JPH07109021A - Direction determining device of tray - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely arrange the direction of a tray during the carriage by providing a projection mounted on the prescribed position of the tray and a guide which is abutted on the projection and appropriately rotates the tray on the carrying passage. CONSTITUTION:When a tray 11 to be carried is viewed as a clock disc and a lower projection 14 is located at twelve o'clock and a higher projection is located at nine o'clock, the projections 13, 14 pass between guide plates without being abutted on each other at the position of the guide plates 32, 34 on the upstream side. On the downstream side, the lower projection 4 is abutted on a second guide plate 35. The tray 11 flows to the downstream side while being rotated on a carrying passage 22 by the carrying force of a roller 24 and the restriction of a tray guide 25 around this lower projection 14, while the higher projection 3 is moved so as to go past a first guide plate 33 as indicated by the dotted line. In association with this rotational movement, the lower projection 14 is moved in the width direction along the second guide plate 35 to pass the top. In this time point, an ID card 21 is in the reading position (P) to be located at the center of the front end of the tray 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tray orientation device for aligning the directions of trays during transportation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a system in which a package is inserted into a tray and conveyed, it is desirable to be able to determine what kind of package is placed on the tray before it is carried into each processing station or the like. Therefore, recently, as shown in FIG. 7, a storage medium (ID card 1) is provided in a rectangular tray 2, and a reading / writing device (ID controller 4 is provided in the middle of a conveyance path 3 formed of a roller conveyor or the like. ) Is provided so that the type of package and the like can be discriminated.

[0003]

By the way, when the rectangular tray 2 as described above is used, the direction changing device 5 is required to pass the corner portion of the transport path 3, and the transport mechanism becomes complicated. There was a problem. In order to solve this problem, if the tray 6 having a circular substrate as shown in FIG. 7 is used, the corner portion can be flushed by only providing the oblique baffle plate 7, so that the structure of the transport path 3 is simplified. However, if the circular tray 6 is used, the position of the ID card 1 is displaced during transportation, so that the position of the sensor unit 8 is fixed.
The D controller 4 cannot read.
As a countermeasure against this, it is conceivable to equip the transport path 3 with a device for aligning the directions of the circular trays 6 in the transport process, but there has been no orientation device applicable to such transport of trays.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention has been devised to newly provide a device for orienting a tray which can surely align the directions of the trays being conveyed.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a protrusion provided at a predetermined position of a tray, and a guide which comes into contact with the protrusion to appropriately rotate the tray on a conveying path.

[0006]

With the above structure, the guides are brought into contact with the projections to rotate the trays in cooperation with the conveying force of the conveying path to align them in a predetermined direction.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 show a first embodiment of a tray orientation device according to the present invention. This orienting device for the tray includes two protrusions 13 and 14 arranged on a substrate 12 of the tray 11 and the protrusions 13 and 1.
It is mainly configured by a guide 15 that abuts on 4.

The tray 11 is composed of a circular base plate 12 and a peg 16 projecting from the center thereof, and the package 19 is inserted with the lower end of the core tube 18 in contact with a flange 17 formed in the middle of the peg 16. It is supposed to be worn. A recess 20 is formed at one place on the substrate 12, and a rectangular ID card 21 is bolted and accommodated therein. Tray 1
The transport path 22 for transporting 1 is constituted by a roller conveyor including a roller 24 pivotally supported by a bearing frame 23 and a tray guide 25 attached to the bearing frame 23. The tray guide 25 is in contact with the peripheral end surface of the substrate 12 and regulates the tray 11 so as not to swing in the width direction. The ID controller 27, in which the sensor section 26 is located at the center in the width direction, is provided below the predetermined position of the transport path 22.
And a stopper 28 for stopping the tray 11 in a state where the front end portion faces the sensor portion 26 is provided above the stopper 28. The sensor unit 26
Are provided so as to avoid the position of the roller 24 and face from between them.

