JP2020075816A - Conveyance machine - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a conveyance machine for continuing reception of an article at an article reception part during a predetermined period of time after discharging of the article is stopped when the discharging of the article is stopped in an article discharging part.SOLUTION: In a conveyance machine 3 having an annular conveyance path and conveying an article by a movable element moved by electromagnetic interaction, in the conveyance path, a part of the conveyance path from an article reception pat 30 to an article discharging part 40 is made to a staying path 11 for staying the article being conveyed. The conveyance machine continues reception of the article at an article reception part during a predetermined period of time after discharging of the article is stopped, and the received article is stayed in the staying path and a second staying path 17.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a carrier for carrying an article by a mover that is moved by electromagnetic interaction along a carrying path. More specifically, even when the interval for receiving the articles and the interval for ejecting the articles are different, a plurality of articles manufactured by a plurality of manufacturing lines are simultaneously received in the transport path, and an arbitrary number of articles are simultaneously discharged. The present invention relates to a transport machine that can do the same.

  Conventionally, articles, for example, drug sheets, are manufactured on a plurality of manufacturing lines arranged upstream of a conveyor, and the same number of articles as the number of manufacturing lines are conveyed by endless belts or chain conveyors (hereinafter referred to as belt conveyors). At the same time, they are received and conveyed from the side of the route, and are discharged from the conveyer so that the number of articles can be the number of articles suitable for the packaging form such as pillow packaging and banding packaging.

  When an article is conveyed by a belt conveyor, the movement and stop of the belt conveyor are repeated intermittently. In order to convey a plurality of articles as one unit, the articles are simultaneously received in the article receiving section of the belt conveyor, and the received articles are intermittently moved one by one to the downstream side. Then, after the article receiving section becomes empty, the article of the next unit is accepted at the same time. Therefore, the time for receiving the next unit of the article is limited to the time for moving the article by one.

  In order to improve the production capacity of the entire production line, it is necessary to shorten the unit moving time from when the belt conveyor starts moving to when it stops and then starts moving. The stop time during which the belt conveyor is stopped in the unit movement time is the receiving time for receiving the article. In order to increase the transport amount, it is necessary to shorten the unit movement time, but if the belt conveyor stop time is shortened, the article receiving time will also be shortened, and a sudden force will be required when receiving the article. However, an article that is easily deformed, such as a PTP sheet made of aluminum foil, may be deformed.

  On the other hand, if the movement time of the belt conveyor in the unit movement time is shortened, the acceleration or deceleration of the belt conveyor increases, and vibration is likely to occur accordingly. Then, not only the article is easily deformed, but also the article is easily dropped from the belt conveyor. Therefore, when the conventional belt conveyor is used, it is difficult to improve the transfer speed and it is difficult to improve the production capacity of the entire manufacturing line.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of a belt conveyor type transporting machine that circulates the article holding unit intermittently. The carrier described in Patent Document 1 has one of a plurality of articles to be conveyed so that it can convey a number of articles suitable for a downstream manufacturing process such as pillow packaging and banding packaging. It is a PTP sheet transporter that can be switched to.

  Specifically, when the number of accepted items is one, the length for accepting one item is intermittently moved, and when the number of accepted items is more than a predetermined number, the length for accepting a plurality is regarded as one unit. , I am trying to move it intermittently. Thus, it is possible to increase the amount of goods conveyed without shortening the receiving time of the goods, and to provide a PTP sheet conveyor that can cope with various packaging forms without decreasing the production capacity of the entire manufacturing line. It is said that.

  According to this technique, the received articles can be conveyed to the article discharge section in units of one piece or a plurality of pieces. However, in order to adapt to the downstream packaging form, the articles are sequentially ejected from the belt conveyor one by one at the ejection interval different from the receiving interval in the article ejection unit. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is not possible to shorten the discharge time in the article discharge unit and the improvement of the transport speed is restricted.

  Further, even if a plurality of predetermined articles are received at the same time without shortening the receiving time, the movement is repeated intermittently. Then, when the number of articles to be received per unit is small, the number of repetitions of acceleration / deceleration increases, vibration is likely to occur, and it is difficult to apply this technique to articles that are easily deformed. Further, there is also a problem that a predetermined plurality of articles cannot be conveyed unless they are replenished in advance so that none of the received articles are out of stock.

  Further, in Patent Literature 2, an article is conveyed by compressing the article by sandwiching the article from the front and back with blades provided on a mover that is moved by electromagnetic interaction, reducing the interval between the front and rear blades, and compressing the article. Disclosed is a technology of a carrier which is not easily dropped. However, since it can only accept the articles one by one, it is a technique that cannot be applied to a carrier machine that simultaneously accepts a plurality of articles manufactured in a plurality of upstream lines.

  Patent Document 3 discloses a technique of a carrier machine that surely supplies an article conveyed at irregular conveyance intervals to a packaging machine. This transporting machine is provided with an article storage section that stores a plurality of articles up to the end of the transportation, and a traveling body that circulates by electromagnetic interaction causes the article storage section to be transported at a transport interval corresponding to the packaging capacity of a downstream packaging machine. It is a transporting machine that sequentially transports the articles. However, the technique described in Patent Document 3 is also a technique that can only accept articles one by one, and cannot be applied to a carrier that simultaneously accepts a plurality of articles manufactured by a plurality of upstream lines.

