JPH07315526A - Article sorting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an article sorting equipment capable of efficiently and correctly executing the sorting work without using a container or a storing device. CONSTITUTION:A storing zone formed on one side of a conveyor belt 41 by a frame 44 extending in the width direction of a belt is provided, an article 23 to be picked from an article shelf 22 by this storing zone is carried to the downstream side, and the article 23 is thrown into a forwarding box 25 when the traveling direction of the conveyor belt 41 is changed by a chute 26 provided on the downstream end.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article sorting facility,
In particular, the present invention relates to an article sorting facility in which various articles such as daily necessities, clothes, and frozen food items are picked from an article shelf, placed on a conveyor belt and conveyed, and then automatically sorted for each shipping destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a distribution center or the like, a work is carried out in which various kinds of articles to be carried in, for example, daily commodities, food, and various articles such as clothes are sorted according to destinations. There are various types of sorting methods and sorting equipment. An example of a conventional article sorting facility will be described below with reference to FIG. The basic configuration of the sorting facility 1 shown in FIG. 6 will be described. The sorting facility 1 includes a conveyor 3 that conveys the containers 2 and a plurality of article shelves 4 (case flow racks) arranged along the conveyor 3. Then, storage boxes are arranged on the article shelf 4, and articles specified therein, for example, various articles such as toothpaste, toothbrush, and clothing are individually stored for each product type. Further, a cutting device 5 for cutting the container 2 on the conveyor 3 at a predetermined interval is provided at one end on the upstream side of the conveyor 3.

The cutting device 5 shown in the drawing is, for example, a conveyor 3,
It is configured to raise and lower the plate 9 at the connecting position of 6, and when this plate 9 is lowered from the surface of the conveyors 3, 6, one container 2 transfers from the conveyor 6 onto the conveyor 3. Then, the plate 9 is attached to the conveyors 3 and 6
When the container 2 is projected to the upper surface in the interval, the next container 2 is stopped to be conveyed, and a predetermined interval is set between the container 2 and the container 2 cut out before that. Therefore, if the traveling speed of the conveyor 3 is controlled to be constant, the container 2 is conveyed at a constant interval as illustrated by vertically controlling the plate 9 at a constant cycle. A worker (picker) 7 stands in front of the article rack 4, and a display device 8 for indicating the number of articles to be picked for each container 2 is provided in front of the worker.

To sort the articles, the plate 9 of the cutting device 5 is vertically driven at a constant cycle to cut out the containers 2 on the conveyor 3. Since the conveyor 3 is controlled at a constant traveling speed, the interval between the containers 2 is also constant, and the conveyor 3 is conveyed in the direction of the arrow as it travels. Then, when it is conveyed to the front of the article rack 4, the picker 7 is moved to the display device 8
Picking the specified quantity of goods while watching, and then throwing them into the designated container 2. In this way
The indicated quantity of goods is picked, put into the container 2, and shipped to, for example, the Y branch of the X supermarket.

[0005]

In such a conventional sorting facility 1, as a matter of course, as the number of working lines increases, a larger number of containers 2 are required, and the containers 2 are cut out at regular intervals. The slicing device 5 is also required. Although the container 2 is used repeatedly, it is necessary to collect the sorted containers 2 in the cutting device 5 and cut them again, which requires labor and is troublesome. Further, since the cutting device 5 drives the plate 9 up and down at regular intervals and cuts the container 2 on the conveyor 3, the structure is complicated, the configuration of the sorting equipment 1 is simplified, and the equipment is downsized. For the purpose of illustration, it is desirable that the container 2 and the cutting device 5 can be omitted. Furthermore, when the container 2 is used as a collection box and another shipping box is used, the article must be transferred from the container 2 serving as a collection box to the shipping box, which is troublesome. Further, conventionally, it is necessary to accurately correspond the display timing of the display device 8 in accordance with the movement of the container 2, and the display timing is set by a so-called belt movement distance measuring method in which it is adjusted to the distance of the belt movement of the conveyor 3. Has been done. Therefore, a device for controlling the traveling speed of the conveyor 3 extremely accurately is required, or a device for accurately measuring the moving distance is required, and moreover, the cutting device 5 needs to cut out the container 2 accurately. Met. However, the container 2 on the conveyor may be displaced due to vibration or other unexpected external force, and there is a risk that the position of the container 2 and the display device 8 do not match.

