JP2007210730A - Article delivering mechanism, and article separating and feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an article delivering mechanism which is capable of correctly and rapidly separating and taking out articles such as small components of a predetermined amount irrespective of shape, weight, material or the like, and is constituted simple and compact, and an article separating and feeding device having the delivering mechanism. <P>SOLUTION: The conveying direction of an article P is defined as one direction from a bottom to a top. The article delivering mechanism is constituted of a conveying face 23a which extends in the conveying direction to form a conveying passage 23 of the article, and a coil 22 which is rotated while an outer circumferential surface is opposite to or brought into surface contact with the conveying face 23a with the conveying direction being the axial direction. In a section substantially orthogonal to the conveying direction, one side end (a conveying face end 23c) of the conveying face 23a is arranged at a lower side of a lowest point of the coil 22, and one side end of the conveying face is defined as the lowest point of the conveying face. A circulation passage 25 is juxtaposed with the conveying passage 23, and the article fallen from the conveying passage 23 is conveyed to a lower end of the conveying passage 23. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for feeding out articles such as small parts one by one and separating them by a predetermined amount from a large number.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known an apparatus for separating a small number of small parts such as bolts and nuts held in a container by counting them one by one and feeding them to another container by a predetermined amount. It has been.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes a device that takes out a specified number of bolts. This device includes an alignment mechanism that aligns bolts randomly placed in a hopper one by one in a predetermined posture. A separation feeding mechanism is provided for separating the bolts by a specified amount and feeding them to another container.

Articles randomly placed in the hopper may be entangled with each other while moving through the hopper to form a bridge. In addition, a bridge may be formed in the article supply process. Once the bridge is formed, the article cannot be sent out until the bridge collapses.
Therefore, in order to collapse the bridge, a method of applying vibration is widely adopted. In this case, noise may occur due to the vibration of the apparatus.

Many of the above-described separation / feeding devices for articles (small parts) include both an alignment mechanism and a feeding mechanism in order to feed the articles in an aligned state. In this case, since the shape of the article or the material of the article is used to align the articles, the shape or material of the article fed by the separation feeding device is limited. There were many. In an actual factory assembly line, since the workers are directly assembling the articles (small parts), there is a case where the articles do not need to be aligned. A large-scale separating / feeding device has to be provided with unnecessary man-hours, wasteful costs, and wastefully occupying the work space.
JP-A-8-48425

  The present invention makes it possible to separate and take out a predetermined number of articles such as small parts accurately and quickly regardless of the shape, weight, material, etc. and to make the apparatus simple and compact. An article feeding mechanism and a separating / feeding apparatus including the feeding mechanism are proposed.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is as described above. Next, means for solving the problem will be described.

  That is, according to the first aspect, in the article feeding mechanism for feeding the articles while feeding them one by one, the article conveying direction is set to one direction from the lower side to the upper side, and the article is extended in the conveying direction to form the article conveying path. And a coil that rotates while the outer circumferential surface faces or is in contact with the conveying surface, and has a cross section that is substantially orthogonal to the conveying direction. One side edge of the conveyance surface is arranged below the point, and one side edge of the conveyance surface is set as the lowest point of the conveyance surface.

  In Claim 2, the reflux path which conveys the articles | goods which fell from the said conveyance path to the lower end part of this conveyance path is arranged in parallel with this conveyance path, and one side edge and said reflux surface of the said conveyance surface are continued. In addition, in a cross section substantially perpendicular to the transport direction, a reflux surface forming the reflux path is provided at a position lower than the transport surface.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the reflux path is provided with a stirring member for stirring an article in the reflux path.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the article feeding mechanism according to any one of the first to third aspects, a driving means for rotationally driving the coil, and the feeding mechanism are conveyed while being fed one by one. A receiving container for receiving an article to be received, a detecting means for detecting the quantity of the article conveyed to the receiving container, and a detection signal from the detecting means, and when the quantity of the article reaches a predetermined quantity, An apparatus for separating and feeding articles, comprising control means for stopping rotational driving.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the article feeding mechanism according to any one of the first to third aspects, the driving means for rotationally driving the coil, and the feeding mechanism are conveyed while being fed one by one. A receiving container for receiving an article to be received, a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of an article in the receiving container, and a control means for receiving a detection signal from the detecting means and stopping the rotational driving or driving of the coil by the driving means. Is a separation feeding device.

