JPH05268806A - Automatic tray feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely feed trays with small supporting force by pushing up and supporting the directly upper tray from under during the transportation of the lowermost tray and lowering the pushed-up tray after the transport of the lowermost tray. CONSTITUTION:The directly upper tray T2 is pushed up and supported from under by the action of an actuator 14 during the transportation of the lowermost tray T1. After the transportation of the lowermost tray, a switch 15 is turned on with a tray-pushing tool 6a to inactivate the actuator and lower the loaded tray.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to filling pots with irrigation water, irrigation, sowing, while transporting a tray containing seedling raising pots.
The present invention relates to an automatic tray supply device in a seeding plant that covers soil.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional automatic tray feeder in a seeding plant has a feeding structure as shown in FIGS. FIG. 12 is a schematic side view of a conventional automatic tray feeder, and FIG. 13 is a schematic front view of the same. That is, the lowermost tray T1 supported and stacked by the column 10 'is the chain 6
The actuators 18L, 18R driven by an air cylinder or the like in the right and left direction of the tray (the second tray from the bottom) T2 directly above the tray T while being pushed out by the push-out tool 6a of FIG. Support by protruding. By supporting the upper tray above the tray being conveyed in this manner, the upper tray is prevented from falling and hitting the lowermost tray, and both trays are prevented from being damaged or deformed. When the lowermost tray is carried out to the next process, the tray held by the actuator is released so that the tray is placed on the chain and waits for the next conveyance.

[0003]

In the conventional automatic tray feeding device as described above, two actuators are required on the left and right sides, and since the actuators must be supported by the horizontal force, a large force is required. An actuator is required, and too many trays to be loaded cannot be supported if they are placed too much.

[0004]

The present invention uses the following means in order to achieve the above objects. That is, in a tray supply device in which a plurality of trays are stacked, four corners are supported by columns, and the tray is carried out from the lowest tray, an actuator is provided below the lowest tray, and the lowest tray is the second from the bottom in the process of being carried out. The central portion of the tray is pushed up and supported by the actuator, and the stacking tray is lowered after the lowest tray is carried out. Then, a switch is arranged at the end of the tray conveying device, an pushing tool is provided in the tray conveying device and arranged so as to press the switch, and when the lowermost tray is conveyed to a position approximately halfway before and after the immediately upper tray. The actuator is turned on to support the immediately upper tray, the lowermost tray is carried out, and the push-out tool carrying out the tray presses the switch to turn off the actuator.

[0005]

When the chain is driven, the lowest tray among the trays placed on the chain is pushed out by the pusher attached to the chain, and the lowest tray reaches about half the front-rear length. The actuator is raised by timer control, position detection sensor, etc., and the tray directly above is pushed up and supported from below. At this time, since the actuator supports almost one point of the tray, the tray loaded a little above is tilted, but it is supported by the pillars standing upright at the four corners and does not become a large tilt,
The tray will not fall onto the chain. Then, when the lowest tray is carried out to the next step, and the pusher immediately after carrying out the tray presses the limit switch, the actuator descends, whereby the upper tray descends and is placed on the chain, The above operation is repeated.

[0006]

The problems and configurations to be solved by the present invention are as described above. Next, the embodiments of the present invention shown in the accompanying drawings will be described. 1 is an overall side view of the seeding plant, FIG. 2 is an overall plan view of the same, FIG. 3 is a side view of the tray feeder A, and FIG.
Is a plan view, FIG. 5 is a front view, FIGS. 6 to 8 are diagrams showing an actuator control mechanism, FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing an initial state of tray supply, and FIG. 7 is a schematic side view when the actuator is raised. 8 is a schematic side view when the actuator is lowered, FIG. 9 is a schematic side view showing another embodiment of the actuator, FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the tray T and the seedling raising pot P, and FIG. 11 is the seedling raising pot P placed in the tray T. It is a side view of a state.

First, the overall structure of the sowing plant will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The tray containing the seedling raising pot is loaded in the tray supply device A and is unloaded onto the transport device. The tray carried out from the tray supply device A is
The soil is filled in the pot by the soil filling device B. B '
Is a soil recovery device for recovering excess soil. Then, after being irrigated by the irrigation device C, a hole for seeding is made in the topsoil by the pressure-reducing tool of the pressure-reducing sowing device D, and the seeder vacuum-adsorbs the seed in the hopper and drops it into the hole. Seeded by. Then, after the soil is covered by the soil covering device E, the water is again sprinkled by the irrigation device F and the seeding is completed.

