JP2008280156A - Flat article sorting device and flat article picking device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a flat article picking device capable of certainly taking stacked flat articles such as books apart and picking that one by one, and saving a space and cost. <P>SOLUTION: The flat article picking device comprises a first conveyer 22, and a second conveyer 24 disposed on a downstream side to the first conveyer and made from an endless belt 30. A carrying surface of the second conveyer is tilted and disposed so as to increase height toward a downstream side for abutting on the flat article carried by the first conveyer. The belt is provided with a plurality of bars in the carrying direction at intervals larger than the maximum dimensions of the flat article. In such a structure, only the flat article at the lowermost part of the stacked flat articled carried on the first conveyer contacts with the bars of the second conveyer, is pulled up by that, and picked from the first conveyer to the second conveyer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a flat article cutting apparatus for cutting out flat articles such as stacked books, CDs, and video tapes one by one, and a flat article sorting apparatus including such a flat article cutting apparatus.

  In a library, when a book is returned, sorting work is first performed in order to return the book to a predetermined bookcase or library. Usually, the sorting of books is a manual operation by a staff member, but in recent years, automatic sorting apparatuses have been introduced in order to reduce the work and improve the efficiency.

  The automatic sorting device scans barcodes and wireless IC tags (RFID) attached to each book, reads identification information such as the placement position of the book, and automatically sorts the book according to the read information. It is to go.

  However, the conventional general automatic sorting apparatus needs to send the books one by one in order to read the identification information on the books. For this reason, the staff places books one by one on the conveyor connected to the automatic sorting device, or if the books are transported on the conveyor in a stacked state, they are separated and arranged in a row. I had to fix it.

Therefore, conventionally, for example, an apparatus as disclosed in Patent Document 1 below has been proposed. This apparatus is provided with a conveyor composed of a plurality of zones, and this conveyor is arranged so as to be slightly higher toward the downstream in the transport direction. Each zone has a different conveyance speed, and the adjacent downstream zone has a higher speed. In addition, a funnel-shaped spreading member is arranged at the entrance portion of this conveyor, and the piled-up books break through the piles as the piled-up books pass through it. . As the book advances on the conveyor in this state, the overlapping portion between the books is shortened due to the difference in speed between the zones, and finally the books are separated one by one.
Japanese Patent No. 3546331

  In the conventional apparatus for releasing books as described above, there is a problem that the speed of the conveyor zone is increased step by step, so that the length of the conveyor is increased, the cost is increased, and a large installation space is required.

  In addition, in a state where books with sticky surfaces and books with vinyl covers are overlapped with each other, it may be difficult to separate the books one by one even with the above-described conventional apparatus.

  There are similar problems with flat articles such as videotapes, CDs, and DVDs.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve such problems in the prior art, and the object thereof is to ensure that flat articles such as stacked books can be separated and cut out one by one. An object of the present invention is to provide a flat article cutting apparatus and a flat article sorting apparatus including the flat article cutting apparatus.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a flat article cutting device for cutting out flat articles one by one from flat articles such as a plurality of stacked books, the first conveyor and the first conveyor. And a second conveyor made of a wrapping and circulating drive body, such as an endless belt, disposed on the downstream side of the first conveyor, and the conveying surface of the second conveyor is in contact with the flat article conveyed by the first conveyor. The winding circulation drive body is provided with one or more bars in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction at intervals larger than the maximum dimension of the flat article. It is characterized by.

  In such a configuration, the stacked flat articles that have been transported on the first conveyor strike the transport surface of the second conveyor, and the impact collapses the mountain. Then, only the lowest flat article comes into contact with the second conveyor bar, and is pulled up and cut out from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. And since the conveyance surface of a 2nd conveyor is inclined, a flat article falls out from the said crosspiece, but a flat article is supported and conveyed by the following crosspiece.

