JP2718750B2 - Alignment and stacking device for cylindrical articles - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method in which a large number of cylindrical articles placed on a conveyor are arranged one after another with the axis thereof being oriented in the width direction of the conveyor. The present invention relates to an apparatus for arranging and stacking cylindrical articles by arranging and stacking a certain number of such cylindrical articles so that they can be collectively transferred to, for example, a box by a suction transfer apparatus in the next step.

[Conventional technology]

A large number of cylindrical articles sent one after another are placed on the conveyor at intervals with their shafts oriented in the width direction of the conveyor. In the case of batch transfer into a box by a loading device, a plate or the like is provided close to the unloading end of the conveyor, and the cylindrical article is rolled from the conveyor, or pressed by a pusher to move the plate. A method of aligning and collecting them on the top has been used.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In such a method, the cylindrical articles are likely to roll and be easily transferred onto the plate, but the alignment is disturbed, and a change in the rolling power creates a gap between the cylindrical articles and cannot be accumulated. There was a problem that it was not possible to transfer all at once without re-aligning and collecting.

In particular, when a large-diameter portion is provided at one end of the cylindrical article, the large-diameter portion changes its direction to the small-diameter side, so that there is a problem that alignment is disturbed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to correctly align and accumulate cylindrical articles by reducing the rolling distance of the cylindrical articles.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a number of cylindrical articles placed on the conveyor at intervals with the shaft center oriented in the width direction of the conveyor, and successively align and accumulate the cylindrical articles. In a cylindrical article aligning / stacking device that instructs a batch transfer to a suction / transfer device of the next process when a certain number of aligned / accumulated items are collected, a carry-in pulley and a carry-out pulley whose upper portion is lower than the upper portion of the carry-in pulley. And a carrier roller capable of moving in the horizontal direction while holding an upper portion substantially in the same height as an upper portion of the carry-in side pulley while being in contact with the belt while winding a belt narrower than the length of the cylindrical article. Provided, a pair of guide rails narrower than the length of the cylindrical article, on both sides of the belt between the carry-in pulley and the carrier roller, lower than the belt and higher than the discharge-side pulley. It is arranged horizontally, and a sensor for confirming a cylindrical article which moves together with the carrier roller and detects a cylindrical article at a position in front of the carrier roller on the guide rail is provided, and is provided near a moving path of the carrier roller. A position detecting sensor for detecting the carrier roller at a predetermined position on the moving path, and the carrier roller is turned on when the sensor for confirming the cylindrical article detects the cylindrical article on the guide rail. A control device is provided for retreating and instructing the suction transfer device of the next step to perform batch transfer when the position detection sensor detects the carrier roller.

(Operation)

In the apparatus for aligning and collecting cylindrical articles configured as described above, first, the cylindrical articles sent from the upstream conveyor are placed on the belt at intervals and sent to the unloading side.

When there is no cylindrical article on the guide rail, the carrier roller is at the forward end, and when the cylindrical article comes to the position of the carrier roller, i.e., just before the forefront of the stacking position on the guide rail, it is lower than the belt from this carrier roller. After being transferred to the guide rail, the carrier roller is slightly retracted by the control device while the sensor for confirming the cylindrical article does not detect the cylindrical article.

Then, when the next cylindrical article is carried to the above-mentioned retracted carrier roller, it is transferred to the guide rail in the same manner as described above, but this position is a position in contact with the foremost cylindrical article.

In this way, by retracting the carrier roller while checking the cylindrical article on the guide rail until the carrier roller is at a predetermined position, a certain number of cylindrical articles on the belt are aligned on the guide rail. As they accumulate, the cylindrical articles are transferred onto the guide rails almost without rolling, and are aligned and accumulated.

Then, when a predetermined number of cylindrical articles are transferred on the guide rail, the position detecting sensor detects the carrier roller, whereby the instruction for batch transfer to the suction transfer apparatus in the next process is issued by the control device. Done. Note that the suction transfer device sends the accumulated cylindrical articles into a box or the like.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 shows a front view of a blood collection tube A which is a cylindrical article, and a rubber lid 2 is provided at an opening provided on one side of the glass tube 1.
The small diameter part is press-fitted.

The large-diameter portion of the lid 2 is slightly larger than the diameter of the glass tube, and in a conventional aligning / stacking device, the lid 2 rolls during transfer to disturb the alignment.

FIG. 4 shows a state in which a predetermined number of blood collection tubes A conveyed by a conveyor device B are aligned and collected by a predetermined number, and the suction transfer device (FIG.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an alignment and stacking device D which is collectively transferred into a box C by a not shown in the drawing).

As shown in the front view of FIG. 1 and the perspective view of FIG. 2, the sorting and accumulating apparatus D has a carry-out pulley 4 at a position lower than a carry-in pulley 3.
The belt 7 is wound around the carry-out pulley 4, the idle pulley 5, and the tension pulley 6.

The surface of the belt 7 is a friction surface having small irregularities so that the cylindrical blood collection tube A does not roll during transportation and disturb the arrangement. Note that, as shown in FIG. 2, the width of the belt 7 is smaller than the length of the blood collection tube A.

Inside the belt 7 is a bed 8 having a horizontal sliding surface.
A carriage 9 is slidably provided in the conveying direction of the belt 7 on which a carrier roller 10 is pivotally mounted on the upper end of the carriage 9.

The upper part of the carrier roller 10 is substantially the same height as the upper part of the carry-in side pulley 3, and the carriage 9 has a cylindrical article made of a transmission type photo sensor located on both sides of the belt 7 in front of the upper part of the carrier roller 10. A confirmation sensor 11 is provided.

