JPH0229065Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] <Industrial application field> The present invention is a suction device for conveying a relatively lightweight article having a flat surface, specifically, a suction device in which elastically deformable suction cups are arranged in series, An air flow path is formed that communicates the inside of this suction cup with the atmosphere, and one end of a working rod is movably inserted into the air path to form a valve, and the working rod is always biased in the valve closing direction and driven. This invention relates to a device that sequentially repeats opening and closing of a valve by reciprocating the main body of the device in the axial direction of the working rod.

<Prior art> Conventionally, as this type of adsorption device, for example,
As disclosed in Publication No. 23701, first, the main body of the device is lowered by a driving means, and the suction cup is pressed against the top stacked article to attract it, and then the main body of the device is raised to move the article to a desired position. After conveyance, the suction lever is further raised and the valve is opened to vent the atmosphere into the suction cup, thereby releasing the suction of the article.After that, the suction of the article and the release of suction are repeated alternately.

<Problem to be solved by the invention> However, in such conventional suction devices, the lower limit position of the device body by the drive means, that is, the suction position, is fixed, so this suction position is stacked in advance before operation. Not only does it have to be accurately adjusted to match the top of the item, but as the item is transported, the height position gradually decreases and becomes lower than the elastic deformation range of the suction cup, making it impossible for the suction to reach the item. I become confused.

To prevent this, the suction position of the device body can be gradually lowered by, for example, detecting subtle changes in the height of the stacked items using a detector, etc., and automatically adjusting the drive means based on this detected value. However, to perform this delicate control, the structure becomes complicated and the cost becomes high.

In view of such conventional circumstances, the present invention aims to reliably suction an article by adjusting the suction position to correspond to subtle changes in the height of the article without using a control device using a detector or the like.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The technical means taken by the present invention to solve the above problems is to provide a pressing means near the main body of the device that engages with the other end of the operating rod and moves it in the valve opening direction. The connecting end of the driving means is connected to the device main body so as to be movable in the reciprocating direction of the device main body, and a spring is interposed between the device main body and the connecting end so that the suction cup is always covered. The feature is that it is biased in the direction of the attracting object.

<Operation> According to the above-mentioned technical means, the present invention corrects subtle changes in the suction position by compressing the spring when the main body of the device is moved by the driving means and the suction cup comes into contact with the uppermost article. .

<Example> Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

The first embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS.
It is equipped with A suction cup 2 for suctioning an object A is attached to the lower end of the cylinder 1a. Cylindrical body 1a
A conical valve 7 used for releasing the adsorbed object A is arranged inside.

Here, the structure of the cylinder 1a will be described in detail.
A hollow portion is formed inside the tube, passing through the upper and lower ends of the tube, and the inner diameter of the tube is changed from the top to the bottom in three stages: small, medium, and large. Hereinafter, these will be referred to as the small diameter portion 11, the medium diameter portion 4, and the large diameter portion 5 in this order. The large-diameter portion 5 extends from a portion slightly below the center of the cylindrical body 1a to the lower end, and its inner diameter is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the conical valve 7.

A female thread 12 is provided near the lower end of the inner surface of the large diameter portion 5.
is formed. The conical valve 7 is slidably disposed inside the large diameter portion 5.

The conical valve 7 is composed of a cylindrical lower part 7a and a truncated conical upper part 7b, and an operating rod 9 is integrally formed at the top of the upper part 7b. The small diameter portion 11 is for slidably housing the working rod 9, and occupies the range from a portion slightly above the center of the cylinder 1a to the upper end, and its inner diameter is equal to the diameter of the working rod 9. Make it slightly larger. The small diameter portion 11 and the large diameter portion 5 are connected by the medium diameter portion 4,
A horizontal hole 3 is provided in this medium diameter portion 4 to communicate the hollow portion with the outside. A portion of the large diameter portion 5 connected to the medium diameter portion 4 is used as a valve seat, and a seal P is disposed thereon.

