JP3475633B2 - Small article monitor - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a monitor for inspecting contamination of small articles delivered from a radiation-controlled area to a non-controlled area before the delivery, and particularly to a small article that has been inspected in the non-controlled area. The present invention relates to a small article monitor in which trays are automatically returned so that an exiter does not have to take the trouble of returning the loading tray to the original loading position after receiving it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional example will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of a conventional example, and FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a tray movement path in the conventional example. Tools brought out by people leaving the radiation controlled area,
Small articles such as measuring instruments, documents, notebooks, etc. (not shown) on the loading conveyor 31 of FIG.
Placed on. This small article is operated by an exiting person (details will be described later in an embodiment according to the invention), and after the entrance door (not shown) is fully opened, the loading conveyor 31
Then, it is carried into the monitor chamber 3 through an indoor conveyor (not shown), and the presence or absence of contamination is inspected from the front, rear, left, right, and top directions. As a result of the inspection, if the small articles are not contaminated, after the outlet door is fully opened, the small articles are carried out to the non-controlled area on the back side through the indoor conveyor and the subsequent carry-out conveyor.
One evacuee receives the small articles being carried out after the inspection of the body surface contamination of the other person is completed by another monitor. The tray that has been emptied by the receipt of small items is shown in Figure 7.
As shown in FIG. 5, after being carried by the leaving person and returned to the front side through the chute 33, it is carried by the next leaving person onto the input conveyor 31 for placing small articles.

[0003] In Fig. 7, the conventional example has a large rectangular dashed line, the monitor chamber 3 are respectively shown by small rectangular with a dashed line. An indoor conveyor 8 is installed on the bottom of the monitor room 3.
A loading conveyor 31 and a unloading conveyor 32 are installed in the front and rear stages, respectively. A cylindrical chute 33 is provided next to the conveyor group on the right. The inspected small articles carried out on the carry-out conveyor 32 are received, and the empty tray is carried by the exiter as shown by the curved arrow and is thrown in from the entrance 34 of the chute 33. The tray slides down by its own weight along the inclined surface of the chute 33, and is returned from the outlet 35 to the lower portion on the front surface side. In order to place the returned tray on the loading conveyor 31, the next leaving person is troubled. In addition, the input conveyor 31 and the indoor conveyor 32 can be transported in the forward and reverse directions as shown by the arrows.
Corresponds to the regular progress operation and the return operation when there is a pollution abnormality. Further, the front side of the vertical plane passing through the connection point between the indoor conveyor 8 and the carry-out conveyor 32 is the radiation control area, and the other side is the non-control area.

[0004]

In the conventional example, since the chute 33 is used for returning the tray, there is an advantage that the structure of the conveying means is simple, but on the other hand, the small articles which have been inspected in the non-controlled area for the leaving person. The burden of returning the tray to the original loading position after receiving the articles, that is, the two exiters in the front and rear, respectively, from above the carry-out conveyor 32 to the entrance 34 of the chute 33 and from the exit 35 of the chute 33 to the loading conveyor. There is a drawback that it takes up to 31 to carry each tray.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above problems of the prior art by automatically inserting the tray after receiving the small articles inspected in the non-controlled area. (EN) Provided is a small article monitor which is returned to a place so that an exiting person is not burdened with it.

[0006]

Invention of claim 1 [SUMMARY OF] is a monitor for checking contamination of small articles to be unloaded from the controlled area according to <br/> lines radiate in a non-controlled area before the unloading A tray for mounting small articles; a door for entrance and exit, and a monitor room having a detector for detecting contamination of small articles; a loading conveyor located in the front stage of the entrance door capable of mounting one of each tray And a conveyor group consisting of an indoor conveyor located in the monitor room, a carry-out conveyor located downstream of the exit door, and a return conveyor that can place a plurality of trays side by side and that is interposed between the carry-out conveyor and the loading conveyor. Prepare,
Nbeya group is disposed in an annular form to bypass along the street a horizontal plane the periphery of the internal monitor chamber, also the throw input conveyor and the monitor chamber controlled area, the conveyor returns out conveyor is in a non-controlled area it characterized in that it belongs to each.

