JPH0428609B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for temporarily blocking and arranging articles being carried on a roller type conveyor.

When articles are loaded on a roller conveyor and transported in one direction, even if they are lined up immediately after being loaded, there may be problems due to the shape of the articles, collisions between the articles, conveyor speed, or slips between the rollers and the articles. Therefore, it is inevitable that the postures and mutual positional relationships of the articles will be uneven, and downstream of the conveyor,
In order to process the articles one group at a time by an automatic machine, such as when transferring them one row at a time to another conveyor, it is necessary to align the articles laterally in the conveyance direction and convey them at regular intervals.

For this reason, conventionally, a high-speed roller conveyor was installed downstream of a low-speed roller conveyor to increase the distance between the goods and the conveyor. An alignment device is used in which an alignment plate is provided that protrudes from below or above the conveyor, and by hitting the alignment plate with the articles traveling on the conveyor, the items are aligned laterally and intermittently discharged. However, if the rows of transported items are extremely disordered and the distance between the front and back is small, the next item may approach immediately after the first line of items blocked by an alignment plate. Therefore, it is necessary to retract the alignment plate from the conveyance surface and release the aligned articles, and then immediately re-protrude the alignment plate onto the conveyance surface. However, some of the items may be delayed due to slipping on the conveyor, and in such cases, the alignment plate that re-protrudes onto the conveying surface will move the delayed items onto the conveyor. There were cases where alignment work was impossible due to pushing up or pushing down.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to eliminate such drawbacks and to provide an apparatus that can reliably align articles conveyed by a roller conveyor in the lateral direction.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a discharge conveyor on the exit side of a roller tunnel furnace will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the exit of the tunnel furnace and the delivery conveyor connected thereto. Tunnel furnace 1
Inside, a furnace conveyor A is moved by a large number of rollers a.
Each roller a is rotated so as to convey the baked product x to the left in FIG. 1 by the circular running of an endless chain in one direction, which is stretched around a sprocket at one end of the roller a. Further, from the exit end of the in-furnace conveyor A, a first conveyor B, a second conveyor C, and a third conveyor D, which are also roller type, are successively installed, and each conveyor B,
C and D are a number of rollers b, c, and d, each of which has a sprocket on which an endless chain is stretched, fixed at one end.
They are driven by motors 2, 3, and 4, respectively, to transport the product x to the left in FIG. The conveyance speed of each conveyor is set so that the in-furnace conveyor A is the lowest, the first conveyor B and the second conveyor C are higher in this order, and the third conveyor D is the highest. Each conveyor B,
On C and D, two pairs of guide rails 5 and 6 that are symmetrical with respect to the conveyance direction are arranged in series, and one end of the guide rail 5 is continuous with the wall surface of the exit of the tunnel furnace 1, and The interval is gradually narrowed in the direction of flow, and in the middle of the first conveyor B in the flow direction, it is connected to the upstream end of the guide rail 6 that extends in parallel to the downstream side. The downstream end of the first conveyor B, the second conveyor C and the third conveyor D
In the continuous parts of the first and second parts, respectively, the first
An alignment device E and a conventionally used second alignment device F are installed, and the second alignment device F is connected to the first alignment device F.
This is to realign the products x that have been aligned once by the alignment device E, and is carried out between the second conveyor C and the third conveyor D by driving the motor 30 and interlocking the shaft 31 and a cam (not shown). Upper and lower horizontal rods 32,
The upper and lower blocking plates 34 and 35 formed on the rollers 33 contact each other for advance and upward and downward retraction, and the alignment plate 37 fixed to the shaft 36 downstream of the advance and vertical retraction is caused by the advance that rises from below the roller d. This downward retraction is repeated at predetermined time intervals, and the products x are lined up while regulating the amount of product x flowing down.

