JP2014141334A - Tire transport conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tire transport conveyor which can accurately place a tire on an opening provided in a transport roller conveyor.SOLUTION: In a tire transport conveyor 1 which includes a transport roller conveyor 3 provided with an opening 5 for operation having a smaller diameter than the external diameter of a tire 2 in the middle of a transport surface S for transport of the tire 2, and a guide roller conveyor 8 arranged on the opening 5 to form the same transport surface S as the transport roller conveyor 3 when the tire 2 is transported to the opening 5 by the transport roller conveyor 3, and moving to a retreat position of opening the opening 5 when operation using the opening 5 is performed, the guide roller conveyor 8 is lowered with respect to the transport surface S and then transferred to the retreat position when the operation using the opening 5 is performed.

Description

  The present invention relates to a tire transport conveyor for transporting tires, and particularly relates to a tire having a working opening in the middle of a transport surface.

Conventionally, in a manufacturing process of a pneumatic tire, a tire transport conveyor is used as a means for transporting a tire from one process to the next process.
For example, when a vulcanized tire taken out from a tire vulcanizer is transported to a PCI device (post cure inflator) that performs PCI (post cure inflation), a transport roller conveyor that moves the tire by its own weight is used. The provided tire conveyance conveyor is used. In this case, a circular opening is provided in the middle of the conveying surface of the conveying roller conveyor, a lower rim of the PCI device is disposed below the opening, and an upper rim is disposed above. The opening is formed larger than the outer diameter of the lower rim and smaller than the outer diameter of the tire, and the tire conveyed from the vulcanizer is stopped on the opening by a stopper. When the tire stops on the opening, the lower rim rises through the opening, the tire is held between the lower rim and the upper rim, and the tire is cooled while being filled with the internal pressure.

In such a tire transport conveyor, particularly in the case of a flat tire, a part of the tire stopped by the stopper may fall into the opening, and the upper and lower rims may not be correctly attached to the tire.
Therefore, for example, as described in Patent Document 1, a guide roller conveyor is provided in addition to the transport roller conveyor, and when the tire is transported to the opening, the guide roller conveyor is disposed in the opening to cause the tire to drop into the opening. In addition, a tire transport conveyor has been developed in which the guide roller conveyor is retracted to a retracted position where the opening is opened when the tire is disposed on the opening and the PCI apparatus performs an operation.

JP-A-11-59146

  However, in the conventional tire transport conveyor, when the tire is transported to the opening and work is performed by the PCI device, the guide roller conveyor moves toward the retreat position while being in contact with the tire along the transport surface. As a result, due to poor rotation of the rollers, the tires are dragged by the retreating guide roller conveyor, causing the tires to be displaced relative to the openings, and the upper and lower rims may not be correctly attached to the tires.

  An object of the present invention is to solve such problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to enable a tire to be accurately disposed on an opening provided in a conveyor roller conveyor. It is to provide a conveyor.

The tire transport conveyor of the present invention includes a transport roller conveyor having an opening for work having a diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the tire in the middle of the transport surface for transporting the tire, and when the tire is transported to the opening by the transport roller conveyor, A tire conveyor having a guide roller conveyor that is disposed in an opening to form the same conveying surface as the conveyor roller conveyor and moves to a retreat position that opens the opening when work using the opening is performed, When the operation using the opening is performed, the guide roller conveyor moves down to the conveyance surface and then moves to the retreat position.
In the present invention, after the tire is arranged on the opening, when the operation using the opening is performed, the guide roller conveyor arranged in the opening is moved down to the conveyance surface and then moved to the retreat position. The guide roller conveyor can be moved to the retracted position without contacting the tire. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the tire from being dragged by the guide roller conveyor that moves toward the retracted position, and to prevent the displacement of the tire disposed on the opening. Therefore, by arranging the guide roller conveyor in the opening, the tire is placed on the opening without dropping into the opening, and when the guide roller conveyor is moved to the retracted position, the tire is displaced from the opening. The tire can be accurately placed on the opening.

It is preferable that the tire conveying conveyor has an elevating actuator that elevates and lowers the guide roller conveyor.
In this configuration, when the work using the opening is performed, the guide roller conveyor can be automatically lowered with respect to the transport surface by the lifting actuator, so that the guide roller conveyor can be quickly moved toward the retracted position. It can be moved easily.

In the tire transport conveyor, the opening is preferably a passage opening of a lower rim of the post cure inflator.
In this configuration, since the tire is accurately arranged on the opening of the transport roller conveyor, the upper and lower rims of the post-cure inflator can be accurately attached to the tire.

