JP2011178486A - Transfer device, transfer method and article sorting facility - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transfer device, a transfer method and an article sorting facility for improving transfer processing capacity more than conventional capacity. <P>SOLUTION: This transfer device 69 includes a robot place conveyor 41 for carrying a sorting case for transferring and storing articles from a plurality of actual cases for separately and respectively storing a plurality of articles with every kind, and a robot 40 for transferring the articles to the sorting case from the actual cases. The transfer device 69 includes a reciprocating conveyor 70 for reciprocating the plurality of actual cases supplied from an actual case carrying conveyor 25 for carrying the actual cases, and moves the articles being transfer objects in an operation range of the robot 40 by operating the reciprocating conveyor 70. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a transfer device, a transfer method, and an article sorting facility using a robot.

As a first conventional transfer device, there is a transfer device that transfers an article using a robot having a travel axis. In this transfer device, when an article is not placed in the movement range of the robot, the article is transferred after the robot itself has traveled to a position that falls within the movement range.
In addition, as a second conventional transfer device, an endless annular conveyor in which a large number of pallets loaded with the same type of product for each pallet are loaded at a constant interval and intermittently moved at an interval pitch of the pallet, and this annular conveyor is temporarily While stopped, products on the pallet are transferred one by one to a separate empty pallet, and various types of products are sorted and mixed by a transfer robot that stacks products of a predetermined type and quantity in order. There was a thing. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-278854

However, the first conventional transfer device needs to run a heavy robot even if the weight of the article to be transferred is about several hundred grams to several kilograms. That is, there is a problem that the moving acceleration is limited and time is required for transfer because a robot having a weight greater than that of the article to be transferred is caused to travel.
Moreover, since the 2nd conventional transfer apparatus is carrying the case (pallet) which accommodated the articles | goods to be transferred by the annular conveyor, all the articles | goods were transferred and the empty case was collect | recovered. For this purpose, it was necessary to transport to a predetermined collection place. That is, there is a problem that it takes time to collect the empty case.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a transfer device, a transfer method, and an article sorting facility that have improved transfer processing capacity compared to the related art.

The transfer device according to the first aspect of the present invention is a robot for transporting a sorting case for transferring and storing the articles from a plurality of actual cases in which a plurality of articles are divided and stored for each product type. A transfer device comprising a place conveyor and a robot for transferring the article from the actual case to the sorting case,
A reciprocating conveyor for reciprocating the plurality of actual cases supplied from an actual case conveying conveyor for conveying the actual cases;
The reciprocating conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within the operating range of the robot.

In the transfer apparatus according to the first invention, the actual case transport conveyor is disposed along the reciprocating conveyor, and is disposed on the reciprocating conveyor and the actual case delivery position located downstream of the actual case transport conveyor. The actual case receiving position located within the movement range of the robot is arranged adjacent to each other,
A gripping mechanism for gripping the actual case where all the articles have been transferred at the actual case receiving position, a lifting mechanism for lifting and lowering the gripping mechanism, and a direction intersecting the transporting direction of the reciprocating conveyor with the gripping mechanism A moving mechanism that moves the object to the actual case, the actual case on which the article has been transferred is gripped by the gripping mechanism, then lifted by the lifting mechanism, and the actual case is moved by the moving mechanism. All the articles are transferred by moving above the delivery position across the actual case delivery position and moving it above the delivery position on the opposite side of the actual case delivery position and lowering it to the delivery position by the lifting mechanism. It is preferable to further include a discharging means for discharging the mounted actual case.

In the transfer device according to the first aspect, after the lifting mechanism raises the actual case on which all the articles have been transferred, the transport of the actual case from the actual case delivery position to the actual case reception position starts. It is preferred that

In the transfer device according to the first aspect of the present invention, an empty case transporting conveyor that transports the empty case in which the article is not stored as the sorting case to the robot place conveyor, and the empty case transporting conveyor by the discharging means. An empty case discharge conveyor for supplying an actual case to which all of the discharged articles have been transferred,
An actual case in which all of the discharged articles are transferred can be reused as the sorting case.

