JPH0741110A - Work feed/recovery apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the reduction in the operating efficiency of a processing apparatus without stopping the processing operation of the processing apparatus at a destination to which a work is fed even when a magazine for the work is replaced. CONSTITUTION:The work feed apparatus comprises a box-shaped magazine 2 in which a plurality of works W are accommodated, the work W taken out from the magazine 2 being fed one at a time to a processing apparatus. The work feed apparatus further comprises an extruder means 4 for extruding all of the works W within the magazine 2, a buffer means 5 for recovering therein the work W extruded from the magazine 2 by the extruder means 4, and a delivering means 9 for delivering the work W received in the buffer means 5 one at a time to the processing-apparatus side.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a work supply device for supplying a work such as a printing sheet or a circuit board to various processing steps such as a printing step, and a work collecting apparatus for collecting the processed work. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when a work such as a printing sheet or a circuit board is supplied to a printing process or various processing processes, a fixed number of works are stored in a box-shaped magazine, and those magazines are processed by a conveyor or the like in each process. Is being transported to.

[0003]

However, in a processing step such as a printing step, in order to process each work one by one, the work is taken out from the loaded magazine one by one and supplied to the processing device. There is a need.

In such a work supply device, the magazines are replaced when the supply of the works in the magazine is completed or when the processing of all the works is completed. When the magazines are replaced, the works are supplied. become unable.
Therefore, when the magazines are replaced, the processing of the processing device is stopped, and the operating rate of the processing device is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and even when the work magazine is replaced, the processing of the processing apparatus to which the work is supplied is not stopped and the operating rate of the processing apparatus is reduced. An object of the present invention is to provide a work supply device capable of preventing the above.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a work supply apparatus of the present invention is a processing apparatus in which a plurality of works are stored in a box-shaped magazine and the works taken out from the magazine are processed one by one. In the work supply device for supplying to all the work in the magazine, an extruding device for extruding all the works in the magazine, a buffer device for accommodating the works extruded by the extruding device from the magazine, and a work accommodated in the buffer device to the processing device side. A sending device for sending out one by one,
It is configured with.

[0007]

[Operation / Effect] With the work supply device having such a configuration,
First, the magazine containing the work is conveyed to the position of the extrusion device, the work in the magazine is extruded to the buffer device side at once or several times by the extrusion operation of the extrusion device, and all the extruded work is buffered. Stored in the device.

Next, the workpieces are sent from the buffer device to the processing device side by the operation of the sending device.
During this time, the empty magazine moves, and a new magazine containing the work enters the position of the pushing device and stands by. And
When the number of works in the buffer device becomes zero, the pushing device operates again, the works in the magazine are pushed into the buffer device, and the works one by one from the buffer device,
It is sent to the processing device side by the operation of the sending device.

Therefore, even when the magazines are replaced, the work pieces are supplied one by one from the buffer device by the sending device, so that the processing of the processing device does not stop even when the magazines are replaced, and the operation rate of the processing device is lowered. Can be prevented.

[0010]

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

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the work supply device, FIG. 2 is a side view of the same, and FIG. 3 is a plan view thereof. Reference numeral 2 denotes a box-shaped magazine having a multi-tiered shelf member 2a therein, and a plurality of works W (for example, sheets to be printed) are stored in the magazine 2 substantially horizontally. The magazine 2 containing the work W is carried into the apparatus by the conveyor 3.

The shelf members 2a in the magazine 2 are provided so as to face each other on both sides and support both ends of the work W.
The front and back sides of the magazine 2 are open, and the work W can be pushed out to the front side by the pushing member 4c of the pushing device 4 described later.

The push-out device 4 is arranged at a fixed position on the side of the carry-in conveyor 3 and is mounted on the body frame 4a which is erected.
Two fluid pressure cylinders 4b are attached horizontally and vertically in two stages, and at the tip of the piston rod of both fluid pressure cylinders 4b,
A vertically long pushing member 4c is vertically mounted.

The pushing direction of the fluid pressure cylinder 4b is set to the transverse direction of the conveyor 3, that is, the loading / unloading direction of the work in the loaded magazine 2, and the length of the pushing member 4c can be inserted into the magazine 2. , And the length at which all the works W can be extruded is set. A buffer device 5 is provided on the opposite side of the extrusion device 4 with the conveyor 3 sandwiched therebetween.
Are arranged at opposing positions so as to accommodate all the works W extruded by.

