JP2006193331A - Screw feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a screw feeder enabling the replacement of an arrangement means installed in the screw feeder according to the sizes of screws and capable of rapidly coping with the different sizes of the screws merely by the replacement of the arrangement means when the different screws are fed. <P>SOLUTION: This screw feeder comprises a storage part storing the screws, a carrying means carrying the screws stored in the storage part, the arrangement means arranging the screws carried by the carrying means, a discharge means discharging the screws positioned and arranged on the downstream side of the arrangement means, and a bit guide disposed at a takeout part for the screws installed on a guide rail. The arrangement means for arranging the screws can be replaced according to the sizes of the screws. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a simple screw supply device installed in an assembly line, and relates to a screw supply device that allows a large number of screws accommodated in a screw accommodating portion to be taken out after being arranged one by one.

Conventionally, as this type of screw supply device, for example, Japanese Patent No. 2997865 (see Patent Document 1) is known. As shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, the screw supply device 1 includes a screw accommodating portion 2 having a box-shaped space, and the screw accommodating portion 2 is moved to the left and right by a mountain-shaped guide rail 3 that divides the central portion. It is divided. Push-up members 4a and 4b that are alternately raised on the bottom surface of the screw accommodating portion 2 are provided, and a large number of small screws 5 placed on the inclined upper surfaces of the push-up members 4a and 4b are carried up above the guide rail 3. Slide down on guide rail 3. Above the guide rail 3, a brush member 8 that swings in the left-right direction around the support shaft 7 is provided. The guide rail 3 extends to the tip of the drive unit 9 provided adjacent to the screw accommodating unit 2, and a screw take-out unit 10 is provided in the tip weaving unit.
A part of the small screw 5 dispersed on the guide rail 3 from the left and right push-up members 4a and 4b is inserted into the screw groove 8 of the guide rail 3 at the same time as the shaft portion 5a, and the head 5b It is supported at the opening edge. On the other hand, the small screw 5 remaining on the guide rail 3 without being inserted into the screw groove 8 of the guide rail 3 is removed from the guide rail 3 by the brush member 6. The machine screw 5 inserted into the screw groove 8 of the guide rail 3 reaches the screw take-out portion 10 while gradually moving on the guide rail 3, and is taken out by the bit operation of the assembly line operator.
However, in the screw supply device 1 described above, the small screws 5 are scattered on the guide rails 3 from the push-up members 4a and 4b, and the small screws 5 are inserted into the guide rails 3 while being brushed with the brush member 6. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11, the head 5 b of the machine screw 5 may be caught in the screw groove 8 of the guide rail 3. In particular, as shown in FIG. 11, when a small screw 5 having a diameter of the head portion 5b and a length of the shaft portion 5a are substantially the same and a thickness of the head portion 5b is large, Even if the brush member 8 is used, the brush member 8 cannot be easily removed, and remains in the state of being sandwiched between the guide rails 3. For this reason, the movement of the machine screw 5 from the rear inserted into the screw groove 8 of the guide rail 3 is hindered, and each time the main switch of the screw supply device 1 is turned off and the screw 5 is sandwiched between the screw grooves 8. The screw 5 had to be removed, which caused the work efficiency of the assembly line to decrease.

In view of this, the present inventors have disclosed a screw supply device that is designed to increase the working efficiency of the assembly line by avoiding troubles such that a small screw is caught in the screw groove of the guide rail. (See Patent Document 2).
The screw supply device of the invention of the above-mentioned Patent Document 2 is a device in which screws are once aligned before the heads of the screws are supported on the guide rail, and the aligned screws are supplied to the screw grooves of the guide rail. . Specifically, a screw accommodating portion, a conveying means for conveying the screws accommodated in the screw accommodating portion, an aligning means for aligning the screws conveyed by the conveying means, and a downstream side of the aligning means. And a guide rail for supporting the heads of the aligned screws.
According to the above invention, the screws conveyed from the screw accommodating portion are not directly scattered on the guide rail, but are once aligned by the aligning means and then guided to the guide rail. There is no such a situation that the head of the door is caught in the screw groove of the guide rail. In particular, it is possible to easily adjust the directionality by aligning the screws in a row with the screws turned.
In particular, a rotating drum is used as the screw conveying means, and the through holes are provided in the rotating drum, whereby the screws can be conveyed to the aligning means. By tilting the bottom surface of the screw storage city downward toward the rotating drum, it becomes easier for screws to enter the through hole, and by tilting the inner wall surface of the through hole in the direction opposite to the rotational direction of the rotating drum. The screw is configured to be effectively prevented from dropping from the through-hole during conveyance.
Japanese Patent No. 2997865 International Publication Number WO03 / 106307

