JPH06298204A - Screw encasing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently encase a specific number of screws with a simple structure. CONSTITUTION:A carrying means 2 carries screws N arranged in a row while suspending their heads and a plurality of the screws N being carried by its carrying guide 7 are urged in the axial direction by a holding member 8 of a carry-in means to encase them. The Y axis position against which the screws N are urged by the holding member 8 is controlled by a control means. The holding member 8 adjusts the screws N to a specific number and holds and encases them.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for packing screws, and more particularly to a device for packing a comparatively long number of screws in a predetermined number.

[0002]

Short screws can be packaged automatically using simple equipment. For example, it is possible to measure the weight of a plurality of screws, calculate the number of screws from the weight, and package them in a box. It is also possible to count the number of passed screws with a sensor and pack a predetermined number of screws in a box. The counted screws can be boxed using a simple transfer chute. However, long screws cannot be boxed with such a simple device. In particular, long screws must be boxed in the same direction. If long screws are packed in the box in the wrong direction, they will be bulky and will not fill the box efficiently. Therefore, it is important to package long screws in the same direction.

When long screws are carried into a box by using a chute or the like, they cannot be neatly aligned and packed in the box. For this reason,
It is packed by hand. An operator counts the number of screws and holds a predetermined number of screws by hand to pack them in a box.
However, this work is very labor intensive, requires a lot of work, and has a very poor work efficiency. In the screw manufacturing factory, the manufacturing apparatus is automated, but the boxing process is not automated, and the reality is that automation of this process is highly desired. However, the screws differ in thickness and length,
Moreover, since the number of boxes to be packed is different, it is very difficult to automate.

By the way, an apparatus described in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2-129001 has been developed as a box packing apparatus for cylindrical articles. As shown in FIG. 1, the boxing device described in this publication transports cylindrical articles 1 side by side. The cylindrical article 1 is transferred by the transfer means 2 by arranging the large diameter parts in an alternating manner and arranging them in one example. The cylindrical articles 1 that are alternately transferred are adsorbed by the carry-in means 3 and packed in a box. The carrying-in means 3 for adsorbing the cylindrical article 1 includes an adsorbing section 4. The carry-in means 3 is controlled by the control means 6 so that the adsorbed cylindrical article 1 is transferred from the transfer means 2 to the box.

Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2-83186 describes a packing robot. In the boxing robot described in this publication, as shown in FIG. 2, articles carried by the transfer means 2 are boxed by the carry-in robot 5.
The carry-in robot 5 is designed so as to grip the articles sent by the transfer means 2 and pack the articles in a predetermined position. The carry-in robot 5 is controlled by the control means 6 so as to carry in a predetermined number of articles to a predetermined position in the box.

[0006]

The device described in the publication shown in FIG. 1 can be used for packing thick screws in a box. However, in the boxing device having this structure, it is necessary to transfer the large diameter parts of the screws by staggering them by the transfer means 2. This is because the boxed screws are stored without being bulky. However, in order to arrange the screws in the transfer means 2 in this arrangement, a complicated mechanism is required, and the screws cannot be packed in a box with a simple structure. Further, the boxing device having this structure has a drawback that the number of boxes of screws cannot be adjusted. This is because the cartoning device always adsorbs a fixed number of screws for cartoning. Furthermore, this boxing device can adsorb screws with a simple structure, but has a drawback that it is difficult to adsorb screws having peaks and valleys alternately on the surface. This is because air leaks from the valley. Therefore, if a long and heavy screw is sucked with this structure, the amount of air consumed is considerably increased, and it is not possible to suck and transfer it efficiently.

The boxing robot shown in FIG. 2 counts a predetermined number of articles and can box them. However, there is a drawback that a plurality of screws cannot be gripped and transferred together, and the boxes cannot be efficiently packed.

The present invention was developed for the purpose of solving these drawbacks of the conventional device. An important object of the present invention is to provide a screw boxing device capable of efficiently boxing a predetermined number of screws with a simple mechanism.

[0009]

The screw box packing device of the present invention has the following structure in order to achieve the above-mentioned object. The screw box packing device of the present invention comprises a transfer means 2 for transferring the screws N side by side, a carry-in means 3 for sandwiching a plurality of screws N sent by the transfer means 2 and carrying them into the box, and a carry-in means 3. It is an improvement of the device provided with a control means 6 for controlling the carry-in means 3 by calculating the number of screws N sandwiched by.