The buffer device 5 is composed of two vertical elevating conveyors 6 and 7 standing at regular intervals, and both elevating conveyors 6 and 7 elevate and lower all the works W extruded from the magazine 2. The support plates 6a and 7a of the conveyors 6 and 7 support the support plates 6a and
This is a structure in which 7a is raised step by step.

The two lifting conveyors 6 and 7 have belts or chains spanning pulleys or sprockets which are vertically supported, and a large number of support plates 6a and 7a are provided on the belts or chains.
Are attached at the same intervals as the shelf members 2a in the magazine 2. The upper and lower pulleys or sprockets that drive the belt or chain are rotationally driven by motors 6b and 7b with reduction gears, and the support plates 6a and 7 located inside
When a reaches the same position as each shelf member 2a of the magazine 2, the structure is intermittently operated so as to stop once.

A delivery rail 8 for delivering a work is horizontally mounted in front of the upper portion of the buffer device 5, and the work W positioned at the uppermost stage is delivered to the delivery rail 8 on the upper portion of the buffer device 5. A delivery device 9 for The delivery rail 8 is composed of two rails having a substantially U-shaped cross section and horizontally arranged so as to face each other, and slidably supports both ends of the work W.

The delivery device 9 is constructed, for example, by arranging a rodless cylinder on the upper part of the buffer device 5 so that the delivery rail 8 is directed, and a rear pushing member 9a is attached downward to a piston (moving table) thereof. The uppermost work W is delivered toward the delivery rail 8 by the backing member 9a.
A processing device such as a printing device (not shown) is arranged in front of the delivery rail 8.

Next, the operation of the work supply apparatus having the above structure will be described.

First, the magazine 2 storing the work W is
The conveyor 3 conveys it to a position facing the extrusion device 4 and stops it. Next, the push-out device 4 is operated and the fluid pressure cylinder 4b pushes out the piston rod, whereby the push-out member 4c advances toward the inside of the magazine 2,
The works W in the magazine are pushed out toward the buffer device 5 side at a time. The extruded work W is entirely pushed between the support plates 6a and 7a of the buffer device 5, both ends of which are supported by the support plates 6a and 7a, and stored in the buffer device 5.

Next, the feeding device 9 is actuated and the rear pushing member 9a is moved to the feeding rail 8 side, whereby the work W located at the uppermost stage of the buffer device 5 is pushed out to the front feeding rail 8. After that, the work W on the delivery rail 8 is fed to a printing device or the like (not shown) by a feeding device (not shown).

On the other hand, in the buffer device 5, when the uppermost work W is delivered by the delivery device 9, the motor 6b,
The elevating conveyors 6 and 7 are driven by 7b to drive the supporting plates 6a and 7a located inside thereof by one step.

Then, when the inside of the delivery rail 8 becomes empty, the delivery device 9 is actuated again, the back-pressing member 9a moves to the delivery rail 8 side, and the work W located at the uppermost stage of the buffer device 5 is moved. Are pushed out to the delivery rail 8.

By repeating the operations of the elevating conveyors 6 and 7 of the buffer device 5 and the operation of the delivery device 9 in this manner, the works W in the buffer device 5 are delivered to the printing device one by one, but during this period. , Empty magazine 2 is moved by conveyor 3 and new magazine 2 containing work W
Enters the position of the extrusion device 4 and stands by.

Then, when the work in the buffer device 5 becomes zero, the pushing device 4 operates again to push the work W in the magazine 2 into the buffer device 5, and in the same manner as described above, The works W are sent one by one from 5 by the operation of the sending device 9.

As described above, even when the magazine 2 is replaced, the work W is supplied from the buffer device 5 by the sending device 9 one by one, so that the processing of the printing device is not stopped even when the magazine 2 is replaced. It is possible to prevent a decrease in the operating rate of the printing apparatus.

5 to 8 show another embodiment, in which the buffer device 5 of the above embodiment is replaced by a buffer device 15 of an elevating type storage box. The conveyor 3, the pushing device 4, the feeding device 9, and the feeding rail 8 have the same configurations as those in the above-mentioned embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

In this buffer device 15, a vertical frame 17 is erected on a side portion of a storage box 16 for storing a work W in a multi-stage manner, and a ball screw 18 is vertically supported inside the vertical frame 17 to store the work W therein. The screw portion 18a is screwed into the ball screw 18 for fixing to the side portion of the box 16, and the ball screw is driven to rotate,
The storage box 16 is raised by each stage of the shelf member 16a, and the work W located at the top of the box is aligned with the position of the backing member 9a of the delivery device 9.