By the way, according to the above-described invention, as shown in FIG. 12, the small screws 101 conveyed from the screw accommodating portion are not directly sprayed on the guide rail 102 but are once aligned by the aligning means 104 and then guided to the guide rail 102. Therefore, the head of the small screw 101 is not caught in the screw groove 103 of the guide rail 102 as in the conventional case, and the directionality can be improved by aligning the small screws 101 in a row. There is a remarkable effect that it can be easily arranged.
However, since the aligning means 104 is used to align the machine screws 101 once with the concave grooves 105, unlike the guide rail 102 in which the width can be easily adjusted, there is a problem that screws of different sizes cannot be easily accommodated. It was.
For this reason, it is necessary to prepare a screw supply device of a type corresponding to the size of the screws, and the improvement of the size has been demanded because it is troublesome to cope with the size.
Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is that the alignment means provided in the screw supply device can be replaced according to the size of the screws, etc., and when supplying different screws, only the replacement of the alignment means is different. It is to provide a screw supply device that can quickly cope with the size of screws.

In order to achieve the above-described object, a screw supply device according to the present invention includes:
An accommodating portion for accommodating screws;
Conveying means for conveying the screws accommodated in the accommodating portion;
Alignment means for aligning the screws conveyed by the conveying means;
A discharging means that is located downstream of the aligning means and discharges the aligned screws;
In a screw supply device comprising a bit guide disposed on a screw take-out portion provided on the guide rail,
The alignment means for aligning the screws can be replaced according to the size of the screws.

Moreover, the screw supply device according to the present invention includes:
An accommodating portion for accommodating screws;
A rotating drum that picks up the screws in the housing and discharges them on the guide rail;
An alignment guide for aligning the screws conveyed by the rotating drum with a concave groove-shaped conveyance path formed on the upper surface;
A guide rail which is located downstream of the alignment guide and which supports and moves and discharges the heads of the aligned screws;
In a screw supply device comprising a bit guide disposed on a screw take-out portion provided on the guide rail,
An alignment guide for aligning the screws in a concave groove-shaped conveyance path formed on the upper surface is supported by floating at the installation position, and an extra portion dropped from the side surface of the alignment guide to the accommodation portion of the screws arranged in the lower part. Another feature is that the screw can be removed.

The screw supply device according to the present invention includes:
The alignment guide for aligning the screws with the concave grooves is also characterized in that the concave grooves are inclined in opposite directions in the first half portion and the second half portion of the conveyance path.

Furthermore, the screw supply device according to the present invention is:
When the alignment guide for aligning the screws with the concave groove is bent so that the concave groove projects to one side in the middle of the conveyance path, and the screws moving on the guide rail on the downstream side of the alignment guide are stopped, In the bent portion, the screws moving on the alignment guide may be dropped from the side surface of the alignment guide with a small pressing force.

According to the present invention, the alignment means provided in the screw supply device can be replaced according to the size of the screws, etc., and when supplying different screws, it is possible to quickly change to different screw sizes by simply replacing the alignment means. As a result, it has become possible to provide a screw supply device that does not require time and effort for assembling the screw supply device into the production line, and does not stop the line incorporating the screw supply device for a long time.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1 is a perspective view showing the overall structure of a screw supply device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of an alignment guide, and FIGS. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another example of the alignment guide, and FIGS. 6A to 6C are a plan view, a side view, a front view, a rear view, an AA cut end view, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a side view showing a mounting state of the alignment guide, and FIG. 8 is a plan view of the guide bit.
As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the screw supply device 10 according to this embodiment has a box shape that is small enough to be put on the palm as a whole, and includes a casing 11 and screws 12 incorporated in the casing 11. A housing part 13 and a discharge part 14 are provided. The accommodating portion 13 and the discharge portion 14 are partitioned by a vertical wall 15 extending in the vertical direction at a substantially central portion of the casing 11, and a disc-shaped rotating drum 16 is disposed along the vertical wall 15. Has been.

