JP6214325B2 - Container supply apparatus and container supply method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a container supply apparatus and a container supply method for sequentially supplying a large number of containers to a food filling apparatus for automatically filling a container with food such as instant food.

  As this type of device, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, by using a movable stopper, by controlling the support to the flange of a plurality of flanged cup-shaped containers stacked inside the holder, What isolate | separates one by one from the lowest container one by one, and takes out from a holder is known.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-10214

  However, the above-described conventional container supply device is taken out by controlling the support of the cup-shaped container on the flange, and is based on the assumption that a container with a flange is used. Therefore, there was a problem that it cannot be applied to a container having no flange.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and provides a container supply device and a container supply method capable of sequentially separating and taking out a plurality of stacked containers one by one regardless of the presence or absence of a flange. The purpose is to do.

  In order to achieve the above object, a container supply device according to the present invention is a container supply device that discharges a plurality of stacked containers from the opening direction, and is directed toward the opening of the first container at the tip in the opening direction. And a second support portion for supporting or opening a second container adjacent to the first container.

  Further, the container supply method according to the present invention is a container supply method for discharging a plurality of stacked containers from the direction of the opening, and the first container is closed while the path of the first container at the tip of the opening is blocked. Supporting the adjacent second container, and allowing the first container to be discharged by opening a path toward the opening of the first container while supporting the second container. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, a plurality of stacked containers can be separated and taken out one by one without depending on the presence or absence of a flange.

It is a front view which shows the implementation outline | summary of a paper cup supply apparatus. It is a front view of a paper cup, a top view, and an AA line sectional view. It is the top view and front view of a paper cup supply apparatus. It is the top view and front view at the time of using a paper cup for a paper cup supply apparatus. It is a front view (the 1) which shows the example of operation of a paper cup supply device. It is a front view (the 2) which shows the example of operation of a paper cup supply device. It is a front view (the 3) which shows the example of operation of a paper cup supply device. It is a front view (the 4) which shows the example of operation of a paper cup supply device.

  Hereinafter, a container supply device and a container supply method according to embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an outline of an implementation of a paper cup supply device 1 as a configuration of an embodiment of a container supply device to which the present invention is applied. Although details will be described later, the paper cup 100 is adsorbed and taken out by the suction part 41 of the paper cup take-out part 4 by the interlocking of the first support part 3, the second support part 2, and the paper cup take-out part 4. The taken-out paper cup 100 is moved downward as the vertically movable portion 5 connected to the paper cup take-out portion 4 slides downward along the fixed cylinder portion 6. When the paper cup take-out unit 4 rotates about 180 ° about the rotation shaft 43, the paper cup 100 is inverted. The suction by the suction part 41 of the paper cup take-out part 4 is released, and the paper cup 100 is put in the paper cup transport bucket 8 that flows leftward on the transport path 7 and is transported sequentially to the next process.

  2A to 2C show an example of a paper cup 100 used in the paper cup supply device 1 according to the present embodiment. The paper cup 100 is created by, for example, folding a cut-out board and pasting it with an adhesive or the like. Such a paper cup 100 is easily deformed when an external force is applied, and has a feature that individual differences in the deformed state are large.

  FIG. 2A is a front view of the paper cup 100. The lower part, which is the opening, has a shape with a larger diameter. In the illustrated example, it is visually recognized as a substantially trapezoidal shape from the front, but is not limited to such a shape, and the side surface may be curved or the inclination angle may be changed at a part of the side surface.

  FIG. 2B is a plan view of the paper cup 100. While the bottom surface of the paper cup 100 is substantially rectangular, each side of the opening has a shape that is slightly bulged outward. This is probably because the paper cup 100 has a low rigidity, and thus a force to return to the original shape of the paperboard or the like appears as a deformation of the paper cup 100 with respect to the bending at the time of molding.

  The shape of the opening can be made closer to a quadrangle by making the material of the paper cup 100 more rigid or by devising a molding method, but even if such a paper cup 100 is used, Good. Further, the shape of the bottom surface and the opening is not limited to a quadrangle, and may be another polygon or a circle, and the bottom surface and the opening need not have the same shape.

  FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of the paper cup 100 taken along the line AA. Here, since the thickness of the paper cup 100 is sufficiently small, the thickness is not expressed and is shown only by a diagram. As shown in FIG. 2C, the opening is not provided with a flange or the like, and the cross-section from which the paperboard or the like is cut out is exposed.

  3A and 3B are a plan view and a front view of the paper cup supply device 1, respectively. FIGS. 4A and 4B are a plan view and a front view when the paper cup 100 is placed on the paper cup supply device 1. In addition, in the front view of FIG.4 (b), the paper cup 100 is shown as a BB sectional drawing for description.

