JP2005329332A - Cleaning apparatus of long-sized body - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning apparatus capable of effectively cleaning a long-sized body in spite of its simple structure. <P>SOLUTION: On a conveying route of a conveying means such as a roller conveyer 20, two conveying passage parts 23, 24 are extended in a logitudinal direction and installed in parallel in a direction orthogonal to the logitudinal direction. After the long-sized body such as a cultivation container conveyed on one conveying passage part 23 within the two conveying passage parts 23, 24 is cleaned by a cleaning head 50, the long-sized body conveyed on the one conveying passage part 23 is moved to the other conveying passage part 24 and conveyed in a reverse direction of the above logitudinal direction, and the conveyed long-sized body is sterilized by the cleaning head 50. Accordingly, cleaning can be performed two times by one conveying means, and thereby the apparatus is advantageous in cost due to a simple constitution, reduced in installation space and reduced in work manhours and work hours. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning a long body, and more specifically, it is possible to perform cleaning at least twice on a long body while having a compact configuration, and in particular, cleaning a long plant cultivation container. The present invention relates to a cleaning device for a long body suitable for the above.

  In recent years, greenhouse cultivation of fruit vegetables (vegetables such as eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, cucumbers, etc.) and fruit trees has been actively performed. As one of the methods for greenhouse cultivation, a long box-shaped cultivation container having a predetermined width and length (for example, width 5 to 20 cm, length 1 to 3 m) and made of metal, synthetic resin, or the like. There is a cultivation method using a cultivation head (cultivation floor) filled with a medium such as rock wool inside. A seedling is planted on a cultivation head supported on the ground or a support member, the seedling is grown upward, and the seedling is harvested.

  By the way, after the fruit is harvested, it is desirable to wash the cultivation container in order to reuse the cultivation container, and it is also desirable to disinfect for sterilization and the like. Conventionally, there is no apparatus for automatically performing such cleaning, and it is usually performed manually. For example, washing with water or a detergent is first performed, and then the same process is repeated or cleaning (disinfection) with a disinfectant is performed. In any case, it is desirable to perform washing at least twice, and it is difficult to manually perform such work on a long cultivation container, and there is a problem in terms of work efficiency.

