JP2010260651A - Parts feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a parts feeder capable of pushing up parts with head stored in a storage hopper, feeding them onto a conveying means, and storing a large number of parts with head in the storage hopper. <P>SOLUTION: This parts feeder includes the storage hopper having an inclined bottom face part 4a and storing the parts S to be fed, a partition plate 4d mounted in the storage hopper with the predetermined clearance to let the parts to be fed rolling on the inclined bottom face part 4a pass through it, a pushing-up plate 16 elevating from the deepest part of the inclined bottom face part 4a and pushing up the parts S to be fed remaining in the deepest part of the inclined bottom face part 4a, and a parts feeding mechanism for supporting, aligning, and feeding the parts S to be fed pushed up by the pushing-up plate 16. Since amount of the parts S to be fed rolling on the inclined bottom face part 4d and reaching the deepest part is limited by this configuration, the parts S to be fed do not overflow from the storage hopper when the pushing-up plate 16 rises and a large number of parts S to be fed can be stored in the storage hopper. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a component supply apparatus for aligning and supplying headed or brazed components.

  Conventionally, when supplying headed parts such as bolts and screws to a screw tightening tool as an example of supplied parts, a fan-shaped push-up plate that moves up and down in a storage hopper and a chute that supports the head of the headed parts In addition, there is used a component supply device (Patent Document 1) provided with a linear feeder capable of conveying the headed component to the downstream side by the vibration action of the vibration device. In this component supply device, the storage hopper includes an inclined bottom surface portion, and the headed component rolls over the inclined bottom surface portion and is placed on the upper surface of the push-up plate. Then, as the push-up plate rises, the headed parts are picked up, slide down on the chute along the upper surface of the push-up plate, are aligned in a row in an upright posture on the chute, and are conveyed downstream. .

JP-A-60-102313

  However, in the component supply apparatus, if the push-up plate is raised in a state where a large amount of headed parts are stored in the storage hopper, the headed parts overflow from the storage hopper. Therefore, only a small amount of headed parts can be stored in the storage hopper, which has a problem in work efficiency.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in a component supply apparatus that pushes up a headed component stored in a storage hopper with a push-up plate and supplies the headed component to a conveying means. An object is to provide a component supply device capable of storing a large amount of headed components in a hopper.

The component supply device according to the present invention has a storage hopper that has an inclined bottom surface portion and can store a supplied component, and a predetermined gap with respect to the inclined bottom surface portion so that the supplied component that rolls the inclined bottom surface portion can pass therethrough. A partition plate that is provided and attached in the storage hopper, a push-up plate that raises and lowers the supply target component that moves up and down from the deepest portion of the inclined bottom surface portion and stays in the deepest portion of the inclined bottom surface portion, and pushes up by the push-up plate And a component feeding mechanism that supports and supplies the raised components to be supplied.

  The partition plate is provided with a warming so as to close a gap provided therebelow.

  In the component supply device of the present invention, a partition plate is attached in the storage hopper with a gap through which the supplied component can pass between the inclined bottom surface portion, and two spaces are formed. Yes. Therefore, even if a large amount of parts to be supplied is stored in the space on the side where the push-up plate is not located, the amount of parts to be supplied that passes through the gap of the partition plate is limited, so that it rises from the deepest part of the inclined bottom surface A large amount of supplied parts do not flow into the push-up plate. Therefore, even if the push-up plate is raised, the parts to be supplied do not overflow from the storage hopper, and it is not necessary to store the parts to be supplied little by little.

Further, in the configuration in which a partition plate is attached with a gap provided, there is a risk that a large amount of supplied parts may flow into the deepest part of the inclined bottom surface depending on the size, shape, etc. of the supplied parts. Therefore, the configuration in which the warming is attached to the partition plate so as to close the gap makes it possible to further limit the amount of parts to be supplied that pass through the gap.