Next, the configuration of the first alignment device E, which is an embodiment of the present invention, will be described. At the downstream end of the first conveyor B, bases 8, 8 are fixed on a pair of left and right frames 7, 7 arranged in parallel above both sides of the first conveyor B.
In between, a first shaft 9 made of a pipe material and a second shaft 10 on the upstream side also made of a pipe material are extended parallel to the roller b and are rotatably supported by bearings 11 and 12, respectively. Near both ends of the first shaft 9, plate-shaped arms 13 extending in both vertical directions are provided.
13 is fixed, and both ends of a horizontal bar 14 made of a pipe material extending parallel to the first axis 9 are fixed to the lower end thereof. A ring-shaped stopper 1 is provided on the second shaft 10 at a position above the guide rails 6, 6.
5 and 15 are fitted, and a large number of block-shaped holders 16 are fitted between them through collars 17 with relative freedom of rotation and at equal intervals, with the tips bent downward at right angles. A large number of locking rods 21 made of elongated round rods each forming a locking piece 20 are connected to the first locking rod 21.
A male screw portion 21a formed at the rear end of the shaft 9 and the horizontal bar 14 is inserted through a mounting hole 16a which is not transparent in each holder 16, and the nut 22,
22, the locking rods 21 are tightened and fixed from both the front and rear sides, and each locking rod 21 is supported by its own weight with its center abutting the upper surface of the horizontal bar 14, and each locking piece 20 is connected to the first conveyor B. They are arranged in a horizontal row at equal intervals directly above the second conveyor C. When the arm 13 is in an upright position as shown by the solid line in FIG.
is at a lower position where its lower end engages with the leading edge in the conveyance direction of the product
4 rotates in the clockwise direction in the figure around the first shaft 9, and at the same time, the locking pieces 20 are lifted upward and retracted all at once from above the conveyance surface, and the arm 13 moves to an upright position. , the locking pieces 20 are adapted to descend and advance onto the conveyance surface all at once. Also,
Below the locking rod 21 and immediately upstream of the locking piece 20, a restraining plate 18 is installed across the first conveyor B with a distance between its lower end and the conveying surface slightly larger than the height of the product x. Keep it and pass it on.

A motor 25 is horizontally attached to the frame 7 on one side upstream of the second shaft 10 of the conveyor by a bracket 24, and is implanted at an eccentric position of a rotating disk 26 fixed to the output shaft of the motor 25. Pin 2
7 and a pin 28 implanted in the upper protruding end of one arm 13 of the first shaft 9. When the rotary disk 26 is rotated by the drive of the motor 25, the rod 29 The arm 13 swings back and forth about the first axis 9, repeating an upright position and a tilted position. In addition, the support frame 2 that is stretched between the frames 7, 7
3, 23, there are two proximity switches 19a, 1
9b are installed in front of the rotating disk 26 at positions corresponding to the two intersections of the locus drawn by the pin 27 and a horizontal line passing through its center, and are connected to a control device for the motor 25 (not shown) having a built-in timer. hand,
When the pin 27 faces each proximity switch 19a, 19b, the drive of the motor 25 is stopped and restarted after a certain period of time preset by a timer, and the rotary edge plate 26 rotates by 180 degrees at each certain period of time. It is starting to stop repeatedly.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

Due to the intermittent drive of the motor 25, the arm 13 swings back and forth while maintaining the straight posture and the tilted posture for a certain period of time, and as a result, the locking rod 21 supported by the horizontal bar 14 moves to the second axis. The locking pieces 20 swing up and down about 10, and repeat retracting and advancing all at once at regular intervals.