The projections 13 and 14 have a relatively large vertical pin 2.
9 and a low protrusion 14 of a vertical pin 30 smaller than that, and a bearing (roller) 31 is attached to the upper end of each. The upper end of the low protrusion 14 is
It is located below the bearing 31 of the high protrusion 13. The radial distance r ₁ from the high protrusion 13 to the axis of the tray 11 is smaller than the radial distance r ₂ of the low protrusion 14, and the high protrusion 13 is counterclockwise as viewed from the low protrusion 14. It is arranged to be separated. These radial distances r ₁ and r ₂ are, for example, the diameter w of the substrate 12 =
For 250 mm, r ₁ = 70 mm and r ₂ = 115 mm. The positions of these protrusions 13 and 14 are positions on the opposite side of the ID card 21 with the peg 16 in between, and have a phase relationship of θ = 135 degrees apart in terms of the central angle θ.

The guide 15 is composed of two kinds of four right-angled triangular plates in total, and one of the two sides sandwiching the right angle has a conveying direction A.
So as to be in the direction of traversing the
It is mounted horizontally on the bearing frame 23 at a height corresponding to the bearings 31 and 34. The first guide plates 32, 33 contacting the high protrusions 13 have a protrusion length m ₁ of the second guide plates 34, 3 contacting the low protrusions 14.
5 is formed to be larger than the protruding length m ₂ of the protrusions 5, and they are provided in two stages so as to face each other and change their left and right positions. That is, on the upstream side,
The first guide plate 32 is provided on the left side in the transport direction A, the second guide plate 34 is provided on the right side, the second guide plate 35 is provided on the left side on the downstream side, and the first guide plate 33 is provided on the right side. ing. Further, the right guide plates 34, 33 are displaced upstream from the left guide plates 32, 35 by a predetermined distance l. This arrangement corresponds to the protrusion 1 of the tray 11 that has been conveyed.
Whatever the position of 3, 14, the guide plate 32,
At least one of the protrusions 13 and 14 is in contact with 33, 34 and 35, and the tray 11 is used as a fulcrum on the transport path 22.
As a result of the rotation of the
Is set to a readable posture (indicated by P in FIG. 1). In this embodiment, the protrusion length m ₁ of the first guide plates 32 and 33 is 80 mm, the protrusion length m ₂ of the second guide plates 34 and 35 is m ₂ = 40 mm, and the deviation l between the left and right guide plates is 1. = 30 mm and the step L in the transport direction A is 190 mm.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the conveyed tray 11 is viewed as a timepiece, the low protrusion 14 is at the "12 o'clock" position and the high protrusion 13 is at the "9 o'clock" position. At the position of the guide plates 32 and 34 on the upstream side,
Both 14 pass between them without abutting. Then, on the downstream side, the low protrusion 34 is connected to the second guide plate 35.
Abut. The tray 11 uses this low protrusion 34 as a fulcrum,
Due to the conveying force of the rollers 24 and the constraint of the tray guide 25, the rollers 24 are rotated on the conveying path 22 and are made to flow toward the downstream side, so
Moves so as to graze the first guide plate 33 as shown by the broken line in the figure. With this rotational movement, the low protrusion 1
4 moves in the width direction along the second guide plate 35 and crosses the apex thereof. The attitude at this time is a reading attitude (P) in which the ID card 21 is located at the center of the front end of the tray 11. I
The D controller 27 reads the information of the ID card 21 of the tray 11 stopped by the stopper 28, and the type of the package 19 and the inspection result (quality,
Grade) etc. are transmitted.

The tray 11 is similarly oriented regardless of the position of the protrusions 13,14. For example, when the conveyed tray 11 is representatively shown in a state of being shifted by 90 degrees counterclockwise, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the low protrusion 14 is at a high position at “9 o'clock”. The protrusion 13 is “6
When the tray is at the "time" position, the tray 11 passes through the upstream guide plates 32 and 34 as it is, and then the high protrusion 13 abuts on the downstream first guide plate 33 and the low protrusion 14 in the drawing. The rotational movement is performed as indicated by the broken line. The low protrusions 14 abut the second guide plate 35 and are oriented. In addition, as shown in FIG.
When the high protrusion 13 is in the position of “3 o'clock”, the low protrusion 14 contacts the upstream second guide plate 34, and the high protrusion 13 is as shown by the broken line in the figure. Then, the high protrusion 13 comes into contact with the first guide plate 33 on the downstream side, and thereafter, the orientation is determined in the same manner as in FIG. 3A. Further, as shown in FIG. 3C, when the low protrusion 14 is at the “3 o'clock” position and the high protrusion 13 is at the “12:00” position, the high protrusion 13 is located on the upstream side of the first guide plate 3
2, the low protrusions 14 are moved in a rotational manner as shown by the broken line in the figure, and then the low protrusions 14 contact the second guide plate 35 on the downstream side. Be oriented to.

