JPH0323346Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Application Field" The present invention relates to a fruit sorting machine that sorts fruits such as cherries by size.

``Prior art'' Conventionally, fruit sorting machines that sort fruits such as cherries into sizes, such as S, M, L, LL sizes, etc., have been designed to spread radially from the fruit supply side to the discharge side. Endless conveyance ropes made of a soft material that can prevent damage to many fruits in the width are stretched so as to be able to run, and the fruits supplied above are stretched between these conveyance ropes. There is known a structure in which the grains are run while loaded and are sorted by dropping them in descending order of size from the gaps between the transport ropes that gradually widen.

However, the conveyance ropes made of soft material to prevent damage to the fruits are expanded and contracted, and as a result, the specified spread width of each conveyance rope may be affected by sag during travel. Things were about to change.

For this reason, there was a drawback that the sorting accuracy was very poor, such as the fruit not falling at a position of a predetermined size but falling at a position of another size.

``Object of the Present Invention'' In view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, the present invention is to provide a fruit sorting machine that can accurately sort fruits without damaging them.

"Means for Achieving the Object of the Present Invention" The present invention consists of a large number of fruit conveyors that are stretched radially to a predetermined width from the supply side to the discharge side of the fruit, which are driven by a drive device. In a fruit sorting machine having ropes, the fruits are placed between the conveying ropes and are conveyed, and the fruits are allowed to fall in descending order from the gaps between the conveying ropes that gradually widen. There is a transport rope main body that can run so as to maintain a constant posture without twisting and maintain a predetermined spread width, and a transport rope that is attached to the part of the transport rope main body that comes into contact with the fruit and detects damage to the fruit. It is characterized by being constructed with a soft cover member that can prevent it from getting wet.

"Embodiments of the present invention" The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, reference numeral 1 denotes a machine frame having a rectangular planar shape.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a supply hopper fixed to the upper part of one end of the machine frame 1 for supplying fruit W such as cherries.

3 is the fruit W supplied from the supply hopper 2
This transport mechanism 3 is located at the upper part of one end of the machine frame 1 to which the supply hopper 2 is attached, and horizontally below the supply hopper 2. A first support shaft 4 provided therein, and a large number of first support shafts 4, nine in this embodiment, each having a V-groove rotatably supported at a predetermined narrow pitch. Support pulleys 5, 5... and the first one on the other end side of the machine frame 1.
A second support shaft 6 horizontally installed at approximately the same height as the support shaft 4, and nine mounting pitches of the first support pulleys 5, 5... on the second support shaft 6. Second support pulleys 7, 7, . . . each having a V-groove rotatably supported in a wide predetermined pitch.
..., a slow speed drive shaft 8 rotatably installed horizontally on the lower side of the second support shaft 6 of the machine frame 1 in a substantially vertical direction; the second support pulley 7 pivotally supported by the shaft 6;
Five slow-speed drive pulleys 9, 9..., which are fitted and fixed at every other interval, are rotatably installed horizontally near the center of the slow-speed drive shaft 8 of the machine frame 1. The drive shaft 10 for quick drive and the drive shaft 10 for quick drive
at every other interval of the second support pulleys 7, 7... and the slow speed driving pulleys 9, 9...
four fast drive pulleys 11, 11, which are fitted and fixed so as to be located in the middle of the fast drive pulleys 11, or the slow drive pulley 9, and the first and second support pulleys. 5,7
and the first and second support pulleys 5 and 7 are movably spanned in a radial manner with a predetermined spread width from the supply side to the discharge side of the fruit W.
In this embodiment, nine endless conveyor ropes 12,1
2..., a drive device 13 capable of running these transport ropes 12, 12..., and a drive device 13 that is supported on the lower side of the first support shaft 4 of the machine frame 1 so that its protrusion length can be adjusted. The transport ropes 12, 12
Tension pulley 14,1 that adjusts the tension of...
It consists of 5.

The pitch of each of the first and second support pulleys 5, 7 is such that the gap L1 on the side of the first support pulleys 5, 5... of the transport ropes 12, ₁₂ is smaller than the minimum diameter of the fruit W to be sorted. is also set to be slightly smaller, and the gap on the side of the second support pulley 7, 7...
_L5 is set to be slightly larger than the size of the fruit W to be sorted.