  As a result of various studies in view of the above points, the present inventor considered that a long cultivation container is automatically transported using a roller conveyor and washed in the transport process, but at least twice is washed. If the cleaning heads for discharging water, detergent, or the like are arranged in series along the transport direction for this purpose, the transport path becomes longer, the roller conveyor becomes larger, and the production cost increases. Moreover, if only the cultivation container is transported in one direction, an operator who places the cultivation container on the entrance side of the transportation path and an operator who stands by on the exit side are required, and problems remain in terms of work efficiency.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and enables automatic cleaning of a long body such as a plant cultivation container, and at least twice is efficiently performed using a roller conveyor as compact as possible. It is an object of the present invention to provide a long body cleaning apparatus that can perform cleaning operations easily.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the present invention according to claim 1, a cleaning device for cleaning while conveying a long body,
A plurality of rotating rollers arranged in parallel are provided, and a conveying path is formed by the rotating rollers along the longitudinal direction of the elongated body in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction. A roller conveyor in which a first conveyance path portion is set in parallel with a second conveyance path portion on the other end side;
Drive means for rotating the rotating rollers so that the conveying direction of the elongated body by the first conveying path and the conveying direction of the elongated body by the second conveying path are opposite to each other;
The second conveyor is provided on one end side of the conveyance path of the roller conveyor, and the elongated body that has been conveyed through the first conveyance path is maintained in a posture in which the longitudinal direction is in the conveyance direction. Moving means for moving to the passage part;
A first cleaning section and a second cleaning section, which are provided in the middle of the transport path of the roller conveyor and clean the long bodies passing through the first transport path section and the second transport path section, are arranged in parallel. And a cleaning head provided with a cleaning head.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the driving means is capable of rotating the rotating rollers arranged in parallel in one direction and in the opposite direction at every appropriate number. A body cleaning device is provided.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the drive means includes a motor, a drive shaft that is rotationally driven by the motor, and between the drive shaft and each rotary roller for transmitting the driving force of the drive shaft to each rotary roller. And a belt wound around,
3. The apparatus for cleaning an elongated body according to claim 2, wherein the winding direction of the belts is set to be opposite to each other as appropriate.
In this invention of Claim 4, the said drive shaft is provided along the conveyance direction of an elongate body, and the winding direction of the said belt wound between this drive shaft and each rotating roller is rotated. 4. The roller according to claim 3, wherein every other roller is in a direction opposite to each other, and when the drive shaft rotates in a predetermined direction, each rotating roller rotates in the opposite direction to the other direction via the belt. A long-body conveying device is provided.
In this invention of Claim 5, the outer diameter of the axial direction one end side of the said rotating roller is larger than other rotating rollers suitably every other number, and the other rotating roller is an outer diameter of the other end side of an axial direction. The apparatus for cleaning a long body according to any one of claims 1 to 4 is provided.
In this invention of Claim 6, it arrange | positioned in the arrangement | positioning position vicinity of the said moving means, and maintained the attitude | position along the conveyance direction from the 1st conveyance path part to the 2nd conveyance path part by the said transfer means. Among the rotating rollers that are positioned below the long body when being moved as they are, at least two rotating rollers that are separated by a distance that can stably support the long body in a posture along the conveying direction have a rotational axis. 6. The apparatus for transporting a long body according to claim 1, wherein an outer diameter is large between one end side and the other end side along the axis and functions as a relay roller. provide.
In this invention of Claim 7, the cylindrical member was mounted | worn with the one end side along the rotating shaft of each said rotation roller, the other end side, or them, and the part with the large outer diameter of the rotation roller was formed. The long body cleaning device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that it is provided.
In this invention of Claim 8, the said moving means is equipped with the slide member which has a nail | claw part which can reciprocate in the direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction above the said roller conveyor, and can contact the side part of a long body. ,
When the slide member moves to one side, the side portion of the elongated body that has been transported through the first transport path portion is pushed by the claw portion of the slide member, and the second position is maintained while maintaining the posture along the transport direction. The apparatus for cleaning an elongated body according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is moved to the transport passage portion.
In this invention of Claim 9, the said elongate body is a elongate plant cultivation container which can be filled with a culture medium inside, The one of Claims 1-8 characterized by the above-mentioned. Provided is a long body cleaning apparatus.

  According to the long body cleaning device of the present invention, two transport path portions are set in parallel as transport paths formed on the roller conveyor, and the transport directions of the long bodies by the respective transport path portions are mutually set. The long body that is provided in the opposite direction and has been transported through the first transport path is moved to the second transport path while maintaining the posture of the longitudinal direction along the transport direction. The moving means to be provided is provided. Therefore, if the long body is placed on one end side of the roller conveyor, it is transported in one direction by the first transport path section, and by the first cleaning section of the cleaning head disposed in the middle, The first cleaning is performed, and then the moving means moves to the second transport path, transports in the opposite direction to the above, and the second cleaning of the cleaning head performs the second cleaning, and the roller conveyor Come back to one end side.

  That is, the long body passes twice by being reciprocated and conveyed by one cleaning head installed on one roller conveyor, and while having a compact and simple structure that requires a small installation space, Efficient cleaning is performed. Further, since the long body reciprocates on one roller conveyor, the worker only needs to stand by at one end side of the roller conveyor, and can be carried out by a minimum number of workers to improve workability. be able to.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a long body cleaning apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, and FIGS. 2 to 4 are views showing a detailed structure of a roller conveyor 20 as a conveying means. The cleaning device 1 of the present embodiment is a cleaning device that performs cleaning twice while transporting a long box-shaped cultivation container 11 that can be filled with a medium inside a long body (see FIG. 5). ), A roller conveyor 20 as a conveying means, a motor M and belts 30 and 31 as driving means for driving the roller conveyor 20, a moving means 40, and a cleaning head 50.

