JP2020001887A - Conveyance feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a compact conveyance feeder which can be mounted to a combinational measuring counter, and which further performs aligned conveyance in a single file in a short conveyance path, although various shapes such as candies and chocolates exist, and thus, is superior in versatility.SOLUTION: A conveyance feeder for conveying articles supplied from an external unit, by using oscillation, includes: a first conveyance plane having a breadth for conveying the articles in a parallel state; and a gate part for delivering the articles from a groove having a breadth narrower than said breadth to a second conveyance plane downstream. A bottom surface of the groove is set to be one step lower then the first conveyance plane. Accordingly, the articles aligned in a horizontal direction are delivered vertically superimposed in the one step lower groove, and thereby preventing the articles from clogging at the gate part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport feeder that aligns and supplies a predetermined number of articles to a hopper or the like.

  2. Description of the Related Art A combination weighing and counting device is known as a device for weighing and discharging articles having a variation in a single unit mass to a fixed mass or a fixed number. In particular, recently, there has been a demand for a combination weighing and counting device in which the content of bagged products has a constant mass and a constant number.

  In order to respond to this, for example, a combination weigher described in Patent Literature 1 below discloses a transport feeder in which wieners are transported in a single file in order to supply, for example, wiener sausages to a hopper one by one.

  In this transport feeder, both side walls of a trough for transporting articles by vibration are formed so as to spread in a V-shape with the article transport surface on the bottom side therebetween. Aligned to the column.

JP 2014-215235 A

  However, there is a demand in the market to supply not only wiener sausages but also products such as candy and chocolate, as well as tablets and parts, to the hopper in fixed numbers. However, the conventional transport feeder has a problem that the trough must be redesigned according to the shape of the article.

  As a highly versatile transport feeder for aligning and transporting articles, a parts feeder for arranging articles in a single file with a spiral vibration trough is known. However, when this parts feeder is mounted on a combination weighing and counting device, there is a problem that the entire device becomes too large to be put to practical use.

  The present invention has been developed in view of such a problem, and is a compact transport feeder that can be mounted on a combination weighing and counting device, and has a short transport path even in various shapes such as candy and chocolate. It is an object of the present invention to provide a new transport feeder that can transport in a single column.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the transport feeder according to the present invention includes:
A transport feeder that transports articles received from outside by vibration,
A first transport surface having a width in which the articles are arranged in plurality,
A gate portion having a groove having a width smaller than the width of the first transfer surface,
A second transport surface that transports the article received from the gate unit,
A bottom surface of the groove formed in the gate portion is lower than a surface of the first transport surface that transports the article.

  Here, that the bottom surface of the groove is low is such that, for example, when the leading article enters the groove, the following article rides on the article in the groove. If it is not possible to get on, the article may be clogged at the gate, which is a bottleneck. However, in the present invention, by setting the bottom of the narrow groove to be one step lower than the first conveying surface, articles arranged in the horizontal direction on the first conveying surface can be sent out vertically in the groove. In addition, the clogging of the article does not occur at the gate portion which becomes the bottleneck.

  The first transport surface is lowered at a center position in the lateral width direction, and the groove of the gate portion is disposed on an extension of the lowered center position.

  Thereby, the articles supplied to the first transport surface gather on the center line at the central position and are sent to the groove of the gate portion, so that all the articles can be sent out from the first transport surface.

  The gate portion includes, on both sides of the groove, a first slope having an upward slope connected to the first transport surface, and a second slope having a downward slope from the first slope toward the groove. It is characterized by having.

  When the first conveyance surface vibrates, the articles that did not enter the groove of the gate section climb the first slope formed on both sides of the groove, and the second slope following the first slope faces the groove. Because of the downward slope, the article climbing the first slope slides down from the second slope into the groove. Therefore, the article on the first transport surface is reliably fed into the groove of the gate portion from the front of the groove and both sides thereof, so that the article does not remain on the first transport surface.

