JPH0754181Y2 - Hopper for packaging material transfer equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a hopper used at the end of a transfer facility for transferring packing material from a manufacturing plant to a packing work site in a pipe by compressed air.

[Conventional technology]

When transporting an article, it is particularly fragile article to wrap the article with a cushioning material or to pack the cushioning material between the packaging container and the article in order to prevent the article from being damaged by a shock during transportation. It has been widely used for heavy articles. There are various types of cushioning materials, but the one in which multiple elements with a three-dimensional structure made of a synthetic resin sheet and air enclosed are connected (hereinafter referred to as the air-filled packaging material) is an excellent air It is especially used because it has a cushioning effect and is lightweight and inexpensive.

When packing articles with this air-filled packing material, cut the air-filled packing material produced by the packing material manufacturing machine into the required length for packing, and then manually or with a motor. It was delivered to any packing workshop using a belt conveyor as a drive source.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

In the above-mentioned manual delivery method, a vinyl bag or the like is filled with air-filled packing material and carried to each packing work site.However, this packing material is light in weight but extremely bulky, and thus the workability is poor. Also, since a certain amount of packing material must be stored around the packing workshop, there is a problem that the space required for packing work is large and the work flow line is wide, which is inefficient in terms of ergonomics. there were.

In addition, in the case of the delivery method using a belt conveyor, since the air-filled packing material is light, it is caught in the guide of the belt conveyor, the conversion part for transporting to any work place, or the belt conveyor due to the electrostatic action of the packing material. Injuries such as clogging up often occur, and the injuries must be removed manually, resulting in inefficient packing work.
Further, there is a problem that a certain amount of space is required to store the packaging material.

An object of the present invention is to obtain a hopper that can efficiently store a packing material transported in a pipe by compressed air in a packing workshop.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, in the hopper of the present invention, except for the upper side surface, it is formed from a net, static electricity removing tape is provided near the upper input port, and upper limit sensor and lower limit sensor are arranged on the upper and lower parts respectively. Is.

[Action]

In the present invention, the packing material that has been pressure-fed in the pipe by compressed air is fed into the inside of the upper input port of the hopper, and the static electricity removal tape provided near the upper input port removes the electrostatic charge of the packing material. Then, the packing material is carried to the lower part of the hopper by the compressed air blown into the hopper. At this time, since the upper part of the side surface of the hopper is closed and the other part is formed by the net, most of the compressed air blown into the hopper flows toward the lower part of the hopper, and a part of the compressed air is diffused from the upper part to the outside. The packing material is carried downward without rising. Further, the upper limit sensor detects that the hopper is full and the lower limit sensor detects that the hopper is empty, and the detection signal automatically or manually controls the stop or start of the transfer of the packing material.

〔Example〕

 Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a structural layout view of an example of the transportation equipment used for the hopper of the present invention, 1 is a packing material manufacturing machine, 2 is a belt conveyor arranged on the outlet side, and 3 is an air-filled type made of synthetic resin. It is a packaging material. This air-filled packing material (commonly called “air pack”) is produced by the packing material manufacturing machine 1.
A plurality of three-dimensional structure elements 4 such as tetrahedrons are connected to each other by partial thermocompression bonding from a flexible synthetic resin sheet so that air is enclosed in each three-dimensional structure element 4, and force is applied from the outside. Then, it has an air cushion function, and is cut into pieces having a predetermined length or a predetermined number of elements and sequentially arranged on the belt conveyor 2.

5 is an ejector arranged adjacent to the belt conveyor 2 of the packaging material manufacturing machine 1, and 6 is a blower which is a drive source thereof, and is used for feeding the air-filled packaging material 3 which is sequentially fed and aligned on the belt conveyor 2. It is designed to be ejected from the suction ejector 5. 7 is a main pipe for transportation connected to the ejector 5, and for example, a circular aluminum pipe or steel pipe having an inner diameter of about 110 mm can be used.
8a, 8b, 8c are converters for being inserted into the main pipe 7 for branching a conveyed product from the main pipe, and 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d are branch sides of the converters 8a, 8b, 8c and the main pipe 7, respectively. Branch pipes 10a, 10b, 10c connected to the terminals are converters 8a, 8
b, 8c and the branch pipes 9a, 9b, 9c are inserted between the branch pipes to open or close the flow path of the air in the branch pipes, and 11a, 11b, 11c are the traveling objects. Transparent pipes 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d connected to the converters 8a, 8b, 8c so that the state can be visually observed are respectively connected to the ends of the branch pipes 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d and conveyed. The hoppers, 13a, 13b, 13c, and 13d, for stocking an appropriate amount of the air-filled packaging material that has been obtained and for appropriately extracting the packaging material, are worktables disposed below the hoppers, and 14 is a control device.

