JPH0460890B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention is useful for detecting the type of conveyed articles used, for example, when detecting various types of internal combustion engines conveyed by a conveying device on a conveying route. This invention relates to a detection device.

2. Description of the Related Art For example, when internal combustion engines are stored in a warehouse, the types of internal combustion engines that are being transported one after another are detected, and storage management is performed based on the detection. In addition, the type of internal combustion engines that are taken out of warehouses and transported to automobile assembly lines is detected during transportation, and based on this detection, distribution to multiple assembly lines or judgment of the quality of the assembled vehicle types is accomplished. be done. Conventionally, for detecting such types, there has been provided an article storage/retrieval apparatus as shown in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7444/1983. In this conventional method, items are stored in pallets with mark cards on the top surface, and with multiple pallets stored on a roller conveyor, a reader is moved above the row of mark cards to read each mark card. is being carried out. Another type of device is provided in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 182128/1983. In this conventional method, boxes with position marker holding pieces attached to the sides are placed side by side and stacked.
The mark on the position marker holding piece is scanned by moving the cell horizontally along a horizontal guide rail or vertically along a vertical guide roll.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention Among the above-mentioned conventional examples, in the former type in which the reader is moved, in the storage direction (transport route direction)
Since the reader (barcode reader) is moved along the conveyance path, when multiple conveyance paths are arranged in parallel, the same number of expensive readers as the number of conveyance paths are required, which increases the cost of the entire equipment. This problem can be solved by moving the cell horizontally and vertically, but in this latter method, the horizontal movement (return movement) when the cell is raised to the non-operating position is stable ( For example, if a detected box is being moved below the cell and the cell unexpectedly descends, it will collide with the moving box and damage the expensive cell.

The object of the present invention is to be able to detect the types of articles conveyed by multiple conveyance devices, even though only one expensive display and detection device is used, and to prevent the objects from falling when returning to a non-operating position. The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for detecting the type of conveyed articles that can be stably carried out without such a problem.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the conveyance article type detection device according to the present invention includes a plurality of conveyance devices for supporting and conveying articles whose types are displayed on the front side, and a plurality of conveyance devices for supporting and conveying articles, each having a type displayed on the front side, are arranged in parallel, A stopper device that can freely move in and out is provided, and a movable frame that is movable in a lateral direction perpendicular to the direction of the conveyance path is provided above the location where these stopper devices are installed, and a drive device that moves this movable frame back and forth is provided. , an elevating frame is provided on the movable frame via an elevating drive device, a positioning device that can be freely engaged and detached is provided on the elevating frame in the raised position, and a display detection device is provided on the elevating frame to face an upper side of the conveyance path. There is.

