JPH0627670B2 - Automatic weighing machine - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic weighing and pricing machine.

Technical background of the invention and its problems In recent years, along with the development of the distribution industry, there is a growing demand for an automatic weighing and pricing system, that is, a system for packaging and packing goods to perform weighing and pricing. Is required to improve.

Generally, in an automatic weighing and pricing machine, the goods carried in from the packaging machine are weighed by the weighing section on the weighing conveyor, and after weighing, the articles are sent from the weighing conveyor to the transfer conveyor and transported to the sticking conveyor, where the sticking is performed. Labels are attached to the goods on the conveyor. Therefore, it is usual that the item on the weighing conveyor is discharged before the next item is carried into the weighing conveyor.

However, if some abnormality occurs in the packaging machine, it is conceivable that the next item will be carried in from the packaging machine before the item is discharged from the weighing conveyor. This is,
If the weighing operation is in progress, double weighing will be performed by two items, and accurate weighing cannot be performed. Also, if the weighing arm for discharging is provided on the weighing conveyor, the next item and this weighing item can be measured while the item is being sent out by this weighing arm or during the return operation to the home position. The arm may come into contact with the arm, which may cause weighing error or conveyance error.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and performs appropriate processing even if the next item is carried in before the end of the discharging operation of the item from the weighing conveyor. The purpose is to obtain an automatic weighing and pricing machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention constantly detects the loading of an item onto a weighing conveyor, and displays an error even if the loading of the next item is detected before the end of the discharging operation of the item from the weighing conveyor, while stopping the device. By continuing the operation without any action, 2
Items 3 to 3 are defective, but can be disposed of under the error display. Items already transferred to the conveyor or the pasting conveyor can be validated and the efficiency of the entire device can be improved. It is configured so that the above can be achieved.

Embodiments of the Invention One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 schematically shows the external appearance, and basically, the automatic packaging machine 1 and the automatic weighing and pricing machine 2 are integrated. As a result, first, the product set on the packaging conveyor 3 by the automatic packaging machine 1 is conveyed in the packaging machine, and the packaging film cut to a predetermined length is sent onto the product on the way to the film. As a result, the product is lifted and the packing is done. Then, according to the packaging conveyor 3, the automatic weighing and pricing machine 2 is moved to. First, a weighing conveyor 4 is arranged in front of the packaging conveyor 3, and the items transferred onto the weighing conveyor 4 are weighed. When the weighing is finished, the weighing arm 5 pushes the article laterally, and the article is transferred onto the conveyor 6. The conveyor 6 conveys the goods along the conveyor guide 7 onto the sticking conveyor 8. The label issued by the label printer 9 is attached to the item sent onto the attaching conveyor 8 by the operation of the attaching arm 10. Then, the article is delivered by the ejection arm 11 and ejected to the front side by the ejection rollers 12 and 13 serving as the ejection portion. In FIG. 2, the thick arrow indicates the conveying direction of the conveyor, and the thin arrow indicates the flow of goods.

Reference numeral 14 is an operation section of the automatic packaging machine 1, and 15 is an operation section of the automatic weighing and pricing machine 2. The structure of the operation unit 15 is shown in FIG. 3, namely, the display unit 16 for weight, unit price, price, and product number, the numeric keypad 0 to 1 and the erase key 18,
In addition to the execution key 19 and various keys 20 such as the product number, key switches 21 and 22, a driving switch 23 for operating / stopping, a package weighing value attaching mode / a weighing value attaching mode / a packaging switching operation switching switch 24, a power source switch 25. Is provided. Further, various keys such as the sheet key 26 are provided. 28 is an LED for displaying an error or the like.