  In order to ensure this effect, the transport surface of the second conveyor has low friction so that the flat article slides down, and the transport surface and the crosspiece of the first conveyor are high enough to transport the flat article. It is preferable that it is friction.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a flat article cutting device as described above for cutting out a plurality of stacked flat articles one by one, and the cut flat article is sorted by a subsequent sorting apparatus. It features a flat article sorting device. In such a flat article sorting apparatus, the flat article sorting is performed more reliably and quickly.

  According to the flat article cutting device having the above-described configuration, it is possible to reliably and automatically cut out flat articles one by one from a pile of flat articles. For example, in a library, it is possible to simplify book return work. Is possible.

  Further, since the flat article cutting device according to the present invention is composed of only two conveyors, the device can be miniaturized and can be manufactured at low cost. Furthermore, the installation space can be reduced.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a library book return system 100 to which a flat article cutting device 10 and a flat article sorting device according to the present invention are applied. The illustrated book return system 100 includes a return conveyor 12 disposed at a book return opening, a relay conveyor 14 extending from the return conveyor 12, and an automatic sorting device 16 that sorts the books conveyed by the relay conveyor 14. The flat article cutting device 10 according to the present invention is disposed between the relay conveyor 14 and the automatic sorting device 16.

  The return conveyor 12 can be placed with the books stacked. The book placed here moves to the relay conveyor 14.

  In the illustrated embodiment, the downstream portion of the relay conveyor 14 is divided into a plurality of buffer zones 14a, 14b, and 14c that are independently driven. In each buffer zone 14a, 14b, and 14c, a book is placed on standby, Books can be fed into the flat article cutting device 10 one by one at a desired timing. As will be described in detail below, the flat article cutting device 10 can distribute the stacked books one by one and send them to the automatic sorting device 16.

  The automatic sorting device 16 is a well-known device, and reads a barcode or a wireless IC tag on a book sent one by one from the flat article cutting device 10 with a scanner or a receiving antenna 18, and sequentially reads the books in a predetermined chute ( Carriage) 20).

  As clearly shown in FIG. 2, the flat article cutting device 10 includes a first conveyor 22 that continues from the relay conveyor 14 and a second conveyor 24 that is disposed on the downstream side thereof. In the present embodiment, the flat article cutting device 10 further includes a third conveyor 26 that sends the books conveyed from the second conveyor 24 to the automatic sorting device 16.

  In the present embodiment, the first conveyor 22 is a belt conveyor, and has a function of temporarily breaking the stacked books conveyed from the relay conveyor 14 and then feeding them one by one to the second conveyor 24. In order to break down the pile of books by the first conveyor 22 and to reliably send the books to the second conveyor 24, the first conveyor 22 prevents the book located at the bottom of the pile from slipping on the conveyance surface. The belt 28 that constitutes is made of high friction. Further, the transport surface of the first conveyor 22 may be horizontal, but it is preferable that the downstream end is inclined slightly higher than the upstream end in order to easily collapse the pile of books.

  The second conveyor 24 is also composed of a belt conveyor. The belt (wound circulation drive body) 30 constituting the second conveyor 24 is used with a lower friction than the belt 28 of the first conveyor 22. Further, the transport surface of the second conveyor 24 is inclined so that the downstream end is higher at a larger angle than the transport surface of the first conveyor 22. Although the inclination angle of the second conveyor 24 depends on the material of the belt 30 or the like, it is an angle at which the book can slide down on the conveyance surface, and can be conveyed by the crosspiece 32 described later with respect to the horizontal plane. It is preferably about 35 to 55 degrees. The second conveyor 24 is installed at a position where the book transported from the first conveyor 22 abuts the transport surface thereof.

  As clearly shown in FIG. 3, the belt 30 in the second conveyor 24 is provided with bars 32 at regular intervals along the circulation direction. The height of the crosspiece 32 is equal to or slightly smaller than the thickness of the thinnest of all the books scheduled to be conveyed. This is for supporting and transporting only one book. Further, the interval between the crosspieces 32 is made larger than the largest horizontal or vertical dimension among all books scheduled to be conveyed. The surface of the crosspiece 32 is in high friction so that it can be pulled up when it comes into contact with a book fed from the first conveyor 22. On the other hand, this friction is caused by the book from the first conveyor 22. When it is separated, it is limited to the extent that it slides downward due to the inclination of the second conveyor 24 and the weight of the book.

