JP2011031933A - Packaged article handling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily handle a plurality of packaged articles which are held together. <P>SOLUTION: A plurality of packaged articles 1 in which articles are enclosed in an airtight pillow bag 2 together with gas are aligned using a bucket conveyor 10, and a suction chamber 21 of a picking head 20 is placed on a plurality of packaged articles 1 thereof. The plurality of packaged articles 1 with the suction chamber 21 placed thereon are pressed by the suction chamber 21 to inflate the pillow bag 2 of each packaged article 1 and to allow the pillow bags to be closely attached to each other. The evacuation force is applied to the plurality of packaged articles 1 closely attached to each other from the suction chamber 21 to suck the packaged articles. The picking head 20 sucking the plurality of packaged articles 1 is moved to the destination by a transfer robot 30. The sucked packaged articles 1 are pinched by a pinch device 22 provided on the picking head 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a packaging article handling apparatus.

  In a production line for mass production of articles, boxing of completed articles is also performed by an automated device. In recent years, many boxing devices using robots have been found. Examples thereof can be seen in Patent Documents 1 and 2.

  Patent Document 1 describes a boxing device that supplies a package with a gusset to a box by a robot hand provided with an adsorbing portion that adsorbs the package and an ear fold that folds the ear of the package.

  Patent Document 2 describes a robot-type caser that fills a case that has been raised with a raising hand by holding and filling the accumulated articles with a holding hand.

  Recently, parallel link robots are often used for handling articles. Examples of parallel link robots can be seen in US Pat.

JP 2008-127027 A JP 2005-119730 A JP 2003-94266 A JP 2005-28467 A

  When handling articles for purposes such as boxing, it is efficient if a plurality of articles can be handled together. However, in fragile items such as rice crackers and cookies, baked confectionery tends to crack or chip even if it is held one by one, and if you try to hold multiple items together, the overall thickness is fixed. Therefore, troubles such as breaking the baked confectionery due to excessive grasping ability, or losing the grasping ability and dropping the baked confectionery into a defective product cannot be avoided. The present invention has been made in view of this point. When a handling object is a packaged article (in this specification, such an article is referred to as a “packaging article”), the characteristics of the packaging are utilized to make the article itself. It avoids the troubles that can be expected when grabbing an item, and allows you to handle multiple items without difficulty.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a packaging article handling apparatus for handling a packaging article in which an article together with gas is enclosed in a gas-tight pillow bag, and aligns a plurality of the packaging articles; A picking head including a suction chamber having a length over a plurality of the packaging articles, a moving device for moving the picking head in a space, a control device for the picking head and the moving device, The first step of applying the suction chamber to the picking head and the moving device to the number of packaging articles that can be covered by the suction chamber, and the plurality of packaging articles to which the suction chamber is assigned to the suction chamber. Operation of the second step in which the pillow bag of each wrapping article is inflated by being pressed with and in close contact with each other A fourth step of applying a vacuum suction force from the suction chamber to the plurality of packaging articles in close contact with each other, and a fourth step of moving the picking head that has adsorbed the plurality of packaging articles to a destination by the moving device. It is characterized by the fact that it performs the operation of

  According to this configuration, since a plurality of packaged articles are adsorbed by the suction chamber, efficient handling can be performed. In addition, when the packaged article is adsorbed in the suction chamber, the pillow bag is inflated by pressing the packaged article in the suction chamber using the fact that the article is enclosed in the pillow bag, and then the vacuum is applied to each other. Since a suction force is applied, a plurality of packaged articles can be reliably held by suction. There is no problem even if the thickness of the article varies. The compression may be performed to such an extent that the pillow bag is full, and it is not necessary to apply a strong pressure to the article. Therefore, even a fragile article is less likely to be damaged.

  According to the present invention, in the packaged article handling apparatus having the above-described configuration, the packaged article is thinner than the length and width, and the alignment unit aligns the packaged article in the thickness direction.

  According to this configuration, it becomes possible to handle a large number of packaging articles without increasing the length of the suction chamber.

  According to the present invention, in the packaged article handling apparatus configured as described above, the picking head is provided with a pinch device that is opened and closed by a power source and sandwiches the plurality of packaged articles adsorbed by the suction chamber in the alignment direction. It is characterized by being.

  According to this configuration, shaking of the packaging article can be stopped, the mutual contact state of the packaging article can be stabilized, and the risk of removing the packaging article can be reduced.

