JP2008173613A - Transport apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transport apparatus which has a simple structure and rejects even a damaged article in addition to a tumbled article from a transport passage. <P>SOLUTION: The transport apparatus includes a conveyer for transporting an article so that the article moves through the transport passage, and a movable member. The movable member moves so that it allows the article to move through the transport passage when the member receives a force over the determined value from the article being transported by the conveyer in the transport passage, and the article, when the member receives no force over the determined value from the article, moves as to be rejected. Further, the transport apparatus can have a guide running sideways along the transport passage. The guide is interrupted at the part where the movable member is arranged, and the guide has preferably a reception part for receiving the article rejected by the movable member in the sideways lower part of the interrupted part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport device that transports articles such as containers filled with beverages.

  Conventionally, a cylindrical heat-shrinkable label (shrink label) is attached and packaged around the outer periphery of a beverage container such as a bottle container filled with beer or a PET bottle filled with soft drinks. ing. Packaging with a heat-shrinkable label is performed in a shrink tunnel equipped with, for example, a water vapor jet nozzle capable of heating the heat-shrinkable label. The inside of the shrink tunnel is maintained at a high temperature of around 80 ° C. If, for example, the beer bottle used is deteriorated or scratched, the beer bottle may explode in the shrink tunnel and become a broken bottle. The beer bottle that has finished shrink wrapping is transported to, for example, an accumulator table by a belt conveyor.

  When the belt conveyor 2 is curved as shown in FIG. 4, a guide 7 is provided on the outer periphery of the curved portion of the belt conveyor 2 in order to prevent the beer bottle 1 from overturning. However, when the beer bottle 1 bursts in the shrink tunnel 6 and becomes a broken bottle, or falls down before reaching the curved portion, it becomes clogged at the curved portion of the belt conveyor 2. Further, even if clogging does not occur in the curved portion of the belt conveyor 2, there is a possibility that clogging may occur in the accumulating table portion or the like of the transport destination and a large number of rejected products may be generated.

Patent Document 1 discloses a container discharge device that guides discharge of a fallen container out of the conveyance path when the container falls on the conveyance path. 5 and 6 show a container discharge device 13 disclosed in Patent Document 1. FIG. The container discharge device 13 includes a first gate member 13b and a second gate member 13c provided on the belt conveyor 11 so as to project toward the downstream side. The first and second gate members 13b and 13c are pivotally supported on a support shaft 13d erected on the base 13a so as to be able to swing in a horizontal plane, and are normally maintained in a state of blocking the conveyance path by a spring 13e. . The 1st gate member 13b is set so that it may be located in the conveyance direction upstream in the horizontal position from the 2nd gate member 13c. On the back surface of the first and second gate members 13b and 13c, a side face substantially V-shaped rocking prevention body 13f is attached so as to be vertically rotatable. When a high-sized upright container is conveyed, the container abuts on the first gate member 13b. Therefore, the first gate member 13b rotates the swing preventing body 13f, and the first gate member 13b, The 2 gate member 13c and the rocking | fluctuation prevention body 13f are made into the retracted state which lets the container shown by the dotted line of FIG. 6 pass. On the other hand, when a small-sized inverted container is conveyed, the inverted container collides with the second gate member 13c. However, as shown by the solid line in FIG. The gate member 13c holds a blocking position for blocking the passage of the container. At this time, the small inverted container is guided to the side of the belt conveyor along the second gate member 13c, and is discharged to the outside from the opening 12a provided below the guide rail 11.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 59-64818

  Although the container discharging apparatus described in Patent Document 1 discharges the overturned container, the container is overturned by the swing mechanism in the waterside surface of the first gate member 13b and the second gate member 13c and the swing mechanism of the swing blocking body 13f. Since the container is identified and passed through an upright container, the structure is complicated. In addition, when a container whose only tip portion is damaged due to an explosion in the shrink tunnel is transported, the container discharging device is allowed to pass through even if the container is a high size even though it is a damaged container. I have a problem.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a transport apparatus that has a simple structure and rejects not only a fallen article but also a damaged article from a transport path.

  The transfer device according to the present invention has a conveyor that transfers an article so that the article moves through the transfer path, and the article is transferred when a force greater than a predetermined value is received from the article that is transferred by the conveyor in the transfer path. And a movable member that allows the article to move away from the conveyance path when it does not receive a force greater than a predetermined value from the article.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, the movable member may be a plate-like member that is rotatable in a substantially horizontal plane on the conveyor. Further, the conveyance path has a corner portion, and the movable member can be provided at the corner portion.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to further include a guide disposed along the side of the conveyance path. The guide is interrupted at the portion where the movable member is disposed. A collection unit that collects articles that have been rejected by the movable member may be disposed at a lower side portion of the portion where the guide is interrupted.

