JPH0343339A - Uncaser of cylindrical article - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase a treating capacity of an uncaser, by providing a plurality of delivering mechanisms, positioning one of them at the receiving position and another mechanism at the delivering position and holding cylindrical article at the receiving position and relieving the held article at the delivering position. CONSTITUTION:Each delivering mechanism 14A-14C is provided with the same structure and a row of 11 holding heads 19 provided in the respective delivering mechanisms 14A-14C are inserted forwards into cylindrical articles 3 arranged in a lateral row within a box at the receiving position A to hold each cylindrical article 3. And on moving rearwards, the held cylindrical articles 3 are taken out of the box. The cylindrical articles 3 which are intermittently transferred from the receiving position A into the delivering position B through a playing position C, are drown from the holding head 19 by a comb-tooth-shaped member 25 installed at the delivering position B as a detaching means. The cylindrical articles 3 drown from respective holding heads 19 are dropped on a conveyor 26 for transferring articles to be horizontal and parallel and transferred to the next process by a conveyor 26 for transferring articles.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Field of Industrial Application" The present invention relates to an casing for cylindrical articles, such as tubes, for taking out cylindrical articles from inside a box.

``Prior Art'' Conventionally, as an anchor for cylindrical articles, a box containing a large number of cylindrical articles is supplied to a predetermined loading position, and a plurality of gripping heads arranged in rows are attached to the cylindrical articles in the box. It is known that each cylindrical article is inserted into and held by each article, and then each gripping head is conveyed to an unloading position, and then each cylindrical article held by each gripping head is released (West German Patent No. 3,631,891). book).

``Problems to be Solved by the Invention'' However, in the conventional device described above, the cylindrical article is taken out from inside the box while moving the gripping head of 1.41 back and forth between the carry-in position and the carry-out position. However, the problem was that the processing capacity of the answerer was small.

"Means for Solving the Problem" In view of such circumstances, the present invention includes a movable frame that is rotatably provided, a delivery mechanism that is provided at a plurality of locations on the movable frame, and a system that rotates the movable frame intermittently. , a rotary drive mechanism that sequentially positions one of the delivery mechanisms at the carry-in position and the other one of the delivery mechanisms at the carry-out position; A box transport conveyor that transports boxes intermittently, and a box conveyor that is arranged in at least one line in each of the delivery mechanisms and is movable forward and backward, and when each delivery mechanism is located at the carry-in position, is moved forward to hold a respective cylindrical article. a plurality of gripping heads that are then retracted to take out the cylindrical articles from inside the box, and a removal mechanism that removes the cylindrical articles held by the respective gripping heads from each of the gripping heads when each of the delivery mechanisms is located at the unloading position. The present invention provides an uncaser for a cylindrical article, comprising means and an article conveying means provided at the above-mentioned unloading position for conveying the cylindrical article removed from each gripping head.

"Operation" According to the above configuration, in the delivery mechanism located at the carry-in position, the gripping heads arranged in the - row, for example, are moved forward to hold the cylindrical articles in the box, respectively, and
The box is moved backward and the cylindrical article is taken out from inside the box.

At the same time, the cylindrical article is removed by the removing means from the gripping head of the delivery mechanism that is already holding the cylindrical article and positioned at the delivery position, and the removed cylindrical article is transferred to the article conveying means. It is then transported outside.

In this way, when the cylindrical article is held at the carry-in position and released from the hold at the carry-out position, the movable frame is intermittently rotated by the rotary drive mechanism, and the empty gripping head is moved to the carry-in position, and the gripping head holding the cylindrical article is moved to the carry-out position. The box transport conveyor also advances the box at a required pitch, thereby feeding a new cylindrical article to a position in front of the empty gripping head, and the same operation is repeated thereafter.

``Embodiment'' The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiment. In FIG. Empty cylindrical articles 3 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) can be taken out one after another.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, each empty cylindrical article 3 before being filled with a filler such as toothpaste is brought into contact with the bottom 2a of the box 2 with a cap 4 screwed onto the mouth in advance. It is stored in the box 2 upside down. The cylindrical articles 3 housed in these boxes 2 are made of soft synthetic resin and are maintained in a cylindrical shape by their own elasticity.