These sysems are controlled by the system controller as shown in FIG. First, CPU3
0 to ROM / ROM 32, RA via latch 31
M33 is connected and selected by the memory selector 34. On the other hand, the CPU 30 has I / O ports 35, 36, 3
7 are selectively connected by the I / O selector 38, and I / O
A scale / printer 40 is connected to the O port 35 via a photo coupler 39, and the automatic packaging machine 1 is connected to the I / O port 37 via a photo coupler 41. 42 is a bus transiever. An interrupt controller 44 is connected to the CPU 30 via a bus transceiver 43. Outputs of the timer 145, the timer 246, etc. are input to the interrupt controller 44. Then, AC motor control circuits 48, 49 are connected to the AC motor 47 for the conveyors 4, 6, 8, etc. A pulse motor control circuit 51 is connected to the pulse motor 50 for the sticking arm 10. Solenoid valve 5
An electromagnetic valve drive circuit 53 is connected to the No. 2. Further, a photo sensor 54 as a plurality of detectors, which is a combination of an LED and a photo transistor, is provided at the entrance of various conveyors. That is, it operates under the LED drive circuit 55, the photoelectric detection circuit 56 is connected to the output side, and the I /
It is input to the O port 36. Further, a part thereof is input to the interrupt controller 44. In addition, the input of various switches 57 and the switch 59 is also the data selector 5.
It is given to 7.

In such a structure, first, FIGS. 5 to 7 show a flow chart of the auto-zero process. This tends to remain on the weighing conveyor 4 or the like regardless of whether it is a piece of meat due to a pack leak or a piece of pack film due to a pack miss.
This causes a shift of the zero point. For this reason, it is necessary to always pay attention such as gazing on the weighing conveyor 4 and checking the state of the lamp indicating the zero point, and at the time when the zero point shift occurs, the leading operation is stopped. Clean the weighing conveyor 4. You have to perform operations such as pressing the zero point key. Therefore, in this embodiment, as a countermeasure, a weight that is less than the minimum weight for issuing a label is measured on the weighing conveyor 4, and if the weight is stable, the weight is measured without pressing the zero point key. Is regarded as a zero point and has a function capable of automatic correction. First, in this device, there are three modes of the package weighing value attaching mode / weighing value attaching mode / packaging mode. However, as shown in FIG. , Outputs a forced zero signal for auto zero. Here, ZOFFC is compulsory ZERO
It is an erase time counter and ZONC is a forced ZERO output time counter. The forced zero signal is a signal once per second at t ₁ = 950 _ms and t ₂ = 50 _ms as shown in FIG. The balance / printer 40 checks this forced zero signal, and when it is ON, it checks whether the weight meets the condition of less than the minimum weight (20 g) to perform the auto zero process. If it is OK, the forced zero key process is performed. Do. This forced zero key processing is the same processing as when pressing the zero key on a conventional electronic toll scale, and it is to see if the weight is less than 20 g and it is stable. It is corrected as a point. Here, the problem of the minimum weight (20 g) is to set the weight less than the minimum weight (20 g) in the auto-zero range because the label is printed at 20 g or more.
Further, in the ON state, the forced zero signal always performs the auto-zero process on the balance / printer 40 side. Therefore, it is necessary to perform other processes other than the above on the balance / printer 40 side. Assuming the timing of pressing, the switch is turned on at a constant cycle indicated by t ₁ and t ₂ .

Here, each mode processing described above is performed by the flow chart of FIG. That is, the goods are conveyed from the automatic packaging machine 1 and weighed (label issuance) → sent out on the conveyor 6 by the measuring arm 5 → conveyed to the sticking conveyor 8 by the conveyor 6 → label by the sticking arm 10 on the sticking conveyor 8. In a series of cycles of sticking → discharging by the discharging arm 11, the transport route is determined by the sticking accuracy (position) and the like, and the sheet is sent along the guide provided on the route. In this respect, according to the conventional method, the conveyor is arranged so that the product advances diagonally from the line parallel to the guide in the direction of this guide, but it is possible to increase the angle of inclination. There is a limit when considering the smooth flow of goods, and the goods cannot be moved to a sufficient position. In addition, as another method, there is a method in which, when the conveyor is obliquely arranged, when the goods are conveyed on the measuring conveyor, the measuring conveyor conveys the goods as close to the guide as possible. However, according to this method, the position of the item is considerably displaced from the center position of the weighing conveyor, and accurate measurement cannot be performed due to variations in the accuracy of the scale and the difficulty in stabilizing the item.
Therefore, in this embodiment, even if both are in the mode,
When the goods are conveyed from the automatic packaging machine 1, the goods are stopped at the center position of the weighing conveyor 4 (the solid line position in FIG. 2) to perform the weighing, and the weighing conveyor 4 after weighing 100 _ms.
As shown by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 2, the guide 7 is moved to the width side, and then the weighing arm 5 discharges the goods along the guide 7 onto the conveyor 6.
In FIG. 9, 500 _ms indicates a dummy loop. Further, the processing of label issuing end and sticking operation in the weighing value attaching mode and the packaging weighing value attaching mode is performed in parallel by the interrupt processing.