  The second transport surface has a first side wall connected to one side wall of the groove of the gate portion, and a second side wall connected to the other side wall, an interval between the first side wall and the second side wall, Alternatively, the width of the groove and the distance between the first side wall and the second side wall following the groove are narrowed from upstream to downstream in the conveyance direction of the article.

  Since the distance between the first side wall and the second side wall gradually narrows from upstream to downstream, articles vertically stacked at the gate portion are further rearranged in the first side wall and the second side wall. Can be. Furthermore, even in the gate portion, if the width of the groove is gradually reduced from the upstream to the downstream, the grooves can be rearranged without difficulty.

  Further, the first side wall has a vertical surface that decreases from upstream to downstream in the transport direction of the article.

  As a result, the height of the first side wall, which gradually narrows, gradually decreases, so that the regulation of the article by the first side wall is gradually released, and the article gradually spreads in a plane.

  The first side wall has an inclined surface that is inclined in a direction away from the opposing second side wall.

  As a result, the height of the vertical surface of the first side wall gradually decreases, and the article that spreads in a plane is moved toward the second side wall by the inclined surface of the first side that is inclined. Are arranged along the second side wall.

  Further, the cross section of the groove of the gate portion is U-shaped.

Thereby, if a small amount of articles are sent to the gate section, they can be arranged in a single column in a U-shaped groove.

  Further, the transfer bottom surface of the second transfer surface is formed as a curved surface connected to the bottom surface of the U-shaped groove.

  With this, when the number of articles is small, the articles are lined up in a single file due to the curved surface of the conveying bottom, and when the number of articles is large, the articles vertically stacked gradually become lower and spread on the inclined first side wall. It moves to the transport bottom. At that time, since the transport bottom surface is an arc, the articles are arranged in a single file there.

  As described above, the above-described transport feeder can sort the parallel articles in a short transport distance in a column, so that it can be used in a combination weighing device in which a plurality of hoppers are arranged on a circumference. That is, the above-mentioned transport feeders can be arranged radially around the dispersion feeder at the center of the apparatus, and each transport feeder can individually supply articles to the corresponding hopper. Therefore, if this transport feeder is mounted on a combination weighing device, a compact combination weighing device can be obtained.

  In addition, not only a combination weighing device in which a plurality of hoppers are arranged on a circumference but also a weighing device in which the above-described transport feeder is arranged from an upstream article supply unit to a downstream hopper. Also in this case, a compact weighing device can be obtained.

  According to the present invention, when an article is sent from the wide first conveying surface to the narrow groove, the bottom surface of the groove is made one step lower than the first conveying surface. Has the effect of not clogging the article. In addition, the articles that are vertically overlapped by the groove are broken at the first side wall on the downstream side and are rearranged in a column on the arc-shaped conveying bottom. Therefore, even articles such as candy and chocolate can be discharged by a predetermined number. Also, since articles in parallel can be rearranged in a column in a short transport distance, the combination weighing apparatus can be made compact if used as a transport feeder for the combination weighing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a main part of the transport feeder as one embodiment. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a main part of the transport feeder of FIG. 1 as viewed from different angles. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the transport feeder of FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA of the transport feeder of FIG. 3. FIG. 4 is a right side view of the transport feeder of FIG. 3. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a main part of a combination weighing and counting device equipped with the transport feeder of FIG. 1.

  Hereinafter, a transport feeder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described here does not limit the technical scope of the present invention.

  1 and 2 are perspective views of an external appearance of a main part of a transport feeder according to an embodiment, FIG. 3 is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. In these figures, a transport feeder 1 is formed by bending a stainless steel plate, and has a first transport surface 2 having a width W that allows transport of articles M in a side-by-side state; The gate section 5 for sending out the article M to be transferred to the downstream second transport surface 4 through the groove 3 having a lateral width W1 smaller than the lateral width W, and the first transport surface 2, the second transport surface 4, and the gate portion 5 are respectively integrated. And a vibrating device (not shown) that vibrates dynamically.

