JP5031722B2 - Cloth discrimination device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cloth discriminating apparatus that mixes a plurality of types of cloths having different sizes and puts them on a conveyor to detect the size of the cloths.

  For example, so-called face towels used for wiping hands and face and so-called bath towels used for wiping the body etc. are greatly different in size, so even if they are mixed and put in, they correspond to each other It can be easily discriminated by providing a sensor. However, the size discriminating method cannot be applied to a size similar to a face towel, such as a bath mat placed at the entrance of a bathroom.

  In the past, the face towel mode (operation pattern) was changed to correspond to the bath mat, so it was not mixed and thrown in, and there was no need for discrimination. This is because there was a difference in how to fold a flexible face towel and a strong bath mat, but it is possible to change the way of folding, so if you can mix and feed these different sizes and properties of cloth This makes it possible to simplify the operations related to input.

  Until now, many examples have been known in which a sensor is used as means for measuring the length of a cloth or the like for folding (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-220300). In addition, it cannot be said that there is no example in the field where a sensor is used simply for the purpose of discriminating cloths of different sizes that have been mixed and charged. However, no precedent can be found for documents that mix and feed fabrics of different sizes and properties.

JP 2003-220300 A

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above points, and its problem is to detect the size of the fabric and determine the type of the fabric in order to be able to mix and feed fabrics of different sizes and properties. Is to provide a device.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention mixes a plurality of types of fabrics having different sizes and inputs them on a conveyor, and the input fabrics are used as a fabric discrimination device for detecting the size of the fabrics. As a conveyor for transporting the belt, a belt composed of a plurality of belts and having a gap between the belts is used, and the conveyor has a mark serving as a reference for cloth input provided between the belts near the transport surface. A first sensor for detecting the cloth when the cloth is loaded with reference to the mark in the central part in the left-right direction of the conveyor is disposed between the belts in the central part of the conveyor or between the belts in the vicinity thereof; The second sensor for detecting the cloth when the cloth is inserted with reference to the mark on the side of the conveyor is disposed between the belts on the side of the conveyor or between the belts in the vicinity thereof. In which it took measures that the things.

  The apparatus of the present invention is directed to a cloth discrimination device that mixes a plurality of types of cloths having different sizes and puts them on a conveyor to detect the size of the cloths. Therefore, this discriminating device is also a cloth throwing device, and is intended to discriminate the size or manage data for the discriminating at the stage of feeding the fabric. The size discrimination signal obtained by detecting the size of the cloth is transmitted to an arbitrary process such as folding required, and is used for controlling the operation reflecting the size discrimination result.

  The main work process for transmitting the cloth size discrimination signal detected in the present invention includes a folding process, a sorting process, a stacking process, and the like. In the folding process, for example, a folding mechanism for face towels is activated in accordance with the received size discrimination signal. Work such as stacking the products sorted by size into a predetermined position is performed.

  In the present invention, a conveyor composed of a plurality of belts is used as a conveyor for conveying the inputted cloth, and a gap is provided between the belts. The conveyor is a cloth provided between the belts near the conveyance surface. It shall have a mark which becomes the standard of class input. The conveyor composed of a plurality of belts is not novel, but it is a requirement necessary to use a gap provided between the belts for positioning marks and / or sensors. Marks can be newly provided, while sensors can be used as marks. Examples of the mark include colored marks such as blue and red, characters of typical cloths such as “bath towel”, or combinations thereof.

  A first sensor for detecting when a cloth is loaded with reference to a mark at the center in the left-right direction of the conveyor is disposed between the belts in the center of the conveyor or between the belts in the vicinity thereof. When sensors are arranged between belts, the belt interval can be set wider than other belt intervals that do not have sensors, and this can also be used as a reference for cloth input. So it is effective. Of course, the sensor itself disposed between the wider belts can also serve as a mark.

  The 1st sensor can take the composition provided with the sensor of two places, the center sensor arrange | positioned in the center part in the left-right direction of a conveyor, and the center side sensor located in the left-right side of this center sensor. In this case, the central sensor detects a plurality of types of fabrics having different widths, and the middle side sensor can detect only two types of fabrics by detecting only the wide types of fabrics.