By the way, in order to check the stable state in the operation of loading and weighing the goods by the automatic packaging machine 1 and issuing the label when stable, it is necessary that the weighing conveyor 4 is stopped to some extent. However, if the weighing conveyor 4 is stopped for this reason, the processing capacity of the machine will be significantly reduced. In this regard, in the present embodiment, the weighing data is sampled at a constant cycle (0.2 seconds in the present embodiment) in the case of having the electronic resistance wire type scale.
On the contrary, in that the speed is slower than that of the spring scale, it also has a filter function for preventing flicker, and after being conveyed by the measuring conveyor 4 and stopped,
There is an advantage in that stable data can always be obtained after sampling once to several times. It has a weighing conveyor 4
Due to external factors, the sampled value for the specified number of times may not indicate the true value of the weight of the item, such as when the item resonates or is touched by a person. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as the flow chart of the label issuing conditions, as shown in FIG. 10, a comparison is made with the sampling value one time before the specified number of times (for example, 5 times), and the difference is found. (For example,
If it is within 50 counts, it is regarded as stable and the label is issued. On the other hand, when the condition is not satisfied, an action such as stopping the machine may be considered as an error. However, if the machine is stopped, there is a problem that an item from the automatic packaging machine 1 is clogged at the entrance of the weighing conveyor 4, and the like. It also reduces the processing capacity of the machine itself. Therefore, in this embodiment, an error display such as sounding a buzzer for a certain period of time is displayed to inform the operator, and the product is not conveyed to a label or affixed, but is simply conveyed / discharged to lower the processing capacity. Is to prevent.

Then, the transportation of the goods between the automatic packaging machine 1 and the weighing conveyor 4 will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG.
First, a photo sensor 54a as a detector provided at the entrance of the weighing conveyor 4 always checks in the goods. In FIG. 11, “RST6.5” indicates an interruption by the photo sensor 54a at the entrance of the weighing conveyor 4. Now, when the goods are carried in from the automatic packaging machine 1 and detected by the photo sensor 54a, the weighing conveyor 4 is rotated in the forward direction, and when the central weighing stop position is reached, the weighing conveyor 4 is stopped and weighing is performed (wrapping). 5 for mode
It becomes a dummy loop of 00 _ms ). Thereafter, the weighing arm 5 performs the discharging operation of the item. At this time, whether or not the next item is carried in is constantly checked by the photo sensor 54a, and it is normal if the product is not carried in. After discharging the item, as usual, to the home position of the weighing arm 5. The recovery operation is performed. On the other hand, before the end of the discharging operation of the item from the weighing conveyor 4 by the weighing arm 5, the next item is loaded and the photo sensor 54
When detected by a, it is an error, and an error display such as a buzzer sounding for a fixed time is displayed. At this time, generally, the operation device is stopped, but in the present embodiment, the operation of the device is continued as usual in parallel with the error display. That is, not only the weighing conveyor 4,
A large number of items are flowing in the item conveying path such as the conveyer 6 and the pasting conveyer 8 and the timing is taken such as the label issuance by the label printer 9 and the operation is stopped midway according to a general method. Then, the label printer 9
However, according to the present embodiment, since the operation is continued, the effective products can be utilized and the efficiency of the machine can be improved. be able to. On the other hand, although a few items such as the item on the weighing conveyor 4 and the next item are defective, there is no problem because they can be removed by the operator based on the error display.