The screw box packing device of the present invention is characterized by having the following configuration. That is, the transfer means 2 includes a transfer guide 7 that suspends the heads of the screws N and transfers them side by side. The carry-in means 3 includes a sandwiching member 8 that axially sandwiches the plurality of screws N transferred by the transfer guide 7. The Y-axis position where the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N is controlled by the control means 6, the number of clamped screws N of the clamp member 8 is adjusted, and a predetermined number of screws N are clamped by the clamp member 8. It is configured to be sandwiched and conveyed from the transfer guide 7 to the box.

In this specification, the Y-axis position means the position shown in FIG.
As shown in, the transfer means 2 means the direction in which the screws N are arranged and transferred.

[0012]

The box packaging device for screws according to the present invention performs the following operation to box the screws N. As shown in FIG. 3, the transfer means 2 suspends the heads of a large number of screws N and transfers them side by side. The screw N sent by the transfer means 2 is clamped by the clamp member 8 of the carry-in means 3. The carrying-in means 3 axially clamps a plurality of screws N with a clamping member 8 and packs them in a box. The number of the clamping members 8 clamping the screws N is controlled by the control means 6. The number of screws N sandwiched by the sandwiching member 8 is adjusted by controlling the Y-axis position. The sandwiching member 8 shown in FIG.
The screws N of the book are sandwiched together and packed in a box. Sandwiching member 8
Holds the screw N in a vertical posture.

The carry-in means 3 transfers the screws N sandwiched by the sandwiching member 8 to a box and packs it in the box. At this time, the sandwiching member 8
Is rotated 90 degrees, and the vertical screw N is placed in a horizontal posture and packed in a box. The five screws N are horizontally arranged and boxed. This state is shown in the sectional view of FIG. 5 and the perspective view of FIG. When packing the screws N in a box, the clamping member 8 transfers the screws N to a fixed position in the box to release the clamped state.

When packing 23 screws N in one box,
5 screws N are sandwiched and packed four times. 2 in this state
Box 0 screws N. Finally, 3 screws N are clamped and packed in a box. When the clamping member 8 finally clamps the three screws N, the Y-axis position where the clamping member 8 clamps the screws N is moved, as shown in FIG. 7. The Y-axis position when the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N is controlled by the control means 6. The control means 6 controls the Y-axis position of the sandwiching member 8 by counting the number of screws N packed in the box.

More preferably, as shown in FIG. 5, the screws N stacked in multiple stages and packed in a box are housed so that the screw head portion does not become high. That is, in the screw N shown in FIG. 5, the direction of the screw head is reversed by rotating the direction by 180 degrees in each step. Also, the screw heads stacked in the same direction are slightly shifted in the axial direction so that they do not overlap.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the embodiments shown below exemplify a screw box packing device for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and the box packing device of the present invention has a shape, a structure, an arrangement, and a packing method of components. Etc. are not specified below. The screw box packing device of the present invention can be variously modified within the scope of claims.

Further, in this specification, for easy understanding of the claims, the numbers corresponding to the members shown in the embodiments are referred to as "claims column", "action column", and "action column". It is added to the members shown in the section of "Means for Solving the Problems". However, the members shown in the claims are
It is by no means specific to the members of the examples.

The screw box packing device shown in FIG. 8 has a transfer means 2 for transferring the screws N arranged in a straight line, and the transfer means 2.
The carrying-in means 3 for sandwiching a plurality of the screws N sent by and carrying in the box 9, and the screw N for sandwiching and packing the carrying-in means 3 in the box 9
And a control means 6 for controlling the carry-in means 3 by calculating the number of

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the transfer means 2 is equipped with a transfer guide 7 for suspending the head of the screw N and transferring it linearly. The transfer guide 7 is a pair of metal plates arranged in parallel so as to face each other. The metal plates are adjusted to have such a width that the head of the screw N cannot pass but the screw N portion can pass. To transfer the screws N having different thicknesses, the width of the transfer guide 7 is changed. Therefore, the device for transferring screws N having various diameters and packing them in a box has a structure in which the width of the transfer guide 7 can be adjusted.

The transfer guide 7 has a stopper 7A at its tip. The stopper 7A stops the screw N transferred by the transfer guide 7 at a fixed position. The transfer guide 7 is inclined to a slightly downward slope in order to transfer the screw N by its own weight. Furthermore, if necessary, a forced feeding mechanism is provided to smoothly transfer the screws. However, the screw box packing device of the present invention does not specify the structure of the transfer guide 7 as described above.
The transfer guide 7 may have any structure capable of linearly transferring by suspending a screw.

