JP2647320B2 - Automatic pillow packaging machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic box packing apparatus for pillow packages, and more particularly, to automatically and efficiently packing pillow packages conveyed on a conveying path using a roller conveyor. Device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Snacks and the like are likely to be broken by a small external force during the transportation / storage process or at the time of display, thereby greatly deteriorating the commercial value. In order to solve this problem, many means for simultaneously filling and sealing a gas such as air into a packaging bag for loading snacks and the like are employed. Such a fragile object to be packaged is enclosed together with a gas (hereinafter, air will be described as an example), and a package utilizing an air cushion effect is called a pillow package, and has been widely used in recent years. FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of well-known general equipment up to box packing of the air cushion type pillow package (hereinafter simply referred to as a package) manufactured by a pillow packaging machine. In the figure, a is a pillow packaging machine that cuts into a predetermined length by enclosing an article to be packaged and air, and b is a package manufactured by the pillow packaging machine a. The package b is sequentially conveyed from the belt conveyor c to the roller conveyor d, and is packed in a box packing device e.
Is automatically packed in a cardboard box f or the like, and then shipped.

[0003] As a box packing device e, for example,
As disclosed in JP-A-1665881 and JP-A-61-58084, there is known a means for sucking the package b with a downward suction pad attached to a robot hand or a lifting arm and packing it in a box. Have been. Further, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-17684, rice confections packaged in small bags are stacked in a semi-overlapping manner on a belt conveyor for intermittent transportation, aligned, and then dropped into a tray for storing in a set amount unit.
An arraying boxing device is disclosed. In the above-mentioned package, the package bag is formed of a thin film-like sheet, and in many cases, the shape of the package is not fixed. Further, in order to prevent the package from moving, shifting or the like during the transportation process after the packing, the cardboard f
Means for making the size of the package smaller than the occupied area of the package are often used.

[0004] For this reason, it is necessary to pack the boxes in a state in which the end portions of the packages in a row are stacked in a row. Due to the unstable shape of the bags, due to the frictional resistance between the bags and the inertial force of the bags during transport, when the bags are stacked, the previous bag is pushed in or the bags are half-stacked in an inclined state. Or it is difficult to create a completely stacked shape. In such an imperfectly stacked state, when packing the package, the sealed part of the package hits the edge of the box, which may cause a poor packing state. There must be. For that purpose, conventional stacking means by intermittent transport of a belt conveyor is not sufficient.

When the state of the package after packing is considered, in the conventional box packing method in which the lower plate is removed and the bag is dropped and packed into a box, the external dimensions of the package are larger than the entrance dimensions of the box. In addition, the sealed portion of the bag interferes with the edge of the box, and the shape of the bag becomes unstable, such as being inserted vertically or obliquely in the boxed state. In addition, in the case of packing using a suction pad, in the past, the weight or the content of a rice bag or the like was mostly used as a solid material. In most cases, an easily positioned material such as stopping the conveyance is forcibly adsorbed by a blower method or the like and packed in a box. In this state, if there is no bag in the position where it should be sucked, the bag cannot be sucked, or the bag is dropped due to insufficient suction, and the bag will fall during the transfer. In fact, no drastic measures have been taken to improve the positioning accuracy of a packaged article due to wrinkles and the like.

[0006]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention is not limited to a small bag, but a package such as a snack, which has a larger outer size than a box and contains a large amount of air, and thus tends to be irregular in shape. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic box packing device in which a desired stacked state is formed by forming a desired stacked state on a conveyor and sucking or holding and packing the at least two or more units in block units. It is assumed that.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an air cushion type pillow package in which gas and a package are conveyed along a conveying path by a roller conveyor, at least two or more of which are sucked or gripped in block units. In the automatic box packing device, the stopper is disposed at the end of the roller conveyor and closes the transport path on the roller conveyor, and a push-up mechanism that raises the rear end of the package stopped by the stopper by a set amount. A pillow package stacking device comprising: a pillow package stacking device; a stop plate disposed on the upstream side of the stacking device and moving up and down on a transport path on a roller conveyor; and a driving device for moving the stop plate up and down. It is characterized by comprising a control device and a box packing device for packing the packages stacked by the stacking device in boxes.

[0008]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a structural view showing an embodiment of an automatic box packing device according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an automatic packaging device. The automatic packaging device 1 includes a package stacking device 2, a package flow control device 3, and a packaging device 4.

