JP7184363B2 - Goods accumulation and transfer equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an article stacking/transferring apparatus for stacking articles conveyed in multiple rows and transferring the stacked articles to a conveyer.

A device for accumulating articles and supplying them to the next process is known from Patent Document 1. The apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 drops articles placed flat on a supply conveyor and transported into a stacking bucket of a stacking conveyor provided on the end side of the transport, and stacks them in the stacking bucket. It is configured to push out and deliver the group of articles that have become from the accumulating bucket toward the next process.

JP-A-2003-104586

In the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the articles discharged from the conveying end of the supply conveyor are dropped into the accumulation bucket and accumulated. There is a problem that it becomes impossible to deliver a group of articles in an aligned state to the process. In addition, since it is configured to pass the collected articles in the same orientation to the next process, it is pointed out that it is not possible to respond to a request to change the orientation of the articles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an article accumulating/transferring apparatus capable of supplying a plurality of articles conveyed by a supply conveyor to a conveying conveyor as accumulated articles which are accumulated and aligned without collapsing. .

The article accumulating and transferring apparatus of the invention according to claim 1 of the present application comprises:
a supply conveyor (11) for conveying articles (10) in multiple rows in a lateral direction intersecting the conveying direction;
A plurality of receiving members (12), which are spaced apart in front of the feeding end of the supply conveyor (11) and capable of accommodating a stack (W) in which a plurality of articles (10) are stacked, are arranged in the lateral direction. a conversion unit (13) provided for
By picking up the articles (10) conveyed by the supply conveyor (11) and transferring them so as to be accommodated in the plurality of receiving members (12), the articles (10) are placed in the plurality of receiving members (12). 10) are accumulated so as to be aligned in the direction of conveyance by the supply conveyor (11) or in the opposite direction to form a stacked product (W);
a conveying conveyor (15) disposed opposite to the supply conveyor (11) across the converting section (13) and having a conveying direction intersecting with the conveying direction of the supply conveyor (11);
an actuation mechanism (16) capable of relatively moving the plurality of receiving members (12) toward or away from each other and rotating each of the receiving members (12) about a vertical axis;
The receiving member (12) is actuated by the operating mechanism (16) to set the horizontal interval and direction of the plurality of stacked products (W) to the transport interval and transport direction of the transport conveyor (15). W) is picked up from the receiving member (12) and transferred to the transfer conveyor (15) ,
The second transfer means (17) follows the transfer speed of the transfer conveyor (15) and transfers the stack (W) while moving in the transfer direction.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to satisfactorily transfer a piled product in which a plurality of articles are piled up to the transport conveyor without collapsing of the load within the receiving member. In addition, since the direction of the stack can be changed, it is possible to meet a request for changing the direction of the stack.

In the invention according to claim 2, the actuating mechanism (16) includes a multi-joint pantograph mechanism (22) in which the receiving member (12) is rotatably supported at joints about a vertical axis; 12) and a rotating mechanism (23) that rotates the receiving member (12) by moving a cam member (38) that engages with a cam follower (42) that rotates integrally with the receiving member (12). and
According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to change the horizontal spacing of the plurality of stacked products to equal intervals, and to change the orientation of the plurality of stacked products with a simple configuration.

In the invention according to claim 3, the conversion unit (13) is arranged at a receiving position (N1) for receiving the article (10) from the first transfer means (14) to the receiving member (12), and at the second transfer position (N1). It is characterized by having a position changing mechanism (26) that moves to a delivery position (N2) where the stack (W) is picked up from the receiving member (12) by means (17).
According to the invention of claim 3, the stacked products can be delivered to the transport conveyor at high speed without interference between the first transfer means and the second transfer means.

According to the present invention, the stack of articles can be favorably transferred to the transport conveyor without collapsing of the articles in the receiving member. In addition, it is possible to change the orientation of the stack and deliver it to the transport conveyor.