FIG. 1 is a detailed view of the hopper shown in FIG. 2, 15 is a branch pipe end, 16 is a hopper body connected to this end 15, and an upper surface 17, a lower side surface 18, and a lowermost part 19 are made of, for example, aluminum. The upper part of the side surface 20 is covered with aluminum, for example, over the entire circumference, and the connection part of the upper surface 17 with the branch pipe terminal 15 is a funnel-shaped container having an upper charging port 21 and a lowermost part 19. An outlet 22 is provided at the closed end. Reference numeral 23 is a static electricity removing tape disposed in the vicinity of the upper charging port 21, which is formed of, for example, a grounded conductive fiber tape, and has a function of removing static electricity when a charged packaging material approaches or contacts. 24 is the upper limit sensor,
A signal is issued when the upper limit level of the packing material is detected and becomes full, and a lower limit sensor 25 emits a signal when the lower limit level of the packing material is detected and the state is almost empty.

Next, the operation of the hopper of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the transport facility of FIG.

First, the controller 14 selects either automatic operation or manual operation. Normally, automatic operation is selected, and in the case of maintenance or special operation, it is switched to manual operation.

To explain the case of automatic operation, the transfer equipment is put in the standby state by the above-mentioned operation.
When the packing material in a is empty and the lower limit sensor 25 is off, a signal is issued to request the supply of packing material, and the control device 14 causes the blower 6, the belt conveyor 2, and the packing material manufacturing machine 1 to operate. When turned on, the converter 8a belonging to the hopper 12a is switched to form a flow path from the main pipe 7 to the branch pipe 9a, the shutoff valve 10a is opened, and the supply of the packing material to the hopper 12a is started. The air-filled packaging material 3 produced by the packaging material manufacturing machine 1 is cut into a length of 3 to 12 m, for example, and ejected from the belt conveyor 2 by the ejector 5.
Sent into the main pipe 7, the converter 8a, the shutoff valve 10a,
It reaches the terminal 15 through the branch pipe 9a.

Next, the packing material is fed into the hopper main body 16 through the upper charging port 20. At this time, the static elimination tape 23 removes the charge, and then the packing material drops downward and is sequentially stored in the hopper main body 16. At this time, the compressed air pushed into the hopper main body 16 partially diffuses to the outside from the net gap of the upper surface 17, but most of the compressed air flows downward in the vertical direction due to the closed upper side 20. , The packing material extruded from the branch pipe does not rise up in the hopper body 16 because it is diffused to the outside from the gap between the side lower part 18 and the lowermost part 19 and is piled up sequentially from the lowermost part 19 upward. Moreover, since the packing material charged during transportation is also neutralized, it does not adhere to the inner circumference of the hopper body. The stored packing material is taken out by the worker from the outlet 22 and used for packing on the workbench 13a. In this case, the compressed air is dispersed around the nets of the lower side portion 18 and the lowermost portion 19 and does not concentrate at the outlet 22, so that the worker is not exposed to the strong wind and does not feel uncomfortable.

When the hopper 12a is filled with the packing material and the upper limit sensor 24 is turned on, the control device 14 issues a command to stop the supply of the packing material by the signal, and stops the operation of the blower 6 and the belt conveyor 2. .

The transfer equipment used for the hopper of the present invention is not necessarily limited to the one shown in FIG. 2, and any transfer equipment of the type which transfers by compressed air can be used.

[Effect of device]

According to the present invention, the effects listed below can be obtained.

(1) Since the hopper of this invention is formed of a net except for the upper part of the side surface and the static electricity removing tape is provided near the upper input port, most of the compressed air pushed into the hopper body is almost vertically downward. Flows toward the outside and diffuses outside from the gap between the lower part of the side surface and the bottom part of the net, so the packing material extruded from the pipe does not rise up in the hopper body, and is piled up sequentially from the bottom part, Since the packing material that is charged during transportation is also discharged, it does not adhere to the inner circumference of the hopper body. Therefore, in the packing work site, the packing material can be smoothly moved from the transfer facility into the hopper and stored, and the packing work efficiency is improved.

(2) Since the packing material can be stored at the packing work site by utilizing the inner volume of the hopper, it is not necessary to have a wide storage space as in the past.

(3) Since the hopper is mostly formed by the net, the operator can look over the work room through the net, and there is no discomfort.

(4) Since the compressed air that has entered the hopper is dispersed through the net, the worker is not directly exposed to strong jet air, and the worker can work under comfortable conditions.

(5) Since the sensor can automatically detect the full or empty state in the hopper, it is easy to control the transfer of the packing material.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a structural layout view of a transfer facility using the hopper of the present invention. 3 …… Packing material 6 …… Blower 7 …… Main pipe 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d …… Branching pipe 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d …… Hopper 16 …… Hopper body 17 …… Top surface 18 …… Side Lower part, 19 …… Bottom part 20 …… Side part upper part 21 …… Upper port 22 …… Ejection port 23 …… Electrostatic discharge tape 24 …… Upper limit sensor 25 …… Lower limit sensor

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yukinori Yoshida 8-36, Hakata Station, Hakata Station, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka City Hakata Building Siemens Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A hopper provided at the end of a transfer facility for transferring packing material in a pipe by compressed air, for temporarily storing the packing material, formed by a net except the upper part of the side surface, and an upper charging port. A hopper for a packaging material transport facility, which is provided with a static electricity removing tape in the vicinity, and further has an upper limit sensor and a lower limit sensor arranged at the upper part and the lower part, respectively.