In this way, the protrusion 1 provided on the substrate 12
3, 14 and guide plates 32, 33, 3 abutting on them
4, 35, it is possible to orient the tray 11 so that the ID card 21 is located at the center of the front end, and to realize a transport system that employs the circular tray 11 as a package transport medium provided with a storage medium, The transport mechanism can have a simple structure that does not require a direction changing device. Further, the present invention has an extremely simple structure, and can be easily applied to the conventional tray transfer system, and is highly versatile. The inventors of the present invention conducted a test for determining the orientation of the tray according to the above-described embodiment. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, the tray 11 was transferred while smoothly rotating, and the direction was reliably determined, and the effect of the present invention was confirmed.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a second embodiment of the present invention, in which a reading device (sensor unit of the ID controller) 51 is provided above the conveying path 22 and a tray 54 is provided.
The ID card 52 is read. Tray 1
1 has a high protrusion 13 on the substrate 12 as in the first embodiment.
And the low protrusion 14 are arranged, and the ID card 52 is
It is positioned 45 ° clockwise from the low protrusion 14. The reading device 51 is attached to the bearing frame 23 downward on the left side in the transport direction A via a bracket 53. Further, the bearing frame 23 is provided with guide plates 32, 33, 34, 35 similar to those in the first embodiment. The other structure is the same as that of the first embodiment.

With this configuration, the tray 54 is rotated on the transport path 22 and is caused to flow downstream while appropriately rotating on its own axis.
Eventually, the position of the ID card 52 is set to the reading posture positioned on the left side in the transport direction A, and the information is read by facing the reading device 51. The second embodiment has an advantage that the reading device 51 is not restricted between the rollers 24 and can be provided anywhere in the transport path 22. Further, in the system for detecting from above, since the peg 16 of the tray 54 cannot be read at the tray center position, it is necessary to read at the left or right side of the tray 54. It is valid.

In the system for detecting from below, when the ID card is read while the tray is flowing without using the stopper 28 as in the first embodiment, the ID card should be positioned at the center. For example, the tray may be located at the front end or the rear end of the tray. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG.
1, 42 are provided at positions of both tangents 44 of the peg 16 parallel to the line 43 connecting the ID card 21 and the tray axis, and the guide plates 45 gradually narrowed from both sides of the transport path 22 to the width of the peg 16, If the protrusions 41 and 42 and the peg 16 are aligned in the center, the ID card 21 is positioned on the center line 47. However, in this method, since the ID controller 48 must instantly read the ID card 21 that is passing, it is expected that a reading error is likely to occur. Therefore, the method in which the tray is temporarily stopped and the reading is performed as in the above-described embodiment can provide a highly accurate transport system.

[0019]

In summary, according to the present invention, it is possible to surely align the directions of the trays, and it is possible to achieve the simplification of the transport mechanism in the transport system including the storage medium in the trays. To do.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a first embodiment of a tray orientation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of FIG. 1, (a)
1 is a plan view showing the case of a tray that is shifted counterclockwise by 90 degrees from the state of FIG. 1, (b) is a plan view showing the case of a tray that is further shifted counterclockwise by 90 degrees, and (c) is further It is a top view showing the case of a tray which shifted 90 degrees counterclockwise.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a side sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a modified embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a tray transfer system for explaining the problems of the conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Tray 13 High Protrusion (Protrusion) 14 Low Protrusion (Protrusion) 15 Guide 32 First Guide Plate on Upstream Side 33 First Guide Plate on Downstream Side 34 Second Guide Plate on Upstream Side 35 Downstream Second Guide plate

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A protrusion provided at a predetermined position of the tray,
A tray orienting device, comprising: a guide that abuts on the protrusion to appropriately rotate the tray on the conveying path.