1 is a schematic front view showing an article stacking/transferring device; FIG. Fig. 3 is a schematic plan view of the supply conveyor, conversion section and transfer conveyor, with the conversion section positioned in a receiving position; Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view showing the supply conveyor, conversion section and transfer conveyor, with the conversion section positioned in the transfer position; It is a schematic side view which shows a conversion part and a 2nd transfer means. It is a principal part schematic sectional drawing which shows a 2nd transfer means.

Next, a preferred embodiment of the article stacking/transferring apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the article stacking/transferring apparatus according to the embodiment includes a supply conveyor 11 for conveying articles 10 in multiple rows, and a receiving member as a receiving member capable of accommodating a piled article W in which a plurality of articles 10 are accumulated. A conversion section 13 having a plurality of buckets 12, a first transfer means 14 for transferring the articles 10 on the supply conveyor 11 so as to be accommodated in the plurality of buckets 12, and the supply conveyor 11 with the conversion section 13 interposed therebetween. A transfer conveyor 15 arranged on the opposite side, an operating mechanism 16 capable of changing the horizontal spacing and direction of the plurality of buckets 12, and a second transfer for picking up the accumulated product W from the bucket 12 and transferring it to the transfer conveyor 15. means 17; In the embodiment, the article 10 is a chain bag having different lengths and widths, but the outer shape is not limited to a rectangle. may be

As shown in FIG. 2, on the supply conveyor 11, articles 10 manufactured by a bagging machine such as a vertical bag-filling machine are arranged in a plurality of rows (six rows in the embodiment) in a horizontal direction intersecting the conveying direction. A plurality of articles 10, which are placed in a flat state with their longitudinal sides along the conveying direction and conveyed, are conveyed to the conveying end of the supply conveyor 11, are dammed by stoppers 18, and are lined up in the lateral direction. The sheet is transferred to the bucket 12 of the converting section 13 by the loading means 14 while being conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 .

As shown in FIG. 1, a robot such as a parallel link robot is provided with a handling section 21 having a holding means 20 at the end of a robot arm 19 that can freely move in a three-dimensional space as the first transfer means 14. is used. The holding means 20 of the first transfer means 14 includes suction units 20a capable of sucking the articles 10 in each row conveyed by the supply conveyor 11. It is configured to collectively pick up a plurality of articles 10 lined up laterally from 11 .

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the conversion section 13 is provided in front of the feed end of the supply conveyor 11 with a space therebetween. In the embodiment, two conversion units 13 are arranged in a lateral direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the supply conveyor 11 (front and rear of the conveying direction of the conveying conveyor 15). Each conversion unit 13 includes a pantograph mechanism 22 that includes buckets 12 in the same number as the number of rows of articles 10 conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 so as to be arranged in the horizontal direction, and that changes the horizontal interval of the buckets 12; The actuating mechanism 16 is provided with a rotating mechanism 23 for rotating (horizontally rotating in the embodiment) around a vertical axis at a predetermined angle to change (convert) the orientation of the stack W. As shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the converting portion 13 is provided with a pair of guide rails 24 extending in the front-rear direction along the conveying direction of the supply conveyor 11 and spaced apart in the lateral direction, which is the direction in which the buckets 12 are arranged. , 24, a rectangular frame-shaped base member 25 is movably supported in the front-rear direction, and the pantograph mechanism 22 and the rotation mechanism 23 are arranged on the base member 25. As shown in FIG. The operating mechanism 16 moves the conversion unit 13 to a receiving position N1 (see FIG. 2) for receiving the articles 10 from the first transfer means 14 to the bucket 12, and to a stack W from the bucket 12 by the second transfer means 17. is picked up at a delivery position N2 (see FIG. 3). The position changing mechanism 26 includes a first linear slide mechanism 27 connected to the base member 25 and a first drive motor 28 such as a servomotor for operating the first linear slide mechanism 27. By operating the first linear slide mechanism 27 with the base member 25, the bucket 12 is moved along the guide rails 24, 24 to a receiving position N1 biased toward the supply conveyor and a delivery position N2 biased toward the transport conveyor. is configured to translate between