  In addition, a second sensor for detecting when a cloth is loaded with reference to the mark on the side of the conveyor is disposed between the belts on the side of the conveyor or in the vicinity thereof. Therefore, the second sensor detects only the cloths thrown into the side, but can be arranged on either side of the conveyor in the left-right direction.

  The present invention is configured as described above, and the first sensor for detecting the cloth when the cloth is inserted with reference to the center mark in the left-right direction of the conveyor is set between the belts in the vicinity of the center of the conveyor And a second sensor for detecting the cloth when the cloth is loaded with the mark on the side of the conveyor as a reference, between the belts on the side of the conveyor or in the vicinity thereof. Therefore, there is an effect that it is possible to provide an apparatus for detecting the size of the cloth and discriminating the kind of the cloth so that the cloths having different sizes and properties can be mixed and charged. In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to discriminate cloths having different sizes depending on the positions where the cloths are put in, and it is possible to provide a cloth discriminating apparatus that is easy to understand and intuitive to work.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 shows an example of a cloth discriminating apparatus 10 according to the present invention. A cloth folding machine to which the cloth discriminating apparatus 10 is applied includes an input unit 11 and a width arranged immediately downstream thereof. A direction folding section 12, a length direction folding section 13 disposed downstream thereof, a transport section 14 for separating and stacking folded fabrics according to size, and an unloading section 15 disposed below the transport section. Shall have.

  Since the present invention is directed to a cloth discriminating device 10 for mixing a plurality of types of cloths having different sizes and feeding them onto a conveyor and detecting the size of the cloths, it is installed in the cloth feeding unit 11. The The following three types of cloth are assumed. As shown in FIG. 3, the bath towel W1 has the largest width and length, the face towel W2 has the shortest width but the middle length, and the bath mat W3 has the shortest width and the middle length.

  In the present invention, the conveyor that conveys the cloths W <b> 1 to W <b> 3 that is input is composed of a plurality of belts 16, and the input conveyor 18 is provided with gaps 17 between the belts. As shown in FIG. 3, the illustrated loading conveyor 18 has a width that allows the largest bath towel W1 among the three types of cloths to be loaded with a margin, and has a wide width that can be distinguished from others at the center. The gap 17 'is provided. This wide gap 17 'constitutes one of the marks 20 serving as a reference for inserting the cloth provided between the belts in the vicinity of the conveyor surface of the conveyor, and has a width larger than that required for sensor mounting described later. It shall have.

  The input conveyor 18 composed of the plurality of belts 16 is required to use the gaps 17 and 17 'for arranging the marks 20 and / or sensors by providing the gaps 17 and 17' between the belts. . Side plates 19, 19 are provided on the left and right in the conveying direction of the input conveyor 18, and the side plate 19 can be used as a mark 20 together with the wide gap 17 ′. In the example shown in the drawing, a configuration using a sensor 21 described below is used as a newly provided mark 20.

  The aforementioned sensors 21 are arranged at a total of three locations, the center of the input conveyor 18 and the two left and right sides thereof. The central first sensor 21-1 is disposed closest to the leading end in the wide gap 17 'of the input conveyor 18, the second sensor 21-2 is disposed on the right side in the conveying direction of the input conveyor 18, and the third sensor 21- 3 is arranged on the left side in the conveying direction of the input conveyor 18, and the second sensor 21-2 and the third sensor 21-3 are arranged slightly lower than the first sensor 21-1.

  Accordingly, the first sensor 21-1 becomes a mark 20 for putting in the bath towel W1 and the face towel W2, and the third sensor 21-3 and the left side plate 19 are used for putting in the bath mat W3 which is the third cloth. It becomes the mark 20. Therefore, when all of the first sensor 21-1, the second sensor 21-2, and the third sensor 21-3 are turned on, it is determined as a bath towel W1, and when only the first sensor 21-1 is turned on, the face When it is determined as towel W2 and only the third sensor 21-3 is turned on, it is determined as bath mat W3.

