JP2018074991A - Transfer device of soft material such as mince - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transfer device of a soft material such as mince having high flexibility to layout change of a production line.SOLUTION: In a transfer device for parting a soft material such as mince conveyed continuously by a conveyor belt 2 into each constant length by a joinable/separable cutter 3, placing a parted soft material piece on a joinable/separable fork 4, conveying it to a transfer place, and transferring it there, the soft material piece is conveyed in the held state by the cutter 3 and the fork 4.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a transfer device for a soft material such as mince, and more specifically, a soft and easy-to-crush soft material such as mince that is continuously supplied from a chopper or the like onto a conveyor belt is divided into fixed lengths. The present invention relates to a transfer device that can be transferred to a tray or the like.

In the food field, there is an apparatus in which a soft material such as mince or kneaded dough, which is continuously transported on a transport belt, is divided and transferred at a predetermined length and sent to the next process.
For example, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-291315), mince continuously fed from a minced meat machine (chopper) onto a conveyor is cut into a certain length with a cutter, and below the end of the conveyor. A structure is described in which the sheet is received once by a receiving plate arranged in the box and then dropped onto a lower tray.

However, when such a configuration is carried out at a processing center such as a supermarket, the tray supply device for receiving the divided minced pieces is limited to the vicinity of the lower part of the end of the conveyor. It is difficult to change the layout of the production line including the weighing and pricing device in the next process of the tray.
In particular, the processing plant for fresh foods such as meat is a temperature-controlled room that is kept airtight for reasons such as maintaining room temperature and maintaining hygiene to maintain freshness, so the processing equipment introduced there is as compact as possible. There was a need for the flexibility to select a reasonable layout according to the situation.
Furthermore, in recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of robots used in food processing plants in order to save labor and improve food safety due to a shortage of manpower.

JP-A-2-291315

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer device for soft materials such as mince that has a high degree of freedom in changing the layout of a production line in response to the above demand.

The present invention divides a soft material such as mince continuously conveyed by a conveyor belt at a certain length with a cutter capable of withdrawing and withdrawing, and placing the separated soft material piece on a withdrawable fork. It is a transfer device that transports and transfers to a mounting place, and transports the soft material piece while being held by the cutter and the fork.

Further, the cutter is a flat plate shape that advances perpendicularly to the conveying direction of the soft material and divides the soft material, and the fork is a flat plate shape having a width on which the divided soft material piece is placed, After the cutter is brought into contact with the soft material piece placed on the fork and transported to the transfer location while holding the soft material piece, the cutter is moved to the cross section side of the soft material piece and hits the cross section. It is preferable that the fork is moved away in the contacted state to move the soft piece.
Further, the fork advances along the conveying surface of the conveying belt while maintaining an appropriate clearance angle so as to scoop up soft pieces.
Alternatively, it is preferable to receive the soft material that is sent out while the fork is retracted along the conveyance direction from the state where the fork has advanced to the lower side of the conveyance belt end portion.

Further, it is preferable that the robot further comprises a robot having a cutter and a fork as a pair of robot hands, and a control unit including teaching means for controlling the operation of dividing and transferring the soft material by the robot. It is preferably a SCARA robot.

Furthermore, it is preferable that the soft material is mince extruded continuously from the chopper so that the cut mince pieces can be transferred to a tray supplied to the transfer place.

According to the transfer device of the soft material of the present invention, the soft material continuously conveyed by the conveyor can be divided by a knife, placed on a fork, and transported even at a transfer location away from the conveyor. Since transfer is possible within the range, the degree of freedom of the production line layout increases.
The soft material piece placed on the fork can be reliably transferred without disturbing the posture in a state where the knife is in contact with and held.
In addition, if a general-purpose robot is used, the efficiency of robot introduction can be improved because the hand can be rearranged and used for other work.

It is the top view which showed notionally the whole structure of Example 1 of this invention. FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram in the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is an operation explanatory diagram in Embodiment 2.

A first embodiment according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described.
The tip of the mince M that is continuously pushed out from the chopper discharge port 1 onto the conveyor belt 2 is divided by a flat cutter 3 that can be withdrawn perpendicularly to the conveying direction at regular intervals. A double SCARA robot that transports the minced piece m while being held by a fork 4 that can be withdrawn and retracted with a scooping cutter 3, and can be transferred to a tray 6 supplied by a tray conveyor 7 as a transfer location. 5 is used.
The fork 4 is a flat plate having an area on which the divided minced piece m can be placed. The fork 4 is a cutter 3 and a pair of robot hands. The fork 4 is attached to the distal ends of the left and right arms of the twin-arm SCARA robot 5.
The fork 4 and the cutter 3 constituting the robot hand perform all operations such as cutting, scooping, transporting, and transferring by controlling the operation of the robot arm, or although not shown in the drawings, Each robot hand may be provided with a linear motion mechanism such as an air cylinder, and may be configured to operate in a horizontal or vertical direction separately from the movement of the robot arm to share some work such as mincing and receiving. .
In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the cutter 3 is attached to the right arm and the fork 4 is attached to the left arm.

