JP2512717B2 - Article alignment device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention aligns the vertical and horizontal directions of a packed product when automatically packing, for example, a bag-packed product having different vertical and horizontal lengths in a box or a case. The present invention relates to an article aligning device.

[Prior Art] When a vertically long article is conveyed by a conveyor and automatically placed in a box or a case, it is necessary to align the vertical and horizontal directions of the article in advance. Conventionally, as a device for aligning the directions of such articles, for example, a device using a vibrator is known. This kind of aligning device is configured to vibrate a chute that is inclined toward the lower side of the traveling direction of the articles by a vibrator, and the width of the chute is
The width is gradually narrowed toward the traveling direction of the article, and is set to be slightly wider than the width of the article at the exit. In such an aligning device, the posture of the articles can be gradually corrected by sliding the articles on the chute while vibrating the articles, and the articles can be aligned so that the longitudinal direction of the articles exits the chute.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the alignment device using the vibrator as described above, there is a drawback that the processing speed is slow because the articles have to be slid slowly. Further, when the ratio of the vertical and horizontal lengths of the article is small, there is a problem that the article does not rotate simply by vibrating and the posture of the article cannot be corrected reliably.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an article aligning device that can perform an article aligning process reliably and at high speed.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The article aligning apparatus of the present invention includes: a transport mechanism for transporting articles;
The article is temporarily stopped by engaging the side portion of the article to be conveyed in a state where the longitudinal direction is different from the traveling direction, and the longitudinal direction of the article is directed in the traveling direction in cooperation with the conveying means. As described above, a stopper mechanism for tilting the article and a determination mechanism for determining the posture of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism are provided, and the stopper mechanism has a width longer than the width of the article in the width direction of the transport mechanism. Has a pair of locking tools that are spaced apart from each other with a dimension shorter than the length direction of the locking mechanism. Based on this, a technique for releasing the engagement with any one of the above articles is adopted.

In the article aligning device according to claim 2, in the article aligning device according to claim 1, the determination mechanism is provided upstream of the pair of locking tools and between the locking tools. A sensor disposed at a position spaced apart from at least one of the center lines of the sensors, and the sensor has a side part forming a short side of the article engaged with the locking tool in which of the pair of locking tools. A technique for determining whether or not they are in contact is adopted.

The article aligning device according to claim 3 is the article aligning device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the device is arranged downstream of the pair of locking devices and from the locking devices. A third locking member, which is spaced apart with a dimension shorter than the length direction of the article, is provided on the transport mechanism so as to be retractable, and the third locking member is provided between the pair of locking members. A technique is adopted in which a short side of a passing article is engaged to temporarily stop the article and the engagement with the article is released based on the determination result of the determination mechanism.

[Operation] In the article aligning apparatus having the above-described configuration, based on the determination result of the posture of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism, one of the locking tools retractable on the transport mechanism is retracted and engaged. By releasing, the article can be rotated with the other locking tool as a fulcrum, and its longitudinal direction can be oriented in the traveling direction.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the article alignment device of the embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a separating mechanism for supplying an article 2 such as a substantially rectangular parallelepiped bag-packed product. To 1
It is configured to drop one by one. At this time, the article 2 is in a state in which the thickness direction is oriented in the front-back direction (direction orthogonal to the paper surface in FIG. 1) and the longitudinal direction is oriented in the up-down direction or the left-right direction. The aligning mechanism 3 aligns the articles 2 supplied from the separating mechanism 1 so that the longitudinal direction thereof is oriented in the vertical direction, and is configured as follows.

That is, reference numeral 4 in FIG. 3 is a frame. A chute (conveying mechanism) 5 is attached to the upper front surface 4a of the frame 4 while inclining downward toward the front. The chute 5 is composed of a bottom plate 6 and side plates 7 and 7. The distance between the side plates 7 and 7 is gradually narrowed toward the lower part of the chute 5, and the width of the article 2 at the lower bridge part thereof. It is set slightly wider than. The chute 5 has a pair of optical sensors (discrimination mechanism) located on the center line thereof and vertically spaced from each other.
Eight and nine are provided. These optical sensors 8 and 9 are connected in parallel with each other so as to form an OR circuit. Further, an ultrasonic sensor (discrimination mechanism) 10 is provided above and slightly to the left of the optical sensor 8. The optical sensors 8 and 9 and the ultrasonic lancer 10 detect the presence or absence of the article 2 stopped by the cylinder mechanisms 11 and 12 described later, and determine the posture of the article 2 based on the combination of the respective detection signals. .