In this embodiment, the cylindrical articles 3 are stored in the box 2 in one row of 11 articles in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the box 2, and each column of cylindrical articles 3 adjacent to the conveying direction of the box 2 is stored in the box 2. Article 3
are shifted in the row direction at a pitch that is half the pitch P between the respective cylindrical articles 3, so that the cylindrical articles 3 are housed in the box 2 in a staggered manner.

As shown in FIG. 1, the boxes 2 containing the cylindrical articles 3 in a staggered manner are transported from a horizontally disposed fixed conveyor 6 constituting a box conveyor 5 to an inclined elevating conveyor 8 via an inclined conveyor 7. The cylindrical article 3 is conveyed and positioned by the elevating conveyor 8 to the carry-in position A, and at the carry-in position A, the cylindrical article 3 is intermittently moved at a required pitch P° (see Fig. 3), which is smaller than the above-mentioned pitch P. progress is being made. The above-mentioned elevating conveyor 8 is
When the height of the cylindrical article 3 is changed, it can be raised and lowered obliquely according to the height while maintaining a constant inclination state.

Above the carry-in position A, a movable frame 13 is attached to a rotary shaft 12 that is rotatably supported on a fixed frame 11. Branch portions 13A, 13B, and 13C are arranged at equal intervals, and delivery mechanisms 14A, 14B, and 14C for taking out the cylindrical article 3 from the box 2 are provided at each of the branch portions 13A to 13c.

The movable frame 13 is rotated intermittently every 1/3 rotation in a certain direction, that is, every 120 degrees, by a rotational drive mechanism 15 (see FIG. 2).
When A is positioned at the carry-in position A, the second transfer mechanism 14B is positioned at the carry-out position B, and the third transfer mechanism 14C is positioned at the play position C, and by the following intermittent rotation, The first delivery mechanism 14A is in the play position C,
The second delivery mechanism 14B can be placed at the carry-in position A, and the third delivery mechanism 14C can be placed at the carry-out position B.

Each of the above-mentioned delivery mechanisms 14A to 14C has the same configuration, and each of the 11 gripping heads 19 provided in each delivery mechanism 14A to 14C is placed inside the horizontal row of cylindrical articles 3 in the box 2 at the carrying-in position A. The cylindrical articles 3 are inserted forward into the box 2 to hold the cylindrical articles 3, and the cylindrical articles 3 held by the cylindrical articles 3 can be taken out from the box 2 by retreating.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, each of the gripping heads 19 is connected to a rod 20 disposed along the above-mentioned advance/retreat direction.
The rod 20 includes a flat, conical guide member 21 attached to the distal end of the rod 20, and an elastic member 22 made of a disc-shaped rubber or the like attached to the rear of the guide member 21. When the gripping head 19 moves forward, the guide member 2
1 is loosely fitted into the cylindrical article 3 with a small gap, and the elastic member 22 is press-fitted into the cylindrical article 3, and the frictional force between the elastic member 22 and the cylindrical article 3 causes the cylindrical article to close. It is now possible to hold a shaped article 3.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cylindrical article 3 that is intermittently transported from the carry-in position A to the carry-out position B via the play position C is removed by the removal means provided at the carry-out position B. The cylindrical articles 3 are pulled out from the gripping heads 19 by the comb teeth-like members 25 (FIG. 2), and the cylindrical articles 3 pulled out from each gripping head 19 fall horizontally and parallelly onto the article conveyor 26.
The article is conveyed to the next process by the article conveyor 26.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the rods 20 of each of the gripping heads 19 are inserted into the gaps 25a of the comb-like members 25 when the delivery mechanisms 14A to 14C are rotated and positioned at the unloading position B. When each gripping head 19 is inserted and retreated in that state, the cylindrical member 3 held by each insertion head 19 comes into contact with the teeth 25b of the comb-like member 25 and is pulled out from each gripping head 19. It looks like this.

At this time, the elastic member 22 comes to pass through the gap 25a of the comb-like member 25 while being elastically deformed, and the guide member 21 is elongated vertically along the gap 25a so that it can pass through the gap 25a. (see FIGS. 5 and 6), thereby giving it a flat conical shape.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, the elastic member 22 is formed with an opening 22a consisting of a through hole that communicates the inside of the cylindrical article 3 with the atmosphere, and the elastic member 22 is pulled out from inside the cylindrical article 3. In this case, the inside of the cylindrical article 3 is prevented from becoming negative pressure,
This prevents the soft cylindrical article 3 made of soft synthetic resin from being deformed by the negative pressure, and at the same time allows it to be pulled out smoothly. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 8,
The opening 22a° formed in the elastic member 22° does not need to be a through hole, and may be, for example, a notch formed on the outer periphery thereof.

