JP2012041147A - Travelling chain - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a travelling chain which can clean a guide rail and can coagulate dust.SOLUTION: The travelling chain 5 is constituted by joining a plurality of links supported by a guide rail 9 to each other and includes fixing pins 11 which project from the links and slide-contact members 15 each of which has an opening 13 of a wide opening width in a vertical direction relative to the fixing pin 11 and comes in slide-contact with the guide rail 9. By inserting the fixing pin 11 into the opening 13 of the slide-contact member 15, the slide-contact member 15 is attached to the link freely vertically movable. The opening 13 of the slide-contact member 15 is a long hole prolonged in the vertical direction. The slide-contact member 15 is arranged at an inner side face 21 of an outer plate 19 or at an outer side face 25 of an inner plate 27.

Description

  The present invention relates to a traveling chain that can be applied to a receiving plate tilting conveyor that sorts articles, or a chain conveyor that is installed on the site of article conveyance or flow work.

  The following Patent Document 1 discloses a conveyor for sorting articles. A receiving plate tilting conveyor 101 shown in FIG. 9 has a holder 105 that holds the receiving plate 103 attached to a traveling chain 107 and causes the traveling chain 107 to travel according to the rotation of a sprocket 109. The figure shows the end surface of the guide rail 111 that supports the traveling chain 107, and the sprocket 109 can rotate at a position that does not contact the end surface of the guide rail 111. The receiving plate 103 is pivotally connected to the holder 105 via a connecting pin 113, and receives the article in a posture represented by a solid line.

  When the driving means (not shown in the figure) disengages the hook 117 from the engagement pin 115 provided on the receiving plate 103 in the travel of the traveling chain 107, the receiving plate 103 tilts as indicated by the phantom line. As a result, the article slides down from the receiving plate 103 and is received and transported by a conveyor or the like installed below the receiving plate 103. Reference numeral 119 indicates a housing of the receiving plate tilting conveyor 101.

  Patent Documents 1 to 3 disclose that a brush is attached to a link of a chain and a guide rail that guides the chain is cleaned with the brush. This cleaning is performed to remove dust without accumulating on the guide rail. However, in a receiving plate tilting conveyor used for sorting food or a chain conveyor that transports food, it is not preferable to brush dust with a brush from the viewpoint of suppressing dust scattering.

JP 58-1335026 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 52-27083 JP-A-8-217215 JP 2007-84204 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a traveling chain that can clean a guide rail and prevent dust from being scattered.

  The present invention is a traveling chain in which a plurality of links supported by guide rails are connected to each other, and includes a mounting pin protruding from the link and an opening having a wide vertical opening with respect to the mounting pin. A sliding contact member that is in sliding contact with the guide rail, and the mounting pin is inserted into an opening of the sliding contact member so that the sliding contact member is attached to the link so as to be movable up and down. .

  Further, the present invention is characterized in that the opening of the sliding contact member is a long hole extending in the vertical direction.

  In the present invention, the plurality of links includes a pair of outer plates having inner surfaces facing each other, and a pair of inner plates coupled to the inside of the pair of outer plates and having outer surfaces facing each other. And the sliding contact member is disposed on an inner surface of the outer plate or an outer surface of the inner plate.

  In the present invention, the sliding contact member has edges on both sides in the traveling direction in sliding contact with the guide rail, and the width of the sliding contact member in the traveling direction becomes wider as it goes up and down. The edge of the sliding contact member is formed.

  According to the traveling chain according to the present invention, since the sliding contact member is attached to the link so as to be movable up and down, the sliding contact member is pressed against the guide rail by its own weight. In this state, it is possible to prevent the sliding contact member from slidingly contacting the guide rail and collecting dust on the guide rail. In addition, since the sliding contact member scrapes dust from the guide rail, it is possible to prevent the dust from scattering.

  Further, even if the sliding contact member is worn by sliding contact with the guide rail, the sliding contact member can be lowered with respect to the link, so that the force with which the sliding contact member presses the guide rail is kept constant. For this reason, the said travel chain can maintain the effect | action of the sliding contact member which scrapes off dust from a guide rail for a long period of time. Moreover, the sliding contact member is attached to the link with a simple structure in which an attachment pin protruding from the link is inserted into the opening. For this reason, the attachment / detachment work when exchanging the sliding contact member is easy, and it is easy to attach the sliding contact member to the existing chain.

  According to the traveling chain according to the present invention, since the sliding contact member is arranged on the inner side surface of the outer plate or the outer side surface of the inner plate, the dimension of the sliding contact member protruding in the width direction with respect to the link is minimized. To the limit. For this reason, the traveling chain has an advantage that it is not necessary to unnecessarily widen the width of the guide rail.