  In the cloth discriminating apparatus 10 according to the present invention configured as described above, when the bath towel W1 and the face towel W2 are loaded as described above, the central gap 17 'and the first sensor 21-1 are The mark 20 is inserted as a mark. If the thrown-in bath towel is W1, the first sensor 21-1, the second sensor 21-2, and the third sensor 21-3 are all turned on, and the bath towel W1 has been thrown by these detection signals. For example, the detection result is sent to a subsequent process. For example, the width-direction folding unit 12 performs a step of folding the width by a third, and the length-direction folding unit 13 performs a step of folding the length by a quarter. After that, the conveyor 14 can control the conveyor 15a, 15b of the carry-out unit 15 to which position it is conveyed.

  If the thrown-in towel is the face towel W2, only the first sensor 21-1 is turned on. Therefore, the detection signal indicates that the face towel W2 has been thrown in. For example, the process is not performed in the width direction folding unit 12, and the process of folding only the length by a quarter in the width direction folding unit 13 is performed. After that, the conveyor 14 can control which conveyor 15a, 15b of the carry-out unit 15 is conveyed to the same as in the case of the bath towel W1.

  When inserting the bath mat W3, a little different from the above, the third sensor 21-3 and the left side plate 19 are inserted as marks, and only the third sensor 21-3 is turned on. You can see that it was thrown. After that, when it is determined that the bath mat W3 is based on the detection result, it is sent to the four-folding section 23 installed in the lower part of the loading section 11 and is folded by the four-folding knife 24 into the necessary folding steps in the two-fold or four-fold. Can be executed. The bath mat W <b> 3 is further transferred for conveyance and controlled so as to be stacked on which conveyor of the carry-out unit 25.

  Therefore, the former two, that is, the bath towel W1 and the face towel W2, are centered with respect to the center line of the input conveyor 18, while the bath mat W3 is aligned with one side with respect to the left side. It corresponds by. As described above, according to the apparatus 10 according to the present invention, it is possible to mix and feed the cloths W1, W2, and W3 having different sizes and properties, and the size of the cloths that have been thrown in is detected to determine the type Therefore, not only the input process but also the subsequent process management such as folding brings about significant progress. Note that a drop plate type product dropping device 22 is installed in the transport unit 14, and is configured to drop the folded product transported by the conveyor of the transport unit 14 onto the carry-out unit 15.

It is a top view which shows an example of the folding machine to which the fabric discrimination | determination apparatus which concerns on this invention is applied. It is a side view of a thing same as the above. It is plane explanatory drawing of the principal part in the same as the above.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Cloth discrimination | determination apparatus 11 Input part 12 Width direction folding part 13 Width direction folding part 14 Conveyance part 15 Unloading part 16 Belt 17, 17 'Clearance 18 Input belt 19 Side plate 20 Marking 21, 21-1, 21-2, 21 -3 Sensor 22 Product drop device 23 Four-fold part 24 Four-fold knife W1, W2, W3 Cloth

Claims (2)

A cloth discriminating apparatus that mixes a plurality of types of cloths of different sizes and puts them on a conveyor, and detects the size of the cloths.
The conveyor used to convey the thrown-in cloth is composed of a plurality of belts, with a gap between the belts, and the conveyor is a reference for throwing the cloth provided between the belts near the carrying surface. And have a mark that
A first sensor that detects when a cloth is fed with reference to a mark in the center in the left-right direction of the conveyor is disposed between the belts in the center of the conveyor or in the vicinity thereof, and the conveyor A cloth discriminating apparatus having a configuration in which a second sensor for detecting a cloth when the cloth is inserted with reference to the side mark is disposed between belts on or near the side of the conveyor. 2. The cloth of claim 1, wherein the first sensor includes two sensors, a central sensor disposed at a central portion in the left-right direction of the conveyor and a middle-side sensor positioned on the left and right sides of the central sensor. Discriminator.

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