When the baked product x is transferred from the furnace conveyor A to the first conveyor B, the distance between it and the subsequent product x increases due to the increase in the conveyance speed, and the product x is brought to the center by the guide rails 5, 5. The distance between the adjacent products x is narrowed and the orientation of the products is corrected while being transported, and each of the uneven products butt against each other, temporarily accumulate and align in a horizontal line, and after a certain period of time, the motor 25
starts to drive, the locking pieces 20 retreat upward all at once, and the aligned products x begin to be transferred from the low-speed first conveyor B to the high-speed second conveyor C. At this time, product x, which has lagged behind other products x due to slippage with roller c, cannot complete the transfer even if the locking pieces 20 start descending all at once after a certain period of time has elapsed. However, each locking piece 20 is held by a holder 16 that is relatively free to rotate, and each locking bar 21 is simply placed on the horizontal bar 14. Since each product x can float upward separately, only the locking piece 20 above the product x whose transfer is delayed comes into contact with the top surface of the product x, and during the transfer. slides on the upper surface of the product x, and when the product x completes the transfer and its trailing edge passes, the locking piece 20 descends under its own weight and has already descended onto the conveyance surface to align the following product x. It is lined up in the same position as the other locking pieces 20 that are waiting. Thereafter, the above-described operation is repeated, and the products x aligned in a horizontal line are intermittently discharged and conveyed toward the second alignment device F installed downstream of the second conveyor C. Note that when the locking piece 20 retreats upward, the front part of the product x may be lifted, but the restraining plate 18 prevents the front part from lifting up, and the product x is quickly released while being aligned. It is designed to maintain a horizontal posture.

As described above, in this embodiment, the second conveyor B on the upstream side of the locking piece 20 is set at a low speed, and the third conveyor C on the downstream side is set at a high speed, so that the interval in the conveyance direction of the product x is During the narrow alignment, product x is the next product x
Even if the front and rear products x are in contact with each other due to a rear-end collision, when the product x in the front row is transferred to the high-speed third conveyor, it separates the following product Although the product x above is not discharged, if the product x is conveyed at a sufficient interval in the conveyance direction, the conveyance speed of the conveyors B and C on the upstream side and downstream side of the locking piece 20 It doesn't matter if they are equal. In addition, the locking piece 20
The downward bias toward the conveyance surface may be applied not only by using its own weight as in this embodiment but also by using the elasticity of a spring or the like.

As specifically explained in the above embodiment,
The article alignment device of the present invention is used in a roller conveyor in which a large number of articles are placed side by side in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction and conveyed. A lock release device is provided that arranges a large number of pressed locking pieces in parallel across the roller conveyor and simultaneously retracts the large number of locking pieces to an upper position where they do not engage with the article, and
A restraining plate for preventing the lifting of the articles is provided immediately upstream of the plurality of locking pieces across the roller conveyor, and the plurality of locking pieces lower all at once onto the conveying surface. Since each piece can float upwards individually, even if an item that has lagged behind the others due to slipping with the roller when it is released all at once after being aligned is directly below the locking piece that is lowered again, it will not be placed directly above that item. The locking piece located at the top only touches the top surface of the locking piece and does not hinder the movement of the article, and immediately after passing the locking piece,
The roller moves to the same alignment position as the other locking pieces that are already in the lower position, and even if the front edge of the article that was locked to the locking piece starts to lift as the locking piece rises, it is prevented by the restraining plate. This has the effect that the work of arranging and discharging the articles conveyed on the conveyor in each row can be performed reliably.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The accompanying drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, with FIG. 1 being a plan view of the tunnel furnace outlet and the discharge conveyor, FIG. 2 being an enlarged plan view of the alignment device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 being an enlarged side view thereof. FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view thereof, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are partially cutaway side views showing its operation. A...Furnace conveyor, B...First conveyor, C
...Second conveyor, D...Third conveyor, 9...
1st axis, 10...2nd axis, 13...arm, 14
... Horizontal bar, 16 ... Holding body, 20 ... Locking piece, 2
5...Motor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a roller conveyor that carries a large number of articles lined up in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction,
A large number of locking pieces are arranged in parallel across the roller conveyor, each biased individually toward a lower position that engages with the front edge of each article in the conveying direction, and a large number of locking pieces are placed in an upper position that does not engage with the article. A roller conveyor characterized in that a locking release device is provided for retracting the articles all at once to a position, and a restraining plate for preventing lifting of articles is provided immediately upstream of the plurality of locking pieces across the roller conveyor. Article alignment device.