  The first transport surface 2 is formed in a ship bottom shape in which the center position in the width W direction is lowered, and a rear wall 20 and side walls 21 and 22 are provided on three sides surrounding the transport surface 2, and the remaining one side is provided. , A gate portion 5 having a groove 3 is provided. Thus, the articles M supplied from the upstream side can be stored on the first transport surface 2 and sequentially sent to the gate section 5.

  The bottom surface 30 of the groove 3 is set one step lower than the first transfer surface 2, and the groove 3 is arranged on an extension of the center line C passing through the center position in the width W direction. Therefore, the articles M supplied to the first transport surface 2 are collected on the center line C and discharged to the grooves 3, and the articles entering the grooves 3 are transported while being vertically overlapped.

  The cross section of the bottom surface 30 of the groove 3 is U-shaped, and the groove 3 is formed by one side wall 31 (see FIG. 2) rising vertically from the bottom surface 30 and the other side wall 32 (see FIG. 1). Have been. As a result, the articles M sent from the first transport surface 2 to the grooves 3 are transported in a state of being vertically overlapped by the grooves 3.

  On both sides of the groove 3, a first inclined surface 33 connected to the first transport surface 2 and rising upward, and a second inclined surface 34 descending from the first inclined surface 33 toward the groove 3 are formed. Thereby, the article M which did not enter the groove 3 climbs the first slope 33 on both sides of the groove 3, but the second slope 34 following the slope slopes down, so climbs the first slope 33. The article M slides down into the groove 3 via the second slope 34. Therefore, the articles M stored on the first transport surface 2 are fed into the groove 3 directly or through the first slope 33 and the second slope 34 on both sides of the groove 3, respectively. The article M does not remain on the transport surface 2.

  The second transport surface 4 located downstream of the gate section 5 has a first side wall 41 (see FIG. 2) connected to one side wall 31 of the groove 3 and a second side wall 42 (see FIG. 1) connected to the other side wall 32. And a transfer bottom surface 43 connected to the U-shaped bottom surface 30.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the first side wall 41 of the second transfer surface 4 has a vertical surface a rising substantially vertically, and an inclined surface b inclined from the upper edge of the vertical surface a in a direction away from the second side wall 42. It has. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the distance between the vertical plane a of the first side surface 41 and the second side surface 42 gradually decreases from upstream to downstream. In addition, the height of the vertical surface a of the first side surface 41 is gradually reduced from upstream to downstream as shown in FIG.

  Thereby, when the articles M which are regulated by the both side walls 31 and 32 of the groove 3 and overlap vertically are sent to the vertical surface a of the first side wall 41 of the second transport surface 4, the interval between the second side wall 42 and the second side surface 42 is reduced. While narrowing, the following inclined surface b is inclined in a direction away from the second side wall 42, so that the regulation from the side acting on the article M is gradually released, and the article M vertically stacked gradually becomes the first article. It collapses to the inclined surface b of the side wall 41. The collapsed article further moves to the transport bottom surface 43.

  The transport bottom surface 43 is formed in an arc surface that is connected to the bottom surface 30 of the U-shaped groove 3, and the second side wall 42 that rises from the curved surface is substantially vertical. The articles M are arranged in a single column by the arc surface. When the amount of the articles M is large, the articles M are regulated by the substantially vertical second side wall 42 and the inclined first side wall 41 and are lined up in a line on the transport bottom surface 43.

  The second transport surface 4 further includes third slopes 44 connected to the second slopes 34 on both sides of the gate unit 5. One of the third slopes 44 is connected to the first side face 41, and the other third slope 44 is connected to a fourth slope 45 extending from the upper edge of the second side wall 42.