In the article sorting facility to which the present invention is applied, since there are various kinds of articles, the sorting work is accurate in that the position of the container 2 and the display timing by the display device 8 are extremely accurate. In order to improve the work efficiency, especially when the moving speed of the conveyor 3 is increased or the space between the containers 2 is narrowed, there is a risk that the position of the container 2 and the display device 8 do not match. Was increasing. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to efficiently perform a sorting operation without using a container or a slicing device and without causing a deviation in display timing of a display device. And to provide an article sorting facility that can be accurately performed.

[0007]

The above object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor constituted by a belt-shaped and endless conveyor belt having individual storage zones by crosspieces extending in the belt width direction at predetermined intervals. An article shelf that is arranged along the moving direction of the conveyor and that stores articles to be picked, and a shooter that is located at the downstream end of the conveyor and that transfers the articles distinguished for each of the crosspieces to a shipping box are provided. This can be achieved by the characteristic article sorting facility.
Further, the above object can also be achieved by configuring the article sorting facility so that the addressed storage zone is detected by detecting the crosspiece.

[0008]

According to the present invention, since a substantial box is continuously formed by the storage zones defined by the crosspieces on one side of the conveyor belt, the storage of articles is performed like a container placed on the belt. The position does not shift, and the position correspondence with the display device can be conveyed extremely accurately. The position of each storage zone can be detected extremely accurately by detecting each crosspiece. In addition, the storage zone is composed of the crosspieces provided on the conveyor belt,
Conventional containers are not used. As a result, a cutting device for cutting out this container at regular intervals is not required. Furthermore, at the downstream end of the belt conveyor, a shooter for receiving articles from each storage zone is provided,
When the traveling direction of the conveyor belt is changed, that is, when the conveyor belt is folded back, the articles (articles) can be transferred onto this shooter and transferred to the shipping box that is conveyed in synchronism with the traveling of the conveyor belt without using human hands. .

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the article sorting facility to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 is a plan view showing the structure of an article sorting facility (hereinafter simply referred to as sorting facility), FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a conveyor structure of the sorting facility, and FIG. 3 is a conveyor structure of the sorting facility. Is a cross-sectional view of the main part along the longitudinal direction, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the main part for explaining the transfer of the article, and FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram for explaining the traveling speed control of the conveyor belt. In explaining the embodiment, FIG.
The overall configuration of the sorting equipment will be described with reference to FIG. 1, and then the configuration of the conveyor and the sorting operation will be described with reference to the drawings. The article sorting facility 21 according to the present embodiment includes an article shelf 22 that stores a desired article and an article 2 that is picked from the article shelf 22.
Conveyor 24 that conveys 3 and article 23 that has been conveyed
Is composed of a shooter 26 for putting the items into the shipping box 25, a display device 28 for instructing the picker 27 (worker) about the number of articles 23 to be picked, a speed controller 31 of the conveyor 24, and the like. In addition, behind the article shelf 22, a passage for replenishing the article 23, a conveyor, and depending on the article, a refrigerator or the like is installed.

Next, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the conveyor 2
4 will be described. An endless belt-shaped conveyor belt 41 and a conveyor belt 41
And a pair of side plates 43a and 43b for rotatably bearing the roller 42. The conveyor belt 41 is provided with crosspieces 44 in the width direction at a predetermined interval L, and a pair of side wall portions 45a and 45b are provided on both sides along the longitudinal direction. This cross 4
4 and the side wall portions 45a and 45b may be formed integrally with the conveyor belt 41, but may be manufactured by separate members and then integrated by welding or adhesion. The side walls 45a, 4
In the figure, 5b is configured to be continuous along the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt 41, but the thickness is such that there is no hindrance when the conveyor belt 41 rotates (the folded position of both ends), or a material having appropriate elasticity. In addition, the shape may not be connected along the conveyor belt 41, but may be a structure having appropriate cuts or a projection shape with appropriate intervals. In this way, by providing the crosspiece 44 and the side wall portions 45a and 45b on one surface of the conveyor belt 41, the boxes are continuously provided on one surface of the conveyor belt 41, and the articles 23 are mixed for each partition. Without letting
Moreover, it can be transported without causing an accident such as dropping it outside the conveyor belt 41.

Next, the structure of the shooter 26 will be described with reference to FIG. The shooter 26 is provided at a position where the conveyor belt 41 traveling downstream is folded back downward. The shooter 26 is the shipping box 2 from the side of the conveyor 24.
The tilted bridge 51 having a downward slope is provided toward the 5th side, and a cutout portion 51a is formed at one end of the upper portion so that the article 23 can easily fall on the tilted bridge 51. Therefore, when the conveyor belt 41 travels and shifts to the lower side on the downstream side, if the conveyor belt 41 is deformed along the driving roller 46, the crosspiece 44 and the side wall portion 4 are formed.
The article 23 placed in the box composed of 5a and 45b comes to fall on the inclined bridge 51, slides down on the inclined bridge 51, and is thrown into the shipping box 25.

