JPH05116832A - Flexible disk stacker mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the selecting/receiving operation efficiency for flexible disks the quality of which is sorted by a collective examination apparatus. CONSTITUTION:A flexible disk stacker mechanism comprises four timing belts 65 for making vertical circulating movements through drive of driving mechanisms 66 controlled by a control circuit 67, and supporting pawls 68 mounted on each timing belt at suitable intervals, each supporting a corresponding one corner of the dropped flexible disk, and stacking the flexible disks for each prescribed number thereof, the supporting pawls being disposed at the position where the flexible disks 4 are allowed to drop. Accordingly, no need exists to interrupt the selecting/receiving operation, and the flexible disks 4 are stacked for each prescribed number thereof. Thus, the selecting, receiving, and processing time length is shortened in corresponding relation to the collective examination apparatus whose examining capability is increased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stacking mechanism for FDs (flexible disks), and more particularly to a stacking mechanism for stacking a fixed number of FDs that have been quality-classified by inspection by a group inspection device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The quality of an FD of an information recording medium is inspected at the manufacturing stage or at the time of receiving. These days,
In order to rapidly inspect a large amount of FDs in response to strong demand, a group inspection device that inspects a plurality of FDs in parallel has been developed. FIG. 2 schematically shows a basic configuration of a group inspection device, an FD transport mechanism for the group inspection device, and a storage case that stores the FD. In the group inspection device 1, a total of 40 inspection drivers 11 are arranged, for example, 8 rows in the horizontal direction and 5 stages in the vertical direction. On the other hand, the FD4 stored in the supply case 31
Are picked up one by one by a robot mechanism (not shown), placed on the supply conveyance path 21, and intermittently fed to the position of each driver 11 to stop. Each FD is inserted into a predetermined inspection driver and inspected, and the quality is classified according to the inspection result. The classified FDs are also intermittently fed by the discharge conveyance path 22, and finally, the corresponding classification cases 32a, 32b,
It is stored in 32c etc.

In the above, the discharge / conveyance path 22 intermittently feeds the FD in accordance with the progress of the inspection, and it is mechanically difficult to select and take out the FD according to the classification. Therefore, following the discharge transport path, a selective transport path for selectively storing the FD is provided. 3A and 3B show the configuration of the selective conveyance path 5, where FIG. 3A is a plan view and FIG. 3B is a side view. Figure (a),
In (b), the selective conveyance path 5 is appropriately provided with two rails 51a and 51b provided at the same level as the discharge conveyance path 22, the conveyance belt 53 provided above the rails 51a and 51b, and the middle of both rails 51a and 51b. The shutters 52a and 52b are provided with notches in the width of the FD at various intervals and provided in the notches. Two separators 531 having the same spacing as the width of the FD are attached to the conveyor belt 53 at appropriate pitch intervals, and are intermittently fed at this pitch interval by a drive mechanism (not shown). The above-described selective storage operation of the FD by the selective transport path 5 will be described. The FD 4 transported in the direction of the arrow A by the discharge transport path 22 is captured by the separator 531 of the transport belt 53 and moves on both rails 51 over the arrow B. Is intermittently fed in the direction of. On the other hand, the movement of the conveyor belt 53 is controlled by a control circuit (not shown), and the FDs classified by the inspection are
Stops at the position of the shutter 52 corresponding to the classification. Now, when the FD stops at the shutter position indicated by P ₁ ,
The shutter is opened to the left and right as indicated by arrow C by the control circuit, and the FD falls inside the sorting case 32a as indicated by arrow D. The same applies to other positions P ₂ and the like. As the inspection progresses, the sorting cases are stacked to full, and the cases are replaced manually or by an automated method with empty cases. However, while the case is being replaced, the movement of the conveyor belt is stopped and the selective storage operation is interrupted. Although the classification case may not be placed here, the selection storage operation is similarly interrupted.

[0004]

Now, due to advances in recording media and the like, the size of the FD has recently been increased from 5 inches to 3.5.
Since it has been reduced to inches or less, and the demand for it has further increased, it is required to shorten the takt time of inspection more than ever. For this reason, 40 inspection drivers of the above-described group inspection device 1 are increased to 60, for example, and the inspection capability is increased by 50%. The intermittent feeding speed of the supply transport path 21 and the discharge transport path 22 has been increased in response to this increase in inspection capability, but at the same time, it is necessary to shorten the selective storage processing time of the selective transport path 5. Here, the problem is that the work is interrupted due to replacement of the classification case, which is a bottleneck in shortening the processing time. On the contrary,
Regardless of stack processing such as case replacement, a stacking mechanism is provided for receiving dropped FDs and stacking them in a predetermined number of sheets, so that the stacked FDs are separately stored in the case and transferred to the next step. , The above neck is eliminated. The present invention is based on the above idea, and an object of the present invention is to provide a stacking mechanism of FDs that stacks a predetermined number of dropped FDs continuously to improve efficiency without interrupting selective storage work. Is.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an FD stacking mechanism that achieves the above-mentioned object, and is provided in the FD drop position of the above-mentioned selective conveying path in a vertical direction by a drive mechanism controlled by a control circuit. By the four timing belts that circulate and move to each timing belt, and the supporting claws that are attached to each timing belt at appropriate intervals, respectively support the corresponding one corner of the dropped FD, and stack the FDs by a predetermined number and descend. Composed.

