets, so that it is not necessary to provide a separate chuck device for each pocket, and the configuration of the device is simplified.

  In addition to the handling device of the present invention described above, the inspection device of the present invention further includes illumination means (3, 7) for illuminating the container at the facing position, and imaging means (8) for imaging the illuminated container. ). (Claim 7). According to such an inspection apparatus, it is possible to suppress the variation in illumination intensity in the circumferential direction of the container by using the cylindrical body formed at the facing position, and to prevent the occurrence of an inspection blind spot due to insufficient illumination intensity. .

  In the inspection apparatus of the present invention, the inner peripheral surfaces (45a) of the pair of covering members may be configured as reflecting surfaces that reflect the illumination light of the illumination means (Claim 8). The illumination light can be diffused in various directions by reflecting the illumination light of the illumination means on the outer peripheral side of the container. Further, the illumination unit and the imaging unit may be provided away from the container conveyed by the conveying unit in the direction of the center line of the container. If the illuminating means and the photographing means are separated as described above, it is not necessary to move the illuminating means or the like in accordance with the movement of the covering member or the container, and the operation of the inspection apparatus is simplified and the configuration is simplified.

  According to the handling apparatus of the present invention, the pair of rotating bodies are rotated in opposite directions so that the peripheral speeds of the respective covering members coincide with each other, and the container is directed forward in the rotating direction with respect to the opposing position of these rotating bodies. Since the periphery of the container can be surrounded by the cylindrical body simply by loading and unloading the container, it is not necessary to raise and lower the covering member in the direction of the center line of the container. By omitting such ascending / descending operation, it is possible to simplify the operation of the apparatus and easily cope with an increase in the conveyance speed.

  In addition, according to the inspection apparatus of the present invention, the variation in illumination intensity in the circumferential direction of the container is suppressed using the cylindrical body formed at the opposed position of the pair of rotating bodies, and the blind spot of the inspection due to insufficient illumination intensity. Can be prevented.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The present embodiment is an example in which the handling apparatus of the present invention is applied to the inspection apparatus of FIG. 5, and the configuration of the part related to the inspection of the inspection apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the inspection apparatus 1 is provided above the center line CL with respect to a plastic bottle (hereinafter abbreviated as “bottle”) 2 as a container, and illuminates the bottle 2 from obliquely above the outer periphery. The illuminating device 3 and the lower illuminating device 7 which illuminates the bottom side of the bottle 2 from obliquely below the outer periphery are provided. The upper illumination device 3 includes a ring-shaped light emitter 4 and a lid 5 that closes the central portion of the light emitter 4. A cylindrical body 6 surrounding the outer periphery of the bottle 2 is provided below the light emitter 4. Thus, by providing the cylindrical body 6 in addition to the upper illumination device 3, the illumination light in the infrared region irradiated from the light emitter 4 is reflected by the lid 5 and the cylindrical body 6 so that the bottle 2 is spread over a wide range. Can be illuminated.

  The lower illuminating device 7 illuminates the bottle 2 with visible light emitted from a ring-shaped light emitter 7a disposed below the bottle 2. A photographing device 8 is provided below the lower illumination device 7. The photographing device 8 includes a Fresnel lens 9 disposed below the lower illumination device 7, a cold mirror 10 that transmits a light beam in the infrared region and reflects a light beam in the visible region, and a red light beam that has passed through the Fresnel lens 9. A first camera 11 that captures an image based on the luminous flux in the outer region and a second camera 12 that captures an image based on the luminous flux in the visible region are provided. Accordingly, the first camera 11 captures a transmitted light image by the illumination light of the upper illumination device 3, and the second camera 12 captures a reflected light image by the illumination light of the lower illumination device 7. These images are guided to an image processing apparatus (not shown), where the presence or absence of foreign matter sinking to the bottom of the bottle 2 is determined based on the transmitted light image and the reflected light image. Since the determination method is not the gist of the present invention, the details are omitted.

  In the above inspection apparatus 1, since the outer periphery of the bottle 2 is covered with the cylindrical body 6, when the cylindrical body 6 is integrally formed in the circumferential direction, the cylindrical body 6 or the bottle 2 is centered. The cylindrical body 6 cannot be put on the outer periphery of the bottle 2 unless it is reciprocated in the direction of CL. The inspection apparatus of this embodiment is also intended to eliminate such inconvenience.

