JPH07300229A - Shifting/conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To sharply save labor by providing a shifting device separating a tray and a book, feeding only the book to the next conveying device, and recovering and again feeding the tray. CONSTITUTION:Multiple arms 51 of a lifter 5 are moved vertically and horizontally by a moving device 54. When the arms 51 of the lifter enter a space between the protruded stripes of a tray moved by a standby conveyor 2 and the lifter 5 is lifted, only a book 7 is lifted, and a tray 6 is pressed by a pusher 21 and dropped onto a tray conveying conveyor 1. The tray 6 is again conveyed to the work line. The lifter 5 mounted with the book 7 is moved to h chain conveyor 3 and lowered there, and the book 7 is shifted to the chain conveyor 3. The chain conveyor 3 is moved, and the book 7 is conveyed to the next discharging conveyor 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for picking up, transferring, and transferring only a book or the like placed on a tray in a transfer line for the book or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some conventional book conveying lines are constructed as shown in FIG. In the transport line shown in the figure, a voucher in which the quantity of each order is written is stuck to a predetermined position on a veneer tray, and a starter 81 that puts it on the sorting conveyor 91 and the number of books in charge is instructed by the voucher Only the 19 loading operators 82..82 that load the trays made of veneer boards and the 2 transfer operators 83.83 that transfer the books from the return conveyor 94 to the roller conveyor 95. ing.

The tray first advances in the direction of the arrow by the sorting conveyor 91, and the stacking worker 82 moves during the movement.
Confirms the instructions on the slip and stacks each book on the tray. If the number of kinds of books ordered is small and the packing is completed by the direction change conveyor 92, the packing operator 82 in the line of the roller conveyor 91 ...
A voucher is placed on the book on which 82 is loaded, the tray is stopped by hand, and only the book is pushed and placed on the return roller conveyor 94. When there are many kinds of books to be ordered, the trays are turned by the turning conveyor 92 and the sorting conveyor 93 is used.
Go in the direction of the arrow. Books are also stacked on the tray at the sorting conveyor 93. The return conveyor 94 advances in the same direction as the sorting conveyor 93 at the same speed. Also in the line of the sorting conveyor 93, as described above, when the book stacking work is completed, a slip is placed on the stacked books, and only the books are pushed onto the return conveyor 94 to be placed thereon. Since the sorting conveyors 91 and 93 employ the free flow method, the tray on which the books are placed can be temporarily stopped by pressing the tray, and the books can be placed on the return conveyor 94 from either sorting conveyor. . The book is thus placed on the return conveyor 94 and is transported to the end point.

Next, the transfer operators 83, 83 pick up the stacked books alternately from the belt conveyor 94 and transfer them to the roller conveyor 95. The roller conveyor 95 sends the books to the automatic packaging machine 96, where the books are bundled,
After being packaged, it is shipped to the bookstore where the order was placed.

[0005]

However, in the conventional transfer line described above, it was difficult to mechanically replace the return conveyor 94 on the roller conveyor 95. This is because if you move only the book by machine without placing it on the tray, the bottom edge of the book will be broken, torn or wrinkled. Then, automatic packaging machine 9
It means that up to 6 can be placed on a tray and conveyed by a belt conveyor. However, only the book has to be sent to the automatic packaging machine 96, and it is necessary to separate the book and the tray somewhere on the conveyance line. . In any case, since the separation cannot be mechanized, the work of lifting the pile of books from the tray once, moving it to another place, and lowering it must be done manually. Therefore, until now, the stacking operator 82 pushes only the books on the tray to the return conveyor 94, which is the most comfortable method. The tray left by the packing operator 82 is
It was stored in the back tray and someone was collecting it as needed. As described above, conventionally, it took a lot of time and effort to transfer books and collect trays.

The transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention was proposed in view of the above problems, in which a tray and a book are separated from each other, and only the book or the like is sent to the next conveyance apparatus, and the tray is recovered. And provide a transfer carrier to supply it again,
The purpose is to save a lot of labor.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the transfer / transport device according to claim 1 of the present invention is placed on a tray having a plurality of parallel ridges formed on its upper surface. A transfer / transport device for transferring and transporting only articles, the plurality of arms being capable of moving in and out between at least one conveyor and a plurality of ridges of the tray and formed at intervals wider than the width of the conveyor. A horizontal moving means for moving these arms in parallel with the conveying direction of the conveyor, and a vertical moving means for moving the arms from above to below the conveying surface of the conveyor, which are formed at positions sandwiching the conveyor. It consisted of a lifter.

Further, in the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the transfer conveyor and the reception conveyor of a series of conveyance lines for conveying articles by placing them on a tray having a plurality of convex stripes parallel to the conveying direction on the tray. A transfer / conveyance device that transfers and conveys only the articles placed on the tray at the connection portion, and is capable of moving in and out between at least one conveyor and a plurality of ridges of the tray, and of the conveyor. A plurality of arms formed at intervals wider than the width, horizontal moving means for moving these arms in parallel to the convey direction of the conveyor, and vertical moving means for moving the arms from above to below the convey surface of the conveyor. A lifter formed at a position sandwiching the conveyer, and a tray conveyer provided at a right angle to a conveying direction of the feed conveyer below a terminal end of the feed conveyer, And extrusion means for dropping onto the tray conveyor tray on the end of the serial infeed conveyor by pushing in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction, was formed from.

Further, in the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, the transfer conveyor and the reception conveyor of a series of conveyance lines for conveying articles by placing them on a tray having a plurality of ridges at right angles to the conveying direction on the tray. A transfer / conveyance device that transfers and conveys only the articles placed on the tray at the connection part, and tray stop means provided at the end of the feed conveyor, and on the side of the end part of the feed conveyor. At least one conveyor provided at right angles to the conveying direction of the feed conveyor, a plurality of arms that can enter and leave between the plurality of ridges of the tray and that are formed at intervals wider than the width of the conveyor, and these arms A horizontal moving means for moving the conveyor parallel to the conveying direction, and a vertical moving means for moving the arm from above to below the conveying surface of the conveyor are provided so as to sandwich the conveyor therebetween. And a lifter formed on the table.

Further, in the tray according to claim 4, in the transfer device according to claim 1, 2 or 3, a plurality of ridges are provided at intervals so as to sandwich the arms of the lifter, and a groove width formed by the ridges. The width was narrower and the height was larger than the thickness of the arm. In the above structure, the conveyor, the feeding conveyor, the receiving conveyor and the tray carrying conveyor may be any of a roller conveyor, a chain conveyor and a belt conveyor.

[0011]

According to the transfer / conveyance apparatus of the first aspect, first, the tray is placed on the starting side of the conveyor with the ridges parallel to the conveyance direction. Next, the arms of the lifter are moved by the horizontal moving means and the vertical moving means to enter the space between the plurality of ridges of the tray. In that state, when the lifter is lifted by the vertical moving means, only the article is lifted and the tray is not lifted. Subsequently, the lifter is moved to the upper part of the conveyor by the horizontal moving means, and then lowered by the vertical moving means so that the arm is located below the conveying surface of the conveyor. Then, since the conveyor is located between the plurality of lifters, the articles are transferred from the lifters to the conveyor. In this state, the conveyor is operated to convey the article.

