JP3505092B2 - Automatic tray feeding 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 tray feeder for automatically feeding food packaging trays made of synthetic resin, foamed resin, paper, etc., one by one onto a conveyor in a food packaging line. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A tray for packaging food such as prepared foods and confectionery is made of thin synthetic resin, foamed resin, paper or the like. In an automated line that automatically puts food in these trays, there is an automatic tray feeding device that peels off a large number of trays one by one and places them on a conveyor.

Conventionally, the tray automatic feeder is provided with a tray support consisting of claws, plate pieces and the like for supporting the flange portions (ears or collars, eaves) of the lowermost tray stacked in a hopper for stacking and accommodating trays. The trays at the bottom end are pulled down or sent out one by one. As this withdrawal means, the tray support tool is taken in and out from the flange part of the tray and dropped one by one, the elastic body is pressed against the side surface of the tray, and the tray is rubbed against the elastic body by rotating the elastic body downward. There is a method in which the tray is dropped downward (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-278726), and a method in which the bottom surface of the tray is adsorbed by a vacuum pad or the like and peeled.

Recently, since trays are disposable, they adversely affect the natural environment, and economically,
In addition, the tray is becoming thinner and thinner because it is technically thin and durable.
For this reason, in the conventional automatic tray feeder, the stacked trays are stacked in close contact with each other, so it is easy to maximize due to the semi-vacuum state in the contact area of the trays and static electricity generated in the trays. Since it is difficult to peel off only the lower tray, there are problems that several sheets are taken out in an overlapping manner and the flange portion of the tray is damaged when peeling.

Further, the one that adsorbs the bottom of the tray is
There is a problem in that the bottom of the tray is molded into a shape that fits the food in order to fix the food, or a tray having irregularities to maintain the strength of the tray itself cannot adsorb.

[0006] In addition, many thick trays such as those made of Styrofoam are trays having no flange portion or trays having a slight flange portion. In these trays, the flange portions of the stacked trays are not supported. If you try to drop the bottom end tray of the tray supported by the tray support downward by the scraping device, the tray made of Styrofoam is fragile and the scraping teeth bite into the tray. There is a problem that the tray is damaged or broken.

In the conventional device for supporting the stacked trays with the claws and inserting the claws into the flange portion to separate the claws one by one, the mechanism for alternately advancing and retracting the upper claw and the lower claw is complicated. Since the shape and thickness of the trays change depending on the food to be packaged and the timing cannot be taken accurately, the stacking pitch (spacing) of the stacked trays changes variously depending on the tray type. There is a problem that only a limited number of trays can be used because some of the trays do not come into contact between the trays and cannot be supported or separated from each other.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention supports tray flanges of stacked trays, and the tray flange is provided with a member that rotates the side surface of the tray below the support. By pushing in a direction away from the support of the trays, the trays at the bottom of the stacked trays are deformed into a curved shape and close contact with the trays at the top is lifted up, and at the same time, the deformation of the trays causes the flanges of the trays at the bottom to be Since the parts come off the support of the trays, we devised a device that automatically peels the bottommost trays of the stacked trays one by one and drops them downward.

However, in the case where the tray has a shallow bottom with respect to the width of the flange of the tray, if the trajectory of the tip of the member that rotates and pushes the side surface of the tray is circular, the tip of the member becomes the flange of the tray. The tray side cannot be pushed because it does not hit the side of the tray, and it is not possible to remove one of the bottom of the stacking trays. Even if you try to peel off one sheet from the tray, the weight of the tray is light or the tray is thin, so the peeling force becomes a local force and only a part of the tray peels off, and the uneven part of the bottom There is a problem in that it does not come off and it comes into close contact, and it does not fall due to static electricity or friction between the trays.

Therefore, by making the locus of the tip of the member for pushing the side surface of the tray oval, the tip of the member passes through the flange portion of the tray and pushes the side surface of the tray so that the tray with a shallow bottom can be stripped off. It is an object of the present invention to provide the above-mentioned trays and those in which it is difficult to separate the upper and lower trays so that the upper and lower trays can be peeled off by blowing air.

Further, even if the tray has no flange portion, the tray made of styrene foam is fragile, so that the thickness of the tray must be increased. Therefore, if trays made in a predetermined shape are stacked, the thickness of the tray is increased. Because of the large thickness, the stacking pitch becomes long, and the draft surface on the side surface of the tray appears widely. In view of the above, the present invention supports the draft surface of the side surface of the tray and slides the side surface of the tray along the inclination of the support member to move it downward to take out the bottommost trays one by one and damage them. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that allows the device to drop downward without moving.

