JPH0738018U - Gravity-flow type cargo handling equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] In a gravity-flowing type cargo handling device such as an inclined conveyor rack, while ensuring a gradient that allows the cargo to smoothly flow, the accelerated cargo may collide with a stopper or the like to prevent collapse or damage. Prevent it from happening. [Structure] Lifting arm 1 in the middle of inclined conveyor 3
0 is provided and is moved by the air cylinder 14 to a raised position protruding from the inclined conveyance surface and a lowered position retracted downward. A mechanical valve 17 is provided close to this, and its lever 18 functions as a kind of limit switch. With the loading arm 10 in the raised position, the tray T on which the product W is placed and flows down, the lever 18 of the mechanical valve 17 is tilted and the loading arm 1 is loaded.
It touches 0 and decelerates and stops. Then, when the arm 10 descends and the tray T flows downstream, the arm 10 lifts up again and returns to the initial state.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a gravity-flowing type cargo handling device that guides a load downstream by gravity along an inclined guide surface provided with a rolling member.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, an inclined conveyor rack 1 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, for example, is known as such a gravity-flow type (gravity type) cargo handling apparatus. This inclined conveyor rack 1 supports a plurality of stages (for example, three stages) of inclined conveyors 3 (so-called corocon) that are inclined with respect to the horizontal plane by an appropriate number of columns 2, and each inclined conveyor 3 has a rotation member that can rotate. As a result, a large number of conveyor wheels 4 are provided. Then, the tray T on which the product W is placed flows on the transport surface constituted by these many wheels 4. That is, since there is a drop between the input port and the take-out port of the inclined conveyor rack 1, the tray T flows due to this and stops by hitting the stopper 5 at the take-out port. Such an inclined conveyor rack 1 has a function of stocking the tray T on which the product W is placed, and the tray T on the inclined conveyor 3 becomes a full work.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 In the gravity type inclined conveyor rack 1 as described above, the flow velocity of the tray T on which the product W is placed is determined by the inclination angle θ of the inclined conveyor 3. Assuming that the total mass of the product W and the tray T is m, the force F by which they flow down on the inclined conveyor 3 is F = mgsin θ−R (g: gravitational acceleration, R: rolling resistance). The gradient θ needs to be large enough to overcome the rolling resistance R, but as the length of the inclined conveyor 3 is longer, the tray T is accelerated based on the component of gravitational acceleration and collides with the preceding tray T or the stopper 5 to stop. In this case, the product W may be collapsed or damaged. At first, if the inclination angle θ of the inclined conveyor 3 is made smaller, the flow-down speed becomes smaller, but then the tray T will not flow smoothly and there will be a problem of jamming.

An object of the present invention is to provide an inclination on which an article such as a tray smoothly flows on an inclination guide portion of an inclined conveyor or the like, while decelerating an accelerated article to collapse the article W. Or to prevent damage.

[0005]

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems]

 The point of the invention of claim 1 is to provide a load-carrying member for temporarily decelerating the flow-down speed of the load, in the middle of the tilt-guide portion for allowing the load to flow down by gravity along the slope guide surface provided with the rolling member. It is a thing. That is, the load-carrying-up member is provided at an appropriate number of places in the middle of the tilt guide portion, and the number of devices may be one or several. Then, the load-carrying member plays a role of riding the load at the rising position protruding from the inclined guide surface and flowing the load at the downstream position retracted from the inclined guide surface. In addition, a drive device that drives the load-carrying member between a raised position and a lowered position, a luggage detection unit that detects whether a load is present on the load-carrying member, and a state in which the detection unit does not detect the load, A drive control device is provided which holds the load-carrying member at the raised position via the drive device and retracts the load-carrying member from the raised position to the lowered position when a load is detected.

In such a cargo handling apparatus, the cargo that has flowed down the inclined guide surface rides on the cargo carrying-up member which is in the rising position in advance, and temporarily stops. Then, based on the detection of this by the detection unit, the loading member retracts from the raised position to the lowered position, and the load starts to flow down the inclined guiding surface again. As a result, the acceleration of luggage is suppressed.

