JPH0755644Y2 - Egg-shaped conveyed object counting device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a counting device for egg-shaped conveyed products, and more particularly to a counting device capable of accurately counting the number of eggs collected and conveyed by a conveyor in a poultry farm.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a poultry farm, one conveyor is provided with a fixed number of chickens as a unit, and a large number of conveyors are installed in the entire poultry house so that eggs can be transported and accumulated in one place. It is trying to make it. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of conveyor installation in a poultry farm. For example, one conveyor 12 is provided for each approximately 1000 birds, and a large number of conveyors are provided for the entire chicken house. In some cases, a counting device was provided at the end of each conveyor to grasp the number of eggs that were dropped. As shown in FIG. 7, this conventional counting device is provided with an optical sensor composed of a light projector 16 and a light receiver 17 in the vicinity of the end of the conveyor 15, and an egg being conveyed crosses the optical sensor for detection.

[0003]

The width of the conveyor is usually set to be larger than the major axis of the egg. For example, the width is about 11 cm, and when the conveyor is large, it is about 10 in 1 hour.
As many as 00 eggs flow. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, eggs may be conveyed in an overlapping state when viewed from the side, and in such a case, accurate counting is not performed. In addition, there are flies, spiders, and the like in the poultry farm, and counts or malfunctions frequently occurred due to these or feed. Such unstable count data was not sufficient to know the number of eggs and the egg production rate, for example.

There are the following demands in the management of poultry. The chickens are replaced on each line (conveyor), but in order to do that efficiently, it is necessary to know exactly when the eggs will not be laid. In addition, it is necessary to investigate the spawning rate by feed in order to increase the spawning rate as much as possible. Furthermore, it is necessary to detect the cause of the decline in the spawning rate for each line at an early stage. Further, since the number of eggs cannot be accurately counted, it is necessary to manually count the total number of eggs on the line periodically, and it has been desired to reduce the number of steps. An object of the present invention is to provide a counting device for egg-shaped conveyed objects that can accurately count the number of eggs conveyed on a conveyor and can meet the above-mentioned requirements without changing the conventional equipment. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an egg-shaped conveyed article counting apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus for counting egg-shaped conveyed articles conveyed on a conveyor, one end of which is rotated. A variable lever that is movably attached and swings in contact with the envelope of an egg-shaped conveyed product whose other end is conveyed on a conveyor, a magnet attached to the variable lever, and a magnet facing the magnet. From the detecting means arranged to detect the magnetic change from the magnet due to the swing of the variable lever, and the circuit section which makes the falling or rising portion of the signal obtained by differentiating the output of the detecting means a count output. It is configured.

[0006]

With the above construction, the number of eggs can be accurately controlled and the requirements of the poultry farm can be met.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of an egg-shaped conveyed object counting apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing details of the conveyor and the variable lever. The egg 9 is conveyed by the conveyor 10 in the arrow direction. A variable lever-1 for detecting the egg 9 is arranged on this transport path. One end of the variable lever-1 is rotatably attached to the rotary shaft 3. The other end position of the variable lever-1 is set so as to be located at a position approximately half the short diameter H of the egg 9 from the transport surface of the conveyor 10. When the egg 9 is conveyed, the variable lever-1 first comes into contact with the other end near the center height position of the egg 9 and is gradually pushed up to pass the portion of the egg 9 having the shortest diameter. And it suddenly drops and becomes a state of hanging around.

A magnet 2 is provided in the middle of the variable lever-1. A detection coil 4 is arranged to face the magnet 2. The detection coil 4 is connected to the positive and inverting input terminals of the operational amplifier 5. Operational amplifier 5
The output terminal of is connected to the differentiating circuit 6. Differentiator circuit 6
Is connected to the inverting amplifier 7, and a pulse signal that is a count output is obtained from the amplifier 7.

FIG. 4 is an output waveform diagram of each circuit section in FIG. (A) is a figure which shows one example of arrangement | sequence of the egg conveyed by the conveyor. The two eggs in the back are transported in a stacked state. (B) is the output waveform of the operational amplifier 5, and shows the envelope voltage of the egg. (C) shows the voltage differential waveform of the output waveform of (B). This waveform occurs when the variable lever-1 is pushed up in contact with the egg and immediately after getting over the short diameter portion of the egg. (D) is a pulse waveform output from the inverting amplifier 7, which is an output obtained by cutting the positive voltage portion, inverting the negative voltage portion, shaping the pulse waveform, and amplifying.