The article sorting equipment according to the second invention that meets the above-mentioned object transfers an actual case input section for inputting a plurality of actual cases in which a plurality of articles are divided for each type and accommodated, respectively. An empty case loading unit for loading an empty sorting case for the first case, a first transfer unit for transferring the article from the plurality of actual cases to the sorting case, and a storage location where an operator is predetermined. A second transfer unit for transferring the article to the sorting case, a bypass unit for bypassing the first transfer unit or the second transfer unit and transporting the sorting case, and the first transfer unit. A sorting facility provided with a carry-out section for transporting a sorting case onto which the article is transferred in the loading section or the second transfer section to a predetermined carry-out location;
The first transfer unit includes a robot place conveyor that conveys the sorting case;
A robot that takes out the article from the actual case and transfers it to the sorting case;
A reciprocating conveyor for reciprocating the plurality of actual cases supplied from the actual case charging unit;
The reciprocating conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within the operating range of the robot.

In the transfer method according to the third aspect of the present invention, the robot takes out articles stored in the plurality of cases from the plurality of cases placed on the first conveyance conveyor, and secondly conveys the extracted articles. A transfer method for transferring to a case placed on a conveyor,
The first transfer conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within the operation range of the robot.

In the transfer apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the reciprocating conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within the operation range of the robot. Is possible.

In particular, in the transfer device according to claim 2, it is possible to shorten the time for collecting the empty case (actual case in which all the articles are transferred) and to improve the transfer processing capacity. is there.

In the transfer device according to claim 3, since the actual case is supplied without waiting for the completion of the operation for discharging the empty case (the actual case where all articles are transferred), the transfer operation is performed. It can be resumed in a shorter time than before, and the transfer processing capacity is improved.

In the transfer device according to the fourth aspect, an actual case in which all articles are transferred can be reused as a sorting case.

In the article sorting facility according to the fifth aspect, the reciprocating conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within the operation range of the robot. is there.

In the transfer method according to claim 6, since the first transfer conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within the operation range of the robot, the transfer processing capability can be improved as compared with the conventional method. It is.

1 is an overall view of an article sorting facility according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is an overall view of a transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows operation | movement of the discharge means of the transfer apparatus. (A), (B) is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the transfer apparatus regarding an actual case and an empty case, respectively.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings for understanding of the present invention.

An article sorting facility 10 (see FIG. 1) according to an embodiment of the present invention is used in, for example, a joint distribution center, and a plurality of articles (for example, merchandise) are divided for each product type and accommodated. This is equipment for taking out necessary types of articles from a plurality of cases (actual cases), refilling them into cases for transporting (sorting cases) according to shipping destinations, and delivering them. The target article has a weight of about several hundred grams to several kilograms, for example, food in a bag, electronic parts, mechanical parts, and the like.
In FIG. 1, the left-right direction is defined as the X direction, and the front-rear direction is defined as the Y direction. Moreover, the arrow shown in the figure has shown the conveyance direction of the conveyor.

First, the overall configuration of the article sorting facility 10 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1, the article sorting equipment 10 is roughly divided into an actual case input unit 11, an empty case input unit 12, a first transfer unit 13, a second transfer unit 14, a bypass unit 15, and a carry-out unit 16. It is configured.
Here, the empty case means a case in which no article is accommodated. This case has a rectangular shape in plan view and has an upper surface opened. Furthermore, in the following description, the conveyor provided in each part is a belt conveyor driven by a motor unless otherwise specified. This belt conveyor is configured such that the belt slides on a high molecular weight polyethylene material provided on an aluminum frame extending in the conveying direction.

The actual case input unit 11 is a part that inputs the actual cases A to D in which four types of articles A to D (large quantity and small variety articles) having a high demand at the shipping destination are accommodated. The actual case input unit 11 includes first to fourth actual case input conveyors (roller conveyors) 21 to 24 arranged side by side along the Y direction, and downstream of the first to fourth actual case input conveyors 21 to 24. An actual case transport conveyor 25 is provided adjacent to the side end and disposed along the X direction.
The first to fourth actual case loading conveyors 21 to 24 are conveyors for loading the actual cases A to D, respectively. Each of the actual cases A to D is placed on the lifter 30 in a stacked state, lifted up to the height of the case transport surface of the conveyor, and then separated into a single case by the leveling device 31. The separated actual cases A to D are conveyed downstream from the end portions of the first to fourth actual case loading conveyors 21 to 24. When the actual case conveying conveyor 25 receives the actual cases A to D from the first to fourth actual case loading conveyors 21 to 24, the actual case A to D are conveyed to the first transfer unit 13.

