JPH05221401A - Automatic apparatus for filling and weighing solid matter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute quick filling of solid matters and accurate weighing while simplifying and miniaturizing entire structure of an apparatus to be used for the filling. CONSTITUTION:A filling conveyer 2 is arranged at the end of the downstream side of a supplying conveyer 1 so that it can be placed at a right angle to the supplying conveyer. Solid matters supplied from the supplying conveyer 1 are transferred to the filling conveyer 2 so that the solid matters can be scattered in an area in the crosswise direction of the filling conveyer, and are further supplied to a filling hopper 5 which is provided at the end of the filling conveyer and is equipped with a preliminary filling area and a supplementary filling area. Containers are carried intermittently to the underside of the filling hopper by operation of a spiral rod 21 which is driven by a servomotor. Then each of the containers is filled in the preliminary filling area with the solid matters in a quantity weighing slightly less than a specified weight and after that, supplementary filling is made in the supplementary filling area until the container is filled with the solid matters in a quantity weighing the specified weight.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic filling and weighing apparatus for weighing and automatically filling solid substances such as citrus fruits in a container such as a can when manufacturing canned mandarin oranges.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an apparatus for automatically filling cans with citrus fruit grains, there has been known one described in, for example, JP-A-52-76182. In the conventional device, multiple narrow filling conveyors and water tanks are arranged in parallel on the extension of the downstream end of a wide supply conveyor that conveys citrus fruits, and the fruit grains conveyed by the supply conveyor are transferred to the filling conveyor. In addition, the cans that are partially fed into the water tank and are intermittently conveyed by the filling conveyor and the spiral rod arranged at a right angle to the lower end of the water tank are first fed to the cans from the downstream end of the filling conveyor through the filling hopper. Is dropped and the amount slightly smaller than the fixed amount is weighed to perform the primary filling, and then, at the downstream end of the water bath, the fruit grains are taken out from the water bath one by one and refilling is performed while weighing.

[0003]

A conventional solid filling and weighing apparatus for citrus fruits and the like has a plurality of rows of filling conveyors and water tanks arranged along the extension of the feeding conveyor, which makes the apparatus large and large. Need space. Further, since one filling hopper correspondingly fills one can, a plurality of filling hoppers are required, and it is also necessary to attach a plurality of weighing devices. The container feed mechanism also uses an air cylinder as a power source to convert linear motion into rotational motion of a spiral rod via clutches, gears, cams, etc., and scratches the fruit grains thrown into the water tank with metallic wings. The structure is complicated, the number of parts is large, and the cost is high, for example, a mechanism is required to raise and put each fruit into the container.
Further, since the replenishment and filling is performed by scraping the fruit grains thrown into the water tank with a metallic wing, collapse of the pulp is likely to occur.
Furthermore, when a can supply problem occurs and the can is not temporarily supplied to the filling position, it is not possible to respond quickly and automatically, and the fruit grains conveyed from the filling conveyor fall into the device. It may end up. Further, when changing the size of the container, it is necessary to remove all of the weighing device, the spiral rod, the guide and the like in the mold changing work, and it takes a lot of time to adjust the setting.

The present invention was devised in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional solid filling and weighing apparatus, and the entire apparatus is extremely simplified and made compact to save space and cost. In addition, it is possible to weigh and fill accurately and at high speed without damaging the object to be filled, and it is easy to change the mold for changing the container size in a short time.Also, in case of can supply trouble, etc. automatically and quickly. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic solid material filling and weighing device that can deal with the problem.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An apparatus for automatically filling and weighing solid matter according to the present invention comprises a feed conveyor for feeding solid matter to be filled such as fruit grains, and the feed conveyor which is arranged at a downstream end of the feed conveyor at a right angle to the conveyor. A filling conveyor having a width that is at least twice the outer diameter of the container for filling the filled solid, a transfer conveyor provided between the filling conveyor and the supply conveyor, and the solid to be filled from the supply conveyor to the width of the filling conveyor. Distributing chutes that are dispersed and transferred in the direction, a filling hopper provided at the end of the filling conveyor and having a pre-filling area and a refilling area, and a container transporting device that intermittently transports the container to the lower part of the filling hopper. A weighing machine provided in a container transport path below the refilling and filling area of the filling hopper, wherein a solid weight to be filled in the container is stipulated at a position below a preliminary filling area of the filling hopper. It was possible to solve the above-mentioned problems by adopting a configuration characterized in that pre-filling is performed to a slightly lesser extent, and refilling is performed until the specified weight is reached while weighing with the scale below the refilling area. ..

