JP2021047022A - Articles alignment device of weighing device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an article aligning device of a weighing device capable of suitably aligning articles with an inexpensive structure.SOLUTION: A hopper, which once holds long and narrow articles being weighed and then discharges them downward, includes a cylindrical hopper body 12 and a gate 13 that opens and closes a lower end opening of the hopper body 12, and aligns the articles to have the same height by performing a reciprocating operation of repeatedly moving the gate 13 in the opening and closing direction at a stroke in which the articles in the hopper body 12 are not discharged downward and at a speed higher than that of the normal opening and closing operation.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

The present invention relates to an article aligning device for aligning weighed articles in a weighing device for weighing articles such as food.

In a weighing device that weighs articles by a predetermined amount, for example, a combination scale, in general, articles distributed and conveyed by a distributed feeder are sent to a plurality of linear feeders arranged around the measuring device, and articles that are vibrated and conveyed by the linear feeders are transferred to a plurality of linear feeders. It is supplied to a plurality of weighing hoppers via a supply hopper and weighed. A combination calculation is performed based on the weighing value measured by the weighing hopper, a combination of weighing hoppers within a predetermined weight range is selected, the article is discharged from the selected weighing hopper, and the article is loaded by the collecting hopper via the collecting chute. It is assembled and temporarily held, and the articles are discharged from the collecting hopper to the packaging machine in response to the discharge request from the packaging machine, and the articles discharged by the packaging machine are packaged.

When a long and narrow article, for example, a stick-shaped article such as a snack confectionery, is weighed and discharged to a packaging machine in a combination scale as described above, the article is stored in a collecting hopper in a vertical posture to meet a discharge request from the packaging machine. Correspondingly, the stored articles are discharged in a vertical posture, but when the articles that have flowed down the collective chute are supplied to the collective hopper, the rod-shaped articles do not align well in the vertical posture in the collective hopper, and are large. It may be tilted or placed on top of each other in two stages, and may be accommodated with irregular heights.

When the articles are ejected from the lower end of the collecting hopper in a vertical position and sent to the packaging machine in such a state where the heights are not uniform, the articles do not fit in the size of the packaging bag or the like in the packaging machine, and the seal on the packaging bag or the like is used. Defects occur.

In order to solve such a problem, for example, in Patent Document 1, the upper alignment chamber formed by the upper cylinder portion and the first shutter below the upper cylinder portion, and the lower cylinder portion and the second shutter below the upper cylinder portion are formed. A lower alignment chamber is provided, and in each of the upper and lower alignment chambers, a rod-shaped article is swung in a direction including a horizontal component by a swing device, and the rod-shaped articles are housed in each alignment chamber. I try to align the articles.

Further, for example, in Patent Document 2, a rod-shaped article is put into a filling hopper having a tubular main body and a gate for opening and closing the lower end opening of the main body, and the filling hopper is vibrated by a driving unit. So, I try to align the rod-shaped articles in the hopper.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-213409 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-261006

However, in the above-mentioned Patent Documents 1 and 2, a dedicated driving device is required to apply vibration or vibration in order to align the rod-shaped articles, which increases the manufacturing cost.

The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object of the present invention is to provide an article aligning device of a weighing device capable of suitably aligning articles with an inexpensive structure that does not use a dedicated driving device. And.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is configured as follows.

(1) The article aligning device of the weighing device according to the present invention includes a hopper that is supplied with a weighed elongated article and temporarily holds the supplied article and discharges it downward, and the hopper has a tubular shape. The hopper body has a gate for opening and closing the lower end opening of the hopper body, and the gate opens and closes the lower end opening of the hopper body to temporarily hold the supplied article and move downward. It is possible to perform a normal opening / closing operation of discharging and a reciprocating operation of repeatedly moving in the opening / closing direction at a stroke in which the article in the hopper body is not discharged downward and at a higher speed than the normal opening / closing operation.

According to the present invention, the gate is opened and closed with a small stroke such that the articles in the hopper body are not discharged downward and at a higher speed than the normal opening / closing operation in a state where the weighed elongated articles are housed in the hopper body. By performing a reciprocating operation that repeatedly moves in a direction, it is possible to give vibration to an article that is received and supported by a gate. As a result, even if the articles are greatly inclined or piled up and the heights are not uniform, the articles are smoothly aligned and aligned in height by receiving vibration.