Like the magazine 2, the storage box 16 has front and back openings, and the shelving members 16a are provided in a multi-tiered manner inside the shelving members 2a of the magazine 2 at the same intervals (height positions). The structure is such that all the works W in the magazine 2 pushed out by the device 4 can be stored.

A motor 20 with a reducer is attached to the upper portion of the vertical frame 17, and the ball screw 18 is rotationally driven by the motor 20, and the storage box 16 moves up and down via the female screw portion 18a. Also, the ball screw 1 inside the vertical frame
Guide shafts 19 are vertically attached to both sides of the ball screw 18 along the ball screw 18, and guide portions 19a slidably fitted to the guide shafts 19 are fixed to the side portions of the storage box 16 so that the storage box 16 Is guided by a guide shaft 19 to move up and down.

In front of the feeding device 9, a feeding rail 8 similar to that of the above-described embodiment supports the work W fed by the back pushing member 9a of the feeding device 9 and feeds it to a printing device or the like not shown. It is fixed at a predetermined position on a fixing portion (not shown).

In the work supply device thus constructed, first, the magazine 2 containing the works W is conveyed to the position facing the pushing device 4 by the conveyor 3 and then stopped, as in the above. Next, the extrusion device 4 is activated,
The fluid pressure cylinder 4b pushes out the piston rod,
As a result, the push-out member 4c advances toward the inside of the magazine 2 and the work W in the magazine moves at a time to the buffer device 15
Extruded to the side. All the extruded works W are pushed into the storage box 16 of the buffer device 15, and both ends of each work W
It is supported by 6a.

Next, the delivery device 9 is actuated and the rear pushing member 9a moves to the delivery rail 8 side, whereby the work W located at the uppermost stage of the buffer device 15 is pushed out to the front delivery rail 8. After that, the work W on the delivery rail 8 is fed to a printing device or the like (not shown) by a feeding device (not shown).

On the other hand, in the buffer device 15, when the uppermost work W is delivered by the delivery device 9, the motor 20
Drive the ball screw 18 to rotate, and the storage box 16 is raised by one step of the shelf member 16a.

Then, when the inside of the delivery rail 8 becomes empty, the delivery device 9 is actuated again, the back-pressing member 9a moves to the delivery rail 8 side, and the work W positioned at the uppermost stage of the buffer device 15 is moved. Are pushed out to the delivery rail 8.

Thus, the storage box 1 of the buffer device 15
The work W in the buffer device 15 is sent to the printing device one by one by repeating the ascending operation of 6 and the operation of the sending device 9, while the empty magazine 2 is moved by the conveyor 3 during this time. A new magazine 2 containing
Enters the position of the extrusion device 4 and stands by.

Then, when the work in the buffer device 15 becomes zero, the storage box 16 is lowered to the lowest position,
Once again, the push-out device 4 operates and the work W in the magazine 2
Are extruded into the storage box 16 of the buffer device 15.

In the above embodiment, the work supply device for supplying the work taken out from the magazine to the processing device one by one has been described. However, the work, the extrusion device and the buffer device described above are used one by one. It is also possible to configure a work collecting device that collects the works processed by the processing device as a plurality of works in the magazine. This work collection device consists of a collection device that collects the works one by one from the processing device side, a buffer device that stores the collected works, and an extrusion device that pushes all the works stored in the buffer device into the magazine. Composed.

Further, the above-mentioned work supply device and work recovery device can be installed on one line to form a work supply / recovery device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a work supply device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the device.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the device.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the same device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a work supply device showing another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the device.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the device.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the same device.

[Explanation of symbols]

W-work, 2-magazine, 4-pushing device, 5-buffer device, 9-delivery device.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A work supply device that stores a plurality of works in a box-shaped magazine and supplies the works taken out from the magazine to a processing device one by one, and an extrusion device that pushes out all the works in the magazine. A buffer device for storing the works pushed out from the magazine by the pushing device; and a sending device for sending the works stored in the buffer device to the processing device side by side. Work supply device. 2. A work collecting device for collecting works processed by the processing device as a plurality of works in a box-shaped magazine, and a collecting device for collecting the works one by one from the processing device side. A work recovery device, comprising: a buffer device for accommodating the recovered work, and an extruding device for extruding all the works accommodated in the buffer device into the magazine. 3. The work supply device according to claim 1,
A work supply / recovery device comprising the work recovery device according to claim 2.