It is a top view sectional view of the present invention. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is a figure explaining operation | movement of this invention. It is a figure explaining operation | movement of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a component supply device in which screws S as an example of a component to be supplied are aligned and supplied in a row. , 3d. A storage hopper 4 is attached to each of the three side plates 3a, 3b, 3c at a predetermined distance from the remaining side plate 3d and on the upper side. The storage hopper 4 has an inclined bottom surface portion 4a and an upright surface portion 4b, and the inclined bottom surface portion 4a is inclined in a direction in which the upright surface portion 4b is located. An opening 5 extending in parallel with the upright surface portion 4b is provided at the deepest portion of the inclined bottom surface portion 4a, and the screw S is directed toward the opening 5 due to the inclination of the inclined bottom surface portion 4a. It is supposed to fall. The storage hopper 4 has an inclined side surface portion 4c extending continuously from the inclined bottom surface portion 4a and the upright surface portion 4b. The lower end of the storage hopper 4 reaches the side portion of the opening 5, and a screw S stored in the storage hopper 4 is provided. It is configured to stay in the opening 5. Further, guide rails 7a and 7b constituting a component feeding mechanism 6 as an example of a conveying means are provided on the upright surface portion 4b of the storage hopper 4 and the belt mounting plate 9 arranged at a predetermined distance from the upright surface portion 4b. These guide rails 7a, 7b are arranged at a predetermined interval so that the legs of the screws S are accommodated.

  A partition plate 4 d is attached inside the storage hopper 4. The partition plate 4d is attached to the side plate 3c and the side plate 3a opposite to the side plate 3c so as to intersect the inclination direction of the inclined bottom surface portion 4a, and is substantially orthogonal to the inclined bottom surface portion 4a. Inclined in the direction. By this partition plate 4d, two spaces are formed inside and below the storage hopper 4, and is formed on the deepest side of the inclined bottom surface portion 4a on the side where the push-up plate 16 described later is located. The lower space formed and the upper space formed on the side plate 3b facing the upright surface portion 4b are formed. Further, a gap is provided between the lower end portion of the partition plate 4d and the inclined bottom surface portion 4a so that the screws S that roll the inclined bottom surface portion 4a can pass therethrough, and a large amount of screws S are stored in the upper space. Even so, the large amount of screws S is restricted from flowing into the space below the partition plate 4d. Therefore, even if the push-up plate 16 is raised, the screw S does not overflow from the storage hopper 4 and it is not necessary to store the parts to be supplied little by little. Moreover, since a large amount of screws S do not stay on the upper surface of the push-up plate 16 described in detail later, it is possible to prevent an excessive load from being applied to the rod cylinder 13 described later in detail when the push-up plate 16 is raised. The life of the rod cylinder 13 is also extended.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the component feeding mechanism 6 has a pulley mechanism 11 that rotates by driving of a drive motor 10. Two feed belts 12a and 12b having protrusions formed on the upper surface thereof are attached to the pulley mechanism 11 so as to rotate as the pulley mechanism 11 rotates, and the legs of the screw S are loosely fitted. In this state, the screw S is suspended and conveyed. Further, the feed belts 12a and 12b are supported by the guide rails 7a and 7b so as not to hang down due to the weight of the screw S when the screw S is suspended. One end of each of the guide rails 7a and 7b extends to the exposure window 8 provided on the side plate 4a, and is configured to be suspended in an aligned posture in which the screws S are erected together with a component delivery portion 17 described later.

  The drive motor 10 is configured to be driven forwardly or reversely according to a detection signal of a full sensor 25 or a photoelectric sensor 24 described in detail later. At the time of forward rotation, the feed belts 12a and 12b are circulated and moved in the forward direction to convey the screw S, while at the time of reverse rotation, the feed belts 12a and 12b are circulated and moved in the reverse direction.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a rod cylinder 13 is fixed upright on the belt mounting plate 9 so as to be positioned on the back surface of the belt mounting plate 9, and the slider 14 has a predetermined distance on the belt mounting plate 9 side. Are configured to reciprocate. A lift 15 is fixed to the slider 14 and is configured to be able to move up and down in a notch window 9 a cut out on the belt mounting plate 9. A push-up plate 16 is fixed upright on the lifting platform 15, and its upper end surface is configured to block the deepest opening 5 of the storage hopper 4. The push-up plate 16 is raised along the upright surface portion 4b of the storage hopper 4 by the operation of the rodless cylinder 13, and the upper end surface of the push-up plate 16 protrudes upward from the upright surface portion 4b when it is at the highest position. ing. The push-up plate 16 has such a thickness that one screw S lying along the upright surface portion 4b can be placed, and its upper end surface is inclined toward the upright surface portion 4b side of the storage hopper 4, so that the push-up plate 16 rises up most. When the position is reached, the screw S is configured to drop to the component feeding mechanism 6 side. Then, the screw S pushed up by the upper end surface of the push-up plate 16 gets over the upright surface portion 4b and falls onto the guide rails 7a and 7b and the feed belts 12a and 12b. At this time, the leg portion of the screw S is accommodated between the guide rails 7a and 7b and the feed belts 12a and 12b, and the head of the screw S is supported by the feed belts 12a and 12b and the guide rails 7a and 7b. And is sent downstream by the guide belts 7a and 7b.