  1 to 4 show the entire configuration of an inspection apparatus in which the handling apparatus of the present invention is incorporated, FIG. 1 is a front view, FIG. 2 is a plan view, and FIG. 3 is a plane related to the lower side of the line III-III in FIG. 4 and 4 are perspective views of one wheel device. As shown in these drawings, the inspection device 1 includes a handling device 20 for a bottle 2, and the handling device 20 includes a pair of left and right wheel devices 21, 21 and a drive device 22 that drives each wheel device 21. ing. Each wheel device 21 includes a lower wheel 25 and an upper wheel 26. These wheels 25 and 26 are arranged coaxially with each other around a rotating shaft 27 extending in the vertical direction. A bearing portion 28 is attached to the rotating shaft 27 so as to be integrally rotatable and immovable in the axial direction, and the lower wheel 25 is connected to the bearing portion 28 so as to be rotatable integrally with the rotating shaft 27. 28 is supported.

  Three rods 29... 29 are attached to the lower wheel 25 coaxially with the rotary shaft 27, and the upper wheel 26 is fixed at an appropriate position on the three rods 29. Accordingly, the lower wheel 25 and the upper wheel 26 are connected to each other through the rod 29 so as to be integrally rotatable, and thereby the upper wheel 26 is also rotated integrally with the rotary shaft 27. The fixing position of the upper wheel 26 with respect to the rod 29 can be adjusted in the axial direction of the rod 29, that is, in the vertical direction.

  The drive device 22 is for rotating the left and right wheel devices 21 around the rotation shaft 27. The drive device 22 reduces the rotation of the electric motor 30 as a drive source and the left rotation shaft 27. A transmission speed reduction mechanism 31 and a pair of gears 32 and 32 for transmitting the rotation of the left rotation shaft 27 to the right rotation shaft 27 are provided. The gear ratio between the gears 32 is 1: 1. Therefore, the left and right rotating shafts 27 are driven to rotate in opposite directions at equal angular speeds by the rotation of the electric motor 30. As a result, the lower wheel 25 and the upper wheel 26 connected to the rotary shaft 27 are also driven to rotate in opposite directions (in the direction of arrow R in FIG. 2) at the same speed by the electric motor 30. Thus, the drive device 22 functions as the drive means of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a pair of upper and lower bottle transport wheels 34, 34 are attached to the upper surface of the left lower wheel 25 so that the outer periphery protrudes outward from the lower wheel 25. The lower wheel 25 and the bottle transport wheel 25 constitute a transport body for the bottle 2. As shown in FIG. 3, on the outer periphery of each bottle transport wheel 34 (the lower wheel is not visible in FIG. 3), a plurality (twelve in the figure) of pockets 35 at a constant pitch in the circumferential direction. 35 is provided. These pockets 35 are for holding the bottle 2 on the outer periphery of the bottle transport wheel 34, and are formed by denting the outer periphery of the bottle transport wheel 34 in a substantially semicircular shape. In order to press the bottle 2 against each pocket 35, a bottle presser mechanism (container presser mechanism) 40 is provided around the bottle transport wheel 34.

  The bottle presser mechanism 40 includes a belt 41, a plurality of pulleys 42... 42 around which the belt 41 is wound, and a tension adjuster 43 that adjusts the tension of the belt 41. The belt 41 is arranged at a substantially intermediate position between the upper and lower bottle conveying wheels 34 and 34 with respect to the direction of the rotation shaft 27, and is stretched so as to extend along approximately the half circumference of the outer periphery of the wheel 34 with respect to the circumferential direction of the wheel 34. ing. Further, a belt receiver 36 for restricting the displacement of the belt 41 toward the pocket 35 is provided on the bottle conveying wheels 34, 34 so as to protrude from the intermediate position of each pocket 35 to the outer side in the radial direction of the wheel 34. The belt receiver 36 includes a roller 37 for reducing the frictional resistance between the belt receiver 36 and the belt 41 at the tip (contact position with respect to the belt 41). The roller 37 is rotatable along the traveling direction of the belt 41. That is, each roller 37 can rotate around a rotation axis parallel to the rotation shaft 27. However, the roller 37 may be omitted. In FIG. 4, the roller 37 is not shown. As shown in FIG. 1, flanges 38 and 38 are provided on the upper and lower sides of the roller 37 to restrict the shift of the belt 41 in the width direction (vertical direction). The tension adjuster 43 incorporates an actuator such as an air cylinder, for example, and adjusts the tension of the belt 41 by changing the position of one pulley 42 connected to the rod 43a in the axial direction of the rod 43a.