A package stacking device (hereinafter simply referred to as a stacking device) 2 includes a transport path g formed on a roller conveyor d.
A stopper 21 for closing the, and a lifting mechanism 22 for raising a set amount the trailing portion b ₂ of the package b which is stopped by the stopper 21. The stopper 21 is disposed at the end of the roller conveyor d, and is provided on the transport path g.
At a predetermined position. Thus, a plate-shaped projection may be formed at the end of the roller conveyor to serve as the stopper 21, or may be configured to be able to move up and down with respect to the transport path g as shown in the side view of FIG. That is, in the embodiment of FIG. 2, a cylinder device 21a is erected on the beam 11 disposed below the roller conveyor g, and an L-shaped stop plate 21b is fixed to the upper part of the piston rod of the cylinder device 21a. A stopper 21 is configured. For this reason, the cylinder device 2
By actuating 1a, it is possible to arbitrarily close or release the transport path g, and it is also possible to easily adjust the height of the package b according to the size of the package b.

The push-up mechanism 22 pushes up the rear end of the package b stopped by the stopper 21 as described above, and the package conveyed next to the space formed by this push-up. b tip is positioned a, lowering the rear end portion b ₂ of thereafter the package b. FIG. 2 shows an operation state of the push-up mechanism 22 of the present embodiment, which is configured by a mechanism similar to the stopper 21 described above. That is, a lifting device 22a using a pneumatic cylinder and an L-shaped support plate 22b connected to the lifting device 22a, and a push-up plate 2 erected at the end of the support plate 22b
2b ₁ also exhibits functions as a stop plate for packaging b coming is then conveyed to the rear end portion b ₂ of the packaging b with pushing up. Thus to the rear end portion b ₂ a lifting of the package b stopped at the stopper 21 as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 2, after the leading end of the next package b was positioned in the pushed up space component, by lowering the rear end portion b ₂ of the front of the package b, two packages b is in a state of being stepped lap.

Next, a package flow control device (hereinafter, simply referred to as a flow control device) 3 has a function of adjusting the transport pitch of the package b to be transported to the above-described stacking device 2, and has a transport path g. And a drive device 32 for moving the stop plate 31 up and down, and are arranged on the upstream side of the stacking device 2. The flow control device 3 in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 pivotally supports the stop plate 31 via a support shaft 34 on the upstream side of the gantry 33 so as to be swingable, and a driving device 32 is attached to the cross beam 33 a of the gantry 33.
, A pneumatic cylinder 32a and a spring 32b are provided. The lower end of the spring 32b is the stop plate 3.
1 and normally a stop plate 3 as shown by the solid line in FIG.
1 is raised upward. The pneumatic cylinder 32a is suspended from the cross beam 33a and has a piston rod tip 32a.
₁ is in contact with the stop plate 31.

Next, the operation of the flow control device 3 will be described. First, when the package b is transported along the transport path g of the roller conveyor d, and there are two packages b that have been transported earlier in the portion of the stacking device 2, the pneumatic cylinder 3
Issues a drive command to 2a, stop plate 31 as shown by the broken line in FIG. 2 by extending the piston rod 32a ₁
To temporarily stop the package b on the roller conveyor. As soon as the package b of the stacking device 2 is removed by the operation of the boxing device 4 described later, the operation of the pneumatic cylinder 32a is stopped. That is, when the operating pressure of the pneumatic cylinder 32a is lost, the stop plate 31 is raised by the pulling force of the spring 32b, and the package b is conveyed.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, two flow control devices 3 are continuously installed, and two packages b are waiting in one unit. Thus, when the package b of the above-described stacking device 2 is removed and the conveyance is restarted, the stop plate 31 of the flow control device 3 located at the rear is raised and then moved forward with a predetermined time delay. by increasing the stop plate 31 of the flow control device 3, the next package b is conveyed in a state the rear end b ₂ of the package b conveyed to previously pushed up was,
Stacking can be formed automatically. Of course, the above-described operation can be performed by using one flow control device 3 and controlling the number of times and timing of pressing the stop plate 31.

The box packing device 4 is for adsorbing or gripping the package stacked by the above-described stacking device 2 and packing it in a pre-positioned cardboard box f. It is provided with a mechanism that can be moved above the corrugating device 2 and above the corrugated cardboard f. Although the concept of automatically boxing is a technique that has been conventionally considered as shown in FIG. 9E, the present embodiment is characterized in that it is intended for a soft work called a pillow package.

FIG. 6 shows a box packing device 4 in this embodiment.
Has a robot hand 43 disposed on an end effector 42 of a robot 41 disposed near a conveyor.
The robot hand 43 is composed of a package suction pad 44 and a pneumatic cylinder 47 for moving the pad mounting plate 46 up and down, and usually pulls up the cylinder 47 as shown by a solid line in FIG. At least one package suction pad 44 is provided for one package, and each pad 44 is connected to a vacuum source via a vacuum pressure distribution pipe 45 and a solenoid valve (not shown).