  7. The article separation and feeding apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a holding container for the article and a stirring member for stirring the article in the holding container, and the article is provided at the lower end portion of the conveyance path from the holding container. Supply.

  As effects of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

  If the number of articles existing between one strip of the coils is larger than one while the articles are moving up the conveyance path, the articles other than the article located at the uppermost position in the cross section substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction are the conveyance surface. Since it falls off from one side end of the coil, articles can be conveyed and fed one by one between the strips of the coil. Therefore, it is possible to accurately and quickly separate and take out an article by a predetermined quantity regardless of its shape, weight, material, etc., and to easily and compactly configure a separating and feeding apparatus including a feeding mechanism. be able to.

Next, embodiments of the invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a separating and feeding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing an internal structure of the separating and feeding apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a front view of the separating and feeding apparatus. 4 is a view in the direction of the arrow Y in FIG. 1 of the feeding portion and the receiving portion, and FIG. 5 is a front perspective view showing the structure of the feeding portion. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the flow of articles in the supply unit, and FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the flow of articles in the feeding unit. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the control configuration of the separating and feeding apparatus, FIG. 9 is a flowchart of control by the control apparatus, FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining how articles are individually separated in the feeding section, and FIG. It is a figure which shows another form.

A separation / feeding device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a device that takes out small parts such as bolts and nuts as articles P that are delivered articles, and separates and extracts a predetermined quantity from a number of articles P. .
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the separating / feeding device 10 is generally supplied with a supply unit 9 for supplying an article P put into the hopper 11 to a feeding unit 8 to be described later and the supply unit 9. A feeding unit 8 having a feeding mechanism for feeding the articles P to the receiving unit 7 described later, and a receiving unit 7 for receiving a predetermined quantity while counting the number of articles P sent from the feeding unit 8; , And a control unit 6 that controls the operation of the separating and feeding apparatus 10.

  In the separating / feeding device 10, the feeding unit 8 is fixed to the base 50, and the feeding unit 9 is connected above the feeding unit 8. The receiving unit 7 is provided on the side of the feeding unit 8. Then, the articles P in the supply unit 9 are sequentially conveyed to the feeding unit 8 and the receiving unit 7, so that the articles P are separated by a predetermined amount and fed to the receiving unit 7.

  Next, the configuration of each part of the separation / feed apparatus 10 will be described in detail.

[Supply unit 9]
The supply unit 9 includes a hopper 11 as a holding container into which articles P are randomly placed, and a screw 12 as a stirring means provided in the hopper 11.

In this embodiment, the screw 12 is provided with a spiral stirring blade 12b on the outer periphery of the rotating shaft 12a. A rotating shaft 12a of the screw 12 is rotatably supported via a bearing on a rear portion constituting surface 21d of a casing 21 of the feeding portion 8 described later, and is rotationally driven by a driving mechanism described later.
The screw 12 is provided so as to protrude into the hopper 11, and functions to agitate the article P that has been put into the hopper 11 and accumulated by rotating to prevent formation of a bridge by the article P inside the hopper 11. Have Further, the screw 12 has a function of feeding the article P from the hopper 11 to the feeding portion 8 by rotating while the article P is wound by the stirring blade 12b.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the bottom surface 11a of the hopper 11 has a downward slope so that the lower opening 11b (exit from the hopper 11) is the lowest part, and in the vicinity of the lower opening 11b, A screw 12 is disposed so as to guide the article P to the lower opening 11b. The extending direction of the rotating shaft 12 a of the screw 12 has an inclination along the bottom surface 11 a of the hopper 11.

  By providing the screw 12 in the supply unit 9 having the above-described configuration, the flow is promoted against the flow of the article P moving downward along the bottom surface 11 a of the hopper 11. Moreover, since the articles P that are accumulated in the hopper 11 and are about to move downward by their own weight can be agitated by applying a load in a substantially horizontal direction and a substantially vertical direction, the inside of the hopper 11 is effectively agitated. Thus, the occurrence of bridging can be suppressed.