By the way, FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing the initial discharging operation when the power switch is turned on and stopped and the operation is switched to the operation. First, under the discharge flag = 1, the discharge arm 11
Is not in the home position, the discharge arm 11 is driven in reverse and returned to the home position. If it is at home position, it is stopped. A photo sensor (54b) for detecting an item is provided at the entrance of the pasting conveyor 8, but if the photo sensor is not turned on, the transfer conveyor 6 and the pasting conveyor 8 are rotated in the forward direction to be on the pasting conveyor 8 for the item. Transfer to. On the other hand, when the product is transferred onto the sticking conveyor 8 and the entrance photo sensor is turned on, the transport conveyor 6 and the sticking conveyor 8 are stopped to carry out label sticking, and the discharging arm 11 is normally driven to discharge the goods. Then, the timer 1 process is performed. here,
The timer 1 process is a process of the time required for the discharge arm 11 to complete the discharge of the goods from the home position. After the processing of the timer 1, the discharging arm 11 is stopped, returns to the home position by the reverse driving, and stops at the time of returning. Then, the transport conveyor 6 and the pasting conveyor 8 are normally rotated. The forward rotation of the conveyors 6 and 8 is continued and stopped until 500 _{ms has} elapsed if the entrance sensor of the pasting conveyor 8 is OFF. On the other hand, if there is an article and the photo sensor on the entrance of the pasting conveyor is ON, both the conveyors 6 and 8 stop after waiting 500 _ms until the article disappears. Then, at the same time as the above, the discharging operation of the discharging arm 11 is performed. In any case, if the discharge of the goods on the weighing conveyor 4 is completed at this time, the end is reached.
On the other hand, if the discharge of the goods on the weighing conveyor 4 is not completed, the discharge flag is set to zero. And the weighing arm 5
If is not in the home position, it is returned to the home position by reverse driving, and if it is in the home position, it stops. Here, the weighing conveyor 4 is rotated in the normal direction for 100 _ms , and the width of the goods is adjusted. After that, the transport conveyor 6 rotates in the forward direction and the weighing arm 5 is driven in the forward direction so that the goods are transferred from the weighing conveyor 4 to the transport conveyor 6 and discharged. Here, the timer 2 in FIG. 12 refers to the processing of the time required from the home position of the weighing arm 5 to the completion of discharging the product. Then, when the weighing arm 5 returns to the home position, the weighing arm 5 stops and the discharging on the weighing conveyor 4 is completed.
The transport conveyor 6 and the pasting conveyor 8 are normally rotated.

The initial discharging operation is performed for the following reason. That is, pieces of meat due to pack leaks, pieces of film due to packing mistakes, and the like tend to remain on the conveyor, and if this is on the weighing conveyor 4, an error occurs in weighing the goods,
Moreover, the smooth conveyance of the product is hindered by any of the conveyors. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as described above, immediately after the power switch 25 is turned on or when the machine is switched from the stopped state to the operating state, the discharge operation is necessarily performed to clean the conveyor. .