The transport ropes 12, 12... maintain a constant posture without twisting during running, and
A rigid V-belt-shaped conveyor rope body 16 that can run while maintaining a predetermined spread width, and a portion of the conveyor rope body 16 that comes into contact with the fruit W is fixed to cover the portion. The cover member 17 is made of a soft synthetic resin material such as urethane.

The cover member 17 is fixed to the upper surface and both side surfaces of the transport rope main body 16 so as to have a substantially semicircular cross section.

The drive device 13 includes a motor 1 with a reduction gear fixed to a mounting plate 1a located approximately in the center of the machine frame 1.
8, a chain gear 20 attached to the reduced drive shaft 19 of the motor 18 with a reduction gear,
A slow speed chain gear 21 with a large number of teeth attached to the slow speed drive shaft 8 and the fast speed drive shaft 10
The rotation of the motor 18, which is connected to the fast chain gear 22 which has a slightly smaller number of teeth than the slow speed chain gear 21 attached to the slow speed chain gear 21, and the respective chain gears 20, 21, and 22 is controlled by the slow speed
The transmission speed is transmitted to the speed drive shafts 8, 10, and the transmission ropes 12, 12, .

Reference numeral 24 denotes a guide gutter installed horizontally at the upper part of the inside of the machine frame 1, and this guide gutter 24 has three partition plates 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 24, 24, 24, 24, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, or 5 types of partition plates arranged on the upper surface of the guide trough 24 at predetermined intervals on the upper surface thereof.
26 and 27 are erected and partitioned into four.
The partition plate 25 is connected to the first and second support shafts 4,
Gap L ₂ between the transport ropes 12, 12...
is erected at the upper limit dimension position of S size of fruit W,
Hereinafter, in the same way, the partition plate 26 is
2... The gap L ₃ between them is M size, the partition plate 27 is erected at the upper limit dimension position of L size, and the gap L ₄ between the transport ropes 12, 12 is erected, and the fruit W is S,
It is now possible to sort into four sizes: M, L, and LL. In addition, these partition plates 25, 26, 2
7 is preferably provided so that its position can be adjusted in the transport direction.

28 is a container 29, 2 that receives the fruits W to be sorted from the guide gutter 24 on the longitudinal side of the machine frame 1;
This is a table provided so that 9... can be placed thereon.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a table on which a container 31 for receiving waste materials w such as twin fruits and branches and leaves is placed, which is provided at the end of the discharge side of the machine frame 1.

32 is a waste guide gutter that guides the waste w transported by the transport ropes 12, 12, . . . into the container 31.

33, 33 are the conveyor ropes 1 attached to the machine frame 1.
2 and 12 are overflow prevention plates provided to prevent the fruit W from spilling when being transported.

When using the fruit sorting machine 34 having the above configuration, first, a container 29 for receiving the fruit W and waste material W to be sorted on the tables 28 and 30, respectively;
29, 29, 29, 31, and 31 are placed in the predetermined positions.

Next, the motor 18 of the drive device 13 is turned on to cause the respective transport ropes 12, 12, . . . to travel. At this time, adjacent transport ropes 12, 12 run at different speeds. That is, every other five conveyor ropes 12 from the outside that are stretched over the slow drive pulleys 9... run slowly, and the other five conveyor ropes 12 that are stretched over the fast drive pulleys 11... The conveyor ropes 12 run slightly earlier from the supply side of the supply hopper 2 toward the discharge side.

In addition, in this traveling state, the conveying rope 12 itself maintains a constant posture without twisting, and travels while maintaining each predetermined spread width.

Next, when fruits W such as cherries are put into the supply hopper 2 in this state, the fruits W are placed between the respective transport ropes 12, 12... and gradually spread out radially toward the discharge side and are dispersed. while being transported.

At this time, the fruit W is attached to the adjacent ropes 12, 12
Since the running speeds of the transport ropes 12 and 12 are slightly different, the transport rope 12 is transported while rotating due to the difference in speed, but the cover member 17 of the transport rope 12 prevents damage.