The empty case loading unit 12 is a portion for loading an empty sorting case (empty sorting case) for refilling the articles A to D accommodated in the actual cases A to D, respectively.
The empty cases are placed on the lifter 30 in a stacked state, lifted up to the height of the case transport surface of the conveyor, and then separated into single cases by the step-off device 31. Here, the empty case has a structure in which the stacking height is suppressed by stacking without changing the direction of the empty case by stacking by changing the rotation direction by 90 degrees every other stage. It has become. Therefore, the empty case turning device 32 turns the empty case every other stage, and the directions of the empty cases are aligned. The empty cases whose directions are aligned are conveyed from the end portion of the empty case conveying conveyor (roller conveyor) 35 disposed along the Y direction to the first transfer unit 13 or the bypass unit 15 downstream.

The first transfer unit 13 transfers the articles accommodated in the actual cases A to D conveyed from the actual case input unit 11 to the empty case (empty sorting case) conveyed from the empty case input unit 12. This is the part to be refilled. This transfer operation is performed by a parallel link robot (an example of a robot) 40. The parallel link robot 40 (see FIG. 3) has a weight of several tens of kilograms to several hundred kilograms, and is suspended from a position indicated by an asterisk. The case (transferred sorting case) in which the transferred article is accommodated is conveyed downstream by the robot place conveyor 41 arranged along the X direction. The first transfer unit 13 will be described in detail later.

The second transfer unit 14 is a portion that is provided on the downstream side of the first transfer unit 13 and to which articles are transferred by the manual operation of the operator 44. The articles to be transferred here are articles E to J (small-quantity multi-variety goods) with little demand at the shipping destination. These articles E to J are stored in a case flow rack (inclined flow shelf) 45. The worker takes out the article from the case flow rack 45 as a storage location based on a predetermined instruction, and transfers the article to a sorting case conveyed by the worker place conveyor 46 arranged along the X direction.

The bypass unit 15 is a part that bypasses the first transfer unit 13 or the second transfer unit 14 and conveys the sorting case to the downstream side when the article transfer operation is not performed. The bypass unit 15 includes a first bypass conveyor 51 that bypasses the first transfer unit 13 disposed along the X direction and a second bypass unit that bypasses the second transfer unit 14 disposed along the X direction. A bypass conveyor 52 is provided. The bypass unit 15 is further provided with a switching conveyor (roller conveyor) 53 disposed along the Y direction. One end of the switching conveyor 53 is located between the first transfer unit 13 and the second transfer unit 14, and the other end is located between the first bypass conveyor 51 and the second bypass conveyor 52. The switching conveyor 53 can convey the sorting case in both directions. That is, the switching conveyor 53 is for delivering the sorting case conveyed by the robot place conveyor 41 or the first bypass conveyor 51 to the worker place conveyor 46 or the second bypass conveyor 52, respectively.

The unloading part 16 is a part for conveying the sorting case conveyed by the worker place conveyor 46 or the second bypass conveyor 52 to a predetermined unloading place. The sorting cases are conveyed by a carry-out conveyor (roller conveyor) 55 arranged along the Y direction, and stacked by a stacking device 60 provided at the downstream end thereof. Further, the stacked cases are loaded on the cart by the cart feeder 61. Thereafter, the case loaded on the carriage is discharged from the cart feeder 61 and is transported to an unloading place predetermined by the operator.

Next, the 1st transfer part 13 is demonstrated in detail based on FIG.2 and FIG.3.
The first transfer unit 13 is provided with a transfer device 69 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The transfer device 69 includes a parallel link robot 40 (see FIG. 3), a reciprocating conveyor (an example of a first transport conveyor) 70, a robot place conveyor (an example of a second transport conveyor) 41, and a discharge means 71. I have.

The parallel link robot 40 takes out a predetermined number of articles of a predetermined type from the actual cases A to D placed on the reciprocating conveyor 70 and transfers them to an empty case placed on the robot place conveyor 41. Refill.
The parallel link robot 40 is provided above the reciprocating conveyor 70 and the robot place conveyor 41 (a position indicated by an asterisk in FIG. 2), and takes out an article by an air suction hand 42 provided at the tip. The range that the air suction hand 42 can reach (robot operation range) is within a circle indicated by a two-dot chain line centered on the star in FIG. That is, it is necessary to move the actual case for taking out the article into the robot operation range in advance.
The position information of the articles A to D accommodated in the actual cases A to D is obtained in advance by the image recognition device 72 provided on the downstream side of the actual case transport conveyor 25 indicated by a two-dot chain line. The parallel link robot 40 takes out the article based on the position information obtained by the image recognition device 72.