  Patent Document 4 discloses a technique of a packaging system in which a plurality of articles in a line is received by an article receiving unit, and even if there is a drop in the row of the received articles, a package in which the articles are missing is not produced by a downstream packaging device. Is disclosed. This technique is a packaging system including a first conveyor section of a belt conveyor and a second conveyor section of a linear conveyor section, and two conveyor sections discharge a unit of received articles in the direction of a conveyor path. However, since the second conveyor receives the articles one by one and discharges the articles one by one, there is a problem that the production capacity of the entire production line cannot be improved.

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-30883 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2017-226543 Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2018-24438 Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2018-27812

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to receive a plurality of articles simultaneously manufactured in a plurality of manufacturing lines into a transport path even if the interval for receiving the articles and the interval for discharging the articles are different, and An object of the present invention is to provide a carrier that can discharge articles at the same time. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a carrier that can be applied to easily deformable articles, can suppress the generation of defective articles, and can be applied even when there is a problem in either receiving articles or discharging articles. And

  1st invention of this invention WHEREIN: The conveyance path is cyclic | annular, it is equipped with several movable elements which convey an article, the article receiving part and the article discharge part are arrange | positioned along the said conveyance path, and in the said article receiving part. A transport machine for simultaneously receiving a plurality of articles arranged along the transport path and discharging the articles in the article discharge section, wherein the mover is driven by electromagnetic interaction to accelerate or decelerate the moving speed. Suitable for, having a transport piece for transporting the article in contact with the article, immediately before the mover receives the plurality of articles, in sequence, is moved to the article receiving section and waits, and receives the article, and In a state where the transport piece is in contact with the received article, the article is moved simultaneously from the article receiving section to allow the next article to be received, and the article discharging section is configured to discharge the mover moved downstream. A predetermined number of articles are conveyed.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the mover that conveys the article is driven by electromagnetic interaction, and acceleration or deceleration is facilitated. For this reason, the mover that has been waiting on the upstream side of the transport path can be sequentially moved to the article receiving unit and wait for receipt immediately before the article is received. When the shortage is detected in advance, the mover may be stopped only at the position where the shortage does not occur without stopping at the shortage position. In addition, it is easy to change the moving speed of the arc-shaped transport path portion from that of the linear transport path portion.

  The mover is stopped at the article receiving section to receive the article, and the moving piece moves simultaneously from the article receiving section while the conveying piece is in contact with the received article so that the next article can be received. Empty the section. Among the articles that have been moved to the downstream side of the transport path, the articles are sequentially conveyed from the downstream side to the article ejection section so that a predetermined number of articles are ejected by the article ejection section.

  Here, the predetermined number to be discharged in the article discharging unit is not limited to a plurality as long as it is set in advance, and may be a single number or more than the number of received articles. In the case of a singular item, it may be moved downstream one by one, but in the case of a plurality of items, the articles may be moved one by one, or a plurality of articles may be moved simultaneously. When the number of discharges is larger than the number of discharges, the number of discharges and the number of discharges per unit time may be the same, and discharge may be performed together with the articles retained in the carry-out route.

  Further, when the article is discharged, the mover may be stopped or the mover may be moved in synchronization with the moving speed of the belt conveyor of the discharge destination. The annular arrangement may be either a vertical arrangement or a horizontal arrangement, and it goes without saying that the articles are not limited to being received in the conveyance path only from the side.

  The mover is moved by the electromagnetic interaction, and the vibration due to the repeated movement and stop is not generated. Further, immediately before receiving a plurality of articles, the mover is sequentially moved to the article receiving section and made to stand by. Therefore, when the articles in the article receiving section are out of stock, the mover is not stopped at that position. As a result, it is easy to move the mover without any space.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to simultaneously receive a plurality of articles manufactured by a plurality of production lines, discharge an arbitrary number of articles at the same time, and also to apply to an article that is easily deformed. An advantageous effect that has not been heretofore obtained, that is, suppression can be achieved.

  2nd invention of this invention WHEREIN: In the conveyance machine of 1st invention, the said predetermined number is made into multiple, in the said article discharge part, with a different article discharge space | interval different from the goods reception space in the said goods reception part, a plurality of The feature is that the articles are discharged at the same time.

  According to the second invention, the number of discharged articles is plural, and even if the article discharge section and the article receiving section have different article intervals, it is possible to simultaneously discharge a plurality of articles at the article discharge position. This has an advantage over the prior art that the production capacity of the entire production line can be improved.

  3rd invention of this invention is a conveyance machine of 1st or 2nd invention, Comprising: Of the said conveyance path, a part of conveyance path from the said article receiving part to the said article discharge part is conveyed. A staying path for staying articles, and the length of the staying path is longer than the length for holding the number of articles to be discharged, and has a surplus length capable of receiving the next plurality of articles. It is characterized by

  A part of the transportation path from the article receiving section to the article discharging section is a retention path for the article being transported. Since the length of the stay path is equal to or greater than the number of articles to be discharged, it is possible to quickly move the staying articles to the article discharging section after the articles are discharged from the article discharging section. In addition, since the excess length of the transport length of the plurality of articles to be received next is left as an empty path in the stay path, the article received and transported in the article receiving unit is not stored in the stay path. Hard to collide.

  When the number of discharges per unit time in the article discharge unit and the number of receptions per unit time in the article receiving unit are the same, it is not necessary to stop either the discharge of articles or the receipt of articles. However, according to the third aspect of the invention, the advantageous effect that the article discharge does not have to be stopped even if there are consecutive out-of-stock items in the article reception. It suffices to set the length of the staying route based on the past record of shortages per unit time so that neither the discharge of articles nor the receipt of articles is stopped.