  The roller conveyor 20 includes a plurality of rotating rollers 22A and 22B arranged in parallel along the longitudinal direction of the support frame 21 on the upper part of the support frame 21 having a plurality of legs 21a at the bottom. It is configured so that it can be freely rotated between each other. A conveying path for the cultivation container 11 which is a long body is formed by the rotating rollers 22A and 22B.

  Specifically, a first transport path portion 23 is formed on one end side in the axial direction of each of the rotating rollers 22A and 22B, and a second transport path portion 24 is formed in parallel on the other end side. The rotating rollers 22A and 22B are set so that the conveying direction of the long body by the first conveying path portion 23 and the conveying direction of the long body by the second conveying path portion 24 are opposite to each other. . That is, the rotation rollers 22A and 22B are provided so as to rotate every other predetermined number, in the present embodiment, every other line in one direction and in the opposite direction. Is conveyed in one direction in contact with only the rotating roller 22A rotating in one direction, and in the second conveying path portion 24, the cultivation container 11 is conveyed in the opposite direction in contact with only the rotating roller 22B rotating in the opposite direction. The

  As a means for rotating the rotating rollers 22A and 22B supported on one support frame 21 constituting the roller conveyor 20 in the opposite directions as described above, in this embodiment, a driving means as shown in FIGS. Is used. That is, the motor M attached to an appropriate space below the support frame 21 and the lower part of the support frame 21 are provided along the longitudinal direction of the roller conveyor 20 (the conveyance direction of the cultivation container 11). The drive shaft 32 is connected and rotationally driven, and the belts 30 and 31 are wound around the drive shaft 32 and the rotation rollers 22A and 22B.

  As shown in FIG. 4A, one belt 30 is wound around a drive shaft 32 and then twisted 90 degrees in one direction to be wound around a circumferential groove 22a formed at the end of one rotating roller 22A. As shown in FIG. 4B, the other belt 31 is wound around the drive shaft 32 and then twisted by 90 degrees in the opposite direction to the end of the other rotating roller 22B. It is wound around the circumferential groove 22b. Since the drive shaft 32 is rotationally driven by a single motor M, it only rotates in one direction in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 4, but the drive shaft 32 is wound by winding the belts 30 and 31 as described above. Rotates in the direction of arrow C, one rotating roller 22A rotates in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 4A, and the other rotating roller 22B rotates in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 4B. As a result, the rotation rollers 22A and 22B rotate in the opposite direction every other line.

  The driving means only needs to be able to rotate the one rotation roller 22A and the other rotation roller 22B in opposite directions to form the first conveyance path portion 23 and the second conveyance path portion 24 in which the conveyance directions are opposite, Not limited to the above configuration, for example, one rotating roller 22A and the other rotating roller 22B may be connected to different motors and drive shafts. However, in order to implement at a lower cost with a simpler configuration, it is preferable that the rotation rollers 22A and 22B be rotated in opposite directions by one motor M as in the present embodiment.

  When transporting the cultivation container 11 that is a long body in one direction, it is in contact with only one rotating roller 22A, and when it is transported in the opposite direction, only in contact with the other rotating roller 22B, In the rotating roller 22A, the outer diameter on the one end side in the axial direction may be made large, and in the rotating roller 22B, the outer diameter on the other end side in the axial direction may be made large. In this embodiment, a cylindrical member 22c made of rubber or synthetic resin is attached to one end of one rotating roller 22A, and a similar cylindrical member 22d is attached to the other end of the other rotating roller 22B. The outer diameter is thick. The means for increasing the outer diameter of only a part of the rotating rollers 22A and 22B can be achieved by manufacturing a rotating roller having a different outer diameter in advance only for the part, but the cost can be reduced by using an existing rotating roller. In order to achieve the above, it is preferable that the cylindrical members 22c and 22d are mounted at necessary places as in the present embodiment.