In the device for separating the trays one by one with the pawls, the upper and lower pawls are alternately moved forward and backward at precise timing by mechanical means, and the stacking pitches of the stacked trays are different from each other. The object of the present invention is to provide a tray which can be widely adapted to put a claw between the trays and which can freely change the interval between the upper and lower claws.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a pair of movable bodies whose intervals can be freely adjusted according to the size of the tray, and each tray is provided with a predetermined tray. A plurality of tray supports for supporting a position guide plate and flanges of the stacked trays are provided.

A tray peeling member that rotates while pressing the side surface of the tray below the tray support is provided. The peeling member is a flat plate or a rod-shaped member made of a material that is rigid enough to push the tray and temporarily deform it into a curve, and is radially attached to the rotating shaft with a predetermined length.

The rotating shaft to which the tray stripping member is attached is rotated by a planetary gear mechanism attached to a planetary gear that rotates around the sun gear to make the trajectory of the tip of the tray stripping member elliptical.

With the above configuration, the tray flange is hooked on the bent tip of the tray support to place the stacked trays.

Thereafter, the bottom of the tray peeling member is pushed by pushing the side surface of the tray below the tray supporting member that supports the tray at the tip portion of the tray peeling member in the direction of removing the tray flange portion from the tray supporting member. And the sides are temporarily deformed into a curve.

Due to this deformation, the contact between the tray at the bottom end and the tray stacked on top of it is released, and the tray stacked at the top is lifted by sliding due to the inclination of the tray side, and the tray at the bottom end Peel off the stack. After that, the tray flange portion is removed from the tray support by the rotation of the tray peeling member, the tray is peeled off downward, and the tray flanges are placed one by one on the conveyor provided below.

Since the planetary gear mechanism rotates accurately without slack, the tip of the tray peeling member can draw an accurate elliptical locus, and even a tray with a shallow bottom relative to the width of the flange portion of the tray can be used. The tip of the peeling member does not come into contact with the flange portion of the tray, but it penetrates under the flange and pushes the side surface of the tray to deform the tray into a curved shape, while scraping it downward.

An air injection nozzle is provided between the tray supports so that the tray peeling member pushes the gap between the tray at the lowermost end to be peeled from the stacked trays and the tray stacked on the tray. Air was jetted so that the bottom tray was peeled off and dropped.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The front, back, left and right, and the top and bottom of the device are as shown in the figure. As shown in FIG. 1, when the flanges of the trays 1 stacked at the tip of the L-shaped tray support tool 2 are supported, and when both side surfaces of the tray 1 are pushed by the rotating tray peeling member 3, the tray 1 Is deformed to allow air to enter the upper and lower contact portions of the tray 1, and due to the inclination of the side surface of the tray 1 due to the draft formed at the time of tray molding, the trays 1 stacked on the bottommost tray 1 slide up and float up. It will be in a state of being.

Then, the force for pushing the both side surfaces of the tray 1 must be supported by one tray 1.
The tray 1 is deformed more and more, the flange portion of the tray 1 is disengaged from the tray support tool 2, and the tray peeling member 3 is rotated to scrape the tray 1 downward so that the trays 1 are stacked.
Then, the tray 1 at the bottom end is peeled off and dropped downward. Since the tray 1 is detached from the tray peeling member 3 during the fall, the tray 1 returns to its original shape by the elasticity of the tray 1 itself and is placed on the conveyor.

As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of left and right movable bodies 4 whose intervals can be freely adjusted according to the size of the tray 1 is provided. The movable body 4 is located below the hopper, which is a guide plate for guiding the stacked trays 1, and supports two tray supports 2 and two tray supports 2 for supporting the front and rear direction of the flange of the tray 1 at a predetermined interval. The tray peeling member 3 is provided below the tray. Since two tray supports 2 are attached to each of the left and right movable bodies 4, the tray 1 is supported by the tray supports 2 at four places on the flange portion.

As shown in FIG. 3, a pair of left and right movable bodies 4
Are attached to the threaded rods 5 each having a forward thread on the tip and a reverse thread on the proximal side. For example, the right movable body 4 is attached to the positive screw portion, and the left movable body 4 is attached to the reverse screw portion. A handle 6 for rotating the screw rod 5 is provided at the front end of the screw rod 5, and when the handle 6 is rotated in the forward or reverse direction, the movable body 4 moves in the left-right direction with the middle of the left-right movable body 4 as an axis of symmetry. Then they move by widening or narrowing the space between them. The screw rods 5 are attached to the front and rear of the movable body 4 in order to balance the movement of the movable body 4 in the front-rear direction, and the rotation of the handle 6 is simultaneously transmitted to the front and rear screw rods 5 by the transmission means of the bevel gear and the shaft. It has become.

