JPH07247020A - Suction carrier device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a suction carrier device whose sucking force can be adjusted as article sucking force generated through a carrier belt is kept smooth over the whole of a carrier range. CONSTITUTION:A suction carrier device is equipped with a carrier belt 24 having vent holes 22; a belt driving mechanism to run the belt 24; a pressure reducing chamber 1 having a suction port 2A opposite to the inner periphery of the carrier belt 24; and a pressure reducing mechanism. The first flow adjusting plate 4 and the second flow adjusting plates 6A and 6C are provided in the suction port 2A, and the first opening part 14 and the second opening part 16 are formed on each of flow adjusting plates 4, 6A to 6C. A stepping motor 10 to slide the second flow adjusting plates 6A to 6C is provided to regulate the consistent area of each of opening parts 14, 16. A vertical partition 18 is provided between the first flow adjusting plate 4 and the carrier belt 24.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an adsorbing / conveying apparatus for adsorbing and conveying an article such as a cylindrical aluminum can body having one end sealed by a conveying belt.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a can barrel manufacturing line,
A device called vacuum transfer that removes from the line the canisters that are in an abnormal position that causes product defects in the process of transporting a large number of canisters with their belts in an inverted position with their openings facing downward. Has been used for a long time.

This type of vacuum transfer is an endless conveyor belt having a plurality of air holes formed therein and supported by a plurality of rollers, a belt drive mechanism for rotating the conveyor belt, and a conveyor belt. And a decompression chamber arranged to face the inner peripheral surface of the.

The vacuum transfer is, for example, a belt conveyer that conveys the can body from the previous process,
It is inserted between the belt conveyors that convey the can body to the subsequent process. Then, the can body that has been carried in an inverted state on the belt conveyor from the previous step is sequentially adsorbed to the conveyor belt at the upstream side of the area facing the decompression chamber, and conveyed to the belt conveyor on the subsequent step side. In addition, the can bodies are sequentially transferred to the post-process belt conveyor in an inverted state. As a result, the can barrel that was sent from the previous process in an abnormal posture, that is, in a posture other than the inverted state, fell between the belt conveyors without being attracted to the conveyor belt, and was detected as an abnormal product from the can barrel production line. It is supposed to be discharged.

By the way, in this type of vacuum transfer, in the case where it is better to increase the article suction force on the upstream side of the conveying belt for sucking articles from the upstream belt conveyor and decrease the article suction force on the downstream side for releasing articles. There is. Therefore, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-140765,
The decompression chamber is divided into a plurality of suction chambers along the article conveying direction, and each of these suction chambers is connected to a suction means via a damper for adjusting the air volume, so that the suction force on the lower surface of the conveyor belt can be reduced. A configuration in which each part along the transport direction is made different is described. Moreover, the actual Kaihei 2-12493
Japanese Patent Publication No. 3 discloses a configuration in which the decompression chamber of the vacuum transfer is divided into a plurality of suction chambers along the article transport direction, and each of these suction chambers is connected to a suction means via a flow rate adjusting valve. .

[0006]

However, in the configuration using the air volume adjusting damper as described above, the air flow is locally biased due to the presence of the damper in the flow path, so the air volume at the intake port of the decompression chamber is reduced. Unexpected bias is likely to occur in the distribution of. Therefore, it is difficult to equalize the suction force of the can body across the entire width of the suction surface of the transport belt in the can body. There was a case where it was sucked up to the body or dropped to the can body in a normal posture due to a locally reduced suction force. Further, in the structure provided with the flow rate adjusting valve, there is a problem that the air resistance in the valve is large, the suction means is overloaded, and the equipment cost is high.

The suction / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and adjusts the suction force while keeping the suction force of the article by the conveyance belt uniform over the entire width direction of the conveyance region. It is an object of the present invention to provide an adsorption / conveyance device that can be manufactured at low cost.