  The first transport surface 2, the second transport surface 4, and the gate unit 5 are integrally formed and welded to the frame 6. An elliptical plate 7 is attached to a lower portion of the frame 6, and the plate 7 is detachably attached to a swinging plate of a vibration device (not shown) to be described later.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the first transport surface 2 is formed such that the width W is gradually widened toward the gate portion 5, and the second transport surface 4 is gradually narrowed in width from the gate portion 5 toward the tip end. It is molded. This is because, as shown in FIG. 6, when the transport feeders 1 are radially arranged around the central dispersion feeder D, the articles M are not zeroed from between the adjacent transport feeders 1. For this purpose, on one side wall 22 of the first transfer surface 2, there is provided a covering portion 23 that covers the other side wall 21 of the transfer feeder 1 arranged next to the first transfer surface 2.

  FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of a main part when the transport feeder 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is mounted on a combination weighing and counting device. FIG. 2 shows a state where the above-described vibration device is covered with a cover 10. This vibrating device has a well-known configuration in which an oscillating plate supported by front and rear parallel leaf springs is intermittently attracted by an electromagnet to oscillate. Also, by attaching the above-mentioned elliptical plate 7 to the swing plate, the vibration of the swing plate is transmitted to the first transport surface 2, the second transport surface 4, and the gate unit 5 via the plate 7. It has become so. For this purpose, the cover 10 is provided with a through-hole for projecting the swing plate from the cover 10, and the through-hole is sealed with a rubber boot. The elliptical plate 7 is configured to be detachably attached to the exposed head of the swing plate.

  In FIG. 6, a conical dispersion feeder D is disposed in the upper center of the apparatus, and 24 transport feeders 1 are radially arranged around the dispersion feeder D. This combination weighing and counting device combines four types of different articles and weighs and counts them into a fixed mass and a fixed number of articles. For this purpose, the central distributed feeder D is divided into four parts, and a partition P is provided at the boundary. Further, each of the divided fan-shaped distributed feeders D is independently driven and controlled.

  Further, a triangular pyramid-shaped projection d1 for branching an unillustrated article on the dispersion feeder D to each of the transport feeders 1 is provided at a peripheral portion of the dispersion feeder D located at a boundary between the respective transport feeders 1. A tongue piece d2 that is inclined downward is provided at a position corresponding to the transport feeder 1. The tongue piece d2 prevents the articles from sneaking into the lower surface of the dispersion feeder D even when the articles M stay on the first transport surface 2.

  As described above, each of the transport feeders 1 is arranged so that the covering portion 23 covers the side wall 21 of the adjacent transport feeder 1 in a non-contact manner. When the pool hopper PH becomes empty, the drive is controlled with the vibration intensity and the vibration time so that a predetermined number of articles are discharged from the transport feeder 1.

  Further, a pool hopper PH is disposed at the tip of each transport feeder 1, and a weighing hopper WH is disposed below the pool hopper PH. Then, when the articles are discharged from the weighing hopper WH by the combination selection, the articles are supplied from the upper pool hopper PH to the lower weighing hopper WH, and then the transport feeder 1 corresponding to the empty pool hopper PH is driven. Then, a predetermined number of articles are supplied to the pool hopper PH. Since the configurations of the hoppers and their drive controls are well known, their description is omitted here.

Next, the operation when the transport feeder 1 is vibrated will be described with reference to the drawings.
The articles M discharged from the dispersion feeder D are supplied to the first transport surface 2 and stored, but when the vibrating device is driven, the articles M on the first transport surface 2 are moved to the center line C. It moves toward the groove 3 while gathering. Since the bottom surface 30 of the groove 3 is one step lower than the first transfer surface 2, the articles M sent into the groove 3 are vertically stacked and transferred downstream. The article M that has not been sent into the groove 3 slides down into the groove 3 via the first slope 33 on both sides and the second slope 34 inclined downward. Therefore, the articles M are supplied to the groove 3 from the front and from both sides thereof.

  Then, when vibration is applied by the vibration device and the article M in the groove 3 passes through the gate portion 5, the regulation from both sides that had been acting on the article M up to that point is released, and the articles M are vertically overlapped. The article M collapses to the inclined surface b of the first side wall 41. At this time, since the second side wall 42 on the opposite side regulates the article M as a substantially vertical side wall, the article M that has collapsed on the inclined surface b of the first side wall 41 is It gradually moves to the transport bottom surface 43.