Since the size of the tray 1 is variously changed, the distance between the tray supporting members 2 provided on the movable body 4 is set to the tray 1.
Must be changed according to the width of the. Therefore, since the width between the left and right sides of the tray support 2 and the tray stripping member 3 attached to the pair of left and right movable bodies 4 can be changed by moving the movable body 4, the handle 6 is rotated to move the movable body 4. Was moved so that the space between the left and right tray supports 2 was adjusted to the width of the tray 1.

As shown in FIG. 4, the left and right movable bodies 4 are each provided with a planetary gear mechanism for rotating the tray peeling member 3. The planetary gear mechanism includes an internal gear 7 that serves as a sun gear, and a planetary gear 8 that meshes with the internal teeth of the internal gear 7 to rotate and rotate while revolving. The tray peeling member 3 is attached to the rotary shafts 9 of the left and right planetary gears 8. Power of the same rotation is transmitted to the left and right planetary gears 8 by transmission of gears from a power source.

As shown in FIG. 5, since the tip of the tray peeling member 3 has a predetermined length from the rotation shaft 9 of the planetary gear 8, the planetary gear that rolls the inner peripheral teeth of the internal gear 7 is used. Gear 8
Even if the rotation of the internal gear 7 is circular rotation, the tip of the tray peeling member 3 is directed to the inside of the internal gear 7 at the upper and lower ends of the internal gear 7, and the left and right inner circumferences of the internal gear 7 are rotated. At the end, when the planetary gear 8 is caused to make a planetary motion with the tip of the tray peeling member 3 facing the outside of the internal gear 7, the trace of the tip of the tray peeling member 3 has a difference between the major axis and the minor axis in the planetary gear. It becomes an elliptical shape having twice the diameter of the revolution of 8.

Therefore, when the side surface of the tray 1 is arranged in the major axis direction of the locus of the tip of the tray peeling member 3, the tray whose bottom is shallower than the width of the flange portion of the tray 1 by the length of the diameter of the revolution of the planetary gear 8 is provided. Even in No. 1, the tip of the tray peeling member 3 goes under the flange of the tray 1 and pushes the side surface of the tray 1,
The tray 1 is deformed into a curved shape, and the tray 1 at the bottom end is peeled from the stacked trays 1. The means for making the trail of the tip of the tray peeling member 3 into an elliptical shape can also use an ellipse formed by bridging a belt or a chain on two wheels.

As shown in FIG. 6, an injection nozzle that blows air toward the inside of the lower tray 1 from the gap between the upper and lower trays 1 caused by peeling near the intermediate portion of the tray support 2 before and after the movable body 4. 10 is provided. In the flat-bottomed tray 1, when the side surface of the tray 1 is pushed by the tray peeling member 3,
The bottom and side surfaces of the tray 1 are curved, air enters between the upper and lower trays 1, and the upper and lower trays 1 separate, but in the tray 1 having large unevenness on the bottom, the tray peeling member 3 causes the tray 1 to separate.
Even if you push the side of the, the bottom is strong due to the unevenness and does not bend. In addition, since the tray 1 is thin, it only bends near the portion where the tray 1 is pushed, so that air does not enter the bottom of the tray 1 and the upper and lower trays 1 cannot be completely released from contact with each other. Often the tray 1 of does not fall. Therefore, the air from the injection nozzle 10 is blown into the gap between the tray 1 at the lowermost end and the tray 1 stacked on the tray 1 caused by the curved side surface of the tray 1 to release the close contact between the upper and lower trays 1 and I tried to drop it.

As shown in FIG. 7, a pair of left and right movable bodies 4 whose intervals can be freely adjusted according to the width of the tray 1 is provided. The movable body 4 is provided with a hopper made of a guide plate for guiding the stacked trays 1. Each movable body 4 is provided with a transmission shaft 11 for transmitting the power for rotating the tray dropping member 12 from the power source, and the transmission shaft 11 is spaced apart from the transmission shaft 11.
Attach the tray drop member 12.