A heating rod 4e is attached to the partition plate 4d so as to close a gap provided therebelow. The warmth 4e is made of rubber, and is configured to be elastically deformed when a predetermined weight is applied to the warmth of the screw staying in the space above the partition plate 4d. Due to this elastic deformation, the gap is reopened, and the screw S passes therethrough.

  On the belt mounting plate 9, an unaligned part removing plate 18 is fixed so as to cross obliquely above the feed belts 12a and 12b. The unaligned part removing plate 18 has a head of a screw S in an upright position. A notch (not shown) through which the part can pass is provided. The notch is dimensioned so that the head of the screw S in a lying posture cannot pass through. When the head of the screw S comes into contact with the misalignment exclusion plate 18, the notch is moved along with the movement of the feed belts 12a and 12b. The screw S moves along the extending direction, and is pushed out from above the feed belts 12 a and 12 b and returned into the storage hopper 4.

  A full sensor 25 is attached to the non-aligned part exclusion plate. The full sensor 25 is arranged so as to detect the head of the screw S passing below the non-aligned part exclusion plate 18. Further, when the rodless cylinder 13 and the parts feed mechanism 6 are controlled based on the detection signal of the full sensor 25 and the full sensor 25 continues to detect the head of the screw S for a predetermined time, When the driving of the cylinder 13 is stopped and the screw head is not detected for a predetermined time, the feed belts 12a and 12b are configured to temporarily circulate in the reverse direction.

  A component delivery section 17 is disposed downstream of the feed belts 12a and 12b. The parts delivery portion 17 extends on the extension of the feed belts 12a and 12b, and is configured such that the upright screw S suspended on the feed belts 12a and 12b can be transferred to the parts delivery portion 17. ing. The front end of the component delivery section 17 extends to a separation supply unit 19 which will be described in detail later, and is configured to suspend the screws S together with the feed belts 12a and 12b and supply the separation supply unit 19 with the screws S. Yes.

  On the other hand, a separation supply unit 19 is connected to the part delivery mechanism 17 at the final end of the component feeding mechanism 6 via a mounting base (not shown). The separation supply unit 19 includes a guide rail 20 that is connected to the tip of the component delivery portion 17 and extends in a direction intersecting with the guide rails 7 a and 7 b and the feed belts 12 a and 12 b, and is sandwiched between the guide rails 20. Thus, the sending block 21 is arranged. An air cylinder 22 is attached to the guide rail 20, and the air cylinder 22 has a cylinder rod (not shown) that reciprocates in the direction in which the guide rail 20 extends when air is supplied. The cylinder block is connected to the delivery block 21 and is guided to the guide rail 20 as the cylinder rod reciprocates. Further, the delivery block 21 is formed with a holding hole 21a by notching the side surface. The holding hole 21 a is configured to receive the screw S supplied from the component feeding mechanism 6 by being connected to the tip of the component delivery portion 17 and holding it. The delivery block 21 is a position where the screw S supplied from the component feeding mechanism 6 can be received and is always in a standby position, and the received screw S is conveyed by the component feeding mechanism 6. It is configured to move in a direction crossing the direction, and to reciprocate between the upper limit movement position of the delivery block 21 that is capable of being sucked and held at the tip of a driver bit such as a screw tightener (not shown). ing.