The invention of claim 2 has the following configuration. That is, the load-carrying-up member is rotatably provided at an appropriate number of places in the middle of the tilt guide portion with the upstream side as a fulcrum. Further, an air cylinder is provided as a drive device for moving the loading member up and down. Further, a mechanical valve that controls the pressure air sent to the air cylinder is used for the above-mentioned detection unit. That is, the mechanical valve is provided with its contact actuating portion in the vicinity of the load-carrying member, and is operated to the on position by the contact with the load on the load-carrying member, but the load flows down. If it disappears, it will return to the off position. Furthermore, an air sequence circuit is provided corresponding to the mechanical valve. When the mechanical valve is in the on position, this air sequence circuit retracts the loading member from the ascending position to the descending position via the air cylinder after a certain period of time.If the mechanical valve returns to the off position, the air This is to return the loading member from the lowered position to the raised position via the cylinder.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the load that has flowed down the inclined guide surface rides on the load-carrying member that is in the raised position in advance and stops there. At this time, the mechanical valve is moved to the on position by contact with the luggage, and after a certain time, the air sequence circuit retracts the riding member to the lowered position via the air cylinder. This causes the load to flow down the tilt guide again, while the mechanical valve returns to the off position due to the lack of load, which causes the air sequence circuit to return the lift member to the raised position. . With this configuration, the loading member is automatically controlled by an inexpensive control system including a mechanical valve and an air sequence circuit without requiring electrical control.

[0009]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 3 and 4 show the essential parts of an embodiment of the present invention. A loading arm 10 (hereinafter, also simply referred to as an arm) is provided as a loading member at an intermediate position (for example, position P in FIG. 1) in the lengthwise direction of the inclined conveyor (color controller) 3. The arm 10 has a U-shape in a plan view and is rotatably provided in a vertical plane with the upstream side of the inclined conveyor 3 as a fulcrum.

That is, the cross member 11 is fixed across the frames 3 a and 3 b on both sides of the inclined conveyor 3, and each base end of the U-shaped arm 10 is connected to the cross member 11 by a fulcrum pin 12. . Further, a cross member 13 is hung on both the frames 3a and 3b on the downstream side of the arm 10, and an air cylinder 14 is fixed to the cross member 13, so that the piston rod 15 of the cross member 13 is fixed to the free end portion of the arm 10. Is connected via a connecting piece 16.

The air cylinder 14 is arranged on the conveying surface of the inclined conveyor 3, in other words, on a plane passing through the upper surfaces of a large number of conveyor wheels 4, in a lifted position U from which the loading arm 10 protrudes, and below the lifted position U. It is selectively placed in the retracted descending position D. In this embodiment, the arm 10 is in a substantially horizontal posture at the elevated position U, and is substantially parallel to the inclined conveyor 3 at the lowered position D.

A mechanical valve 17, which functions as a luggage detection unit, is attached to the side of the arm 10 on a frame 3 b on one side of the inclined conveyor 3. The mechanical valve 17 has a role as a limit switch and an original valve for turning on / off the pressurized air, and has a swingable lever 18 as a contact operation portion for the tray T. Normally, the lever 18 is in an upright position in which it projects substantially vertically. In this upright position, the tip portion further projects from the upper surface of the load-up arm 10 in the above-described raised position, and the tip of the tray T that has flowed down causes the tip to be swung to the tilted position. Then, in the state where the tray T is riding on the loading arm 10, it is kept in contact with the lower surface of the tray T.

The air cylinder 14 and the mechanical valve 17 described above are connected to an air sequence circuit 23 including an air timer 19. FIG. 5 is a simplified circuit diagram thereof. The pressure air from the air supply source is supplied to the air sequence circuit 23 via the well-known main line filter 20, the pressure reducing valve 21 and the lubricator 22. The core part of this circuit 23 is the above-mentioned air timer 19. The air timer 19 includes an automatic switching valve 24 that is switched by air pressure, an air tank 25 that supplies an air pressure for switching the valve 24, a variable throttle 26 and a check valve 27. The check valves 27 are connected in parallel.

