JP6491866B2 - Travel clamp supply destination selection method and travel clamp supply destination selection conveying equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a travel clamp supply destination selection method and a travel clamp supply destination selection transport facility. More specifically, transport equipment that transports various objects to be transported, such as cloths and wraps (duvet covers made of two pieces of cloth), pillow covers, towels, table cloths, etc., to a destination by hanging them on a work clamp in multiple places. The present invention relates to a technique for selecting a supply destination of a traveling clamp from a plurality of work tables.

As a facility for ironing and folding the washed sheets, there are conventional techniques of Patent Documents 1 to 3.
In these conventional techniques, a transported object such as a sheet is suspended from a plurality of traveling clamps traveling on a rail, and is successively conveyed to a finishing machine such as an ironer. In this transported equipment, after the sheets and the like are sent to the finishing machine, an empty traveling clamp travels on the rail and returns to the work table for suspending the sheets and the like on the traveling clamp.

  By the way, the operation | work which suspends a sheet | seat on a driving | running | working clamp is not fully automated, and the work table which depends on a part of manpower is used. Such a manpower-dependent workbench has a limit in speeding up, so a plurality of workbench is provided to catch up with the processing speed of a finishing machine or the like.

  In this case, the work timing usually proceeds randomly depending on the ability of the workers on the plurality of work tables. For this reason, if empty traveling clamps are supplied in order from the front workbench, the waiting time increases and the work efficiency cannot always be improved.

JP-A-6-1319 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-144092 JP-A-7-304514

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a travel clamp supply destination selection method and a travel clamp supply destination selection transfer facility that shortens waiting time and increases work efficiency for a plurality of work tables.

The traveling clamp supply destination selection method according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of work platforms for suspending a conveyance object on a traveling clamp, a conveyance forward path for conveying the conveyance object to a working machine with the traveling clamp , and an empty traveling clamp. And a plurality of branch paths that branch from the transport return path and supply empty travel clamps to the work tables, the plurality of branch paths from the transport return path to the work table. A selection method for selecting a worktable to which a traveling clamp is to be supplied from a plurality of work stations at a plurality of branch points where the branch path branches is started from the time of arrival at each branch point. And comparing the length of waiting time before starting before selecting a work table with a short waiting time before starting, wherein the selection method includes: With or without travel clamp It identifies the preceding traveling clamp without worktable selected for primary selection and (2) among the plurality of workstations are selected by the primary selection, a short waiting time for the work from the branch point arrival time The secondary selection for selecting the other workbench is performed in that order.
A traveling clamp supply destination selection transportation facility according to a second aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of work platforms for suspending a transportation object on a traveling clamp, a transportation forward path for transporting the transportation object to a working machine by the traveling clamp, and an empty traveling A return path for collecting the clamp and supplying it to the work table; and a plurality of branch paths for branching from the return path to supply empty travel clamps to the respective work tables; At a plurality of branch points where a plurality of branch paths branch, a control device is provided for selecting a work table to which a traveling clamp is to be supplied from a plurality of work tables, and the control device arrives at each branch point. Comparing the length of waiting time before starting from the time point until the suspension work on each work table is started, a work table having a short waiting time before starting is selected, and the selection method includes (1 ) Of several worktables Identifies the presence or absence of the preceding traveling clamp supplied by line, said preceding travel clamp without worktable selected for primary selection and (2) among the plurality of workstations are selected by the primary selection, branching A secondary selection for selecting a work table having a shorter waiting time from the point arrival time to the work is performed in that order.

According to the first invention, the following effects are obtained.
a) Compare the length of waiting time before starting from the time of arrival at each branch point to start work on each workbench, and select a workbench with a short waiting time before starting, eliminating unnecessary waiting time. , Transport efficiency is increased. For this reason, it becomes possible to improve the working speed of the working machine.
b) Exclude work platforms that are known to have a low waiting time in the primary sorting, and compare the waiting time of the remaining work tables, so the judgment time for secondary selection is shortened and the transport efficiency is more Get higher. In addition, a control device for selection determination can be simplified.
According to the second invention, the following effects are obtained.
a) Compare the length of waiting time before starting from the time of arrival at each branch point to start work on each workbench, and select a workbench with a short waiting time before starting, eliminating unnecessary waiting time. , Transport efficiency is increased. For this reason, it becomes possible to improve the working speed of the working machine.
b) Exclude work platforms that are known to have a low waiting time in the primary sorting, and compare the waiting times of the remaining work tables, so that the determination time for the secondary selection is shortened and the transport efficiency is further improved. Get higher. In addition, a control device for selection determination can be simplified.