[0007]

Further, in the invention of claim 1, a sensor for measuring the height of the small article before the inspection; a vertical position at the time of detection of the upper surface contamination detection part in the detector based on the output of this sensor, and this and (claim comprising; entrance doors, and a control unit determining a respective opening when small article passes outlet door
2 invention) , or a sensor for measuring the height of a small article before inspection; based on the output of this sensor, the vertical positioning when the upper surface contamination detection part of the detector is detected, and the small article of the exit door determines the degree of opening at the time of passage, the inlet door and a control unit for fully open when small article passes; Ru with a (claim
Invention of 3)) is preferable.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the small articles taken out from the radiation control area and placed on the tray are sent to the monitor room by the input conveyor and the indoor conveyor to be inspected for contamination, and if the inspection result is normal. , Carried out by indoor conveyor and carry-out conveyor. The small articles that have been carried out will be placed on a tray and will be waiting for the leaving person to pick them up.While waiting for the receipt, the small articles will be carried out one after another so that subsequent inspections can be continued. And can stay on the return conveyor. Sequentially from the top of the tray that was empty from the beginning on the return conveyor, or the small items that were inspected were received and became empty,
It is returned to the loading conveyor (input location) and used for loading small articles.

[0010]

In any of the above cases, based on the height measurement of the small articles before the inspection, each opening of the entrance door and the exit door at the passage of the small articles is set to the minimum necessary through the control unit. ,
The vertical positioning at the time of detection of the upper surface contamination detection part of the detector is determined so that the inspection can be properly performed. Also, in another method in which the entrance door is fully opened regardless of the height of the small article, the entrance door is fully opened even while the small article that was initially loaded is being carried into the monitor room together with the tray. , It is possible to add another small article that has been forgotten to be placed on the tray.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION As embodiments of the present invention, two embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of the first embodiment. In this first embodiment,
The conveyor group is annularly arranged so as to pass through the monitor chamber 3 and circumscribe the outer periphery thereof along a horizontal plane, and a tray for placing small articles is circulated by the conveyor group. The small article 1 (indicated by the alternate long and short dash line) placed on the tray 2 located at the loading position on the front surface is transported to the subsequent monitor chamber 3 for contamination inspection. If the result of inspection is normal, the small article 1 is carried out to the back side and received by the exiting person who carried it out. The empty tray 2 is automatically returned to the original loading position by the conveyor group. Regarding the conveyor group, only the return conveyor 13 is shown in FIG. 1, but the overall arrangement and the like will be described later with reference to FIG. On the entrance side operation panel 9 at the upper part of the front, a color liquid crystal display and a speaker for explaining the operation procedure with a screen and voice, a key for setting and inputting the type and number of small articles 1, etc. Start measurement)
A switch and the like are provided. Although not visible in this figure, a similar exit-side operation panel is also installed on the rear side, and displays the inspection result and the details of the abnormality together with the operation guide. Further, the monitor chamber 3 is provided with an entrance door and an exit door in front of and behind it, an indoor conveyor at the bottom, and a detector for measuring contamination inside. There are detectors for measuring internal contamination and surface contamination of small articles 1. For example, the former is a plastic scintillation type for (γ + β) rays, which is installed below the indoor conveyor 8, and the latter is a plastic scintillation for β rays. According to the formula, it is installed so that it can be measured from the front, rear, left, right, up, and down 6 directions when viewed from the traveling direction. It should be noted that each of the contamination detecting portions on the inside and the bottom is combined and integrated, and the detecting portions from the front and rear can be moved up and down according to the progress of the small article 1, for example, an entrance door and an exit door. Is installed inside.
Further, the upper surface (contamination) detection unit is positioned in the vertical direction according to the height of the small article 1 so as to obtain appropriate sensitivity.
The opening degrees of the entrance door and the exit door and the positioning of the upper surface detection unit will be described later with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the conveyor group in the first embodiment. The conveyor group includes an input conveyor 11 that can be independently driven, an indoor conveyor 8 of the monitor chamber 3 (see FIG. 1), an unloading conveyor 12, and a return conveyor 13.
(Consisting of each conveyor 13a, 13b, 13c),
These are arranged so as to functionally circulate. The arrow of each conveyor indicates the conveying direction, the forward and backward arrows are roller conveyors that can be rotated forward and backward, and the double-headed arrow that is at right angles is a roller conveyor and a belt conveyor that can be moved up and down. It is a well-known composite conveyor consisting of and. The input conveyor 11 and the indoor conveyor 8 can be transported in the forward and reverse directions because it is necessary to return the small articles 1 inspected when they are abnormal (contaminated). Input conveyor 1
1, the conveyors 13a and 13c of the carry-out conveyor 12 and the return conveyor 13 can be conveyed in two directions at right angles to circulate and convey the small articles 1. The tray 2 on which the small articles 1 are placed is 1 for each conveyor in the conveyor group.
Although it is a rectangular shape that can be placed one by one, and is shown by a chain line in FIG. 2 only on the input conveyor 11, it is generally placed on the conveyor group in a distributed manner so that it can be circulated continuously up to a maximum of five.

