JP2012201453A - Pallet conveyance device and pallet conveyance method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize the number of driving mechanisms and to make pallets individually move forward and stop at a predetermined position.SOLUTION: The pallet conveyance device includes a conveyance guide 11 which guides a pallet P slidably from an upstream side to a downstream side, and a plurality of driving mechanisms 30 which are arranged along the conveyance guide 11. The driving mechanisms 30 each include a rotary shaft which is installed perpendicularly to a direction parallel with the conveyance direction of the conveyance guide 11, an arm which is rotatably attached to the rotary shaft and has a pushing-out part and a reception part formed at both ends respectively, and a rotary mechanism which rotates the arm, and thrusts off and sends out the pallet P from the upstream side to the downstream side and also stops the pallet P sent from the upstream side at the predetermined position.

Description

  Embodiments described herein relate generally to a pallet conveying apparatus and a pallet conveying method for conveying a pallet used in a factory or the like.

  In factories and the like, a pallet transport device is used that transports a pallet along a predetermined direction and positions the pallet at a predetermined position in order to place and process parts on the pallet. As the pallet transport device, there are a pallet traveling on a roller or a rail, a constant pitch feeding method using an index mechanism, a method of placing on a belt conveyor, and the like.

JP 2010-23946 A JP 2007-90513 A

  The pallet transport device described above has the following problems. That is, in order to transport the pallet independently, a driving mechanism such as a motor must be installed without any gap along the transport line. For this reason, when a conveyance line becomes long, an apparatus will become expensive.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a pallet transport apparatus and a pallet transport method that can minimize the number of drive mechanisms, advance the pallet individually, and stop the pallet at a predetermined position.

  In the pallet transporting apparatus that transports the pallet, the pallet transporting device includes a transport guide that slidably guides the pallet from the upstream side toward the downstream side, and a plurality of drive mechanisms arranged along the transport guide. An extrusion mechanism for ejecting the pallet from the upstream side toward the downstream side and a receiving mechanism for stopping the pallet sent from the upstream side at a predetermined position are provided.

The top view which shows typically the pallet conveying apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. The perspective view which shows the drive mechanism integrated in the pallet conveying apparatus. The perspective view which shows operation | movement of the drive mechanism. The perspective view which shows operation | movement of the drive mechanism. The perspective view which shows operation | movement of the drive mechanism. The perspective view which shows operation | movement of the drive mechanism. The perspective view which shows operation | movement of the drive mechanism. The perspective view which shows operation | movement of the drive mechanism. The top view which shows the pallet conveying apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. The top view which shows another state of the pallet conveying apparatus.

  FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the pallet carrying device 10 according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a drive mechanism 30 incorporated in the pallet carrying device 10. In the figure, F indicates the pallet transport direction. That is, the right side in FIG. 1 corresponds to the upstream side in the transport direction F, and the left side corresponds to the downstream side in the transport direction F. Further, K in FIG. 1 indicates various processing apparatuses.

  A conveyance guide 11, a pallet P that is slidably arranged from the upstream side to the downstream side of the conveyance guide 11, three drive mechanisms 30 that are arranged at a predetermined distance along the conveyance guide 11, and And a control unit 40 that controls each drive mechanism 30 in a coordinated manner. Note that the number of drive mechanisms 30 is not limited to three, and two or more drive mechanisms 30 may be installed as necessary, and the interval can be arbitrarily set.

  A processing device K is arranged corresponding to the drive mechanism 30. The processing device K picks up components mounted on the pallet P, and performs predetermined processing such as processing and inspection.

  The drive mechanism 30 is disposed away from the conveyance guide 11. The drive mechanism 30 has a base portion 31 attached to the floor surface, and a rotating shaft C attached to the base portion 31 and having an axis in a vertical direction (a direction perpendicular to a direction parallel to the transport direction of the transport guide). And an arm 32 that is rotatably attached to the rotation shaft 31 and formed with an extrusion portion and a receiving portion at both ends, and a rotary actuator or the like that is provided in the base portion 31 and rotates the arm 32. And a moving mechanism 35.

  The arm 32 includes a push arm 33 and a receiving arm 34 provided in opposite directions from the rotation center. The ends 33a and 34a of the push-out arm 33 and the receiving arm 34 are inclined toward the transport guide 11 side. This is to make it easier for the push-out arm 33 and the receiving arm 34 to come into contact with the upstream side surface Pj and the downstream side surface Pk of the pallet P, as will be described later.

  Cushioning materials 33b, 34b such as rubber are provided at the distal ends 33a, 34a of the extrusion arm 33 and the receiving arm 34, respectively.