The reciprocating conveyor 70 reciprocates the actual cases A to D conveyed from the actual case loading unit 11 so that the parallel link robot 40 can take out the articles A to D accommodated in the actual cases A to D. This is for moving an article to be taken out into the operation range of the parallel link robot 40.
The reciprocating conveyor 70 is disposed along the X direction. The central portion of the reciprocating conveyor 70 is adjacent to the downstream side portion of the actual case conveyor 25. The actual case (actual case B in FIG. 2) conveyed to the actual case delivery position P1 at the downstream end by the actual case conveyor 25 is the downstream end of the actual case conveyor 25 and the center of the reciprocating conveyor 70. It is conveyed in the Y direction by roller conveyors 75 provided respectively in the sections. Then, the conveyed actual case is delivered at the actual case receiving position P2 of the reciprocating conveyor 70. Specifically, the roller conveyor 75 rises above the case conveyance surfaces of the actual case conveyor 25 and the reciprocating conveyor 70, and the actual case moves on the raised roller conveyor 75. In addition, the raising amount of the roller conveyor 75 is 25 mm, for example.

The robot place conveyor 41 is for transferring an article to the empty transfer case (sorting case) transferred from the empty case loading unit 12 and then transferring it to the second transfer unit 14 downstream. The robot place conveyor 41 is provided on the opposite side of the actual case conveyor 25 with the reciprocating conveyor 70 interposed therebetween.

The discharge means 71 is for discharging an actual case after all articles have been transferred, that is, an empty case, from the first transfer unit 13.
As shown in FIG. 3, the discharge means 71 includes a hand 80 (an example of a gripping mechanism) that grips the side of an empty case at the actual case receiving position P <b> 2 of the reciprocating conveyor 70, and a lift that moves the hand 80 up and down. A mechanism 81 and a moving mechanism 82 for moving the hand 80 in the Y direction (a direction intersecting the transport direction of the reciprocating conveyor 70) are provided.

The empty case discharge conveyor (roller conveyor) 85 is for conveying the empty case discharged by the discharge means 71 to the empty case input unit 12. The transported empty case is reused again as a sorting case.

Next, operations of the article sorting facility 10 and the transfer device 69 will be described along the flow of articles being conveyed.
When the actual cases A to D are respectively loaded into the first to fourth actual case loading conveyors 21 to 24, the necessary actual cases are transferred to the actual case delivery position of the transfer device 69 in response to a command from a control device (not shown). It is conveyed to P1. The conveyed actual case is delivered by the roller conveyor 75 at the actual case receiving position P <b> 2 of the reciprocating conveyor 70. The actual case transferred to the reciprocating conveyor 70 is conveyed so as to be within the operation range of the parallel link robot 40. Then, the parallel link robot 40 takes out the articles stored in the actual case and transfers them to the sorting case (empty case) on the robot place conveyor 41. Here, the sorting case (empty case) is transported from the empty case transport conveyor 35. In FIG. 2, the article B in the actual case B is transported to the operation range of the parallel link robot 40 and transferred to the sorting case on the robot place conveyor 41 by the parallel link robot 40.

Here, in the middle of transferring the article by the parallel link robot 40, all the articles in the actual case may be transferred and there may be no articles to be transferred.
Since it is known in advance by a control device (not shown) which article will be transferred earliest, the actual case containing the article is transported from the actual case loading conveyors 21 to 24 and waited at the actual case delivery position P1. deep. In FIG. 2, since it is known that the article B is lost, the actual case B is kept waiting at the actual case delivery position P1. In addition, since it is known that the article D disappears next to the article B, the actual case D is conveyed to the upstream side of the actual case B.
When the article B disappears, as shown in FIG. 3, the discharging means 71 grips the empty case (actual case with all the articles transferred) by the hand 80 and lifts the empty case gripped by the lifting mechanism 81. Then, the empty case is moved by the moving mechanism 82 from above the actual case receiving position P2 to above the discharging position P3 of the empty case discharging conveyor 85, passing above the actual case transferring position P1. After the movement, the empty case is released from the hand 80 by the elevating mechanism 81 so that the empty case is placed at the discharge position P3.
On the other hand, when the empty case is lifted from the actual case receiving position P2, the actual case B waiting at the actual case transferring position P1 is transferred to the empty actual case receiving position P2, and the parallel link robot 40 is moved. The loading work is continued. That is, the delivery operation of the actual case B is performed in parallel without waiting for the completion of the operation for discharging the empty case after the empty case is lifted from the actual case receiving position P2.

