JPH0327600Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a laundry system in which soft articles such as sheets and clothing after washing are dried, pressed, folded, and stored in a predetermined location.

(Conventional technology) Soft products such as sheets and clothing sent to laundry shops, etc. are washed, dried, pressed, and folded, then stored and stored at a designated location. There were problems in that it took a lot of time and a lot of labor to complete the process.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, a washing machine that automatically performs a series of steps has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 147664/1983. This washing machine transfers the laundry sent out from the washing machine to the dryer via a conveyor, transfers the laundry dried in the dryer via the conveyor to a folding workbench or an ironing workbench, and each I try to do folding and ironing work on the workbench.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-mentioned washing device, there is no means to separate the dried laundry sent out from the dryer, so the laundry is transferred to the folding workbench or the ironing workbench. In some cases, it is necessary to rely on humans to separate these. In addition, since there is no means for transporting the laundry after folding and ironing to a storage location, there is a drawback that manual labor is required to store the laundry.

This idea was created in view of the above problems.
The purpose is to separate soft items such as sheets and clothing after washing without relying on human hands.
Moreover, the object is to provide a laundry system that can finally be transported and stored at a predetermined location.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a drying chamber having an insertion port and a discharge port, a heating means for heating the inside of the drying chamber, and a rotary rotary rotatably disposed in the drying chamber. a drying device which dries a plurality of soft articles housed in a drying chamber while rotating them with a rotating plate;
A separation chamber having an insertion port and a discharge port, a rotating drum rotatably disposed within the separation chamber, and a blowing means for supplying a flow of air toward the discharge port within the rotary drum. a separating device that separates a plurality of soft products and sends them out from a single delivery port; a manipulator that has a conveyor and a gripping chuck that conveys the soft products; an image sensor that captures the state of the soft products on the conveyor; a control device that drives and controls the manipulator based on image information; a deploying device that grips and deploys the soft article flowing on the conveyor after separation with a gripping chuck of the manipulator; and at least one heat roller; A press device for pressing a soft product, a plurality of pushing plates that are reciprocally movable in different directions, and a holding means disposed at each pushing end,
A folding device that folds a pressed soft product using a pushing plate, a storage shelf having a plurality of storage locations, a feeder having a pressing piece movable toward the storage location of the storage shelf, and the feeder. The laundry system includes a moving mechanism that moves the laundry along the storage shelf, and a transfer device that transfers the folded soft articles to a predetermined storage location on the storage shelf.

(Function) In the laundry system of the present invention, a series of steps from drying to storage are automatically performed by each device.

That is, a plurality of washed soft articles housed in the drying chamber of the drying device are rotated by a rotary plate and dried in the heated drying chamber. The dried soft product is sent to the separation chamber of the separation device from the outlet of the drying chamber.

A plurality of soft articles housed in the separation chamber of the separating device are urged to be separated by rotation by a rotating drum, and are sequentially sent from the outlet to the conveyor of the one-sheet developing device by riding on the flow of air toward the outlet.

The state of the soft article flowing on the conveyor is captured by the image sensor of the unfolding device, and a part of it is gripped and moved by the manipulator that operates based on the image information of the image sensor, so that it is not bent. It is unfolded from the ivy state and fed into a press machine.

The soft article fed into the press device is hot-pressed by hot rollers, and then fed into the folding device.

The soft goods sent to the folding device are folded by pushing the intermediate portion into the holding means by the pushing plate, and after being folded multiple times by the pushing plates in different directions, the soft goods are folded by the pushing plate. sent to the feeder.

The soft articles fed into the feeder of the transfer device are moved along the storage shelf by the movement of the feeder, and when the feeder stops at a predetermined storage location, the soft products are stored by a pressing piece that operates. sent to the location.

(Embodiment) Figs. 1 to 6 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is an overall side view of a laundry system, Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the drying device shown in Fig. 1,
Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the separation device in Figure 1;
The figures are an enlarged top view of the deployment device shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the transfer device shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS.
FIG. d is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the folding device.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a drying device, 10 is a separation device, 17 is a separation auxiliary device, 20 is a developing device, 30
40 is a press device, 40 is a folding device, 50 is a transfer device, and 60 is a storage shelf.