  Further, in the traveling chain according to the present invention, the edge of the sliding contact member is formed so that the width in the traveling direction of the sliding contact member becomes wider as it goes up and down. The gap between the edge of the sliding contact member attached to the outer surface of the inner plate and the end of the outer plate adjacent thereto, or the edge of the sliding contact member attached to the inner surface of the outer plate, This is because the gap between the end portion of the inner plate adjacent to is set as follows.

  That is, the sliding contact member receives a frictional force caused by sliding contact with the guide rail, and the sliding contact member tends to tilt with the mounting pin as a fulcrum. Therefore, the edge of the sliding contact member attached to the inner plate is brought close to the outer plate adjacent thereto, or the edge of the sliding contact member attached to the outer plate is brought closer to the inner plate adjacent thereto. As a result, the inclination of the sliding contact member is limited, so that the traveling chain can stabilize the action of the sliding contact member that scrapes dust from the guide rail.

The disassembled perspective view which shows embodiment which supported the traveling chain which concerns on this invention with the guide rail. The top view which fractured | ruptured a part of embodiment which provided the spindle in the traveling chain which concerns on this invention. Sectional drawing of the inner link which shows embodiment which provided the spindle in the traveling chain which concerns on this invention, and supported the traveling chain with the guide rail. Sectional drawing of the outer link which shows embodiment which provided the spindle in the traveling chain which concerns on this invention. The side view which shows embodiment which attached the sliding contact member to the inner link of the traveling chain which concerns on this invention. AA line sectional view of Drawing 4 showing an embodiment which attached a sliding contact member to an outer link of a running chain concerning the present invention. The side view which shows embodiment which applied the joint link to the traveling chain which concerns on this invention. Schematic which shows the sliding contact member applied to the traveling chain which concerns on this invention, and the modification of the attachment structure to (a)-(d). Sectional drawing of the principal part of the receiving plate inclination type conveyor to which the traveling chain of the prior art example was applied.

  FIG. 1 shows a traveling chain 5 in which a plurality of links including an outer link 1 and an inner link 3 are connected to each other, and a guide rail 9 that supports the traveling chain 5 with a bottom surface 7. The traveling chain 5 includes a mounting pin 11 fixed to the outer link 1 and the inner link 3, and a sliding contact member 15 having an opening 13.

  2 to 4 show an embodiment in which the traveling chain 5 is provided with the support shaft 17 in order to apply the traveling chain 5 to the receiving plate tilting type conveyor described above. There is no limit. In the following description, the same designations will be used for the elements described above regardless of whether or not they are shown. The drawings refer to FIGS. 1 to 4 unless otherwise specified.

  The outer link 1 is formed by connecting a pair of outer plates 19 with two pins 23 such that the inner side surfaces 21 face each other inward. The inner link 3 is configured such that a pair of inner plates 27 face each other so that the outer side surfaces 25 face each other, and are respectively connected to a pair of outer plates 19 of the outer link 1 through pins 23 so as to be rotatable. is there. The rollers 29 inside the pair of inner plates 27 are supported by the pins 23. The support shaft 17 is an attachment extending from the end of the pin 23, and is used for attaching a holder that holds the receiving plate. The outer plate 19 has an end 31 in the running direction indicated by an arrow X formed into a convex arc shape. This also applies to the inner plate 27.

  The guide rails 9 are a pair of sash bars arranged above and below the traveling chain 5 shown in FIG. 3, and the traveling chain 5 can travel inside these. The load of the article received by the support shaft 17 becomes a force that lifts the outer plate 19 and the inner plate 27 on the opposite side of the direction in which the support shaft 17 extends from the traveling chain from the bottom surface 7 of the guide rail 9. This force is received by the top surface 33 of the guide rail 9.

  The mounting pin 11 is formed by integrally forming a flange-shaped head portion 35 and a shaft portion 37 inserted through the opening portion 13 of the sliding contact member 15. The head 35 of the mounting pin 11 has a shape that cannot pass through the opening 13 of the sliding contact member 15, and restricts the sliding contact member 15 from falling off the mounting pin 11. The outer plate 19 is formed with a hole portion 39 into which the shaft portion 37 is fitted at a position that bisects the end portions 31 on both sides. This also applies to the inner plate 27.

  The shaft portion 37 of the mounting pin 11 may be welded to the outer plate 19 and the inner plate 27, respectively. Alternatively, a male screw may be formed on the shaft portion 37 of the mounting pin 11, a female screw may be formed on the hole 39, and the mounting pin 11 may be fastened to the hole 39. In this case, the mounting pin 11 can be attached to and detached from the outer link 1 and the inner link 3 simply by rotating the shaft portion 37 with respect to the hole portion 39, so that the sliding contact member 15 can be easily replaced. Moreover, there exists an advantage that the sliding contact member 15 can be easily attached to an existing chain, without accompanying the process of links other than forming the hole part 39 in the outer link 1 and the inner link 3. FIG.