Here, the operation of the transfer device 69 will be described from another viewpoint.
Initially, the operation | movement regarding an actual case is demonstrated based on FIG. 4 (A).
First, necessary actual cases A to D are supplied to the reciprocating conveyor 70 from the actual case loading unit 11 (step SA1).
Next, when there is no actual case of the transfer source within the operation range of the parallel link robot 40 (step SA2), the reciprocating conveyor 70 is operated and conveyed within the operation range (step SA3). On the other hand, if there is an actual case of the transfer source within the operation range of the parallel link robot 40 (step SA2), the process proceeds to the next process (step SA4) as it is.
Next, the parallel link robot 40 takes out the article and transfers it to the sorting case on the robot place conveyor 41 (step SA4).
If an article remains in the actual case (step SA5), the process proceeds to the next process (step SA8). On the other hand, if there are no more articles (step SA5), the actual case (empty case) in which the discharging means 71 is empty is discharged (step SA6), and the actual case is supplied to the reciprocating conveyor 70 (step SA7). ).
When a predetermined number of products are transferred for a predetermined type and the transfer is completed (step SA8), the process proceeds to the next processing (step SA9). On the other hand, when the transfer is incomplete (step SA8), step SA2 is executed.
Finally, when the transfer is completed for all shipping destinations (step SA9), the operation of the parallel link robot 40 is stopped. On the other hand, when the transfer is not completed (step SA9), step SA2 is executed.

Next, an operation relating to an empty case (sorting case) will be described with reference to FIG.
First, an empty case (sorting case) is conveyed by the robot place conveyor 41 (step SB1).
Next, the article is transferred from the actual case by the parallel link robot 40 (step SB2).
When a predetermined number of products are transferred for a predetermined product type and the transfer is completed (step SB3), the transferred sorting case is conveyed downstream (step SB4). On the other hand, when the transfer is not completed (step SB3), step SB2 is executed.
Finally, when the transfer is completed for all shipping destinations (step SB5), the operation of the transfer device 69 is stopped. On the other hand, when the transfer is not completed (step SB5), step SB1 is executed.

Regarding the transferred sorting case transported to the downstream side from the transfer device 69, when further transfer of the articles E to J is necessary, the transferred sorting case is placed on the worker place conveyor 46 and transported. Thereafter, the articles E to J are further transferred by a predetermined amount by the operator 44 and conveyed to the carry-out conveyor 55. On the other hand, when the articles E to J do not need to be transferred, the transferred sorting case is conveyed by the switching conveyor 53 and sent to the second bypass conveyor 52. As a result, the transferred sorting case is transferred to the carry-out conveyor 55 bypassing the second transfer unit 14.

Note that the articles E to J may be transferred without transferring the articles A to D to the case. In that case, the empty case is loaded on the first bypass conveyor 51 from the empty case loading unit 12 and conveyed to bypass the first transfer unit 13. Then, the empty case is conveyed from the switching conveyor 53 to the worker place conveyor 46.

The transferred sorting cases placed on the carry-out conveyor 55 are stacked by the stacking device 60, then loaded onto the cart by the cart feeder 61 and discharged, and are transported to a discharge place predetermined by the operator. .

As described above, the article sorting facility 10 according to the present embodiment transfers the parallel link robot 40 for a large quantity and a small variety of articles and the operator 44 for a small quantity and a wide variety of articles. Sorting efficiency is higher than equipment.
Further, in the transfer device 69 according to the present embodiment, since the actual case having a weight smaller than that of the parallel link robot 40 is transferred back and forth, the transfer device 69 has a capacity smaller than that of the travel drive motor of the conventional robot with a travel shaft. The reciprocating conveyor 70 is driven by a motor. In addition, since the actual case reciprocated by the reciprocating conveyor 70 has less inertia than the parallel link robot 40, it can move at a higher speed and higher acceleration than when the robot is run as in the prior art. As a result, the transfer processing capacity is improved. Furthermore, since the actual case is supplied to the reciprocating conveyor 70 without waiting for the operation for discharging the empty case to be completed, the transfer operation can be resumed in a shorter time than before and the transfer processing capability is improved. To do.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, The change in the range which does not change the summary of this invention is possible.
In the above-described embodiment, the parallel link robot 40 takes out the article using the air suction hand 42 provided at the tip. However, the parallel link robot 40 may hold and take out the article using a mechanical hand. Further, the robot is not limited to the parallel link robot, and any robot can be applied regardless of its form as long as it can transfer an article. For example, the robot can be an articulated robot.

