JP4156661B2 - Combination weighing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a combination weighing device that manually loads articles into a plurality of hoppers and performs combination weighing based on the weight of the articles in each hopper.

  Conventionally, when a certain weight is to be distributed with respect to an article having a variation in the weight of a lump such as chicken, etc., an amount of an article is manually put into a plurality of pool hoppers, and the articles of each hopper are combined by computer control. A combination weighing device that adjusts to a target weight is used (for example, see Patent Document 1).

In the combination weighing device described in Patent Document 1, the pool hopper 16 provided in the upper part is controlled by a timer so that it opens and closes at a predetermined interval. The gate at the bottom automatically opens and closes, and the items in the pool hopper 16 are dropped onto the weighing hopper 18. At this time, the worker who puts in the article visually confirms that the inside of the pool hopper 16 is empty, and puts a new article only into the empty pool hopper 16.
No. 6-6003

  However, if there is an article in the pool hopper 16 and overlooked and a new article is inserted, the weight of the article entering the weighing hopper 18 becomes too heavy, and the combination weighing accuracy deteriorates or the combination May not be established and the operating rate may decrease. In addition, the bulk of the articles in the pool hopper 16 may become too large and clogging may occur and cannot be dropped onto the weighing hopper 18. However, the pool hopper 16 is installed at the upper part of the apparatus, and the side wall thereof is set high so that the thrown-in article will not spill out. It was necessary to bend forward to look into it, and the burden on the workers was great.

  In addition, if the timing of loading the article into the pool hopper 16 is poor, the article is caught in the gate that automatically opens and closes to stop the machine, or the article that has fallen into contact with the weighing hopper 18 and comes into weighing accuracy. Sometimes worsened. Therefore, the worker needs to put in the goods at an appropriate timing, and a high skill is required.

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention makes it easy to put an article into a hopper without putting a heavy burden on an operator and requiring a high skill for combination weighing performed by putting the article into the hopper manually. It is an object of the present invention to provide a combination weighing device that can be used.

The invention of claim 1, for a plurality of hoppers, is charged with articles by hand worker, a combination weighing apparatus that performs combination weighing based on the weight of the articles in each hopper,
The hopper includes a cylindrical portion and a gate that covers a lower opening of the cylindrical portion, and includes a plurality of upper hoppers into which articles are put by an operator, and below the plurality of upper hoppers. A plurality of lower hoppers that are provided and into which articles are thrown from the upper hopper,
A drive unit that opens and closes the gate; and a load cell that supports the hopper,
When the upper hopper is empty based on the detection result or weighing result of the load cell, the driving unit holds a combination weighing device in which the gate of the upper hopper is kept closed .

The invention of claim 2 is the combination weighing device according to claim 1,
The load cell weighs items in the hopper,
Provided is a combination weighing device that performs combination weighing using only the lower hopper or combination weighing using the upper hopper and the lower hopper based on the weighing result from the load cell .

According to the combination weighing device of the present invention, when the hopper is empty based on the detection result or the weighing result of the load cell that supports the hopper , the operator drops the article in order to keep the article dropping gate closed. Therefore, even a beginner without a particular skill can easily work.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a front view of a combination weighing device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show side views. FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of the hopper portion of the combination weighing device.

[Combination weighing device 1]
The combination weighing device 1 is a device for weighing items such as chicken, which have a variation in weight in a lump, and allows an operator to put a certain amount of items into a plurality of upper hoppers by hand. The weighing device distributes the supported upper hopper and the lower hopper, and combines the articles in the hoppers under the control of a computer so that the weight is within a preset range. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the combination weighing device 1 mainly includes a table 2 in which a plurality of input openings 21 for inputting articles are formed at predetermined intervals, and an input opening 21 of the table 2. A plurality of upper hoppers 3 that are arranged in a corresponding manner and into which articles are put in by the worker P, a plurality of lower hoppers 4 that are arranged below each upper hopper 3, and dropped from the lower hopper 4 And an article collection unit 5 for collecting and collecting the articles to be collected.

[Table 2]
The table 2 has a rectangular shape, and a plurality of input openings 21 formed in a rectangular shape are arranged in a row in the horizontal direction at a substantially central portion, and the upper hopper 3 on which the worker P is arranged is arranged. On the input side (left side in FIG. 2), a temporary storage space 22 for the article is secured. Further, a fall prevention wall 23 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the table 2 so that articles placed in the temporary space 22 do not fall to the surroundings.

[Upper hopper 3]
As shown in FIG. 4, the upper hopper 3 is formed in an inverted quadrangular truncated pyramid shape that opens up and down, and opens and closes a cylindrical portion 31 that forms the side wall surfaces 311 to 314 of the hopper and a lower opening 315 of the cylindrical portion 31. A gate 32 that freely covers and forms the bottom surface of the hopper, and a drive unit 33 that serves as an open / close drive source for the gate 32 are supported by a load cell 34 so that the weight of an article put inside can be measured. ing.