The suction cup 2 is attached to the cylindrical body 1a by a mounting bolt 1b.
mounted on. The suction cup 2 is made of a flexible elastic material such as rubber and is formed into a cup shape, and a through hole 2a for attachment is formed in the central part of the suction cup 2 in the axial direction. The diameter of the through hole 2a near the end on the inner surface of the suction cup 2 is made slightly larger than other parts, and is designed to accommodate the head _1b1 of the mounting bolt 1b. The mounting bolt 1b has a head portion _1b1 protruding in the lateral direction in the form of a flange, and has a male thread _1b2 formed at the other end to be screwed into the female thread 12 formed in the large diameter portion 5. This mounting bolt 1b also has a vertical hole 6 passing through it in the axial direction of the center portion.

After housing the conical valve 7 and the coil spring 8 in the large diameter portion 5 of the cylindrical body 1a, the suction cup 2 is constructed by fitting the mounting bolt 1b into the through hole 2a, and then inserting the male thread 1b ₂ of the mounting bolt 1b into the female thread 12. It is attached to the cylindrical body 1a by screwing together.

The coil spring 8 urges the conical valve 7 upward, and the action of this spring keeps the conical valve 7 in contact with the seal P of the valve seat at a constant pressure. The length of the working rod 9 is set so that when the conical valve 7 is in contact with the packing P, the upper part of the working rod 9 protrudes from the upper end of the cylindrical body 1a. With the above configuration, the conical valve 7 includes the vertical hole 6 of the mounting bolt 1b, the large diameter portion 5 of the cylindrical body 1a, the medium diameter portion 4,
It operates as an on-off valve for the airflow passage formed by the horizontal hole 3.

A pair of outer rings 16, 16 are fixed to the outer circumferential surface of the device main body 1 at appropriate intervals in the vertical direction, and a sliding tube that constitutes a connecting end of a driving means to be described later is installed between these outer rings 16, 16. 14 is inserted so as to be movable up and down, and the sliding tube 14 and the lower outer ring 1
A spring 15 is interposed between the cylinder body 1a and the cylinder body 6 to constantly urge the cylinder body 1a downward.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a container frame of the automatic butt supply device that constitutes the pressing means. A guide rod 21 is suspended from the container frame 20, and a sliding member 22 is slidably fitted into the guide rod 21. The tip of the moving member 22 is attached to the sliding tube 14 with nuts 23, 23.

The sliding member 22 is connected to a driving means (not shown) such as an air cylinder, and is driven by this to move the apparatus main body 1 up and down.

Further, in the figure, A, A, . . . indicate a plurality of stacked (hereinafter referred to as stacked) butts (flat trays for placing back goods, etc.), and 13 is a butt mounting stand. The automatic bat feeder is a device that automatically picks up stacked bats A one by one and places them on bat platform B. It is configured to be placed at the bottom of the. For this reason, batt mount B
is configured to open and close horizontally in conjunction with the action of raising batt A so as not to interfere with the raising of batt A, but the configuration of this part is not directly related to this invention. Detailed explanation will be omitted.

The operation of the apparatus of the above embodiment will be explained below.

First, when the sliding member 22 is slid downward, the device main body 1 is moved downward. In conjunction with this sliding movement of the sliding member 22, the batt platform B is brought into an open state.

When the sliding member 22 slides downward, the suction cup 2 of the device body 1 comes into contact with the uppermost butt A. When the sliding member 22 is slid further down the inner surface of the butt A, the sliding tube 14 presses the spring 15, so the suction cup 2 is moved to the upper surface of the butt A by the biasing force of the spring 15 via the tube 1a. Press it against the top surface.

Since the inner surface of the suction cup 2 is in close contact with the flat part of the bat A, the suction cup 2 and the flat part of the bat A are in a vacuum state, and the suction cup 2 attracts the flat part of the bat A. After passing through this state, when the sliding member 22 is then slid upward, the apparatus main body 1 moves upward, and the uppermost butt A rises together with the apparatus main body 1. When the bat A is positioned above the bat mount B, the bat mount B is closed.

When the sliding member 22 is further slid upward, the upper end of the working rod 9 comes into contact with the lower surface of the container frame 20, which is the pressing means, and as a result, the working rod 9 is pressed downward.

When the operating rod 9 is pressed, the conical valve 7 is in an open state. Therefore, the horizontal hole 3, the medium diameter part 4, the large diameter part 5
Air flows into the suction cup 2 through the vertical hole 6,
The vacuum state is released. Therefore, the batt A falls due to its own weight and is placed on the batt platform B.