  A fourth invention of the present invention is the transporting machine of the third invention, wherein when the number of articles retained in the retention path is less than the number of articles to be ejected, the article ejection unit is provided. When the article discharge in the above is stopped and the article is received in the article receiving section, the acceptance of the article in the article receiving section is stopped when the surplus length of the retention path is lost.

  The number of articles retained in the retention route may be detected by a known detection unit. According to the fourth aspect, the discharge of articles is stopped so that the number of staying articles in the staying route is not insufficient, and the acceptance of articles is stopped and the number of staying articles is adjusted so that the number of staying articles in the staying route does not become excessive. Therefore, there is an advantageous effect that an unexpected stop of the carrier is avoided.

  5th invention of this invention is a conveyance machine of 3rd or 4th invention, Comprising: The moving path of the mover of the downstream of the said article discharge part is made into the 2nd retention path which retains an article, Comprising: When the discharging of the article is stopped in the article discharging section, the receiving of the article is continued in the article receiving section for a predetermined time after the discharging of the article is stopped, and the received article and The feature is that it is retained in two retention routes.

  As the case where the article is stopped in the article discharging section, there are cases in which there is a problem in discharging the article in the article discharging section, the case where the entire production line is stopped, and the like. When the article is a PTP sheet or the like that heat-welds the periphery to store the drug, a heat-welding means that heat-welds the periphery of the PTP sheet is installed near the article receiving portion. If the acceptance of the PTP sheet is suddenly stopped in the article receiving section, the PTP sheet into which the chemical has been injected remains within the heat-affected range of the heat welding means, and the chemical may deteriorate to become a defective product.

  However, even when the discharging of the articles is stopped, the received articles are retained for a predetermined time after the discharging of the articles is stopped, including the route downstream of the article discharging section, and the articles can be continuously received. I am letting you. While the acceptance of PTP sheets is continued, if the chemicals are not injected into the PTP sheets that reach the heat affected area, empty PTP sheets are sent out, and only empty PTP sheets are discarded. Good. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, even in the case of packaging by heat welding, it is possible to obtain an advantageous effect which is not available in the related art in that it is difficult to discharge a damaged article.

  6th invention of this invention is a conveyance machine of 1st-5th invention, Comprising: When any of the some articles received in the said article receiving part are out of stock, the said mover is, It is characterized in that it does not stand by at the position where the item is out of stock.

  A well-known detecting means may be used to detect the shortage in the article receiving section. The stockout is detected before the article is received, and which position of the article receiving unit is in the stockout state is detected, and the mover is not placed in standby at the position where the stock is in advance. As a result, all of the movers moved from the article receiving section to the carrying path are in a state of carrying the article, and the mover moved toward the article ejecting section has no empty space, and a predetermined amount is set in the article ejecting section. The advantageous effect that the number of articles can be discharged is achieved.

-According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of articles manufactured by a plurality of production lines can be accepted at the same time, an arbitrary number of articles can be ejected at the same time, and the invention can also be applied to easily deformable articles. An unprecedented advantageous effect that generation of articles can be suppressed is achieved.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the number of discharged articles is plural, and even if the article discharge section and the article receiving section have different article intervals, a plurality of articles can be simultaneously discharged at the article discharge position. It is possible, and it has an unprecedented advantageous effect that the production capacity of the entire production line can be improved.
-According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to obtain an advantageous effect that it is not necessary to stop the discharge of articles even if there is a continuous shortage in receiving articles.

-According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, article discharge is stopped so that the number of staying articles in the staying path is not insufficient, and article reception is stopped so that the number of staying articles in the staying path does not become excessive, and the staying is stopped. This has an advantageous effect that the number of articles is adjusted and an unexpected stop of the carrier is avoided.
-According to the 5th invention of the present invention, even if it is the packaging by heat welding, it has an unprecedented advantageous effect that it is difficult to discharge a damaged article.
-According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, any of the movers moved from the article receiving section to the transport path is in a state of carrying the article, and the mover moved toward the article discharging section is empty. Therefore, there is an advantageous effect that a predetermined number of articles can be ejected in the article ejecting section.

Explanatory drawing (Example 1) explaining the structure of the whole manufacturing line, and the structure of a conveyance machine. The top view (Example 1) explaining operation | movement at the time of normal of a conveyance machine. The top view (Example 1) explaining operation | movement at the time of shortage detection of a conveyance machine. FIG. 6 is a plan view illustrating a staying number detection unit (Example 2). The top view (Example 3) explaining an article discharge detection means and a 2nd retention path. The block diagram explaining a conveyance machine (Example 3). FIG. 7 is an overall flow diagram (Example 3) illustrating a carrier.

  In a carrier having an annular carrier path and carrying an article by a mover that is moved by electromagnetic interaction, immediately before accepting the article, the article receiver is moved to the article receiving section and made to stand by, A plurality of articles were received from the side at the same time. Then, the article receiver is moved from the article receiving unit at the same time to allow the next article to be received, and a predetermined number of articles among the moved articles are sequentially set in the article ejecting unit from the downstream side. It was made possible to discharge at intervals.