  In addition, since the crosspiece is provided in the belt 30, the clearance gap between the 1st conveyor 22 and the 2nd conveyor 24 is comparatively large, and there exists a possibility that a thin book may fall out from the clearance gap. For this reason, it is preferable that a plurality of book fall prevention pieces 34 are provided between the first conveyor 22 and the second conveyor 24 at appropriate intervals in the lateral direction. In order to prevent interference with the piece 34, the crosspiece 32 is divided into a plurality of pieces in the lateral direction as shown in FIG.

  The third conveyor 26 is for guiding the books conveyed from the second conveyor 24 to the automatic sorting device 16, and uses other types of conveyors such as a roller conveyor in addition to the illustrated belt conveyor. Can do. It is also possible to omit the third conveyor 26 and connect the second conveyor 24 directly to the automatic sorting device 16.

  Since such a flat article cutting device 10 is substantially composed of two conveyors 22 and 24, it is cheaper and smaller than the device disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above. It is possible to plan. Further, since the second conveyor 24 is inclined, an installation space shorter than the entire length of the conveyor 24 may be used.

  In addition, it is preferable that the gantry 36, 38, 40, 42 of each conveyor 22, 24, 26 is provided with an appropriate angle adjusting mechanism so that the inclination angle of the conveyor 22, 24, 26 can be adjusted. It is.

  The return conveyor 12, the buffer zones 14 a, 14 b, 14 c of the relay conveyor 14, the first conveyor 22 of the flat article cutting device 10, and the automatic partition device 16 have sensors 44 a to 44 g for detecting the presence or absence of books. Is provided, and a control device (not shown) controls the entire book return system 100 by signals from these sensors 44a to 44g.

  Next, the operation of the book return system 100 provided with the flat article cutting device 10 having the above-described configuration will be described.

  First, if a plurality of books are stacked on the return conveyor 12 of the book return port, the control device recognizes that the book has been returned by the sensor 44a provided on the return conveyor 12. To do. Then, if any of the buffer zones 14a, 14b, and 14c of the relay conveyor 14 is confirmed by the sensors 44b, 44c, and 44d, the return conveyor 12 and the relay conveyor 14 are driven to stack books. It is transported downstream as it is. When the book reaches the buffer zones 14a, 14b, and 14c downstream of the relay conveyor 14, the books are sequentially conveyed from the downstream side to the buffer zones 14a, 14b, and 14c and waited.

  Next, if the control device determines that there is no book on the first conveyor 22 of the flat article cutting device 10 based on the signals from the sensors 44e and 44f, the buffer zone 14c on the most downstream side of the relay conveyor 14 and the flat article cutting out. The first to third conveyors 22, 24 and 26 of the apparatus 10 are driven. Then, when a pile of books is transferred from the relay conveyor 14 to the first conveyor 22 of the flat article cutting device 10 and reaches the second conveyor 24, the pile of books hits the conveyance surface of the second conveyor 24. The mountain collapses due to the impact and the inclination of the first conveyor 22, resulting in the state shown in FIG.

  Further from this state, the lowermost book is pressed against the belt 30 of the second conveyor 24 by the high friction belt 28, but the belt 30 of the second conveyor 24 has low friction, so the front end of the book is the belt 30. It will not slide on the second conveyor 24.

  Thereafter, the crosspiece 32a of the second conveyor 24 abuts on the lower surface of the front end portion of the book in contact with the second conveyor 24. Since the surface of the crosspiece 32 is highly frictional, as shown in FIG. 3B, the front end portion of the book is pulled up by the crosspiece 32 and travels on the second conveyor 24 together with the crosspiece 32. At this time, since the front end of the book is lifted, the piles of subsequent books are further destroyed.