In the tire conveyor, the conveyor roller conveyor and the guide roller conveyor are preferably free roller conveyors.
In this configuration, since the tire can be transported by its own weight, it is possible to simplify the configuration of the tire transport conveyor and reduce its cost by eliminating the need for power means for transporting the tire.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the tire conveyance conveyor which can arrange | position a tire correctly on the opening provided in the conveyance roller conveyor can be provided.

It is a side view which shows roughly the principal part of the tire conveyance conveyor which is one embodiment of this invention. It is a top view of the tire conveyance conveyor shown in FIG. It is a side view which shows the detail of the drive mechanism shown in FIG. It is a side view which shows the state which has arrange | positioned the guide roller conveyor to opening. It is a top view of the state shown in Drawing 4 of a tire conveyance conveyor. (A)-(c) is explanatory drawing which shows the retraction | saving procedure of a guide roller conveyor. It is a side view which shows the state in which post-cure inflation is performed.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

A tire conveyor 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention conveys a tire 2 immediately after vulcanization taken out from a tire vulcanizer (not shown) toward the next process, and FIG. 1 and FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, a conveyance roller conveyor 3 extending from the tire vulcanizer is provided.
The transport roller conveyor 3 is configured as a free roller conveyor having a large number of free rollers 3a arranged in parallel in two rows on the left and right, and the tire 2 is transported by moving the transport surface S of the transport roller conveyor 3 by its own weight. Is done. The conveyor roller conveyor 3 has a steeply inclined part and a gently inclined part, and the steeply inclined part is the tire vulcanizer side, that is, the upstream side, and the tire 2 is moved from the upstream side to the downstream side. And carry.

  As shown in FIG. 2, an opening 5 for work is provided in the middle of the conveyance surface S at a gently inclined portion of the conveyance roller conveyor 3. The opening 5 is formed in a circular shape by reducing the width of the left and right free rollers 3a of the conveying roller conveyor 3, and the inner diameter thereof is smaller than the outer diameter of the tire 2 conveyed by the conveying roller conveyor 3. Has been. Therefore, the tire 2 that has moved on the transport surface S of the transport roller conveyor 3 can move on the opening 5.

An upper rim 6a constituting a PCI device (post-cure inflator) 6 is disposed above the opening 5 provided in the transport roller conveyor 3, and a lower rim 6b of the PCI device 6 is connected to the upper rim 6a below the opening 5. Opposed. The inner diameter of the opening 5 is formed larger than the outer diameter of the lower rim 6b, and the lower rim 6b rises through the opening 5 and can approach the upper rim 6a. Thus, the opening 5 of the transport roller conveyor 3 is a passage opening for the lower rim 6 b of the PCI device 6.
The PCI device 6 performs PCI (post-cure inflation) on the vulcanized tire 2. In the PCI, the tire 2 immediately after vulcanization is mounted between the upper rim 6a and the lower rim 6b. The tire 2 is filled with an internal pressure and inflated, and the tire 2 is cooled in this state. By performing PCI on the tire 2 immediately after vulcanization, thermal contraction of a ply cord or the like embedded in the tire 2 can be prevented, the tire shape can be stabilized, and the performance of the product tire can be improved.

A tire stopper 7 is provided on the downstream side of the opening 5 of the conveying roller conveyor 3 so as to be able to appear on the conveying surface S between the left and right free rollers 3a. By projecting the tire stopper 7 between the left and right rollers 4 and above the conveying surface S, the conveying path of the conveying roller conveyor 3 is blocked, and the tire 2 that has moved on the conveying surface S is positioned above the opening 5 ( The tire 2 can be stopped at a position where the center of the tire 2 substantially coincides with the center of the opening 5.
A sensor (not shown) for detecting contact of the tire 2 is provided on the upstream side surface of the tire stopper 7. With this sensor, it is possible to detect that the tire 2 conveyed by the conveyance roller conveyor 3 is disposed on the opening 5.

A space is provided on the upstream side of the tire stopper 7 and between the left and right free rollers 3a of the transport roller conveyor 3, and the guide roller conveyor 8 can enter the space from the upstream side.
The guide roller conveyor 8 has a width dimension capable of entering between the left and right free rollers 3a of the transport roller conveyor 3, and is configured as a free roller conveyor in which a number of free rollers 8a are arranged in the longitudinal direction. The guide roller conveyor 8 is supported by a driving device 10 and is driven by the driving device 10 to be a retracted position (position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) provided below a steeply inclined portion on the upstream side of the conveying roller conveyor 3. ) And a closed position (position shown in FIGS. 4 and 5) that enters between the left and right free rollers 3 a of the conveying roller conveyor 3 and is disposed in the opening 5.