The carrying-in means 3 has a holding member 8 for holding and moving a plurality of screws N in the axial direction, a robot arm 10 for transferring the holding member 8 from the transfer guide 7 to a box, and a robot arm. An arm drive unit 11 that drives 10 and a hand drive unit 12 that drives the sandwiching member 8 are provided.

As shown in FIG. 3, the holding member 8 has a screw N
L metal fitting 8A that clamps the head of N, a flat plate 8B that clamps the lower end of the screw N, and two clamping cylinders (not shown) that clamp the screw N between the flat plate 8B and the L metal fitting 8A. Equipped with.
The clamping cylinder pulls the flat plate 8B to the L fitting 8A to clamp the screw N. The lengths of the L metal fitting 8A and the flat plate 8B are designed to be wider than the screw head so that a plurality of screws N can be sandwiched. The L metal fitting 8A and the flat plate 8B are translated in parallel by two clamping cylinders to clamp a plurality of screws N. The L-shaped metal fitting 8A and the flat plate 8B have a rubber-like elastic sheet 8C bonded to the sandwiching surface of the screw N. Rubber-like elastic sheet 8
The L metal fitting 8A to which C is adhered and the flat plate 8B can surely clamp a plurality of screws having an error in length.

The sandwiching member 8 of this structure carries out the following operation to sandwich the screw N. When the sandwiching member 8 is moved to the sandwiching position of the screws N arranged on the transfer guide 7, the sandwiching cylinder moves the flat plate 8B to the L position.
A predetermined number of screws N are clamped by pulling in the direction of the metal fitting 8A. While holding the screw N in the clamped state, the clamp member 8 is transferred to a predetermined position in the box 9. The clamping cylinder widens the space between the L metal fitting 8A and the flat plate 8B, releases the clamping of the screw N, and stores the screw N in the box 9. After that, the clamping member 8 repeats this operation, clamps the screw N, transfers it from the transfer guide 7 to the box 9, and packs it in the box.

The robot arm 10 transfers the holding member 8 attached to the tip from the position where the screw N of the transfer guide 7 is held to the position where it is packed in the box. Further, the robot arm 10 rotates the sandwiching member 8 by 90 degrees in a vertical plane to put the vertically sandwiched screw N in a horizontal posture and package the box. For the robot arm 10, a commercially available robot can be used as it is. However, the robot arm 10
Instead of a commercially available robot, the sandwiching member 8 is used as the transfer guide 7
Any mechanism that can transfer from the clamping position to the boxing position can be used.

The robot arm 10 shown in FIG. 8 includes two bending arms 10A. Two folding arms 10A
Is folded by a drive cylinder (not shown).
Further, the bending arm 10A is connected to the base so as to be rotatable in the vertical and horizontal planes. The bending arm 10A connected to the base is rotated at predetermined horizontal and vertical angles by a drive cylinder (not shown).
Further, the holding member 8 is connected to the tip of the bending arm 10A via a bending joint 13 and a rotary joint 14. The bending joint 13 rotates the sandwiching member 8 sandwiching the screw N in a vertical posture in a vertical plane to bring the sandwiched screw N into a horizontal posture. The rotary joint 14 rotates the sandwiching member 8 by 180 degrees so that the heads of the screws N to be laminated are opposite to each other as shown in FIG. When packing screws in 3 or more stages,
As shown in, stack them by shifting the height of the screw heads in the axial direction. In FIG. 5, the axial shifts are the first and third steps, and the second and fourth steps. That is, the screws pointing in the same direction are shifted by the height of the head and stacked.

The robot arm 10 includes an arm driving unit 11
Driven to. The arm drive unit 11 drives the robot arm 10 with the output from the control means 6. Arm drive unit 1
1 controls the movement of the robot arm 10 so as to transfer the holding member 8 at the tip of the robot arm 10 from the position where the screw N of the transfer guide 7 is held to the position where it is packed in the box.

