JPH0270623A - Pooling device for tiered tray - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to pool a large quantity of tiered up trays in a narrow space by letting tiered up trays to stand-by on a pool conveyor, and supplying the succeeding tray as soon as the trays in a tiering-up and cutting- through device are used up. CONSTITUTION:When tiered up trays 6 are supplied to a carry conveyor 7 from a pool conveyor 5 as shown with the arrow mark B, an elevatable means ascends so as to equalize the height of the conveyor 7 and the conveyor 5. Sequentially, as the hydraulic cylinder 12 of a supporting means 10 is actuated in the extending direction to pinch the lowermost tray 1 with claws 11. Hereby, respective tiered trays 1 are held with the claws 11 at the lowermost step and positioned on the conveyor 7. Nextly, by actuating the hydraulic cylinder 12 in the contracting direction, the claws 11 release the tray 1, and the elevatable means 8 is descended by the height of one tray 1. And when a 2nd tray 1 comes on the position of the claws 11, the upper tiered trays 6 are held, and the tray1 on the conveyor 7 is carried with the conveyor 4 at descending of the elevatable means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention provides a stacked tray pool device in which trays of a certain size containing a large number of articles, etc. are stacked and can be freely placed on a pool conveyor. Regarding.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in assembly line operations, etc., trays containing items such as sealed packages filled with contents are sterilized through a sterilizer by an incoming conveyor and then discharged from an outgoing conveyor. If there is a delay between each process in which trays are successively fed, there will be nowhere for subsequent trays to go and the assembly line work will come to a halt.

In order to eliminate these problems, generally a pool section is provided in which the trays are placed in a parallel or stacked state on standby, and these pool sections are provided for each process.

However, if such a pool section is provided for each process, the space for this will increase, and therefore the equipment will become larger and the equipment cost will also increase.

Therefore, there is a well-known method in which a stacking device for stacking trays and a cutting device are arranged separately, and the devices are connected by a pool conveyor for stacking trays in order to reduce the space.

It was also used as a device to cut down the tray from the top and bottom.
There are known ones such as No. 6-22263 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-48268.

(Problem 8 to be solved by the invention) However, in the above-mentioned well-known and well-known devices, stacking and cutting are performed using completely separate devices, and stacking improves the conventional disadvantages to some extent in terms of space. However, if the stacks were scattered all over the place, it would be unavoidable that production efficiency would decline, and there was a desire to reduce the layer space.

In view of this, the present invention provides a pool section in which trays are stacked and placed on standby in close proximity to a tray stacking/cutting device, and when processing such as sterilization, the trays are taken out one by one from the device and cut down. To solve the drawbacks of the prior art by providing a tray pooling device capable of sequentially supplying the next stacked tray from a pool conveyor to a stacking/cutting device immediately after finishing cutting and cutting. It was made for the purpose of

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a means for at least one of a tray carrying-in conveyor or a tray carrying-out conveyor disposed toward a tray stacking/cutting device. Pool conveyors are installed in a stacked manner at a height that does not touch the
This pool conveyor is characterized by a configuration in which stacked trays can be freely placed on it.

(Function) With the above configuration, the stacked trays are always kept on standby on the pool conveyor, and when the tray stacking/cutting device is cut down and there is no tray left in the device, the next stacking can be started immediately. Trays can be supplied.

(Example) The present invention will be described below with reference to the example shown in FIGS. 1 to 5.

The stacking tray pool device according to the present invention has a stacking tray stacking/cutting device 2 for trays 1 disposed in between, and at least one of a tray carrying-in conveyor 3 and a tray carrying-out conveyor 4, for example. Pool conveyors 5 are provided in a stacked manner at a height that does not contact the trays 1 on top of the trays 1, and stacked trays 6 can be freely placed on the pool conveyors.

The stacked trays 6 are a plurality of trays 1 stacked one on top of the other, and the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 shows a situation in which there are three trays.

Further, a pool conveyor 5 that can be driven in the opposite direction to the conveying direction is provided above the unloading conveyor 4, and this conveyor 5
A plurality of stacked trays 6 are placed in one row on the upper surface of the tray.

In the illustrated embodiment, the carry-in conveyor 3 and the carry-out conveyor 4 are configured to carry a tray 1 thereon from the carry-in conveyor 3 to the carry-out conveyor 4. A stacking/cutting device 2 for trays 1 as shown below is provided, and a conveyor 7 is formed on the upper surface thereof.

The lower surface of the conveyor 7 is provided with an elevating means 8 having a built-in drive means such as a hydraulic cylinder, and the elevating means 8 is formed to be higher than the upper surface of the conveyor 4 when it is at its maximum elevation.

A frame 9 that serves as a guide for the stacked trays 6 is provided on the outside of the lifting means 8, and the portion of the frame 9 corresponding to the upper part of the lifting means 8 has a claw 11 for supporting the tray 1 and a claw 11. Supporting means 10 consisting of a driving hydraulic cylinder 12 and the like is provided, and this pawl 11 operates alternately with the lifting and lowering of the elevating means 8 to pinch and remove the trays 1 one by one and break down the stacked or stacked trays 6. It looks like this.

