JP2005280869A - Partially driven variable free roller conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow utilization of an existing free roller conveyor and capable of using upon changing only one part any of the transport path if necessary simply into a forced transport form which assures smooth, certain, and safe operation and also an enhanced working efficiency as a whole. <P>SOLUTION: The invention comprises the free roller conveyor 3 in which a plurality of rollers 1 arranged in line at a certain spacing in the work transporting direction are borne between a left and a right frame 2 with possibility of rotating freely, a plate 7 mounted removably in any position in the work transporting direction using one of the frames 2 of the conveyor 3, a pulley 9 for a round belt in slide contact with the peripheral surfaces of one or adjoining two free rotating rollers 1 when the plate 7 is mounted on the frame 2, and a roller driving unit 4 in which a motor 8 to rotate the pulley 9 is supported. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a free roller conveyor used when, for example, a workpiece is transported between various processing devices scattered in a factory, and more specifically, is arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals in the workpiece conveyance direction. Partially variable drive, which can be used by arbitrarily changing a part of the free-rotating roller of the free-roller conveyor, which is supported so that it can freely rotate between the left and right frames, to a driving-rotating roller. The present invention relates to a free roller conveyor.

  Conventionally, a free roller conveyor is generally used as a roller conveyor mainly used for conveying a work in a manual work line. And, as means for actually transporting the work placed on the transport surface of this free roller conveyor, there is a gravity utilization means for transferring the work by its own weight with a slight inclination on the transport surface by the roller group, and on the transport surface. Any one of manual pushing means for manually moving the placed work by an operator or the like has been adopted.

  However, in the case of transport means using gravity, if the slope is relaxed, the workpiece may stop in the middle of transportation and the line work may be stagnant. Conversely, if the slope is tight, a heavy workpiece will be transported. When the transport speed increases at an accelerated rate, the work cannot be stopped at a predetermined position, or when the transport is stopped using the stopper, the work may collide with the stopper strongly to easily damage the work or the stopper. There is a problem that it is very difficult to set an inclination gradient that can realize smooth, reliable and safe transportation without breakage regardless of the workpiece weight. In particular, changing only a part of the free roller conveyor to a gravity-use conveying means as necessary becomes structurally complicated in addition to the above problems, and is difficult to realize.

  On the other hand, in the case of a manual transporting means, the operator has to continue pressing the workpiece from the current processing position to the next processing position, which requires a lot of labor and leads to a decrease in work efficiency as a whole line operation. There was a problem.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to make smooth, reliable and safe only a part of the transport path as necessary while utilizing an existing free roller conveyor as it is, It is an object of the present invention to provide a partially driven variable free roller conveyor that can be used by simply changing to a forced conveyance mode that can improve work efficiency as a whole.

  The partially driven variable-type free roller conveyor according to the present invention devised to achieve the above object is provided with a plurality of rollers arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals in the workpiece transfer direction, and freely extend between the left and right frames. When the plate is mounted on a frame that is detachably mounted at any position in the workpiece transfer direction on one of the left and right frames of the free roller conveyor and the free roller conveyor that is rotatably supported, A rotational force transmission wheel that is in sliding contact with one of the free rotating rollers or two peripheral surfaces adjacent to each other in the workpiece conveyance direction, and a roller drive unit that supports a motor that rotationally drives the wheel. It is characterized by being.

  According to the free roller conveyor according to the present invention having the above-described characteristic configuration, for example, when the distance between the processing positions is very long or the workpiece having a very heavy weight is the object to be transported among the transport paths by the free roller conveyor. As in the case where it takes a lot of labor and labor for the operator to manually push the workpiece to the predetermined position (next processing position), the roller drive unit plate can be moved to any part of the frame on the free roller conveyor. The one or two free rotating rollers located at the plate mounting location are changed to driving rollers that are frictionally driven by the rotational force transmission wheel of the driving unit, and can be changed to any workpiece conveying path. The part can be easily changed to the forced conveyance mode. This ensures smooth, reliable and safe transport without stopping the work in the middle, increasing the transport speed at an accelerated rate, causing overrun, or damaging the work or the stopper due to collision with the stopper. An effect | action is acquired and the improvement of the working efficiency as the whole line work can be achieved.