The arm drive unit 11 drives the robot arm 10 as follows. The holding member 8 is moved to a position where the screw N of the transfer guide 7 is held. At this time, the flat plate 8 with the L metal fitting 8A on top
The clamping member 8 is moved to the position where the screw N is vertically clamped with the clamping member 8 in the vertical posture with B downward. When the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N, the robot arm 10 raises the clamping member 8 to some extent, as shown in FIG. The raised sandwiching member 8 is connected to the stopper 7 of the transfer guide 7.
Raise the screw N to a position where it does not hit A. After that, the robot arm 10 moves the sandwiching member 8 in the horizontal direction as indicated by the arrow, and takes out the sandwiched screw N from the transfer guide 7. The robot arm 10 rotates the holding member 8 holding the screw N by 90 degrees in a vertical plane to make the screw N in the vertical posture.
Is a horizontal posture. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the robot arm 10 transfers the sandwiching member 8 to the box N packing position of the screw N. As shown in FIG. 5, when the screws N are packed in multiple stages, the clamping member 8 that clamps the screws N in a horizontal posture is rotated by 180 degrees so that the heads of the screws N alternately face in opposite directions. Further, the heads of the screws N are shifted by the height of the heads of the screws N so that the heads of the screws N do not overlap with each other, and the boxes are packed. After that, the robot arm 10 repeats the above steps 1 to 3 to pack the screws N of the transfer guide 7 in a box.

The clamping member 8 clamps the screw N, or
The operation of releasing the sandwiched state is controlled by the hand drive unit 12. The hand drive unit 12 controls the clamping cylinder (not shown) of the clamping member 8 to control the clamping state of the screw N.

The carry-in means 3 is controlled by the control means 6 to pack a preset number of screws N into a box. In other words, the control means 6 controls the carry-in means 3 to move the transfer guide 7
From the above, box the specified number of screws N. In this way, the control means 6 for controlling the carry-in means 3 is the input means 6A.
A storage unit 6B, a calculation unit 6C, and a display unit 6D.

The input means 6A inputs the dimensions of the screw.
As the dimensions of the screw N, a nominal diameter indicating the thickness of the screw and a length are input. The input dimensions of the screw N are displayed on the display unit 6.
Displayed on D and confirmed. The storage unit 6B stores the number of screws N packed in the box, the size of the box, and the length (L) of the sandwiching member 8 to be used. The computing unit 6C is a microcomputer, and calculates the number of screws N clamped by the clamping member 8 from the dimensions of the screws N input from the input unit 6A and the number of screws N to be packed in the box.

The control means 6 packs the screws N of the transfer means 2 in a box according to the flow chart shown in FIG. [Step N1] The input means 6A is used to input the thickness and length of the screw N, that is, the designation of the screw N. [Step N2] From the input designation, the calculating means 6C
Calculates the work information for packing the screws N in the box. The work information for packing the boxes is calculated as follows. At first,
The computing means 6C calculates the maximum number of screws N that can be sandwiched, according to the equation (1) below. Maximum number of grips = INT [length (L) of clamping member 8 / head width of screw N] (1) The maximum number of grips is the maximum number of screws N that the clamping member 8 clamps at one time. is there. The clamping member 8 can clamp and transfer the number N of screws N calculated by this calculation formula. Next, the calculating means 6C calculates the number of times the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N and packs it in the box by the following formula (2). Boxing number = INT [Set number of boxing screws N / maximum number of grips] (2) For example, when packing 23 screws N in a box and the maximum number of grips is 5, the number of packings is ( It becomes 4 times from the calculation formula of 2). Therefore, the storage means 6B reciprocates four times to pack 20 screws N in a box. After that,
Using the calculation formula (3), the final number of grips by which the clamping member 8 is finally clamped and the screws N are packed in a box is calculated. The final number of grips is
The number of clamping members 8 is the number at which the screw N is finally clamped and boxed. The final number of grips is adjusted to match the number of screws N packed in the box with the set number. Final number of grips = Number of set screws N for packing- (Number of times of packing × Maximum number of grips) (3) According to this calculation formula, the number of screws finally clamped by the clamping member is adjusted to set the number of boxes. To match. For example, when the number of screws to be filled in one box is 23, and the clamping member 8 clamps 5 screws 4 times to package 20 screws in a box, the final number of grips is 3 Next to
The clamp member 8 is clamped with three screws and packed in a box to match the set number.

When the final number of grips is calculated, the calculating means 6
C calculates the Y-axis position where the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N. The number of the holding members 8 holding the screws N of the transfer means 2 can be adjusted by the Y-axis position where the holding members 8 hold the screws N. In FIG. 7, if the clamping member 8 moves to the right in the Y-axis position for clamping the screws N, the number of screws N to be clamped decreases. On the contrary, if the Y-axis position where the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N is moved to the left, the number of clamped screws N increases.