Effects According to the configuration of the present invention, articles can be stopped on each conveyance path by moving each stopper device in a protruding manner. In this state, first, the positioning device is operated to the non-engaging side to release the positioning with respect to the elevator frame. Next, the lifting frame is lowered by the operation of the lifting device, and the display detection device is leveled with the article type display section, and then the display detection device is moved laterally together with the movable frame by the operation of the drive device, thereby detecting the article. It is possible to sequentially detect varieties one by one. After all the detections have been carried out and the display and detection device is raised together with the elevator frame, the detected article can be easily conveyed by moving the stopper device back and forth. Further, after the lifting is completed, the positioning device is operated to the engagement side to perform positioning with respect to the elevating frame, and to integrate the elevating frame with the movable frame. Thereafter, the drive device is operated in reverse to move the movable frame together with the elevating frame in a reverse lateral direction to return to its original position.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, 1A, 1B, and 1C are slat conveyors that are examples of conveying devices, and a pair of left and right slat conveyor sections 2A, 2B, and 2C are shown, respectively.
It is constructed by driving synchronously. In the embodiment, three slat conveyors 1A, 1B, and 1C are arranged in parallel, but the number may be arbitrary as long as a plurality of them are arranged in parallel. Each slat conveyor 1A, 1B, 1
C supports the article whose type is displayed on the front and conveys it on fixed conveyance paths 3A, 3B, and 3C. Although the articles may be conveyed by direct support or by support through pallets, in the embodiment
It is supported and conveyed via A, 4B, and 4C. Each truck 4A, 4B, 4C is constructed by providing a plurality of wheels 6A, 6B, 6C on the lower surface side of the loading platform 5A, 5B, 5C, and these wheels 6A, 6B, 6C are connected to the slat conveyor portions 2A, 2B, 2C. placed on top. Internal combustion engines 7A, 7B, 7 which are examples of articles
C is placed on the loading platform 5A, 5B, 5C, and the front side of the internal combustion engine 7A, 7B, 7C has a bar code 8A, 8B, 8C indicating its type (model).
is installed. Stopper devices 9A, 9B, and 9C are provided at set locations in the transport paths 3A, 3B, and 3C. These stopper devices 9A, 9B, 9C are, for example, cylinder devices, etc., and upward stoppers 10A, 10 that can be used also for the piston rod.
B and 10C can move in and out of the conveyance paths 3A, 3B, and 3C. A gate-shaped fixed frame 11 is disposed below the groups of stopper devices 9A, 9B, and 9C so as to straddle all the transport paths 3A, 3B, and 3C. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a pair of upper and lower rails 12 are attached to the horizontal frame portion of the fixed frame 11 in the left-right direction, and are supported and guided by these rails 12 via sliding bodies 13. A movable frame 14 is provided. Thereby, the movable frame 14 becomes movable in the lateral direction orthogonal to the direction of the conveyance path. A drive device 15 for reciprocating the movable frame 14 is a motor 1 equipped with a cyclo reducer attached to the movable frame 14.
6, a pinion 17 attached to its output shaft, and a rack 18 attached to the horizontal frame so that this pinion 17 engages from below. Movable frame 1
On the top of 4, there is a left-side phototube device 19, a left-side high-speed cut phototube device 20, a right-side phototube device 21,
Right high-speed cut phototube device 22, detection on/off phototube device 23, television phototube device 2
4 is attached to the fixed frame 11, and a plurality of shielding plates 25 on which the photocell devices 19 to 24 act
a, 25b, 25c, and 25d are attached. An elevating frame 27 is attached to the movable frame 14 via a cylinder device 26, which is an example of an elevating drive device. That is, the elevating frame 27 consists of a plate 28 and a frame 29 whose upper end is integrated with the plate 28, and the downward piston rod 30 of the cylinder device 26 supported by the movable frame 14 is integrated with the plate 28. Ru. A plurality of rods 31 erected from the plate 28 are guided by bearings 32 attached to the movable frame 14. A positioning device 33 for holding the elevated position of the elevating frame 27 includes a lever 35 swingably attached to the movable frame 14 via a horizontal pin 34.
and a cylinder device 3 that swings this lever 35.
6, and at the lower end of the lever 35,
An engaging piece 3 that can be freely engaged and detached from the lower surface of the plate body 28 from the lateral direction.
7 is integrally formed. On the frame 29 of the lift frame 27, there is a barcode reader 38, which is an example of a display detection device, facing toward the upper side of the conveyance path.
is installed, and a television camera 3 is installed on the side.
9 are arranged.

In the above embodiment, the internal combustion engines 7A, 7B,
The carts 4A, 4B, 4C that supported the wheel 7C move their wheels 6A, 6B, 6C to the slat conveyor section 2A,
By supporting the conveyors 2B and 2C, the conveyor paths 3A,
It is transported on 3B and 3C. Each transport route 3A, 3
In B, 3C, stopper devices 9A, 9B,
Stoppers 10A, 10B, 10 are activated by the operation of 9C.
C is upwardly protruding, so the carts 4A, 4B, and 4C that have been transported are at stoppers 10A and 10.
It is stopped when the loading platforms 5A, 5B, and 5C come into contact with B and 10C. At this time, the slat conveyors 1A, 1B, and 1C are driven, but friction can be absorbed by the free rotation of the wheels 6A, 6B, and 6C. When each of the carts 4A, 4B, and 4C is stopped, the elevating frame 27 is raised as shown in FIG. 2, and the movable frame 14 is at a position closer to one side. In this state, first, the cylinder device 3 of the positioning device 33 is
6 and swing the lever 35 to release the engaging piece 3.
7 to the disengaged position. Next, the cylinder device 26 is extended, and the barcode reader 38 is lowered (A) together with the elevator frame 27 to be positioned at the same level as the barcodes 8A, 8B, and 8C, as shown by the imaginary lines in FIG. Next, actuate the drive device 15 to move the movable frame 14 on one side toward the other side (B)
let During this movement, the phototube device 23 detects and operates just before the barcode reader 38 faces the barcode 8A of the first internal combustion engine 7A, and turns on the barcode reader 38 based on the detection signal. As a result, during the subsequent movement (B), the barcode reader 38 reads the barcode 8A, and thus the type of internal combustion engine 7A is read. Immediately after the initial reading is completed and the barcode reader 38 comes off the barcode 8A, the phototube device 23 becomes non-detecting, and the barcode reader 38 is turned off. By the subsequent lateral movement B, barcodes 8B and 8D are sequentially read in the same manner as described above. When the movable frame 14 reaches near the other side after all readings have been performed, the motor 16 is switched to low speed as detected by the phototube device 20, and further stopped at the other end as detected by the phototube device 19. Next, the cylinder device 26 is contracted and the elevating frame 27 is raised (C). Simultaneously with the detection of the end of the rise, the cylinder 36 of the positioning device 33 is extended, and the lever 3
The engaging piece 37 is brought into engagement with the plate body 28 by the swinging motion of 5, and the stoppers 10A, 10B, 10C are moved down and retracted by the operation of the stopper devices 9A, 9B, 9C. As a result, the internal combustion engine 7 that has been read
Bogies 4A, 4B supporting A, 7B, 7C,
4C is conveyed to the lower side by the slat conveyors 1A, 1B, and 1C. Thereafter, the movable frame 14 is returned (D), but at this time, the motor 1 is detected by the phototube device 22 when it reaches near one side.
6 is switched to low speed and further stopped at the other end by detection by the phototube device 21.