The small article 1 taken out from the controlled area is
It is placed on the tray 2 on the loading conveyor 11, and is unloaded to the non-controlled area by the loading conveyor 11, the indoor conveyor 8 and the unloading conveyor 12. Small article 1 that was carried out
Waits for the leaving person to receive it while it is placed on the tray 2. However, even if the receipt is delayed due to some reason, for example, the examination of the body surface contamination of the leaving person, subsequent examinations To be able to continue without interruption,
Up to four can be retained on the carry-out conveyor 12 and the return conveyor 13. The tray 2 that has reached the conveyor 13c, which is the end of the return conveyor 13, on which the inspected small articles 1 are still placed is prevented from moving to the input conveyor 11, but the small articles 1 have been received by then. The emptied one is moved to the feeding conveyor 11 (returned to the original feeding position).

By the way, the input conveyor 11 and the monitor chamber 3
Since the (including the indoor conveyor 8) belongs to the control area and the other conveyors belong to the non-control area, a vertical partition wall shown by a thick line that bends into an S shape is provided as a boundary between the control area and the non-control area (FIG. 1). Not shown). Note that the return conveyor 13 may be disposed on the right side of the input conveyor 11 or the like for the sake of overall arrangement, and the return conveyor 13 is a unit having a trolley structure with casters so that the arrangement can be easily changed ( (See FIG. 1).

FIG. 3 is a side view of the periphery of the monitor chamber 3 in the first embodiment. In FIG. 3, the entrance door 4 of the monitor room 3
The outlet door 5 is initially closed at the broken line position, and is opened to the solid line position when the small articles 1 placed on the tray 2 pass through. The upper surface detection unit 6 initially moves up to the broken line position and is positioned at the solid line position during measurement. The opening degrees of the entrance door 4 and the exit door 5 are the sum of the height of the small article 1 and the necessary clearance, H + α = Ha
In addition, the positioning of the lower surface of the upper surface detection unit 6 is determined so that the distance from the upper surface of the small article 1 is δ that is appropriate for measurement.
Here, the height of the small article 1 is
It is measured in advance by the height sensor 7 provided on the upper part of the front surface. Thus, the small article 1 of the entrance door 4 and the exit door 5
Since each opening at the time of passage is set to the minimum necessary, unlike the conventional example in which the doors 4 and 5 are fully opened, the opening and closing time of each door 4 and 5 and the entire inspection time (the small article 1 is monitored The time in the chamber 3) can be shortened. Further, the vertical positioning at the time of detection of the upper surface detection unit 6 can be properly determined to improve the accuracy of the inspection.

Further, only the entrance door 4 is fully opened (indicated by a one-dot chain line) regardless of the height of the small article 1 in place of limiting the opening thereof to Ha as described above. Can be practical. The reason for this is that even if the small article 1 that was thrown in is being carried into the monitor chamber 3 together with the tray 2, the entrance door 4 is fully opened, so that it was forgotten to place it on the tray 2. Small articles can be added additionally, which means that the tray 2 for small articles can be added.
This is because it is practically convenient in view of the situation where many people forget to place it on the.

[0018]

[0019]

[0020]

[0021]

The operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the front and rear flow charts of FIGS. 4 and 5 . In Fig. 4, at step S1, to prepare a tray for small articles mounting the closing position, at step S2, to introduce a small article taken out from the management area of the radiation. In step S3, preparations for inspection, such as setting (registering) of the type and number of small articles and height measurement (automatic measurement by a height sensor) are performed. In step S4, the monitor chamber is empty, that is, the inspection of the previous small articles has been completed and is unloaded, and in the next step S5, the trays are not full in the carry-out conveyor and the return conveyor (see FIG. 2). When it is confirmed, the operation is started in step S6 (measurement start switch is turned on). Then, in step S7, the entrance door opens,
In step S8, small articles are loaded into the monitor room together with the tray, and in step S9, the entrance door is closed. here,
As described above, the opening degree of the entrance door is selected to be the minimum necessary value or the full opening value. Up to this point is the pre-stage operation.