Next, when the fruit W transported as described above reaches the gap position between the transport ropes 12, 12 which is the same as the minimum diameter dimension, it sequentially falls from between the transport ropes 12, 12.

As shown in Fig. 6, the fruit W is not a perfect circle but has an irregular elliptical shape, but since it is constantly rotated and conveyed, the fruit W is placed at a position that exactly corresponds to the minimum diameter size position of the fruit W itself. It falls.

The fruits W that fell one after another in this way... are the guide gutter 2.
4, each container 29 is rolled downward along an inclined surface and placed on table 28,
It is stored in 29, 29, 29. That is, they are sorted by size from the supply side into S, M, L, and LL sizes.

On the other hand, the waste w such as twin fruits and branches and leaves does not fall on the way, but is transported as it is to the discharge side, is discharged to the waste guide gutter 32, and is placed in the container 31 on the table 30.
stored inside.

"Different Embodiments of the Present Invention" Next, different embodiments of the present invention shown in FIGS. 7 to 16 will be described. In the description of these embodiments, the same components as those of the embodiments of the present invention are given the same reference numerals and redundant explanations will be omitted.

The main difference between the embodiments shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 from the embodiment of the present invention is that the transport mechanism 3A is configured so that the respective transport ropes 12, 12... run at the same speed. By configuring the transport mechanism 3A so that the transport ropes 12, 12 run at the same speed as described above, the number of parts can be reduced, so that it can be manufactured at low cost.

In addition, 35 has nine drive pulleys 36 on the shaft,
36... and a drive shaft having a chain gear 37 of the drive device 13.

The main difference between the embodiments shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 from the embodiment of the present invention is that the transport rope 1
Even if the transport rope 12A is configured in this way, the same effects as in the embodiment of the present invention can be obtained in that a square belt is used as the 2A transport rope main body 16A. In this case, the first and second support pulleys 5A, 7 around which the transport rope 12A is stretched
A. It goes without saying that the grooves of the slow/fast drive pulleys 9A, 11A and the tension pulleys 14A, 15A have square grooves.

The main difference between the embodiments shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 from the embodiment of the present invention is that a chain is used in the transport rope main body 16B of the transport rope 12B. Even if the transport rope 12B is constructed using the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the same effects as those of the embodiments of the present invention can be obtained.
In this case, each pulley 5B, 7
B, 9B, 11B, 14B, and 15B are reserved for chain gears.

The main difference between the embodiments shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 from the embodiment of the present invention is that the transport rope main body 16C of the transport rope 12C is formed into a circular shape with an axial groove 38 provided on the inner surface. At the same time,
Each pulley 5C, 7C, 9C, 11C, 14 has a round groove over which the transport rope 12C is stretched.
The conveying rope 12C is configured in this way, in that a plurality of guide pins 39 are provided in the grooves of C and 15C, respectively, to engage with the grooves 38 of the conveying rope main body 12C.
Even if the configuration is provided with the following, the same effects as in the embodiments of the present invention can be obtained.

The main difference between the embodiments shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 from the embodiments shown in FIGS. Board 25, 2
Support plates 40, 40, 6, 27 are parallel to each other.
40 is installed horizontally on the machine frame 1, and the respective transport ropes 12 are attached to these support plates 40, 40, 40.
Even with this configuration, the guide plates 41, 41, . The same effects as the embodiment shown in FIG. 14 can be obtained.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the conveyor rope is 9
Although the number used here has been explained, the number other than nine may be used. Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the case of sorting cherries was explained, but the present invention can also be used for sorting fruits such as apples and tangerines.

"Effects of the Present Invention" As is clear from the above explanation, the present invention has the following effects.