  The first support portion 3 is provided so as to be opposed to each other on the left and right sides. As shown in FIGS. 3B and 4B, the first support portion 3 has an L shape on the left and an inverted L shape on the right in the front view. Eggplant. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 4A, the plan view has a shape in which the central portion is hollowed out, and the second support portion 2 and the paper cup take-out portion 4 are located in the central portion. . When the paper cup 100 is placed, the path toward the opening of the paper cup 100 is blocked by the first support portion 3 as shown in FIG.

  It is desirable that the first support portion 3 can be controlled to move in the left-right direction on the plan view and the front view, and each first support portion 3 can be controlled to move in the opposite direction in conjunction with each other. The first support portion 3 has a strength that can withstand the load when a plurality of paper cups 100 are stacked and placed, and is made of, for example, metal.

  The second support portion 2 is provided so as to be opposed to each other on the left and right, and includes a frame 21 and a paper cup contact portion 22. The frame 21 is made of a plate-like material having a certain degree of rigidity, and is made of, for example, metal. It is desirable that the paper cup abutment portion 22 has a large frictional force and is flexible enough not to be damaged even if the paper cup 100 is directly touched. Moreover, as for the 2nd support part 2, it is desirable to bend inward in the downward direction on a front view.

  It is desirable that the second support portion 2 can be controlled to move in the left-right direction on the plan view and the front view, and each second support portion 2 can be controlled to move in the opposite direction in conjunction with each other. When each second support portion 2 is controlled to move inward with the paper cup 100 placed, the paper cup 100 can be deformed by pressing the paper cup 100 from the left and right as shown in FIG. is there.

  The paper cup take-out part 4 includes a suction part 41 on the left and right, and a push-up part 42 on the upper part in the front view. The paper cup take-out unit 4 can be moved up and down on the front view. The adsorbing part 41 is made of a soft material such as rubber so that it can be in close contact with the abutting surface, and is provided with a hole through which air passes. As shown in FIG. 4B, for example, when the inner surface of the paper cup 100 is in close contact with the suction portion 41, the suction portion 41 can suck the paper cup 100 by sucking air through an internal hole. The suction of air may be performed from an external device via the suction unit 41 or the paper cup take-out unit 4 main body. As shown in FIG. 4B, the push-up portion 42 can abut on the bottom surface of the paper cup 100 to push up the paper cup 100. The push-up unit 42 is preferably made of a soft material so as not to damage the bottom surface of the paper cup 100, and is made of, for example, rubber.

  When the paper cup 100 is pressed by the second support portion 2, as shown in FIG. 4A, the pressed side surface has a recessed shape, and the other side surface has a more swollen shape.

<Operation example>
5-8 is a front view which shows the operation example of the paper cup supply apparatus 1, and has shown in figure along the time series. For the sake of explanation, the paper cup 100 is shown as a cross-sectional view along the line BB, as in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, a plurality of paper cups 100 are stacked on the paper cup supply device 1 with the openings facing downward. The first support portions 3 are close to each other so as to block the path of the paper cup 100, and the second support portion 2 is not in contact with the paper cup 100. Hereinafter, among the paper cups 100, the one located at the lowest position, that is, at the leading end in the take-out direction is referred to as a first paper cup 101, and the one located adjacent to the first paper cup 101 and located second in the take-out direction is referred to as a second paper cup 102.

  As shown in FIG. 5B, the paper cup take-out unit 4 is controlled to move upward, and the first paper cup 101 is pushed up by the push-up unit 42. Then, the other paper cups 100 stacked above the first paper cup 101 are also pushed up. Thereby, since the opening part of the 1st paper cup 101 is not in contact with the 1st support part 3, even if the paper cup 100 is inserted | pinched by the 2nd support part 2 mentioned later, a 1st support part 3 carries out the friction by the friction with the 1st support part 3. There is no fear that the opening of the single paper cup 101 will be damaged.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the second support portions 2 move inward from each other, and sandwich and press the paper cup 100 from the left and right. As a result, the plurality of paper cups 100 including the first paper cup 101 and the second paper cup 102 have a shape in which the side surfaces in the left-right direction are recessed, as in the example shown in FIG. At this time, among the plurality of paper cups 100, the opening portion of the first paper cup 101 protrudes downward from the paper cup contact portion 22 and the downward path is not blocked, but the opening portion of the second paper cup 102 is The downward path is blocked by contacting the contact portion 22. Further, the first paper cup 101 is in close contact with the suction portion 41 by the pressing by the second support portion 2.
As shown in FIG. 6 (b), the first support portions 3 each move outward to open the path in the take-out direction of the first paper cup 101.

  As shown in FIG. 7A, the paper cup take-out unit 4 is moved downward while suction by the suction unit 41 is performed. The first paper cup 101 and the suction portion 41 are in close contact with each other by the suction by the suction portion 41, and the first paper cup 101 is not obstructed by the paper cup abutting portion 22 in the downward path, but the second paper cup. Since the lower path 102 is blocked by the paper cup contact portion 22, only the first paper cup 101 of the paper cups 100 is separated from the other paper cups 100 and moved downward integrally with the paper cup take-out portion 4. The In addition, the adsorption | suction by the adsorption | suction part 41 may be started at any timing of Fig.5 (a) to Fig.7 (a).

