JP2661454B2 - Automatic solid filling and weighing device - 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 filling weighing apparatus for weighing solids such as citrus berries in a container such as a can when manufacturing canned oranges.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an apparatus for automatically filling cans with citrus fruits, for example, an apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-76182 is known. Conventional equipment arranges a plurality of narrow filling conveyors and water tanks in parallel on the downstream end extension of a wide supply conveyor that conveys citrus fruits, and transfers the berries transported by the supply conveyor to the filling conveyor. And at the same time a part is fed into the water tank, and the granules are first transferred from the downstream end of the filling conveyor through the filling hopper to the filling conveyor and cans that are intermittently transported by the spiral rod arranged at right angles to the lower end of the water tank. Is dropped to weigh a slightly smaller amount than the fixed amount to perform primary filling, and then, at the downstream end of the water tank, replenishment filling is performed while taking out and weighing the fruits one by one from the inside of the water tank.

[0003]

A conventional solid filling and weighing apparatus for citrus fruits and the like is provided with a plurality of rows of filling conveyors and a water tank along the extension of the supply conveyor, so that the apparatus becomes large and large. Requires space. Further, since one filling hopper is filled correspondingly to one can, a plurality of filling hoppers are required, and further, a plurality of weighing devices also need to be mounted. The container feed mechanism also converts the linear motion to the rotary motion of the spiral rod using clutches, gears, cams, etc., using an air cylinder as a power source, and scrapes the berries added to the water tank with a metallic wing. The structure is complicated, the number of parts is large, and the cost is high, for example, a mechanism for raising the fruits and putting them into the container one by one is required.
In addition, since the refilling is performed by scraping the berries added to the water tank with a metallic wing, the pulp is likely to collapse.
Furthermore, when a supply trouble of the can occurs and the can is temporarily not supplied to the filling position, it is not possible to automatically respond quickly, and the berries conveyed from the filling conveyor fall into the apparatus and fall. Sometimes. Further, in the case of changing the size of the container, the type change operation has to remove and adjust all the weighing device, the spiral rod, the guide, and the like, and it takes a lot of time to adjust the setting.

The present invention was conceived in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional solid-filled weighing apparatus. The entire apparatus is greatly simplified to make the apparatus compact and save space and cost. In addition, accurate and high-speed weighing and filling can be performed without damaging the material to be filled, and the type change for a change in the container size can be performed easily and in a short time. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic solid filling and weighing device capable of coping with the problem.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An automatic solid filling and weighing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a supply conveyor for transporting solids to be filled, such as berries, which is disposed at a downstream end of the supply conveyor at right angles to the conveyor, and A filling conveyor having a width of at least twice the outer diameter of a container for filling the filling solids, provided at a transfer portion between the filling conveyor and the supply conveyor, and supplying the solids to be filled from the supply conveyor to the width of the filling conveyor; A dispensing chute for distributing and transferring in a direction, a filling hopper provided at an end of the filling conveyor and having a pre-filling area and a replenishing filling area, and a container conveying device for intermittently conveying the container to a lower part of the filling hopper. A weighing device provided in a container transport path below the refilling section of the filling hopper, and the solid to be filled in the container is weighed at a position below the prefilling section of the filling hopper. The above problem can be solved by adopting a configuration in which prefilling is performed slightly less, and refilling is performed while weighing with the weighing device at a position below the refilling area until reaching a specified weight. .

The filling conveyor is driven so as to be able to rotate forward and backward,
A solids collecting container is provided at an end of the filling conveyor opposite to the side where the filling hopper is located, and the container transport device is provided.
To detect an empty container at a position near the filling hopper
The vessel detection sensor is disposed, by no-container detection signal of the empty container detection sensor, by allowing the recovery of solids on the conveyor to the collecting container the solids the filling conveyor is reversely rotated, the container carrying troubles The generation was able to be dealt with automatically and quickly, preventing solids from falling into the device. In addition, by providing thin rods at equal intervals on the inner surface of the filling hopper and providing a deflecting roller at the boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling area, the solid portion stagnates in the filling hopper and the solid material enters the container gap. Was prevented from falling. Furthermore, the spiral rod of the container transport device is connected to the drive shaft via a detachable shaft joint, and the container guide is arbitrarily adjustable and detachably provided in the direction of the container transport path, thereby facilitating the type change. .