[Step N3] It is determined whether an empty box for packing the screws N is in the packing position and whether the transfer means 2 is in a state where the screws N can be clamped and transferred. Although not shown, whether or not there is an empty box is provided with a sensor at the position where the empty box is set, and it is determined by the signal from this sensor. Whether the transfer means 2 has a screw N
A sensor is provided in the transfer path of the screw N in the transfer means 2, and the output of this sensor is used for determination.

[Step N4] The control means 6 controls the carry-in means 3 to pack the screws N of the transfer means 2 in a box. In this step, the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N according to the calculation result of the step N2, and packages the screw N of the transfer means 2 in a box. For example, as described above, when the set number of screws N to be packed in one box is 23, the maximum number of gripping members 8 is 5, the number of packing times is 4, and the final number of grips is 3, The clamping member 8 clamps five screws N from the transfer means 2 and packs it four times, and finally clamps three screws N to pack it.

The Y-axis position where the clamping member 8 clamps the three screws N is calculated by the calculating means 6C of the control means 6.
Therefore, when the clamping member 8 finally clamps the screw N of the transfer means 2, the Y-axis position at which the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N is determined to be the Y-axis position calculated by the computing means 6C. It
That is, the control means 6 controls the carry-in means 3 to control the Y-axis position where the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N. In FIG. 7, when the position at which the clamping member 8 clamps the screw N is shifted to the right, the number of clamped screws N is reduced, and when it is moved to the left, the clamped number of screws N is increased. Box the screws N.

[Step N5] Box 9 that has been packaged
Is discharged.

After that, when packing the same screw N in the same box 9, the steps N3 to N5 are repeated, and the screw N
Box. When the screws N of different sizes are packed in a box, the screws N are packed in the steps N1 to N5.

As shown in the above figures, when the screws are neatly aligned and stacked in multiple stages and packed in a box, the cargo is not collapsed during transportation, and thick and long screws can be stored in a small volume.

[0039]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION In the screw box packing apparatus of the present invention, the screws are hung by the transfer means and transferred side by side, and a plurality of the screws are pinched by the pinching members of the carry-in means for packing. The number of the carrying-in means that holds the screws at one time and packs them in the box is adjusted by controlling the Y-axis position where the holding members hold the screws. That is, in the sandwiching member, the Y-axis position for sandwiching the screw is controlled by the control means, and the number of screws to sandwich is adjusted. The screw boxing device of the present invention for box-packing screws in this way controls the number of screws that the clamping member clamps the screws at a time, and the clamping member clamps a plurality of screws for packaging. By
The most efficient way to pack screws. In particular, the screw box packing device of the present invention controls the Y-axis position where the clamping member clamps the screw and adjusts the number of clamped screws to adjust the set number of screws. A good feature is that it can quickly pack a fixed number of screws into a box.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of a conventional device for packing cylindrical articles in a box.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional boxing robot.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a screw clamping portion of the screw box packing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a state in which the holding member holds the maximum number of screws to be held.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a clamping member clamps a screw and packs it in a box.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state in which a clamping member clamps a screw and packs it in a box.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a state in which the clamping member clamps the final gripped number of screws.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a screw box packing device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a flowchart of the control means of the screw boxing device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cylindrical article 2 ... Transfer means 3 ... Carrying-in means 4 ... Adsorption part 5 ... Carrying-in robot 6 ... Control means 6A ... Input means 6B ... Storage means 6C ...
... Calculation means 6D ... Display means 7 ... Transfer guide 7A ... Stopper 8 ... Clamping member 8A ... L metal fitting 8B ... Plate 8C ...
… Rubber-like elastic sheet 9 …… Box 10 …… Robot arm 10A …… Bending arm 11 …… Arm drive unit 12 …… Hand drive unit 13 …… Bending joint 14 …… Rotating joint N …… Screw

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transfer means (2) for transferring screws side by side,
A carry-in means (3) for sandwiching a plurality of screws sent by the transfer means (2) and carrying it into the box, and a carry-in means (3) by calculating the number of screws sandwiched by the carry-in means (3). ) Controlling means (6)
In a screw box packing device including a transfer means (2), a transfer guide (7) for suspending the screw heads and transferring them side by side, and a transfer means (3) for the transfer guide (7).
A clamping member (8) for clamping a plurality of screws transferred in the axial direction is provided, and the Y-axis position where the clamping member (8) clamps the screws is controlled by the control means (6). The number of screws held by the holding member (8) is adjusted so that the holding member (8) holds a predetermined number of screws and conveys it from the transfer guide (7) to the box (9). A device for packing boxes for screws.