Next, the operation of the box packing device 4 will be described.
The package b positioned by the stacking device 2 is transferred to the robot 4
As shown in FIG. 7, two stacked packages are adsorbed as two blocks by a robot hand 43 having a plurality of downward pads 44 attached to one end effector 42, and the stacked state is maintained. It moves to the top of the box as it is and is packed in the box. Further, as described above, when a soft work is adsorbed, the conventional method of forcibly adsorbing with a blower or the like may cause wrinkles or the like on the bag surface when adsorbed. Therefore, in this embodiment, the ejector is used, the suction level can be changed according to the work, and a box packing device using a large number of small-diameter pads made of a soft material is used. In some cases, using pads is more effective. In addition to the suction method using a vacuum, a chucking method using an air chuck is also an effective means as a package conveying means in box packing.

In the above-described embodiment, one stacking device 2 is installed, and the means for holding the two packages b by the box packing device 4 has been described. For example, as shown in FIG. Two devices 2 or three or more devices (not shown) are installed, and the amount that can be gripped at one time by
It is also possible to have more than one. In this case, it is preferable that the stopper 21 of the stacking device 2 has a structure capable of moving up and down as shown in FIG.

Also, in the above-described embodiment, the stopper and the push-up device constituting the stacking device are driven by using an air cylinder. However, for example, as shown in FIG. 52
And a mechanism for driving a stopper 53 attached to the ball screw bearing side up and down via a pinion gear instead of a ball screw, although not shown,
For example, as shown in FIG. 5, an apparatus having a mechanism for rotating the motor 61 forward, driving the interlocking camshaft 62, and driving the stopper 63 up and down by the movement of the cam is also effective.

As the material of the stopper, a material that does not damage the film surface when the bag is pushed up from below is desirable. In this embodiment, a resin is used, but stainless steel, Teflon and the like are also effective. .
Also, the tip of the stopper is preferably round.

[0020]

According to the practice of the present invention, in the case of packing irregular-shaped pillow packages filled with air, even if the amount of gas in the packages varies greatly from package to package,
By stacking them one on top of the other, there is an advantage that they can be securely grasped and adsorbed, and can be packed in a box without impairing the appearance. A package flow control device is provided upstream of the package stacking device, and the packages conveyed on the roller conveyor are sorted into individual packages by the flow control device. If there is no package in the stacking device, the package controlled by the flow control device opens the package with a delay time, is conveyed to the stacking device at regular intervals, and there is a problem of interference between the packages. Can be prevented. In addition, packages conveyed at regular intervals
In the stacking device, the packages are stacked one on top of the other to avoid interference of the sealed portions, and packed by suction or gripping. As a result, the interference of the sealed portion is eliminated, and the positioning of the package can be performed accurately. Also, even if the outer dimensions of the package are larger than the entrance dimensions of the box, by adjusting the overlapping state of the step stacking, it is possible to pack the boxes effectively, and it is possible to improve the state of the package after packing. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural view showing an embodiment of an automatic box packing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing an embodiment of a package flow control device and a stacking device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an embodiment of a package flow control device and a stacking device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the stopper of the stacking device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the stopper of the stacking device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of a box packing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example in which a package is sucked by a box packing device.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an example in which two stacking devices and two package flow control devices are provided.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of a well-known general facility until a pillow package is packed in a box.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Pillow package boxing device 2, 2a Package stacking device 3, 3a Package flow control device 4, 4a Package boxing device 11 Stacking device rack 21, 22 Package lifting device & stopper device 21a, 22a Pneumatic cylinder 21b Stopper 22b Indicator plate 22b ₁ Push-up plate 31 Stop plate 32 Drive 32a Pneumatic cylinder 32a ₁ Rod tip 32b Spring 33 Flow control device base 33a Flow control device cross beam 41 Robot 42 End effector 43 Robot hand 44 Vacuum pad 45 tube 46 pad mounting plate 47 a pneumatic cylinder 51, 61 motor 52 ball screw 53, 63 a stopper 62 camshaft a pillow packaging machine b packaging bag b _1, b ₂ affected zone c belt conveyor d roller conveyor by the stopper Case packer f Cardboard g package conveying path

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-59-93617 (JP, A) JP-A-1-294403 (JP, A) JP-A-48-35990 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic box packing device for adsorbing or gripping at least two or more air cushion type pillow packages packed with gas and packed in an air cushion type pillow package conveyed on a transport path by a roller conveyor. , A pillow package stack comprising: a stopper disposed at the roller conveyor terminal end to close a transport path on the roller conveyor; and a push-up mechanism for raising a rear end of the package stopped by the stopper by a set amount. A package flow control device including a device, a stop plate disposed on the upstream side of the stacking device and moving up and down on a conveying path on a roller conveyor, a driving device for moving the stop plate up and down, and the stacking device An automatic packaging device for pillow packaging, comprising: a packaging device for packaging the packaging stacked step by step in blocks.