It is explanatory drawing of the traveling clamp supply destination selection method which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart of the driving | running | working clamp supply destination selection method in this invention. It is state explanatory drawing of an example to which the traveling clamp supply destination selection method of this invention is applied. 1 is an overall plan view of a transfer facility to which the present invention is applied.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
First, the whole conveyance equipment to which this invention is applied is demonstrated based on FIG.
The objects to be transported to which the present invention is applied include various objects to be transported such as sheets, duvet (duvet cover of two fabrics), pillow covers, towels, table cloths, etc. The sheet will be described as an example.

A1 and A2 are finishing machines, a spreader 1 that spreads and sends out washed sheets into a square, an ironer 2 that irons a square cloth, and a folded and folded ironed square cloth. It consists of a folder 3. The finishing machine is not limited to these, and includes various types of mechanical devices.
Although the illustrated finishing machines A1 and A2 are two, one and three or more are included in the present invention.

Reference numerals B1, B2, B3, and B4 denote work tables. Each of the work tables B1 to B4 receives a washed sheet (which is still wet) sent from the washing process, and a worker uses a traveling clamp that travels on a rail provided with the sheet on the ceiling. Perform the hanging work.
The rail disposed on the ceiling is provided so that the traveling clamp 10 can travel between the finishing machines A1 and A2 and the work tables B1 to B4. That is, the transport path R1 for supplying the washed sheets from the work tables B1 to B4 to the finishing machines A1 and A2, and the traveling clamp 10 that is emptied by delivering the sheets to the finishing machines A1 and A2 are used as the work tables B1 to B4. It is comprised from the conveyance return path R2 for collection | recovering.

  The traveling clamp 10 may have any structure as long as it can travel on the rails (conveyance forward path R1, conveyance backward path R2) and can suspend and convey an object to be conveyed such as a sheet.

Next, a precondition for explaining the traveling clamp supply destination selection method (hereinafter referred to as selection method) of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
From the transport return path R2, four branch paths d1, d2, d3, and d4 branch from four branch points J1, J2, J3, and J4. The four branch paths d1, d2, d3, d4 are connected to four work tables B1, B2, B3, B4. Further, branch paths d1 to d4 extend from the four work tables B1 to B4 and are connected to the transport forward path R1.

Next, the selection method of the present invention will be described.
The selection method of the present invention includes:
(1) primary selection for identifying presence / absence of the preceding traveling clamp 10 supplied in advance and selecting the working platforms B1 to B4 without the preceding traveling clamp 10 among the plurality of working tables;
(2) Of the plurality of worktables B1 to B4 selected in the primary selection, the secondary selection for selecting the worktables B1 to B4 having the shorter waiting time from the arrival of the branch point to the work is performed in that order. Done in

Further, since the primary selection and the secondary selection are performed at the branch points J1, J2, and J3, the selection range of the supply destination is narrowed for each branch point. A description will be given with reference to FIG.
At the branch point J1, the optimum work table Bx (the one with the shortest waiting time, the same applies hereinafter) is selected from the four work tables B1 to B4.
At the branch point J2, the optimum work table Bx is selected from the three work tables B2 to B4.
At the branch point J3, the optimum work table Bx is selected from the two work tables B3 and B4.

The primary selection and the secondary selection are performed as follows. This will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
In step 101, the presence or absence of the preceding clamp 10e is determined on the work tables B1 to B4. When the work clamps B1 to B4 include a combination of the preceding clamp 10e existing before the entry side and a non-existing one, the process proceeds to step 102.
In step 102, a work table without the preceding clamp 10e is selected.
Next, the process proceeds to step 103, and a work table with a short waiting time is selected.
If it is determined in step 101 that there is no preceding clamp 10e on all the work tables B1 to B4 (step 104), the process proceeds directly to step 103. If it is determined in step 101 that all the worktables B1 to B4 have the preceding clamp (step 105), the process returns to the position before step 101.