  The moving means 40 is provided on one end side (termination side) of the conveyance path in the roller conveyor 20, and the cultivation container has been conveyed by the first conveyance path section 23 in a posture along the longitudinal direction of the conveyance path. 11 is moved along the direction of the rotation axis of the rotating roller to the second transport path section 24 while maintaining the posture (see FIG. 5). Specifically, on the terminal end side of the roller conveyor 20, the frame 41 supported by the support frame 21 and the frame 41 are reciprocated on the roller conveyor 20 in the axial direction of the rotating rollers 22A and 22B. The slide member 42 is slidably supported along the rail portion 41a and has claw portions 42a at both ends, and an operation means such as a cylinder (not shown) for operating the slide member 42 is provided. In addition, a stopper 43 that is in contact with the end wall in the longitudinal direction of the cultivation container 11 that has been transported from the first transport path 23 is attached to the support frame 21 at an appropriate position on the end side of the roller conveyor 20.

  Thereby, when the longitudinal direction end wall of the cultivation container 11 that has been conveyed through the first conveyance path portion 23 comes into contact with the stopper 43, the cultivation container 11 stops at that position, and the claw portion 42a of the slide member 42 causes the cultivation container 11 side to stop. The portion (side plate) is pushed and moved to the second transport passage portion 24 (see FIGS. 1 and 5). The slide member 42 returns to the original position in preparation for the cultivation container 11 to be conveyed next. In this case, an arbitrary sensor (not shown) that senses that the cultivation container 11 that has been transported through the first transport path portion 23 has been transported to the terminal end side of the roller conveyor 20 is provided. An operation means such as a cylinder for operating the slide member 42 is controlled by the signal. In addition, the moving means 40 is the state which maintained the attitude | position of the cultivation container 11 conveyed by the 1st conveyance path part 23 to the 2nd conveyance path part 24 along the rotating shaft direction of a rotating roller. Although it is not limited to the above structure as long as it can be moved, according to the above structure, this operation can be achieved with a simple configuration.

  Here, as described above, when the cultivation container 11 is moved from the first conveyance path portion 23 to the second conveyance path portion 24 along the rotation axis direction of the rotation roller by the slide member 42 of the moving means 40. In addition, since the rotation rollers 22A and 22B have different positions of the large diameter portions (mounting positions of the cylindrical members 22c and 22d), the rotation rollers 22A and 22B are moved from the first conveyance path 23 to the second conveyance path 24 as they are. There is a step, and the side plate of the cultivation container 11 cannot be pushed and moved. For this reason, when the longitudinal end wall of the cultivation container 11 comes into contact with the stopper 43 and stops, among the rotating rollers arranged in the vicinity of the arrangement position of the moving means 40, the posture is stabilized in the conveying direction. 2 and 4 between the one end side and the other end side along the axial center of at least two (four in the present embodiment) rotating rollers 22C and 22D separated by a supportable distance. As shown in Fig. 2, the same cylindrical members 22e and 22f as described above are mounted. Thereby, since the outer diameter of the said part becomes large and becomes the same thickness as the large diameter part of said rotating roller 22A, 22B, the level | step difference at the time of moving to the direction along an axial center is eliminated, and the cultivation container 11 Move smoothly. That is, these rotary rollers 22C and 22D function as relay rollers. The separation distance between the rotation rollers 22C and 22D is arbitrary, but usually a rotation roller capable of supporting the vicinity of each end in the longitudinal direction of the cultivation container 11 is selected. Of course, the number of the rotating rollers 22C and 22D functioning as the relay rollers is not limited, and the lengths of the cylindrical members 22e and 22f along the axial direction are not necessarily limited as long as they can function as the relay rollers. It does not have to be.