[Feeding unit 8]
The feeding unit 8 includes a housing 21 and a feeding mechanism configured in the housing 21.
The feeding mechanism is a mechanism for feeding and feeding the articles P one by one, and includes a coil 22 as a feeding member, a conveying surface 23a that forms a conveying path 23, a screw 24 as a stirring means, and a reflux. It is constituted by a reflux surface 25a or the like that forms the path 25.

The casing 21 is supported on the base 50 via a stay 51. The relative angle between the stay 51 and the housing 21 is variable, and the inclination of the transport path 23 formed inside the housing 21 can be adjusted.
The hopper 11 is connected to the upper portion of the housing 21, and an opening communicating with the lower opening 11 b of the hopper 11 is provided on the upper surface of the housing 21. The article P is put into the housing 21 through the lower opening 11b of the hopper 11.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 5, a passage through which the article P thrown into the housing 21 passes through the bottom surface of the housing 21 before being conveyed to the receiving unit 7. The conveyance surface 23a that forms the conveyance path 23 and the recirculation slope 16 and the recirculation surface 25a that form the recirculation path 25 that is a passage for circulating the article P inside the housing 21 are formed.

The conveyance path 23 and the reflux path 25 are juxtaposed, and the conveyance path 23 extends along “the conveyance direction of the article P in the feeding portion 8”.
The “conveying direction of the article P in the feeding unit 8” is one direction having an inclination θ from the bottom to the top. Therefore, the conveyance surface 23 a that forms the conveyance path 23 has an inclination θ that extends from below to above along the conveyance direction of the article P in the feeding portion 8.
The inclination θ of the transport surface 23a can be set to an appropriate angle according to the article P of about 30 degrees, and can be adjusted by changing the relative angle between the casing 21 and the stay 51 as described above. Can do.

A drop point of the article P supplied from the supply unit 9 to the housing 21 is disposed in the vicinity of the lower end of the transport path 23, and the upper end of the transport path 23 is a feed opening 21 b that is an outlet from the housing 21. Communicated with In addition, the upper end part of the conveyance surface 23a is connected to the shooter 47 which has the inclination which goes downward from upper direction in the vicinity of the feed opening 21b.
In the feeding section 8, the article P put into the casing 21 of the feeding section 8 is transported from the lower end portion to the upper end portion of the transport path 23 on the transport surface 23 a and then slides down on the shooter 47. The paper passes through a feed opening 21 b provided in the housing 21 and is fed to the receiving unit 7.

  The conveying path 23 is formed on the inner peripheral side of a curved plate 23b having a shape obtained by dividing a cylinder extending in the conveying direction in the axial direction, and a conveying surface 23a for the article P is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the curved plate 23b. . And the cross-sectional shape of the curved plate 23b which forms the conveyance path 23 is made into the circular arc shape where one end is a substantially lowest point of a circle | round | yen. That is, the cross-sectional shape that is substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyance surface 23a is an arc shape that starts from approximately 180 degrees (the lowest point of the circle), and is the substantially lowest point of the cross-section that is substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyance surface 23a. And the lowest point of the substantially vertical cross section of the conveyance surface 23a will be located in one side edge of this conveyance surface 23a. Hereinafter, one side end of the transport surface 23a is referred to as a “transport surface end 23c”.

  In addition, the opening between the conveyance surface end 23c which is one side end of the conveyance surface 23a and the other side end is opened to the extent that the article P can pass at least. In this embodiment, the curved plate 23b forming the transport path 23 has a substantially 1/4 cylindrical shape, and the cross section substantially orthogonal to the transport direction of the transport surface 23a has a substantially 1/4 arc shape.

  In order to move the article P from the lower end portion to the upper end portion of the transport path 23, a spiral coil 22 is provided as a feeding member.