  In the first embodiment, a carrier 1 arranged on a PTP sheet manufacturing line 100 for accommodating tablets will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. 1A shows a side view of the carrier 1 and the manufacturing line 100, and FIG. 1B shows a plan view of a portion surrounded by a broken line in FIG. 1A. 2A to 2C are process diagrams for explaining the normal operation of the carrier 1. FIG. 3 is a process diagram for explaining the operation when a shortage of the carrier 1 is detected. The third embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram and the flow chart, and the description will be omitted in the first and second embodiments.

  First, the overall configuration of a PTP sheet manufacturing line 100 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, of the PTP sheet 200 formed by heat-sealing two sheet bodies, the sheet body having the tablet storage portion is the front side sheet body 201, and is made of a flat aluminum foil for closing the opening of the tablet storage portion. The sheet body is referred to as the back side sheet body 202, and a stack of two PTP sheets is referred to as a laminated body 203 for description.

  In the PTP sheet manufacturing line 100, a sheet body manufacturing machine 110 is arranged on the upstream side, a carrier machine 1 is arranged on the downstream side, and a packaging machine 120 such as a pillow packaging machine or a banding packaging machine is located downstream of the transportation machine 1. They are arranged to form one manufacturing line 100. First, the sheet body manufacturing machine 110 will be briefly described. In this embodiment, in order to improve production efficiency, four sheet body manufacturing machines 110 whose PTP sheet manufacturing cycles are synchronized are arranged in parallel, and four sets of laminated bodies 203 are simultaneously delivered to the carrier machine 1. (See FIG. 1B).

  Each of the sheet body manufacturing machines 110 supplies the tablets from the tablet supply device 111 to the tablet storage unit while transporting the front side sheet body 201 with the opening of the tablet storage unit facing upward, to the downstream side. The two rollers 112 and 113 forming the heat welding means sandwich the front side sheet body 201 and the back side sheet body 202 supplied from the back side sheet body supply device 114 to heat the roller 112 in contact with the back side sheet body, and The sheet storage units are heat-welded to close the tablet storage unit.

  Then, the sheet body cutting / reversing device 115 cuts the sheet body in conformity with the standard of the PTP sheet and vertically inverts the sheet body. Then, the stacking device 116 stacks the two PTP sheets so as to form the stacked body 203, and the finger conveyor 117 simultaneously delivers a plurality of articles to the transporter 1. Further, above the finger conveyor 117, there is provided an out-of-stock detection means 50 for detecting whether or not there is an out-of-stock product in the conveyed laminate (see FIG. 1B).

  The carrier 1 is a carrier that conveys articles by linear driving, and includes a stator 10 that forms an annular conveyance path and a mover 20 that is driven along the stator. An article receiving unit 30 that simultaneously receives a plurality of articles and an article ejecting unit 40 that ejects a preset number of articles at predetermined intervals are arranged along the transport path.

  The stator 10 has an electromagnet that causes electromagnetic interaction, a mover position detection unit that detects the current position of each mover, and a mover control unit. The electromagnet is annularly provided along the transport path. The mover position detection means is an encoder provided in a ring shape along the transport path, and detects the position information of the mover by reading a wireless communication tag provided on the mover. The wireless communication tag is not limited as long as it is a wireless communication using an electromagnetic field or radio waves. For example, a known RFID or the like can be preferably used.

  The mover control means includes mover position control means for controlling the position of the mover and mover speed control means for controlling the speed of the mover. The mover position control means moves the mover so as to match the article receiving position, the article discharging position, and the staying position, and controls the position of the mover. The mover speed control means smoothly accelerates and decelerates the mover to a predetermined position controlled by the mover position control means, and moves the moving speed of each mover so as not to collide with the preceding mover. Is controlled.

  Further, a part of the transportation path from the article receiving section 30 to the article discharging section 40 is a retention path 11 for the article being transported. The length of the retention path 11 is longer than the length for retaining the articles discharged by one-time article discharge, and the surplus length 12 for retaining the plurality of articles to be received in the next article reception is left (FIG. 1 (B), FIG. 3).

  The mover 20 has a base end side attached to the stator 10 and a transfer piece 21 (see FIG. 1 (A) and FIG. 2 (D)) that carries the article while the other end is in contact with the article and carries the article. It has an article receiver. Since the mover 20 is driven by electromagnetic interaction with the stator, the mover 20 is suitable for accelerating and decelerating its moving speed, and is suitable for independently driving each. Electromagnetic interaction means repulsive force acting between magnetic poles of the same kind and attractive force acting between magnetic poles of different kinds. The mover is pushed out by the repulsive force due to the magnetic force, attracted by the attractive force due to the magnetic force, and moved smoothly at high speed and with high accuracy.

  The mover 22, which is on standby upstream of the article receiving unit 30 in the transport path, is moved to the article receiving unit 30 immediately before the plurality of stacked bodies 203 are delivered from the sheet body manufacturing machine 110. Then, when a part of the plurality of articles is out of stock, the mover is sent out only to the position corresponding to the line to which the article is supplied to be on standby, and the mover is in an empty state. It is prevented from being sent downstream as it is (see FIG. 3).

  If the missing item is caused by an emergency stop of one of the sheet body manufacturing machines, until the sheet body manufacturing machine is restored, another sheet body manufacturing machine operating normally Since the production is continued, the reduction of the production efficiency is suppressed.

  The moving speed of each mover can be individually changed by changing the period in which the polarity of electromagnetic interaction is reversed. For example, it is preferable to move the mover at a low speed so that a large centrifugal force is not applied to the article in the arc-shaped transfer path 13, and move the mover at a high speed in the linear transfer path 14. is there. As a result, the production efficiency can be increased, and an advantageous effect is obtained in that even an unwrapped / unbound laminated body is unlikely to collapse during transportation. The mover can move at a high speed of about 4 m / sec.