As shown in FIG. 2, the drying device 1 has an insertion port 2a for the material to be dried on the front surface and an intake port 2b on the top surface.
In addition, a box-shaped device main body 2 having exhaust ports 2c on the back, a circular door 3 that can open and close the insertion port 2a, and an intake port 4a with openings on the front and back sides and a group of holes on the top of the front. Furthermore, a fixed drum 4 having a delivery port 4b on its lower surface and fixed in the device main body 2 with its front opening aligned with the insertion port 2a;
It has a solenoid-driven arc-shaped delivery door 5 that can open and close b, an exhaust port 6a consisting of a group of holes, and a total of four drive rods 6a protruding from one side at 90° intervals. A rotary plate 6 rotatably supported on the inner peripheral edge of the rear opening of the fixed drum 4, and a shaft 6 of the rotary plate 6.
A blower fan 6d fixed to c, a motor 7 that drives a shaft 6c via a belt 7a, and a device main body 2
A temperature sensor 8 for detecting exhaust temperature disposed near the exhaust port 2c of the device body 2, and an intake port 2b of the device body 2.
The drying chamber R is composed of a heat generator 9 such as an electric heater or a combustor interposed between the air inlet port 4a of the fixed drum and an air inlet 4a of the fixed drum. is forming.

As shown in FIG. 3, the separation device 10 has a box-shaped device main body 11 having an insertion port 11a for objects to be separated on the top surface, a delivery port 11b on the upper side surface, and an intake port 11c on the lower side surface. , a motor-driven flat door 12 that covers the insertion port 11a so that it can be opened and closed, and an intake port 13a that is open at the top and has a group of holes at the bottom, and the outer periphery of the top opening is rotatably supported in the main body 11 of the device. The rotary drum 13 is composed of a rotary drum 13, a motor 15 that drives the shaft 13b of the rotary drum 13 via a reducer 14, and a blower fan 16 fixed to a relay shaft between the motor 15 and the reducer 14. A separation chamber B is formed in the internal space of the apparatus main body 11 partitioned by the rotating drum 13. This separation device 10 is arranged below and opposite to the drying device 1.

The separation auxiliary device 17 includes a belt having engaging protrusions or unevenness on its surface, and has one end connected to a low-speed first conveyor 17a located below the outlet 11b of the separating device 10, and a belt having engaging protrusions or unevenness on its surface. It is equipped with a belt having unevenness and is composed of a first conveyor 17a at one end and a high-speed second conveyor 17b located below the other end.

As shown in FIG. 4, the unfolding device 20 includes a conveyor 21 having one end located below the other end of the second conveyor 17b of the separation auxiliary device 17, and the conveyor 2.
1 and a pair of expanding machines 22 disposed on both sides of the base. The deploying machine 22 consists of a vertical articulated robot with three degrees of freedom, and includes a base 22a in which a rotary table rotation motor (not shown) is built-in, and a first
It is equipped with an arm rotation motor 22b, and a base 22a.
A rotary table 22c is rotatably supported on the rotary table 22c about a vertical axis, and a base end is rotatably supported on the rotary table 22c about a horizontal axis, and a second arm rotation motor 22d is provided at the tip. First arm 22e
and a second arm 22f whose base end is rotatably supported at the tip of the first arm 22e about a horizontal axis.
, a two-claw gripping chuck 22g disposed at the tip of the second arm 22f, and an image sensor 22h such as a CCD disposed on the upper surface of the tip of the second arm 22f.
It is composed of. These two developing machines 22 work together to develop the object being transported on the conveyor 21 into a predetermined state, and the image sensor 2
The 2h image information is analyzed by a control device (not shown),
By feeding this back to the drive mechanism of each expanding machine 22, the desired expanding operation is performed.

The press device 30 includes a first heat roller 31 whose rotating shaft is horizontally supported, and a second heat roller 31 which is disposed in parallel above the first heat roller 31 and whose rotating shaft is biased downward by a spring. roller 32 and first heat roller 31
a driving motor (not shown) for rotating the roller in the feeding direction, a guide plate 33 disposed in front and back positions of the first heat roller 31, and a glue spray disposed on the left side of the second heat roller 32. It is composed of a device 34. Further, the glue spraying device 34 is provided with a photoelectric sensor 34a that detects the object to be pressed conveyed by the conveyor 21, and the outer periphery of the first and second heat rollers 31, 32 is An electric heater (not shown) is provided for the press.