  The slidable contact member 15 is a plate piece having a lower edge portion 41 that is in sliding contact with the bottom surface 7 of the guide rail 9 and edge portions 43 on both sides in the traveling direction. For example, felt or synthetic resin can be applied as the material of the sliding contact member 15. The edge 43 of the slidable contact member 15 is formed in a concave arc shape so that the width of the slidable contact member 15 in the traveling direction becomes wider as it goes up and down. The opening 13 of the sliding contact member 15 is a long hole having a wide opening width in the vertical direction with respect to the shaft portion 37 of the mounting pin 11. Since the mounting pin 11 is inserted into such an opening 13, the sliding contact member 15 can move up and down with respect to the outer link 1 and the inner link 3, and the sliding contact member 15 is caused by the weight of the guide rail 9. Pressed against the bottom surface 7.

  When the traveling chain 5 travels in accordance with the rotation of the sprocket, the sliding contact member 15 can be slidably contacted with the bottom surface 7 of the guide rail 9 to prevent dust from accumulating on the guide rail 9. In addition, since the sliding contact member 15 scrapes dust from the guide rail 9, it is possible to prevent dust from being scattered. The lower edge portion 41 of the slidable contact member 15 is worn due to sliding contact with the guide rail 9, but since the slidable contact member 15 can be lowered with respect to the mounting pin 11, the slidable contact member 15 is moved to the guide rail 9. The pressing force is kept constant. For this reason, according to the traveling chain 5, the action of the sliding contact member 15 that scrapes dust from the guide rail 9 can be maintained for a long period of time.

  Although the sliding contact member 15 can be attached to all the links of the traveling chain 5, the sliding contact member 15 is attached to one or more links including at least one of the outer link 1 or the inner link 3 selected from all the links. You may make it attach. As shown in FIG. 2, the sliding contact member 15 attached to the inner side surface 21 of the outer plate 19 is housed inside the outer link 1, and the sliding contact member 15 attached to the outer side surface 25 of the inner plate 27 is attached to this. The adjacent outer plate 19 does not protrude in the width direction of the link pointed by the arrow w in FIG. For this reason, since the width of the traveling chain 5 is minimized, the traveling chain 5 has an advantage that it is not necessary to unnecessarily widen the width of the guide rail 9.

  Next, the reason why the edge 43 of the sliding contact member 15 is concave will be described. In other words, the width of the sliding contact member 15 in the traveling direction is the narrowest at the position where the sliding contact member 15 is divided into two equal parts in the vertical direction. As shown in FIG. 5, the slidable contact member 15 is arranged so that the edge 43 of the slidable contact member 15 attached to the outer side surface 25 of the inner plate 27 and the end portion 31 of the outer plate 19 adjacent thereto are close to each other. The width in the narrowest traveling direction is set. When the sliding contact member 15 receives a frictional force due to sliding contact with the guide rail 9, the sliding contact member 15 tries to tilt with the mounting pin 11 as a fulcrum, but the end portion 31 of the outer plate 19 The edge 43 immediately hits. Accordingly, the sliding contact member 15 is maintained in a posture in which the lower edge portion 41 is aligned with the bottom surface 7 of the guide rail 9, so that the operation of the sliding contact member 15 that scrapes dust from the bottom surface 7 of the guide rail 9 is stable. To do.

  FIG. 6 shows that the edge 43 of the sliding contact member 15 attached to the inner surface 21 of the outer plate 19 is close to the end 31 of the inner plate 27 adjacent thereto. Even if the slidable contact member 15 shown in the figure is inclined due to the above frictional force, the edge 43 of the slidable contact member 15 immediately comes into contact with the end 31 of the inner plate 27, so that the slidable contact shown in FIG. The same effect as the member 15 can be achieved.

  Further, the radius of curvature of the edge 43 of the slidable contact member 15 is set larger than the radius of curvature of the edge 43 of the slidable contact member 15. This is because the sliding contact member 15 is worn as described above, so that there is room for the sliding contact member 15 to descend, and the edge 43 of the sliding contact member 15 shown in FIG. Spaces are secured between the end portion 31 of the outer plate 19 and between the edge portion 43 of the sliding contact member 15 shown in FIG. 6 and the end portion 31 of the inner plate 27 adjacent thereto. .