In addition, in this embodiment, there are a total of four claws 11, two on each side.
A shaft 16, which is the same as the shaft of the lever 15, is connected through rods 14, 14, which are provided at equal distances from the center of rotation of the lever 13, which is connected to the wood end of the hydraulic cylinder 12.
is fixed to.

Therefore, when the hydraulic cylinder 12 is operated to extend, the lever 13 rotates and the rods 14.14 are pulled together, and the pawls 11.11 rotate accordingly to sandwich the tray 1 on both sides. Thus, tray 1 is held in that position.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained.

As shown by arrow A on the left side of Fig. 1, one tray 1 is sent from the carry-in conveyor 3 to the upper surface of the conveyor 7, and when it descends to the same height as the carry-out conveyor 4, if there is only one tray 1, it remains as it is. The stacked trays 6 from the pool conveyor 5 are sent to the transport conveyor 7 from the right side of FIG. As shown in FIG. 5(a), the elevating means 8 rises to raise the transport conveyor 7 to the same height as the pool conveyor 5.

Then, when the hydraulic cylinder 12 of the support means 10 is operated in the extending direction, the claw 11 coaxial with the lever 15 clamps the lowest stacked tray 1 via the lever 13 and rod 14. As a result, each tray 1 stacked at the top is held by this claw 11 at the lowest level, and is placed on the conveyor 7 as shown in FIG.
Positioned as shown in . Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, the hydraulic cylinder 12 of the support means 10 is operated to retract, and the claw 11 is removed from the tray 1.

From this state, when the lifting means 8 is lowered by the height of one tray 1, the stacked trays 1 are also lowered together, as shown in the figure.
d).

Then, when the second tray 1 from the bottom reaches the position of the mold 11, the hydraulic cylinder 12 is operated again in the extending direction to hold the stacked trays 6 above it, as shown in FIG.
It becomes as shown in .

Next, the elevating means 8 places the tray 1 on the lowest stage.
When the upper conveyor 7 is further lowered and the upper surface of the upper conveyor 7 is aligned with the upper surface position of the carry-out conveyor 4, only one tray 1 remains on the conveyor 7 as shown in FIG. 4(f).

As a result, the tray 1 on the conveyor 7 is conveyed to the discharge conveyor 4 and sent to the next process.

Thereafter, by repeating the same operation, the stacked trays 1 can be sequentially cut down.

The above description has been made regarding the case of cutting down the trays, but in the case of stacking, the reverse operation is performed and the trays 1 can be stacked one by one from the bottom to the top.

Therefore, the tray 1 is always supported by either the lifting means 8 or the supporting means 10, and when stacking or cutting down, the tray 1 is alternately lifted and lowered and removed.

In this case, in the pool conveyor 5 according to the present invention, by always preparing a plurality of stacking trays 6 of appropriate heights for line use by stacking as described above, the stacking/cutting device can be immediately used when necessary. It is possible to supply.

Although the tray stacking/cutting device to which the present invention is applied has been described as shown in FIGS.
This is just an example, and the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and the carry-in conveyor may also be shared by the pool conveyor.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention has a pool conveyor stacked on at least one of the tray carry-in conveyor or the tray carry-out conveyor disposed toward the tray stacking/cutting device at a height that does not contact the trays on this conveyor. Since the stacked trays can be freely placed on this pool conveyor, stacked trays can be quickly supplied to the tray stacking/cutting device, and trays can be stacked in a narrow space. - A large number of stacked trays for cutting can be pooled, the entire line can be made into compact equipment, production efficiency is increased, and equipment costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a stacked tray pool device and related tray stacking/cutting device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1, and FIG. The figure is a front view, FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the support means of the tray stacking/cutting device shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a diagram of the operation of the tray stacking/cutting device related to the present invention. 1. (a) shows a state in which the stacked trays are placed on the raised transport conveyor, and (b) shows a state in which the trays are positioned. (C) is the state with the clamp removed, (d
) is the state in which the stacked tray is lowered, and (e) is the state in which the stacked tray is lowered.
(f) shows a state in which only the lowest tray is lowered by the lifting means. 1... Tray, 2... Tray stacking/cutting device,
3... Carrying in conveyor, 4... Carrying out conveyor, 5...
・Pool conveyor, 6... Stacking tray, 7... Transfer conveyor, 8... Lifting device, 9... Frame, 10.
...Supporting means, 11...Claw, 12...Hydraulic cylinder, 13...Lever, 14-...Mouth, 15...
(-16... axis.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A stacked pool conveyor is provided on at least one of the tray carry-in conveyor or the tray carry-out conveyor disposed toward the tray stacking/cutting device at a height that does not contact the trays on this conveyor, and the pool conveyor is stacked with stacks. A pool device for stacked trays, characterized in that stacking trays can be placed freely.