  According to the present invention, in the packaged article handling apparatus configured as described above, the packaged article is placed in a bucket of a bucket conveyor and conveyed to a pick-up point by the picking head.

  According to this configuration, the packaged article can be safely transported to the takeout point. Further, since the packaging articles are arranged at regular intervals, it is easy to adsorb a predetermined number of packaging articles.

  According to the present invention, in the packaged article handling apparatus configured as described above, the moving device is configured by a parallel link robot.

  According to this configuration, the packaging article can be handled in a wide area by making use of the wide range of motion that is a feature of the parallel link robot.

  According to the present invention, in the packaged article handling apparatus configured as described above, the article is a baked confectionery.

  According to this configuration, the baked confectionery can be safely handled and delivered to the customer in a form with few cracks and chips.

  According to the present invention, a plurality of packaging articles in which an article together with gas is sealed in a gas-tight pillow bag, the packaging articles are pressed in a suction chamber, and the pillow bag of each packaging article is inflated. Since it adheres and adsorb | sucks by a vacuum suction force, several packaged articles can be attracted | collected reliably and collectively, and the efficiency of handling improves. Since the filled pillow bag is adsorbed, there is no problem even if the thickness of the article varies. Further, the compression may be performed to such an extent that the pillow bag is full, and it is not necessary to apply a strong pressure to the article. Therefore, even a brittle article is less likely to be damaged.

It is a partial front view of the bucket conveyor which conveys a packaging article. FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of a bucket conveyor, taken in a direction perpendicular to FIG. 1. It is the partial front view of the bucket conveyor similar to FIG. 1, and shows the state which applied the picking head to the packaging article. FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 2 corresponding to the state of FIG. 3. It is a top view which shows schematic structure of the article supply apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a partial front view of the bucket conveyor similar to FIG. 1, and shows the state which adsorb | sucks and lifts a packaged article with a picking head. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the picking head which shows the state which pinches | interposes the adsorbed packaging article with a pinch apparatus.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The packaged article 1 is obtained by enclosing an article (not shown) together with a gas in a pillow bag 2 made of an airtight laminated film in which a plurality of types of films are laminated. As an article, baked confectionery is assumed. The number of baked confectioneries put in one pillow bag 2 may be one or plural. It is good also as enclosing many things, such as a small grain hail and oyster. The gas enclosed in the pillow bag together with the article is usually air, but nitrogen or carbon dioxide may be used depending on the kind of the article.

  The packaging article 1 of the embodiment is thinner than the length and width. Incidentally, the vertical direction in FIG. 1 is the vertical direction, the horizontal direction in FIG. 2 is the horizontal direction, and the horizontal direction in FIG. 1 is the thickness direction.

  The packaged article 1 is conveyed by the bucket conveyor 10. The bucket conveyor 10 functions as an alignment unit that aligns the plurality of packaging articles 1 in the thickness direction. The bucket conveyor 10 is configured by vertically raising a plurality of thin blades 12 from a chain portion 11 that moves in a horizontal direction, and a bucket 13 is formed between the blades 12 and 12. The width of the bucket 13 is set to be slightly larger than the thickness of the packaging article 1.

  The packaged article 1 is handled by a picking head 20 shown in FIG. The picking head 20 includes a suction chamber 21. The suction chamber 21 has a shape in which a wrinkle having a rectangular cross section is turned upside down and both ends in the longitudinal direction are closed, has a length that spans a plurality of packaging articles 1, and a plurality of adsorbed packaging articles on the outer surface A pinch device 22 is provided for clamping 1 in the alignment direction. The pinch device 22 includes a pair of bearing portions 23 provided at both ends of the upper surface of the suction chamber 21, a rotation shaft 24 supported horizontally by the respective bearing portions 23, and a pinch plate fixed to the rotation shaft 24. 25. The rotating shaft 24 is rotated by a power source (not shown) such as a motor or an air cylinder.

  The picking head 20 is moved in the space by the moving device. The moving device is composed of a transfer robot 30 (shown in FIG. 3 is an end effector mounting portion at the tip of the robot arm, which represents the robot). The picking head 20 is attached to the transfer robot 30. It is attached as an end effector. The movement of the transfer robot 30, the vacuum suction by the picking head 20, and the opening / closing of the pinch device 22 are controlled by the control device 31.