The bats placed on the batt platform B are loaded with articles by an automatic article placing device (not shown), and then conveyed by a conveying device (not shown).

When the bats on the bat platform B are conveyed in this manner, the above operations are repeated to continue automatic supply of bats.

By repeatedly supplying the stacked batts A, the top surface of the batts A is lowered from the initial position. Since the suction cup 2 is always urged downward by the spring 15, even if the lowering position of the sliding member 22 is constant, as long as it is within the stroke range of the spring 15, the upper surface of the butt A will lower from the initial position. Even in the position where the batt A is placed, it is possible to reliably adsorb and supply the batt A. Therefore, the stacked bats A...
The upper surface of the vat A may be raised to the initial position before the suction cup 2 no longer reaches the upper surface of the vat A. In this way, since the suction cup 2 is always biased by the spring 15, there is no need to perform precise control to maintain the top surface position of the stacked bats A constant.
The cost of the control device can be reduced. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for adsorbing and supplying thin objects A. In addition, since the suction cup 2 maintains a predetermined stroke, not only will the suction cup 2 not collide with the top surface of the butt A and damage the suction cup 2 or the butt, but the pressing force of the suction cup 2 will always be within the predetermined range. Since the elastic force is set to , the adsorbed object will not be deformed.

In this way, according to the apparatus of the above embodiment, the vacuum state can be easily released by simply moving the apparatus main body 1 upward.

In the embodiments described above, there were cases where the vacuum state was released when the operating rod 9 was pressed, that is, slid downward.
A second embodiment in which the vacuum state is released by sliding the operating rod upward will be described with reference to FIGS. Components having the same configuration as those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

In the figure, the device main body 1 includes a cylindrical body 1'a.

A step 16' is formed on the outer surface of this cylindrical body 1'a by making the outer diameter different, and the upper and lower end surfaces are penetrated inside by a hollow portion.

The diameter of this hollow portion varies depending on the location as in the first embodiment, and for convenience of explanation, they will be referred to as a large diameter portion 5', a small diameter portion 11', and a medium diameter portion 4 in the drawings. The large diameter portion 5' is for disposing a conical valve 7', and a female thread 17 is formed near its upper end. Large diameter part 5'
The connecting portion with the small diameter portion 11 is used as a valve seat, and a gasket storage portion 5a having a slightly small diameter is provided in this portion to store the gasket P.

Further, a horizontal hole 3' is provided in the vicinity of the valve seat of the large diameter portion 5'. The small diameter part 11' is connected to the large diameter part 5' and the medium diameter part 4'.
The smaller the diameter of the small diameter portion 11', the better the sealing effect of the conical valve 7' can be expected. There is no problem. The medium diameter portion 4' is for attaching the suction cup 2, and has a female thread 12' formed on its circular surface. The suction cup 2 is attached to the cylindrical body 1'a by a mounting screw 16' as in the first embodiment. The conical valve 7' has a cylindrical upper portion 7.
A working rod 9' is integrally formed on the upper surface of the upper surface, which consists of a' and a truncated conical lower part 7b'. The inner diameter of the large diameter portion 5' is set to a size that allows the outer diameter of the upper portion 7a' to be inserted therein, and the conical valve 7' is slidably housed within the large diameter portion 5'. The working rod 9' has a length such that when the conical valve 7' is in contact with the valve seat, it passes through the hole _1'c1 formed in the cap screw 1'c and its tip projects outward.

The cover screw 1'c stably supports the working rod 9' and locks one end of the coil spring 8' fitted to the working rod 9'. 17c.

The coil spring 8' is connected to the conical valve 7' and the lid screw 1.
c', the conical valve 7' is always urged toward the valve seat, and the lower truncated conical portion 7'b of the conical valve 7' is always in contact with the valve seat at a constant pressure. With the above configuration, the conical valve 7' has a vertical hole 6' of the mounting screw 1'b,
It operates as an on-off valve for the air flow passage formed by the medium diameter portion 4', the small diameter portion 11', the large diameter portion 5', and the horizontal hole 3' of the cylindrical body 1'a.