At the end of the bed 8, a command is given to the carriage control device 12, and the carriage 9 is provided via a screw shaft provided on the bed 8 and a nut provided on the carriage 9 and screwed to the screw shaft. Is mounted.

In the vicinity of the pulley 3 side of the bed 8 on the carry-in side, a retreat limit sensor 14 for detecting a retreat limit position of the carrier roller 10 and a position of the carrier roller 10 when a predetermined number of cylindrical articles are aligned and collected. Position detection sensor
15 are provided.

A proximity sensor is used for both the retreat limit sensor 14 and the constant position detection sensor 15. The retreat limit sensor 14 and the position detection sensor 15 move the detected member 16 attached to the carriage 9 to the proximity position. Is to be detected. The detected member 16 is formed by a male screw that is screwed into a screw hole provided in the carriage 9 so that the position can be adjusted.

The carriage 9 moves forward to the left until the cylindrical article confirmation sensor 11 detects the cylindrical article, and moves backward until the detected member 16 is detected by the position detection sensor 15.

On both sides of the belt 7, guide rails 18 having an upper surface slightly lower than the upper surface of the belt 7 and having a stopper 18a at the left end are provided.

Above the guide rail 18, a transfer device E for collectively transferring the blood collection tubes A aligned and accumulated on the guide rail 18 in the next step is provided.

Then, when the position detecting sensor 15 detects the detected member 16, the control device 17 issues a transfer command to the suction transfer device E.

Next, the alignment and accumulation of the cylindrical articles by the alignment and accumulation device configured as described above will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3 (a), when there is no blood collection tube A, which is a cylindrical article, on the guide rail 18, the carrier roller 10 moves the sensor 11 for confirming the cylindrical article to the front of the bed 8. At the position, the belt 7 from the carry-in pulley 3 to the carrier roller 10 is slightly higher than the guide rail 18, and the belt 7 travels in the direction of arrow F,
The blood collection tubes A transferred from the previous process are sent one after another while maintaining an interval.

Blood collection tubes A ₁ for cutting-edge, the belt surface through the carrier roller 10 is transferred onto the guide rail 18 when the lower.

This transfer position is a position in contact with the stopper 18a (see FIG. 3 (b)).

Next, (see FIG. 3 (c)) confirmation sensor 11 of the cylindrical article is retracted until the carrier roller 10 is the right no longer detect the blood collection tube A _1, the following blood collection tube A ₂ carrier rollers 10 passes through the are transferred to the guide rail 18 in contact with the blood collection tube a ₁ state-of-the-art (see FIG. 3 (d)).

Next, (see FIG. 3 (e)) the carrier roller 10 to the confirmation sensor 11 of the cylindrical article can not detect the blood collection tube A ₂ is retracted to the right, in the same manner the following blood collection tube A Guide Each blood collection tube A is transferred onto the rail 18 and aligned on the guide rail 18 without any gap.

When a predetermined number of blood collection tubes A are transferred, the detected member 16 of the carriage 9 is detected by the position detecting sensor 15 and the control device 17
Is moved downward by the suction transfer device E,
The blood collection tubes A aligned and accumulated on 18 are adsorbed at once as they are, transported into the box C, and transferred collectively into the box C.

〔The invention's effect〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above,
The effects as described above are achieved.

Since the cylindrical articles are conveyed by the belt to a substantially aligned position on the guide rail, they are hardly rolled on the guide rail, and are thus accumulated without disturbing the alignment.

In particular, it is effective when aligning and accumulating cylindrical articles which are difficult to align and accumulate because they have one large-diameter portion like a blood collection tube.

In addition, since the carrier roller can move to the next transfer position at a high speed, it can be used for a belt that conveys a large number of cylindrical articles at a high speed.

Since the cylindrical article is transferred without receiving a pressing force or an impact force, it is suitable for aligning and collecting a cylindrical article which is easily broken like a glass tube.

 It can also be used for relatively heavy cylindrical articles.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a front view of an alignment and stacking apparatus, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the same, FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the aligning / accumulating device and the devices before and after it, and FIG. 5 is a front view of the blood collection tube. A: Blood collection tube, B: Conveyor, C: Box, D: Alignment / stacking device, E: Adsorption / transfer device, 3: Load-in pulley, 4 ... Pull-out pulley, 7: Belt, 10… Carrier roller, 11… Sensor for checking cylindrical articles,
15… Position detection sensor, 16 …… Detected member, 17 ……
Control device, 18 …… guide rail.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] When a large number of cylindrical articles placed on a conveyor are aligned one after another with their axes oriented in the width direction of the conveyor, and a certain number of the cylindrical articles are aligned and collected. In an alignment and stacking apparatus for cylindrical articles for instructing batch transfer to a suction and transfer apparatus in the next step, the cylindrical pulley includes a carry-in pulley and a carry-out pulley having an upper portion lower than the upper portion of the carry-in pulley. A cylindrical roller that winds around a belt having a width smaller than the length, and is provided with a carrier roller that is inscribed in the belt and that can move in the horizontal direction while maintaining an upper portion having substantially the same height as an upper portion of the carry-in pulley; A pair of guide rails having a smaller interval than the length of the belt between the carry-in side pulley and the carrier roller are disposed substantially horizontally below the belt and above the carry-out side pulley on both sides of the belt; A sensor for confirming a cylindrical article that moves together with the carrier roller and detects a cylindrical article at a position in front of the carrier roller on the guide rail is provided, and a predetermined position of the movement path is determined near the movement path of the carrier roller. A position detecting sensor for detecting the carrier roller at a position where the carrier roller is retracted, when the sensor for confirming the cylindrical article detects the cylindrical article on the guide rail, the carrier roller is retracted, and the position detecting sensor is provided. A controller for instructing the suction transfer device in the next step to perform batch transfer when detecting the carrier roller.