In this case, since the gate for receiving and discharging the goods is finely opened and closed at high speed to give vibration to the goods, a dedicated drive device for giving vibrations for aligning the goods is not required, and the gate is opened. Articles can be aligned using only the drive unit provided for opening and closing.

(2) In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the weighing device includes a dispersion feeder that radially disperses and conveys the supplied elongated articles, and a plurality of linear feeders that convey the dispersedly conveyed articles outward. , A plurality of supply hoppers that hold and discharge the articles conveyed by each linear feeder, a plurality of weighing hoppers that weigh the articles discharged from each supply hopper, and the articles discharged from the weighing hoppers. The article is provided with a collecting chute for collecting and discharging the articles, and the article discharged from the collecting chute is supplied to the hopper as the weighed elongated article.

According to this embodiment, as the weighing device, an elongated article is weighed by a combination scale including a dispersion feeder, a linear feeder, a supply hopper, a weighing hopper, and a collecting chute, and the weighed elongated article is transferred from the collecting chute to the hopper. Supplied, in the hopper, the reciprocating operation of the gate aligns the elongated articles in a vertical orientation to align their heights.

As a result, elongated articles that are aligned and have the same height can be loaded into the packaging machine at the subsequent stage of the combination scale, and it is possible to prevent the packaging machine from causing a sealing failure.

(3) In another embodiment of the present invention, the hopper main body has a tapered first cylinder portion having a smaller diameter downward and a cylindrical second cylinder portion connected to the lower end of the first cylinder portion. The gate opens and closes the lower end opening of the second cylinder portion.

According to this embodiment, for example, the elongated article supplied from the collecting chute to the hopper body has a cylindrical second cylinder portion from the inclined inner peripheral surface of the tapered first cylinder portion having a smaller diameter downward. Since it is guided to the vertical inner peripheral surface, it changes from an inclined posture to a vertical posture. As a result, the articles can be effectively aligned and the heights can be made uniform by reciprocating the gate to give vibration to the elongated article in the vertical posture housed in the second cylinder portion.

(4) In one embodiment of the present invention, the gate is composed of a shutter plate that opens and closes so as to horizontally cross the lower end opening of the hopper body.

According to this embodiment, the lower end of the vertically oriented article housed in the hopper body can be vibrated so as to be substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the elongated article, and the elongated articles are aligned and aligned in height. Can be done.

(5) In another embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of the shutter plates are provided, and each shutter plate moves closer to and away from the center of the lower end opening of the hopper body.

According to this embodiment, vibrations in different directions are applied to the article by the plurality of shutter plates, and the articles can be aligned more efficiently.

(6) In still another embodiment of the present invention, the shutter plates are abutted against each other to close the lower end opening of the hopper main body.

According to this embodiment, the upper surfaces of the plurality of shutter plates in the closed state can be flush with each other, and the lower ends of the articles can slide laterally along the upper surface of the shutter plates and are adjacent to each other. By setting the gaps generated by the shutter plates apart so that the articles do not fall, the lateral movement of the articles at the time of applying vibration becomes smooth, and the articles can be quickly aligned.

(7) In another embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of shutter plates are connected so as to interlock with a single actuator.

According to this embodiment, a plurality of shutter plates can be operated accurately in synchronization.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to align the weighed elongated articles and make them uniform in height with an inexpensive structure that does not use a dedicated driving device for giving vibration to the articles.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a combination scale as a weighing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the combination scale of FIG. FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view showing a main part of the article aligning device of the combination scale. FIG. 4 is a plan view of the gate of the article aligning device in a closed state. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the gate of the article aligning device in an open state. 6A and 6B are schematic vertical sectional views of a main part for explaining the alignment operation, where FIG. 6A shows a state before alignment and FIG. 6B shows a state after alignment. FIG. 7 is a vertical sectional view of a main part of another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a combination scale which is an example of a weighing device provided with an article aligning device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the combination scale.

The combination scale of this embodiment is used in a weighing and packaging line in which elongated articles, for example, rod-shaped articles such as snack foods made mainly of potatoes, are weighed to a predetermined weight and packed in a bag. The article is not limited to a rod shape, and may be an elongated article such as a jerky.