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the pantograph mechanism 22 has an intersection portion which is a node where the two links 29 and 30 are crossed or an overlapping portion which is a node where the ends of the two links 29 and 30 overlap each other. are rotatably connected by a shaft member 31, and the ends of the links 29, 30 of the adjacent link units 32 are rotatably connected by connecting pins 33, 33. The buckets 12 are arranged on the shaft members 31 of the respective link units 32 so as to rotate integrally therewith. In the embodiment, the shaft member 31 of the link unit 32 on one end side in the direction in which the link units 32 are arranged is rotatably supported by a fixed support member 34 fixed to the base member 25, and the shaft member 31 of the other link units 32 is supported. A shaft member 31 is rotatably supported by a movable support member 35 that is laterally movably supported with respect to the base member 25 . In addition, a movable support member 35 that supports the shaft member 31 of the link unit 32 on the other end side in the alignment direction of the link units 32 is connected to a second linear slide mechanism 36 that extends in the horizontal direction. By operating the slide mechanism 36 with a second drive motor 37 such as a servomotor, the shaft members 31 of the link units 32 adjacent to each other move away from or approach each other with the shaft member 31 of the link unit 32 on the one end side as a base point. The pantograph mechanism 22 expands and contracts by moving so as to change the horizontal spacing of the plurality of buckets 12 . In the state where the pantograph mechanism 22 is contracted, the interval between the buckets 12 in the vertically oriented posture described later is set to a interval that allows the articles 10 to be accommodated without changing the row interval of the articles 10 arranged in the horizontal direction on the supply conveyor 11. In addition, in the state in which the pantograph mechanism 22 is extended, the horizontal interval of the buckets 12 in the lateral posture, which will be described later, is the horizontal interval of the stacked products W accommodated in the plurality of buckets 12, which is the transportation interval of the transportation conveyor 15. set to match. In the embodiment, the two conversion units 13, 13 are arranged so that the fixed support members 34, 34 of the pantograph mechanisms 22, 22 are positioned on the side where the pantograph mechanisms 22, 22 are adjacent to each other, and each pantograph mechanism 22 is located on the other side. It is configured to contract toward the side adjacent to the conversion portion side of the and extend toward the side away from the conversion portion side.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the bucket 12 includes a rectangular bottom plate 12a to which the shaft member 31 is connected so as to rotate integrally, and a plurality of supports erected on the edge of the bottom plate 12a. It is configured to open upward from the walls 12b and 12c so that articles 10 received from above can be stacked on the bottom plate. The support walls 12b and 12c are first support walls 12b and 12b erected at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the bottom plate 12a, and second support walls 12b and 12b erected at both ends in the width direction of the bottom plate 12a at intervals in the longitudinal direction. Between the adjacent second supporting walls 12c, 12c, a clamping member 44, which will be described later, of the second transfer means 17 holds the stacked product W in which the multiple products 10 are stacked in the bucket 12. A space S is formed to allow clamping by 44 .