  The cylindrical portion 31 is set to have a high side wall so that articles thrown into the upper hopper 3 will not spill outside, but the worker P placed on the loading side confirms the bottom state in the hopper In order to facilitate this, the first side wall surface 311 formed on the input side is inclined toward the input side, and the inclination angle is set to be particularly large compared to the other side wall surfaces 312 to 313. That is, the worker P arranged on the input side of the upper hopper 3 does not block the line of sight on the first side wall surface 311 as indicated by a two-dot chain line arrow V in FIG. The bottom state of the upper hopper 3 to be thrown in (whether or not an article has been thrown in or in a thrown state) can be easily viewed directly from the upper opening 316. On the other hand, when the first side wall surface 311 is hardly inclined, the line of sight is blocked by the first side wall surface 311 as shown by the dotted arrow W (FIG. 2), and the upper hopper 3 It is difficult to look directly at the bottom situation.

  In addition, the cylindrical portion 31 is made of stainless steel, and the second side wall surface 312 formed so as to face the first side wall surface 311 confirms the state of the bottom portion in the hopper by the operator P arranged on the input side. In order to facilitate, the inner surface side is polished to form a mirror surface portion 312a, and the mirror surface portion 312a is inclined so that the bottom state of the upper hopper 3 is reflected above the first side wall 311. Yes. That is, even when the operator P is particularly short and the like, as shown by the dotted arrow X in FIG. 3, even when the bottom surface of the hopper cannot be directly viewed, By reflecting on the input side, as indicated by a two-dot chain line arrow Y, it is possible to indirectly confirm the state of the bottom of the upper hopper 3 into which the item is input.

  The gate 32 is for dropping an article inside the hopper downward, and as shown in FIG. 4, extends to the gate body 321 covering the lower opening 315 of the cylindrical portion 31 and the upper surface side of the gate body 321. The support arm 322 is configured to swing between a closed position 32a indicated by a solid line in FIG. 1 and an open position 32b indicated by a one-dot chain line in FIG. 1 by a drive unit 33 that supports a distal end 322a of the support arm 322. It is done. The gate 32 is controlled by a timer so that the gate 33 is opened and closed at a predetermined interval. On the other hand, when an article is placed in the upper hopper 3 and no article is in the lower hopper 4, It is controlled by a computer (not shown) so that the articles put into the hopper 3 are dropped into the lower hopper 4. That is, the gate 32 does not open and close in the upper hopper 3 in which articles are not charged. Therefore, there is no fear that the gate P is opened and closed when the worker P tries to put in the article, and the article is bitten. Therefore, it is not necessary to set the timing for putting the article into the upper hopper 3, and even a beginner without skill can work easily.

[Lower hopper 4]
The lower hopper 4 is provided in order to easily establish a combination of weights that fall within a set range by increasing the group of articles to be combined. For example, in the case where the set weight to be weighed is established by roughly combining the articles distributed to the three hoppers, in addition to the combination including only the lower hopper 4 (for example, 4a, 4b, and 4c in FIG. 1), This is because the combination of the upper hopper 3 and the lower hopper 4 (for example, 3a, 4a, 4b in FIG. 1) can be used to increase the usable combination patterns.

  Accordingly, the lower hopper 4 has substantially the same basic configuration as the upper hopper 3, and as shown in FIG. 4, is formed in an inverted quadrangular truncated pyramid shape to form the hopper side wall surfaces 411 to 414. A cylindrical portion 41, a gate 42 that covers the lower opening 415 of the cylindrical portion 41 so as to be freely opened and closed, and a driving portion 43 that is a driving source for opening and closing the gate 42. The placed article is supported so that it can be weighed. However, unlike the upper hopper 3, the side wall surface 411 on the side close to the worker P is not inclined, and the side wall surface 412 opposite to the side surface 412 is not mirror-polished.

[Goods Collection Unit 5]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the article collection unit 5 includes a belt conveyor 51 having both sides covered with a cover 51 a and a collective hopper 52 provided at an end point in the traveling direction of the belt conveyor 51. Is done. The articles combined so as to reach the target weight by opening and closing the gates 32 and 42 of the upper hopper 3 and the lower hopper 4 are dropped onto the belt conveyor 51 and further transferred from the belt conveyor 51 to the collective hopper 52 (FIG. 1). It will be dropped and assembled.

[Operation of combination weighing device 1]
Next, the operation of the combination weighing device 1 will be described.