  It should be noted that the present invention can be carried out in a mode in which various improvements, modifications, or variations are added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The links of the present invention include double-row outer links, offset links, and joint links. The dimension for projecting the mounting pin 11 from the inner surface 21 of the outer link 1 is preferably such that the head portion 35 of the mounting pin 11 does not contact the teeth of the sprocket, but as shown in FIG. The pitch of the rollers 29 may be set to twice the pitch of the sprocket teeth 45 so that the mounting pin 11 fixed to the outer link 1 is deflected from the teeth 45. As shown in FIG. 7, when the hole 39 is formed in the outer plate 19 of the clip-type joint link 47, the shaft portion 37 of the mounting pin 11 fitted into the hole 39 can be passed inside the clip 49.

  As shown in FIG. 8A, the opening 13 of the sliding contact member 15 may be a hole whose opening width in the running direction is wider than the shaft 37 of the mounting pin 11 in addition to the vertical direction. As shown in FIG. 4B, one of the edge portions 43 on both sides of the sliding contact member 15 protrudes toward the upper side, and the other edge portion on both sides 43 protrudes toward the lower side. It is also good.

  Moreover, it is preferable that the lower edge part 41 and the upper edge part 51 of the sliding contact member 15 are mutually symmetrical shapes. For example, when the lower edge portion 41 of the sliding contact member 15 is at the limit of wear, the posture of the sliding contact member 15 is reversed up and down, and the upper edge portion 51 of the sliding contact member 15 is brought into sliding contact with the guide rail 9. Also good. Alternatively, when the traveling chain 5 is an endless chain that turns around 180 ° around the sprocket, the sliding member 15 feeds the lower edge portion 41 downward in a stroke in which the sliding member 15 travels with the traveling chain 5. A section and a return section in which the sliding contact member 15 faces the upper edge 51 downward are included. The lower edge portion 41 of the sliding contact member 15 is brought into sliding contact with the guide rail that supports the traveling chain 5 in the feeding section, and the upper edge portion of the sliding contact member 15 is contacted with the guide rail that supports the traveling chain 5 in the return section. 51 may be brought into sliding contact.

  As shown in FIG. 8C, the shaft portion 37 of the mounting pin 11 may have a long cross section extending in the vertical direction, and the shaft portion 37 may be in close contact with the inside of the opening portion 13. In this case, the shaft portion 37 allows the sliding contact member 15 to move up and down, but limits the inclination of the sliding contact member 15. As shown in FIG. 6D, the inclination of the sliding contact member 15 can be limited even in the form of two mounting pins 11 and two openings 13.

  When the sliding contact member 15 shown in FIG. 8C is rotated by 90 ° from the illustrated posture, the head portion 35 of the mounting pin 11 represented by the phantom line can pass through the opening portion 13. If the material of the slidable contact member 15 shown in FIGS. 1 and 8A is moderately flexible such as felt, the head 35 of the mounting pin 11 can pass through the opening 13 of the slidable contact member 15. Can be deformed. In these examples, it is possible to omit the attachment and detachment of the mounting pin 11 in the replacement work of the sliding contact member 15, and the work can be further facilitated.

  The present invention is a technique useful for attaching a sliding contact member to a chain for any application so as to be movable up and down.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Outer link, 3 ... Inner link, 5,107 ... Traveling chain, 7 ... Bottom, 9, 111 ... Guide rail, 11 ... Mounting pin, 13 ... Opening 15 ... sliding contact member, 17 ... support shaft, 19 ... outer plate, 21 ... inner side, 23 ... pin, 25 ... outer side, 27 ... inner plate , 29 ... roller, 31 ... end, 33 ... top surface, 35 ... head, 37 ... shaft, 39 ... hole, 41 ... lower edge, 43 ... Edge, 45 ... Tooth, 47 ... Clip joint link, 49 ... Clip, 51 ... Upper edge, 101 ... Tilting conveyor, 103 ... Receiving plate, 105 ... holder, 109 ... sprocket, 113 ... coupling pin, 115 ... engagement pin, 117 ... hook, 119 ... housing.

Claims (4)

A traveling chain in which a plurality of links supported by guide rails are connected to each other,
A mounting pin protruding from the link; and a sliding contact member having a wide opening in the vertical direction with respect to the mounting pin and slidingly contacting the guide rail.
A travel chain, wherein the sliding contact member is attached to the link so as to be movable up and down by inserting the mounting pin into an opening of the sliding contact member.   The traveling chain according to claim 1, wherein the opening of the sliding contact member is a long hole extending in the vertical direction. The plurality of links include a pair of outer plates having inner surfaces facing inward, and a pair of inner plates coupled to the inside of the pair of outer plates and having outer surfaces facing each other.
The travel chain according to claim 1, wherein the sliding member is disposed on an inner surface of the outer plate or an outer surface of the inner plate.   The slidable contact member has edges on both sides in the traveling direction in sliding contact with the guide rail, and the slidable contact member has an edge that increases in width in the traveling direction. The travel chain according to claim 3, wherein the travel chain is formed.

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