  In this way, when only the lowermost book is cut out from the other books and separated from the first conveyor 22, the book cannot be held by friction of the crosspiece 32a, and the book is separated from the crosspiece 32a and separated from the belt 30. The top of the book slides and is supported in contact with the next crosspiece 32b ((C) of FIG. 3). At this time, in order to prevent or suppress subsequent books on the first conveyor 22 from interfering with books on the second conveyor 24, the transport speed of the second conveyor 24 is set to the transport of the first conveyor 22. It is preferable that the speed is higher than the speed, and the cut out book is quickly conveyed downstream.

  In the state shown in FIG. 3C, since the vertical or horizontal edge of the book is supported by the horizontal bar 32b, the book is aligned parallel or perpendicular to the transport direction. In this state, the book proceeds to the third conveyor 26 and is sent to the automatic sorting device 16. Since the books are aligned parallel or perpendicular to the transport direction, scanning of barcodes and the like attached to the books can be performed efficiently and reliably.

  Similarly, the other books remaining on the first conveyor 22 are cut out one by one from the bottom of the mountain, sent to the automatic sorting device 16, and sent to a predetermined chute 20.

  In this way, even if books are returned in a piled state, they can be cut out one by one reliably and in the correct state, greatly reducing the labor of librarians when returning books. it can. In addition, it is not necessary to request a person who borrows a book to place one book at a time in the book return slot. In particular, it is possible to return books in piles at the book return outlet outside the library, so it can be returned in a short time compared to the conventional method of posting one book at a time, and damage to the book is possible. It will also prevent.

  Although only the library book has been described above, the flat article cutting device 10 of the present invention can be similarly applied to flat articles such as video tapes, CDs, and DVDs. It can also be used at DVD rental shops.

  In addition, the first conveyor 22 of the flat article cutting device 10 is not limited to a belt conveyor, and other types of conveyors can be used. Further, the second conveyor 24 may be a conveyor constituted by an endless winding circulation driving body such as a slat conveyor or a wire mesh chain conveyor.

  Furthermore, in order to break up a pile of books on the first conveyor, a funnel-shaped stepping member may be provided on the first conveyor.

1 is a perspective view schematically showing a library book return system to which a flat article cutting device and a flat article sorting device according to the present invention are applied. FIG. It is a side view which shows one Embodiment of the flat article cutting device by this invention. (A)-(C) are explanatory drawings which show the principle of book cutting-out by the flat article cutting-out apparatus by this invention. It is a schematic plan view which shows between the 1st conveyor and the 2nd conveyor in the flat article cutting device by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Flat article cutting device, 12 ... Return conveyor, 14 ... Relay conveyor, 14a, 14b, 14c ... Buffer zone, 16 ... Automatic sorter, 18 ... Scanner or receiving antenna, 20 ... Chute, 22 ... First conveyor, 24 ... 2nd conveyor, 26 ... 3rd conveyor, 28, 30 ... Belt, 32 ... Crosspiece, 34 ... Book fall prevention piece, 36, 38, 40, 42 ... Mount, 44a-44g ... Sensor, 100 ... Book return system.

Claims (3)

  A flat article sorting apparatus comprising a flat article cutting device (10) for cutting out a plurality of stacked flat articles one by one, and sorting the cut flat articles by a subsequent sorting apparatus (16). A flat article cutting device (10) for cutting out flat articles one by one from a plurality of stacked flat articles,
A first conveyor (22);
A second conveyor (24) composed of a wound circulation drive (30) disposed downstream of the first conveyor (22);
The conveying surface of the second conveyor (24) is inclined and arranged so as to become higher toward the downstream side so as to contact the flat article conveyed by the first conveyor (22),
The flat article cutting device, wherein the winding circulation drive body (30) is provided with one or more bars (32) in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction at intervals larger than the maximum dimension of the flat article. The conveying surface of the second conveyor (24) has low friction so that the flat article slides down,
The flat article cutting device according to claim 2, wherein the conveying surface of the first conveyor (22) and the crosspiece (32) have high friction so that the flat article can be conveyed.

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