Next, the operation of dividing and transferring the mince M in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
(A) The tip of the mince M that is continuously conveyed has arrived in the vicinity of the tip of the conveyor belt 2 where the cutter 3 and the fork 4 are respectively waiting at the retracted position.
(B) The timing at which the passing distance from the cutter 3 at the tip of the mince M coincides with a certain split length, or the timing at which the position information of the tip of the mince M is detected by a sensor (not shown) and becomes a constant split length. Then, the cutter 3 is advanced in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction to divide the mince M, and the fork 4 is advanced from the opposite transport direction along the transport surface while maintaining an appropriate clearance angle. Scoop.
(C) The minced piece m is held by the fork 4 and the cutter 3 and conveyed to the transfer place.
Since the cutter 3 that has divided the mince M is moved while being in contact with the cut surface of the minced piece, the minced piece m is separated from the minced M without breaking down and is reliably divided.
(D) When the mince m reaches the transfer location, the cutter 3 is moved backward as indicated by the arrow, and then the mince piece m is detoured and moved to the side opposite to the cross section.
(E) The cutter 3 is in a state moved to the cross section side.
(F) The fork 4 moves backward and the minced piece m is transferred to the tray 6 supplied to the transfer place by the tray conveyor 7. At this time, the bottom of the minced piece m placed on the fork 4 is the upper surface of the fork. However, since the cross section is stopped by the cutter 3, it can be surely dropped at a fixed position.
At this time, the tip attached to the top surface of the fork 4 can be scraped off by sliding the tip of the cutter 3 and the top surface of the fork 4 appropriately close to each other, so that a clean state can always be maintained.
In this way, the cutter 3 can hold the minced piece being transported, further prevent it from being pulled during transfer, and remove the mounting surface (upper surface) of the fork 4, so that it is not necessary to provide a separate device.
Further, the transfer location can be set to a desired position as long as it is within the operating range of the robot arm, and the degree of freedom of the production line is high.
In addition, it is possible to transfer a plurality of minced pieces m using a large tray, and to transfer them to a plurality of different locations within the operating range as required.
(G) The minced piece m has been transferred to the tray 6.
A series of such operations are performed in reverse to return to the state of (A), and control is performed so as to be performed continuously and repeatedly.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in the structure of the minced part of the mince. As shown in FIG. 3A, the minced M is divided at the end portion of the conveyor belt 2.
(A) The fork 4 advances to the lower side of the end portion of the conveyor belt 4 and stands by.
(B) The mince M sent out by the transport belt 4 is received while being retracted along the transport direction.
(C) When the predetermined delivery amount is reached, the cutter 3 advances to divide the mince M.
(D) The fork 4 and the cutter 3 are moved to the transfer location while the cutter 3 is in contact with the mince piece m placed on the fork 4, and the mince piece m is conveyed.
The subsequent operation is in accordance with the first embodiment.

The robot in Examples 1 and 2 uses a double-armed SCARA robot (for example, Kawasaki Robot duaro manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.) that is considered to be optimal, and a cutter 3 or fork 4 is attached to each arm tip as a robot hand. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a vertical articulated robot or an orthogonal robot may be used.

2 Conveyor belt
3 Cutter 4 Fork 5 Robot 6 Tray M Mince m Mince Piece

Claims (7)

Divide soft materials such as mince continuously transported by a conveyor belt at a certain length with a cutter that can be withdrawn and withdrawn, and place the separated pieces of soft material on a withdrawable fork to the transfer location. A transfer device for transferring and transferring a soft material such as mince, wherein the soft material piece is transferred by the cutter and the fork. The cutter is a flat plate shape that advances perpendicularly to the conveying direction of the soft material and divides the soft material, and the fork is a flat plate shape having a width on which the divided soft material piece can be placed. After the cutter is brought into contact with the placed soft material piece and transported to the transfer location while holding the soft material piece, the cutter is moved to the cross section side of the soft material piece and brought into contact with the cross section. 2. The apparatus for transferring a soft material such as mince according to claim 1, wherein the fork is moved away to transfer the soft material piece. 3. The mince according to claim 1, wherein the fork advances along the conveying surface of the conveying belt while maintaining an appropriate clearance angle so as to scoop up the soft material pieces. Equisoft material transfer equipment. 3. The soft fork that is sent out is received while the fork is retracted along the conveying direction from a state where the fork has advanced to the lower side of the end portion of the conveying belt. The transfer device for soft materials such as mince. 5. The robot according to claim 1, further comprising: a robot having a cutter and a fork as a pair of robot hands; and a teaching unit that controls the operation of dividing and transferring the soft material by the robot. The transfer device for soft objects such as mince according to any one of the above. 6. The apparatus for transferring a soft material such as mince according to claim 5, wherein the robot is a double-arm SCARA robot. The soft material is a mince extruded continuously from a chopper, and the minced pieces are transferred to a tray supplied to a transfer location. A transfer device for soft materials such as mince.

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