Next, in FIG. 1, when 11 horizontal rows of cylindrical articles 3 are taken out from the box 2 by the preceding delivery mechanism 14A, the box 2 is moved by the elevating conveyor 8 at the pitch P°.
It will move forward intermittently. Then, when the subsequent delivery mechanism 14B is positioned at the carry-in position A by rotation of the movable frame 13, the gripping head 19 moves forward and backward in the same manner as described above to take out 11 horizontal rows of cylindrical articles 3 from inside the box 2. It becomes like this. At this time, the gripping head 1 of the delivery mechanism 14B
9 is displaced in the column direction at a half pitch %P, so that even if the cylindrical articles 3 are stored in the box 2 in a staggered manner, the cylindrical articles 3 can be taken out smoothly.

The empty box 2 in which all the cylindrical articles 3 have been taken out in this way is carried out from the elevating conveyor 8 via the inclined conveyor 9 and the horizontally disposed fixed conveyor 10. A new box 2 is carried into the carrying-in position A on the conveyor 8, and the above-described operation is repeated.

However, since each of the delivery mechanisms 14A to 14C provided in each of the branch sections 13A to 13C has the same configuration, the structure of only one delivery mechanism 14A will be explained as shown in FIGS. 9 and 1O. The delivery mechanism 14A has a first guide rail 31 arranged and fixed in the radial direction along the branching part 13A, and a first guide rail 31 arranged parallel to the rotation axis 12 so as to be freely movable on the first guide rail 31. The first movable member 32 is engaged with the first movable member 32, that is, moved forward and backward in the radial direction along the first guide rail 31.

Further, a second guide rail 33 is attached to the first movable member 32 and is arranged parallel to the rotating shaft 12, and a second movable member 34 is engaged with the second guide rail 33 so as to be freely movable. . Further, the eleven gripping heads 19 described above are attached to the second movable member 34 at equal intervals in the longitudinal direction of the second movable member 34 so as to face in the radial direction.

Therefore, by moving the first movable member 32 forward and backward in the radial direction 1, the gripping head 19 can be moved forward and backward toward the cylindrical article 3 in the box 2, and the second movable member 34 can be moved forward and backward in the forward and backward directions. Each gripping head 19 can be moved to a position corresponding to the position of the staggered cylindrical articles 3 in the box 2 by moving forward and backward in a direction parallel to the rotation axis 12 orthogonal to the rotation axis 12 .

Next, the mechanism for moving the first movable member 32 forward and backward will be explained. The cam follower 37 attached to the first movable member 32 can slide freely within the slit 38 formed in the radial direction along the branch section 13A. The cam groove 40 (11th
(see figure) can be engaged in a transferable manner.

Then, as shown in FIG. 11, the delivery mechanism 14A
A movable cam member 41 that engages with the cam follower 37 is provided at the position where the cam follower 37 stops when the cam is located at the carry-in position A. By moving the movable cam member 41 forward and backward in the radial direction, The movable member 32 and the gripping head 19 are moved forward and backward, thereby making it possible to take out the cylindrical article 3 from the box 2.

Furthermore, a movable cam member 42 that engages with the cam follower 37 is also provided at a position where the cam follower 37 stops when the delivery mechanism 14A is located at the unloading position B, and the movable cam member 42 is moved to a radially outer position. By retreating the first movable member 32 and the gripping head 19 in the radial direction to the inward position, the first movable member 32 and the gripping head 19 are operated backward, thereby making it possible to pull out the cylindrical article 3 held by the gripping head 19.

The cam groove 40 is connected to the cam follower 37 at the carry-in position A.
is located at the radially inner position, and is also located at the radially outer position at the carry-out position B, and the cam follower 37 is moved from the radially outer position to the inner position at the carry-out position B. Since it is necessary to move it to the carry-in position A, the whole is formed in a roughly spiral shape.

The movable cam member 41 provided at the carry-in position A has a cam groove 41a continuous to the cam groove 40, and the movable cam member 41 can freely slide into an elongated hole 43 formed in the radial direction in the cam plate 39. is engaged with. As shown in FIGS. 9 to 11, the movable cam member 41 is attached to a generally rectangular moving base 45, which is arranged in the radial direction and fixed to the fixed frame 11. It is attached to a pair of guide rails 46 so that it can run freely. One end of a drive rod 47 is pivotally connected to the moving table 45, and the other end of the drive rod 47 is interlocked with a reciprocating mechanism (not shown).