[0007]

The filling conveyor is arranged at a right angle to the supply conveyor and has a single row, so that it can be made very small as compared with the conventional one. In addition, a wide filling hopper is provided at the downstream end of the filling conveyor, and the filling hopper also serves as a pre-filling and replenishing filling solid supply, and can be completed up to the final filling with only one hopper and continuously at a close position. Pre-filling and refilling can be performed, so even with a weigher and only the refilling section,
Accurate weighing and filling can be performed. Thin rods are provided at equal intervals on the inner surface of the filling hopper, which reduces friction between the inclined inner surface of the hopper and the solid material to be filled, so that even citrus grains do not stay inside the filling hopper. Is dropped and filled. Also, since a deflecting roller is provided at the boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling area, solids falling from the filling conveyor at the boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling area of the filling hopper are distributed to either area. Even if a gap is provided between the container at the pre-filling position and the container at the refilling position so as not to contact each other, solid substances are prevented from falling into the gap between the containers, and can be accurately filled,
Accurate weighing is possible. Further, when the container detection sensor detects that the container is not present at the replenishment filling position during operation,
According to the detection signal, the filling conveyor rotates in the reverse direction to collect the solids on the filling conveyor into the solids collecting container. Therefore, it is possible to automatically and quickly cope with the occurrence of a trouble in the transport of the container, and it is possible to prevent the solid matter from falling into the apparatus.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The illustrated embodiment apparatus is a solid filling weighing apparatus in the case where the present invention is applied to an apparatus for quantitatively filling orange cans into cans in a canned oranges manufacturing process. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a grain supply conveyor composed of a net conveyor, which also serves as a sorting conveyor, in which mandarin orange grains p from which outer skin and endothelium have been removed are randomly supplied, and the form is collapsed or damaged. Defective products such as are removed manually during transportation, and only good products are transported to the downstream end. However, it is a matter of course that the sorting conveyor may be separately provided so that the tangerine fruit grains from which unqualified products have been removed are supplied to the supply conveyor. Reference numeral 2 denotes a row of filling conveyors arranged at right angles to the supply conveyor 1 below the downstream end of the supply conveyor, and in this embodiment, a conveyor having a width of at least three times the diameter of a can as a container to be filled. It is formed with. The conveyor is driven by a motor 3 whose transport speed can be adjusted according to the transport capacity of the supply conveyor 1 by inverter control and which can switch between normal and reverse rotation. Reference numeral 4 denotes a distribution chute for transferring the grains from the supply conveyor to the filling conveyor so that the grains are dispersed and transferred at an appropriate density over the entire width of the filling conveyor to ensure the weighing function. Are divided into four sections (a) to (d) so that the tip is obliquely positioned in the width direction of the filling conveyor.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a filling hopper provided at the downstream end of the filling conveyor and having a width substantially equal to that of the filling conveyor, and the berries transported by the filling conveyor 2 fall into the filling hopper and are positioned thereunder. The cans are filled with berries, but below the filling hopper, three cans conveyed by a spiral rod as described later stop in a line in the width direction of the filling conveyor and stop. Pre-filling and refilling of the cans are simultaneously performed. The filling hopper 5 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5 to FIG. 5, there are inclined plates 6 and 7 at the front and back, the bottom is open over the entire width, and side plates 8 and 9 are provided at right and left sides. The vertical side plates 8 and 9 are provided with a filling hopper mounting guide 15 provided on the frame at the end of the filling conveyor.
The attachment piece is configured so that it can be inserted and removed with one touch, and the tip is bent into a key shape to be insertion pieces 16 and 17.