According to the transfer / transport device of the second aspect,
First, the plurality of arms of the lifter are moved by the horizontal moving means and the vertical moving means and stopped at predetermined positions on the feed conveyor. At the same time, the tray and the articles that have been placed and conveyed on the conveyance line further approach the transfer conveyance device side by the feed conveyor. The arms of the lifter, which are then stationary in place, enter the space between the ridges of the tray. In that state, when the lifter is lifted by the vertical moving means, only the article is lifted. Subsequently, the lifter is moved to the upper part of the conveyor by the horizontal moving means, and then lowered by the vertical moving means so that the arm is located below the conveying surface of the conveyor. Then, since the conveyor is located between the plurality of lifters, the articles are transferred from the lifters to the conveyor. In this state, the conveyor is operated to convey the article and send it to the receiving conveyor. On the other hand, the tray left on the feed conveyor is pushed by the pushing means in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the tray is conveyed, and is dropped onto the tray transport conveyor. The dropped tray is further transported by the tray transport conveyor and another conveyor that follows it.

Further, according to the transfer / conveyance apparatus of the third aspect, the tray and the articles carried on the transfer line are further brought closer to the transfer / conveyor side by the feed conveyor and are provided at the end thereof. It is stopped at a predetermined position by the tray stopping means. Subsequently, the arms of the lifter of the transfer / conveyance device, which are arranged at a right angle to the conveyance direction, at the end of the feed conveyor, enter the space between the protrusions of the tray stopped at a predetermined position. . In that state, when the lifter is lifted by the vertical moving means, only the article is lifted. Subsequently, the lifter is moved to the upper part of the conveyor by the horizontal moving means, and then lowered by the vertical moving means so that the arm is located below the conveying surface of the conveyor. Then, since the conveyor is located between the plurality of lifters, the articles are transferred from the lifters to the conveyor. In this state, the conveyor is operated to convey the article. On the other hand, in the tray stopped on the feed conveyor, only the article is lifted, the tray stop means is released, the tray is advanced to the receiving conveyor, and then the tray is conveyed.

Further, according to the tray of claim 4,
Since a plurality of ridges parallel to each other are provided at intervals on the upper surface so as to sandwich the arms of the lifter, and the width is narrower than the groove width formed by the ridges, and the height thereof is formed larger than the thickness of the arms, The arm of the transfer / conveyance device described in 2 or 3 enters between a plurality of ridges, and even if the lifter is moved by the vertical and horizontal moving means, only the article is lifted up, and the tray is not lifted up.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.
The details will be described. FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a book carrying line using the transfer carrying device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a tray transfer conveyor that transfers used trays for reuse in the sorting line S, 2 is a standby conveyor that brings a tray on which a book is placed closer to the transfer transfer device, and 3 is only one sprocket. The supported chain conveyor, 4 is a discharge conveyor that receives the tray from the chain conveyor 3 and sends it to an automatic packaging machine, which will be described later, and 10 is the tray on which the ordered books are loaded by the loading operator. Sorting conveyor for sorting line S, 1
3 is a return conveyor that returns books that have been fully loaded.
11 is a returning device that moves the trays that have been packed to the returning conveyor 13, 12 is a discharging device that moves trays that have been stacked up to this position to the returning conveyor 13 on the way, and 14 is a tray from the returning conveyor 13 Turn conveyor for turning 90 degrees, 15 is a turn conveyor 1
A feed-in conveyor that receives trays from 4 and sends them to the standby conveyor 2, 16 is a conversion conveyor that sends the trays from the tray-transporting conveyor 1 to the sorting conveyor 10 without changing the direction, and 17 is an automatic packing machine that bundles and stacks a pile of books. Is. It should be noted that the turn conveyor 14 to the automatic packaging machine 17 each have two sets, but have the same configuration. The trays sent from the standby conveyor 2 to the tray transfer conveyor 1 are sent to the sorting conveyor 10 one by one by the conversion conveyor 16,
The order slips are attached to a predetermined position, and thereafter, the books ordered on the sorting line S are stacked along the path indicated by the arrow in the figure, and then returned to the standby conveyor 2 again. Here, the chain conveyor 3 corresponds to the conveyor, the standby conveyor 2 corresponds to the sending conveyor, and the discharging conveyor 4 corresponds to the receiving conveyor.