The coil 22 is arranged so that the conveyance surface 23a and the center of the circle are substantially concentric, and the outer periphery of the coil 22 and the conveyance surface 23a face each other with a slight gap, or the outer periphery of the coil 22 And the conveyance surface 23a are in contact with each other, and the shapes of the coil 22 and the conveyance surface 23a are determined so that the coil 22 slides on the conveyance surface 23a.
And the conveyance surface end 23c will be located under the lowest point of the coil 22 in the cross section substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the articles | goods P of the delivery part 8. FIG.
Moreover, the said coil 22 has the inclination (theta) along the conveyance direction of the articles | goods P in the feeding part 8 like the conveyance surface 23a.
It is sufficient that the number of windings of the coil 22 is several, but the number of windings of the coil 22, the interval between the strips, and the like can be determined according to the shape of the article P fed by the separating and feeding device 10. desirable.

The coil 22 is rotationally driven by a drive mechanism described later. The winding direction of the coil 22 and the rotation direction of the coil 22 are directions in which the article P between the strips of the coil 22 moves up the transport path 23.
As described above, the article P on the transport surface 23 a having the inclination θ is held at a position where it abuts on the coil 22, and the coil 22 rotates to be pushed up by the coil 22 and ascend the transport path 23.

  The reflux path 25 arranged in parallel with the transport path 23 sends the article P that has fallen from the transport surface end 23c while being transported through the transport path 23 to the lower end portion of the transport path 23 again, and the article P is placed in the casing. 21 is a passage for circulating in the interior. Accordingly, the reflux path 25 is disposed on the transport surface end 23 c side of the transport path 23.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, the reflux slope 16 and the reflux surface 25 a that form the reflux path 25 are lower in height than the transport surface 23 a that forms the transport path 23 in a cross section that is substantially orthogonal to the transport direction. And has a slope descending toward the lower end of the transport path 23.
Further, a slope (reflux slope 16) is provided between the reflux surface 25a and the transport surface end 23c of the transport surface 23a for quickly dropping the article P from the transport surface end 23c to the reflux surface 25a. In addition, it is preferable that the conveyance surface 23a, the return surface 25a, and the return slope 16 connecting them are integrally formed so that the article P falls smoothly.
In the above-described configuration, the article P that has fallen off the transfer surface end 23c of the transfer surface 23a and has come off the transfer path 23 falls down to the return surface 25a along the return slope 16 and rides on the return path 25. It descends on 25a and reaches the vicinity of the lower end of the transport path 23.

The reflux path 25 is provided with a screw 24 as a stirring member. The screw 24 has a spiral stirring blade 24b formed on the outer periphery of a rotating shaft 24a. A rotating shaft 24a of the screw 24 is rotatably supported on the housing 21 via a bearing and is rotationally driven by a driving mechanism described later.
When the reflux path 25 is agitated by the screw 24, the movement of the article P in the reflux path 25 to the vicinity of the lower end portion of the transport path 23 is promoted, and the reflux path 25 is driven by the article P in the reflux path 25. The formation of a bridge is suppressed.
The shape of the stirring blade 24b of the screw 24 and the direction of rotation of the screw 24 are determined in a direction in which the article P on the reflux path 25 is lowered.

Here, the drive mechanism of the screw 12, the coil 22, and the screw 24 will be described.
The lower end portion of the coil 22 is connected to an output shaft 53a of an electric motor 53 as a driving means. That is, the coil 22 is rotationally driven by the motor 53. The motor 53 is electrically connected to a control device 60 described later, and the rotational speed of the coil 22 is adjusted by changing the rotational speed of the output shaft 53a of the motor 53.

Two drive pulleys 26 and 27 are provided on the output shaft 53 a of the motor 53. A power transmission belt 28 is wound between a driven pulley 13 provided on the rotating shaft 12a of the screw 12 and a driving pulley 27 provided on the output shaft 53a of the motor 53, so that the screw 12 is driven to rotate. Is done.
A power transmission belt 30 is wound between a driven pulley 29 provided on the rotating shaft 24a of the screw 24 and a driving pulley 26 provided on the output shaft 53a of the motor 53, so that the screw 12 is driven to rotate. Is done.
The rotational speeds of the screw 12 and the screw 24 are adjusted by changing the diameters of the drive pulleys 26 and 27 and the driven pulleys 13 and 29.