  The control device 31 operates the transfer robot 30 and the picking head 20 as follows to perform the handling operation of the packaged article 1. First, as an operation of the first step, the picking head 20 is brought close to the packaged article 1 conveyed to the take-out point by the bucket conveyor 10, and the suction chamber 21 is applied to the packaged articles 1 as many as it can cover from above. The number of packaging articles 1 that can be covered by the suction chamber 21 is set to six here, but the number is arbitrary.

Next, as the operation of the second step, the control device 31 lowers the picking head 20 slightly and presses the packaging article 1 with the suction chamber 21. Then, since the gas inside the pillow bag 2 tends to push and spread the pillow bag 2 in a direction perpendicular to the compression direction, the pillow bag 2 of each packaging article 1 is particularly thick as shown in FIG. The part which is fully expanded and protrudes from the bucket 13 comes into close contact with each other. The pillow bag 2 that is inflated and in close contact with each other closes the lower surface opening of the suction chamber 21. The compression of the packaged article 1 by the suction chamber 21 is only required to obtain the result that the pillow bag 2 is inflated and is in close contact with each other, so that excessive compression that damages the article is avoided.

  Next, as an operation of the third step, the control device 31 opens a vacuum suction circuit (not shown) connected to the suction chamber 21 and applies a vacuum suction force to the packaged article 1 pressed by the suction chamber 21. Since the packaging articles 1 are in a state of being inflated and in close contact with each other, the amount of air flowing in between the packaging articles 1 is not so much, and the degree of vacuum is maintained well. For this reason, the packaged article 1 is reliably adsorbed and held in the suction chamber 21. The timing at which the vacuum suction force is applied does not have to be after the lowering of the picking head 20 is completely stopped, and the vacuum suction may be started during the lowering.

  Next, the control device 31 moves the picking head 20 to the destination by the transfer robot 30 as the operation of the fourth step. First, as shown in FIG. 5, the picking head 20 is pulled up, and the packaged article 1 is pulled out from the bucket conveyor 10. When the packaging article 1 comes out of the bucket 13, the pinch device 22 is closed as shown in FIG. 6, and the six packaging articles 1 adsorbed by the picking head 20 are sandwiched in the alignment direction. By doing in this way, while the picking head 20 moves, the shaking of the packaging article 1 can be stopped, the mutual contact state of the packaging article 1 can be stabilized, and the risk of removing the packaging article 1 can be reduced.

  When the picking head 20 arrives at the destination, the control device 31 opens the pinch device 22, shuts off the vacuum, and releases the packaged article 1. Then, the picking head 20 is returned to the take-out point of the bucket conveyor 10, and the next picking operation is performed.

  As the transfer robot 30, an industrial robot (for example, a rectangular coordinate format, a horizontal articulated format, a parallel link format) that can move the picking head 20 in a three-dimensional manner is used. If the parallel link robot is used, the packaging article 1 can be handled in a wide area by making use of the wide range of motion that is a feature of the parallel link robot.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  The present invention is applicable to a packaging article handling apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Packaged goods 2 Pillow bag 10 Bucket conveyor 20 Picking head 21 Suction chamber 22 Pinch device 30 Transfer robot

Claims (6)

A packaging article handling apparatus for handling a packaging article in which an article together with gas is enclosed in a gas-tight pillow bag,
An alignment unit for aligning a plurality of the packaging articles;
A picking head including a suction chamber having a length spanning a plurality of said packaging articles;
A moving device for moving the picking head in space;
A control device for the picking head and the moving device;
The control device is connected to the picking head and the moving device,
A first step of applying the suction chamber to as many packaging articles as it can cover;
A second step operation in which the plurality of packaging articles to which the suction chamber is applied are compressed in the suction chamber to inflate the pillow bag of each packaging article and closely contact each other;
A third step of applying a vacuum suction force from the suction chamber to the plurality of packaging articles in close contact with each other;
An operation of a fourth step of moving the picking head having adsorbed the plurality of packaging articles to a destination by the moving device;
A packaged article handling apparatus characterized by the above.   The packaging article handling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the packaging article is thinner than a length and a width, and the alignment unit aligns the packaging article in a thickness direction.   The pinching head is provided with a pinch device that is opened and closed by a power source and sandwiches the plurality of packaged articles adsorbed in the suction chamber in an alignment direction. Packaging goods handling equipment.   The packaging article handling apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the packaging article is placed in a bucket of a bucket conveyor and conveyed to a pick-up point by the picking head.   The packaged article handling apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the moving device is configured by a parallel link robot.   The packaging article handling apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the article is a baked confectionery.

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