A sliding cylinder 14 constituting the connecting end of the driving means is vertically movably inserted between the stepped portion 16' of the cylindrical body 1a and the outer ring 16 on the outer circumferential surface of the device main body 1. A screw 15 is interposed between the sliding tube 14 and the outer ring 16 to constantly urge the cylindrical body 1a' downward,
A mounting plate 13 is fixed to the upper part of the cylinder 1a'.

The mounting plate 13 is L-shaped and has a pin 18 projecting downward, and a support shaft 19 is provided at the top. A lever 10 is provided which is rotatable about the support shaft 19, and one end of the lever is linked to one end of the working rod 9'.

In the figure, 20' is a pressing piece constituting the pressing means;
2' is a sliding member, and the sliding member 22' is provided with a pin hole 22'a, and the pin hole 22'a and the pin 18
By fitting these together, rotation of the device main body 1' is prevented.

Then, attach the device body 1' to the sliding member 22' by tightening the nut 2.
Attach with steps 3 and 23. The sliding member 22' is driven by a driving means (not shown) such as an air cylinder to move the apparatus main body 1' up and down.

To explain the operation of the above embodiment, first, the sliding member 22' is lowered to a predetermined position. Suction cup 2
is pressed against the upper surface of the bat A with a predetermined biasing force by a spring 15', and is attracted and moved upward (FIG. 3).

The pressing piece 2 moves upward and the lever 10 is the pressing means.
0', the working rod 9' moves upward and the conical valve 7' slides upward, opening the horizontal hole 3'.
Air flows into the suction cup 2 through the large diameter portion 5', the small diameter portion 11, and the vertical hole 4, and the bat A falls.

That is, the vacuum state can be easily released by moving the main body 1' of the apparatus upward.

In addition, in the above first and second embodiments,
The structure was such that the vacuum state was released by sliding the valve that opened and closed the air flow passage in the vertical direction.
The present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is conceivable to configure the vacuum state to be released by rotating a valve. in this case,
In order to release the vacuum state by moving the device body upward in the same manner as in the first and second embodiments, the operating rod connected to the valve is moved upward using the tapered surface. What is necessary is just to configure it so that it can be rotated in conjunction with. In short, it is sufficient to appropriately adopt the most suitable structure in relation to the apparatus in which the adsorption apparatus of the present invention is used.

<Effects of the Invention> Since the present invention has the above configuration, it has the following advantages.

When the main body of the device is moved by the driving means and the suction cup comes into contact with the uppermost article, the slight change in the suction position is corrected by the compression of the spring, so the suction position can be adjusted without using a control device using a detector or the like. It is possible to reliably adsorb articles in response to subtle changes in the height of the article.

Therefore, the article can be reliably suctioned without having to delicately control the suction position to match the top of the stacked articles before operation, which greatly facilitates the adjustment work and makes it easier to transport the article. Since it is possible to deal with subtle changes in the height of the article, there is no need to control the suction position each time, and the conveyance can be carried out continuously.

Further, since there is no need for a control device that automatically adjusts the suction position using a detector or the like, the structure can be simplified and costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing the suction device of the first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory view of the same operation, and Fig. 3 is a second
FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing the suction device of the embodiment, and is an explanatory view of the same operation. A...Object to be adsorbed, 1, 1'...Device main body, 2...
...Sucker, 3, 4, 5, 6, 3', 5', 6', 1
1'...Air flow passage, 7,7'...Valve, 9,9'...
... Working rod, 14... Connection end of drive means (sliding tube),
15... Spring, 20, 20'... Pressing means (container frame,
pressure piece).

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] An air flow path is formed in the main body of the device in which the elastically deformable suction cup is connected, and an air flow passage is formed to communicate the inside of the suction cup with the atmosphere, and one end of the operating rod is movably inserted into the air flow passage to open the valve. In the suction device, the operating rod is always biased in the valve closing direction, and the device main body is reciprocated in the axial direction of the operating rod by a driving means to repeat opening and closing of the valve sequentially. A pressing means is provided that engages with the other end of the operating rod to move it in the valve opening direction, and the connecting end of the driving means is connected to the device body so as to be movable in the reciprocating direction of the device body. A suction device characterized in that a spring is interposed between the device main body and the connecting end to constantly urge the suction cup toward the object to be suctioned.