  The washing head 50 is provided in the middle of the conveyance path in the roller conveyor 20, and performs the first washing and the second washing on the cultivation container 11 passing through the first conveyance path portion 23 and the second conveyance path portion 24, respectively. A tunnel-shaped first cleaning unit 51 and a second cleaning unit 52 are provided. In this case, for example, a detergent (or water or disinfectant) may be ejected from the first cleaning unit 51, and a disinfectant (or water, detergent, or the like) may be ejected from the second cleaning unit 52. . Of course, the same kind of liquid may be ejected, and the combination of cleaning liquids is arbitrary. In addition, each of the first cleaning unit 51 and the second cleaning unit 52 may be provided with a plurality of ejection ports, and each may eject a plurality of types of cleaning liquids.

  According to the cleaning apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the first transport path portion formed on the cultivation container 11 near the side plate on one side of the support frame 21 on the starting end side of the roller conveyor 20. When it is placed on 23, it comes into contact with the cylindrical member 22 c of one of the rotating rollers 22 </ b> A arranged at every other line forming the first conveyance path portion 23. For this reason, according to the rotation direction of one rotation roller 22A, the cultivation container 11 is conveyed in the arrow X direction of FIG. The transported cultivation container 11 passes through the first cleaning unit 51 of the cleaning head 50, and at this time, a cleaning liquid such as a detergent is jetted from the first cleaning unit 51 to be cleaned.

  When the cultivation container 11 reaches the terminal end of the roller conveyor 20 after passing through the first cleaning unit 51, the sensor senses this, and the slide member 42 operates, and the claw portion 42a of the slide member 42 causes the claw portion 42a of FIG. It is pushed in the direction of arrow Y, and moves to the second transport path section 24 via the rotating rollers 22C and 22D that function as relay rollers. The slide member 42 returns to the original position in preparation for the cultivation container 11 to be conveyed next. When it reaches the second transport path portion 24, it comes into contact with the cylindrical member 22d, which is the large diameter portion of the other rotating roller 22B constituting the second transport path portion 24. Since the other rotation roller 22B rotates in the opposite direction to the one rotation roller 22A, the cultivation container 11 is conveyed in the direction of arrow Z in FIG. 5, which is opposite to the conveyance direction by the first conveyance path portion 23. . The transported cultivation container 11 passes through the second cleaning unit 52 of the cleaning head 50, and at this time, for example, a disinfectant is jetted from the second cleaning unit 52 to be cleaned (disinfected). After passing through the 2nd washing | cleaning part 52, the cultivation container 11 reaches the starting end side of the roller conveyor 20, and is carried out from here. In this way, from the next to the next, the cultivation container 11 is automatically washed a plurality of times while being conveyed.

  Thus, this invention can perform washing | cleaning at least twice, although it is one roller conveyor by making the conveyance path | route of the roller conveyor 20 into the structure which can reciprocate a cultivation container. Therefore, an occupied area in a limited space such as a greenhouse may be small, which is advantageous in terms of cost. Moreover, since carrying in / out of the cultivation container 11 to / from the roller conveyor can be performed at one end of the roller conveyor, it is possible to reduce the work man-hours and the work time and to improve workability.