  The worker P stands in front of the combination weighing device 1, picks up an appropriate amount of articles from the temporary placement space 22 of the table 2, and sequentially puts them into the upper hopper 3 in which no articles are put. Whether or not an article is put into the hopper needs to be confirmed by the operator P from the upper opening 316, but is controlled by a computer so as not to open and close the gate 32 of the hopper to which no article is put. Therefore, it is not necessary to confirm whether the gate 32 is not being opened or closed. In other words, there is no concern that the article will be caught in the gate 32 by the input timing, and there is no need to work by measuring the opening / closing timing of the gate 32 by the timer control.

  The upper hopper 3 opens and closes the gate 32 based on the detection result of the load cell 44 and drops the article into the lower hopper 4 when the lower hopper 4 disposed immediately below is empty. In this way, the state in which articles are always put in the upper hopper 3 and the lower hopper 4 is maintained. Note that the weights of articles placed in the upper hopper 3 and the lower hopper 4 are always grasped from the weighing results by the load cells 34 and 44, and the stored data in the computer is updated when a new article is placed. It has become so. The computer of the combination weighing device 1 selects a combination of articles that fall within a preset weight range from the weighing data of the articles in each hopper, a combination of only the lower hopper 4, or the upper hopper 3 and the lower hopper 4. Select from combinations.

  In the selected hopper, the gates 32 and 42 are opened and closed by the operation of the drive units 33 and 43, and the articles put in the hopper are dropped onto the belt conveyor 51. The dropped articles are dropped and gathered by the collecting hopper 52, and one set of combination weighing ends. As for the hopper that has been emptied, as described above, an article is input by the worker P.

[Modification of the above embodiment]
In the above-described embodiment, the upper hopper 3 has the first side wall surface 311 inclined to the article input side, and the second side wall surface 312 has the first side wall surface 311 whose bottom side in the hopper is the article input side. The first side wall surface 311 may be tilted to the charging side, or the bottom state in the hopper may be reflected to the upper side of the first side wall surface 311. It is only necessary to incline the two side wall surfaces 312. In any case, it is only necessary that the worker P arranged on the input side can easily check the bottom state in the upper hopper 3 as compared with the conventional case.

  In the above embodiment, the mirror surface portion 312a is formed by polishing the inner surface side of the second side wall surface 312 of the upper hopper 3. However, the mirror surface portion 312a is not necessarily formed by polishing, and can be handled by attaching a mirror surface body. It is also possible to do. Further, the mirror surface portion 312a does not need to clearly show the state of the bottom portion in the hopper, and can reflect whether or not an article has been put into the inside or whether the article has been put in from the loading side. If it is enough.

  Further, the mirror surface portion 312a does not need to be planar, and can be inclined by being curved. Accordingly, it is possible to secure a wide range in which the bottom state in the hopper is reflected, and an operator who puts in an article can check the bottom state in the hopper regardless of its height. Further, the mirror surface portion 312a can be subjected to antifouling treatment such as water / oil repellent treatment. Accordingly, contamination due to the contact of the article with the mirror surface portion 312a can be prevented, and deterioration of visibility can be prevented.

  In the above embodiment, the upper hopper 3 and the lower hopper 4 are arranged in two upper and lower stages to perform combination weighing. However, the hopper may be arranged in one stage or three or more upper and lower stages. .

  In addition, the combination weighing device of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The front view of the combination weighing device concerning the present invention. It is a side view of the combination weighing device concerning the present invention, and is a figure explaining the effect which makes the 1st side wall part incline to the loading side. It is a side view of the combination weighing device concerning the present invention, and is a figure explaining the effect which forms a mirror surface part in the 2nd side wall part. The side view to which the hopper part of the combination weighing device concerning the present invention was expanded.

Explanation of symbols

1 Combination weighing device 2 Table 3 Upper hopper (hopper)
4 Lower hopper 5 Article recovery part 31 Tube part 32 Gate 32a Closed position 32b Open position 33 Drive part 34 Load cell 51 Belt conveyor 52 Collecting hopper 311 First side wall surface 312 Second side wall surface 312a Mirror surface part P Worker

Claims (2)

For a plurality of hoppers, is charged with articles by hand worker, a combination weighing apparatus that performs combination weighing based on the weight of the articles in each hopper,
The hopper includes a cylindrical portion and a gate that covers a lower opening of the cylindrical portion, and includes a plurality of upper hoppers into which articles are put by an operator, and below the plurality of upper hoppers. A plurality of lower hoppers that are provided and into which articles are thrown from the upper hopper,
A drive unit that opens and closes the gate; and a load cell that supports the hopper,
The drive unit on the basis of the detection result or the weighing result of the load cell, when the upper hopper is empty, the combination weighing apparatus characterized by holding the closed state of the gate of the upper hopper. The combination weighing device according to claim 1,
The load cell weighs items in the hopper,
A combination weighing device that performs combination weighing using only the lower hopper or combination weighing using the upper hopper and the lower hopper based on the weighing result from the load cell .

Images