Further, the frame 4 is provided with a pair of cylinder mechanisms (stopper mechanisms) 11 and 12 (only the cylinder mechanism 11 is shown in the figure) with the axis directed in a direction orthogonal to the bottom plate 6 of the chute 5. These cylinder mechanisms 11 and 12 are
The pistons (locking tools) 11a, 12a are on the bisector of the straight line connecting the optical sensors 8, 9 and the distance between them is slightly shorter than the length of the article 2 and wider than the width of the article. Are arranged so as to be separated from each other in the left-right direction. The pistons 11a, 12a are adapted to be retractable from the chute 5, and when the article 2 is supplied with its longitudinal direction directed in a direction different from the traveling direction, the pistons 11a, 12a come into contact with the side portion of the article 2 to It is supposed to be stopped temporarily.

Also, a cylinder mechanism 13 similar to these is provided below the cylinder mechanisms 11 and 12 as well.
Is arranged with its piston 13a located on the center line of the chute 5, and the piston 13a is
They are arranged apart from 1a and 12a with a dimension shorter than the length direction of the article 2. And the piston 13a is the shoot 5.
When the article 2 is supplied with its longitudinal direction oriented in the traveling direction, the article 2 comes into contact with the side portion of the article 2 and stops it.

Further, a defective discharge mechanism 14 is provided below the frame 4. The defective discharge mechanism 14 determines the thickness of the article 2 and discharges the article 2 that is out of the standard, and is configured as follows. That is, the discharge bucket 15 is provided on the lower front surface of the frame 4. Discharge bucket
Reference numeral 15 denotes a tubular shape whose upper and lower surfaces are open. The upper end is rotatably supported so that the lower end can rotate in the directions of arrows P and Q in the figure, and can be rotated by the cylinder mechanism 16. Has been done. A cylinder mechanism 17 is provided below the discharge bucket 15. The cylinder mechanism 17 temporarily stops the article 2 in the discharge bucket 15 by the piston 17a. Further, inside the discharge bucket 15, a pressing plate 18 whose surface is oriented in the thickness direction of the discharge bucket 15 is arranged. The pressing plate 18 is movable in the front-rear direction by the cylinder mechanism 19, and presses the article 2 with the wall portion of the discharge bucket 15 when the cylinder mechanism 19 is in the extended state. On the other hand, the back surface of the discharge bucket 15 is cut out in a rectangular shape so that it does not interfere with the pressing plate 18 when rotated in the direction of arrow P.

Further, the pressing plate 18 has a detection plate 2 having irregularities 20a.
0 is attached via a shaft 21. The detection plate 20 is moved to the front of the engineering sensor 22 attached to the frame 4 when the cylinder mechanism 19 is in the expanded state, while the engineering sensor 22 is positioned in front of the engineering plate 22 with any unevenness of the detection plate 20. The thickness of the article 2 is determined by determining whether or not to do so.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 23 is a standby bucket, 24 is a bucket conveyor, and 25 is an index table supply device. After the articles 2 ... , 4 on bucket conveyor 24
They are supplied at the same time and supplied from the bucket conveyor 24 one by one to the index table supply device 25.

Next, the operation of aligning the directions of the articles 2 by the above-described article alignment device will be described.

First, the article 2 supplied from the separating mechanism 1 is the piston 11
It is temporarily stopped by any of a, 12a, and 13a. In this case, the article 2 can take four postures as shown in FIGS. 4 (A) to 4 (D). FIG. 3A shows a state in which the short side of the article 2 is in contact with the piston 12a and the long side of the article is in contact with the piston 11a. There is. In this case, if the cylinder mechanisms 12, 13 of the pistons 12a, 13a are reduced, the pistons 12a, 1
3a is retracted from the chute 5, and the article 2 is moved to the piston 11a.
It turns out that it rotates in the direction of the arrow with the fulcrum as the fulcrum, and falls while the longitudinal direction thereof is directed downward.

Further, FIG. 1B shows a state in which the side portion forming the short side of the article 2 is in contact with the piston 11a and the side portion forming the long side is in contact with the piston 12a, and the optical sensor 8 and the ultrasonic sensor 10 are the articles. 2 is detected. In this case, it is understood that the cylinder mechanism 11 of the piston 11a may be contracted, contrary to the case of FIG. Further, in FIG. 6C, both ends of the long sides of the article 2 are in contact with the pistons 11a and 12a so that the optical sensor 8 and the ultrasonic sensor 10 are sensitive, and FIG. It shows a state in which the side portion forming the side is in contact with the piston 13a and the optical sensor 9 is sensitive. Then, FIG.
Table 1 summarizes the relationship between the sensitive sensor and the cylinder mechanism that should be in the reduced state in each of the modes (D).

In the state shown in FIG. 4 (D), the cylinder mechanism 13
Since it does not matter if the cylinder mechanism 12 is in the contracted state at the same time as the contracted state,
When the optical sensor 8 or 9 is sensitive, the cylinder mechanism 13 is always in the contracted state, and when the ultrasonic sensor 10 is sensitive, the cylinder mechanism 11 is in the contracted state.