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the rotation mechanism 23 includes a cam member 38 formed with a cam portion 38a such as a cam groove extending in the lateral direction, and a plurality (embodiment and a third drive motor 40 such as a servomotor for operating the third linear slide mechanism 39. By synchronously operating the third linear slide mechanisms 39, 39, the cam member 38 is moved to a first position M1 (see FIG. 2) and a second position M2 (see FIG. (See FIG. 3). Further, the rotation mechanism 23 includes a cam follower 42 rotatably supported by a lever member 41 arranged to rotate integrally with the shaft member 31, and the cam follower 42 moves relative to the cam portion 38a. engaged as possible. In this embodiment, by moving the cam member 38 between the first position M1 and the second position M2, the bucket 12 with the cam follower 42 engaged with the cam portion 38a is configured to horizontally rotate 90 degrees. be. Specifically, when the cam member 38 is at the first position M1, the bucket 12, in which the cam follower 42 is engaged with the cam portion 38a, assumes a vertical posture (see FIG. 2) in which the longitudinal direction is along the front-rear direction, and the cam member 38 is at the first position. At position 2 M2, the bucket 12, in which the cam follower 42 is engaged with the cam portion 38a, is configured to take a lateral posture (see FIG. 3) in which the longitudinal direction is along the lateral direction. That is, at the first position M1 of the cam member 38, the bucket 12 is in a posture in which the articles 10 transferred from the supply conveyor 11 by the first transfer means 14 can be accommodated while being conveyed by the supply conveyor 11. Thus, at the second position M<b>2 of the cam member 38 , the stack W contained in the bucket 12 is set to be in a posture in which it is conveyed by the conveyer 15 .

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the second transfer means 17 drives an air cylinder or the like so as to clamp the stack W accommodated in each bucket 12 in the converting section 13 from both sides in the lateral direction. A hand portion 45 having a pair of clamping members 44 , 44 moved toward and away from each other by means 43 is arranged on a moving member 46 laterally spaced apart by the same number as the buckets 12 . The second transfer means 17 includes a horizontal movement means 47 for moving the moving member 46 in the horizontal direction along the conveying direction of the conveyor 15, and a front-to-back moving means for moving the moving member 46 in the front-rear direction orthogonal to the horizontal direction. 48, and an elevation moving means 49 for moving the moving member 46 in the vertical direction. The lateral moving means 47 is connected to a lateral moving body 51 movably supported by laterally extending lateral guide rails 50, and is a toothed belt or the like wound around a pair of laterally spaced pulleys 52, 52. An endless rope 53 and a lateral movement driving motor 54 such as a servo motor for driving the endless rope 53 are provided. there is The back-and-forth moving means 48 includes a back-and-forth motion linear slide mechanism 57 that is disposed on a back-and-forth moving body 55 and connected to a back-and-forth motion drive motor 56 such as a servomotor. 55 supports the moving member 46 via a plurality of guide rods 58, 58 so as to be vertically movable. The vertical movement means 49 includes a vertical movement driving means 59 such as an e-cylinder disposed on the front-rear moving body 55 , and a piston rod of the vertical movement driving means 59 is connected to the moving member 46 . The up-and-down moving means 49 moves the hand portion 45 together with the moving member 46 to a holding position where the stack W stored in the bucket 12 can be held, a raised position spaced upward from the bucket 12 , and the conveying conveyor 15 . It moves to the release position where the stack W is delivered. In addition, in the embodiment, the raised position and the released position are set to the same height level. The back-and-forth moving means 48 moves the hand portion 45 together with the moving member 46 to a forward position above the bucket 12 located at the delivery position N2 and a backward position above the transport conveyor 15 . The lateral movement means 47 laterally moves the hand portion 45 together with the moving member 46 between positions above the two conversion portions 13 , 13 , and moves the hand portion 45 together with the moving member 46 moved above the conveyer 15 . The portion 45 is laterally moved toward the downstream side in the conveying direction at a speed following the conveying speed of the conveyer 15 . The speed at which the hand unit 45 laterally moves toward the downstream side is set to be substantially the same as the transport speed of the transport conveyor 15, and the speed at which the stack W is transferred from the second transfer means 17 to the transport conveyor 15 is set at approximately the same speed. It is configured to prevent stacks W from collapsing due to speed differences.