Each of the pair of movable bodies 4 is moved to move the movable body 4.
The intervals of the tray dropping members 12 provided on each of the transmission shafts 11 provided in the above are adjusted to the width of the tray 1. Since two trays are attached to the transmission shafts 11 provided on the left and right movable bodies 4 on the tray dropping member 12, when the stacked trays 1 are loaded from the hopper, the four trays on the side surface of the tray 1 at the bottom end of the stacked trays 1 are placed. It is supported in place by a tray drop member 12.

As shown in FIG. 8, the tray dropping member 12 is provided with helical teeth 13 having spiral ridges at one end of the rotary shaft and a helical gear 14 at the other end of the rotary shaft. The helical gear 14 provided on the tray dropping member 12 is the transmission shaft 11
The rotation of the transmission shaft 11 is transmitted to the tray dropping member 12 by meshing with the helical gear 14 provided on the tray dropping member 12 to rotate.

As shown in FIG. 9 (a), when the stacked trays 1 are placed on the tray dropping member 12, the spiral type teeth 13 of the tray dropping member 12 are stacked at the bottom end of the tray 1. The draft surfaces on the side surfaces are abutted and supported. As shown in FIG. 9B, when the tray dropping member 12 is rotated, the spiral teeth 13 contacting the side surface of the tray 1 are rotated,
The contact portion on the side surface of the tray 1 moves downward while sliding along the spiral inclination of the mountain of the spiral tooth 13.

As shown in FIG. 9 (c), the tray 1 at the lowermost end of the trays 1 piled up at the terminal end of the spiral which is the part where the spiral tooth 13 is discontinued loses the support of the tray dropping member 12. It falls, is placed on a belt conveyor, and moves to a predetermined place. At this time, since the tray 1 on the lowermost tray 1 of the stacked trays 1 is supported by the spiral starting ends of the spiral teeth 13, only the lowermost tray 1 of the stacked trays 1 is It falls out of the stack and falls.

As shown in FIG. 10, upper claws 15 and lower claws 16 for supporting the flanges of the stacked trays 1 are provided, and upper and lower racks 17, 18 are provided behind the upper claws 15 and the lower claws 16, respectively. ,
A pinion 19 that rotates forward and backward is engaged and installed between the upper and lower racks 17 and 18. The pinion 19 is provided with a link 22 that rotates the pinion 19 forward and backward, and a rotating body 23 and an arm 21 that make the link 22 move in an arc. The rotating body 23 receives power from a power source such as a motor through a power transmission mechanism such as a gear and rotates.

By the rotation of the rotating body 23, the arm 21 attached to the rotating body 23 performs a crank motion to change the rotary motion to the circular arc motion, and one end of the link 22 mounted on the arm 21 is circularly moved. Pinion attached to the other end of link 22
Since the link 22 rotates forward and backward due to the circular movement of the link 22, the upper and lower racks 17, 18 meshing with the pinion 19 alternately move forward and backward with respect to the tray 1.

The upper and lower racks 17 and 18 and the pinion 19 are attached to a claw mount 24. The left and right claw mounts 24 are attached to the left and right movable bodies 4, and the left and right claws 15 and 16 are aligned with the width of the tray 1 by moving the movable body 4 left and right, and the flange portion of the tray 1 is moved to the left and right. It is designed to be supported by the claws 15 and 16.

As shown in FIG. 11, the racks 17 and 18 slide forward and backward in the rack case 20 provided on the claw mount 24. A spring 25 is provided between the upper and lower rack cases 20,
The upper rack case 20 has an adjusting screw that expands and contracts the spring 25.
26 is provided. The racks 17 and 18 are always urged in the opening direction by the spring 25. However, since the force of the spring 25 is received by the adjusting screw 26, the racks 17 and 18 and the pinion 19 attached to the claw mount 24 move forward, The distance between the upper claw 15 and the lower claw 16 that retracts can be adjusted because the spring 25 expands and contracts when the adjusting screw 26 is turned in and out to change the distance between the upper and lower racks 17, 18.

The stacking pitch of tray 1 is tray 1
The upper and lower claws 15 and 16 are stacked on top of the flange of the tray 1 and the upper part thereof by adjusting the spacing between the upper and lower claws 15 and 16 by adjusting screws 26 according to the stacking pitch of each tray 1. The tray 1 is inserted between the tray 1 and the flange of the tray 1, and the tray 1 on the lowermost end of the stacked trays 1 is supported by the upper claw 15. The tips of the claws 15 and 16 are wedge-shaped and incline downward toward the top, and the upper claw 15 is the upper and lower trays 1.
The upper tray 1 is picked up by separating it between the flanges and the upper and lower trays 1 are separated.