[0023] In Fig. 5, in step S10, contamination monitoring of small articles is made, if the inspection result is normal in step S11, a series of steps from the unloading-receipt of subsequent small articles to trays of return DOO To be That is, through steps S12, S13, and S14, the exit door is opened, the monitor room is carried out, and the exit door is closed. It is determined that the tray has reached the return end position (step S16), and if the tray is empty (receipt of small articles) at that time, it is confirmed that there is no tray at the loading location (step S18), and the loading location is reached. It is moved so as to return it (step S20). From step S20, the process returns to the initial step S1 and a series of operations is repeated. Returning to step S17, if small articles still remain in the tray at the return end position, the small articles are temporarily stopped there (step S19) and waiting for receipt. Further, returning to step S11, if the inspection result is abnormal (contamination is present), a corresponding process is performed in step S21, for example, an abnormal display or alarm is issued by a screen display or voice to that effect, and an attendant enters the place where the relevant small article is put. After the return and the cleaning process are performed, the process returns to the initial step S1.

[0024]

According to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be expected. (1) A tray that has been emptied by receiving small items that have been inspected can be automatically returned to the loading place, and unlike the conventional case, the retreating person does not have to take the trouble of returning. In connection with this, it is possible to prevent the tray from being forgotten to be returned and to hinder the circulation of trays, and thus the smooth flow of inspection. (2) By leaving a plurality of inspected small articles on the return conveyor or the carry-out conveyor out of the annularly arranged conveyor group, the evacuee delayed the receipt of the small articles. Sometimes, the inconvenience that the subsequent inspection cannot be performed is improved. (3) Based on the height measurement of the small articles before the inspection, each opening of the entrance door and the exit door when passing the small articles is set to the minimum necessary, so the opening and closing time of each door and the total inspection time (small articles Time in the monitor room) can be shortened,
The vertical positioning at the time of detection of the upper surface contamination detection portion of the detector can be properly determined to improve the accuracy of inspection. (4) In particular, by adopting a system in which the entrance door is fully opened regardless of the height of small articles, the entrance door can be fully opened even when the loaded small articles are being carried into the monitor room together with the tray. Therefore, it is possible to add another small article that has been forgotten to be placed on the tray. This is practically convenient in view of the situation in which small articles are often left behind.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a first embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a conveyor group according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the vicinity of the monitor room in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first-stage operation in the first embodiment .
Out

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second-stage operation in the first embodiment .
Out

FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a tray movement route in a conventional example.

[Reference Numerals] 1 small article 2 trays 3 monitor chamber 4 inlet door 5 outlet door 6 top detector 7 height sensor 8 indoor conveyor 9 the operation panel 11 is turned on the conveyor 12 out conveyor 13 returns conveyors 13a, 13b, 13c conveyors

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Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A monitor for inspecting the contamination of small articles delivered from a radiation controlled area to a non-controlled area before the delivery, which comprises a tray for placing small articles; entrance and exit doors, and A monitor room having a detector for contamination of small articles; a loading conveyor in front of the entrance door, an indoor conveyor in the monitor room, and a carry-out conveyor in the rear step of the exit door, each of which can carry one tray ,and,
Conveyor consisting of a plurality of trays that can be placed side by side and a return conveyor interposed between the carry-out conveyor and the input conveyor.
Ya and groups; provided with, disposed annularly through its outer periphery an internal monitor chamber conveyor group in a manner that bypasses along a horizontal plane, until
And, projecting input conveyor and the monitor chamber is controlled area, small article monitor the conveyor return out conveyor is characterized in that respectively belong to the non-controlled area. 2. The monitor according to claim 1, before inspection.
A sensor for measuring the height of small articles in
Based on the force, when detecting the top surface contamination detection part of the detector
Vertical positioning and small articles for entrance and exit doors
And a control unit that determines each opening degree when passing through;
Small article monitor. 3. The monitor according to claim 1, which is before inspection.
A sensor for measuring the height of small articles in
Based on the force, when detecting the top surface contamination detection part of the detector
Vertical positioning and when exiting small articles at the exit door
Control to set the opening and fully open the entrance door when passing small items
And a small article monitor.