[0008]

According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an adsorbing and conveying apparatus according to the present invention, wherein an outer peripheral surface is an article adsorbing surface and an endless conveying belt having a large number of vent holes communicating from the article adsorbing surface to the inner peripheral surface. A belt drive mechanism for rotating the conveyor belt, a decompression chamber having an intake port facing the inner peripheral surface of the conveyor belt, and a decompression mechanism for decompressing the inside of the decompression chamber are provided. An adsorption conveyance device for conveying an article by rotating the endless belt while adsorbing the article on the article adsorption surface of the conveyance belt through the intake port and the ventilation hole by decompressing the decompression chamber. Is provided by stacking a first flow rate adjusting plate and a second flow rate adjusting plate so as to be relatively slidable so as to block the intake port, and the first flow rate adjusting plate has a large number of first openings. form At the same time, the second flow rate adjusting plate has a second opening portion in which a total matching area between the first flow rate adjusting plate and the second flow rate adjusting plate can change in accordance with a relative position between the first flow rate adjusting plate and the second flow rate adjusting plate. A large number of plates are provided, and a plate driving mechanism for sliding at least one of the first flow rate adjusting plate and the second flow rate adjusting plate is further provided.

[0009]

In the suction transporting apparatus according to the present invention, the plate drive mechanism slides one of the first flow rate adjusting plate and the second flow rate adjusting plate to form a large number of first flow rate adjusting plates. The matching area between each of the openings and each of the second openings formed in the second flow rate adjusting plate is changed all at once, so that the total cross-sectional area of the flow path through the first and second flow rate adjusting plates is changed. Increase or decrease to adjust the air volume. Therefore, it is possible to adjust the article suction force while keeping the article suction force uniform over the entire width direction of the article suction surface of the conveyor belt.

[0010]

1 and 2 are a front view and a vertical cross-sectional view showing an example applied to the vacuum transfer described above as an embodiment of a suction transfer apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a decompression chamber, and this decompression chamber 1 has a rectangular tubular vertical portion 2 protruding downward, and is connected to a decompression pump (not shown) to decompress the inside.

The lower end of the vertical portion 2 of the decompression chamber 1 is a rectangular inlet 2A, and the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 is located above the lower end of the vertical portion 2 by a certain distance so as to close the inlet 2A. It is horizontally fixed at the separated positions. At a position along the lower surface of the first flow rate adjusting plate 4, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, three second flow rate adjusting plates 6 having an elongated rectangular shape are formed.
A to 6C are arranged in three rows from the upstream side (left side in FIG. 1) to the downstream side (right side in FIG. 1) in the article transport direction. The total length of the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C is set to be slightly smaller than the width dimension of the first flow rate adjusting plate 4. Further, on the lower surface of the first flow rate adjusting plate 4, as shown in FIG.
Between the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A and 6B, and between the second flow rate adjusting plates 6B and 6C, long and narrow partition walls 18 extending over the entire width of the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 are fixed downward, and these partition walls are fixed. The lower end of 18 is in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the conveyor belt 24.

As shown in FIG. 2, one end of each of the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C in the longitudinal direction is fixed to the slide rod 10A of the stepping motor 10 which is different from each other.
As shown in FIG. 4, these three stepping motors 10 in total are fixed to the outer peripheral wall surface of the vertical portion 2 via the support portions 8, respectively. These stepping motors 10 are connected to a control device (not shown) and are independently driven.

A pressure sensor 12 is fixed to the vertical portion 2,
The sensor 12A is projected into the vertical portion 2. The output of the pressure sensor 12 is transmitted to the control device, and the control device feedback-controls the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C by a well-known method so as to match the pressure in the decompression chamber 1 with a desired value. There is.

As shown in FIG. 3, the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 is formed with a large number of first openings 14 at a uniform pitch over the entire surface thereof. The first openings 14 in this example are all circular, and the distance between the first openings 14 is about the same as or larger than the diameter of the first openings 14. on the other hand,
The second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C are also formed with the second openings 16 having the same shape and size at the same pitch as the first openings 14 over the entire surface thereof.

Then, when the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C are slid along the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 by each pair of stepping motors 10, all the first opening portions 14 and the second opening portions at one end of the sliding range. As the part 16 completely matches and is in the fully open state, and the matching area (opening) of both is narrowed as it moves to the other end of the sliding range, the opening is 0 at the other end.
It is configured to be (or extremely small). Thus, the amount of air passing through the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 and the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C can be adjusted. Instead of the stepping motor 10, another plate driving mechanism such as a manual handle may be used to slide the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C, or the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C may be moved to the first flow rate. It may be arranged above the adjusting plate 4.