A large rectangular cutout portion 27 is formed in a part of the casing 11 adjacent to the housing portion 13. By providing the cutout portion 27, it becomes easy to put a large number of screws 12 into the housing portion 13.
The notch 27 that facilitates the insertion of screws into the housing 13 formed in a part of the casing 11 preferably has a rectangular shape with a width close to the width of the rotating drum 16. The depth of the cutout portion 27 can be appropriately determined in consideration of whether it is easy to insert screws and the like, whether a large number of screws 12 can be accommodated in the accommodating portion 13, and the like.

The rotary drum 16 is for sending out the screw 12 accommodated in the accommodating portion 13 to the discharge portion 14 side, and is formed with notch recesses 17 for scooping the screw 12 at six locations on the outer peripheral surface. . As shown in FIG. 1, the shape of these notch recesses 17 is such that the front wall and the rear wall are inclined in parallel to the discharge unit 14 side with respect to the rotation direction of the rotary drum 16, The screw 12 is devised so that it can be easily discharged to the discharge portion 14 side. In addition, the bottom plate 18 of the housing part 13 has a height position of the center part of the notch recessed part 17 of the rotating drum 16 so that the notch recessed part 17 of the rotating drum 16 can be easily screwed at the bottom of the housing part 13. Corresponds to the position.

The rotating drum 16 is driven by a motor 19 disposed adjacent to the accommodating portion 13, and this driving force is transmitted to the rotating drum 16 by a belt 20 and a pulley 21. In addition, the number of the notch recessed parts 17 provided in the outer periphery of the rotating drum 16 is not specifically limited to the thing of illustration. In addition, the width of the recess can be changed as appropriate.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the discharge portion 14 includes a mechanism for aligning the screws 12 discharged from the notch recesses 17 of the rotating drum 16 and moving the screws 12 to the outside of the casing 11. A plate portion 23 that once receives the screw 12 discharged from the rotary drum 16, a concave groove-shaped guide groove portion 24 formed along the outer periphery of the plate portion 23, and a screw conveyed from the guide groove portion 24. 12 and the guide rail 25 linearly extending from the end portion of the alignment guide 111 to the outside of the casing 11, and the screw 12 spilled from the guide rail 25, the plate portion 23, and the guide groove portion 24. And a slider portion 26 for returning to the housing portion 13. The screws 12 discharged from the accommodating portion 13 to the plate portion 23 are fed into the guide groove portion 24 by the slight vibration generated in the entire apparatus, and are aligned in a line by the alignment guide 111, and are then placed in the guide rail 25. It is sent. The guide rail 25 is composed of a pair of long and thin plates 25a and 25b whose gap is adjusted according to the diameter of the shaft portion of the screw 12 to be discharged, and the shaft portion of the screw 12 is inserted into the gap. The screw 12 fed into the guide rail 25 gradually moves along the guide rail 25 with the head of the screw 12 supported on the upper end of the guide rail 25.

The guide rail 25 has a tip portion protruding from the casing 11, and an upper end of the guide rail 25 is exposed on substantially the same plane as the upper surface 43 of the casing 11. A screw extraction part is provided. The screw take-out portion is disposed at the top of the stopper member 31 for temporarily stopping the screw 12 moving on the guide rail 25, and the stopped screw 12 is taken out at the tip of a tool such as a driver. A bit guide 32. The stopper member 31 is provided with a spring (not shown), and the screw 12 is stopped at a predetermined position by the biasing force of the spring.

What should be noted in the present invention is that the alignment guide 111 is separated between the guide groove portion 24 and the guide rail 25 as shown in FIGS. This is possible.
Unlike the conventional example in which the guide groove 24 and the guide rail 25 are directly connected, the alignment guide 111 is provided between them, so that the alignment guide 111 can be easily attached and detached. Therefore, by appropriately preparing the alignment guide 111 according to the size of the screw, it is possible to easily cope with a change in the size of the screw 12 or the like.
The alignment guide 111 can be appropriately formed by metal casting, press molding, or resin injection molding. However, it is desirable to form the alignment guide 111 by an injection molded product such as engineering resin from the viewpoint of cost and weight reduction. .

Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the alignment guide 111 is formed with a support piece 112 at the lower part of one end thereof. Floating and supported by the entire length in the length direction. Therefore, an extra screw dropped from both sides of the alignment guide 111 can be removed into the accommodating portion 13 of the screw 12 arranged on one side.
As shown in FIG. 4, the alignment guide 111 for aligning the screws 12 with the concave grooves on the upper surface is formed by inclining the linear concave grooves in opposite directions in the first half portion and the second half portion of the conveyance path. Therefore, in the alignment guide 111 in this example, extra screws that are not aligned from both sides can be removed without difficulty.
The alignment guide 111 is fitted at the other end into a mounting groove 113 formed at the end of the guide rail 25, so that the alignment guide 111 can be attached and detached with one touch. That is, even if there is a change in the size of the screw 12 in the production line or the like, it can be handled very quickly.

5 to 6 (a) to 6 (e) show other examples of alignment guides.
As shown in the figure, the alignment guide 121 in this example is held at a predetermined height by fitting a support piece 122 formed at the lower end of one end into the side wall on the guide groove portion 24 side, as in the alignment guide 111 in the above example. The end is fitted into a mounting groove 113 formed at the end of the guide rail 25.
A concave groove is bent on the upper surface of the alignment guide 121 so as to protrude to one side in the middle of the conveyance path. By doing so, when the screw 12 moving on the guide rail 25 on the downstream side of the alignment guide 121 stops, the screw 12 moving on the alignment guide 121 easily falls out of the groove at the bent portion 123. In other words, the screw 12 falls from the side surface of the alignment guide 121 with a small pressure.
Therefore, an excessive load is not applied to the screw 12 moving on the guide rail 25 on the downstream side of the alignment guide 121, and the trouble that disturbs the alignment of the screw 12 on the guide rail 25 is solved.

In particular, when there is a request to process the screw 12 at a high speed, it is required to store the screw 12 moving on the guide rail 25 in advance and quickly discharge the stocked screw 12. At this time, even if the screws 12 that move on the guide rails 25 are stored, the screws 12 that move on the alignment guides 121 in the bent portion 123 easily fall out of the concave grooves. This is very convenient because no extra load is applied to the screw 12 moving on the rail 25.

The alignment guide 121 in this example will be described in more detail. The concave groove 124 is linearly formed before and after the groove 124, and is bent so as to protrude to one side in the shape of a dogleg at the central portion. The bending angle of the bent portion 123 is necessary for the screw 123 moving on the alignment guide 121 to fall from the side surface of the alignment guide 121 with a small applied pressure, and the alignment guide 121 is too wide. It is desirable that it does not become.
125 is a guide groove formed one step lower than the concave groove 124 on the downstream side of the alignment guide 121.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the bit guide 32 is formed by welding two rectangular guide plates 33 and 34.
That is, unlike a conventional example in which a single metal plate is bent into a V shape, the V-shaped groove portion 35 is formed by the two guide plates 33 and 34. In addition to the 35 guide surfaces 36a and 36b being formed at an acute angle, an intersection line 37 where the guide surfaces 36a and 36b meet at the bottom of the V-shaped groove 35 appears sharply. More specifically, the two guide plates 33 and 34 have outwardly bent portions 38 and 39, respectively. When welded, the guide plates 33 and 34 are sharply V-shaped at the positions of the bent portions 38 and 39. The groove part 35 is formed. Therefore, the V-shaped groove portion 35 having a desired angle can be obtained by appropriately setting the bending angles of the bent portions 38 and 39 of the guide plates 33 and 34. Further, the intersecting line 37 of the V-shaped groove portion 35 appears as a sharp line because the bent portions 38 and 39 of the guide plates 33 and 34 are overlapped to form a single line. Note that the V-shaped groove 35 is provided continuously from the upper end to the lower end of the bit guide 32 and is inclined forward toward the lower end side.

The bit guide 32 is further formed with wide-angle guide surfaces 42 a and 42 b on the outer side of the V-shaped groove portion 35 via second bent portions 40 and 41. The opening angle α1 created by the outer guide surfaces 42a and 42b is larger than the opening angle α2 of the guide surfaces 36a and 36b of the V-shaped groove 35. The second bent portions 40 and 41 are substantially parallel to the bent portions 38 and 39 forming the V-shaped groove portion 35. Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the outer guide surfaces 42 a and 42 b are slightly shorter at the lower end than the guide surfaces 36 a and 36 b of the V-shaped groove 35, and the upper surface 43 of the casing 11. There is a gap between them. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a screw head regulating member 45 that extends along the upper surface of the guide rail 25 is integrally formed at the rear end of one guide plate 33. The restricting member 45 is disposed in the vicinity of the upper surface of the guide rail 25 and is disposed in the vicinity of the head of the screw 12 moving on the guide rail 25, thereby preventing the screw 12 from being lifted. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, by extending the rear end 45a of the restricting member 45 to the slider portion 26, the slider 12 is moved at the rear end portion 45a of the restricting member 45 with respect to the screw 12 riding on the guide rail 25. The screw is dropped on the portion 26 to prevent clogging of screws on the tip end side of the guide rail 25.