The folding device 40 includes a first pushing plate 43a, which will be described later.
Conveyors 41 and 42 are arranged horizontally through a gap K1 through which the conveyors 41 and 42 can pass, a cylinder 43 is provided with a first pushing plate 43a that is movable in the vertical direction and is disposed below the gap K2, and a cylinder 43 is arranged below the gap K2. 2 arranged above the 2 in the vertical direction with a predetermined gap K3
The gap K3 includes a pair of holding rollers 44 and a second pushing plate 45a that is horizontally movable within the gap K3.
a cylinder 45 disposed on the left side of the gap K3; a conveyor 46 disposed on the right side of the gap K3;
6 and a holding conveyor 47 whose rotating shaft is biased downward by a spring.

The holding roller 44 consists of a fixed roller 44a whose rotating shaft is horizontally supported, and a movable roller 44b which is arranged parallel to the left side of the fixed roller 44a and whose rotating shaft is biased rightward by a spring. Further, between the conveyor 42 and the conveyor 46, there are conveyors 41 and 42.
A photoelectric sensor 48 is provided to detect the folded object conveyed by the holding roller 4.
A photoelectric sensor 49 is provided above the folding member 4 for detecting the folded object that has been pushed up by the first pushing plate 43a and passed through the holding roller 44.

As shown in FIG. 5, the transfer device 50 includes two long guides 51 arranged in parallel in the vertical direction with an interval corresponding to the arrangement space of a storage shelf 60, which will be described later. a long moving guide 52 installed so as to be movable in the horizontal direction; a movable part 53 disposed on the movable guide 52 so as to be movable in the vertical direction; and a feeder connected on one side to the movable part 53. It is composed of 54. Above movement guide 5
A driving motor (not shown) for moving the movable guide 52 in the horizontal direction along the guide 51 is provided inside the movable part 53, and a motor (not shown) for moving the movable part 53 in the horizontal direction is provided inside the movable part 53. A driving motor (not shown) is provided for moving the vertical direction along the storage shelf 60. Each rotation is controlled by a control device (not shown). Further, the feeder 54 has a casing 55 with openings on the front and rear surfaces.
A partition plate 56 is arranged horizontally in the middle of the casing 55 and has a slit 56a in the feeding direction in the center through which a pressing piece 57a (described later) can pass, and a partition plate 56 is arranged below the partition plate 55a in parallel to the feeding direction. A conveyor 5 with two pressing pieces 57a protruding from symmetrical positions.
7, a drive motor (not shown) for rotating the conveyor 57 in the feeding direction, and a partition plate 56 in the casing 55 arranged on the inner upper surface of the casing 55, and a partition plate 56 in the casing 55 via the guide plate 56a by the conveyor 56.
It is composed of a photoelectric sensor 58 that detects an object to be transferred that is sent to the upper surface, and an inclined chute 59 that is disposed continuously with the partition plate 56 on the rear opening side of the casing 55 and has a groove through which the pressing piece 57a can pass. ing.

The storage shelf 60 is arranged to face the moving surface of the feeder 54, and has a plurality of storage locations 61 arranged in a grid pattern. In addition, each storage location 6
A photoelectric sensor (not shown) for detecting the presence or absence of storage is arranged in each of the parts 1.

Next, an example of the operation of the laundry system described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

First, a plurality of washed soft articles, for example, a plurality of sheets, are stored in the drying chamber R of the drying device 1, and the motor 7
and activates the heat generator 9. The sheets stored in the drying chamber R are rotated by the drive rod 6b of the rotary plate 6, and at the same time are heated and dried by hot air blown into the drying chamber R through the air intake port 4a. When the exhaust gas temperature detected by the temperature sensor 8 reaches a predetermined temperature, for example 70°C, the delivery door 5
is opened, and the sheets that have finished drying fall under their own weight. In order to completely send out the contents, the rotary plate 6 continues to rotate for a while after the delivery door is opened, and then the operation of the motor 7 and the heat generator 9 is stopped.

A plurality of dried sheets sent out from the drying chamber R of the drying device 1 are transferred to the separating chamber B of the separating device 10, particularly the rotating drum 13, through the open insertion port 11a.
contained within. After this accommodation, the door 12 is closed and the motor 15 is activated. At the same time as the rotary drum 13 is rotated by the operation of the motor 15, air is blown into the separation chamber B through the intake port 13a, and the sheets W contained in the air are blown up and separated, and the flow of this blown up air Accordingly, the sheet W is sent out from the single-sheet delivery port 11b.