  The rotation mechanism 35 rotates the arm 32 by a rotary cylinder or an electric motor that operates with compressed air, and these are controlled by the control unit 40. For example, the control unit 40 projects the pallet P from the upstream side toward the downstream side and sends it out, and controls the pallet P sent from the upstream side to stop at a predetermined position. Further, the control unit 40 includes the upstream drive mechanism 30 and the downstream drive mechanism 30 as a pair, and the upstream drive mechanism pushes the pallet P after the downstream drive mechanism 30 is in the receiving state. To control.

  The pallet conveying apparatus 10 configured as described above conveys the pallet P as follows. 3A to 3F are perspective views showing the operation of the drive mechanism 30. FIG.

  FIG. 3A shows the standby state of the drive mechanism 30. That is, the receiving arm 34 is positioned on the conveyance guide 11 and waits for the pallet P to slide from the upstream side. Next, as shown in FIG. 3B, the pallet P that has slipped is received by the receiving arm 34 and stopped at a position corresponding to the processing device K. At this time, since the shock absorbing material 34b is attached to the tip 34a of the receiving arm 34, the impact applied to the pallet P is mitigated. Furthermore, the impact may be further reduced by rotating the arm 32 downstream in accordance with the speed of the pallet P on the rotating mechanism 35 side. Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, the arm 32 is rotated by the rotation mechanism 35 so as to be separated from the receiving arm 34 from the pallet P.

  Here, a predetermined process is performed by the processing device K. When the processing is finished, as shown in FIG. 3D, the arm 32 is rotated by the rotation mechanism 35 to bring the pushing arm 33 close to the pallet P, and the tip 33a of the pushing arm 33 is moved to the pallet P as it is, as shown in FIG. And are pushed downstream as shown in FIG. 3F. Note that the pushing force at this time requires a minimum force to reach the position of the next drive mechanism 30.

  In addition, the control unit 40 controls the upstream drive mechanism to push out the pallet P after the downstream drive mechanism 30 is in the receiving state. I try not to touch it.

  In this way, the pallet P can be transported by extruding the pallet P supplied from the outside along the transport guide 11 one after another to the drive mechanism 30 on the downstream side. Moreover, it can be stopped at a predetermined position, and finally the pallet conveying apparatus 10 can discharge the pallet P to the outside of the apparatus.

  As described above, according to the pallet conveying apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the pallet P is slid and conveyed on the conveyance guide 11 using the driving mechanism 30, so that an interval for providing the driving mechanism 30 is provided. Can do. That is, since the number of driving units such as the rotation mechanism 35 can be reduced, the manufacturing cost of the transfer device can be reduced. In addition, since the operation of the pallet P is determined by the pair of the adjacent drive mechanisms 30, the pallet P can be individually conveyed independently without being influenced by the conveyance of other pallets P. Therefore, processing efficiency can be improved.

  Further, the pallet P can be stopped at an arbitrary position simply by installing the rotation mechanism 35 at a necessary place without changing the structure of the transport guide 11, and the degree of freedom in layout of the processing apparatus K is improved. To do.

  Since the drive mechanism 30 having the same structure is arranged in parallel on one side of the conveyance guide 11 (one-system drive mechanism), the upstream drive mechanism is moved after the downstream drive mechanism 30 is in the receiving state. The pallet P is controlled to be pushed out. Therefore, the next pallet P cannot be pushed out until the arm 32 that has pushed out the pallet P returns to the receiving position. If the time between returning from the pushing position to the receiving position is shorter than the processing time by the processing device K, the waiting time for rotating the arm 32 can be ignored.

  FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the pallet carrying device 50 according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing another state of the pallet carrying device 50. In these drawings, the same functional parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The pallet transport device 50 includes two systems of drive mechanisms 30A and 30B arranged on opposite sides of the transport guide 11 respectively. That is, two drive mechanisms 30A and 30B are arranged at one stop position. These drive mechanisms 30A and 30B have the same configuration as the drive mechanism 30 described above. Note that the distal ends 33 a and 34 a of the arm 32 do not pass over the transport guide 11 but pass through a position separated from the transport guide 11. The two drive mechanisms 30A and 30B are cooperatively controlled by the control unit 40 as will be described later.

  Further, the pallet P has a shape that is selectively driven by only one of the two drive mechanisms 30A and 30B. Specifically, two types of pallets Pa approaching the drive mechanism 30A side and pallets Pb approaching the drive mechanism 30B side are supplied.

  As described above, the distal ends 33a and 34a of the arms 32 of the drive mechanisms 30A and 30B are configured to selectively engage only with the pallets Pa and Pb, respectively, by passing through positions separated from the conveyance guide 11. .