  In the above-described embodiment, one rotating roller 22A that forms the first conveying path portion 23 and the other rotating roller 22B that forms the second conveying path portion 24 are arranged every other line. However, as long as long bodies, such as a cultivation container, can be conveyed in a predetermined direction, it is also possible to set every suitable number. Further, as long as there is no hindrance to the conveyance of a long body such as a cultivation container, it is not always necessary to connect all of the rotation rollers 22A and 22B to the drive shaft 32 via the belts 30 and 31.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the case where the elongate box-shaped cultivation container 11 which can be filled with a culture medium as an elongate body was wash | cleaned was demonstrated, it is not restricted to this, A candy and various bar materials It can also be applied to cleaning long objects such as.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an elongated body cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the configuration of the roller conveyor of the above embodiment. FIG. 3 is a side view showing the configuration of the roller conveyor of the embodiment. 4A and 4B are diagrams for explaining a method of winding a belt around a rotating roller. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the cleaning device according to the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cleaning apparatus 11 Cultivation container 20 Roller conveyor 22A, 22B, 22C, 22D Rotating roller 22c, 22d, 22e, 22d Cylindrical member 23 1st conveyance path part 24 2nd conveyance path part 30, 31 Belt 40 Moving means 42 Slide member 50 Cleaning head 51 First cleaning unit 52 Second cleaning unit

Claims (9)

A cleaning device for cleaning while conveying a long body,
A plurality of rotating rollers arranged in parallel are provided, and a conveying path is formed by the rotating rollers along the longitudinal direction of the elongated body in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction. A roller conveyor in which a first conveyance path portion is set in parallel with a second conveyance path portion on the other end side;
Drive means for rotating the rotating rollers so that the conveying direction of the elongated body by the first conveying path and the conveying direction of the elongated body by the second conveying path are opposite to each other;
The second conveyor is provided on one end side of the conveyance path of the roller conveyor, and the elongated body that has been conveyed through the first conveyance path is maintained in a posture in which the longitudinal direction is in the conveyance direction. Moving means for moving to the passage part;
A first cleaning section and a second cleaning section, which are provided in the middle of the transport path of the roller conveyor and clean the long bodies passing through the first transport path section and the second transport path section, are arranged in parallel. And a cleaning head provided with a cleaning head.   2. The apparatus for cleaning an elongated body according to claim 1, wherein the driving means is capable of rotating the rotation rollers arranged in parallel in one direction and in the opposite direction at every appropriate number. The driving means includes a motor, a driving shaft that is rotationally driven by the motor, and a belt that is wound between the driving shaft and each rotating roller to transmit the driving force of the driving shaft to each rotating roller. Configured,
3. The apparatus for cleaning a long body according to claim 2, wherein the belt is wound in directions opposite to each other as appropriate.   The drive shaft is provided along the conveying direction of the long body, and the winding direction of the belt wound between the drive shaft and each rotation roller is opposite to each other every other rotation roller. 4. The apparatus for transporting a long body according to claim 3, wherein when the drive shaft rotates in a predetermined direction, each of the rotating rollers rotates alternately in one direction and in the opposite direction via the belt.   The outer diameter of one end side in the axial direction of the rotating roller is larger than that of other rotating rollers as appropriate, and the outer diameter of the other rotating roller is larger on the other end side in the axial direction. The elongate body cleaning apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4.   A long body that is disposed in the vicinity of the position where the moving means is disposed and is moved by the transfer means from the first transport path portion to the second transport path portion while maintaining the posture along the transport direction. Among the rotating rollers located below the at least two rotating rollers separated from each other by a distance capable of stably supporting the long body in a posture along the conveying direction, one end side and the other end side along the rotating shaft The long-body conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the outer diameter is large and functions as a relay roller.   7. A cylindrical member is mounted on one end side, the other end side, or between them along the rotation axis of each of the rotating rollers to form a large outer diameter portion of the rotating roller. Long body cleaning equipment. The moving means includes a slide member having a claw portion that can reciprocate in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction above the roller conveyor and that can come into contact with a side portion of the long body,
When the slide member moves to one side, the side portion of the elongated body that has been transported through the first transport path portion is pushed by the claw portion of the slide member, and the second position is maintained while maintaining the posture along the transport direction. The long body cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning device is configured to be moved to the transfer passage portion.   The said elongate body is a elongate plant cultivation container which can be filled with a culture medium inside, The washing | cleaning apparatus of the elongate body of any one of Claims 1-8 characterized by the above-mentioned.

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