As shown in FIG. 3, the driving device 10 includes a support base 11, and guide means 12 is fixed to the support base 11. The guide means 12 is constituted by, for example, a linear guide, and can guide and move the guide roller conveyor 8 linearly in a direction parallel to the conveyance surface S and along the conveyance direction in the gentle slope portion of the conveyance roller conveyor 3. Further, an advance / retreat actuator 13 is disposed below the guide means 12 of the support base 11. For example, an air cylinder is used as the advance / retreat actuator 13, and the tip of the output rod 13 a is connected to the guide roller conveyor 8. Therefore, the guide roller conveyor 8 can be driven by this forward / backward moving actuator 13 to automatically move in the direction along the guide means 12.
Note that a rodless cylinder may be used as the forward / backward moving actuator 13 and the guide roller conveyor 8 may be directly driven linearly by the rodless cylinder without using the guide means 12. Further, a scraper or the like can be provided at the case opening where the output rod 13a of the forward / backward movement actuator 13 projects.

  A pair of raising / lowering actuators 15 are provided between the support base 11 and the base 14 fixed to the floor surface. For example, air cylinders are used as the lifting actuators 15. The lifting actuator 15 can move the support 11 up and down with respect to the base 14. That is, the lifting actuator 15 can move the guide roller conveyor 8 up and down with respect to the base 14.

  When the guide roller conveyor 8 is moved forward to the closed position by being driven by the forward / backward movement actuator 13 of the driving device 10, the guide roller conveyor 8 is formed at the gently inclined portion of the conveying roller conveyor 3 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. It enters between the left and right free rollers 3 a and forms the same transport surface S as the transport surface S of the transport roller conveyor 3. Further, since the guide roller conveyor 8 in the closed position is disposed in the opening 5, the opening 5 is closed by the guide roller conveyor 8. On the other hand, when the guide roller conveyor 8 is driven by the driving device 10 and moves to the retracted position, the guide roller conveyor 8 is located below the steeply inclined portion of the transport roller conveyor 3 as shown in FIGS. It is in a state of being retracted from the transport surface S of the transport roller conveyor 3. That is, when the guide roller conveyor 8 is retracted to the retracted position, the opening 5 is opened and the PCI device 6 can be operated.

  When the tire 2 vulcanized by the tire vulcanizer is conveyed to the PCI device 6, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the guide roller conveyor 8 is arranged at the closed position and the opening 5 is formed in the guide roller conveyor 8. Thus, the conveyance roller conveyor 3 and the guide roller conveyor 8 form the same conveyance surface S and the tire stopper 7 protrudes from the conveyance surface S.

  When the tire 2 taken out from the tire vulcanizer is transported by its own weight along the transport surface S on the left and right free rollers 3a of the transport roller conveyor 3, and reaches the portion where the opening 5 of the transport roller conveyor 3 is provided, Since the opening 5 is blocked by the guide roller conveyor 8 that forms the same conveying surface S as the conveying roller conveyor 3, the tire 2 is conveyed without falling into the opening 5. And it is made to stop on the opening 5 by contacting the tire stopper 7. At this time, as indicated by phantom lines in FIG. 4, the tire 2 is supported by the free rollers 3a on both sides of the opening 5 and the center is substantially aligned with the centers of the opening 5 and the lower rim 6b. Is disposed on the opening 5.

  When it is confirmed by the sensor of the tire stopper 7 that the tire 2 is disposed on the opening 5, the driving device 10 is operated to move the guide roller conveyor 8 to the retracted position, and the opening 5 is opened. That is, when the work by the PCI device 6 using the opening 5 is performed, the guide roller conveyor 8 is retracted to the retracted position and the opening 5 is opened.

  At this time, the guide roller conveyor 8 in the closed position moves downward toward the transport surface S and then moves toward the retracted position. That is, as shown in FIG. 6A, the guide roller conveyor 8 is in the closed position, forms the same conveyance surface S as the conveyance roller conveyor 3, and contacts the tire 2 from the state shown in FIG. ), It is driven downward by the pair of lift actuators 15 and descends with respect to the transport surface S. In this way, by lowering the guide roller conveyor 8 with respect to the transport surface S, the guide roller conveyor 8 can be brought into a state of not contacting the tire 2 disposed on the opening 5. Then, the guide roller conveyor 8 lowered with respect to the transport surface S is driven by the advance / retreat actuator 13 to move to the retreat position along the direction parallel to the transport surface S as shown in FIG. By doing so, the guide roller conveyor 8 can be moved to the retracted position without dragging the tire 2. Therefore, when the guide roller conveyor 8 is moved from the closed position to the retracted position, the tire 2 is not dragged by the guide roller conveyor 8 to cause a position shift.