  A photoelectric sensor 24 is attached to the separation supply unit 19. The photoelectric sensor 24 includes a light projector 24a and a light receiver 24b. The projector 24 a is disposed at the normal position of the delivery block 21. On the other hand, the light receiver 12 b is disposed at the upper limit position of movement of the delivery block 21. Further, the light projector 24a and the light receiver 24b are arranged at a height at which the signal light emitted from the light projector 24a is transmitted and incident on the moving path of the head of the screw S on the block 21. The presence or absence of the screw S on the block 21 can be detected. In response to the detection signal of the photoelectric sensor 21, the air cylinder 22 is configured to operate the delivery block 21. When the photoelectric sensor 24 detects the head of the screw S, the delivery block 21 is turned on. A command is issued to operate in a predetermined direction and move to the upper limit position. On the other hand, if the head of the screw S is not detected, a command is issued to return the delivery block 21 to the normal position. With this configuration, when the photoelectric sensor 24 is no longer supplied with the screw S at the upper limit position, the return command signal is issued to the air cylinder 22 and the delivery block 21 returns to the normal position. Then, the screws S suspended from the feeding belts 12a and 12b of the component feeding mechanism 6 and aligned and conveyed in a row are separated from the ones at the tip one by one and fed to the upper limit position.

  Each time the photoelectric sensor 24 detects the head of the screw S supported by the feed belts 12a and 12b and issues a movement command to the upper limit position to the cutting block, the feed belts 12a and 12b temporarily It is configured to circulate in the reverse direction.

  In the component supply apparatus 1 of the present invention, the screw S by the push-up plate 16 is the same as the supply amount of the screw S by the push-up plate 16, the supply amount of the screw by the component feed mechanism 6, and the supply amount of the screw S by the separation supply unit 19. These operation speeds are adjusted so that the supply amount is the largest, followed by the component feed mechanism 6 and the separation supply unit 19 in this order. Therefore, in a state where the screw S is being smoothly fed by the circulation movement of the feed belts 12a and 12b in the forward rotation direction, the screw S is constantly supported by the feed belts 12a and 12b. Therefore, every time a predetermined time elapses, the full sensor 25 detects the screw S, and the operation of the push-up plate 16 is stopped in response to the detection signal. On the other hand, if the full sensor 25 does not detect the screw S even after the predetermined time has elapsed, the screw S is not aligned on the upstream side of the position of the unaligned removal plate 18 on the feed belts 12a and 12b. In this state, it can be assumed that the belt is caught between the feed belts 12a and 12b. Therefore, in this case, the component supply device 1 of the present invention is configured to release the biting by temporarily circulating the feed belts 12 and 12b in the reverse direction.

  Thereafter, the screw S that has reached the final end of the component feeding mechanism 6 is transferred to the delivery block 21. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, even if the screw is supported in a posture in which the legs of the screw S are loosely fitted to the feed belts 12 and 12b by the action of the non-alignment removing plate 18, the screw S on the front side. In a posture in which the head is riding on the leg and the leg is inclined, there is a risk that the leg of the screw is bitten when the delivery block 21 is moved. Therefore, each time the photoelectric sensor 24 detects the screw S supplied to the delivery block 21, the feed belts 12 and 12b are temporarily circulated in the reverse direction and started to rotate forward again. ing. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, since the screw S is corrected to an upright posture and supplied to the delivery block 21, a problem occurs when the leg portion of the screw S is bitten when the delivery block 21 moves. Can be prevented in advance.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Component supply apparatus 2 Bottom plate 2a Leg 3a Side plate 3b Side plate 3c Side plate 3d Side plate 4 Storage hopper 4a Inclined bottom surface portion 4b Upright surface portion 4c Inclined side surface portion 4d Partition plate 4e Window 9 Belt mounting plate 9a Notch window 10 Drive motor 11 Pulley mechanism 12a Feed belt 12b Feed belt 13 Rod cylinder 14 Slider 15 Lifting table 16 Lifting plate 17 Component delivery portion 18 Unaligned component exclusion plate 19 Separation supply unit 20 Guide rail 21 Delivery block 21a Holding hole 22 Air cylinder 24 Photoelectric sensor 24a Projector 24b Receiver 25 Full sensor

Claims (2)

A storage hopper having an inclined bottom surface and capable of storing a component to be supplied;
A partition plate installed in the storage hopper by providing a predetermined gap with respect to the inclined bottom surface portion so that a supplied part that rolls the inclined bottom surface portion can pass through;
A push-up plate that raises and lowers the supply target component that moves up and down from the deepest portion of the inclined bottom surface portion and stays in the deepest portion of the inclined bottom surface portion;
A component feeding device comprising: a component feeding mechanism that supports and supplies the components to be fed pushed up by the push-up plate. The component supply device according to claim 1, wherein a warmer is attached to the partition plate so as to close a gap provided below the partition plate.

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