As shown in FIG. 4, the hand portion 45 is provided with a pressing portion 61 which is vertically moved by a driving means 60 such as an air cylinder. are moved onto the transport conveyor 15, and the stacked products W are pressed against a transport bed 63 of the transport conveyor 15, which will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 1, the conveying conveyor 15 of the packaging machine is arranged on the opposite side of the feeding conveyor 11 with the converting section 13 interposed therebetween so that the conveying direction is orthogonal to the feeding conveyor 11. there is As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the conveying conveyor 15 is a conveying conveyor in which pushing members 62a are provided at predetermined intervals on an endless chain 62 that circulates. The piled product W thus placed is supplied toward the packaging section of the horizontal bag making and filling machine. On the conveying bed 63, the stack W whose direction has been changed by 90 degrees by the horizontal rotation of the bucket 12 in the converting section 13 is conveyed so that the longitudinal direction of the article 10 is along the conveying direction of the conveyer 15, and the pushing member 62a. are placed according to the transport interval by That is, the conveying direction of the stack of articles W conveyed by the conveying conveyor 15 is horizontally different from the conveying direction of the articles 10 conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 by 90 degrees. Left and right sides of the stack W placed on the transport conveyor 15 are guided by the article guides 64, 64 and conveyed toward the packaging section.

Next, the operation of the article stacking/transferring apparatus according to the embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 2, the six articles 10 conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 and blocked by the stopper 18 are picked up from the supply conveyor 11 by being sucked by the suction portion 20a of the first transfer means 14. As shown in FIG. The first transfer means 14 transfers the picked-up article 10 so as to be accommodated in each of the buckets 12 in the vertical posture positioned at the receiving position N1 while maintaining the conveying direction conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 . A predetermined number of articles 10 are stacked in the bucket 12 by the first transfer means 14 so as to be aligned in the same direction. The first linear slide mechanism 27 is operated by the first drive motor 28 of the position change mechanism 26 to move the base member 25 from the receiving position N1 toward the delivery position N2. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the second linear slide mechanism 36 is operated by the second drive motor 37 of the pantograph mechanism 22, and the shaft members 31 on which the respective buckets 12 are arranged are moved away from each other. As a result, the pantograph mechanism 22 is extended and the six buckets 12 are spread out so that the horizontal intervals are equal. Further, the third linear slide mechanisms 39, 39 are actuated by the third driving motors 40, 40 of the rotating mechanism 23 to move the cam member 38 from the first position M1 to the second position M2. Each bucket 12 engaged with a cam portion 38a of 38 via a cam follower 42 rotates horizontally by 90 degrees, and the orientation of the stored piled goods W is changed to a horizontal posture.

As shown in FIG. 3, at the transfer position N2 of the base member 25, the six buckets 12 are spaced apart at equal intervals in which the horizontal intervals of the accommodated stacks W correspond to the conveying intervals of the conveying conveyor 15, The stack W is converted to a sideways orientation in which the conveyer 15 is conveyed. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the second transfer means 17 positions the hand portion 45 provided on the moving member 46 by the forward/backward moving means 48 and the lateral moving means 47 at the delivery position N2. The hand part 45 is positioned above one conversion part 13, and the hand part 45 is lowered to the clamping position by the lifting/lowering means 49. As shown in FIG. In each hand portion 45, the pair of holding members 44, 44 are brought close to each other by the drive means 43, and the stack W contained in the bucket 12 is moved from both sides in the width direction through the space S of the bucket 12. pinch.

The second transfer means 17, which clamps the stacked products W of the plurality of buckets 12 with the respective hand portions 45, raises all the hand portions 45 to the raised position by the lifting/lowering means 49, and the plurality of stacked products W are separated. are picked up collectively from the bucket 12 of . The second transfer means 17 moves the hand part 45 raised to the raised position to a retracted position above the conveying conveyor 15 by the forward and backward moving means 48, and moves the hand part 45 to the conveying conveyor by the lateral movement means 47. While moving downstream in the conveying direction at a speed following the conveying speed of No. 15, the hand portion 45 is released and the stack W is transferred to the conveying bed 63 according to the conveying interval of the conveyer 15 . At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, the pressing portion 61 is lowered to press the stack W against the conveying bed 63 to prevent the stack W from floating. The conversion unit 13, from which the stack W has been picked up from the bucket 12 by the second transfer means 17, moves the base member 25 from the delivery position N2 to the receiving position N1 by the position changing mechanism 26. The buckets 12 are converted to the vertical posture, and the pantograph mechanism 22 is contracted to bring the plurality of buckets 12 closer to each other.