  The pallet conveying apparatus 50 configured as described above conveys the pallet P as follows. Here, the drive mechanism 30A is referred to as α1 to α4 from the upstream side to the downstream side, and the drive mechanism 30B is referred to as β1 to β4 from the upstream side to the downstream side.

  In FIG. 4, α1 and α3 of the drive mechanism 30A are in a standby state for receiving the pallet Pa, and β2 and β4 of the drive mechanism 30B are in a standby state for receiving the pallet Pb. On the other hand, α2 and α4 of the drive mechanism 30A are in a pallet Pa, and β1 and β3 of the drive mechanism 30B are in a standby state for pushing out the pallet Pb. When the predetermined processing at the position where the current pallets Pa and Pb are stopped is completed, the drive mechanism 30A (α2, α4) and the drive mechanism 30B (β1, β3) are armed in the direction of arrow R in FIG. 32 is rotated for extrusion. As a result, the drive mechanism 30A (α2, α4) pushes the pallet Pa and the drive mechanism 30B (β1, β3) pushes the pallet Pb and slides on the conveyance guide 11, and as shown in FIG. 5, the drive mechanism 30A (α1 , Α3) receives the pallet Pa, and the drive mechanism 30B (β2, β4) receives the pallet Pb.

  After the pallet P is pushed out, the pushed drive mechanism 30A (α2, α4) and drive mechanism 30B (β1, β3) rotate the arm 32 to the receiving position and enter a standby state. On the other hand, after receiving the pallets Pa and Pb, the driving mechanism 30A (α1, α3) and the driving mechanism 30B (β2, β4) rotate the arm 32 to the pushing position and enter a standby state.

  Similarly, the pallets Pa and Pb are pushed out and received, and the state returns to the state shown in FIG. In this way, the pallets Pa and Pb are continuously conveyed.

  According to the pallet conveying apparatus 50 according to the second embodiment, the pallet P can be conveyed by a small number of drive mechanisms as in the pallet conveying apparatus 10 described above. Further, since two systems of drive mechanisms 30A and 30B are provided, the following effects can be obtained. That is, once the pallet P is pushed out, the drive mechanism 30A and the drive mechanism 30B on the pushed side can immediately turn the arm 32 so as to be in the standby state on the receiving side. Therefore, the waiting time while the arm 32 rotates can be shortened. In particular, when the processing time by the processing device K is shorter than the time for which the arm 32 rotates, the conveyance efficiency can be improved.

  In addition, as the drive mechanism 30, what has both functions of the extrusion mechanism which ejects and sends the pallet P from the upstream side toward the downstream side, and the receiving mechanism which stops the pallet P sent from the upstream side at a predetermined position. Although illustrated, the extrusion mechanism and the receiving mechanism may be provided separately.

  Note that the processing device 50 is not necessarily provided to face the drive mechanism 30 and may be used as a relay point when the processing positions are separated due to layout.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Pallet conveying apparatus, 11 ... Conveying guide, 30 ... Drive mechanism, 31 ... Base part, 32 ... Arm, 33 ... Extrusion arm, 34 ... Receiving arm, 35 ... Turning mechanism, K ... Processing apparatus, P ... Pallet.

Claims (5)

In a pallet transport device that transports pallets,
A conveyance guide for slidably guiding the pallet from the upstream side toward the downstream side;
A plurality of drive mechanisms arranged along the transport guide,
The drive mechanism is an extrusion mechanism that pushes the pallet from the upstream side toward the downstream side, and sends out the pallet;
A pallet conveying apparatus comprising: a receiving mechanism for stopping the pallet sent from the upstream side at a predetermined position.   The drive mechanism has a rotation shaft installed perpendicular to a direction parallel to the conveyance direction of the conveyance guide, and is rotatably attached to the rotation shaft, and an extrusion portion and a reception portion are formed at both ends, respectively. A pallet transporting device comprising: an arm that is rotated and a rotating mechanism that rotates the arm.   Among the drive mechanisms, the upstream drive mechanism and the downstream drive mechanism are paired so that the upstream drive mechanism pushes out the pallet after the downstream drive mechanism is in the receiving state. The pallet transport device according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit that controls the pallet transport device. The drive mechanism is provided with two systems arranged on opposite sides of the transport guide,
The pallet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pallet has a shape that is selectively driven by only one of the two systems of driving mechanisms. In the pallet transport method that transports the pallet along the transport guide,
Extrude the pallet from the upstream side toward the downstream side,
A pallet conveying method characterized by receiving the pallet sliding from the upstream side and stopping it at a predetermined position.

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