2 is a plan view of the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a front view of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a transfer / conveyance according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a plan view and a side view of an embodiment of a tray used in the device. The details of the transfer / transport device according to the present invention will be described with reference to these drawings. First, the transfer / transport device shown in FIG.
(D) and the state at timing T8 in FIG. 7 are largely represented. The tray 6 used in the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention has the shape shown in FIG. 5, and the five ridges 61 ... 61 on the surface thereof are provided at equal intervals a, and the size thereof is
The width is d and the height is b, and the width is narrow. 5 ridges 6
Six grooves 62 are formed by 1 ... 61, and the groove width e thereof is formed sufficiently larger than the width d of the ridge. Further, in front of the tray 6, there is provided a space for a slip 63 on which the title of the book, the number of books ordered, and the name of the bookstore which ordered the book are put, and a rubber band 64 for holding and sandwiching the slip 63 is also attached. ing.

In FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the chain conveyor 3 comprises five horizontal arms 31 which are provided in parallel with each other.
.. 31 and a cylindrical one end portion 32 for supporting them are wound, and rubber chains 33 ..
In addition, the one end 32 is a support leg 34 that supports both ends of the rotary shaft.
・ Supported by 34, the tips of the arms 31 ... 31 are suspended in the air. Reference numeral 5 is a lifter that lifts only the book 7 from the tray 6 and moves it from the standby conveyor 2 onto the chain conveyor 3. The six lifters 5 are arranged so as to sandwich the five arms 31 ... 31 of the chain conveyor 3. Horizontal arms 51, ... And a vertical support portion 5 supporting each 51
2 ... 52 and a base portion 53 that collectively supports the support portions 52. The base portion 53 is moved by a moving device 54 having a horizontal moving means for moving in parallel to the carrying direction of the chain conveyor 3 and a vertical moving means for moving in the vertical direction. Here, the six arms 51 ... 51 are formed at intervals a, and the five ridges 61 ...
-Enter between each of 61. In other words, tray 6
The positions of the ridges 61 ... 61 correspond to the positions of the arms 31 ... 31 of the chain conveyor 3. As shown in FIG. 3, the chain conveyor 3 and the lifter 5 have an inverted L shape in a side view.

The tray transfer conveyor 1 is located below the standby conveyor 2, and the traveling directions thereof are set at right angles to each other. A pusher 21 is provided to drop the tray on the standby conveyor 2 onto the tray transfer conveyor 1. Further, 20 is a stopper for stopping the next tray conveyed by the feeding conveyor 15 so as not to proceed to the standby conveyor 2. In the figure, the pusher 21 that has dropped the tray 6 onto the tray transport conveyor 1 moves in the direction of the arrow to return to the predetermined position, the dropped tray 6 is carried by the tray transport conveyor 1 in the direction of the arrow, and the stopper 20 lowers and the book The next tray 65 with
This shows a state where the standby conveyor 2 is about to enter. After that, the lifter 5 descends, the book 7 is transferred to the chain conveyor 3, is transported to the discharge conveyor 4, and is transported to the next stage.

6 (A) to 6 (E) are explanatory views of the movement of the transfer / transport device of FIG. 2, and FIG. 7 is a time chart of the movement of each part thereof. Next, using these, the operation of each part will be described. Explain. First, in FIG. 6A, the stopper 20 that has stopped the tray 66 descends, and the tray 6 on which the book 76 is placed is lowered.
6 starts entering the standby conveyor 2 from the infeed conveyor 15. Since the feed-in conveyor 15 is free flow, it immediately starts moving when the stopper 20 descends. At this time, the lifter 5 is moved down to the position where the tip 51 of the lifter 5 enters the groove 62 of the tray 66.
This is the state at timing T1 in FIG. At this time, the chain conveyor 3 is operating to discharge the previously placed books to the next discharge conveyor 4.