10: article sorting equipment, 11: actual case input unit, 12: empty case input unit, 13: first transfer unit, 14: second transfer unit, 15: bypass unit, 16: carry-out unit, 21: first Actual case input conveyor, 22: Second actual case input conveyor, 23: Third actual case input conveyor, 24: Fourth actual case input conveyor, 25: Actual case transfer conveyor, 30: Lifter, 31: Distributor, 32 : Empty case turning device, 35: Empty case transfer conveyor, 40: Parallel link robot, 41: Robot place conveyor, 42: Air adsorption hand, 44: Worker, 45: Case flow rack, 46: Worker place conveyor, 51 : First bypass conveyor, 52: second bypass conveyor, 53: switching conveyor, 55: carry-out conveyor, 60: stacking device, 61: cart feeder, 9: transfer device, 70: reciprocating conveyors, 71: discharge means, 72: image recognition apparatus, 75: roller conveyor, 80: hand 81: elevating mechanism, 82: moving mechanism, 85: air case discharge conveyor

Claims (6)

A robot place conveyor that transports a sorting case for transferring and storing the article from a plurality of actual cases in which a plurality of articles are divided and stored for each type, and the article is transferred from the actual case to the sorting case. A transfer device comprising a transfer robot,
A reciprocating conveyor for reciprocating the plurality of actual cases supplied from an actual case conveying conveyor for conveying the actual cases;
A transfer apparatus, wherein the reciprocating conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred within an operation range of the robot. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the actual case transport conveyor is disposed along the reciprocating conveyor, and the actual case delivery position located downstream of the actual case transport conveyor and the reciprocating conveyor Arranged so that the actual case receiving position located within the movement range of the robot is adjacent,
A gripping mechanism for gripping the actual case where all the articles have been transferred at the actual case receiving position, a lifting mechanism for lifting and lowering the gripping mechanism, and a direction intersecting the transporting direction of the reciprocating conveyor with the gripping mechanism A moving mechanism that moves the object to the actual case, the actual case on which the article has been transferred is gripped by the gripping mechanism, then lifted by the lifting mechanism, and the actual case is moved by the moving mechanism. All the articles are transferred by moving above the delivery position across the actual case delivery position and moving it above the delivery position on the opposite side of the actual case delivery position and lowering it to the delivery position by the lifting mechanism. A transfer apparatus, further comprising discharge means for discharging the loaded actual case. 3. The transfer device according to claim 2, wherein after the elevating mechanism raises the actual case on which all the articles have been transferred, conveyance of the actual case is started from the actual case delivery position to the actual case reception position. A transfer device. 4. The transfer apparatus according to claim 2, wherein an empty case that does not contain the article is transported to the robot place conveyor as the sorting case, and the discharge means for the empty case transport conveyor. An empty case discharge conveyor for supplying an actual case in which all the items discharged by the above are transferred,
A transfer apparatus, wherein an actual case in which all the discharged articles are transferred is reused as the sorting case. An actual case input unit for inputting a plurality of actual cases in which a plurality of articles are divided for each type and accommodated, and an empty case input unit for inputting an empty sorting case for transferring the items A first transfer unit for transferring the article from the plurality of actual cases to the sorting case, and a second transfer for transferring an article from the storage location predetermined by an operator to the sorting case. The article is transferred in the loading section, a bypass section that bypasses the first transfer section or the second transfer section and conveys the sorting case, and the first transfer section or the second transfer section. A sorting facility comprising a carry-out section for carrying the sorted case to a predetermined carry-out location,
The first transfer unit includes a robot place conveyor that conveys the sorting case;
A robot that takes out the article from the actual case and transfers it to the sorting case;
A reciprocating conveyor for reciprocating the plurality of actual cases supplied from the actual case charging unit;
An article sorting facility characterized in that the reciprocating conveyor is operated to move the article to be transferred into an operation range of the robot. In this transfer method, the robot takes out articles stored in the plurality of cases from the plurality of cases placed on the first transport conveyor, and transfers the taken-out articles to the case placed on the second transport conveyor. And
The transfer method characterized by operating the said 1st conveyance conveyor, and moving the said articles | goods used as transfer object in the operation | movement range of the said robot.

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