[Receiving unit 7]
The receiving unit 7 includes a receiving tray 41 that is a receiving container for receiving articles conveyed while being fed one by one by the feeding mechanism, a counter sensor 42, a limit switch 45, and the like.

  A counter sensor 42 for counting the number of articles P passing through the feeding opening 21b is provided at the feeding opening 21b which is an outlet of the article P from the casing 21. The counter sensor 42 is detection means for detecting that the article P has passed through the feeding opening 21b and detecting the quantity of articles fed to the tray 41, and is electrically connected to a control device 60 described later. .

  The counter sensor 42 is, for example, a non-contact type sensor such as an infrared sensor, and can detect that the article P has passed through the feeding opening 21b when reception of infrared rays is interrupted. For example, the counter sensor 42 can detect that the article P has passed through the feeding opening 21b when the article P comes into contact with the press switch as a contact sensor such as a press switch.

A receiving tray 41 as a receiving container for the article P is provided at a position where the article P that has passed through the feeding opening 21b of the casing 21 falls due to its own weight. Articles P are sequentially fed from the feeding section 8 to the tray 41 one by one.
The tray 41 is fixed to a support plate 44 that is rotatably attached to the housing 21 via a hinge 43. The support plate 44 is biased to rotate upward.

  A limit switch 45 is provided at a position where the support plate 44 rotates around the hinge 43 and contacts the housing 21. The limit switch 45 is detection means for detecting the presence or absence of an article in the tray 41, and is electrically connected to a control device 60 described later.

  When the tray 41 is empty, the support plate 44 urged to rotate upward is held at a position where it does not come into contact with the limit switch 45, so that the limit switch 45 is turned on. When the article P is put into the tray 41, the support plate 44 rotates downward about the hinge 43 and contacts the limit switch 45, so that the limit switch 45 is turned off.

[Control unit 6]
The control unit 6 is configured by a control device 60.
As shown in FIG. 8, the control device 60 receives detection signals from the counter sensor 42, the limit switch 45, and the power switch 48 (FIG. 3) that switches ON / OFF the power supply to the separation feeding device 10. The control means performs control such as switching of driving or stopping of the output shaft 53a of the motor 53 and adjustment of the rotation speed of the output shaft 53a.

Here, the flow of control of the separation feeding device 10 by the control device 60 will be described with reference to FIG.
When the control device 60 detects that the power switch 48 is turned on (S1), it sends a control signal to the motor 53, rotates the output shaft 53a (S2), clears the count (S3), Detection by the counter sensor 42 is started (S4).

  The control device 60 receives the detection signal from the counter sensor 42 and counts the number of articles P that have been put into the tray 41.

  Subsequently, when the quantity of the counted articles P reaches a preset predetermined quantity (S5), the control device 60 sends a control signal to the motor 53 to stop the rotation of the output shaft 53a (S6). Thereby, the supply of the article P to the receiving unit 7 is temporarily stopped.

As described above, when the article P in the tray 41 is removed while the supply of the article P to the receiving unit 7 is temporarily stopped, the limit switch 45 is turned on. The control device 60 receives the detection signal of the limit switch 45 (S7), sends a control signal to the motor 53, rotates the output shaft 53a again (S2), and newly starts counting.
The controls (S2) to (S7) by the control device 60 are performed until the power switch 48 is turned off (S8).

  Next, the flow of the article P put into the hopper 11 in the separation / feed apparatus 10 will be described.

First, in the supply unit 9, as shown in FIG. 6, the article P put into the hopper 11 falls into the housing 21 through the lower opening 11 b due to the scraping or dead weight of the rotating screw 12.
Then, in the feeding unit 8, as shown in FIG. 7, the article P that has fallen on the lower end portion of the conveyance path 23 is caught in the rotating coil 22 and moves up the conveyance path 23.

  Since the article P on the conveyance surface 23a always moves by its own weight near the conveyance surface end 23c, which is substantially the lowest point in the cross section substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyance surface 23a, the direction substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction. It is difficult to move up. Accordingly, the article on the conveyance surface 23a rises substantially linearly in the vicinity of the conveyance surface end 23c, which is the lowest point of the cross section substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyance surface 23a.