The filling conveyor is driven to rotate in the forward and reverse directions,
A solids collection container is provided at the opposite end of the filling conveyor where the filling hopper is located, and has a container detection sensor for detecting a container located below the refill filling area. By the container non-detection signal, the filling conveyor rotates in the reverse direction to collect the solid matter on the conveyor into the solid collecting container, so that the trouble of container transportation can be automatically and quickly dealt with. It was possible to prevent it from falling inside. Further, by providing thin rods at equal intervals on the inner surface of the filling hopper, and by providing a deflecting roller at the boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling filling area, the solid portion is stagnant in the filling hopper and the solid matter in the container gap is filled. Could be prevented from falling. Furthermore, the spiral bar of the container transporter is connected to the drive shaft via a removable shaft joint,
Moreover, the container guide is provided so as to be freely adjustable and detachable in the direction of the container transport path, thereby facilitating the mold change.

[0007]

The filling conveyor is arranged at a right angle to the supply conveyor, and since it is a single row, it can be made much smaller than the conventional one. In addition, a wide filling hopper is provided at the downstream end of the filling conveyor, and the filling hopper also serves as a solid material for pre-filling and refilling, and only one hopper can perform the final filling, and it is possible to continue at adjacent positions. Since pre-filling and supplementary filling can be performed with only the weighing machine and the supplementary filling section,
Can be accurately weighed and filled. Since the thin rods are provided at equal intervals on the inner surface of the filling hopper, the friction between the inclined inner surface of the hopper and the solid material that is the object to be filled is reduced, and even citrus fruit granules can be smooth without stagnation in the filling hopper. Is dropped and filled. Further, since the deflecting roller is provided at the boundary between the prefilling area and the refilling area, the solid matter falling from the filling conveyor is distributed to one of the areas at the boundary between the prefilling area and the refilling area of the filling hopper. , Even if there is a gap between the container at the pre-filling position and the container at the refilling position so as not to contact each other, it is possible to prevent the solid matter from falling into the gap between the containers and to fill it accurately,
Accurate weighing is possible. Furthermore, when the container detection sensor detects that there is no container at the refill / fill position during operation,
According to the detection signal, the filling conveyor rotates in the reverse direction to collect the solid matter on the filling conveyor into the solid matter collecting container. Therefore, it is possible to automatically and quickly deal with the occurrence of a trouble in container transportation, and it is possible to prevent the solid matter from dropping into the apparatus.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The illustrated embodiment apparatus is a solid material filling and weighing apparatus when the present invention is applied to an apparatus for quantitatively filling mandarin orange grains in a canned mandarin orange manufacturing process. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a fruit feeding conveyor comprising a net conveyor, which also serves as a selection conveyor, and the mandarin orange p from which the outer skin and the inner skin have been removed is randomly supplied, and its shape is collapsed or damaged. Defective products such as are manually removed during the transportation, and only non-defective products are transported to the downstream end. However, it goes without saying that the sorting conveyor may be separately provided and the mandarin orange grains from which the unqualified products have been removed are supplied to the supply conveyor. Reference numeral 2 denotes a row of filling conveyors arranged at a right angle to the feeding conveyor 1 below the downstream end of the feeding conveyor, and in the present embodiment, a conveyor having a width three times or more the diameter of a can to be filled. Is formed by. The conveyor is driven by a motor 3 which can be controlled in speed by the inverter control so that the speed of the conveyor can be adjusted according to the capacity of the conveyor 1 and can be switched between forward and reverse rotation. Numeral 4 is a distribution chute for transferring the fruit particles from the supply conveyor to the filling conveyor. In order to ensure the weighing function, the fruit particles are distributed and transferred at a proper density over the entire width of the filling conveyor. , So that its tip is positioned obliquely in the width direction of the filling conveyor, and is divided into four sections a to d.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a filling hopper provided at the downstream end of the filling conveyor and having a width substantially equal to the width of the filling conveyor. The fruit grains conveyed by the filling conveyor 2 drop into the filling hopper and are positioned below the filling hopper. The cans are filled with fruit granules, but below the filling hopper, three cans conveyed by a spiral rod are stopped in line in the width direction of the filling conveyor, as described later. The cans are pre-filled and refilled at the same time. The filling hopper 5 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, inclined plates 6 and 7 are provided on the front and rear sides, the bottom is opened over the entire width, and side plates 8 and 9 are provided on the left and right sides. The vertical side plates 8 and 9 are the filling hopper mounting guides 15 in which the filling hopper is provided on the frame at the tip of the filling conveyor.
It forms a mounting piece that can be attached and detached with a single touch, and the tip is bent into a key shape to form insertion pieces 16 and 17.

