JP2010203985A - System for weighing article - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a system for weighing an article for avoiding an operating rate of a particular weighing device from being extremely degraded among a plurality of the weighing devices. <P>SOLUTION: The system 1 for weighing the article includes: a plurality of combined weighing devices 2A-2C for weighing the weight of the article; and a bucket conveyer 3 for supplying the combined weighing devices 2A-2C with the article. The bucket conveyer 3 includes: a plurality of buckets 5 for receiving the article; a hopper 8 for supplying the buckets 5 with the article; a load cell 9 for weighing the weight of the article supplied from the hopper 8 to each bucket 5; a storage section 30 for storing information on the weight of the article received by each bucket 5 based on a measurement result by the load cell 9; and a selection section 31 for selecting the bucket 5 for supplying the combined weighing devices 2A-2C with the article among a plurality of the buckets 5 based on the information stored in the storage section 30 and information on the required quantity of the article supplied to combined weighing devices 2A-2C. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an article weighing system including a plurality of weighing devices and a supply device that supplies articles to the plurality of weighing devices.

  An article weighing system including a plurality of combination weighing devices and a bucket conveyor that supplies articles to the plurality of combination weighing devices has been put into practical use (for example, see Patent Document 1 below). The bucket conveyor has an endless chain that travels on a predetermined path passing above a plurality of combination weighing devices, and a plurality of buckets that are swingably attached to the chain at regular intervals. By driving the chain, a plurality of buckets containing articles circulate along the travel path of the chain. Then, when the bucket reaches the upper side of the desired combination weighing device, the bucket is turned upside down so that the articles in the bucket are discharged and supplied to the lower combination weighing device.

JP-A-2-265808

  In an article weighing system that supplies articles to a plurality of combination weighing devices using a bucket conveyor, the combination weighing device positioned upstream of the travel path of the chain has priority as the supply control of the articles to the plurality of combination weighing devices. There is a case where control of supplying an article is performed.

  In this case, in the combination weighing device located downstream of the travel route, the supply amount of articles from the bucket conveyor is insufficient, and the number of empty weighing hoppers increases, so the combination of weighing hoppers that achieves the desired target weight value It becomes difficult to obtain. As a result, the operation rate of the apparatus in the combination weighing apparatus is extremely reduced.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an article weighing system capable of avoiding an extremely low operating rate of a specific weighing device among a plurality of weighing devices. It is what.

  An article weighing system according to a first aspect of the present invention is an article weighing system comprising: a plurality of weighing devices for weighing an article; and a supply device for supplying articles to the plurality of weighing devices. The apparatus includes: a plurality of containers for storing articles; supply means for supplying articles to the plurality of containers; weighing means for measuring the weight of articles supplied from the supply means to each of the plurality of containers; Storage means for storing first information relating to the weight of an article accommodated in each of the plurality of containers, the first information stored by the storage means, and the plurality of weighing devices Selection means for selecting a container for supplying an article to each of the plurality of weighing devices from the plurality of containers based on the second information relating to the required supply amount of the article to each of the plurality of containers. Also It is.

  According to the article weighing system according to the first aspect, the weighing means measures the weight of the article supplied to each of the plurality of containers from the supply means, and the storage means stores the plurality of containers based on the measurement result by the weighing means. 1st information regarding the weight of the articles | goods which each accommodates is memorize | stored. Then, the selecting means selects the plurality of weighing devices from the plurality of containers based on the first information stored in the storage means and the second information on the necessary supply amount of articles to each of the plurality of weighing devices. Select a container to supply the article to each. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a shortage of the supply amount of the article from the supply device in the specific weighing device. As a result, it is possible to avoid an extremely low operating rate of a specific weighing device.

  The article weighing system according to a second aspect of the present invention is the article weighing system according to the first aspect, in particular, the supply means supplies the article to each of the plurality of containers based on the second information. It is characterized by controlling the amount.

  According to the article weighing system according to the second aspect, the supply means determines the supply amount of the article to each of the plurality of containers based on the second information regarding the necessary supply amount of the article to each of the plurality of weighing devices. Control. Accordingly, it is possible to prepare a container that accommodates an article having a weight corresponding to the required supply amount of each weighing device, and the article can be supplied from each container to the corresponding weighing device. As a result, it is possible to avoid a shortage of the supply amount of articles from the supply device in the specific weighing device, and it is possible to avoid an extremely low operating rate of the specific weighing device.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to avoid that the operation rate of the specific measuring device among several measuring devices falls extremely.

1 is a side view schematically showing an overall configuration of an article weighing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view which shows a combination weighing device typically. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the control part shown in FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In addition, the element which attached | subjected the same code | symbol in different drawing shall show the same or corresponding element.

  FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing an overall configuration of an article weighing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the article weighing system 1 includes a plurality of combination weighing devices 2 arranged in parallel, and a bucket conveyor 3 (feed device) for supplying articles to the combination weighing device 2. . Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which three combination weighing devices 2A to 2C are arranged in parallel, the number of combination weighing devices 2 arranged in parallel is not limited to this example, and may be any plural number. .