The air timer 19 as described above is connected to the mechanical valve 17 described above via a parallel variable throttle 28 and a check valve 29. The mechanical valve 17 plays a role of supplying pressurized air to the air timer 19 at the A position and discharging the air from the air timer 19 at the B position. The position corresponding to the upright position of the lever 18 is the position A in the figure, and the position corresponding to the tilted position is the position B. When the mechanical valve 17 is in the A position, pressure air is supplied to the air timer 19 via the check valve 29 and reaches the air tank 25 from the variable throttle 26 of the air timer 19. When this pressure air acts on the automatic switching valve 24 to switch it from the C position to the D position, the pressure air is supplied to the air cylinder 14 and the piston rod 15 projects against the spring force of the spring 30. As a result, the loading arm 10 described above reaches the raised position. Then, while the mechanical valve 17 is held in the A position, the automatic switching valve 24 is in the D position and the arm 10 is maintained in the raised position.

On the other hand, when the lever 18 of the mechanical valve 17 is moved to the tilted position and the mechanical valve 17 is switched from the A position to the B position, the pressure air in the air tank 25 used for the automatic switching valve 24 is released. The check valve 27, the variable throttle 28, and the mechanical valve 17 are discharged through the B position. As a result, the automatic switching valve 24 is switched from the D position to the C position, and the air in the air cylinder 14 is discharged, so that the piston rod 15 of the cylinder 14 is contracted by the spring 30. As a result, the loading arm 10 described above retracts to the lowered position.

It should be noted that the time required for the air cylinder 14 to descend after the mechanical valve 17 is switched from the A position to the B position is, for example, about 2 to 3 seconds. Adjusted. Further, the throttle amount of the variable throttle 26 is adjusted so that the time until the air cylinder 14 rises after the mechanical valve 17 returns from the B position to the A position is, for example, about 4 to 5 seconds. The variable diaphragms 26 and 28 are provided in series in order to make such a time lag different in both directions. The reason for this will be described later.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 6A, when the tray T does not exist on the arm 10, the arm 10 is lifted up by the air cylinder 14, and the upper surface of the arm 10 projects to a position higher than the conveying surface of the inclined conveyor 3. . When the tray T on which the product W is placed flows on the inclined conveyor 3, as shown in FIG. 6 (B), the bottom surface of the tray T comes into contact with the upper surface of the arm 10 and the tray T is lifted up. Slow down and stop. At this time, since the lever 18 of the mechanical valve 17 is tilted by the tray T, it is detected that the tray T has come onto the arm 10.

After that, the signal from the mechanical valve 17 is supplied to the air timer 19 described above, and after a few seconds, the air supply to the air cylinder 14 is cut off and the arm 10 descends. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6C, the tray T and the arm 10 are separated from each other, and the tray 10 again flows out on the inclined conveyor 3 and passes on the arm 10. Then, when the rear end of the tray T passes over the lever 18 of the mechanical valve 17, the lever 18 returns to the upright position, and it is detected that the tray T does not exist on the arm 10. This signal is supplied to the air timer 19, and air is supplied to the air cylinder 14 after, for example, 4 to 5 seconds, and the arm 10 is lifted up again to return to the initial state as shown in FIG. 6 (D). When the plurality of trays T are full on the inclined conveyor 3, the arm 10 continues to be retracted to the lowered position as shown in FIG. 6 (C).

The time from when the lever 18 of the mechanical valve 17 is moved to the tilted position to when the arm 10 is lowered is set to 2 to 3 seconds as described above. This is because the tray T tilts the lever 18 down. It takes into consideration the time it takes to stop the vehicle from the moment it actually stops. Also, it takes about 4 to 5 seconds from the time when the lever 18 of the mechanical valve 17 returns to the upright position until the time when the arm 10 rises. The time taken for the end to pass over the arm 10 is taken into consideration. Since the latter time is generally longer than the former time, the set time of the air timer 19 is different correspondingly.