The inside of the filling hopper 5 is composed of a pre-filling section a and a refilling section b. The pre-filling section a has a width in which approximately two cans are located, and the refilling section has a width of about one can. doing. As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, in order to prevent the berries falling at the position in the middle part of the pre-filling area from falling into the gap between the two cans located in contact with the pre-filling part, The deflecting pieces 10 and 11 are fixed to the inclined plates 6 and 7 so that the berries falling to the position are deflected and fall into one of the cans. In addition, the preliminary filling area a
A deflecting roller 12 composed of a group of free rollers made of plastic is provided between the two swash plates across the hopper drop port at the partition between the replenishing and filling area b. This prevents the berries from falling into the gap between the can located at the pre-fill position and the can located at the refill position. Further, the filling hopper is provided with thin round rods 13 at equal intervals along the inclined plate 8 which is a contact surface with the fruit to reduce friction with the fruit, and the fruit falling from the filling conveyor is stagnated. Without falling into the can.
In this embodiment, the thin round bar is provided only on one inclined plate on the side of the filling conveyor, but it may be attached to both inclined plates.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a chute for transporting the can c in close contact with the spiral rod 2 disposed below the filling hopper.
The empty can is sent to the position 1 by its own weight in a close contact state. The spiral rod 21 intermittently conveys the can sent by the chute to the pre-filling position and the refilling position below the filling hopper, and the pitch of the spiral rod 21 is set to the pre-filling area of the filling hopper 5 and The can at the refilling position is formed so that the can at the refilling position and the can at the prefilling position do not directly contact, and the can at the refilling position contacts the prefilling position. Prevents weighing errors. The spiral rod 21 is a servo motor 22
And can continuously and intermittently rotate at a high speed of 3000 rotations per minute, and can intermittently feed cans one by one at a high speed. A weighing device 23 composed of a load dial is arranged at a refilling position of the conveying path of the can supplied by the spiral rod 21. At this position, the can filled with the contents is weighed. And when the weight reaches a predetermined value, the spiral rod 21
Rotates at a high speed and quickly transfers the cans to the actual can transport conveyor.

A shaft coupling projection 24 is formed at the drive shaft end of the spiral rod 21 so as to project therefrom. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the drive shaft end of the spiral rod is connected to a table 35. The shaft joint projection 2 is supported by an upright block 36 at the end.
4 is formed with a shaft coupling recess 25 in which the servo motor 2 is fitted.
2 can easily and detachably engage with the drive shaft 26 which is driven to rotate by the drive shaft 2. The other end of the spiral rod shaft is connected to a block 37 erected on a table 35 by bolts 3.
8 allows it to be detachably fitted to a bearing member 27 which is detachably fixed. Therefore, when replacing the spiral rod with the change of the size of the can, the screw rod 21 can be easily removed and replaced with a predetermined spiral rod by loosening the bolt 38 and removing the bearing member 27 from the block 37. In FIG. 8, 32 is a pulley for a timing belt fixed to the drive shaft 26, and 33 is
This is a rotation angle detection device attached to the drive shaft 26 for detecting the rotation angle of the spiral rod and controlling the feeding of the can. On the other hand, reference numerals 28 and 29 denote an inlet-side container guide and an outlet-side container guide which are arranged to face the spiral rod 21, and these guides are configured in two stages, upper and lower, in this embodiment.
Upper guides 42, 43 via spacers 44 on 0, 41
Has been fixed. The lower guide 4 is provided so that both the entrance side guide and the exit side guide can be freely attached to and detached from the stand pins 45 erected on the table 35 and their positions can be adjusted.
Slots 30, 30 are formed in the sides 0, 41 from the side, and can be inserted into and engaged with the stand pins from the sides along the slots. A one-touch lever 46 for fixing the guide inserted into the stand pin with one touch is mounted on the upper portion of the stand pin 45. Therefore, the guide engaged with the stand pin is disengaged by turning the one-touch lever, and the guide can be removed and replaced with another guide or moved along the elongated hole according to the size of the can. By doing so, the distance from the spiral rod can be adjusted. In FIG. 7, the inlet side guide 28 for the 401D can has a can size as the inlet side guide.
a is attached, and in FIG.
The case where the entrance guide 28b for the 1D can is attached is shown, and the entrance guide 28a for the 401D can is shown as a replacement guide. In FIG. 1, 5
Reference numerals 0 and 51 denote empty container detection sensors arranged at predetermined intervals to detect whether or not the cans conveyed by the chute 20 are continuously conveyed in close contact. This is a container detection sensor for detecting whether or not a can exists at the filling position.