The first flow rate adjusting plate 4 and the second flow rate adjusting plate 6A ...
Between 6C and 6C, a slight gap may be left as long as the air leakage does not affect it, or both may be in contact with each other unless the sliding resistance becomes too large and driving becomes difficult. Further, the shapes of the first opening portion 14 and the second opening portion 16 are not limited to circular shapes, but may be other shapes such as a rectangular shape and an ellipse, or may be different in size and shape. Further, instead of dividing the second flow rate adjusting plate into three parts, the second flow rate adjusting plate may be divided into four or more pieces and a plate driving mechanism may be provided for each so as to finely adjust the suction force distribution.

Below the vertical portion 2, a lower portion of an endless conveyor belt 24 is horizontally passed and is supported by a pair of rollers 26 in a tensioned state. As the transport belt 24, for example, a strip-shaped hard plate connected in a caterpillar shape or a flexible elastic material can be used. In addition, the conveyor belt 24
A drive mechanism (not shown) for rotating the carriage is provided above the decompression chamber 1. When this drive mechanism is operated, the lower portion of the loop of the conveyor belt 24 is located at the lower end of the vertical portion 2 and the partition wall 18. It is designed to run horizontally from upstream to downstream.

The width of the conveyor belt 24 is the second flow rate adjusting plate 6A.
The air holes 22 are formed at a constant pitch as shown in FIG.
The pitch and size of the ventilation holes 22 are irrelevant to the first opening 14 and the second opening 16, and are sufficient to adsorb the bottom surface of the can body K to be conveyed with a uniform force regardless of the adsorption position. The size and pitch are set.

Further, below the upstream side portion and the downstream side portion of the transport belt 24 in the transport direction, belt conveyors 30 and 34 are provided in parallel with the transport belt 24, and are supported by rollers 32 and 36, respectively. The driving means (not shown) is used for traveling. In addition,
In this embodiment, the partition wall 18 is provided immediately above the end position of the transport path on the belt conveyor 30 and the start end position of the transport path on the belt conveyor 34.

In order to use the suction conveyance device having the above-described structure, the conveyor belt 24 is made to travel while decompressing the inside of the decompression chamber 1, while the belt conveyors 30 and 34 are made to travel at the same speed as the conveyor belt 24. In this state, when the can body K is conveyed while being placed on the belt conveyor 30 in an inverted state, as shown in FIG. 1, the second flow rate adjusting plate 6A
At the position opposite to, the can body K on the belt conveyor 30 is sucked onto the conveyor belt 24 in an inverted state.

The sucked can body K is conveyed to the downstream side as the conveyor belt 24 travels, but when it comes out of the suction area at the downstream end of the vertical portion 2, the can body K is conveyed to the conveyor belt 2.
Belt conveyor 3 while falling from 4 and maintaining the inverted state
4 and is transported to the next step. On the other hand, if there is a can body K lying sideways on the belt conveyor 30 or a heavy body cylinder K that is upright and has the cleaning liquid and the like accumulated therein, neither of them is adsorbed on the conveyor belt 24 and the belt conveyors 30, 34 are not adsorbed. Dropped between and dropped from the line.

According to the apparatus of this embodiment, the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C are slid by the respective stepping motors 10, so that a large number of the first openings 14 formed in the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 are formed. Each, and the second flow rate adjusting plate 6
The matching area with each of the second opening portions 16 formed in a large number in A to 6C is changed all at once, and these opening portions 1
It is possible to adjust the air volume by increasing or decreasing the total flow path cross-sectional area through 4, 16. Therefore, for example, if the air volume through the second flow rate adjusting plate 6A on the upstream side is increased more than the other two sheets, the force for lifting the can body K from the end of the conveyor path of the belt conveyor 30 is increased to ensure the adsorption. It's easy to adjust. Moreover, the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C
In each area corresponding to each, since the suction force is kept uniform over the entire width direction of the transport path, the can body K in the normal posture
It is possible to prevent problems such as dropping of the can and adsorption of the can body in an abnormal posture.