Next, from picking the article 23 to the shipping box 2
A series of actions up to the step of charging 5 will be described. At the time of picking, the conveyor 24 is driven and the conveyor belt 41 travels at a predetermined speed from the upstream side to the downstream side, that is, the shipping box 25 side. The speed control will be described later with reference to FIG. As the conveyor 24 is driven, the picking number is displayed on the display device 28 provided in front of each picker 27, and the picker 27 indicates the designated article 23.
Is picked and the picked article 23 is put into the box formed by the crosspiece 44 and the side wall portions 45a and 45b. Thereafter, as the conveyor belt 41 travels, the pickers 27 sequentially insert the instructed articles 23. At this time, if there is no instruction, the article on the article shelf 22 is regarded as unnecessary and picking and loading are not performed. Therefore, the box that was at the top at the start was the conveyor belt 41.
All the necessary articles 23 are thrown in by the time the vehicle reaches the turnaround position on the downstream side. However, since the box into which the article 23 is loaded is partitioned by the crosspiece 44, it does not mix into the upstream and downstream boxes, and accidents such as spillage due to the side wall portions 45a and 45b do not occur.

When the conveyor belt 41 travels and reaches the folding position on the downstream side, the conveyor belt 41 folds downward along the drive roller 46 as shown in FIG. 4, so that the articles 23 placed on the boxes are shot. Slanted bridge 5 forming 26
It collapses on 1. Then, the article 23 is the inclined bridge 51.
Is slid down due to the inclination of and is put into the shipping box 25. In this way, the picked articles 23 are loaded into the shipping box 25 without manual labor, but since the shipping box 25 is also conveyed by the conveyor 29, the conveyor belt 41 and the shipping box are provided. 25 must be perfectly synchronized. Therefore, in this embodiment, the traveling speed of the conveyor belt 41 is controlled as follows.

That is, a light emitting element 32 and a light receiving element 33 are provided on the upstream side of the conveyor 24, and a crosspiece 44 is provided between them.
The light incident on the light receiving element 33 is temporarily blocked each time the light passes through. Since the crosspieces 44 are provided at a constant interval L, and the thickness t thereof is also substantially constant, if the traveling of the conveyor belt 41 is constant, the light-shielding period and time width are substantially constant. Here, for convenience of description, the light receiving element 33
Output voltage Va changes to a high level when light is received and a low level when light is blocked. And the output voltage V
The phase inversion of a by the phase inversion circuit 34 and the AND circuit 3
5 is supplied to one input terminal, and the pulse signal Vb is supplied from the oscillator 36 to the other input terminal. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, while the output voltage Va is at the high level, that is, the crosspiece 44
The control output Vc is obtained from the AND circuit 35 in accordance with the light-shielding time by. The number of pulses of the control output Vc increases when the traveling of the conveyor belt 41 is slow and decreases when the traveling of the conveyor belt 41 is fast.

The control circuit 37 is configured to control the motor M to rotate at a low speed when the number of pulses of the control output Vc increases, and to control the motor M to rotate at a high speed when the number of pulses increases. Therefore, when the traveling speed of the conveyor belt 41 decreases and the light-shielding time increases, the number of pulses of the control output Vc increases, and the motor M is operated by the control circuit 37.
Is controlled to a low speed, and the traveling speed of the conveyor belt 41 gradually shifts to a high speed. On the other hand, if the conveyor belt 41 becomes faster and the light blocking time becomes shorter, the control output V
The number of pulses of c decreases, the rotation of the motor M is controlled at high speed by the action of the control circuit 37, and the traveling speed of the conveyor belt 41 gradually shifts to low speed traveling. By controlling the traveling of the conveyor belt 41 in this manner, the articles 23
The loading position and the transportation of the shipping box 25 are synchronized with each other, and the article 23 can be loaded into the shipping box 25 accurately without using human hands.