  Since each of the movers can be independently driven, the moving time from the article receiving unit 30 to the article ejecting unit 40, the article receiving time, and the article ejecting time can be arbitrarily set. .. Moreover, since the mover is not operated intermittently, vibration is unlikely to occur during movement. If the time required for the movement is shortened, the receiving time of the article and the discharging time of the article can be lengthened even if the time from receiving the article to discharging the article is the same. As a result, even a PTP sheet or the like made of a double-sided aluminum foil that is easily deformed is suppressed from being deformed when the article is received or discharged.

  Further, if the attractive force of the magnetic force is applied to the mover at an arbitrary position of the stator, the mover can be set as a position to be stopped at any position of the transport path. .. If it is a known stator for a conveyor, the error of the stop position can be arbitrarily set with high accuracy of 10 μm, and the article discharge interval of the article discharge section 40 is the article reception interval of the article receiving section 30. It can be set at different intervals.

  Further, by changing the number of positions at which the mover is stopped, it is possible to change the number of movers arranged in the article receiving section and the article discharging section. In the article receiving unit 30, the set number of stop positions of the mover may be determined according to the number of sheet manufacturing machines to be arranged in parallel. On the other hand, in the article discharge unit 40, the set number of stop positions of the mover may be determined according to the capacity of the packaging machine on the downstream side.

  The transport piece 21 provided on the mover is a sandwiching portion 23 (see FIG. 1A) for sandwiching and transporting the article. The upper plate body 24 forming the holding portion has a shaft body 25 extending downward, and the shaft body is pushed up by the pushing-up means 130 arranged below the article receiving portion 30 to widen the opening width of the holding portion 23. .. Further, the upper plate 24 is provided with a resilient means (not shown), and the elastic restoring force presses the upper plate 24 against the lower plate 26 to close the holding portion 23. At the time of receiving the article, the article is received with the opening width of the holding portion 23 widened, and the article is conveyed with the holding portion 23 closed.

  Since the longitudinal direction of the laminated body 203 is conveyed to the article receiving unit 30 along the conveying path, both ends of the PTP sheet in the longitudinal direction are sandwiched by the sandwiching unit 23 when the laminated body is sandwiched by the sandwiching unit 23. It is conveyed in a state of being projected outward from both ends of the. When the article discharge unit 40 discharges the stacked body 203 from the transport piece 21, an extruding unit (not shown) is driven outward from the center side of the stator to push out both ends 204 of the PTP sheet. Are discharged.

  Next, an example of the basic operation of the carrier machine 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the four movers in the article receiving unit 30 simultaneously receive the four sets of laminated bodies 203, and in the article ejecting unit 40, the two movers on the downstream side precede to eject the laminated body 203. A series of operation steps in which the remaining stacked body 203 is discharged in the next discharge is shown.

  In FIG. 2, in order to facilitate understanding, a linear transport path 14, an arc-shaped transport path 13, and a linear transport path 14 from the article receiving section 30 to the article discharging section 40 (see FIG. 1B). The transport path configured in this order is shown as being approximated to one straight line, and will be described based on the state where no articles are retained in the retention path. Further, the article receiving section 30 and the article discharging section 40 are shown surrounded by a broken line, the laminated body 203 is shown by coloring, and the operation direction of the mover 20 is shown by an alternate long and short dash line arrow.

  While the plurality of movers 20 are on standby at a position on the upstream side of the article receiving unit 30, the plurality of stacked bodies 203 are conveyed by the finger conveyor 117 arranged on the upstream side of the conveyor 1. The out-of-stock detection means 50 detects whether or not out-of-stock has occurred (see FIG. 2A). If no shortage is detected, the four movers 20 are placed in the article receiving section 30 immediately before receiving each of the laminates 203 so that the movable table 20 has a predetermined interval corresponding to the arrangement interval of the finger conveyors. Two sets of stacked bodies 203 are arranged (see FIG. 2B) and received in each movable element 20 (see FIG. 2C).

  Then, the transport piece 21 simultaneously transports all of the received articles from the article receiving section 30 so that the next article can be received (see FIG. 2D). It should be noted that simultaneous transport from the article receiving section does not necessarily mean that the speeds of the movers are synchronized, and it is sufficient to start the transport at the same timing in a state where each mover is independent, and the downstream side during movement. It goes without saying that there may be a difference in speed between the movers.

  Of the four movers 20, the two movers 27 on the downstream side are moved ahead of the remaining movers 28. Then, in the article discharging section 40, the articles are arranged so as to have a wider article discharging interval than the article receiving interval and are in a stopped state (see FIG. 2E). More specifically, the first stop position 15 on the downstream side and the second stop position 16 on the upstream side are position-controlled so as to match the interval according to the performance of the packaging machine. In the next discharging step, the remaining mover 28 reaches the article discharging section 40 and discharges the stack (FIG. 2 (F)). Then, the movable element 20 that has been discharged advances again to the standby position on the upstream side of the article receiving section 30 and is stopped.

  Next, the operation of the transporting machine when the stack 203 sent from the upstream runs out of stock will be described with reference to FIG. Similar to FIG. 2, FIG. 3 shows the conveyance path from the article receiving section to the article discharging section, which is approximated by one straight line. Here, based on the state where five staying movers 29 are staying in the staying route 11, out of the four receiving positions of the article receiving section, a shortage occurs at the third receiving position 31 from the downstream side. The case will be described as an example.

