JP2005193825A - Vulcanizing vessel discriminating method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vulcanizing vessel discriminating method and apparatus capable of discriminating vulcanizing vessels of vulcanized tires by executing 100% inspection of the vulcanized tires by a simple configuration. <P>SOLUTION: The vulcanized tire 1 is transferred by a transfer conveyor 11. A bar code expressing the type of the tire is read from a bar-code label adhered in advance to the tire 1 through a bar-code reader 12, and at the same time a tread image of the tire is taken with a camera 13. The tread image taken by the camera is collated with a master image corresponding to the type of the tire in the read-out bar code to discriminate the vulcanizing vessel of the tire transferred on the conveyor. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for inspecting a difference between vulcanizers of a tire carried out from a vulcanizer.

In the tire manufacturing process, rubber members such as treads and sidewalls that are separately manufactured, and rubber-attached cords such as beads, plies, and belts are bonded together with a molding machine to produce a raw tire. A raw tire is placed in a mold (vulcanizer) attached to a vulcanizer designated in advance and heated at a predetermined temperature and pressure to produce a stable vulcanized rubber tire (product tire) having a predetermined elasticity. . In this vulcanization process, fully automatic vulcanizers are prevalent, and workers carry in and monitor raw tires.
When the green tire is carried in, a collation operation is performed between the green tire to be loaded and a vulcanizer for vulcanizing the green tire so that there is no difference in the pot. In general, the collation operation is as follows: (1) An operator collates a card that describes the vulcanization conditions of a cart equipped with green tires and a card that describes the vulcanization conditions placed in front of the vulcanizer. The method for confirming that the green tire on the cart is a green tire vulcanized by the vulcanizer of the vulcanizer, (2) The bar code data on the bar code affixed to the cart by the operator A method of checking by reading with a reader and checking this data against the database of the management computer of the vulcanizer, (3) Checking the barcode data for each tire with the database of the management computer of the vulcanizer The method of confirming is performed.

However, in the collation method by the worker of (1) above, collation is performed by visual observation of the worker, so there is a possibility of a collation error.
In addition, there is no verification error in the verification of the bar code and database of the raw tire cart in (2), but since there is no check for each tire, different tires may be mixed when loading and unloading the raw tires. There is.
On the other hand, in the case of checking every tire of (3), there was a problem that no man-hours occurred but the man-hours became enormous.
Thus, before vulcanization, it was difficult to efficiently detect a difference in the loading of the raw tire.
Therefore, a method of inspecting the vulcanized tire to identify a tire with a different vulcanizing pot and separating it from a regular tire can be considered. To the best of the applicant's knowledge, no effective method for detection has been proposed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and with a simple configuration, it is possible to detect all vulcanized tires by detecting all the vulcanized tires, and to detect the wrong vulcanizer. It is an object to provide a method and apparatus.

The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a method for detecting a difference in the vulcanizing pot of a vulcanized tire, and a tread image of the tire is created in advance and used as a master image. The barcode representing the tire type of the tire is stored in association with the tire, and while the vulcanized tire is being conveyed, the barcode representing the tire type of the tire that has been pasted to the tire is read. The tread image of the tire was photographed, and the photographed image and the master image corresponding to the read barcode were collated to detect the difference in the vulcanizing pot of the tire being conveyed. It is a feature.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method for detecting a difference in vulcanizing pot according to the first aspect, the master image is created based on the tread image of the leading tire being conveyed.

  The invention according to claim 3 is an apparatus for detecting a difference in the vulcanizing pot of the vulcanized tire, wherein the tire type of the tire that is preliminarily attached to the vulcanized tire to be conveyed is determined. A bar code reader for reading a bar code to be displayed, photographing means for photographing a tread image of the tire, a photographed image, and a master image which is a tread image of a tire type corresponding to the barcode stored in advance. And a collation / determination means for judging the difference in the vulcanization of the conveyed tire.

  According to the present invention, the vulcanized tire is conveyed by a conveyor or the like, and the barcode representing the tire type of the tire that has been pasted at the time of molding the tire is read, and the tire tread image of the tire is photographed. The detected image is compared with a master image that is a tread image of a tire type corresponding to the barcode stored in advance to detect a difference in the vulcanization of the conveyed tire. Therefore, it is possible to easily and reliably detect a difference in the vulcanizing pot of the tire, and it is possible to efficiently inspect all the tires.

Hereinafter, the best mode of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an inspection line for different vulcanizers according to the best mode, and FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a vulcanizer difference determining means 14 according to the present invention. In each figure, 11 is a conveyor for an inspection line, 12 is a barcode reader for reading a barcode label 2 attached to a tire 1 unloaded from a vulcanizer (not shown), and 13 is a tire tread image of the tire 1. A camera 14 for photographing is a master image creating means 14a for creating a master image which is a reference image of a tread pattern which varies depending on the tire type, a memory 14m for storing the master image, data representing the tire type, and the master image. Based on the data of the tire type of the tire 1 read by the bar code reader 12, the tread of the tire type stored in the memory 14c is created. Recall the master image data that is A vulcanizer difference determining means comprising a master image and a tread image of the tire 1 taken by the camera 13 to compare and determine means 14d for determining a difference in the vulcanizer of the tire 1 is there.
In this example, as shown in FIG. 3, in the molding process, for each raw tire 1N, for example, a bar code label in which a character representing a tire type such as “BABC012” and a number representing a tire number are barcoded in advance. 2 is pasted. Thereby, the said vulcanized tire 1 conveyed can be distinguished for every one. In the following, the vulcanizer for vulcanizing the raw tire 1N is a vulcanizer for vulcanizing tires having a tire type of “BABC”.