  Therefore, if it is assumed that the left lower wheel 25 rotates in the direction of arrow R in FIG. 3, the vicinity of the pulley 42 that turns back the belt 41 at the rear in the rotational direction becomes the bottle take-in position Pa with respect to the pocket 35, and the conveyance (not shown) The bottle 2 conveyed from the previous process to the bottle take-in position Pa by the line is taken into the pocket 35 and pressed into the pocket 35 by the belt 41. The bottle 2 held in the pocket 35 is conveyed to the vicinity of the pulley 42 that folds the belt 41 forward in the rotational direction via the facing position Pb (see also FIG. 1) where the left and right wheels 25, 25 are closest. The vicinity of the turn-back position is the bottle take-out position Pc from the pocket 35, the belt 41 is separated from the bottle 2 at the bottle take-out position Pc, and the bottle 2 is released from the pocket 35. The bottle 2 released from the pocket 35 is sent to a subsequent process through a conveyance line (not shown).

  Thus, in the present embodiment, the bottle 2 is transported by the combination of the drive device 21, the left lower wheel 25, the rotating shaft 27, the bottle transport wheel 34, the belt receiver 36 (including the roller 37), and the bottle presser mechanism 40. An apparatus (conveying means) 23 is configured. The pocket 35 and the bottle presser mechanism 40 constitute a container holding means. The force with which the belt 41 presses the bottle 2 against the pocket 35 is within a range in which the bottle 2 can be securely held in the pocket 35 without supporting the bottom side of the bottle 2 and the bottle 2 is not deformed by the pressing force of the belt 41. It is good to decide. The minimum value of the pressing force by the belt 41 can be adjusted by the tension applied to the belt 41, and the maximum value can be adjusted by the amount of protrusion of the belt receiver 36 with respect to the pocket 35.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a plurality of covering members 45... 45 are attached to each of the left and right upper wheels 26 via a connecting plate 46 at a constant pitch in the circumferential direction. The number of cover members 45 attached to each wheel 26 is equal to the number of pockets 35. The covering member 45 is formed in a semi-cylindrical shape by dividing a cylindrical shape extending in the direction of the center line CL of the bottle 2 so that the cylindrical center line substantially coincides with the center line of the corresponding pocket 35. It is attached to the outer periphery of the upper wheel 26. The inner peripheral surface 45a of the covering member 45 is curved with a curvature suitable for surrounding the bottle 2, but the curvature radius of the covering member 45 of the right wheel 26 is that of the covering member 45 of the left wheel 26. It is formed slightly larger than. And the length of the circumferential direction of each cover member 45 is determined so that a mutual end part may overlap somewhat in the opposing position Pb. Further, the distances from the respective rotary shafts 27 to the center of curvature of the cover member 45 are set to be equal to each other so that the peripheral speeds of the cover members 45 on the left and right wheels 34 are equal to each other. By providing the cover member 45 as described above, the cylindrical body 6 surrounding the periphery of the bottle 2 at the opposed position Pb is formed by the pair of cover members 45 and 45 drawn out to the opposed position Pb. In addition, the inner peripheral surface 45a of each covering member 45 is formed in white so that the illumination light of the light emitter 4 of FIG.

  Furthermore, the upper illumination device 3 is arranged above the facing position Pb so as not to interfere with the covering member 45 and the bottle 2 held by the wheel device 21. A lower lighting device 7 is provided below the facing position Pb so as not to interfere with the bottle 2 held by the wheel device 21, and a photographing device 8 is further provided below the lower lighting device 7. . These illuminating devices 3 and 7 should just be attached to the fixed position regarding the direction (vertical direction) of the centerline CL of the bottle 2, and do not need to raise / lower.

  In the inspection device 1 configured as described above, the rotating shaft 27 of the wheel device 21 is rotationally driven by the driving device 22 at a constant speed, so that one bottle 2 is placed in the pocket 35 of the left wheel device 21. The bottles 2 are sequentially taken in, and the bottles 2 are conveyed between the pocket 35 and the belt 41 and supported by the opposed position Pb while being supported. At the facing position Pb, a pair of covering members 45, 45 supported by the left and right wheel devices 21 are combined to form a cylindrical body 6 surrounding the outer periphery of the bottle 2. The bottle 2 at the facing position Pb is illuminated from above and below by the upper illumination device 3 and the lower illumination device 7, and the illumination light of the upper illumination device 3 is reflected by the inner peripheral surface 45 a of the covering member 45 at that time. 2 is illuminated with illumination light from the upper illumination device 3 substantially evenly in the circumferential direction. A transmitted light image and a reflected light image on the bottom surface of the bottle with these illumination lights are captured by the image capturing device 8, and the presence or absence of foreign matter precipitated on the bottom surface of the bottle 2 is determined based on the obtained image. The bottle 2 after the inspection is carried out from the facing position Pb, and the pair of covering members 45 forming the cylindrical body 6 at that time are separated from each other and the cylindrical body 6 is divided. Accordingly, the bottle 2 after the inspection is uninterrupted from the facing position Pb without being obstructed by the cylindrical body 6 and is carried out to the bottle removal position Pc, and further sent from the inspection apparatus 1 to the subsequent process.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, the pair of covering members 45 attached to the pair of upper wheels 26, 26 are combined at the facing position Pb where the wheels 26, 26 are closest to each other to form the cylindrical body 6, Since the lower wheel 25 that rotates coaxially with the upper wheel 26 is used, the bottle 2 is carried in and out of the facing position Pb while maintaining the coaxial relationship with the covering member 45. The bottle 2 can be surrounded by the cylindrical body 6 without raising and lowering the bottle 2, and the bottle 2 can be taken out from the cylindrical body 6 without interfering with the cylindrical body 6. Therefore, the cylindrical body 6 and the raising / lowering mechanism of the bottle 2 are unnecessary, the apparatus can be simplified, and since the operation is simple, it is possible to easily cope with the increase in the conveyance speed of the bottle 2.