[0006]

In the stacking mechanism described above, the FDs dropped from the selective conveying path are supported by the four supporting claws and a predetermined number of them are stacked. When a predetermined number of sheets are stacked, the drive mechanism operates under the control of the control circuit, the timing belt circulates and the FD stack descends, and the next supporting claw moves to the FD receiving position.
The same operation is continued and a predetermined number of FDs are stacked. On the other hand, the FD stack lowered as described above is taken out by an appropriate means and stored in the sorting case, or transferred to the next work process. As described above, since the dropped FDs are not stacked above or below the predetermined number and the selective storage operation is continued without interruption, the operation efficiency of the selected transport path is improved.

[0007]

1 is a partially cutaway perspective external view of an embodiment of an FD stack mechanism of the present invention. In the figure,
The FD stack mechanism 6 includes a base board 61 and two support plates 62a and 62a.
Set up b and attach these to the four rotary shafts 63a, 63b, 63c and
63d is pivotally supported, and each rotary shaft 62 has a pulley 64
Fix and fasten the timing belt 65 between the corresponding pulleys. A drive mechanism 66 and a control circuit 67 for each rotary shaft are provided, and the drive mechanism is controlled by the control circuit to rotate the rotary shaft in the direction of arrow E. A plurality of supporting claws 68 are attached to each timing belt 65 at a constant interval H, and the supporting claws descend inside and rise outside to circulate due to rotation of the rotating shaft. The FD stack mechanism 5 is the same as that shown in FIG.
It is provided below each shutter 52 of the selective conveyance path 5 in (b).

The operation of the above FD stack mechanism will be described. The FD 4 dropped as shown by an arrow D by the opening operation of each shutter of the selective transport path 5 is received and supported by the four support claws 68, and is dropped. Each time the number increases. With this increase, the timing belt is properly circulated and moved,
When the FD reaches the predetermined number of stacks, the supporting claws are lowered to lower the FD stack, the next supporting claw 68 is replaced with the receiving position, and the FD is restored to the position as in the above. When the FD stack descends sequentially and reaches the bottom,
The supporting claws are separated from each other, and the FD stack is collectively placed on the base board 61 and taken out in the direction of arrow F by an appropriate means. As described above, the dropped FDs are stacked in a predetermined number of sheets, and the selective storage work is continued without interruption, so that the operation efficiency of the selective transport path 5 is improved. In the above, the number of inspected FDs classified by classification is separately managed by the computer based on the inspection information of the inspection driver 11 described above, and the opening operation of each shutter 52 and the circulating movement of the timing belt are performed by this number data. Since it is controlled, detailed description of the control is omitted.

[0009]

As described above, according to the stacking mechanism of the present invention, the FDs selected and sorted by the shutter of the selected transport path are stacked on the supporting claws of the timing belt by a predetermined number. It is sequentially lowered and taken out as an FD stack, and the selective storage work is continued without interruption, and the effect of improving the operation efficiency of the selective conveyance path is great in response to the group inspection apparatus with enhanced inspection capability. There is something.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective external view of an embodiment of an FD stack mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an FD mass inspection device, an FD transport mechanism, and an F.
It is a basic block diagram of the storage case of D.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of a selective conveyance path, (a) is a plan view,
(b) is a side view.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... FD group inspection device, 11 ... Inspection driver, 2 ... FD conveyance mechanism, 21 ... Supply conveyance path, 22 ... Discharge conveyance path, 3 ... FD case, 31 ... Supply case, 32, 32a to 32d ... Classification case, 4 ... FD (flexible disk), 5 ... Selective transport path, 51, 51a, 51b ... Rail, 52, 52a, 52b ... Shutter, 53 ... Transport belt, 531 ... Separator, 6 ... FD stack mechanism, 61 ... Base board, 62a , 62b ... Support plates, 63a-63d ... Rotating shafts, 64 ... Pulleys, 65 ... Timing belts, 66 ... Drive mechanism, 67 ... Control circuit, 68 ... Support pawls.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display area // B65H 39/075 9037-3F

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flexible disk, the quality of which has been classified by inspection by a group inspection apparatus, is placed on a selected conveyance path and conveyed, and stopped at a shutter position corresponding to the quality classification provided on the selected conveyance path. In the flexible disk selective storage in which the flexible disk is dropped and stacked by the opening operation of the shutter, four flexible disks which are provided at the drop position of the flexible disk and circularly move in the vertical direction by a drive mechanism controlled by a control circuit are provided. A timing belt and supporting claws that are attached to the timing belts at appropriate intervals and that support the corresponding one corner of the dropped flexible disk and that stack the predetermined number of flexible disks and descend the stack. Flexible disk stack mechanism characterized by