JPH08301432A - Work separator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reliably separate works in a simple structure almost without requiring change of arrangements by providing plural magnets for nonmagnetic plate to be perpendicular to the plane of the nonmagnetic plate and in the same direction. CONSTITUTION: Columnar permanent magnets 1 with magnetic poles perpendicular to the plane of a nonmagnetic plate 3 to be N-poles on the nonmagnetic plate 3 side and S-poles on the opposite side are arranged adjacent to the nonmagnetic plate 3 in a grid structure and adhered thereto while being held in space with a resin nonmagnetic medium 2. A work 4 fed out by small amount to the nonmagnetic plate 3 with a vibrating hopper is subjected to attractive force from each columnar permanent magnet 1 located at a shortest distance. The works 4 with the nearer portions to the columnar permanent magnets 1 magnetized into S-poles and the further portions therefrom magnetized into N-poles are easily separated by attractive force given by the columnar permanent magnets 1 and repulsive force between the works 4 in accordance with the arrangement of the columnar permanent magnets 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a work separating device for separating block-shaped works of a magnetic material, which are sent out in small quantities in a random manner at predetermined intervals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are the following conventional work separating devices. (1) As shown in FIG. 7, the parts feeder 2 in which the shape of the ball 21 is variously worked according to the size and shape of the work.
0, a work is fed to the delivery port 22 by the parts feeder 20, and the chute 23 attached to the delivery port 22 and a plurality of stoppers 24 provided in the vicinity of the tip are alternately operated to load the work one by one. One that is cut out and separated (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-39762, referred to as Conventional Example 1).

(2) As shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of links 3
1 is connected in a pantograph form to form a link mechanism 30, and an extension / contraction mechanism 34 for extending / contracting the link mechanism 30 and a plurality of work holding portions 33 are provided at the joint portion 32.
9 is in a contracted state as shown in FIG. 9A, the work 35 is supplied to the work holding portion 33, and the extension mechanism 34 extends the link mechanism 30 to extend the work holding portion 33.
9B, a space P shown in FIG.
For separating 5 at equal intervals (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-1567)
Publication No. 14. This is referred to as Conventional Example 2. ).

(3) A target work specified by visual information is picked up and separated by, for example, a robot using a visual device (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-331).
081 publication. This is referred to as Conventional Example 3. ).

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION In the conventional example 1,
Since vibration is applied to the ball to deliver the work in the ball to the delivery port, when the size, shape, and weight of the work are large, the ball becomes large, and a vibration sufficient to deliver the work is applied to the ball. A loud sound is produced.
In addition, the ball shape must be changed according to the size, shape, and weight of the target work, which requires a lot of time for setup change and requires many kinds of ball shapes, which makes work separation work complicated. Become.

In the second conventional example, the work can be separated by keeping the interval between the works by appropriately selecting the expansion and contraction amount of the expansion and contraction mechanism, but the separation direction of the works is limited to one direction, and the depth of the work is limited. It is not possible to separate the work pieces in one direction, and only one work piece can be supported per work holding part.
Work separation is inefficient, and in order to enable separation of works in the depth, the device configuration becomes very complicated and large-scale. Further, when separating works having different sizes, shapes, and sizes, it is necessary to replace all of the work holding portions, and thus it takes time to change the setup.

In the conventional example 3, when the works themselves are recognized by the visual device, if the works are in contact with each other, it may be difficult to correctly recognize the shape of the works and it may not be possible to handle them. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a work separating device which has a simple structure, requires almost no setup change, and can separate works with high reliability.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a plurality of magnets are provided on a non-magnetic flat plate material such that the directions of magnetic forces are perpendicular to the plane of the non-magnetic flat plate and are in the same direction. It is characterized by that.

[0009]

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 using a work having a shape as shown in FIG. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of a work separating device. The direction of the magnetic pole of the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 is perpendicular to the plane of the non-magnetic flat plate 3, the non-magnetic flat plate 3 side is the N pole, and the opposite side is the S pole.
The poles, that is, the same poles of the respective cylindrical permanent magnets 1 are arranged in close proximity so that a repulsive force acts between the respective cylindrical permanent magnets 1. The space between the columnar permanent magnets 1 is held by the medium 2 of the material, arranged in a lattice shape, and fixed by adhesion.

2A and 2B are action plan views showing the action of the work separating apparatus. FIG. 2A shows before action and FIG. 2B shows after action. When a small amount of spherical workpieces 4 (for example, 3 pieces) shown in FIG. 6A are sent to the non-magnetic flat plate 3 in a state of cluttering each other by a vibration hopper or the like (not shown),
The work 4 approaching the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 receives an attractive force in the direction of the arrow from the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 at the shortest distance, as shown in FIG.

Next, in each work 4, a portion near the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 is magnetized to an S pole, and a portion far from the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 such as a contact point 4a between the works 4 is magnetized to an N pole. Therefore, a repulsive force is generated between the works 4 and the works 4 try to separate from each other. As described above, due to the attraction force of the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 and the repulsive force between the works 4,
As shown in (b), they are easily separated according to the arrangement of the cylindrical permanent magnets 1.