The transport device is driven by a motor M1 which drives the tray supply device A in a chain, and the rollers M in the soil filling device B and the irrigation device C are driven by the motor M.
2, the motor M3 drives the belt in the pressure seeding device D and the roller driving thereafter, and the motor M4 drives the rollers in the soil covering device E and the irrigation device F.

Next, the structure of the tray T and the seedling raising pot P will be described with reference to FIGS. The tray T is made of synthetic resin or the like, is light in weight and can be stacked and transported, and has a large number of water draining holes at the bottom of the tray.
The seedling-growing pot P is made of a soft material, and is composed of a large number of cell portions Pa each having a draining hole opened at the bottom so that seeds can be sown one by one and raised. At the time of transportation in the seeding plant, the seedling raising pot P is placed inside the tray T and set as shown in FIG.

Next, regarding the structure of the tray supply device A,
This will be described with reference to FIGS. Left and right transport side plates 1L, 1R
The driven shaft 2 and the drive shaft 3 are laterally mounted between the front and rear positions. The drive shaft 3 is connected to the pulley 3 from the pulley M1a of the motor M1.
Driven via a, the sprockets 4 and 5 are fixedly mounted on the central portions of the driven shaft 2 and the drive shaft 3, respectively, and the chain 6 is wound between both sprockets. An extruding tool 6a is attached to the chain 6 at a distance longer than the front-rear length of the tray. With this structure, the tray T placed on the chain is driven by the motor M1 to drive the chain 6 and the push-out tool 6a pushes the tray to carry it out to the next step. In addition, sliding pipes 7 are provided on both sides of the chain 6 to facilitate transport of the tray.
L and 7R are arranged and supported by support plates 8 and 9.

A tray T is provided on top of the transport side plates 1L and 1R.
The columns 10 are provided upright at the four corners of the column to support the tray T to be stacked from the four corners so that the stacking will not collapse. Further, the columns 10 are parallel to each other and are inclined rearward. Some trays have protruding ribs on the back surface for stacking.In this case, if the four corners of the tray are vertically aligned and stacked, the ribs will get into the pot in the tray directly below and get caught. Although it may not be conveyed properly and may cause damage to the pot, by tilting the column 10 rearward, such a problem is solved without the rib entering the pot directly below. ..

Next, the tray supporting actuator will be described. A rotary shaft 11 is rotatably supported by a bearing or the like at a substantially central portion in the front-rear direction of the transport side plates 1L and 1R.
On the rotary shaft 11, a tray supporting rod 12L is fixed between the sliding pipe 7L and the chain 6, and a tray supporting rod 12R is fixed between the sliding pipe 7R and the chain 6 to support both trays. The rods 12L and 12R are the rotating shaft 1
It is configured so that it rotates integrally with the rotation of 1.
Each of the tray supporting rods 12L and 12R is divided into two parts, one of which is provided with a long hole 12a and the other of which is provided with an adjusting screw 12b so that both can be fixed.
The rod length can be adjusted by the height of the supporting tray T and the height of the seedling-growing pot P contained therein. A roller 13 is rotatably attached to the tip of each tray supporting rod 12.
Is pivoted. The tray T is a pusher 6 with a chain.
Although it is conveyed by pushing out a, some trays are provided with a stacking protrusion on the back surface of the tray, so that the tip of the actuator can be rotated so that it can be raised and lowered without being caught.

Then, one of the tray supporting rods 12 (in this embodiment, the tray supporting rod 12L) is pivotally connected to the piston rod 14a of the air cylinder 14. The high-pressure air of the air cylinder 14 vacuum-adsorbs the seeds in the hopper with the pressure-reducing seeding device D in the seeding plant,
It is sent from the air control device used for sowing on the soil in the pot P. In addition to the air cylinder, an actuator driven by a hydraulic cylinder or a motor can be used.

A limit switch 15 is disposed below the sprocket 5, and when the push-out tool 6a immediately after the tray T is carried out to the soil filling device B in the next step rotates around the sprocket 5 and reaches the lower side, the limit switch 15 is turned on. The 15 contacts are pressed and turned on. By inputting the limit switch 15, the drive of the air cylinder 14 is turned off, the tray supporting rod 12 is lowered, and after a certain period of time, the piston rod 14a is extended to control the tray supporting rod 12 to rise. There is.