  FIG. 3 (A) shows a state in which a missing item is detected, and FIG. 3 (B) shows that the mover 20 is arranged in the article receiving section 30 immediately before the article is received except for the missing item position. It shows the state. FIG. 3 (C) shows a state in which articles are received by the mover, and FIG. 3 (D) shows a state in which articles that have been accumulated in advance are sequentially conveyed to the article discharge section.

  A part of the transport path from the article receiving section to the article transport section is the retention path 11, and five movable elements 29 are retained in advance. The out-of-stock detection means 50 is arranged at a position upstream of the article receiving section 30 and detects whether there is a shortage before receiving the article. Specifically, a known optical sensor or the like may be arranged above the finger conveyor to detect the presence or absence of a missing item.

  Next, an operation process of the carrier when a shortage occurs will be described. First, the out-of-stock detection means 50 detects the out-of-stock (see FIG. 3A). The out-of-stock detection means 50 notifies the mover position control means of out-of-stock information indicating the occurrence of out-of-stock and the position of the out-of-stock. The mover position control means, based on the out-of-stock information, removes the mover 22 that has been waiting on the upstream side of the article receiving unit from the receiving position 31 where the out-of-stock has occurred, and does not become an out-of-stock item receiving position. Then, it is sent out and stopped (see FIG. 3 (B)). Then, the mover 20 receives the laminated body 203 at the article receiving position where the items are not out of stock (see FIG. 3C). The stay mover 29 is sent from the beginning to the article discharge unit 40 to discharge the article, and the mover 20 that receives the article is stopped at the end of the stay mover 29 (see FIG. 3D).

  In the second embodiment, a carrier 2 having a staying number detecting means will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4A shows a state in which the number of articles retained in the retention path 11 is smaller than the number of articles ejected in one ejection. FIG. 4 (B) shows a state in which the number of articles retained in the retention path 11 has increased, and there is no extra length for receiving the next article. In each of FIGS. 4A and 4B, the mover after receiving the article is shown by a black circle, and the mover before receiving the article is shown by a white circle. The same applies to the following examples. In the second embodiment, a case where three articles are simultaneously received from the article receiving section and four articles are simultaneously ejected from the article ejecting section will be described as an example.

  In addition to the configuration described for the transport machine 1, the transport machine 2 includes a staying number detection unit 19 that detects the number of articles stayed in the staying path 11. The position of the stay path, the number of articles stayed, and the like are controlled by the mover position control means. Further, it is provided with an article ejection control means for continuing or stopping the article ejection and an article acceptance control means for continuing or stopping the article acceptance according to the number of articles detected by the staying number detection means.

  In the staying number detecting means (not shown), the encoder provided in the stator 10 reads the RFID tag of the staying movable member 29 staying from the article receiving unit 30 to the article discharging unit 40, and thereby the staying path The number of articles retained in 11 is detected. When the number of articles detected by the staying number detection means is less than the number of articles discharged once (see FIG. 4A), the article ejection control means stops the article ejection in the article ejection part 40. At the same time, the stay mover 29 is prevented from being sent to the article discharge section 40. After it is detected by the staying number detecting means that the mover staying in the staying path 11 in a number equal to or more than the number of discharging is detected, the discharge of the article may be restarted.

  In the retention path 11, when the movable element 29 is retained also in the extra length 12 and it is detected that there is no extra length for receiving the next article (see FIG. 4B), the article acceptance By the control means, the acceptance of the articles in the article receiving unit 30 is stopped, the ejection of the articles is continued, and the number of the retained articles is reduced.

  In the third embodiment, the conveyor 3 including the article discharge detection means 60 and having the second retention path 17 as the movement path on the downstream side of the article discharge section 40 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7. .. FIG. 5 shows a state in which an article is being conveyed to the conveyor 3. FIG. 5A shows a state in which the discharge of the articles is not delayed. FIG. 5 (B) shows that after the ejection of the article is stagnated, the acceptance of the article is continued for a predetermined time, and the movable element that has received the article is moved to the second retention path 17 on the downstream side of the article ejection unit. It also shows the state of being retained. FIG. 5C shows a state in which the acceptance of the article is stopped.

  FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the carrier, and FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of the carrier. In FIG. 7, the article receiving position control processing refers to the operation control processing of the mover when the product is out of stock as shown in the first embodiment. The first article retention process refers to the mover operation control process described in the second embodiment. The second article retention process refers to the mover operation control process described in the third embodiment.

  In the third embodiment, as in the case of the first embodiment, a case where four articles are simultaneously received from the article receiving section and two articles are simultaneously discharged from the article discharging section will be described as an example. From the operation status of the article discharge detection means 60 (see FIG. 5A) and the packaging machine 120 (see FIG. 1), it is possible to detect whether the article is discharged or the state where the discharge of the article is stagnant. There is. The article discharge detection means 60 may detect a stop signal transmitted from the packaging machine itself, or may detect the operation status of the packaging machine with an optical sensor, and the form thereof is not limited.

  If both the sheet body manufacturing machine 110 (see FIG. 1) that is the upstream step of the transport machine 3 and the packaging machine 120 (see FIG. 1) that is the downstream step of the transport machine 3 are operating normally, four The two articles are discharged twice during one cycle in which the articles are simultaneously received, and the number of articles retained in the retention path 11 remains constant (see FIG. 5A).