(Embodiment 2) The construction of the work separating device is similar to that of Embodiment 1, but in this embodiment, the cylindrical permanent magnet 1 is replaced with a prismatic permanent magnet 5. In particular, FIG.
This is effective for the cylindrical work 6 shown in (b).

3A and 3B are action plan views showing the action of the work separating device. FIG. 3A shows before action and FIG. 3B shows after action. The operation is similar to that of the first embodiment, but the point to be noted is that the shape of the work 6 is a vertically long cylindrical type,
The prismatic permanent magnet 5 and the work 6 are attracted to each other via the non-magnetic flat plate 3 in a state of being in line contact, and the work 6 is separated while maintaining a stable posture, that is, the shape of the prismatic permanent magnet 5 is learned. The angle θ between the workpiece 6 and the prismatic permanent magnet 5 in the initially fed state tends to change its posture to an angle φ close to zero.

(Embodiment 3) The construction of the work separating device is similar to that of Embodiment 2, but in this embodiment, the prismatic permanent magnet 5 is used.
Is replaced with an electromagnet 9, and each electromagnet 9
It is possible to independently control the magnetic pole, the polarity, and the magnetic force.
FIG. 4 is an action plan view showing the action of the work separating device,
FIG. 4A shows before the action, and FIG. 4B shows after the action.

For example, when used for the same purpose as in the second embodiment, all the electromagnets 9 (including the hatched portions) may be magnetized so that the magnetic poles have the same direction of polarity. Also,
When the work 6a larger than that in the second embodiment is used, the work 6a can be separated by not magnetizing the electromagnet 9 in the hatched portion in FIG. Further, by controlling the magnetic force of the electromagnet 9, it is possible to deal with works having different specifications with a single device without changing the setup even for works having different weights.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example in which the work separating device of the present invention is applied to a work aligning and supplying device for a T-shaped pipe joint 7 shown in FIG. 6 (C). is there.
An ultrathin plate prismatic permanent magnet 15 was adhered and fixed to the back surface of the belt 11 having a smooth surface made of a non-magnetic material such as rubber or canvas of the conveyor 10. The prismatic permanent magnet 15
Is coated with non-magnetic resin or rubber so that it will not come into direct contact with the pulley and be damaged.

When a small amount of the work 7 is sent out from the hopper 12 on the belt 11 in a cluttered, sometimes contacting state, the work 7 is conveyed rightward (arrow) while being magnetized by the magnet 15. Separated by action. Belt 11
Since there is no contact between the works 7 above, it is easy for the visual device (not shown) attached to the robot 13 to determine the posture of the work 7, and the target work 7 designated by the visual information can be trusted. The work 7 can be handled with high efficiency, and the work 7 can be aligned and supplied to the work supply table 14 while being converted into a predetermined posture.

Although the first to fourth embodiments have been described, the work of separating the work is further facilitated by adding the following.
The area of magnets to be arranged is small, the planar shape is the same as the projected shape of the work, and the arrangement interval is the same as the plan shape of the work.
When it is about 5 times, the attractive force of the magnet and the repulsive force between the works effectively act, and the works can be easily separated.
Further, the work mounting surface on the non-magnetic material flat plate can be easily moved by improving the lubricity by using a material having a small friction or a surface processing.

In the embodiment, the direction of polarity is the N pole on the non-magnetic material flat plate 3 side and the S pole on the opposite side, but the non-magnetic material flat plate side may be the S pole and the opposite side may be the N pole. Further, the magnet may be provided by directly adhering and fixing it to the non-magnetic material flat plate, and if it is within the range of the suction force capable of adsorbing the work, the medium 2 of the non-magnetic material such as resin is provided between the non-magnetic material flat plate and the magnet. It may be locked via.

[0020]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, the following effects can be obtained. By changing the combination such as the shape and arrangement of the magnets, it is possible to reliably separate the workpieces having different sizes, shapes and weights. Further, since the works are separated by the attraction and repulsion of the magnets arranged on the plane, no noise is generated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a work separation device (Embodiment 1)

FIG. 2 is an action plan view of the work separation device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an action plan view of a work separation device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an action plan view of a work separating device according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an action plan view of the work separating device according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a target work.

FIG. 7: Conventional work separation device (part feeder type)

FIG. 8: Conventional work separation device (link type)

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cylindrical permanent magnet 2 Medium 3 Non-magnetic flat plate material 4, 6, 7 Work

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of magnets are arrayed and fixed to a non-magnetic plate such that their axes are perpendicular to the non-magnetic plate, and the magnetization directions of the plurality of magnets are parallel and the same. Characteristic work separation device. 2. A work separating device in which the plurality of magnets according to claim 1 are electromagnets. 3. A work separating device capable of independently controlling the electromagnet according to claim 2.