The inside of the filling hopper 5 consists of a prefilling zone a and a refilling zone b, the prefilling zone a has a width in which approximately two cans are located, and the refilling zone has a width of approximately one can. is doing. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in the middle of the pre-filling area, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in order to prevent the berries that have fallen in that position from falling into the gap between the two cans located in contact with the pre-filling part. The deflecting pieces 10 and 11 are fixedly provided on both the inclined plates 6 and 7, and the fruit particles that have fallen to this position are deflected and fall into one of the cans. In addition, the preliminary filling area a
A deflecting roller 12 composed of a group of free rollers made of plastic is provided between the swash plates across the hopper drop opening at the partition between the refill filling area b and the refill filling area b. This prevents the fruit grains from falling into the gap between the can located at the preliminary filling position and the can located at the refilling position. Further, in the filling hopper, thin round bars 13 are attached at equal intervals along the inclined plate 8 that is a contact surface with the fruit grains to reduce friction with the fruit grains, and the fruit grains dropped from the filling conveyor are stagnant. It is designed to smoothly fall into the can without doing.
In the present embodiment, the thin round bar is provided only on one inclined plate on the filling conveyor side, but it may be attached to both inclined plates.

A chute 20 conveys the can c in a close contact state, and is a spiral rod 2 arranged below the filling hopper.
The empty can is sent to the position 1 by its own weight. The spiral rod 21 intermittently conveys the can sent by the chute to the prefilling position and the refilling position below the filling hopper, and the pitch of the spiral rod 21 is the prefilling area of the filling hopper 5 and It is formed to match the refill area, and the can in the refill position and the prefill position are formed with a feed pitch so that they do not come into direct contact, and the can in the refill position contacts the prefill position. It prevents the weighing from going wrong. The spiral rod 21 is a servo motor 22.
It can be continuously driven and intermittently rotated at a high speed of 3000 rpm, and cans can be fed one by one at a high speed. A weigh scale 23 composed of a load cell is arranged at a replenishment / filling position of the transport path of the can supplied by the spiral rod 21, and the can filled with the contents is weighed at the position, and further replenishment and filling is performed while weighing. When the specified weight is reached, the spiral rod 21
Is rotating at high speed to rapidly transfer the cans to the real can conveyor.

A shaft coupling projection 24 is formed on the driving side shaft end of the spiral rod 21 so as to project therefrom. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the driving side shaft end of the spiral rod is attached to the table 35. The shaft coupling convex portion 2 is supported at the end by a block 36 that is erected upright.
4 is formed with a shaft coupling recess 25 into which the servo motor 2
A drive shaft 26 that is rotatably driven by 2 can be easily and detachably engaged. Further, the other end of the spiral rod shaft is attached to the block 37 erected on the table 35 by the bolt 3
A bearing member 27, which is detachably fixed by 8, can be detachably fitted. Therefore, when the spiral rod is replaced with a change in the size of the can, the spiral rod 21 can be easily removed and replaced with a predetermined spiral rod by loosening the bolt 38 and removing the bearing member 27 from the block 37. In FIG. 8, 32 is a timing belt pulley fixed to the drive shaft 26, and 33 is a timing belt pulley.
The rotation angle detecting device is attached to the drive shaft 26 to detect the rotation angle of the spiral rod and control the feeding of the can. On the other hand, 28 and 29 are an inlet-side container guide and an outlet-side container guide which are arranged so as to face the spiral rod 21, and these guides are composed of two upper and lower stages in this embodiment.
The upper guides 42, 43 on the 0, 41 via the spacer 44.
Is fixed. Both the inlet side guide and the outlet side guide are attached to the lower guide 4 so that they can be freely attached to and detached from the stand pin 45 standing on the table 35 and their positions can be adjusted.
Slots 30 and 30 are formed on the sides 0 and 41 from the side, and the stand pins can be inserted and engaged from the side along the slots. On the upper part of the stand pin 45, a one-touch lever 46 for fixing the guide inserted in the stand pin with one touch is attached. Therefore, by turning the one-touch lever, the guide engaged with the stand pin is disengaged, and the guide is removed according to the size of the can and replaced with another guide, or moved along the long hole. By doing so, the distance from the spiral rod can be adjusted. Note that in FIG. 7, the inlet side guide 28 for the can size 401D can is used as the inlet side guide.
a is attached, and in FIG.
The case where the inlet side guide 28b for 1D cans is attached is shown, and the inlet side guide 28a for 401D cans is shown as a replacement guide. In FIG. 1, 5
Numerals 0 and 51 are empty container detection sensors arranged at a predetermined interval to detect whether or not cans conveyed by the chute 20 are continuously conveyed in a close contact state, and 52 is a replenisher. It is a container detection sensor for detecting whether or not a can is present at the filling position.