The drive roller 46 illustrated in FIG.
One or a plurality of conveyors 24 are provided corresponding to the length of the conveyor 24, and are connected so as to be driven to rotate by the motor M. Therefore, by controlling the rotation speed of the motor M as described above, the traveling speed of the conveyor belt 41 is controlled to be constant, and the articles can be loaded into the shipping box 25 accurately. In the present embodiment, the light emitting element 32 and the light receiving element 33 are provided at the most upstream position of the conveyor 24, but this is set so that the light emitted from the light emitting element 32 is not blocked by the article 23. The position may be provided, for example, on the return traveling route. Moreover, you may replace with a touch sensor as a sensor. In the above embodiment, the side wall portions 45a and 45b are connected to the conveyor belt 41.
Although formed above, the present invention may have a configuration in which an alternative to this side wall portion is provided on the conveyor frame (side plates 43a, 43b).

Although the interval between the crosspieces 44 is constant in the above embodiment, this interval need not be constant in the present invention. That is, a so-called address is assigned to the storage zone defined by the crosspiece 44, for example, so-called serial numbers are set, and this address is set in a control system such as a control circuit. Can be configured to detect this indication. With such a configuration, not only can the mounting position of the crosspiece 44 be freely changed according to the size of the stored article, but also the deviation of the set position of the crosspiece 44 and the traveling speed unevenness of the conveyor belt 41. Display device 8
It is possible to guarantee an accurate correspondence with.

[0018]

As described above, the article sorting facility according to the present invention has a structure in which a substantial box is continuously formed on one side surface of the conveyor belt by the storage zone defined by the crosspiece. Therefore, unlike the conventional container placed on the belt, the storage position does not shift,
It is possible to carry the sheet with extremely high accuracy without any positional deviation from the display device that gives the picking instruction, and to ensure an accurate picking operation. Further, the position of each storage zone can be detected extremely accurately by detecting each crosspiece fixed on the conveyor, and this structure also ensures a more reliable picking operation. Further, according to the present invention, since the storage zone is configured by the crosspieces provided on the conveyor belt, a conventional container is not used, and a cutting device for cutting this container at a constant interval is also provided. Since it is not necessary, it is possible to promote the conventional work of handling containers and simplification of equipment. Further, the articles sorted by the shooter at the downstream end of the belt conveyor can be automatically transferred to the shipping box that is conveyed in synchronization with the traveling of the conveyor belt, and the sorting for each shipping destination is automatically performed. Since it is performed, there is no need for the conventional work of exchanging the articles in the container and the shipping box separately, and the work load on the worker can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a configuration of an article sorting facility according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a configuration of a conveyor belt.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part showing a configuration of a conveyor belt.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a transfer operation of an article.

FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram for explaining traveling speed control of the conveyor belt.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing an example of a conventional article sorting facility.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21 article sorting equipment 22 article shelf 23 article 24 conveyor 25 shipping box 26 shooter 27 picker 28 display device 31 speed control section 32 light emitting element 33 light receiving element 37 control circuit 41 conveyor belt 42 rollers 43a, 43b pair of side plates 44 crosspieces 45a, 45b A pair of side wall portions 46 Drive roller 51 Inclined bridge M motor

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] May 30, 1994

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0018

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0018]

As described above, the article sorting facility according to the present invention has a structure in which a substantial box is continuously formed on one side surface of the conveyor belt by the storage zone defined by the crosspiece. Therefore, unlike the conventional container placed on the belt, the storage position does not shift,
It is possible to carry the sheet with extremely high accuracy without any positional deviation from the display device that gives the picking instruction, and to ensure an accurate picking operation. The position detection of each storage zone can be very accurately detected by detecting the respective bars fixed on the conveyor, it is to ensure a more reliable Picchi packaging work by this structure. Further, according to the present invention, since the storage zone is configured by the crosspieces provided on the conveyor belt, a conventional container is not used, and a cutting device for cutting this container at a constant interval is also provided. Since it is not necessary, it is possible to promote the conventional work of handling containers and simplification of equipment. Further, the articles sorted by the shooter at the downstream end of the belt conveyor can be automatically transferred to the shipping box that is conveyed in synchronization with the traveling of the conveyor belt, and the sorting for each shipping destination is automatically performed. Since it is performed, there is no need for the conventional work of exchanging the articles in the container and the shipping box separately, and the work load on the worker can be reduced.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A conveyor (24) comprising a belt-shaped and endless conveyor belt (41) having individual storage zones by bars (44) extending in the belt width direction at predetermined intervals, and the conveyor (24). ), Which is arranged along the moving direction of the conveyor (24) and stores articles (23) to be picked, and the crosspiece (44) at the downstream end of the conveyor (24).
An article sorting facility (21), comprising: a shooter (26) for transferring the articles (23) distinguished for each to a shipping box (25). 2. The crosspiece (44) for detecting the storage zone
The article sorting facility according to claim 1, wherein the sorting facility is configured to perform the detection.