As shown in FIG. 10, when a plurality of articles P are wound between the strips of the coil 22 at the lower end of the conveyance path 23, each article P on the conveyance surface end 23 c is always conveyed by its own weight. Since it tries to move to the vicinity of the end 23 c, it is pushed out by the article P that is farthest from the conveyance surface end 23 c, and the other articles P rise from the conveyance surface end 23 c to the reflux path 25 while moving up the conveyance path 23. To fall.
That is, as the article P moves up the conveyance path 23, at most one article P exists between one strip of the coils constituting the coil 22.
Accordingly, the articles P are individually separated and sequentially fed to the receiving unit 7 as a result. As a result, at most one article P is received by the tray 41 of the receiving unit 7 at the same time.

  As described above, the article P that has fallen from the conveyance surface end 23c to the reflux surface 25a of the reflux path 25 and dropped out of the conveyance path 23 is scraped by the screw 24 in the reflux path 25 or by its own weight. It moves to a lower end part and will get on the conveyance path 23 again.

The article P that has moved up the transport surface 23 a and reached the upper end of the transport path 23 is discharged from the feed opening 21 b of the housing 21 to the outside of the housing 21 and falls onto the tray 41 of the receiving section 7.
As described above, the articles P that have passed through the conveyance path 23 of the supply unit 9 and the feeding unit 8 in order until a predetermined amount of the articles P are collected in the receiving unit 7 in a state where the articles P are separated one by one. Are sequentially sent to the receiving unit 7. In this way, the separating and feeding apparatus 10 can separate and take out only a predetermined quantity from the many articles P in the hopper 11.

  In the separating and feeding apparatus 10 having the above-described configuration, the transport direction is one direction from the bottom to the top, and the cross section of the transport surface 23a is just below the lowest point of the rotating coil 22 in a cross section substantially orthogonal to the transport direction. Since one side end (conveyance surface end 23c) is located and the one side end is set as the lowest point of the conveyance surface 23a, one of the coils 22 is moved while the article P moves up the conveyance path 23. When the number of articles P existing between the strips is larger than 1, articles other than the article located at the uppermost position in the cross section substantially orthogonal to the transport direction drop from one side end (transport surface end 23c) of the transport surface 23a. Since it is removed, the articles can be conveyed one by one between the strips of the coil 22 and fed out. That is, the delivery unit 8 can sequentially feed the articles P to the receiving unit 7 one by one. As a result, the separating and feeding apparatus 10 can count the articles P one by one, separate only a predetermined quantity, and feed them to the receiving unit 7.

  In the present embodiment, the shape of the cross section substantially orthogonal to the transfer direction of the transfer surface 23a is a substantially arc shape, but in the cross section substantially orthogonal to the transfer direction, the transfer surface is just below the lowest point of the coil 22. Since one side end (conveyance surface end 23c) of 23a is located and the one side end may be the lowest point of the conveyance surface 23a, for example, as shown in FIG. The shape of the cross section substantially orthogonal to the direction can be formed by a lower side 23e having a length sufficient to hold only one article P below the lowermost part of the coil 22, and a hypotenuse 23f continuous to the lower side 23e. . That is, the conveyance surface 23a can be formed by a combination of planes.

And in the feeding part 8 of the separating / feeding device 10, the article P on the transport path 23 is pushed up by the rotating coil 22, so the shape and material of the article P are not limited. Therefore, the article P can be accurately and quickly separated and taken out regardless of the shape, weight, material, or the like.
For example, if it fits between the strips of the coil 22 such as a bolt having a shape having many irregularities, a nut having a hole, a prismatic shape, etc. You can pay out one by one.
Furthermore, even if the article P is made of any material such as metal, resin, ceramics, etc., it can be fed out one by one by the feeding section 8.

  The coil 22 is arranged with an inclination θ, and it is sufficient that the number of windings of the coil 22 is several, and further, there is no need to adjust the feeding mechanism for each shape of the article P to be fed. 8 (feeding mechanism) and the separating / feeding device 10 including the feeding unit 8 can be configured simply and compactly.