However, with respect to the label sticking mechanism, the issued label is sucked using a vacuum pump, the label is selected up to the item by the sticking arm 10, and the label is stuck by sticking it to the item. It is most preferable that the sticking arm 10 arrives at the position before starting the suction. However, even if the vacuum pump is operated at this position to start adsorption, there is usually a physical delay time before the adsorption starts, although it varies depending on the pump. In this respect, it is possible to operate the vacuum pump before the sticking arm 10 arrives at the suction position so that the suction state is already exhibited sufficiently when the suction arm is reached, but the label in the suction standby state is free. This is a state and the adsorption action is exerted at an early stage, which causes an unfavorable phenomenon such as adsorption from the front part of the label. Also in the sticking operation for the adsorbed label, the check of this sticking operation uses the stroke when the sticking arm 10 presses, and a proximity switch or the like is provided at the tip of the sticking arm 10.
This is done by N / OFF, and if the vacuum pump is stopped when it is turned on, the vacuum pump will not be disconnected immediately due to a physical delay time. Therefore, a method of stopping the vacuum pump so that the vacuum pump is completely disconnected immediately before the proximity switch is turned on can be considered, but this is due to the stroke of the sticking arm 10 from the label suction position to the sticking position. It is very difficult to control because it depends on the height. Then,
In this embodiment, the solenoid valve 52 is used, and the vacuum pump is normally kept ON, and the vacuum state is instantly switched on / off by turning the solenoid valve 52 on / off during label adsorption and label sticking. Is to do. FIG. 13 shows a flow chart of the normal home position returning operation of the sticking arm 10, and FIG. 14 shows ON / O of the solenoid valve 52.
The flow chart of label sticking operation of sticking arm 10 using FF is shown. First, the sticking arm 10 pivotally displaces between the label suction position P ₁ and the label sticking position P ₂ as shown in FIG. 15, and the home position P _H is set between P _{1 and} P _2. is, the home position Chillon P _H
Is divided into a label side (region L) and an item side (region G). Therefore, sticking arm 10 if attached arm 10 is in the article side is Suroatsupu label directions, home position Chillon beyond P _H slow down the label direction shifting to label side, then Suroatsupu the goods direction Home position It becomes the goods side beyond Chillon P _H, the pulse motor 50 is driven 32 pulses, after slow down, and Suroatsupu the label direction again exceeds the home position Chillon again, slow down the label direction, sticking The arm 10 has stopped and has returned to the home position. Then, although it is a label pasting operation, first,
When it is detected that the sticking arm 10 has moved to the label suction position, the solenoid valve 52 is turned on and the label is sucked. At this time, to ensure the label suction, push up the label upthrust solenoid to the suction plate side issued label from below to ₁₅₀ ms _{ON, 100} ms OFF
To do. After the label is adsorbed, the sticking arm 10 is thrown up in the direction of the article, and the sticking operation is performed. At this time,
If a label adsorption error occurs, it means that there is no label,
The label suction operation is performed again by the sticking arm 10,
If the second label adsorption also fails, an error will occur. On the other hand, the label is adsorbed at both the first time and the second time, and when the sticking arm 10 moves to the side of the item, the label sticking to the item is completed, and when the label sticking is completed, the solenoid valve 52 is turned off. At this time, there may be no article on the pasting conveyor 8, and if the pasting operation is performed without the article, an error occurs and the processing is performed. On the other hand, if the goods have arrived, it means that the normal label sticking has been performed, and the sticking arm 10 performs the returning operation to the home position in the same manner as in FIG. in this way,
By turning on / off the solenoid valve 52, a modest operation is performed.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention, as described above, even if the loading of the next item is detected before the end of the discharging operation of the item from the weighing conveyor,
While the error was displayed, the operation of the device was continued, so a few items in the automatic weighing and pricing machine that were simultaneously flown at a predetermined interval are defective, but are rejected based on the error display. As a result, a large number of effective products can be used, and in the end, an appropriate treatment can be achieved and the efficiency of the entire device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view, and FIG. 3 is a front view of an operating portion.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram, FIGS. 5 to 7 are flow charts for auto-zero processing, FIG. 8 is a waveform chart of a forced zero signal, FIG. 9 is a flow chart for each mode operation, and FIG. 10 is label issuing conditions. 11 is a flow chart showing the gist of the present invention, FIG. 12 is a flow chart of initial discharge operation, FIG. 13 is a flow chart of home position returning operation, and FIG. 14 is a label sticking operation. Float chart, FIG. 15 is an explanatory view.

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Shigeharu Koike 6-78 Minamimachi, Mishima City, Shizuoka Prefecture Mishima Plant (72) Inventor Kuniichi Sekioka 6-78 Minamimachi, Mishima City, Shizuoka Tokyo Electric Co., Ltd. Mishima In the factory (56) References JP 59-49882 (JP, A) JP 50-60258 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A weighing conveyor that is connected to a packaging machine with a detector for the article interposed between the packaging machine and the weighing machine to weigh the article and discharges the article, and the article after weighing. Transporting conveyor for transporting the product and a labeling conveyor that labels the product and is connected to the discharging unit, and sequentially connects a plurality of the products at predetermined intervals in the path from the packaging machine to the discharging unit. In the automatic weighing and pricing machine that is made to flow at the same time, the operation of the weighing conveyor even if the detector has carried in the article to the weighing conveyor before the discharging operation from the weighing conveyor is completed. An automatic weighing and pricing machine characterized in that it is provided with an error display means for displaying the error while continuing the above-mentioned procedure until the product is discharged.