The first transfer means 14 stacks the articles 10 picked up from the supply conveyor 11 into the bucket 12 of the other converting section 13 whose base member 25 is positioned at the receiving position N1. . Then, when a predetermined number of articles 10 are stacked on the bucket 12 of the other converting section 13 to obtain a stack W, the base member 25 of the other converting section 13 is moved toward the delivery position N2, and the pantograph The horizontal arrangement interval of the buckets 12 is changed by the mechanism 22 and the orientation of the buckets 12 is changed by the rotating mechanism 23 .

The article accumulating and transferring apparatus of the embodiment picks up the articles 10 conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 by suction by the first transferring means 14 and transfers the articles 10 to the bucket 12 of the converting section 13. Since the process is repeated a predetermined number of times to obtain a stack W in which a plurality of articles 10 are stacked in the same direction in the bucket 12, the articles 10 do not collapse when the articles 10 are stacked in the bucket 12. will not occur. In addition, since the bucket 12 is horizontally rotated by the rotating mechanism 23 to change the orientation of the accumulated articles W accommodated in the bucket 12, the orientation of the articles 10 conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 is changed and conveyed. Requests to feed the conveyor 15 can be met. In addition, since the stacked articles W stored in the bucket 12 are held by the holding members 44, 44 of the second transfer means 17 and transferred to the conveyer 15, the articles 10 are arranged in a uniform state. Stacked products W can be transferred to the transport conveyor 15 satisfactorily. Further, the second transfer means 17 transfers the stack W held by the holding members 44, 44 to the conveyer 15 while moving downstream in the conveying direction at a speed following the conveying speed of the conveyer 15. With this configuration, the stacked products W can be transferred to the transport conveyor 15 satisfactorily without collapsing.

Since the article stacking/transferring apparatus of the embodiment is configured such that the horizontal spacing of the plurality of buckets 12 is changed by the pantograph mechanism 22, the buckets 12 are arranged at the horizontal spacing of the articles 10 conveyed in multiple rows by the supply conveyor 11. It is possible to change the horizontal interval of the stacked products W accommodated in the conveyor 15 to an equal interval matched with the transport interval of the transport conveyor 15, so that the plurality of stacked products W are satisfactorily delivered according to the transport interval of the transport conveyor 15. be able to. In addition, since the rotating mechanism 23 is composed of the cam member 38 and the cam follower 42, it is possible to change the direction of the stack W with a simple structure while allowing the pantograph mechanism 22 to change the interval between the buckets 12. can.

The conversion unit 13 is placed at a receiving position N1 biased toward the supply conveyor side where the articles 10 are received by the bucket 12 from the first transfer means 14, and a conveyance where the accumulated goods W are picked up from the bucket 12 by the second transfer means 17. Since it is configured to move to the transfer position N2 biased toward the conveyor side, the stack W is transferred to the transfer conveyor 15 at high speed without interference between the first transfer means 14 and the second transfer means 17. It can be carried out.

The article accumulating and transferring apparatus of the embodiment includes two converting sections 13, and while the article 10 is being transferred to one of the converting sections 13 by the first transferring means 14, the other converting section 13 The stacked products W stacked on the bucket 12 can be transferred to the transport conveyor 15 by the second transfer means 17, and the processing capacity can be improved. Even in a configuration having two converting units 13, the receiving position N1 of one converting unit 13 and the delivery position N2 of the other converting unit 13 are spaced apart in the front-rear direction. 2 Each process can be performed without interfering with the transfer means 17 .