  Further, the separating and feeding apparatus 10 measures the quantity of articles P that are sequentially fed to the receiving section 7 one by one using the counter sensor 42, and automatically sends the articles P to the receiving section 7 when the predetermined quantity is reached. Since the feeding of the article P is stopped, the predetermined amount of the article P can be reliably received by the receiving unit 7.

  Further, in the separating and feeding apparatus 10, the limit switch 45 is provided so that when all the articles P in the tray 41 are removed, the feeding of the articles P to the receiving unit 7 is automatically resumed. It is not necessary for the operator to frequently drive and stop the rotation of the output shaft 53a of the motor 53, and improvement in workability is expected.

In addition, since at least the feeding unit 8 is provided in the separating and feeding apparatus 10, the articles P can be sequentially fed one by one. Therefore, the supply unit 9 or the receiving unit 7 of another form may be provided. it can.
For example, the article P can be directly put into the casing 21 of the feeding unit 8 without including the hopper 11 as the supply unit 9 in the separating and feeding apparatus 10. Further, for example, the receiving unit 7 of the separating and feeding apparatus 10 may include only the tray 41 without including the counter sensor 42 and the limit switch 45.

The side view of the separation feeding apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. The sectional side view which shows the internal structure of a separation feeding apparatus. The front view of a separation feeding apparatus. The Y direction arrow directional view in FIG. 1 of a delivery part and a receiving part. The front perspective view which shows the structure of a feeding part. The figure which shows the flow of the articles | goods of a supply part. The figure which shows the flow of the articles | goods of a delivery part. The block diagram which shows the control structure of a separation feeding apparatus. The flowchart of control by a control apparatus. The figure explaining a mode that articles | goods are isolate | separated separately in a delivery part. The figure which shows the other form of a conveyance surface.

Explanation of symbols

6 Control part 7 Receiving part 8 Feeding part 9 Feeding part 10 Separation feeding device 11 Hopper 12 Screw (stirring member)
21 Housing 22 Coil (Feeding member)
23 transport path 23a transport surface 24 screw (stirring member)
25 reflux path 25a reflux surface 41 saucer 42 counter sensor 45 limit switch

Claims (6)

In an article feeding mechanism for delivering an article while feeding it one by one,
The conveyance direction of the article is one direction from the bottom to the top,
A conveyance surface extending in the conveyance direction to form a conveyance path for the article;
A coil that rotates while the outer circumferential surface faces or faces the conveying surface while the conveying direction is the axial direction,
In the cross-section substantially perpendicular to the transport direction, one side end of the transport surface is disposed below the lowest point of the coil, and one side end of the transport surface is the lowest point of the transport surface. Features
Article delivery mechanism. A reflux path for transporting articles dropped from the transport path to the lower end of the transport path is provided in parallel with the transport path,
While continuing one side end of the transport surface and the reflux surface,
In a cross section substantially perpendicular to the transport direction, a reflux surface that forms the reflux path is provided at a position lower than the transport surface.
An article feeding mechanism according to claim 1. In the reflux path,
A stirring member for stirring the article in the reflux path is provided,
An article feeding mechanism according to claim 2. The delivery mechanism of the article according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Drive means for rotationally driving the coil;
A receiving container for receiving articles conveyed while being fed one by one by the feeding mechanism;
Detecting means for detecting the quantity of articles conveyed to the receiving container;
A control means for receiving a detection signal from the detection means and stopping the rotational drive of the coil by the drive means when the quantity of articles reaches a predetermined quantity;
An apparatus for separating and feeding articles, comprising: The delivery mechanism of the article according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Drive means for rotationally driving the coil;
A receiving container for receiving articles conveyed while being fed one by one by the feeding mechanism;
Detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of an article in the receiving container;
A control means for receiving a detection signal of the detection means and stopping the rotational drive or driving of the coil by the drive means;
An apparatus for separating and feeding articles, comprising: In the article separating and feeding apparatus,
A holding container for the article, and a stirring member for stirring the article in the holding container,
The article is supplied from the holding container to the lower end of the transport path,
6. The article separating and feeding apparatus according to claim 4 or 5.

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