  In addition, it is only necessary to mount the roller drive unit plate on the frame of the free roller conveyor, and the existing free roller conveyor can be used as it is, so that the partial forced conveyance form as described above can be realized. There is an effect that it is possible to provide an easy-to-use partial drive variable free roller conveyor at low cost.

  In particular, in the partially driven variable type free roller conveyor according to the present invention, when the plate of the roller drive unit is mounted on a frame of the free roller conveyor as in claim 2, a rotational force transmission wheel is provided. It is possible to bend and deform so that the peripheral surface of the body is pressed against the peripheral surface of the free rotating roller, thereby ensuring the frictional transmission of the rotational force from the rotating force transmitting wheel on the roller drive unit side to the free rotating roller. Thus, the above-described partial forced conveyance operation can be stably performed.

  Further, the rotational force transmission wheel body of the roller drive unit in the partially driven variable free roller conveyor according to the present invention has an axial length (width) equivalent to or substantially the same as the free rotating roller of the free roller conveyor. However, as described in claim 3, when the plate of the roller driving unit is mounted on the frame of the free roller conveyor, it partially contacts the lower peripheral surface of one axial end portion of the free rotating roller. It is desirable to be configured to have an axial line length. In this case, the entire roller drive unit including the rotating force transmission wheel body can be configured to be small, light, and more inexpensive, so that the unit can be handled easily, and in particular, it can be easily attached to and detached from the frame on the free roller conveyor. At the same time, manufacturing costs and equipment costs can be reduced.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a side view showing a first embodiment of a partially driven variable free roller conveyor according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal front view taken along line XX of FIG. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a plurality of rollers arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals in the workpiece conveying direction A, and these rollers 1 are freely rotated over the left and right U-shaped frames 2 and 2, respectively. The free roller conveyor 3 which forms the horizontal conveyance surface 3a by the surrounding surface of each roller 1 is comprised by making it support.

  Reference numeral 4 denotes a roller drive unit. The roller drive unit 4 is a lower end flange 2a at an arbitrary position in the workpiece conveying direction A on one of the left and right U-shaped frames 2 and 2 in the free roller conveyor 3. A substantially L-shaped plate 7 that can be fixed and detached via a female screwed plate member 5 and a fastening bolt 6, a motor 8 fixedly supported on the other end of the plate 7, and an output of the motor 8 A round belt pulley 9 which is an example of a rotational force transmitting wheel fixed to the shaft 8a, and the outer circumference of the round belt pulley 9 when the plate 7 is fixed to the lower end flange 2a of one frame 2. The surface of the plurality of free rotating rollers 1 in the free roller conveyor 3 is in sliding contact with the outer peripheral surfaces of the two rollers 1 and 1 that are adjacent to each other in the workpiece conveying direction, and the driving rotational force is reduced to two. And it is configured to frictionally transmitted to the roller 1,1. In addition, an O-ring 10 made of an elastic material is fitted in the circumferential groove of the pulley 9 for the round belt in order to ensure the frictional transmission of the rotational force to the free rotating roller 1.

  In the partially driven variable-type free roller conveyor configured as described above, for example, when a distance between processing positions is very long or a workpiece having a very heavy weight is transported among the transport paths by the free roller conveyor 1. As in the case, it takes a great deal of labor and labor for the operator to manually push the workpiece to the predetermined position (next processing position), the plate 7 of the roller drive unit 4 is attached to the frame 2 in the free roller conveyor 1. , The rotational force of the motor 8 of the roller drive unit 4 is frictionally transmitted to the two free rotating rollers 1 and 1 located at the mounting position of the plate 7 via the round belt pulley 9. These two free rotation rollers 1 and 1 are changed to drive rollers, and any part of the workpiece transfer path can be easily changed to the forced transfer mode. Bets are possible. This ensures smooth, reliable and safe transport without stopping the work in the middle, increasing the transport speed at an accelerated rate, causing overrun, or damaging the work or the stopper due to collision with the stopper. An effect | action is acquired and it can use in order to improve the working efficiency as the whole line work.

  FIG. 1 shows a case in which two roller driving units 4 are mounted at two positions adjacent to each other on the conveying path of the free roller conveyor 1 and a total of four free rotating rollers 1 are used as driving rollers. However, these roller drive units 4 may be mounted at locations separated from each other in the workpiece conveying direction A, and the number and mounting intervals of the roller drive units 4 can be freely set and changed.