A planar circular dispersion feeder 1 is provided in the center of the upper part of the combination scale on which a rod-shaped article dropped and supplied by a supply device (not shown) is placed and radially dispersed and conveyed by vibration, and around the dispersion feeder 1. A large number (14 units in this example) of linear feeders 2 for linearly transporting articles carried out from the peripheral edge of the distributed feeder 1 are arranged radially. Further, a supply hopper 3 is disposed below the transfer end portion of each linear feeder 2, and a weighing hopper 4 is disposed below each supply hopper 3.

The linear feeder 2 vibrates and conveys an article by a gutter-shaped trough, and the article is conveyed so that its longitudinal direction is aligned with the longitudinal direction of the trough.

The supply hopper 3 is installed in a posture in which the lower portion is slightly tilted outward, receives articles dropped and discharged from the end of the linear feeder 2, holds them in a tilted vertical posture, and is placed below the metering hopper 3. When the hopper 4 is emptied, the gate is opened to drop and discharge the article and put it into the weighing hopper 4.

Each measuring hopper 4 is installed in a posture in which the lower portion is slightly inclined inward, and receives the article discharged from the supply hopper 3 and temporarily holds the article in the inclined vertical posture. The weight of the held article is weighed by a weight sensor such as a load cell (not shown), and the weighed value is given to a control device (not shown).

The articles discharged from each weighing hopper 4 are guided downward to the lower center of the device by the corresponding vertically long collecting chute 5 having a U-shaped cross section, and are collected in the collecting hopper 7 via the collecting funnel 6 arranged at the lower end thereof. ..

The control device performs a combination calculation based on the weighing value of each weighing hopper 4 and selects an appropriate amount combination which is a combination of the weighing hoppers 4 in which the weight of the article is within a predetermined weight range. The article is discharged from the measuring hopper 4 of the selected appropriate amount combination, and is temporarily held by the collecting hopper 7 via the collecting chute 5 and the collecting funnel 6. When the discharge request signal is input from the packaging machine to the control device, the gate of the collecting hopper 7 is open-controlled, and the held articles in a predetermined weight range are discharged and put into the packaging machine.

In this combination scale, a central substrate (not shown) is supported on a base 10 installed on the floor surface F via a plurality of legs 11, and the dispersion feeder 1, the linear feeder 2, and the supply are supplied to the central substrate. It is equipped with a hopper 3, a weighing hopper 4, a weight sensor, a vibration mechanism for each feeder, a gate drive mechanism for opening and closing the gate of each hopper, a control device, and the like. Further, the collective chute 5, the collective funnel 6, and the collective hopper 7 are supported on the base 10.

The combination scale of this embodiment is provided with an article aligning device so that the weighed articles can be aligned and loaded into the packaging machine.

This article aligning device includes the above-mentioned collecting hopper 7, and as shown in FIG. 1, the collecting hopper 7 has a vertically oriented tubular hopper main body 12 and a gate 13 for opening and closing the lower end opening thereof. Have. The hopper main body 12 includes a tapered first tubular portion 12a having a smaller diameter toward the lower end of the collecting funnel 6 and a cylindrical second tubular portion 12b connected to the lower end of the first tubular portion 12a. ing. In the collecting hopper 7, the articles discharged from the collecting funnel 6 are housed in the second cylinder portion 12b in a vertical posture, and the lower end of the articles is received by the closed gate 13.

The hopper main body 12 and the gate 13 are mounted on a flat plate-shaped support base 15 horizontally supported by a support frame 14 below the base 10.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view of the hopper main body 12 near the second cylinder portion 12b and the gate 13, FIG. 4 is a plan view of the gate 13 in a closed state, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of the gate 13 in an open state. It is a figure.

As shown in FIG. 3, a support bracket 16 bent in an inverted L shape is fixed to the upper end of the support base 15, and a second cylinder of the hopper body 12 is attached to a cantilever horizontal portion of the support bracket 16. The portion 12b is inserted and supported.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the gate 13 itself is composed of three shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c that horizontally swing at the same height about the fulcrum p. The lower end opening of the hopper body 12 is closed by the shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c approaching and swinging inward with respect to the center of the lower end opening of the second tubular portion 12b and abutting against each other. .. Further, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c swing outward with respect to the center of the lower end opening of the second tubular portion 12b, so that the lower end opening of the hopper body 12 is opened. There is. Further, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c themselves are supported by a fulcrum shaft 18 erected on a base plate 17 laminated and connected on a support base 15 so as to be horizontally swingable.