  The bucket conveyor 3 includes a plurality of buckets 5 as containers for storing articles, an endless chain 4 that conveys the plurality of buckets 5 along a predetermined travel path, and a predetermined location in the travel path of the chain 4. A hopper 8 (supplying means) for supplying articles to the bucket 5, a load cell 9 (weighing means) for weighing the articles stored in the hopper 8, a storage section 6 capable of storing a large amount of articles, and storage Conveying section 7 such as a vibration feeder for conveying articles stored in section 6 and supplying them to hopper 8, driving sections 10 </ b> A to 10 </ b> C for flipping bucket 5 up and down by an arbitrary mechanism, and entire bucket conveyor 3 And a control unit 11 for controlling the operation.

  Further, in the article weighing system 1 according to the present embodiment, unique identification information (ID number or the like) is given to each bucket 5 for each bucket, and each bucket 5 is given identification information given to itself. An IC tag in which is recorded is embedded. In addition, RFID readers 12A to 12C for reading the identification information from the IC tag embedded in the bucket 5 in a non-contact manner are arranged in the vicinity of the driving units 10A to 10C, respectively. A similar RFID reader 13 is arranged.

  The plurality of buckets 5 are attached to the chain 4 so as to be swingable at regular intervals. The travel path of the chain 4 passes above the combination weighing devices 2A to 2C, and the drive units 10A to 10C are arranged above the combination weighing devices 2A to 2C, respectively. By driving the chain 4, a plurality of buckets 5 containing articles are circulated along the travel route, and when the buckets 5 are moved above the desired combination weighing devices 2 </ b> A to 2 </ b> C by the drive units 10 </ b> A to 10 </ b> C. By turning upside down, the articles in the bucket 5 are discharged and supplied to the lower combination weighing devices 2A to 2C. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the bucket 5 is turned upside down by the drive unit 10A when it reaches the upper side of the combination weighing device 2A, and thereby the article is supplied from the bucket 5 to the combination weighing device 2A.

  FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing the combination weighing device 2. The combination weighing device 2 has a configuration in which a plurality of heads are arranged in a circle around the dispersion table 21. As shown in FIG. 2, each head has a conveyance unit 22 such as a vibration feeder, a pool hopper 23, a weighing hopper 24, and a load cell 25 that measures the weight of an article stored in the weighing hopper 24. ing. In addition, the combination weighing device 2 includes a charging chute 20 disposed above the dispersion table 21, a collecting chute 26 disposed below the weighing hopper 24, and a control unit 27 that controls the overall operation of the combination weighing device 2. And have.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the control unit 11 illustrated in FIG. 1. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the control unit 11 includes a storage unit 30 and a selection unit 31.

  Hereinafter, with reference to FIGS. 1-3, operation | movement of the goods measurement system 1 which concerns on this Embodiment is demonstrated.

  The article supplied from the transport unit 7 to the hopper 8 is temporarily stored in the hopper 8. The load cell 9 measures the weight of the articles stored in the hopper 8. When the article is discharged from the hopper 8, a signal S <b> 1 relating to the weight of the article stored in the hopper 8 immediately before the discharge is input from the load cell 9 to the control unit 11. At the same time, a signal S2 relating to the identification information of the bucket 5 that has been supplied with the article from the hopper 8 due to the discharge is input from the RFID reader 13 to the control unit 11. The control unit 11 stores the signal S1 and the signal S2 in the storage unit 30 in association with each other. As a result, the control unit 11 can store the identification information of each bucket 5 and the weight of the article accommodated in each bucket 5 in association with each other.

  Referring to FIG. 2, the article discharged from bucket 5 is dropped onto throwing table 21 via throwing chute 20. The thrown-in article is supplied to the transport unit 22 of each head while being radially dispersed by the dispersion table 21 that is rotationally driven. The control unit 27 identifies a head in which no article is stored in the pool hopper 23 and drives the transport unit 22 of the identified head. As a result, the article is conveyed by the conveyance unit 22, and the article is supplied from the conveyance unit 22 to the pool hopper 23 in the specified head. The pool hopper 23 temporarily stores the articles supplied from the transport unit 22.

  The control unit 27 identifies a head in which articles are not stored in the weighing hopper 24 based on the weighing signal input from the load cell 25 of each head. Then, the articles stored in the pool hopper 23 are supplied to the weighing hopper 24 by opening the gate of the pool hopper 23 in the specified head.