The solid material filling and weighing apparatus of this embodiment is constructed as described above, and a can is filled with a fixed amount of solid material in the following manner. The mandarin orange particles from which the outer skin and the inner skin have been removed are randomly supplied to the supply conveyor 2, and defective products such as a deformed or damaged shape are manually removed during transportation, and only good products are transported to the downstream end. It is supplied to the filling conveyor via a distribution chute 4 provided at the downstream end. that time,
Since the distribution chutes divided into four sections a to d are arranged so that their ends are oblique to the filling conveyor 2, the fruit granules are dispersed over the entire width of the filling conveyor. B, ha,
The fruit particles transferred from the section D to the filling conveyor fall to the area a which is the pre-filling area of the filling hopper 5, and the fruit particles transferred from the area B to the filling conveyor are the area b which is the supplementary filling area. To fall.

On the other hand, the empty cans are continuously fed by an empty can conveyor, and are intermittently fed to the pre-filling position and the refilling position by the spiral rod 21. In the can which has been sent to the refill position, the fruit drops from the area a of the filling hopper 5 and is filled in the empty can. In the prefill zone, the cans are filled in two places, the first first prefill position and then the second prefill position,
It is filled a little less than the fixed amount and sent to the refilling position where the weighing machine 23 is arranged. The can sent to the refilling position is placed on the weighing machine, and in that state, the fruits falling from the area b of the filling hopper are filled. There are one or a small number of grains falling to the refilling position, which corresponds to the conventional secondary filling. In this way, each particle or small quantity is filled while being weighed, and when the set weight value is reached, a weighing completion signal is output, the servo motor 22 of the drive unit is driven, and the container is conveyed at a high speed for one pitch and filled. The finished cans are sent to the real can conveyor. At the same time, one can is received from the chute on the inlet side, and the cans located at the first prefill position and the second prefill position are sent to the second prefill position and the refill position, respectively. After that, the cans are sequentially filled in a fixed amount by repeating the procedure.

As described above, according to the container feeding device of this embodiment, the air cylinder, the clutch, the rack, the pinion, and the stop device, which are required in the prior art, are not required, and the container feeding device is very simple and has high speed and reliability. It is possible to feed containers with good properties. Moreover, since the load cell is used for the weighing machine, high-speed weighing is possible and the weighing accuracy is excellent, and accurate weighing and filling can be performed in combination with high-speed feeding of the container. The filling amount into the container is defined by the density of the solids conveyed on the filling conveyor, the filling conveyor speed, and the stop time of the container, but the filling amount is mainly adjusted by adjusting the conveying speed of the filling conveyor and the stopping time of the container. Controlled. Therefore, in this embodiment, the drive motor of the filling conveyor is controlled by an inverter so that the speed of the filling conveyor can be adjusted arbitrarily, and the spiral rod is driven by a servomotor to achieve high-speed rotation and intermittent rotation. It is possible to move the can at high speed and position it at a predetermined position.

In the above process, if the number of the cans supplied to the chute 20 is less than the detection position of the empty container detection sensor 51 and the empty container detection sensor 51 does not detect the cans, the signal indicates that the spiral rod 21 is in motion. Immediately after the driving is stopped, the filling conveyor 2 rotates in the reverse direction, and the fruit particles transferred on the filling conveyor are automatically collected in the solid collecting container 18 arranged at the other end of the filling conveyor. Prevents the berries from overflowing in the equipment. Then, as soon as the can is filled in the chute 20 and the empty container detection sensor 50 detects the can, the original operating state is immediately restored and the filling is started. Further, the fruit grains sent from the filling conveyor 2 to the filling hopper 5 are provided with the thin round bar 13 in the filling hopper,
It is smoothly supplied to the container without stagnation in the filling hopper, and is reliably filled in the can without being dropped outside the can by the deflecting piece 11 and the deflecting roller 12 provided in the partition of the filling popper 5. Although the above is an example in the case of automatic filling weighing of citrus fruit grains, the present invention is not limited to an automatic filling weighing device of citrus fruits, automatic filling weighing to other containers of marine products such as oysters and clams and other solids. It goes without saying that it can also be applied to automatic filling and weighing.