Next, supply destination selection according to the situation of FIG. 3 will be specifically described.
(1) Primary selection There is an empty clamp 10e before the entry side of the work tables B1 and B2, but there is no empty clamp on the entry side of the work tables B3 and B4. In this case, the work tables B3 and B4 are selected (steps 101 and 102 in FIG. 2). The reason why the work tables B1 and B2 are not selected is that the work tables B3 and B4 without an empty clamp should have a shorter waiting time before starting than the work tables B1 and B2 from which work will be performed.

(2) Secondary selection One of the work tables B3 and B4 is selected by measuring the waiting time and selecting the shorter one (step 103 in FIG. 2). In this case, the longer one is used, which is either a) the elapsed time from the time when the preceding traveling clamp is pulled into the workbench or b) the elapsed time after the preceding traveling clamp is delivered from the working table. Select. This is because a long elapsed time means a short waiting time until the next work.
In the example of FIG. 3, the work table B4 sends the preceding traveling clamp first, so the work table B4 is selected.

(3) Thereafter, the primary selection and the secondary selection are repeated. If an empty travel clamp 10e exists on the branch paths d1 and d2, the work table B3 is selected.
(4) Then, the work table B1 and the work table B2 are repeated (2).
If one of the work tables B1 and B2 is selected, the primary selection and the secondary selection are performed again in the remaining work tables B3, B4 and B1 or B2.

Since the supply destination of the empty traveling clamp 10e is selected as described above, the following effects are achieved according to the present embodiment.
By excluding the worktables that are known to have a low waiting time in the primary sorting and comparing the waiting time of the remaining worktables, the determination time for the secondary selection is shortened and the conveyance efficiency is higher. . In addition, a control device for selection determination can be simplified.
As described above, it is unnecessary to compare the length of waiting time before starting from the time of arrival at each branch point until the work is started on each work table, and select the work table with the short waiting time before starting. The waiting time is eliminated and the conveyance efficiency is increased. For this reason, it becomes possible to improve the working speed of the working machine.

A1, A2 Finishing machine B1-B4 Work table d1-d4 Branch path R Rail R1 Conveyance path R2 Conveyance path 10 Travel clamp 10e Empty travel clamp

Claims (2)

A plurality of work platforms for suspending the object to be transported by the travel clamp , a transport forward path for transporting the transport object to the work machine by the travel clamp, and a transport return path for collecting an empty travel clamp and supplying it to the work table And a plurality of branch paths that branch from the transport return path and supply empty travel clamps to the respective work tables,
At a plurality of branch points where the plurality of branch paths branch from the transport return path,
A selection method for selecting a worktable to which a traveling clamp should be supplied from among a plurality of worktables.
A method of selecting a workbench with a short pre-launch time by comparing the length of the pre-launch wait time from the arrival of each branch point to the start of work on each workbench,
The selection method is:
(1) primary selection for identifying presence / absence of preceding traveling clamp supplied in advance among a plurality of worktables and selecting a worktable without the preceding traveling clamp; and (2) selected by the primary selection. A traveling clamp supply destination selection method, wherein a secondary selection for selecting a work table having a shorter waiting time from the point of arrival at the branch point to the work among the plurality of work tables is performed in that order. A plurality of work platforms for suspending the object to be transported by the travel clamp , a transport forward path for transporting the transport object to the work machine by the travel clamp, and a transport return path for collecting an empty travel clamp and supplying it to the work table And a plurality of branch paths that branch from the transport return path and supply empty travel clamps to the respective work tables,
At a plurality of branch points where the plurality of branch paths branch from the transport return path,
A control device for selecting a work table to which a traveling clamp is to be supplied from among a plurality of work tables,
This is a method in which the control device compares the length of waiting time before starting from the time of arrival at each branch point to the start of hanging work on each work table, and selects a work table with a short waiting time before starting. And
The selection method is:
(1) primary selection for identifying presence / absence of preceding traveling clamp supplied in advance among a plurality of worktables and selecting a worktable without the preceding traveling clamp; and (2) selected by the primary selection. A traveling clamp supply destination selection transfer facility, wherein a secondary selection for selecting a work table having a shorter waiting time from the point of arrival at the branch point to the work among the plurality of work tables is performed in that order.

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