  In the PTP sheet production line for tablets, if the packaging machine, which is a downstream process of the transport machine, is stopped at the same time as the sheet body manufacturing machine is stopped, the feeding of the continuously connected sheet bodies is stopped. Then, the PTP sheet containing the already-delivered tablets will remain within the heat-affected range of the heat-welding means, and the tablets may be deteriorated by heat to become defective (FIG. 1 (A)). (See figure).

  Therefore, in the third embodiment, in order to prevent generation of defective products, when the packaging machine is stopped, only the supply of tablets is stopped in accordance with the stop and the delivery of the PTP sheet is continued. .. Then, with respect to the PTP sheet in which the tablets have already been stored, it is possible to withdraw from the heat-affected area, and it is possible to eliminate the possibility that the tablets will be altered. That is, the predetermined time may be at least the time until the PTP sheet in which the tablets are already stored is retracted from the heat affected area.

  Since the production of the PTP sheet is continued during the predetermined time, it is necessary to continue the acceptance of the PTP sheet even when the PTP sheet cannot be discharged. Although the heat-affected zone varies depending on the performance of the sheet body manufacturing machine, assuming that the heat-affected zone has a length of about 50 cm and the width of the PTP sheet is 5 cm, for example, four sheet bodies are used as in the present embodiment. When the manufacturing machines are arranged in parallel, it is necessary to continue acceptance until a total of 40 PTP sheets are supplied.

  Therefore, in the transporting machine 3, the moving path downstream of the article discharging section 40 is set as the second stay path 17 so that the mover 20 is allowed to stay (see FIG. 5B). Then, if the PTP sheet in which the tablets are already stored has passed through the heat-affected range and all the movers 20 have received the articles, if the acceptance of the articles is stopped, the deterioration of the tablets can be prevented. (See FIG. 5C).

  Then, when the cause of the stop of the packaging machine is eliminated and the articles can be discharged, the mover 20 retained in the second retention route 17 is circulated along the movement route to move the mover at the head. The discharge of the articles may be restarted in order from 61. After the articles have been discharged to some extent, the acceptance of the articles may be resumed as usual (see FIG. 5A). The empty PTP sheet is removed from the production line and discarded.

  Next, the configuration of the carrier 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the carrier, and FIG. 7 shows a flow chart for controlling the speed of the mover. The carrier 3 includes an input unit 70, a storage unit 80, and a control unit 90. The control means 90 receives external signals from the out-of-stock detection means 50, the article discharge detection means 60, the mover position detection means 18, and the staying number detection means 19, which are necessary for controlling the mover, and controls the operation of the mover. Control. Further, the control means 90 is connected to a display means 300 for displaying the contents of the operation process and a selection means 310 for selecting the operation process.

  Necessary information is input from the input unit 70 so as to be adapted to the specifications of the manufacturing line and a desired transportation mode, and the information input from the input unit is stored in the storage unit 80 as a series of information groups. To be done. The information group to be stored is not limited to one transport mode information group, and a plurality of transport mode information groups may be stored in advance. If multiple information groups are stored in advance according to the standard of the product to be manufactured, even if the transport mode is changed, it is possible to move just by selecting the desired information group from the multiple information groups. You can easily change the settings for child actions.

  A series of input information groups are position-related information necessary for controlling the mover position and speed-related information necessary for controlling the mover speed. The position-related information includes the article receiving position / article discharging position, the number of articles received / the number of articles discharged per time, the article discharging interval / the article receiving interval, the position of the retention route / the number of retained products, the position of the second retention route, and the like. To be done. The speed-related information includes an article receiving cycle, an article discharging cycle, a delivery time required for receiving and discharging the article, and the like.

  The control means 90 includes the mover position control means 91 and the mover speed control means 92 described in the first embodiment, and the article discharge control means 93 and the article acceptance control means 94 described in the second embodiment. The mover position control means 91 and the mover speed control means 92 control the position to move the mover and the moving speed of the mover based on the selected information group and the external signal from each detecting means. Then, based on the operation signal from the control means 90, electromagnetic interaction is exerted between the stator 10 and the mover 20, and the mover is driven at a desired speed until it reaches a desired position.

  A flow of the mover control process performed on the transport route including the route curved in an arc shape will be described with reference to FIG. 7. The following mover control processing (S0 to S99) is performed every predetermined unit time, and the article is conveyed. In step 0, the control means reads the information group and the external signal, and the mover control process is started (S0).

  First, in step 1, a determination process is performed as to whether or not an out-of-stock product has been detected by the out-of-stock detection means 50 (see FIG. 6) (S1). When a missing item is detected in step 1, the article receiving position control process is performed in step 100 to stop the mover only at the receiving position excluding the missing item position (S100), and then the process proceeds to step 2. If no shortage is detected, go to step 2.

  In step 2, an article receiving process is performed in which a plurality of movers, which are on standby upstream of the article receiving section, are sequentially stopped at a predetermined article receiving position read from the information group (S2). Next, in step 3, speed control processing of the mover is performed (S3). In the mover speed control process, the mover speed control means 91 (see FIG. 6) moves the mover in accordance with a predetermined article discharge cycle. In step 3, the mover position detecting means 18 (see FIG. 6) detects the position of the mover, and if the current position of the mover is in a curved path in an arc, the mover is decelerated to form a straight line. If it is in the path of, the mover is moved at high speed.