[0017]

The present invention has the following special effects with the above configuration. Since the filling conveyor is arranged at a right angle to the supply conveyor and is in a single row, the entire apparatus is much simpler and more compact than the conventional one, and the cost and space can be saved. A wide filling hopper is provided at the downstream end of a single filling conveyor, and the filling hopper serves both as a solid material for pre-filling and supplementary filling, and it is possible to perform final filling with only one filling hopper, and at a close position. Preliminary filling and supplementary filling can be performed continuously, so that accurate and quick weighing and filling can be performed using only the weighing device and the supplementary filling position. By controlling the drive of the can transfer device and the filling conveyor depending on the presence or absence of a can in the can detector, it is possible to quickly and automatically deal with troubles such as the can coming out of the container, and the solid matter outside the container is solidified. It is possible to prevent things from falling. Since the thin rods are provided at equal intervals on the inner surface of the filling hopper, the friction between the inclined inner surface of the hopper and the solid material to be filled is reduced, and the solid material falls smoothly without stagnation in the filling hopper. Since a deflection roller is provided at the boundary between the pre-filling area and the refilling area,
It is possible to prevent the solid matter from dropping between the container in the pre-filling position and the container in the refilling position, and it is possible to accurately fill. Further, the mold change for changing the size of the container can be done with one touch, and the mold change time can be drastically reduced as compared with the conventional case.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a solid material filling and weighing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a filling hopper.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the filling hopper.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a method of mounting the filling hopper.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the container transport device.

FIG. 8 is an assembly diagram of the container transport device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Supply Conveyor 2 Filling Conveyor 3 Motor 4 Distributing Chute 5 Filling Hopper 6, 7 Inclined Plate 12 Deflection Roller 13 Fine Round Bar 18 Solids Collection Container 21 Spiral Bar 22 Servo Motor 23 Weigher 24 Shaft Coupling Convex 25 Shaft Coupling Recess 26 Drive shaft 28 Inlet side can guide 29 Outlet side can guide 50, 51 Empty container detection sensor 52 Container detection sensor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A supply conveyor that conveys solid matter to be filled such as fruit grains, and a container having an outer diameter of 2 arranged at a downstream end of the supply conveyor at a right angle to the conveyor to fill the solid matter to be filled.
A filling conveyor having a width equal to or more than twice, a distribution chute which is provided in a transfer section between the filling conveyor and the supply conveyor, and disperses and transfers the solid to be filled from the supply conveyor in the width direction of the filling conveyor. A filling hopper provided at an end of the filling conveyor and having a pre-filling area and a refilling area, a container transporting device for intermittently transporting the container to a lower portion of the filling hopper, and a container below the refilling area of the filling hopper. A weighing machine provided in the conveying path, wherein the container is prefilled with the solid material to be filled at a position below the prefilling area of the filling hopper, which is slightly less than a specified weight, and the weighing machine is located below the replenishment filling area. An automatic filling and weighing apparatus for solids, which is replenished and filled until it reaches a specified weight while being weighed with. 2. The filling conveyor is rotatably and rotatably driven, a solid collecting container is provided at an end of the filling conveyor opposite to a position where a filling hopper is located, and is located below the replenishment filling area. Having a container detection sensor for detecting the container to be, by the container absence detection signal of the container detection sensor,
2. The automatic filling and weighing apparatus for solids according to claim 1, wherein the filling conveyor is rotated in a reverse direction to collect the solids on the conveyor into a solids collection container. 3. The filling hopper is provided with thin rods at equal intervals on an inclined inner surface thereof, and a deflecting roller is provided at a boundary portion between the pre-filling area and the refilling area.
Automatic filling and weighing device for solids. 4. The container carrying device has a spiral rod arranged along the container carrying path, and a container guide arranged so as to face the spiral bar and the container carrying path. The automatic filling weighing device according to claim 1, 2 or 3, which is connected to a drive shaft via a detachable shaft coupling, and the container guide is provided so as to be freely adjustable and detachable in a container transport path direction. apparatus.