Since a space is formed between the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C and the conveyor belt 24, and the partition wall 18 is further provided, the air flow through the second flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C is locally generated. Such a deviation is alleviated in these spaces, and the suction force of the transport belt 24 can be made more uniform.
Further, since the partition wall 18 can prevent the first flow rate adjusting plate 4 and the conveyor belt 24 from being bent and deformed, the second
The reliability of the operation of the flow rate adjusting plates 6A to 6C can be improved.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and the configuration may be changed as necessary. For example, the application of the present invention is not limited to the vacuum transfer for the can body, and any application for conveying the article while adjusting the suction force for the purpose of article selection and the like can be applied.

[0025]

As described above, according to the suction / conveyance apparatus of the present invention, the plate drive mechanism slides either the first flow rate adjusting plate or the second flow rate adjusting plate to move the first flow rate adjusting plate. The matching areas of each of the multiple first openings formed on the flow rate adjusting plate and each of the multiple second openings formed on the second flow rate adjusting plate are changed simultaneously and uniformly,
And the flow rate is adjusted by increasing or decreasing the total flow passage cross-sectional area through the second flow rate adjusting plate. Therefore, it is possible to adjust the article suction force while keeping the article suction force uniform over the entire width direction of the article suction surface of the conveyor belt. Further, since the device can be simplified as compared with the configuration in which the flow rate adjusting valve is provided to adjust the air volume, there is an advantage that the equipment cost can be reduced.

Further, in the apparatus according to claim 2 of the present invention,
Since the flow rate adjusting plate on the driven side is divided into three or more parts and a separate plate drive mechanism is provided for each, it is possible to change the flow rate adjusting plate stepwise along the carrying direction. Further, in the apparatus according to the third aspect, since the gap is formed between the flow rate adjusting plate and the conveyor belt, and the partition wall is provided in this gap, the local deviation of the air flow through the flow rate adjusting plate is prevented. It is alleviated in these spaces, and the suction force by the conveyor belt can be made more uniform.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of a suction conveyance device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of a main part of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Decompression chamber 2A Inlet port 4 1st flow rate adjusting plate 6A-6C 2nd flow rate adjusting plate 8 Support part 10 Stepping motor (plate drive mechanism) 12 Pressure sensor 12A Sensing element 14 1st opening part 16 2nd opening part 18 Partition wall 22 Vent 24 Transport belt 26 Roller K Can body (article) 30,34 Belt conveyor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An endless conveyor belt having an outer peripheral surface as an article suction surface, having a large number of vent holes communicating from the article suction surface to the inner peripheral surface, and a belt drive mechanism for rotating the conveyor belt. A decompression chamber having an intake port facing the inner peripheral surface of the conveyor belt, and a decompression mechanism for decompressing the inside of the decompression chamber are provided, and by decompressing the decompression chamber, the intake port and the vent hole are passed through. An adsorption conveyance device that conveys an article by rotating the endless belt while adsorbing an article on an article adsorption surface of the conveyance belt, wherein the decompression chamber is configured to close the intake port.
A flow rate adjusting plate and a second flow rate adjusting plate are provided so as to be slidable relative to each other, and a plurality of first openings are formed in the first flow rate adjusting plate, and the second flow rate adjusting plate is provided. Is formed with a plurality of second openings whose total matching area with the first openings can be changed according to the relative positions of the first flow rate adjusting plate and the second flow rate adjusting plate. An adsorbing / conveying device comprising a plate drive mechanism for sliding at least one of the plate and the second flow rate adjusting plate. 2. A flow rate adjusting plate of the first flow rate adjusting plate or the second flow rate adjusting plate, which is driven by the plate drive mechanism, is divided into at least three pieces along the article conveying direction. 2. The suction conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein separate plate drive mechanisms are provided for the respective divided flow rate adjusting plates. 3. A constant amount of gap is formed between a flow rate adjusting plate of the first flow rate adjusting plate and a second flow rate adjusting plate on the side facing the conveyor belt and the conveyor belt. The partition wall is provided in the gap along the dividing boundary line of the divided flow path adjusting plate to partition the space in the gap in the article conveying direction. Adsorption transport device. 4. The suction conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the article is a can body having a cylindrical shape with a bottom.