In the tray supply device A having the above-mentioned structure, the relationship between the tray transport and the actuator drive control will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. The air cylinder 14 for driving the actuator is driven by the operation of the electromagnetic valve 17 by the control device 16 using the limit switch 15 and the like as input means. First, when the operation is started from the initial state of FIG. 6, the lowest tray T1 is pushed out by the chain pusher 6a. The tray supporting rod 12 is in a state of being lowered by the initial setting or immediately after the front tray is carried out. Then, as shown in FIG.
When the lowest tray T1 reaches the half position of the front-rear length, the timer is set (the limit switch 15 is actually ON.
After a predetermined time), or the sensor tray T1
Signal is sent from the control device 16 to switch the electromagnetic valve 17, the piston rod 14a of the air cylinder 14 extends, and the tray support rod 12
Is raised, and the roller 13 is applied to and supported by the lower surface of the directly upper tray T2. At this time, since the positions of the rollers 13 are concentrated in the substantially central position in the front and rear of the tray T2, the front and rear ends of the tray T2 and the trays above it are slightly inclined, but since the four corners are supported by the column 10, It will not tilt so much that the tray will fall onto the chain. In addition, as a result, the supporting force of the actuator is small, and the two tray supporting rods 12 are driven by the single air cylinder 14.

Then, after the lowermost tray T1 is carried out to the next step, the push-out tool 6a moves the limit switch 1 as shown in FIG.
5, the signal of the switch is input to the control device 16, the electromagnetic valve 17 is switched, the piston rod 14a of the air cylinder 14 is contracted, and the tray supporting rod 12 is lowered. This piston rod 14a
When the size is reduced, if the size is suddenly reduced, a shock may be generated on the placed tray and damage the tray or the transport device. Therefore, the electromagnetic valve 17 is provided with the aperture 17a so as to slowly descend. .. When the rise of the tray supporting rod 12 is controlled by the timer, the timer is activated and the rod descending state is maintained for a certain period of time. As described above, the limit switch 15 works so that the uppermost tray is lowered after the lowermost tray T1 is surely carried out to the next process. Therefore, the upper tray may be dropped onto the lowermost tray. In addition, the tray can be reliably supplied by preventing the tray from being damaged or deformed.

As for the structure of the actuator, as shown in FIG. 9, the tray T is directly connected to the piston rod 14'a of the air cylinder (or hydraulic cylinder) 14 '.
It is also possible to push up. In this case, since the tray is pushed up only by extending the piston rod, a slightly strong expansion / contraction pressure is required. The drive control of the air cylinder is the same as that described above.

[0018]

The present invention has the following effects by being configured as described above. That is, in the automatic tray supply device, conventionally, the upper and lower trays were sandwiched by the left and right actuators in order to support the upper tray during conveyance, so a strong supporting force was required. Since the upper tray is supported at the four corners by the structure that pushes up the actuator, the supporting force is small and, for example, a conventional air cylinder is used to drive the actuator.
This required only one, without dropping the upper tray during conveyance of the lowermost tray, changing the position or shape of the actuator even if the shape of the tray side is different, and By the action of the limit switch, the uppermost tray is lowered after the lowermost tray is surely carried out to the next process, so that the tray is prevented from being damaged or deformed and the reliable tray supply can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall side view of a sowing plant.

FIG. 2 is likewise an overall plan view.

3 is a side view of the tray supply device A. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing an actuator control structure in an initial state of tray supply.

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view when the actuator is raised.

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view when the actuator is descending.

FIG. 9 is a schematic side view showing another embodiment of the actuator.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a tray T and a seedling raising pot P.

FIG. 11 is a side view showing a state in which a seedling raising pot P is placed in a tray T.

FIG. 12 is a schematic side view of a conventional automatic tray feeder.

FIG. 13 is a front view of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A tray supply device T tray P seedling raising pot 6 chain 6a pusher 12 tray support rod 13 roller 14 air cylinder 14a piston rod 15 limit switch

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a tray supply device in which a plurality of trays are stacked, four corners are supported by columns, and which is carried out from the lowermost tray, an actuator is provided below the lowermost tray, and the lowermost tray is moved downward during carrying out. An automatic tray supply device characterized in that the second central part of the tray is pushed up and supported by the actuator and the stacking tray is lowered after the lowest tray is carried out. 2. The automatic tray feeding device according to claim 1, wherein a switch is arranged at the end of the tray conveying device, and an extruding tool is provided on the tray conveying device so as to press against the switch, and the lowest tray is directly upper. When the tray is conveyed to the front and rear half positions, the actuator is turned on to support the immediate upper tray, the lowest tray is carried out, and the pusher that carried out the tray presses the switch to turn off the actuator. An automatic tray supply device characterized by the following.