Therefore, in a state where the cam groove 41a of the movable cam member 41 is continuous with the cam groove 40, the cam follower 37 of the delivery mechanism 14A rolls within the cam groove 40 as the movable frame 13 rotates, and the Delivery mechanism 14A
When the movable cam member 41 reaches the carry-in position A and stops rotating, the cam follower 37 enters the cam groove 41a of the movable cam member 41 from the cam groove 40 and stops.

In this state, the reciprocating mechanism advances the first movable member 32 and the gripping head 19 in the radial direction via the moving table 45, thereby causing the gripping head 19 to hold the cylindrical article 3 in the box 2. Further, in this state, the reciprocating mechanism moves between the first movable member 32 and the gripping head 19.
is retracted, thereby removing the cylindrical article 3 held by the gripping head 19 from inside the box 2.

Then, as the first movable member 32 and the gripping head 19 move backward, the cam groove 41a of the movable cam member 41 is inserted into the cam plate 39.
, the movable frame 13 rotates and the cam follower 37 of the delivery mechanism 14A is connected to the cam groove 41a.
into the cam groove 40 and the subsequent delivery mechanism 1
The cam follower 37 of 4B is positioned within the cam full area 1a.

On the other hand, the movable cam member 42 provided at the carry-out position B has the same structure as the movable cam member 41, and the movable cam member 42 includes a cam groove 42a and a movable base 49, and the movable base 49 is fixed. It is engaged with a guide rail 50 fixed to the frame 11 so as to be freely movable. Then, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, a cam follower 53 provided at one end of a crank 52 that swings about a shaft 51 is engaged with an engagement groove 49a formed in the movable table 49. A drive rod 54 connected to the other end is linked to a reciprocating mechanism (not shown).

At the unloading position B, the movable cam member 42 is advanced while the movable frame 13 is rotating, and the cam groove 42a of the movable cam member 42 is moved forward.
becomes continuous with the cam groove 40 on the upper side of FIG. 11,
In this state, when the delivery mechanism 14A reaches the unloading position B and stops rotating, the cam follower 37 enters the cam groove 42a of the movable cam member 42 from the cam groove 40 and stops.

In this state, the reciprocating mechanism causes the first movable member 32 and the gripping head 19 to retreat from the forward position via the moving table 49, and the cylindrical article 3 is removed from the gripping head 19 by the comb-like member 25 described above. let When the movable cam member 42 reaches its retreating end and its cam groove 42a continues to the cam groove 40 on the lower side of the cam plate 39, the movable frame 13 rotates and the cam follower 37 of the delivery mechanism 14A
When the cam follower 37 of the transfer mechanism 14A is moved from the cam groove 42a into the cam groove 40 and the cam follower 37 of the transfer mechanism 14A is removed from the cam groove 42a, the movable cam member 42 is immediately returned to the forward end position. cam follower can be received in the cam groove 42a.

Next, the second movable member 3 is installed at the carry-in position A.
To explain the mechanism for moving the gripping head 19 to a position corresponding to the position of the staggered cylindrical articles 3 in the box 2 by moving the second movable member 34 forward and backward, in FIG. 9 and FIG. A bottle 58 is erected on the upper surface via a bracket 57, and the tip of the bottle 58 is passed through a slit 59 formed in the first movable member 32.
8 and the first movable member 32 is a tension spring 60.
is being set up. This tension spring 60 is connected to the second movable member 34 and the gripping head 1 provided on the second movable member 34.
9 is biased to the left, and the adjustment screw 61 screwed into the bracket 57 is brought into contact with the right end surface of the second guide rail 33 fixed to the first movable member 32.

Therefore, the second movable member 34 is normally held at the left position where the tip of the adjustment screw 61 abuts the right end surface of the second guide rail 33 by being biased by the tension spring 60.
In this state, the 11 gripping heads 19 attached to the second movable member 34 hold the cylindrical article 3 located on the leftmost side of the 11 horizontal rows of cylindrical articles 3 housed in the box 2. 2
The cylindrical articles 3 are positioned directly above the cylindrical articles 3 arranged horizontally in a line while being in contact with the inner wall surface of the cylindrical articles 3 . At this time, the positioning of each gripping head 19 is performed using the adjustment screw 6.
This can be done by rotating 1.