The solid filling weighing apparatus of this embodiment is configured as described above, and a fixed amount of solid is filled in a can as follows. Tangerine fruit grains from which the outer skin and endothelium have been removed are randomly supplied to the supply conveyor 2, and defective products such as collapsed or damaged form are manually removed during transportation, and only good products are transported to the downstream end. It is supplied to a filling conveyor via a distribution chute 4 provided at the downstream end. that time,
Since the distribution chutes divided into four sections (a) to (d) are arranged so that the ends thereof are inclined with respect to the filling conveyor 2, the grains are dispersed over the entire width of the filling conveyor. B, c,
The grains transferred from the section D to the filling conveyor fall into the area a, which is a preliminary filling area of the filling hopper 5, and the grains transferred from the section A to the filling conveyor are the area b, which is a supplementary filling area. To fall.

On the other hand, the empty cans are continuously fed by an empty can conveyor, and are intermittently sent to a prefilling position and a refilling position by a spiral rod 21. Grains fall from the area a of the filling hopper 5 to the can which has just been sent to the refilling position, and are filled in the empty can. In the pre-filling zone, the can is filled in two places: first first pre-filling position, then second pre-filling position,
It is filled slightly less than the fixed amount and sent to the refilling position where the weighing device 23 is arranged. The can sent to the refilling position is placed on the weighing machine, and in that state, the berries falling from the area b of the filling hopper are filled. The berries falling to the refilling position are one by one or a small amount, which corresponds to the conventional secondary filling. In this manner, the particles are filled one by one or a small amount while weighing. When the set weighing value is reached, a weighing completion signal is issued, the servo motor 22 of the driving unit is driven, and the container is conveyed one pitch at a high speed to fill. The finished cans are sent to the actual can transport conveyor. At the same time, one can is received from the chute on the inlet side, and the cans located at the first prefilling position and the second filling position are sent to the second prefilling position and the refilling position, respectively. In the following steps, the cans are sequentially filled with fixed quantities of fruit grains.

As described above, according to the container feeding device of the present embodiment, it is very simple, high-speed and reliable without requiring an air cylinder, a clutch, a rack, a pinion, and a stop device as in the prior art. Can be transported. Further, since the weighing device uses a load cell, high-speed weighing can be performed and the weighing accuracy is excellent, and accurate weighing and filling can be performed in combination with high-speed feeding of the container. The amount of filling in a container is determined by the transport density of solids on the filling conveyor, the speed of the filling conveyor, and the stopping time of the container.The filling amount is mainly adjusted by adjusting the conveying speed of the filling conveyor and the stopping time of the container. Controlled. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the drive motor of the filling conveyor is inverter-controlled so that the speed of the filling conveyor can be arbitrarily adjusted, and the driving of the spiral rod is driven by a servomotor to perform high-speed rotation and intermittent rotation. The can can be moved at a high speed and can be positioned at a predetermined position.