When the ultrasonic sensor 10 does not respond, the cylinder mechanism 12 is contracted. It is only necessary to perform two types of processing.

Then, the articles 2 whose directions are aligned as described above are dropped into the discharge bucket 15 to determine the thickness, and when defective, the discharge bucket 15 is rotated to discharge the defective product. If defective, the cylinder mechanism 17 is contracted and the article 2 is dropped into the standby bucket 23.

In the article aligning apparatus as described above, the article 2 is stopped by the pistons 11a, 12a, 13a, and when the longitudinal direction of the article 2 is different from the traveling direction, the article 2 is moved with one of the pistons 11a, 12a as a fulcrum. Since it is configured to rotate, the articles 2 can be aligned at high speed and reliably. Further, since it is only necessary to perform two kinds of processing on the mode of the article 2 to be stopped, the processing circuit can be simply configured.

Although the article 2 is configured to slide on the chute 5 and be transported in the above-described embodiment, the configuration is not limited to such a configuration, and the article 2 is provided so as to be transported in the horizontal direction, for example. The above-mentioned cylinder mechanisms 11, 12, 13 may be provided so as to face the belt conveyor.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, in the article aligning apparatus of the present invention,
A transport mechanism for transporting the article, and of the above-described articles transported by the transport mechanism, the article is temporarily engaged by engaging a side portion of the article transported with the longitudinal direction facing a direction different from the traveling direction. A stopper mechanism that stops and tilts the article so that the longitudinal direction of the article is directed in the traveling direction in cooperation with the conveying means; and a determination mechanism that determines the attitude of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism, The stopper mechanism has a pair of locking members arranged in the width direction of the transport mechanism so as to be longer than the width of the article and shorter than the length direction of the article and are spaced apart from each other. Is configured to be retractable on the transport mechanism and release the engagement with any one of the articles based on the determination result of the determination mechanism, so that the article alignment processing can be performed at high speed and reliably. In The effect is obtained that that.

According to the article aligning device of the second aspect of the present invention, it is determined which side of the pair of fasteners the side portion forming the short side of the article engaged with the fastener contacts. Since the sensor is provided, it is possible to easily determine the posture of the article engaged with the locking tool.

According to the article aligning device of the third aspect of the invention, the article is temporarily stopped by engaging with a side portion forming a short side of the article passing between the pair of locking tools. Since the third locking device that releases the engagement with the article based on the determination result of the determination mechanism is provided, the article passing in the longitudinal direction in the traveling direction is temporarily stopped, and the determination is made even with such an article. The posture of the article can be easily discriminated by the mechanism.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a front view showing the overall configuration of an article aligning device,
FIG. 2 is a front view showing a main part of an apparatus for aligning articles, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 2, and FIG. 2 ... Article, 5 ... Chute (conveyance mechanism), 11 ... Cylinder mechanism (stopper mechanism), 8 ... Optical sensor (discrimination mechanism), 9 ... Optical sensor (discrimination mechanism), 10 ... Ultrasonic sensor (Discrimination mechanism), 11a ... Piston (locking tool), 12 ...
… Cylinder mechanism (stopper mechanism), 12a …… Piston (locking tool).

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transport mechanism for transporting articles having vertical and horizontal lengths different from each other, and among the articles transported by the transport mechanism, articles transported in a state in which a longitudinal direction is different from a traveling direction. Engage the sides to temporarily stop the item,
A stopper mechanism for collapsing the article so that the longitudinal direction of the article is oriented in the traveling direction in cooperation with the conveying means, and a determination mechanism for determining the posture of the article stopped by the stopper mechanism, The stopper mechanism has a pair of locking members which are arranged in the width direction of the transport mechanism so as to be longer than the width of the article and shorter than the length direction of the article and are spaced apart from each other. Is an article aligning device which is provided on the transport mechanism so as to be retractable so as to release the engagement with any one of the articles based on a determination result of the determination mechanism. 2. The article aligning device according to claim 1, wherein the discriminating mechanism is spaced apart from at least one of an upstream side of the pair of locking tools and a center line between the locking tools. A sensor disposed at a predetermined position, and the sensor determines which of the pair of locking members the side portion forming the short side of the article engaged with the locking member is in contact with. And an article aligning device. 3. The article aligning device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the article is spaced apart from the pair of locking tools and from the locking tools with a dimension shorter than a longitudinal direction of the article. Is provided on the conveyance mechanism so as to be retractable and retractable, and the third locking member is a side portion forming a short side of an article passing between the pair of locking members. An article aligning device for temporarily stopping the article by engaging with, and releasing the engagement with the article based on the determination result of the determination mechanism.