  Further, in this embodiment, the pressing force applied from the belt 41 to the bottle 2 is limited by the belt receiver 36, so there is no possibility that an unintended excessive force is applied to the bottle 2 and the deformation of the bottle 2 is ensured. Can be prevented. In particular, since the roller 37 is provided at the tip of the belt receiver 36, the belt 41 easily slides with respect to the belt receiver 36, and the pressing force of the belt 41 between the pockets 35 is reliably made uniform. There are advantages. Furthermore, since the roller 37 is provided with the flange 38, the belt 41 can be prevented from slipping or rising. Therefore, even when the bottle 2 is filled with contents, the bottle 2 can be reliably restrained by the belt 41 in each of the plurality of pockets 35. When the roller 37 is omitted and the belt receiver 36 is formed in a simple block shape as shown in FIG. 4, the flange 37 may be integrally provided at the tip of the belt receiver 36. However, the belt receiver 36 is not essential in the present invention. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the belt receiver 36 may be omitted and the bottle 2 may be sandwiched between the belt 41 and the pocket 35.

  In the present embodiment, a bottle transporting wheel 34 is provided so as to rotate integrally with one of the upper wheels 26 (left upper wheel 26) as a rotating body, and each bottle is held in its pocket 35 to hold the bottle 2. 2 is conveyed while being held substantially coaxially with the corresponding cover member 45, there is an advantage that the cover member 45 and the bottle 2 are not likely to be displaced at the time of carrying in and out of the facing position Pb. However, the conveying means of the present invention is not necessarily limited to the one that conveys the bottle along a path coaxial with one of the rotating bodies. In synchronism with the operation of forming the cylindrical body 6 by combining the covering member 45 at the facing position Pb, the bottle 2 is carried forward to the facing position Pb in the rotational direction of the wheel 26 and covered from the facing position Pb. As long as the bottle 2 can be carried out from the facing position Pb forward in the rotational direction of the wheel 26 in synchronization with the operation of separating the cylindrical body 6 by separating the member 45, for example, the tangential direction of the upper wheel 26 at the facing position Pb A type of conveyance device that linearly conveys the bottle 2 may be used. When such a transport means is provided, the upper wheel 26 is made to coincide with the transport speed of the bottle 2 by matching the tangential speed of the wheel 26 at the facing position Pb when the upper wheel 26 is assumed to be extended to the facing position Pb. The bottle 2 can be carried in and out forward in the rotational direction in accordance with the rotation of 26.

  In this embodiment, the cover member 45 functions as a reflector, but the cover member 45 itself may be configured as a lighting device capable of emitting light. The covering member 45 may reflect the illumination light from the lower illumination device 7 toward the bottle 2. The end portions of the pair of covering members 45 fed out to the opposing positions do not necessarily have to overlap each other. If there is no problem in the intensity distribution of the illumination light, a slight gap may occur between the covering members 45. The covering member 45 is not limited to a semi-cylindrical shape, and can be appropriately changed as long as it is a half-divided cylindrical shape extending in the direction of the center line CL. For example, the covering member 45 may have a polygonal cross section on a cross section orthogonal to the center line CL.