    3 and 4 are an enlarged side view of a main part showing a second embodiment of the partially driven variable type free roller conveyor according to the present invention and a longitudinal front view taken along line YY of FIG. In this second embodiment, the left and right frames 2, 2 of the free roller conveyor 1 are L-shaped, and the end of the plate 7 of the roller drive unit 4 is attached to the lower end flange 2 a of one of the frames 2 via a tightening bolt 11. The lower end flange 2a of the frame 2 is sandwiched between the plate member 12 connected to the upper portion of the plate 7 and the female plate-attached plate member 13 via the tightening bolts 14 at a position closer to the motor 8 than the tightening and fixing position. It can be fixed. In this case, the plate 7 is bent upward as the fastening bolts 14 are tightened, and the outer peripheral surface of the round belt pulley 9 is pressed against the outer peripheral surface of the free rotating roller 1 in the free roller conveyor 3 by the bending force. Further, the frictional transmission of the rotational force from the round belt pulley 9 on the roller drive unit 4 side to the free rotating roller 1 can be ensured, and the above-mentioned partial forced conveying action can be performed more stably.

  In the second embodiment, the frictional transmission of the rotational force can be reliably performed without fitting the O-ring 10 made of an elastic material in the circumferential groove of the pulley 9 for the round belt. By fitting the material O-ring 10, the frictional transmission of the rotational force can be made even more reliable.

  Further, as the rotating force transmission wheel body of the roller drive unit 4, one having an axial length (width) equivalent to or substantially equivalent to the free rotating roller 1 of the free roller conveyor 3 may be used. By using a round belt pulley 9 having an axial length (width) that partially contacts the lower peripheral surface of one axial end portion of the free rotating roller 1 as in each of the embodiments, it is possible to transmit rotational force. The entire roller drive unit 4 including the ring body can be configured to be small, light and inexpensive, and as a result, the unit 4 can be handled easily. In particular, the free roller of the roller drive unit 4 The conveyor 3 can be easily attached to and detached from the frame 2, and the manufacturing cost of the unit 4 and the equipment cost of the partially driven variable free roller conveyor are reduced. It can be.

  Further, in each of the above embodiments, one round belt pulley 9 on the roller drive unit 4 side contacts two free rotating rollers 1 and 1 adjacent in the workpiece conveyance direction, and these can be changed to drive rollers. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which one round belt pulley 9 is brought into contact with one free rotating roller 1 of the free roller conveyor 3 and only one free rotating roller 1 can be changed to a driving roller. In each of the above embodiments, as the rotational force transmitting wheel, in addition to the round belt pulley 9, a hard rubber roller, a wheel with a magnet ring fitted to the peripheral surface, or the like may be used.

It is a side view which shows the 1st Example of the partial drive variable type free roller conveyor which concerns on this invention. It is a vertical front view in the XX line of FIG. It is an enlarged side view of the principal part which shows the 2nd Example of the partial drive variable type free roller conveyor which concerns on this invention. It is a vertical front view in the YY line of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Free Rotating Roller 2 Frame 3 Free Roller Conveyor 4 Roller Drive Unit 7 Plate 8 Motor 9 Pulley for Round Belt (Example of Rotating Force Transmission Wheel)

Claims (3)

  A free roller conveyor in which a plurality of rollers arranged in parallel in the workpiece transfer direction at predetermined intervals are supported so as to freely rotate between the left and right frames, and any of the left and right frames in the free roller conveyor On the other hand, when the plate is mounted on a frame that can be attached to and detached from an arbitrary position in the workpiece conveyance direction, the rotational force that slides on one of the plurality of free rotation rollers or two adjacent circumferential surfaces in the workpiece conveyance direction. A partially driven variable free roller conveyor comprising: a transmission wheel and a roller driving unit that supports a motor that rotationally drives the wheel.   The plate of the roller drive unit is configured to be able to bend and deform so that when the plate is mounted on a frame in a free roller conveyor, the circumferential surface of the rotational force transmission wheel is pressed against the circumferential surface of the free rotating roller. The partially driven variable type free roller conveyor according to claim 1. The rotating force transmission wheel of the roller drive unit has an axis that partially contacts the lower peripheral surface of one end in the axial direction of the free rotation roller when the plate of the roller drive unit is mounted on the frame of the free roller conveyor. The partially driven variable type free roller conveyor according to claim 1 or 2, which is configured to have a length.

Images