Next, a method for detecting the difference between the vulcanizers will be described.
First, the barcode is read from the barcode label 2 affixed to the conveyed tire 1 by the barcode reader 12, and a tread image of the tire 1 is taken by the camera 13 as shown in FIG. Then, the tire type data “BABC” from the bar code and the tread image data as shown in FIG.
When the tire 1 is the leading tire, the vulcanizer difference determination means 14 uses the master image creation means 14a to master the tire type of the tire 1 based on the photographed tread image data. The image data “Image001.bmp” is created and stored in the memory 14m, and the tire creation data “BABC” is associated with the master image data “Image001.bmp” using the database creation means 14c. For example, the database 14b such as “BABC = Image001.bmp” is created. Thus, when tire type data is input, the master image data corresponding to the tire type stored in the memory 14m can be immediately read using the database 14b. When the raw tire 1N is carried in, at least the leading raw tire is collated with the vulcanizer so that the leading tire 1 is a normal product and the master image data “Image001.bmp” is barcode data. Needless to say, this is a tread image corresponding to “BABC”. In addition, when a carrying-in order and a carrying-out order differ, it confirms that the tire type of the head tire 1 is a regular thing.
Further, since the master image data is stored in the memory 14m for each inspection, the database 14b is updated accordingly. Therefore, in the database 14b, “BABC” in which tire type data (BABC, BABD,...) And tread image data (Image001.bmp, Image002.bmp,...) Corresponding to the tire type are associated. = Image001.bmp "," BABD = Image2.bmp ",..., Etc. are stored. By using the database 14b, tire type data (BABC, BABD,...) Is input. Data of tread images (Image001, Image002,...) Corresponding to the input tire type can be read from the memory 14m.

From the second tire, the difference between the vulcanizers of the tire is detected using a master image created based on the tread image of the top tire.
That is, the collation / determination unit 14d of the vulcanizing pot difference determination unit 14 accesses the database 14b and obtains a master image corresponding to the tire type data from the tire type data of the tire read by the bar code reader 12. Then, the master image is read out from the memory 14m and collated with the photographed tread image of the tire.
For example, when the tire type of the tire is “BABC” which is a tire type vulcanized in the vulcanizer, image data of “Image001.bmp” representing the tread pattern of the top tire as a master image. As a result of the collation, the photographed tread image matches the master image. Since these matched tires are acceptable products, they are transported to the next inspection process by the transport conveyor 11 as they are.
On the other hand, when the tire type of the tire is “BABD” which is not a tire type vulcanized by the vulcanizer, the captured tread image is the same as “Image1.bmp” corresponding to the vulcanizer. Although the master image read by the collation / determination means 14d is an “Image002.bmp” image corresponding to the above “BABD”, the tread pattern of the tread image matches the tread pattern of the master image as a result of collation. Therefore, the tire is sent to a collection conveyor (not shown) and collected as a different vulcanizer.
If the tread image data of the designated tire type is not in the memory 14m, “NG” may be output or image data of a simple pattern that is not used for the tread pattern may be output. That's fine.

  Thus, according to this best mode, the tire 1 vulcanized by the conveyor 11 is conveyed, and the tire type is determined from the bar code label 2 that is preliminarily attached to the tire 1 by the bar code reader 12. In addition to reading the displayed barcode, the camera 13 captures a tread image of the tire, and the vulcanizer difference determining means 14 captures the captured tread image and a master corresponding to the tire type of the read barcode. Since the difference between the vulcanizers of the conveyed tire 1 is determined by collating with the image, the difference between the vulcanizers of the tires carried out from the vulcanizer can be reliably confirmed for each tire with a simple configuration. In addition, it is possible to efficiently inspect all tires after vulcanization with a small number of steps.

  In the best mode described above, a tread image of the first tire 1 to be conveyed is photographed, and the photographed tread image is used as a master image of the tire type. However, the master image is obtained from the design drawing of the tire. You may create it. In this case, there is an advantage that a master image can be created for all the designed tires, but since the accuracy is higher when using an image created from an actual tire, the master image is obtained from the actual tire. It is preferable to create.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reliably detect the difference in the vulcanization pot of the tire carried out from the vulcanizer for each tire with a simple configuration, and to efficiently perform the vulcanization of the tire after a small number of steps. Since all products can be inspected, complicated checks before vulcanization can be omitted, and work efficiency can be improved.

It is a figure which shows the outline of the vulcanization pot difference inspection line which concerns on the best form of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the vulcanizing pot difference detection apparatus which concerns on this best form. It is a schematic diagram which shows the raw tire which affixed the barcode. It is a figure which shows an example of the tread image of the image | photographed tire.

Explanation of symbols

1 tire, 2 bar code label, 11 transport conveyor, 12 bar code reader,
13 camera, 14 vulcanizer difference judging means, 14a master image creating means,
14b database, 14c database creation means, 14d collation / determination means,
14m memory.

Claims (3)

  Create a tread image of the tire in advance and use it as a master image, store the master image and a barcode representing the tire type of the tire in association with each other, while transporting the vulcanized tire, The bar code indicating the tire type of the tire that has been affixed to the tire is read, the tread image of the tire is taken, and the taken image is compared with the master image corresponding to the read bar code. And detecting a difference between the vulcanizers of the conveyed tire.   The method according to claim 1, wherein the master image is created based on a tread image of the transported first tire. A barcode reader that reads a barcode representing the tire type of the tire that is pre-attached to the vulcanized tire to be conveyed, a photographing means for photographing a tread image of the tire, the photographed image, A collation / determination unit that collates a master image that is a tread image of a tire type corresponding to the barcode stored in advance and determines a difference in the vulcanization of the conveyed tire. Detecting device for different vulcanizers.

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