As shown in FIG. 12 (a), when the pinion 19 rotates forward to move the upper rack 17 backward and the lower rack 18 advances, the lower claw 16 at the tip of the lower rack 18 advances to stack the stacks. The flange portion of the tray 1 at the lowermost end of the tray 1 is supported.

As shown in FIG. 12B, when the pinion 19 is rotated in the reverse direction to move the upper rack 17 forward and the lower rack 18 is moved backward, the upper claw 15 at the tip of the upper rack 17 moves forward and is stacked. Further, the upper and lower trays 1 are separated from each other by separating between the flange of the tray 1 at the lowermost end of the tray 1 and the flange of the tray 1 above it, and the flange portion of the tray 1 above is supported.

At the same time, since the lower rack 18 moves backward,
The lower claw 16 is also retracted, and the lower claw 16 is disengaged from the flange portion of the lowermost tray 1 supported by the lower claw 16 and the lowermost tray 1 is dropped. In this way, the stacked trays 1 are separated one by one, dropped, placed on a belt conveyor and moved, and food is put in the trays.

[0043]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following effects. I was able to reliably remove one tray from the stacked trays and place it on the conveyor. Suitable for a wide range of thin and complicated tray shapes. With the automatic tray feeding with the spiral type teeth, the trays are supported sideways and dropped one by one, so that trays without flanges or fragile trays can be automatically fed. Since the distance between the upper and lower claws can be adjusted, they can be separated according to the thickness of various trays. In addition, the simple mechanism of the rack and pinion makes it easy to handle.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing a process of peeling a tray of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an internal mechanism of a movable body.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing opening / closing of a movable body by a handle.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an arrangement of planetary gear mechanisms.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a trajectory of a tray peeling blade that is rotated by a planetary gear mechanism.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a mounting state of an injection nozzle.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a mounted state of a tray dropping member.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing a structure of a tray dropping member and a rotation mechanism.

FIG. 9 is a schematic explanatory view showing a tray dropping process by the tray dropping member.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing a tray separating mechanism using upper and lower claws.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing a claw mount having upper and lower racks for operating the upper and lower claws and a pinion.

FIG. 12 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a process of dropping the tray by the upper and lower claws.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 tray 2 tray support 3 Tray peeling member 4 movable body 5 screw rod 6 handles 7 Internal gear 8 planetary gears 9 rotation axis 10 injection nozzle 11 Transmission shaft 12 Tray dropping member 13 spiral teeth 14 helical gear 15 Upper nail 16 Lower nail 17 Upper rack 18 Lower rack 19 Pinion 20 rack case 21 arms 22 links 23 rotating body 24 claw mount 25 spring 26 Adjustment screw

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Akira Takai 6 559 Kitano-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo Inside the Fisheries Technology Center of Japan Fisheries Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-3-133717 (JP, A) -66923 (JP, U) Actual flat 4-3906 (JP, U) Actual flat 1-91708 (JP, U) Actual 57-196606 (JP, U) JP-B 33-7138 (JP, B1) ) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65B 43/00 B65G 59/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pair of movable bodies (4) whose spacing can be freely adjusted according to the size of the tray (1) is provided, and the flanges of the trays (1) stacked on each movable body (4) are supported. a plurality of trays support (2) and the tray support tray peel TECHNICAL member (3) that rotates while side is deformed by pressing below the tray (1) in (2) is provided for, the tray pull
The stripping member (3) is an internal gear 7 and an internal gear that are sun gears.
Rolls while rotating and revolving by meshing with the inner peripheral teeth of 7
Planetary gears of planetary gear mechanism consisting of planetary gears (8) (8)
It has a predetermined length from the rotating shaft (9) of
When the position of (8) is the upper and lower ends of the internal gear (7), the tray is peeled off.
Direct the tip of the gear member (3) to the inside of the internal gear (7),
At the left and right ends of the toothed gear (7), the tip of the tray peeling member (3)
Install the end so that it faces the outside of the internal gear (7), and
A tray that pushes the side of the tray (1) attached to the axle of the car 7.
Make the trajectory of the tip of the peeling member (3) into an elliptical shape.
By rotating, the tray peeling member (3)
Remove the bottom tray (1) from the stacked trays (1)
An automatic tray feeder that drops onto a take-conveyor . 2. A jet nozzle (10) for dropping the lowermost tray (1) of the trays (1) supported and stacked by the tray support (2) downward by jet air. The tray automatic feeder according to claim 1.