  Next, in step 4, determination processing is performed as to whether or not the number of retained articles is within a predetermined range (S4). Specifically, the staying number detecting means 19 (see FIG. 6) detects whether the number is smaller or larger than a predetermined number. When the number of staying articles is within a predetermined range and the articles received from the article receiving unit are to stay in the staying path, the process proceeds to the first article staying process in step 200, and the mover is stopped at the end of the staying mover. While sending the head of the staying mover toward the article discharging section, the whole is sequentially fed (S200), and the process proceeds to step 5 for determining whether or not the article discharging is stagnant (S5).

  In step 4, when the number of staying articles is out of the predetermined range, specifically, whether the staying number detecting means detects less or more than the predetermined number, the process proceeds to step 210 (S4). In step 210, when the number of staying articles is small, the article discharge control means 93 (see FIG. 6) stops the discharge of articles, and when the number of staying articles is large, the article acceptance control means 94 (see FIG. 6). After the article discharge / acceptance control processing is performed so as to stop the receipt of the article (S210), the process proceeds to step 5 for determining whether the article discharge is stagnant (S5).

  In step 5, based on the information detected by the article discharge detection means 60 (see FIG. 6), a determination process is performed as to whether the article discharge is stagnant (S5). If the discharge of the articles is stagnant, the second article retention process (S300) is performed in step 300, and the process proceeds to the article discharge process of step 6 (S6). In the second article staying process, the article discharge is stopped, and the mover that has received the article is moved to the second stay path disposed downstream of the article discharge position (FIGS. 6B and 6C). (See the figure), the process proceeds to the article discharge process of step 6 (S6). If the article discharge is not delayed in step 5, the process proceeds to step 6 article discharge processing (S6).

  In step 6, each mover is decelerated so that the mover is stopped at a desired article discharge position, and the movers are stopped in a line with the article discharge section (S6). In step 99, the article is discharged from the mover and passed to the downstream process, and the mover control process from the receipt of the article to the discharge of the article ends (S99).

(Other)
In the embodiment, the example in which the article discharging section is provided at one place along the transport path has been described, but it goes without saying that a plurality of article discharging sections may be provided. For example, production efficiency may be improved by arranging the article discharge units at a plurality of locations and packaging them using a plurality of packaging machines. Alternatively, each article discharging unit may be adapted to a different packaging form such as pillow packaging or banding packaging, and the article discharging unit may be switched depending on the packaging form.
In the embodiment, the example in which the article is discharged in a state in which it is stopped in the article discharging section has been described, but it goes without saying that the article may be discharged in synchronization with the moving speed of the adjacent belt conveyor.
The embodiments disclosed this time are to be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above description, but is defined by the scope of the claims, and is intended to include meanings equivalent to the scope of the claims and all modifications within the scope.

1, 2, 3 ... Conveyor, 100 ... Manufacturing line, 110 ... Sheet body manufacturing machine, 120 ... Packaging machine,
30 ... Article receiving section, 40 ... Article ejecting section, 50 ... Out-of-stock detecting means, 200 ... PTP sheet,
10 ... Stator, 11 ... Retaining path, 12 ... Extra length, 13 ... Arc-shaped transport path,
14 ... Linear transport path, 15 ... First stop position, 16 ... Second stop position,
17 ... Second staying path, 18 ... Mover position detecting means, 19 ... Staying number detecting means,
20, 22, 27, 28 ... Mover, 21 ... Conveying piece, 23 ... Clamping part, 24 ... Upper plate,
25 ... Shaft, 26 ... Lower plate, 29 ... Retaining mover,
31 ... Receiving position, 60 ... Article ejection detecting means, 61 ... Mover,
70 ... Input means, 80 ... Storage means, 90 ... Control means,
91 ... Mover position control means, 92 ... Mover speed control means, 93 ... Article ejection control means,
94 ... Article acceptance control means,
111 ... Tablet feeding device, 112, 113 ... Roller, 114 ... Back side sheet feeding means,
115 ... Cutting / reversing device, 116 ... Laminating device, 117 ... Finger conveyor,
130 ... push-up means,
201 ... front side sheet body, 202 ... back side sheet body, 203 ... laminated body,
300 ... Display means, 310 ... Selection means

Claims (1)

The transport path is annular, and includes a plurality of movable elements for transporting articles, and an article receiving section and an article discharging section are arranged along the transport path, and the article receiving section is lined up along the transport path. A carrier for receiving a plurality of articles at the same time and discharging the articles in the article discharging section,
The mover is driven by electromagnetic interaction, is suitable for accelerating and decelerating the moving speed, and has a carrying piece for carrying the article in contact with the article,
Immediately before the mover receives the plurality of articles, the movable piece is sequentially moved to the article receiving section and is on standby, and the article is received, and at the same time, the conveying piece is in contact with the received article, and simultaneously from the article receiving section. Moved to allow the next item to be received,
In the article ejecting section, a predetermined number of articles are conveyed so as to be ejected from the mover moved downstream,
Part of the transportation path from the article receiving section to the article discharging section of the transportation path is a retention path for retaining the article being conveyed,
The length of the retention path is equal to or greater than the length for retaining the number of articles to be discharged, and is a length leaving an extra length capable of receiving the next plurality of articles,
The moving path of the mover on the downstream side of the article discharging unit is a second staying path for staying the article,
In the article discharging section, when the discharging of the article is stopped, for a predetermined time after the discharging of the article is stopped, the receiving of the article is continued in the article receiving section, and the received article is used as a retention path. Retain in the second retention route,
A carrier characterized by the above.

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