Further, on the support base 15, a motor 19 as an actuator for reciprocally swinging the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c is arranged with the rotation axis vertical. The output arm 19a of the motor 19 and the predetermined shutter plate 13a are interlocked and connected by a linking rod 20a. Further, the shutter plate 13a and the other shutter plates 13b and 13c are interlocked and connected by the linking rods 20b and 20c, respectively, and the three shutter plates 13a, 13b and 13c are interlocked with the forward and reverse rotation of the output arm 19a. It is designed to swing back and forth horizontally in synchronization.

The article aligning device includes a motor 19 for swinging and driving the shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c constituting the gate 13 and linking rods 20b, 20c.

In the gate closed state shown in FIG. 4, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c are in a posture in which their free end sides are abutted against each other, and the article w inserted and housed in the second cylinder portion 12b is received in a vertical posture. Be supported. Further, in the gate open state shown in FIG. 5, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c swing outward and the discharge holes 21 formed through the base plate 17 and the support base 15 are exposed. The article w housed in the second cylinder portion 12b is dropped and discharged in the vertical posture, and is sent to the lower packaging machine through the discharge hole 21.

In the normal opening / closing operation of the gate 13, as described above, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c are brought into a closed state in which they are abutted against each other to receive and support the article w thrown into the second cylinder portion 12b. In response to the discharge request from the packaging machine, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c were separated and oscillated outward to open the discharge hole 21 and housed in the second cylinder portion 12b. The article w is dropped and discharged.

In this embodiment, the control device reciprocates the gate 13 during a waiting period in which the article is housed and held in the collective hopper 7 and waits for a discharge request from the packaging machine.

In this reciprocating operation, each of the shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c is repeatedly reciprocated in the opening / closing direction with a stroke small enough not to drop the contained article w and at a higher speed than the normal opening / closing operation.

In this way, the shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c are reciprocated at high speed with a small stroke so that the article w does not fall, so that the article w received on the shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c is vibrated. They are aligned and their heights are aligned.

In this case, since the three shutter plates 13a, 13b, and 13c each finely reciprocate in different horizontal directions, vibrations in various directions are applied to the lower end of the housed article w. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6A, even if the articles w are greatly inclined or overlapped with each other, the contact portions of the upper and lower articles w are displaced, and the upper articles w are between the articles w. It falls into the gap and is aligned in a uniform height posture as shown in FIG. 6 (b).

The specifications for the fine opening / closing operation of the shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c are set in the control device according to the thickness and weight of the article w. For example, the abutting points of the adjacent shutter plates 13a, 13b, 13c. The maximum width of the gap generated in is set to 3 mm or less, preferably 1 mm or less so that the article w does not fall, and the opening / closing cycle (frequency) is set to 0.05 s (20 Hz) to 0.1 s (10 Hz). Is desirable.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, with the article housed in the hopper body 12, the gate 13 has a small stroke so that the article in the hopper body 13 is not discharged, and the opening / closing operation is larger than that of the normal opening / closing operation. Since the reciprocating operation of repeatedly moving in the opening / closing direction at high speed is performed, it is possible to give vibration to the article received and supported by the gate 13. As a result, even if the articles are greatly inclined or piled up and the heights are not uniform, the articles are smoothly aligned and aligned in height by receiving vibration.

As a result, the articles having the same height can be put into the wrapping machine, and it is possible to prevent the wrapping machine from having a defective seal.

Further, the reciprocating operation of the gate 13 does not require a dedicated driving device for aligning the articles, and is performed by using the motor 19 provided for opening and closing the gate 13, so that it can be configured inexpensively.

In the above embodiment, the gate 13 is reciprocated during the waiting period until the article is stored and held in the collecting hopper 7 and the discharge request from the packaging machine is waited, but during the period when the article does not need to be ejected, the gate 13 is reciprocated. The gate 13 may be reciprocated regardless of whether or not the article is housed.

[Other Embodiments]
The present invention can also be carried out in the following forms.