  According to an embodiment of the present invention, the article may be a container filled with a beverage. Further, a shrink tunnel for packaging the container with a heat-shrinkable label can be disposed upstream of the movable member in the transport path.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the conveying apparatus which rejects not only the fallen article | item but the damaged article | item from a conveyance path | route with a simple structure can be provided.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment showing an example of the transport apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, the article to be conveyed is a beer bottle 1. The beer bottle 1 filled with beer is packaged with a heat-shrinkable label (shrink label) in the shrink tunnel 6. The shrink tunnel 6 is connected by a conveyor 2 to, for example, an accumulating table section before case packing. A plate-like movable member 5 a that blocks the movement of the beer bottle 1 conveyed on the conveyor 2 is installed in the middle of the conveyance path. One end of the movable member 5a is pivotally supported by a base 5d provided on one side of the conveyor 2 with a shaft 5C, and the movable member 5a is blocked from moving the beer bottle 1 between the base 5d and the movable member 5a. A spring 5c is urged.

  The force exerted on the movable member 5a when the beer bottle 1a moving on the conveyor 1 is in an upright state without being crushed is F1, and the force exerted on the movable member 5a is crushed while it is not crushed but falls. The force exerted on the movable member 5a in the state is defined as F3. Since the overturning bottle 1b is easy to roll and the frictional force with the belt conveyor 2 is small, F1> F2. Further, the broken bottle 1c is lighter than a beer bottle that is not crushed because a part of the beer filled in the bottle by crushing is spilled and a part of the bottle is missing, so that F1> F3. . Therefore, the weight of the movable member 5a so that the force F required to rotate the movable member including the urging force of the spring 5c in a substantially horizontal plane around the shaft 5b satisfies F1> F> F2, F3. Suppose that the urging force of the spring 5c is set. Then, when the upright bottle 1a that has not been crushed has been transported, the movable member 5a rotates in a horizontal plane in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2 and passes the upright bottle 1a. On the other hand, when the inverted bottle 1b or the broken bottle 1c has been transported, the movable member 5a does not rotate and prevents the inverted bottle 1b and the broken bottle 1c from moving along the transport path.

  The movable member 5a of the present invention prevents the movement of even a high-sized broken bottle 1c whose front end portion is broken, which cannot be prevented by the prior art.

  A guide 3 that guides the beer bottle 1 along the corner is provided along the side of the conveyance path on the side opposite to the side on which the base 5d is provided. The guide 3 is interrupted at the portion where the movable member 5a is disposed. A beer bottle recovery unit 4 is installed at a lower side portion of the portion where the guide 3 is interrupted. Therefore, if the posture before the rotation of the movable member 5a is set as shown in FIG. 1, for example, the inverted bottle 1b and the broken bottle 1c are guided to the interrupted direction of the guide 3, and are discharged out of the conveyor. It falls into the collection unit 4.

  In this embodiment, the movable member 5a is provided at the corner portion of the conveyance path, but it can also be provided at the straight portion of the conveyance path. In that case, the guide can be omitted. Moreover, you may install the round bar guide 3a which guides only the erect bottle 1a like FIG. 3 in the part which the guide 3 has interrupted. Since the gap between the round bar guide 3a and the surface of the conveyor 1 is interrupted, the inverted bottle 1b and the broken bottle 1c are guided to the collection unit 4 from below the round bar guide 3a.

  Needless to say, the mechanism for rotating the movable member 5a and the mechanism for installing the movable member 5a are not limited to those shown in this embodiment. Furthermore, the present invention is applicable even if the article to be conveyed is a beverage container other than a beer bottle or a beverage container other than a beverage container.

It is a perspective view of the conveying apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which looked at FIG. 1 from upper direction. It is a figure which shows another example of the guide which can be used by this invention. It is a figure which shows the conveying apparatus which concerns on a prior art. It is the figure which looked at another conveyance apparatus which concerns on a prior art from the upper direction. It is a sectional side view of the conveying apparatus shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1: beer bottle (article), 1a: upright bottle, 1b: falling bottle, 1c: broken bottle,
2: conveyor, 3: guide, 4: recovery unit, 5a: movable member, 5b: shaft, 5c: spring,
5d: base, 6: shrink tunnel, 7: guide,
11: belt conveyor, 12: guide rail, 12a: opening, 13: container discharging device,
13a: base, 13b: first gate member, 13c: second gate member, 13d: support shaft,
13e: urging spring, 13f: swing prevention body

Claims (7)

A conveyor that conveys the article so that the article moves through the conveyance path;
When a force of a predetermined value or more is received from the article conveyed by the conveyor in the conveyance path, the article is allowed to move through the conveyance path and receives a force of the predetermined value or more from the article. A movable member that moves so that the article is ejected from the transport path when not,
A conveying device comprising:   The transport apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the movable member is a member that is rotatable in a substantially horizontal plane on the conveyor.   The transport apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transport path has a corner portion, and the movable member is provided at the corner portion.   The guide according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a guide disposed along a side of the transport path, wherein the guide is interrupted at a portion where the movable member is disposed. The conveying apparatus as described.   The transport apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a recovery unit that recovers the article that has been rejected by the movable member is disposed at a lower side portion of the portion where the guide is interrupted.   The conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the article is a container filled with a beverage.   The transport apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a shrink tunnel for packaging the container with a heat-shrinkable label is disposed upstream of the movable member in the transport path.

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