  The load cell 25 of each head measures the weight of the article stored in the weighing hopper 24, and outputs a weighing signal as a result of the weighing. The weighing signal is input to the control unit 27, and the control unit 27 stores the weighing value of the article in association with each head. Moreover, the control part 27 calculates | requires the combination of the weighing hopper 24 which implement | achieves the weight value which is the same as or close | similar to a target weight among all the weighing hoppers 24 which have stored articles | goods by calculation. Then, the articles stored in the weighing hopper 24 are discharged by opening the gate of the weighing hopper 24 related to the combination. The articles discharged from the weighing hopper 24 are collected by the collecting chute 26 and discharged from the combination weighing device 2 toward a downstream device (not shown).

  When the discharge of the articles from the combination weighing device 2 is repeated, the total amount of articles in the combination weighing device 2 gradually becomes insufficient. For example, in the combination weighing device 2 having a target weight set to M grams and capable of performing N discharges per unit time, the total amount of articles is reduced by approximately M × N grams within the unit time. To do. Accordingly, it is necessary to newly replenish the amount of articles corresponding to the total amount of the reduced articles, and the control unit 27 generates a signal S3 relating to the amount of articles requiring replenishment (hereinafter referred to as “necessary supply amount”) as a bucket. Notify the control unit 11 of the conveyor 3. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the signal S3A notified from the control unit 27 of the combination weighing device 2A is input to the selection unit 31 of the control unit 11, and similarly notified from the control unit 27 of the combination weighing device 2B. The signal S3B is input, and similarly, the signal S3C notified from the control unit 27 of the combination weighing device 2C is input.

  The selection unit 31 refers to the information stored in the storage unit 30 to determine each bucket 5 that contains an amount of articles that matches or approximates the necessary supply amount indicated by the signals S3A to S3C. Then, the RFID readers 12A to 12C are notified of signals S4A to S4C relating to the identification information of the determined bucket 5, respectively.

  The RFID readers 12 </ b> A to 12 </ b> C read identification information from the IC tag of each bucket 5 that passes. When the RFID readers 12A to 12C detect the identification information notified from the selection unit 31, the driving units 10A to 10C invert the bucket 5 upside down. As a result, the necessary supply amount of articles from the bucket 5 is replenished to the combination weighing devices 2A to 2C.

  Note that the control unit 11 can intentionally create the bucket 5 that stores articles of the necessary supply amount based on the signals S3A to S3C related to the necessary supply amount notified from the control unit 27. Specifically, when the hopper 8 is empty and the driving of the transport unit 7 is started by the signal S5, and it is detected by the signal S1 that the measured value by the load cell 9 matches the required supply amount, the signal S5 at that time The drive of the transport unit 7 is stopped. Thereafter, the gate of the hopper 8 is opened by the signal S6, whereby the necessary supply amount of articles in the hopper 8 is accommodated in the bucket 5.

  As described above, according to the article weighing system 1 according to the present embodiment, the load cell 9 measures the weight of an article supplied from the hopper 8 to each bucket 5, and the storage unit 30 is based on the measurement result by the load cell 9. Information relating to the weight of articles contained in each bucket 5 is stored. And the selection part 31 is based on the information which the memory | storage part 30 memorize | stores, and the information regarding the required supply amount of the articles | goods to each combination weighing | measuring apparatus 2A-2C, and each combination weighing | measuring apparatus 2A from the some bucket 5. FIG. Select bucket 5 to supply the goods to ~ 2C. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a shortage of the supply amount of articles from the bucket conveyor 3 in a specific combination weighing device. As a result, it is possible to avoid an extremely low operating rate of the specific combination weighing device.

  Further, according to the article weighing system 1 according to the present embodiment, the hopper 8 controls the supply amount of articles to each bucket 5 based on the information on the necessary supply quantity of articles to each combination weighing device 2A to 2C. To do. Accordingly, it is possible to prepare buckets 5 that accommodate articles having a weight corresponding to the required supply amount of each combination weighing device 2A to 2C, and supply articles from each bucket 5 to the corresponding combination weighing devices 2A to 2C. be able to. As a result, it is possible to avoid a shortage of the supply amount of articles from the bucket conveyor 3 in the specific combination weighing device, and it is possible to avoid an extremely low operating rate of the specific combination weighing device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Article weighing system 2A-2C Combination weighing device 3 Bucket conveyor 5 Bucket 8 Hopper 9 Load cell 11 Control part 30 Memory | storage part 31 Selection part

Claims (2)

A plurality of weighing devices for weighing an article;
An article weighing system comprising a supply device for supplying articles to the plurality of weighing devices,
The supply device includes:
A plurality of containers for storing articles;
Supply means for supplying articles to the plurality of containers;
Weighing means for weighing an article supplied from the supply means to each of the plurality of containers;
Storage means for storing first information relating to the weight of an article accommodated in each of the plurality of containers based on a measurement result by the measurement means;
Each of the plurality of weighing devices out of the plurality of containers based on the first information stored in the storage means and the second information on the necessary supply amount of articles to each of the plurality of weighing devices. And a selection means for selecting a container for supplying the article to the article. 2. The article weighing system according to claim 1, wherein the supply unit controls a supply amount of an article to each of the plurality of containers based on the second information.

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