(1) As the number of shutter plates constituting the gate 13 increases, the article w can be vibrated in various directions, and a plurality of four or more shutter plates can be used.

(2) Although the variety of vibrations given to the article w is reduced, the gate 13 can be configured by arranging two shutter plates that reciprocate in the horizontal direction so as to face each other.

(3) The shutter plate can be linearly reciprocated in addition to the swing drive as in the above embodiment.

(4) As shown in FIG. 7, a part of a plurality of shutter plates are vertically overlapped with each other in the closed state, and during reciprocating operation, they are finely moved repeatedly in the opening / closing direction within the overlapping range to form adjacent shutters. It is also possible to prevent a gap between the boards. According to this, by setting a large overlapping range, it is possible to increase the stroke at the time of reciprocating operation and give a large vibration to the article w.

Further, the strokes for going and returning during the reciprocating operation do not have to be the same, and for example, the stroke in the direction for closing the gate may be smaller than the stroke in the direction for opening the gate.

(5) When the shutter plate reciprocates finely and at high speed, it is desirable that an appropriate friction is generated between the upper surface of the shutter plate and the article w in order to accurately transmit the vibration to the article on the shutter plate. Therefore, for example, a resin layer for promoting friction may be formed on the upper surface of the shutter plate, or fine irregularities or streaks may be formed on the upper surface of the shutter plate.

(6) Simply, the gate 13 can be configured by one shutter plate that reciprocates horizontally, and the shutter plate can be finely reciprocated in the closed state.

(7) Similar to the gates of the supply hopper and the weighing hopper, the gate 13 is designed so that one or two opposing gate plates swing up and down around the horizontal fulcrum, and there is a gap for dropping the article in the closed state. It is also possible to reciprocate the gate plate finely and at high speed in the opening / closing direction within a range that does not occur, and give the contained articles vertical vibration to align them.

(8) In the above embodiment, the description has been made by applying to the collective hopper of the combination scale, but the present invention is not limited to the collective hopper of the combination scale, and may be applied to other hoppers accommodating the weighed articles. ..

7 Assembly hopper 12 Hopper body 12a 1st cylinder 12b 2nd cylinder 13 Gate 13a Shutter plate 13b Shutter plate 13c Shutter plate 19 Motor (actuator)
p fulcrum w goods

Claims (7)

It is provided with a hopper that is supplied with a weighed elongated article and temporarily holds the supplied article and discharges it downward.
The hopper has a tubular hopper body and a gate for opening and closing the lower end opening of the hopper body.
The gate opens and closes the lower end opening of the hopper body to temporarily hold the supplied article and discharge it downward, and a stroke in which the article in the hopper body is not discharged downward. Moreover, it is possible to perform a reciprocating operation that repeatedly moves in the opening / closing direction at a speed higher than that of the normal opening / closing operation.
An article aligning device for a weighing device, characterized in that. The weighing device includes a dispersion feeder that radially disperses and conveys the supplied elongated articles, a plurality of linear feeders that convey the dispersed and conveyed articles outward, and the articles conveyed by each linear feeder. A plurality of supply hoppers for holding and discharging, a plurality of measuring hoppers for measuring the weight of articles discharged from each supply hopper, and a collecting chute for collecting and discharging the articles discharged from the measuring hopper are provided. , The article discharged from the collecting chute is supplied to the hopper as the weighed elongated article.
The article aligning device of the weighing device according to claim 1. The hopper body has a tapered first cylinder portion having a smaller diameter downward and a cylindrical second cylinder portion connected to the lower end of the first cylinder portion.
The gate opens and closes the lower end opening of the second cylinder portion.
The article aligning device of the weighing device according to claim 1 or 2. The gate is composed of a shutter plate that opens and closes so as to horizontally cross the lower end opening of the hopper body.
The article aligning device of the weighing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A plurality of the shutter plates are provided, and each shutter plate moves closer to and away from the center of the lower end opening of the hopper body.
The article aligning device of the weighing device according to claim 4. Each of the shutter plates is abutted against each other to close the lower end opening of the hopper main body.
The article aligning device of the weighing device according to claim 5. The plurality of shutter plates are connected so as to interlock with a single actuator.
The article aligning device of the weighing device according to claim 5 or 6.

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