Next, at timing T2 in FIG.
After passing 6, the stopper 20 starts to rise and completely rises at timing T3. Then, at the timing T4, the entry of the tray 66 is completed, and at the same time, the lifter 5 starts rising and the standby conveyor 2 stops. This timing T
Figure 6 (B) shows the state from 3 to T4.
Is. At timing T5 in FIG. 7, the lifter 5 finishes moving up and moves forward toward the chain conveyor 3. At the same time, the pusher 21 (not shown) advances and the tray 66 left on the standby conveyor 2 is pushed. At this time,
The next tray 67 and book 77 have reached the stopper 20. This state is shown in FIG.

Subsequently, at the timing T6 in FIG. 7, the pusher 21 moves forward most, so that the tray 66 has
It is dropped onto the tray transfer conveyor 1 (not shown) below.
At timing T7 in FIG. 7, after the lifter 5 is stopped,
Begin the descent. At this time, the chain conveyor 3 is stopped. At the same time, the stopper 20 begins to descend. Figure 7
At timing T8, the stopper 20 completely descends,
The next tray 67 and the book 77 start moving to the standby conveyor 2. This state is shown in FIG. Further, FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are enlarged views of this state. After this, the book 76 is transferred onto the chain conveyor 3.

At the timing T9 in FIG. 7, the lifter 5 is moved to the lowest position, and at the same time, the lifter 5 starts moving toward the standby conveyor 2, and at the same time, the chain conveyor 3 starts moving and conveys the book 76 in the direction of the discharge conveyor 4. In FIG. 6, (E) is this state. Timing T8 and timing 1 in FIG.
Is the same, and the same operation is repeated thereafter. By the way, in the series of operations from timing T1 to timing T8,
It took 6.2 seconds.

In this embodiment, when the lifter 5 was transferred to the chain conveyor 3, the movement was once stopped, but the transfer speed of the lifter 5 and the chain conveyor 3 was synchronized. In this case, the processing speed of the transfer / transport device can be further improved.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view of another embodiment of the conveyor and the lifter. The four rotors 36 at both ends of the conveyor 35 ...
Since the rotary shaft of 36 is fixed, the lifter 55 can move horizontally only within the range of the rotors 36, 36, 36, 36 at both ends. Therefore, in the lifter 55, the arm 56 is lengthened to reach the standby conveyor. At this time, the height of the standby conveyor is adjusted according to the height of the arm 56. Thus, if the conveyor is long and the rotors (sprocket in the case of a chain conveyor) at both ends are small, the lifter can be lowered. Therefore, both ends of the conveyor are reliably supported, so that even heavy articles can be stably conveyed.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view of another embodiment of the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention, in which the transfer / conveyance apparatus is provided on the side of the standby conveyor 22 and the book 71 is picked up in a form of being taken horizontally, and the subsequent transfer apparatus is taken. , Is configured to be conveyed to an automatic packaging machine. Therefore, the tray 68 is conveyed linearly. In FIG. 9, the tray 68 is conveyed from below in the drawing as indicated by the arrow. The operation is performed by the stopper 23 before the tray 68 on which the book 71 is placed arrives on the standby conveyor 22.
Rises and stops the tray 68. Since the tray 68 is stopped at a predetermined position by the stopper 23, the tray 6
The lifter 5 inserts the arm 51 from the side between the ridges of 8,
Lift only book 71. Since the stopper 23 is lowered at the same time when the book 71 is lifted, the tray 68 is moved forward and is transported to the sorting line by the tray transport conveyor 24 and used again. The transfer conveyors such as the chain conveyor 3 and the lifter 5 are the same. At this time, the standby conveyor 22 is a free-flow type conveyor. Here, the standby conveyor 22 corresponds to the feed conveyor, and the stopper 23 corresponds to the tray stopping means.

In the transfer line of FIG. 1, proximity switches, photoelectric switches, and stoppers controlled by the switches are provided at required places, and when the trays are too close to each other, the stoppers are operated to keep the distance between the trays. Have control. Furthermore, although there are two feeding conveyors 15 in FIG.
This is for controlling the turn conveyor according to the height of the stacking and feeding it into the automatic packaging machine for height. Specifically, the height of books that have been stacked is detected with a photoelectric switch provided in front of the turn conveyor,
Compare with the standard value and distribute to either high or low automatic packaging machine. This has the effect of reducing the loss of the packaging film.