The sheets W delivered from the delivery port 11b of the separation device 10 are transferred to the first conveyor 17a of the separation auxiliary device 17.
, and then transferred to the second conveyor 17b and transported forward. Even if the sheets W are not delivered properly onto the first conveyor 17a from the delivery port 11b of the separating device 10, the belt surface of the first conveyor 17a is provided with engaging protrusions or irregularities, so that the sheets W can be transported by the belt. It is possible to pull out and convey, and the first conveyor 1
Even if the sheets W placed on the sheets W placed on the conveyors 7a are close to each other or overlap to some extent, the first and second conveyors 17a,
Since the sheet 17b has a head and the conveyance speeds are different, the sheets W can be completely separated when transferred between the two conveyors.

The separated sheet W is conveyed forward by the conveyor 21, and when it enters the work area of the spreader 22, the two spreaders 22 are spread and stretched by the conveyor 21 in cooperation. Specifically, the image sensor 22h
Adjacent corners of the sheet W are searched from the image information, each corner is gripped by the gripping chuck 22g and stretched in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, thereby performing the desired unfolding operation. Incidentally, if the sheet W conveyed by the conveyor 21 is complicatedly bent, the above-mentioned unfolding operation becomes difficult. It is best to attach it in advance.

The unfolded sheet W is further conveyed forward by the conveyor 21, and when the leading edge of the sheet W is detected by the photoelectric sensor 34a, glue is sprayed onto the sheet W from the glue spraying device 34. The sheet W after the glue has been sprayed is gradually drawn between the first and second heat rollers 31 and 32.
It is pressed by the hot air No. 1 and No. 32 and the spring urging force of the second hot roller 32. The glue spraying device 34
The spraying of the adhesive by the sizing agent stops when the detection of the sheet W by the photoelectric sensor 34a is released.

The pressed sheet W is conveyed forward by the conveyor 41, and the sheet W is transferred to the conveyor 42 across the gap K2. When the leading edge of the sheet W transferred to the conveyor 42 is detected by the photoelectric sensor 48, the rotation of both conveyors 41 and 42 is stopped.

After the rotation of both conveyors 41 and 42 has stopped, the cylinder 43 is operated as shown in FIG.
The pushing plate 43a moves upward, and the central part of the lower surface of the sheet W is pressed upward, thereby causing the sheet W to move upward.
is bent at the center and gradually pushed between the fixed roller 44a and the movable roller 44b of the lower holding roller 44 and between the fixed roller 44a and the movable roller 44b of the upper holding roller 44 through the gap K3. It can be done.

When the upper end of the sheet W pushed between the fixed roller 44a and the movable roller 44b of the upper holding roller 44 is detected by the photoelectric sensor 44a, the sixth
As shown in FIG. b, the cylinder 43 operates in the opposite direction to move the first pushing plate 43a downward, and the first pushing plate 43a is pulled out from the folded sheet W.

At the stage when the first pushing plate 43a is pulled out from the sheet W, the cylinder 45 is activated to move the second pushing plate 45a to the right, as shown in FIG. As a result, the sheet W is further folded with the central portion as a boundary and gradually pushed between the conveyor 46 and the holding conveyor 47. At this time, the holding conveyor 47 moves upward against the spring biasing force, allowing the sheet W to be pushed in.

When the sheet W is pushed between the conveyor 46 and the holding conveyor 47, the cylinder 45 operates in the opposite direction to the above, and the second pushing plate 45a moves to the left, as shown in FIG. 6d. , the second pushing plate 45a is extracted from the folded sheet W.
The sheet W folded by the extraction of the second pushing plate 45a is conveyed forward by the conveyor 46. Further, at the stage when the first pushing plate 43a mentioned above is pulled out from the sheet W, the conveyor 41,
Since the rotation of the sheet 42 is resumed and the next sheet W after pressing is waiting on the conveyor 41 and the conveyor 42, the sheet W is subsequently folded in the same manner.