(Change example)
The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the embodiment, and can be modified, for example, as follows. In addition, without being limited to the following modified examples, various embodiments can be adopted for the configurations described in the examples within the scope of the present invention.
(1) The number of conversion units 13 provided may be one.
(2) The conversion unit 13 is configured to move between the receiving position N1 and the delivery position N2. A configuration that modifies each can be employed.
(3) In the embodiment, the receiving position N1 and the delivery position N2 are separated from each other in the longitudinal direction. It can be set as a position spaced apart in a direction.
(4) The means for operating the position changing mechanism 26, the means for expanding and contracting the pantograph mechanism 22, and the means for operating the rotating mechanism 23 are not limited to means combining a linear slide mechanism and a drive motor, but may be a link mechanism, a drive motor, or the like. Various known means such as a combination of an air cylinder and the like can be employed.
(5) In the embodiment, the articles 10 conveyed by the supply conveyor 11 are transferred to the bucket 12 by the first transfer means 14 in the conveying direction of the supply conveyor 11. The article 10 is transferred to the bucket 12 by the first transfer means 14 in the opposite direction to the conveying direction of the supply conveyor 11 in relation to the conveying direction of the conveyer 11 and the conveying direction of the accumulated goods W by the conveyer 15. A configuration can be adopted. The orientation of the articles 10 transferred to the bucket 12 is not limited to completely matching the conveying orientation or the reverse orientation of the supply conveyor 11, and the orientation may be slightly different.
(6) In the embodiment, the second transfer means 17 collectively picks up the plurality of stacked products W contained in the plurality of buckets 12 in the converting section 13 and transfers them to the transport conveyor 15. It is possible to employ a configuration in which the plurality of stacked products W housed in the plurality of buckets 12 are divided into a predetermined number by the second transfer means 17 and picked up and transferred to the transport conveyor 15 .

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 article 11 supply conveyor 12 bucket (receiving member) 13 conversion unit 14 first transfer means 15 transport conveyor 16 operating mechanism 17 second transfer means 22 pantograph mechanism 23 rotation mechanism 26 position change mechanism , 38 cam member 42 cam follower, W accumulated product, N1 receiving position, N2 receiving position

Claims (3)

a supply conveyor that conveys articles in multiple rows in a lateral direction that intersects the conveying direction;
a conversion unit provided with a space in front of the conveying end of the supply conveyor and provided with a plurality of receiving members arranged side by side in the lateral direction, the receiving members being capable of accommodating a plurality of accumulated articles;
By picking up the articles conveyed by the supply conveyor and transferring them so as to be accommodated in the plurality of receiving members, the articles are arranged in the plurality of receiving members in the direction of conveyance by the supply conveyor or in the opposite direction. a first transfer means for accumulating as an accumulated product,
a conveying conveyor disposed on the opposite side of the supply conveyor across the converting section and having a conveying direction that intersects the conveying direction of the supply conveyor;
an operating mechanism capable of relatively moving the plurality of receiving members toward and away from each other and rotating each of the receiving members around a vertical axis;
The receiving member is actuated by the operating mechanism to pick up a plurality of stacked products whose horizontal spacing and direction correspond to the transport spacing and transport direction of the transport conveyor from the receiving member and transfer them to the transport conveyor. and a second transfer means for loading ,
The second transfer means follows the conveying speed of the conveyer and transfers the stack while moving in the conveying direction.
An article accumulating and transferring apparatus characterized by: The actuating mechanism includes a multi-joint pantograph mechanism in which the receiving member is rotatably supported on a joint about an axis in the vertical direction, and a cam member that engages with a cam follower that is disposed on the receiving member and rotates integrally. 2. The article stacking and transferring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a rotation mechanism for moving and rotating the receiving member. A position changing mechanism is provided to move the converting section between a receiving position where the article is received by the receiving member from the first transfer means and a delivery position where the stacked article is picked up from the receiving member by the second transfer means. 3. An apparatus for stacking and transferring articles according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by:

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