On the other hand, the 11 gripping heads 1'9 are positioned directly above each of the cylindrical articles 3 arranged in a row horizontally with the cylindrical article 3 located on the right side in contact with the inner wall surface of the box 2. In order to do this, it is necessary to displace the second movable member 34 to the right by half of the pitch P against the tension spring 60.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. Fixed frame 1 in close position
A cam member 65 is provided which is moved by a cylinder device 64 provided at 1 to a position where it engages with the cam follower 63 and a position where it does not engage with the cam follower 63.

When this cam member 65 is moved by the cylinder device 64 to a position where it engages with the cam follower 63, it is possible to displace the second movable member 34 to the right by half of the pitch P via the cam follower 63. It is now possible to do so.

Therefore, when the delivery mechanism 14A is stopped at the carry-in position A and the first movable member 32 is moved forward and backward by the movable cam member 41, if the cam member 65 is located at the disengaged position, the first Since the cam follower 63 provided on the second movable member 34 does not engage with the cam member 65, the gripping head 1
9 is moved forward and backward while being maintained at the reference position, thereby making it possible to take out, for example, the cylindrical articles 3 arranged laterally at the leading position in the conveying direction as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, the movable cam member 41 causes the first movable member 3 to
If the cam member 65 is located at the engagement position when the second movable member 34 is moved forward or backward, the cam follower 63 engages with the cam member 65, so that the second movable member 34 engages the tension spring 6.
0 by half a pitch to the right, and therefore the gripping head 19 comes to take out, for example, the cylindrical article 3 in the second row in FIG. 3.

In the above embodiment, the movable frame 13 is provided with three delivery mechanisms 14A to 14c, but it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to this.

Further, the gripping heads 19 do not necessarily have to be arranged in a single row, and depending on the shape of the cylindrical article 3, etc., the gripping heads 19 can be of a grip type, for example, and furthermore, the gripping heads 19 can be of a grip type, etc. The removal means for removing the cylindrical article 3 from the gripping head 19 can also have an appropriate configuration.

"Effects of the Invention" As described above, in the present invention, a plurality of delivery mechanisms are provided, and one of the delivery mechanisms is located at the carry-in position, the other delivery mechanism is located at the carry-out position, and the cylindrical article is placed at the carry-in position. Since it is possible to hold the cylindrical article while at the same time releasing the holding of the cylindrical article at the carry-out position, it is possible to obtain the effect that the throughput of the anchor can be increased compared to the conventional method.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view showing one embodiment of the present invention.
The right side view of the figure, FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the box and the cylindrical article,
Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of Figure 3, and Figure 5 is the gripping head 1.
9 is an enlarged view of Fig. 9, Fig. 6 is a right side view of Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is an enlarged view of Fig. 2.
8 is a front view showing another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing the delivery mechanism 14A;
0 is a bottom view of FIG. 9, FIG. 11 is a left side view of the cam plate 39 shown in FIG. 9, and FIG. 12 is a sectional view taken along the mowing line of FIG. 11. 1... Anchor 2... Box 3... Cylindrical article 5... Box conveyor 11
...Fixed frame 13...Movable frame 13A
~13C... Branching part 14A -14C... Delivery mechanism 15... Rotation drive mechanism 19... Gripping head 25... Comb tooth shaped member (removal means) 26... Article conveyor

Claims (1)

[Claims] A movable frame that is rotatably provided, a delivery mechanism provided at a plurality of locations on the movable frame, and the movable frame is intermittently rotated so that one of the delivery mechanisms is placed in a carry-in position and the other one is placed in a delivery position. A rotary drive mechanism that is sequentially positioned at the carry-out position, a box transport conveyor that is provided at the carry-in position and that intermittently conveys boxes containing cylindrical articles at a required pitch, and arranged in at least one line in each of the delivery mechanisms. a plurality of gripping heads which are provided so as to be movable forward and backward, and which are moved forward to hold the cylindrical articles respectively when each delivery mechanism is located at the carrying-in position, and which are retreated to take out the cylindrical articles from inside the box; , a removing means for removing the cylindrical article held by each gripping head from each of the gripping heads when each of the delivery mechanisms is located at the unloading position; An caser for a cylindrical article, comprising an article conveying means for conveying a cylindrical article.