(1) It has a large number of conveyor ropes stretched radially to a predetermined width from the fruit supply side to the fruit discharge side, which are driven by the drive device, and the fed fruit is transported to the In a fruit sorting machine that allows grains to fall in descending order from the gaps between the transport ropes that gradually widen while being carried between transport ropes, the transport ropes maintain a constant posture without twisting during travel, and The main body of the transport rope is made of a hard, non-expandable material with an inverted trapezoidal cross section that can run so as to maintain a predetermined spread width, and is fixed to the upper part of the main body of the transport rope that comes in contact with the fruit and the upper side of both sides. Since it is constructed with a soft cover member that has an approximately semicircular cross-sectional shape and can prevent damage to the fruit, the predetermined spread width of each transport rope changes during travel. Never. Therefore, it is possible to accurately sort fruits by size.

(2) According to (1) above, the portion of the transport rope that comes into contact with the fruit is made of a soft cover member that prevents damage to the fruit, thereby preventing damage to the fruit during transport. be able to.

(3) If the drive device is configured so that the adjacent transport ropes travel at different speeds, the fruit can be transported while being rotated due to the speed difference between the adjacent transport ropes. Therefore, even fruits with irregular shapes can be sorted with high accuracy.

(4) Since the transport rope main body is made of a hard material with little expansion and contraction and has an inverted trapezoidal cross section, power can be reliably transmitted using a V-pulley or the like.

(5) Since a soft cover member is formed on the upper part and the upper side of both sides of the transport rope main body, which has an inverted trapezoidal cross section, even if the soft cover member is deformed, the parts that protrude to both sides are the most flexible. Since it is a cover, it is possible to reliably prevent the fruits from coming into contact with the hard conveyor rope body during sorting.

(6) According to (1) above, even if many fruits are located in the vicinity or are located separately, the degree of deformation of the soft cover member is small and almost uniform sorting can be performed.

(7) According to (1) above, since the soft cover is fixed to the transport rope main body, it is possible to efficiently prevent damage or fatigue damage caused by frequent rotation as in the conventional case.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of a fruit sorting machine showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a left side view, and Fig. 4 is a schematic plan view of a fruit sorting machine showing an embodiment of the present invention. An enlarged sectional view of the conveyance rope, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the conveyance state,
Figure 6 is a plan view of the fruit, Figures 7 and 8, Figures 9 and 10, Figures 11 and 12,
Figures 13 and 14, Figures 15 and 16
The figures are explanatory views showing different embodiments of the present invention. 1: Machine frame, 2: Supply hopper, W: Fruit, 3:
Conveyance mechanism, 4: first support shaft, 5, 5A, 5B,
5C: first support pulley, 6: second support shaft,
7, 7A, 7B, 7C: second support pulley,
8: Drive shaft for slow speed, 9, 9A, 9B, 9C: Drive pulley for slow speed, 10: Drive shaft for fast speed, 11, 1
1A, 11B, 11C: Quick drive pulley, 1
2, 12A, 12B, 12C: Transport rope, 1
3: Drive device, 14, 14A, 14B, 14C:
Tension pulley, 15, 15A, 15B, 15C:
Tension pulley, 16, 16A, 16B, 16C:
Transport rope body, 17: Cover member, 18... Motor, 19: Drive shaft, 20: Chain gear for slow speed, 22: Chain gear for fast speed, 23: Chain, 24: Guide gutter, 25: Partition plate, 26: Partition plate, 27: Partition plate, 28: Table, 29:
Container, 30: Table, 31: Container, 32: Waste guide gutter, 33: Overflow prevention plate, 34: Fruit sorter, 3
5: Drive shaft, 36: Drive pulley, 37: Chain gear, 38: Groove, 39: Guide pin, 40: Support plate, 41: Guide plate.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] It has a large number of conveyor ropes that are stretched radially from the fruit supply side to the fruit discharge side to a predetermined width and are stretched by the drive of the drive device, and the fed fruits are transported between the conveyor ropes. In a fruit sorting machine that allows grains to fall in descending order from the gaps between conveying ropes that gradually expand while being loaded and conveyed, the conveying ropes are kept in a constant posture without twisting while traveling, and each of the conveying ropes is A transport rope main body made of a hard, non-expandable material with an inverted trapezoidal cross section that can run so as to maintain the spread width of A fruit sorting machine characterized by comprising a soft cover member capable of preventing damage to fruits having an approximately semicircular shape.