In this embodiment, the mechanical valve 17 is used as a mechanical sensor, and the up / down movement of the arm 10 is controlled by the air sequence circuit 23 including the air timer 19. Since the control mechanism consists of only the sequence circuit, it has the advantage of low cost without the need for an electric control circuit.

In the above embodiment, the rotatable arm 10 is used as the load hoisting member, but it can be replaced with a direct-acting load hoisting table 40 as shown in FIG. You can also The table 40 is moved up and down by an actuator 41 such as a fluid cylinder or a solenoid fixed to the inclined conveyor 3.

Further, regarding such a lifting table 40 or a configuration for lifting the arm 10 as described above, instead of a mechanical valve, a non-contact type sensor as shown in FIG. 8 or a sensor such as a limit switch is used. It is also possible to provide S1 and supply the signal of this sensor S1 to the electronic control circuit 45 to control the operation of the air cylinder 14 or the actuator 41 based on this. Although the sensor S1 can detect arrival and separation of the tray T, another sensor S2 is provided downstream of the sensor S1 to detect the tray T and then the arm 10 or the table 40. May be lowered and the sensor S2 detects the tray T before raising the arm 10 and the like.

[0023]

[Effect of device]

 According to the present invention, since the load that has flown down on the tilt guide portion and has been accelerated is once loaded on the loading material, the acceleration state is canceled, and then the load is flowed down again. It is possible to prevent the load flowing above from colliding strongly with the stopper at the downstream end and causing the load to collapse or being damaged.

In addition, in the device in which the mechanical valve detects whether a load is present on the load-carrying member and the air cylinder is operated via the air sequence circuit based on this signal, substantially only the air sequence circuit is used. The operation of the loading member can be controlled by, and an inexpensive device can be realized without requiring a complicated electronic control circuit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a conventional example of an inclined conveyor rack which is an example of a gravity-flow type cargo handling device.

FIG. 2 is a partial front view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing an air circuit of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the operation of the above embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Inclined Conveyor Rack (Gravity Flow-Down Cargo Handling Equipment) 3 Inclined Conveyor (Inclination Guidance Unit) 10 Loading Arm (Loading Member) 12 Support Point Pin 14 Air Cylinder 17 Mechanical Valve 18 Lever (Contact Actuator) 19 Air Timer 40 Loading Table (Loading material) W product T tray

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An inclination guide part for guiding a load to the downstream side by gravity along an inclined guide surface provided with a rolling member, and an appropriate number of places in the middle of the inclined guide part, the protrusions protruding from the inclined guide surface. And a drive device for driving the load between the ascending position and the descending position, the load carrying-up member causing the load to be loaded at the raised position and flowing down at the lowered position retracted from the inclined guide surface. A luggage detection unit that detects whether or not the luggage is present on the load-carrying member, and in a state where the detector does not detect the load, the load-carrying member is held at the raised position via the drive device to detect the load. A gravity flow-down type cargo handling device, comprising: a drive control device for retracting the load carrying member from a raised position to a lowered position. 2. An inclination guide part for guiding a load to the downstream side by gravity along an inclined guide surface provided with a rolling member, and being rotatable about an upstream side as a fulcrum at an appropriate number of places in the middle of the inclination guide part. A load-carrying member that is provided to allow the luggage to ride up at a raised position protruding from the inclined guide surface and to flow the luggage down at a lowered position retracted from the inclined guide surface; and a load-carrying member between the raised position and the lowered position. An air cylinder driven by, and a contact operation part are provided in the vicinity of the load carrying member,
A mechanical valve that is operated to the ON position by contact with the luggage that has climbed onto the load-up member and returns to the OFF position when the contact with the luggage is released, and the mechanical valve was operated to the ON position. In this case, after a certain period of time, the loading member is retracted from the raised position to the lowered position via the air cylinder, and when the mechanical valve returns to the off position, after a certain period of time, the cargo riding member is retracted via the air cylinder. An air sequence circuit for returning the load carrying member from the lowered position to the raised position.