  When the guide roller conveyor 8 moves to the retracted position and the opening 5 is opened, as shown in FIG. 7, the lower rim 6b rises through the opening 5 and fits to the inner peripheral edge of the tire 2, The tire 2 is lifted and moved upward, and the tire 2 is mounted between the upper rim 6a. When the upper rim 6a and the lower rim 6b are attached to the tire 2, the tire 2 is inflated by being filled with internal pressure, and is cooled in this state to perform PCI.

  When the PCI is finished, the lower rim 6b is lowered together with the tire 2 and the upper rim 6a is released from the tire 2. When the lower rim 6b further descends and passes through the opening 5 and moves below the conveying surface S, the tire 2 is placed on the left and right free rollers 3a of the conveying roller conveyor 3, and is disposed on the opening 5 again. Is done. When the tire stopper 7 moves below the conveyance surface S, the tire 2 moves toward the downstream side of the conveyance surface S of the conveyance roller conveyor 3 by its own weight, and is conveyed to the next step.

  Before the next tire 2 is conveyed from the tire vulcanizer, the guide roller conveyor 8 is raised by the elevating actuator 15 and advanced by the advance / retreat actuator 13, and as shown in FIGS. The roller conveyor 8 is disposed at the closed position, that is, the opening 5 and the tire stopper 7 is protruded from the conveyance surface S. Thereafter, by repeating the above steps, a large number of tires 2 can be PCI-processed and conveyed to the next step.

As described above, when the tire 2 taken out from the tire vulcanizer is transported to the opening 5 by the transport roller conveyor 3, the guide roller conveyor 8 is arranged in the opening 5, and the transport roller conveyor 8 3 and the opening 5 are closed, the tire 2 can be stopped on the opening 5 in a correct posture without dropping into the opening 5.
Further, when the work by the PCI device 6 is performed after the tire 2 stops on the opening 5, the guide roller conveyor 8 is moved down to the conveyance surface S and then moved to the retreat position. It is possible to prevent the tire 2 from being dragged by the guide roller conveyor 8 moving toward the position, and to prevent the tire 2 from being displaced relative to the opening 5. As a result, the tire 2 can be accurately placed on the opening 5 during work by the PCI device 6. This also allows the upper rim 6a and the lower rim 6b of the PCI device 6 to be correctly attached to the tire 2, so that the PCI can be reliably performed and quality defects due to poor setting of the tire 2 on the PCI device 6 can be prevented. Can be prevented.

  It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the guide roller conveyor 8 is moved up and down with respect to the conveying surface S by the pair of lift actuators 15. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and an arbitrary number of lift actuators 15 is used. In addition, the guide roller conveyor 8 can be lifted and lowered with respect to the transport surface S by means other than the lifting actuator 15.

  In the embodiment, after the guide roller conveyor 8 is lowered with respect to the conveyance surface S, the guide roller conveyor 8 is linearly retracted in the conveyance direction from the downstream side to the upstream side of the conveyance surface S. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the moving direction of the guide roller conveyor 8 that is lowered with respect to the conveying surface S is arbitrarily set such that the guide roller conveyor 8 is moved to the side perpendicular to the conveying direction of the conveying surface S. can do.

  Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the guide roller conveyor 8 is lowered with respect to the transport surface S in a direction perpendicular to the transport surface S. If it descends in the direction away from the tire 2 with respect to the conveyance surface S, such as descending in the vertical direction, the descending direction can be arbitrarily set.

1: Tire transport conveyor 2: Tire 3: Transport roller conveyor 5: Opening 5 6: PCI device (post cure inflator) 6b: Lower rim 8: Guide roller conveyor 15: Lifting actuator S: Transport surface

Claims (4)

A conveying roller conveyor having an opening for work having a diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the tire in the middle of the conveying surface for conveying the tire, and the conveying roller disposed at the opening when the tire is conveyed to the opening by the conveying roller conveyor A tire transport conveyor that forms the same transport surface as the conveyor and has a guide roller conveyor that moves to a retreat position that opens the opening when work is performed using the opening,
When the operation using the opening is performed, the guide roller conveyor moves down to the conveyance surface and then moves to the retracted position.   The tire conveyance conveyor of Claim 1 which has an raising / lowering actuator which raises / lowers the said guide roller conveyor.   The tire conveyance conveyor according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said opening is a passage opening of a lower rim of a post cure inflator.   The tire conveyance conveyor according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the conveyance roller conveyor and the guide roller conveyor are free roller conveyors.

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