In the above embodiment, the case where the notch recess 17 is formed as the rotating drum 16 has been described. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can also be applied to a case where a through hole is provided instead of the notch recess 17.

The screw supply device according to the present invention can be used not only in electric products, precision instruments, and other assembly lines, but also in various scenes where screws are taken out by a tool such as a screwdriver.

It is a perspective view which shows the whole structure of the screw supply apparatus which concerns on this invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the alignment guide, FIGS. 4A to 4C are cross-sectional views thereof, FIG. 5 is a side view showing the mounting state of the alignment guide, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of the guide bit. is there. FIG. It is a perspective view of an alignment guide. (A) thru | or (c) are the sectional drawings, respectively. It is a perspective view which shows the other example of the alignment guide. (A) thru | or (e) are the top view, a side view, a front view, a rear view, and an AA cut end view, respectively. It is a side view which shows the attachment state of an alignment guide. It is a top view of a guide bit. It is a top view which notches and shows a part of conventional screw supply apparatus. It is sectional explanatory drawing which shows the state which supplies screws to a guide rail in the conventional screw supply apparatus. In the conventional screw supply apparatus, it is a perspective explanatory view which shows the state where the screw was pinched | interposed into the guide rail. It is a side view of the alignment means in the conventional screw supply apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Screw supply apparatus 11 Casing 12 Screw 13 Accommodating part 14 Discharge part 15 Vertical wall 16 Rotating drum 17 Notch recessed part 18 Bottom plate 19 Motor 20 Belt 21 Pulley 23 Plate part 24 Guide groove part 25 Guide rail 25a, 25b Plate 26 Slider part 27 Notch part 31 Stopper member 32 Bit guide 33, 34 Guide plate 35 V-shaped groove 36a, 36b Guide surface 37 Intersection line 38, 39 Bent part 40, 41 Bent part 42a, 42b Guide surface 43 Casing upper surface 44 L-shaped bracket 45 Restricting member 45a Rear end 50 Driver 51 Bit 111 Alignment guide 112 Support piece 113 Mounting groove 121 Alignment guide 122 Support piece 123 Bent part 124 Concave groove 125 Guide groove

Claims (4)

An accommodating portion for accommodating screws;
Conveying means for conveying the screws accommodated in the accommodating portion;
Alignment means for aligning the screws conveyed by the conveying means;
A discharging means that is located downstream of the aligning means and discharges the aligned screws;
In a screw supply device comprising a bit guide disposed on a screw take-out portion provided on the guide rail,
The screw supply device according to claim 1, wherein the aligning means for aligning the screws is replaceable according to the size of the screws. An accommodating portion for accommodating screws;
A rotating drum that picks up the screws in the housing and discharges them on the guide rail;
An alignment guide for aligning the screws conveyed by the rotating drum with a concave groove-shaped conveyance path formed on the upper surface;
A guide rail which is located downstream of the alignment guide and which supports and moves and discharges the heads of the aligned screws;
In a screw supply device comprising a bit guide disposed on a screw take-out portion provided on the guide rail,
An alignment guide for aligning the screws in a concave groove-shaped conveyance path formed on the upper surface is supported by floating at the installation position, and an extra portion dropped from the side surface of the alignment guide to the accommodation portion of the screws arranged in the lower part. A screw supply device characterized in that the screw can be removed. 3. The screw supply device according to claim 2, wherein the alignment guide for aligning the screws with the concave grooves inclines the concave grooves in opposite directions in the first half portion and the second half portion of the conveyance path. When the alignment guide for aligning the screws with the concave groove is bent so that the concave groove projects to one side in the middle of the conveyance path, and the screws moving on the guide rail on the downstream side of the alignment guide are stopped, 3. The screw supply device according to claim 2, wherein at the bent portion, the screws that move on the alignment guide are dropped from the side surface of the alignment guide with a small pressing force.

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