Next, the counting operation of eggs that are conveyed will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. When the eggs are conveyed in the arrangement as shown in FIG. 4A, the other end of the variable lever-1 is pushed up by the tip of the eggs, and the detection coil 4 detects the magnetic change. The output voltage of the operational amplifier 5, which is output by this magnetic change, that is, the envelope voltage of FIG. 4B has a rising waveform as shown in FIG. Next, when the egg pushes up the variable lever-1 and passes by, the envelope voltage in FIG. 4B has a falling waveform as shown in (B). When eggs are conveyed in an overlapping state, at the boundary between two eggs, the variable lever-1 swings in the counterclockwise direction as shown in FIG. 3 unless the eggs overlap so that they coincide with each other. The envelope voltage in FIG. 4B drops a little as shown in FIG. In particular, since the variable lever-1 moves to the dotted line quickly due to its own weight, the voltage differential waveform is likely to appear.

The differentiating circuit 6 outputs a voltage (C) proportional to the rate of change of the envelope voltage, a positive differential waveform corresponding to the rising portion of the envelope voltage of (B), and a falling portion. And output the negative differential waveforms. The inverting amplifier 7 cuts the positive differential pulse waveform, shapes the negative differential waveform into a rectangular pulse, and inversely amplifies the rectangular pulse. This positive pulse waveform is counted by a counter (not shown). As described above, the example in which the negative differential output is generated in response to the envelope voltage of the trailing edge of the egg has been described.
The positive differential output may be generated after inverting the envelope voltage of the falling portion.

According to the present invention, the number of eggs could be counted with an accuracy of 99.7%. The remaining 0.3% was caused by the complete overlap of the two eggs. Figure 5
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the egg laying rate of chickens and the number of days. For example, after the highest egg-laying rate reaches 98%, the egg-laying rate gradually decreases as the number of days elapses, and the state falls below 50%. If you want to replace the chickens at the conveyor unit when the egg production rate falls below 50% to maintain productivity, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably grasp the conveyor where the egg production rate falls below 50%. Become.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if eggs are overlapped and conveyed, they can be counted as long as they are not completely overlapped.
There is no longer a case where counting is stopped halfway due to flies, spiders, etc. as in the case of using an optical sensor. Therefore, the number of eggs can be accurately counted for each conveyor, and the time when no eggs are laid can be accurately grasped. In addition, by changing the type of chicken feed for each conveyor, it became possible to easily check the egg production rate by feed. Furthermore, it became possible to detect the cause of the drop in spawning rate for each conveyor at an early stage. Moreover, it is not necessary to manually count all the eggs on the line on a regular basis, and the man-hours can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of an egg-shaped conveyed object counting apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a perspective view showing details of a conveyor portion and a variable lever portion of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a process of counting eggs that have been conveyed in an overlapping manner.

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram showing an output waveform of each portion with respect to the contour of the egg conveyed in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the number of days and the egg production rate.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the flow of a chicken house conveyor.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a conventional method for detecting a conveyed egg.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Variable lever 2 ... Magnet 3 ... Rotating shaft 4 ... Detection coil 5 ... Operation amplifier 6 ... Differentiation circuit 7 ... Inversion amplifier 9, 13, 14 ... Egg 10, 12, 15 ... Conveyor 11 ... Poultry house 16 ... Projector 17 ... Light receiving vessel

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An apparatus for counting egg-shaped conveyed products conveyed on a conveyor, wherein one end is rotatably mounted and the other end is on an envelope of the egg-shaped conveyed products conveyed on the conveyor. A variable lever that oscillates in contact, a magnet attached to the variable lever, and a detection that is disposed facing the magnet and that detects a magnetic change from the magnet that accompanies the swing of the variable lever. An egg-shaped conveyed object counting apparatus comprising: a means and a circuit section that outputs a falling or rising portion of a signal obtained by differentiating the output of the detecting means.