Note that in the event that the barcode reader 38 is out of order, detection may be performed using the television camera 39; in that case, the phototube device 2
4 is used.

Effects of the Invention According to the present invention having the above-mentioned configuration, articles can be stopped on each conveyance path by projecting each stopper device. In this state, by first operating the positioning device to the non-engaging side, the positioning with respect to the elevator frame can be released. Next, the lifting frame is lowered by the operation of the lifting device to align the display detection device with the article type indicator, and then the display detection device is moved laterally together with the movable frame by the operation of the drive device, thereby detecting the type of article. It is possible to sequentially detect (read) the product types one by one. After all the detections have been performed and the display and detection device is raised together with the elevator frame, the detected article can be easily conveyed by moving the stopper device back and forth. In addition, by operating the positioning device to the engagement side after the lifting is completed and positioning the lifting frame with respect to the lifting frame, this lifting frame can be integrated with the movable frame.Then, the drive unit is reversely operated and the moving frame is moved together with the lifting frame. The operation of reversely moving horizontally and returning to the original position can be performed stably without the elevator frame unexpectedly lowering. Therefore, according to the present invention, the type (format) of an article transported by a plurality of transport devices can be detected by a single display detection device, and the width of the entire transport device group can be reduced, thereby reducing the occupied area. In addition, the cost of the entire equipment can be reduced because only the minimum number of display and detection devices, which are more expensive, can be used.In addition, it is economical over a long period of time because the lifting frame and the lifting frame do not come down unexpectedly and are damaged. can be used for. Furthermore, detection (reading) can be performed directly in front of the display section on the front surface of the article, making it highly reliable.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view, FIG. 2 is a front view, FIG. 3 is a side view, and FIG.
The figure is a front view of the main part, and FIG. 5 is a side view of the same. 1A, 1B, 1C... Slat conveyor (conveyance device), 3A, 3B, 3C... Conveyance route, 4A, 4B,
4C...Truck, 7A, 7B, 7C...Internal combustion engine (article), 8A, 8B, 8C...Barcode, 9A, 9
B, 9C...stopper device, 14...movable frame, 15...
Drive device, 26... cylinder device (elevating drive device),
27... Lifting frame, 33... Positioning device, 38... Barcode reader (display detection device), 39... Television camera.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of conveyance devices for supporting and conveying articles whose type is displayed on the front side are installed in parallel, and a stopper device that can move in and out is installed in each conveyance path, and a stopper device is installed above the installation location of these stopper devices in the direction of the conveyance path. A movable frame that is movable in orthogonal lateral directions is provided, a drive device is provided for reciprocating this movable frame, and an elevating frame is provided on the movable frame via an elevating drive device, and a movable frame that is connected to the elevating frame in the raised position is provided. 1. An apparatus for detecting the type of conveyed article, characterized in that a positioning device that can be freely matched is provided, and a display detecting device facing toward the upper side of the conveyance path is provided on the elevating frame.