[0027]

According to the transfer / conveyance apparatus of the present invention,
The tray and the article can be separated and only the article can be transported. In addition, since the trays can be collected and supplied to the workplace again, a great deal of labor can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a book carrying line using a transfer carrying device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of FIG.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

5A and 5B are a plan view and a side view of a tray used in the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the movement of the transfer / conveyance device of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a time chart showing the operation of each part of the transfer / transport device of FIG.

FIG. 8 is another example of the conveyor and the lifter.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a transfer / transport device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a conventional book conveying line.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 24 Tray transport conveyor 2, 22 Standby conveyor (feeding conveyor) 20, 23 Stopper 21 Pusher (pushing means) 3 Chain conveyor (conveyor) 35 Conveyor 4 Discharging conveyor (receiving conveyor) 5, 55 Lifter 51, 56 Arm 54 Move Device (horizontal moving means, vertical moving means) 6,65,66,67,68 Tray 61 Convex strip 7,71,76,77 Books (articles) 10 Sorting conveyor (conveying line) 11 Returning device (conveying line) 12 On the way Ejection device 13 Return conveyor (transport line) 14 Turn conveyor (transport line) 15 Infeed conveyor (transport line) 16 Conversion conveyor (transport line)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display area B65G 57/32 59/12

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A transfer / transport device for transferring and transporting only an article placed on a tray having a plurality of parallel ridges formed on an upper surface thereof, comprising at least one conveyor and a plurality of the trays. A plurality of arms that can enter and leave between the ridges and that are formed at intervals wider than the width of the conveyor, horizontal moving means that moves these arms in parallel to the conveyor direction, and the arms that convey the conveyor. And a lifter that is provided at a position sandwiching the conveyor and that has vertical moving means for moving the surface from above to below. 2. Articles placed on the trays at a connecting portion between a feeding conveyor and a receiving conveyor in a series of conveying lines for conveying the articles by placing them on a tray having a plurality of ridges parallel to the conveying direction on the tray. And a plurality of arms that can be moved in and out between a plurality of ridges of the tray and that are formed at intervals wider than the width of the conveyor. A lifter formed at a position sandwiching the conveyor, which is provided with horizontal moving means for moving these arms in parallel to the conveying direction of the conveyor and vertical moving means for moving the arms from above to below the conveying surface of the conveyor. And a tray transport conveyor provided below the end of the feed conveyor at a right angle to the transport direction of the feed conveyor, and a tray on the end of the feed conveyor in the transport direction. Transfer conveying apparatus characterized by consisting of, and extrusion means dropping onto the tray conveyor by pushing perpendicularly. 3. An article placed on the tray at a connecting portion between a feed conveyor and a receiving conveyor of a series of conveying lines for conveying the article by placing the article on a tray having a plurality of ridges perpendicular to the conveying direction on the tray. A transfer / transport device for transferring and transporting only the tray, and a tray stop means provided at the end of the feed conveyor, and at least provided at a side of the end portion of the feed conveyor at a right angle to the feed direction of the feed conveyor. One conveyor, a plurality of arms that can move in and out between a plurality of ridges of the tray and that are formed at intervals wider than the width of the conveyor, and horizontal moving means that moves these arms in parallel to the conveying direction of the conveyor. And a lifter which is provided at a position sandwiching the conveyor, with vertical moving means for moving the arm from above to below the conveying surface of the conveyor. Transfer transfer device for. 4. The plurality of ridges are provided at intervals so as to sandwich the arms of the lifter, and are formed to have a width narrower than a groove formed by the ridges and a height thereof is larger than a thickness of the arms. A tray used in the transfer / conveyance apparatus according to claim 1.