In the above process, if the number of cans supplied to the chute 20 becomes smaller than the detection position of the empty container detection sensor 51 and the empty container detection sensor 51 does not detect a can, the signal of the spiral rod 21 is given by the signal. When the driving is stopped immediately, the filling conveyor 2 rotates in the reverse direction, and the berries transferred onto the filling conveyor are automatically collected in the solids collecting container 18 arranged at the other end of the filling conveyor. The berries do not overflow in the device. Then, the can is supplemented to the chute 20, and immediately after the empty container detection sensor 50 detects the can, the operation is restored to the original operation state and the filling is started. In addition, the fruit grains sent from the filling conveyor 2 to the filling hopper 5 are provided with the thin round bar 13 in the filling hopper.
It is smoothly supplied to the container without stagnation in the filling hopper, and is reliably filled in the can without falling out of the can by the deflecting piece 11 and the deflecting roller 12 provided in the partition portion of the filling popper 5. Although the above is an example of automatic filling and weighing of citrus fruits, the present invention is not limited to an automatic filling and weighing device for citrus fruits, automatic filling and weighing of marine products such as oysters and clams and other solid matter. Needless to say, it can be applied to automatic filling and weighing.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the following advantages can be obtained by the above configuration. The filling conveyor is arranged at right angles to the supply conveyor, and since it is a single row, the whole apparatus is very simple and compact as compared with the conventional one, so that low cost and space saving can be achieved. A wide filling hopper is provided at the downstream end of a single filling conveyor, and this filling hopper also serves as a solid supply for pre-filling and replenishment filling. Since pre-filling and refilling can be performed continuously, accurate and fast weighing and filling can be performed using only the weighing device and the refilling position. For the empty container detection signal of empty container detection sensor
The filling conveyor rotates in the reverse direction and the solids on the conveyor
Collected in a solids collection container?
Automatically and quickly respond to container transport problems
In this way, it is possible to prevent solid matter from falling into the device.
Since thin rods are provided at equal intervals on the inner surface of the filling hopper, friction between the inclined inner surface of the hopper and the solid material to be filled is reduced, and the solid material falls smoothly without stagnating in the filling hopper and is filled. In addition, since a deflecting roller is provided at the boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling area, solid matter is prevented from falling between the container at the pre-filling position and the container at the refilling position, and accurate Can be filled.
Further, the type change for the change in the size of the container can be performed with one touch, and the time required for the type change can be drastically reduced as compared with the conventional case.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a solid filling weighing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a filling hopper.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side view of a filling hopper.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a method of attaching a filling hopper.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the container transport device.

FIG. 8 is an assembly view of the container transport device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Supply conveyor 2 Filling conveyor 3 Motor 4 Distribution chute 5 Filling hopper 6, 7 Inclined plate 12 Deflection roller 13 Thin round bar 18 Solid collection container 21 Spiral bar 22 Servomotor 23 Scaler 24 Shaft joint convex part 25 Shaft joint concave part 26 Drive shaft 28 Inlet side can guide 29 Outlet side can guide 50, 51 Empty container detection sensor 52 Container detection sensor

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A supply conveyor for conveying a solid to be filled such as berries and the like, an outer diameter of a container arranged at a downstream end of the supply conveyor at right angles to the conveyor and filling the solid to be filled.
A filling conveyor having a width of twice or more, a distribution chute provided at a transfer portion of the filling conveyor and the supply conveyor, and distributing and transferring solid materials to be filled from the supply conveyor in the width direction of the filling conveyor; A filling hopper provided at an end of the filling conveyor and having a pre-filling section and a refilling section, a container transfer device for intermittently transferring the container to a lower portion of the filling hopper, a container below the refilling section of the filling hopper A weighing device provided in a conveying path, wherein the container is prefilled with the solid material to be filled at a position below the prefilling region of the filling hopper slightly less than a specified weight, and the weighing device is positioned at a position below the refilling region. An automatic filling and weighing device for solids, wherein refilling is performed until a specified weight is reached while weighing. 2. The filling conveyor is driven to rotate forward and backward, and a solids collecting container is provided at an opposite end of the filling conveyor where a filling hopper is located, and the container is provided with a container.
An empty container is detected near the filling hopper of the transfer device
The empty container detection sensor disposed, and characterized in that the no-container detection signal of the empty container detection sensor, said filling conveyor is reversely rotated so as to recover the solids on the conveyor to the collecting container the solids The automatic solid filling and weighing device according to claim 1. 3. The filling hopper according to claim 1, wherein thin rods are provided at equal intervals on an inclined inner surface of the filling hopper, and a deflecting roller is provided at a boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling area.
Automatic solid filling and weighing device. 4. The container transport device has a spiral rod disposed along the container transport path, and a container guide disposed opposite the spiral rod and the container transport path. 4. The automatic filling and weighing device according to claim 1, wherein the container guide is connected to a drive shaft via a detachable shaft joint, and the container guide is arbitrarily adjustable and detachably provided in a container conveying path direction. apparatus.