  In the transport bottom surface 43, the article M is transported in a state of being sandwiched between the inclined first side wall 41 and the vertically rising second sidewall 42, so that the article M is placed on the arc-shaped transport bottom surface 43. Sorted in columns. Therefore, by appropriately controlling the vibrating device, a predetermined number of the articles M in the cascade are discharged from the leading end of the transport feeder 1.

  In the combination weighing and counting device, the articles supplied on the central distributed feeder D are supplied to the respective transport feeders 1 and stored on the first transport surface 2. Then, when the vibration is applied, the articles are sent from the first transport face 2 to the second transport face 4 through the respective gate portions 5, but the articles M overflowing on the first transport face 2 are removed from the first transport face 2. Since the sheet M moves over the side wall 22 and the cover portion 23 of the second conveying feeder 1 to the adjacent conveying feeder 1, the articles M overflowing on the first conveying surface 2 are not forcibly pushed out into the grooves 3.

Then, when one of the weighing hoppers WH is selected in combination and the articles are discharged, the articles are supplied from the upper pool hopper PH to the empty weighing hoppers WH. Subsequently, a predetermined number of articles are supplied from the upper transport feeder 1 to the empty pool hopper PH. By repeating such a cycle, the combination weighing operation is continued.

  As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, it is not limited to this and another structure can be employ | adopted in the range as described in a claim. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the vibration device is configured by an electromagnetic vibration device, but may be replaced with an air drive type. Further, the transport feeder 1 can be used not only as a feeder for a combination weighing and counting device, but also for other transport devices.

  Further, here, a combination weighing device in which a plurality of hoppers are arranged on a circumference is disclosed. A combination weighing device in a linear arrangement in which a plurality of hoppers are arranged side by side and in parallel may be used.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Conveyance feeder 2 1st conveyance surface 3 groove 4 2nd conveyance surface 5 Gate part 30 Bottom surface of groove 31 One side wall of groove 32 The other side wall of groove 33 1st slope 34 2nd slope 41 1st side wall a 1st side wall Vertical plane b Slope of first side wall 42 Second side wall 43 Transportation bottom surface M Article C Center line W Width of first transportation surface W1 Width of groove of gate section

Claims (10)

A transport feeder that transports articles received from outside by vibration,
A first transport surface having a width in which the articles are arranged in plurality,
A gate portion having a groove having a width smaller than the width of the first transfer surface,
A second transport surface that transports the article received from the gate unit,
The bottom surface of the groove formed in the gate portion is lower than a surface of the first transport surface that transports the article,
Transport feeder The first transfer surface is lowered at the center position in the lateral width direction, and the groove of the gate portion is disposed on an extension of the lowered center position,
The transport feeder according to claim 1.   The gate portion includes, on both sides of the groove, a first slope having an upward slope connected to the first transport surface, and a second slope having a downward slope from the first slope toward the groove. The transport feeder according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The second transport surface has a first side wall connected to one side wall of the groove of the gate portion, and a second side wall connected to the other side wall, an interval between the first side wall and the second side wall, Or, the width of the groove, the distance between the subsequent first side wall and the second side wall, narrows from the upstream in the transport direction of the article toward the downstream,
The transport feeder according to claim 1. The first side wall has a vertical surface that decreases from upstream to downstream in the transport direction of the article,
The transport feeder according to claim 4. The first side wall has an inclined surface inclined in a direction away from the opposing second side wall,
The transport feeder according to claim 4.   The transport feeder according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the groove has a U-shaped cross section. The transfer bottom surface of the second transfer surface is formed as a curved surface connected to the bottom surface of the U-shaped groove,
The transport feeder according to claim 7.   A combination weighing device comprising a plurality of the feeders according to claim 1 arranged radially.   9. A weighing device, wherein the transport feeder according to claim 1 is arranged between a supply unit that supplies the articles and a hopper to which the articles are supplied.