  The number of cover members 45 provided on each of the left and right bottle transport wheels 34 need not match. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, bottle conveying wheels 34 </ b> A and 34 </ b> B having different diameters may be provided on the left and right sides, and different numbers of covering members 45 may be attached. Even in such a case, if each wheel 34 is driven so that the circumferential interval (pitch) of the cover member 45 on each wheel 34 is equal to each other and the peripheral speeds of the cover member 45 coincide on the left and right, a pair of covers are provided. The cylindrical body 6 can be formed sequentially with the member 45. In the example of FIG. 7, the angular velocities of the wheels 34 </ b> A and 34 </ b> B are different on the left and right, but the adjustment may be performed by changing the gear ratio between the gears 32 and 32.

  In the above-described embodiment, the curvature of the covering member 45 is changed on the left and right, and the end of the other covering member 45 is overlapped inside the one covering member 45, but the aspect of overlapping the covering member is not limited to this. . As shown in FIG. 8, if one cover member 45 and the other cover member 45 are combined with a slight shift in the circumferential direction, the cover member 45 having the same curvature is used on the left and right sides, and a gap is formed in the circumferential direction. A cylindrical body 6 that is not present can be formed.

  The illumination configuration of the inspection apparatus to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the illustrated one, and various modifications may be made. The container is not limited to a plastic bottle, and may be a glass bottle or other various containers. The handling apparatus of the present invention is not limited to an inspection apparatus that illuminates and inspects a container, but may be applied to various apparatuses that need to surround the periphery of the container during transportation.

1 is a front view of an inspection apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The top view of the inspection apparatus of FIG. The top view below the III-III line of the inspection apparatus of FIG. The perspective view of one wheel apparatus. The figure which shows the structure concerning the test | inspection part of a test | inspection apparatus. The figure which shows the structure of the conveying apparatus which abbreviate | omitted the belt receiver. The figure which shows the other form of a bottle conveyance wheel. The figure which shows the other form which overlaps a covering member.

Explanation of symbols

1 Inspection device 2 Bottle (container)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 Upper illuminating device 6 Cylindrical body 7 Lower illuminating device 8 Imaging | photography apparatus 20 Handling apparatus 21 Wheel apparatus 22 Drive apparatus (drive means)
23 Conveying device (conveying means)
26 Upper wheel (rotating body)
27 Rotating shaft 35 Pocket 36 Belt receiver 37 Roller 40 Bottle holding mechanism 41 Belt 42 Pulley 43 Tension adjuster 45 Cover member CL Bottle center line Pa Bottle intake position Pb Opposite position Pc Bottle extraction position

Claims (9)

A pair of rotating bodies rotatable about an axis parallel to the center line of the container to be conveyed;
Drive means for driving each of the pair of rotating bodies to rotate in opposite directions around the axis;
A plurality of covering members provided on the outer circumferences of the pair of rotating bodies at equal intervals in the circumferential direction and having a shape that halves a cylindrical shape extending in the direction of the center line;
Conveying means for carrying in and carrying out the container toward the front in the rotation direction of the rotating body with respect to a facing position where the pair of rotating bodies are closest to each other;
The driving means drives the pair of rotating bodies so that the cover members of the pair of rotating bodies rotate at the same peripheral speed,
Each of the covering members of the pair of rotating bodies is provided on each rotating body so that a cylindrical body surrounding the periphery of the container is formed by the pair of covering members drawn out to the facing position.
The transport means is configured so that the container is loaded into the facing position in accordance with the operation of forming the cylindrical body, and the container is unloaded from the facing position in accordance with the operation of separating the cylindrical body. Transport the container;
A container handling device.   The handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the covering member is provided so that ends of the pair of covering members overlap each other at the facing position.   The handling device according to claim 2, wherein an inner peripheral surface of the covering member is curved in an arc shape, and a curvature radius of the covering member is different between the left and right rotating bodies.   The conveying means is configured such that the conveying body provided coaxially with one of the pair of rotating bodies so as to rotate integrally therewith, and the container is taken into the covering member on the one rotating body. The handling device according to claim 1, further comprising: a container holding unit that holds the carrier on the transport body. The container holding means includes the same number of pockets as the cover member provided in alignment with each of the cover members on the outer periphery of the transport body,
A container pressing mechanism for pressing the container against the pocket;
The handling device according to claim 4, further comprising:   6. The handling apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the container pressing mechanism includes a belt stretched along an outer periphery of the transport body so as to sandwich the container between the pocket and the pocket. The handling device according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
Illuminating means for illuminating the container at the facing position;
An apparatus for inspecting a container, comprising: an imaging unit that images the illuminated container.   The inspection apparatus according to claim 7, wherein inner peripheral surfaces of the pair of covering members are configured as reflecting surfaces that reflect illumination light of the illumination unit.   9. The inspection apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the illuminating unit and the imaging unit are provided away from a container conveyed by the conveying unit in a direction of a center line of the container. .

Images