  As shown in FIG. 7B, when the first paper cup 101 is taken out by the paper cup take-out unit 4, the first support part 3 moves inward to block the path in the take-out direction of the second paper cup 102.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the second support portion 2 moves outward, the plurality of paper cups 100 including the second paper cup 102 are released from the second support portion 2 and dropped, and the second paper cup 102 is moved to the first support portion. Stops at the position in contact with 3. As shown in FIG. 1, at any timing from FIG. 7B to FIG. 8, the paper cup take-out unit 4 rotates 180 ° around the rotation shaft 43 together with the first paper cup 101, and the paper cup is transported on the transport path 7. The suction of the suction portion 41 is released so that the first paper cup 101 is placed on the bucket 8.

  Thereafter, the paper cup take-out unit 4 is rotated 180 ° again and moved upward to return to the state of FIG. 5A, and thereafter, the same operation is repeated to sequentially take out the paper cups 100 one by one.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Further, the embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some constituent requirements are deleted from all the constituent requirements shown in the embodiment or some constituent requirements are combined in different forms, the problems described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention are not solved. When the effects described in the column “Effects of the Invention” can be obtained, a configuration in which these constituent requirements are deleted or combined can be extracted as an invention.

  For example, the paper cup 100 may be thicker or thinner. Further, the rigidity may be higher or lower. Any configuration may be used as long as it is deformed to some extent by being pressed against the second support portion 2 and pressed against the suction portion 41. Further, instead of the paper cup 100, a container other than paper, such as a plastic container, may be used.

  Further, it is not necessary to stack the paper cups 100 with the opening portions facing downward, and for example, the paper cups 100 may be stacked with the opening portions facing upward. In this case, the container supply device 1 has an upside-down configuration, and a new support portion that supports the paper cup 100 at the lower portion is required, but the configuration of the first support portion 3 is not necessarily required.

  Further, the push-up unit 42 does not need to be integrated with the paper cup take-out unit 4 and may have a separate configuration as long as the function of pushing up the first paper cup 101 can be performed. Of course, the pushing-up process by the pushing-up unit 42 may be excluded from the embodiment.

  Further, the removal of the first paper cup 101 is not limited to that by the suction of the suction portion 41. For example, a sticky member may be taken out by contacting the first paper cup 101, or other known methods may be used. Further, the paper cup take-out unit 4 is excluded from the configuration, and the pressing force by the second support unit 2 is set to a pressing force that is sufficient to support the second paper cup 102 but insufficient to support the first paper cup. Thus, when pressed by the second support portion 2 corresponding to FIG. 6A, the first paper cup 101 is grounded to the first support portion 3, and toward the outer side of the first support portion 3 corresponding to FIG. 6B. The first paper cup 101 may be taken out by dropping when it is moved.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper cup supply apparatus 2 2nd support part 21 Frame 22 Paper cup contact part 3 First support part 4 Paper cup taking-out part 41 Adsorption part 42 Push-up part 43 Rotating shaft 5 Vertical movable part 6 Fixed cylinder part 7 Conveyance path 8 Bucket for paper cup conveyance 100 Paper cup 101 First paper cup 102 Second paper cup

Claims (7)

A container supply device for discharging a plurality of stacked containers from the opening direction,
A first support portion that blocks or opens a path in the direction of the opening of the first container at the tip of the opening,
A second support for supporting or opening a second container adjacent to the first container;
A push-up portion that pushes the first container upward;
A container supply device comprising:   The second container is supported by the second support part while the path of the first container is blocked by the first support part, and then the path toward the opening of the first container is opened by the first support part. The container supply device according to claim 1, wherein the first container can be discharged.   The container supply device according to claim 1, wherein the second support part is capable of supporting the second container by abutting against an opening end of the second container. A container take-out part having an adsorbing part capable of adsorbing the inner side surface of the first container;
The second support part can press the outer side surface of the first container,
The container supply device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the suction of the first container by the suction part is assisted by pressing of the outer side surface of the first container by the second support part. Before SL plurality of containers, according to claim 1, characterized in that are stacked openings as lower
The container supply apparatus of Claim 4 thru | or 4. The container supply device according to claim 5, wherein the second support part supports the second container while the first container is pushed up by the push-up part. A container supply method for discharging a plurality of stacked containers from the opening direction,
A step you block the first container path of opening direction leading end,
Pushing the first container upward;
Supporting a second container adjacent to the first container while blocking a path of the first container;
Allowing the first container to be discharged by opening a path toward the opening of the first container while supporting the second container;
A container supply method comprising:

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