The folded sheets W conveyed by the conveyor 46 are sent via the guide plate 46a to the upper surface of the partition plate 56 of the feeder 54 waiting at the front end position of the conveyor 46. When the front end of the sheet W fed onto the upper surface of the partition plate 56 is detected by the photoelectric sensor 58, the feeder 54 moves from the standby position to the empty state of the storage shelf 60 by moving the moving guide 52 and the movable part 53. move to a position opposite to the storage location 61. Then, at the moving position, the conveyor 57 starts rotating, and the rear end of the sheet W is pressed by the pressing piece 57a of the conveyor 57, and pushed into the storage space 61 via the inclined chute 59. When the end of pushing is detected by the photoelectric sensor 58, the feeder 54
returns to the standby position and completes the series of steps.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a plurality of sheets W after washing are dried at once in the drying device 1, and the sheets W after drying are supplied to the separating device 10 and separated into individual sheets. The sheet W is supplied to the unfolding device 20 to be spread and stretched, the unfolded sheet W is supplied to the press device 30 to be pressed, and the pressed sheet W is supplied to the folding device 20 to be folded in a predetermined direction. The sheets W after folding can be supplied to the transfer device 30 via the conveyor 26, and the sheets W can be appropriately stored in the empty storage area 41 of the storage shelf 40 by the transfer device.
A series of operations such as drying, pressing, folding, and storing can be performed continuously and automatically.

Furthermore, since the sheets W can be separated and stored automatically without relying on human hands, it is possible to achieve significant labor savings compared to conventional systems.

It goes without saying that the laundry system shown in the embodiment can be applied not only to stickers but also to clothing. Further, a packaging device may be provided between the folding device 40 and the transfer device 50 to wrap the folded soft product with a film and supply the packaged product to the transfer device 50. A storage box may be disposed at 61 and the folded sheets W may be stored in the storage box.

(Effects of the invention) As explained above, according to the invention, after drying and pressing soft articles such as sheets and clothing after washing,
It can be folded and stored in a designated location, so
It has the advantage of being able to perform a series of operations such as drying, pressing, folding, and storing continuously and efficiently in a short period of time.

Furthermore, since the separation and storage of soft objects can be performed automatically without relying on human labor, there is an advantage in that it can realize significant labor savings compared to conventional methods.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 6 show one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a side view of the entire system, FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the drying device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged top view of the deployment device of FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the transfer device of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 6a to 6d are FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the folding device. In the figure, 1...Drying device, 2a...Insertion port, 4b
...Outlet port, 6... Rotating plate, 9... Heat generator, R...
... Drying chamber, 10 ... Separation device, 11a ... Insertion port, 11b ... Delivery port, 13 ... Rotating drum, 1
6...Blower fan, B...Separation room, 20...Deployment device, 21...Conveyor, 22...Deployment machine, 22
g...Gripping chuck, 22h...Image sensor, 3
0...Press device, 31, 32...Heat roller, 4
0... Folding device, 43a, 45a... Pushing plate, 5
0...transfer device, 51...guide, 52...movement guide, 53...movable part, 54...feeder, 57
a...Pushing piece, 60...Storage shelf, 61...Storage area, W...Sheet (soft product).

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A plurality of drying chambers housed in the drying chamber, comprising a drying chamber having an insertion port and a discharge port, heating means for heating the inside of the drying chamber, and a rotary plate rotatably disposed in the drying chamber. A drying device that dries soft products by rotating them with a rotating plate, a separation chamber having an insertion port and a delivery port, a rotating drum rotatably disposed in the separation chamber, and air flowing toward the delivery port in the rotating drum. a separating device that separates a plurality of soft products stored in a separation chamber after drying and sends them out from a delivery port for one sheet, and a manipulator that has a conveyor and a gripping chuck for conveying the soft products. It is equipped with an image sensor that captures the state of the soft article on the conveyor and a control device that drives and controls the manipulator based on the image information of the image sensor, and the grip chuck of the manipulator grips the soft article flowing on the conveyor after separation. A developing device that expands; a press device that includes at least one heat roller and presses the soft product after being expanded; a plurality of pushing plates that are reciprocally movable in different directions; and a holding means disposed at each pushing end. a folding device that folds a pressed soft product using a pushing plate, a storage shelf having a plurality of storage locations, and a feeder having a pressing piece that is movable toward the storage location of the storage shelf. A laundry system comprising: a moving mechanism for moving the feeder along a storage shelf; and a transfer device for transporting folded soft articles to a predetermined storage location on the storage shelf.