JPH09150955A - Article handling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dispense with a driving source for opening and closing an engaging claw and further to take tiers apart or make them efficiently in a short time. SOLUTION: This article handling device 1 has a chain conveyer 2, and engaging members 13 moving in the vertical direction by chains driven in the vertical direction within masts 11. The engaging member 13 is allowable to fluctuate up and down to make in the engaging condition or the nonengaging condition to the engaged part of an article W, and it is fluctuated upward to make in the nonengaging condition only when an external force from the lower side is operated. When the engaging member 13 is lowered to a specific height, and when it is interfered to the engaged part of the article W, it is fluctuated upward to make in the nonengaging condition, and when it reaches a specific height, it gets into an engaging condition to engage with the engaged part of the article W.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an article processing apparatus for performing a stacking process or a stacking process on products supplied from side by side conveyors or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an article processing has a conveyor for conveying an article to a predetermined position, a lifter for lifting the article at the predetermined position, and an openable / closable engaging claw for engaging an engaged portion of the lifted article. The device is known. In this apparatus, for example, when stacking stacked articles in upper and lower two stages, when a stacked article is conveyed to a predetermined position by a conveyor, the lifter causes the stacked article in the predetermined position to have a predetermined height. In the state of lifting, the engaging claws are engaged with and held by the upper article in that state. Then, while the upper claw is held by the engagement claw, the lifter is lowered until the lower crate is placed on the conveyor, and then the conveyor is driven to carry out the article. After that, the lifter is raised again to the position of the article held by the engaging claw, and in that state, the engaged state of the engaging claw is released and the article is placed on the lifter.
When the engaged state of the engaging claw is released, the lifter is lowered until the article is placed on the conveyor, and then the conveyor is driven to carry out the article.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional article processing apparatus, a drive source for raising and lowering the lifter and a drive source for opening and closing the engaging claw are required, and the engaging claw Opening and closing operations and lifting and lowering operations of the lifter took time and were inefficient.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to eliminate the need for a drive source for engaging an engaging claw with an article and to efficiently perform a step-out process or stacking step in a short time. An object is to provide an article processing apparatus capable of processing.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention according to claim 1 is a conveying means for conveying an article to a predetermined position, and an ascendable / descendable movement of the article at the predetermined position. An engaging member that is vertically swingable so as to be in an engaged state or a non-engaged state with respect to the engaging portion, and the engaging member swings upward only when an external force from below acts. The article processing apparatus is in a non-engaged state.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of the engaging members are provided at intervals in the carrying direction of the carrying means, and the plurality of engaging members move up and down in conjunction with each other.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the engaging member is moved up and down by an endless band driven in the vertical direction, and a plurality of engaging members are provided for one endless band.

The present invention has the following functions. In the invention according to claim 1, when the lower surface of the engaging member collides with the engaged portion of the article when the engaging member is lowered from above the article at the predetermined position, the engaging member receives an external force from below. Receive and swing upward. When the engaged portion of the article does not interfere with each other and is lowered to a height at which an external force from below does not act (below the engaged portion), the engaging member swings downwards to the engaged portion of the article. The state returns to the engageable state (engagement state). Then, the article can be lifted by raising the engaging member in that state.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention. In this specification, the front means the right side in FIG. 1, the rear means the left side in FIG. 1, the right means the lower side in FIG. 1, the left means the upper side in FIG. 1, and the upper side means the front side in FIG. Refers to the back side of the drawing.

Before and after the article processing apparatus 1, a carry-in conveyor 30 and a carry-out conveyor 31, which are roller conveyors, are arranged in parallel. Each of the conveyors 30 and 31 can be independently driven, and the article W can be loaded into or unloaded from the article processing apparatus 1 at a predetermined timing. The article W is a bucket having a convex portion on a side surface at a predetermined height, and the left and right convex portions serve as engaged portions described later.

The article processing apparatus 1 comprises a chain conveyor 2 provided between the carry-in conveyor 30 and the carry-out conveyor 31 so as to be continuous with both conveyors, and a lifting means 1 for lifting an article W at a predetermined position on the chain conveyor 2.
0.

The chain conveyor 2 is composed of conveyor units 3 and 3 which are arranged side by side at intervals. The conveyor unit 3 has a frame 4 whose longitudinal direction is the front-rear direction, front and rear sprockets 5 and 5 provided at the front and rear ends of the frame 4, and a chain 6 which is stretched between both sprockets. doing. The front sprockets of the left and right conveyor units 3 are connected to each other by a common shaft 7, and the chain conveyor 2 is driven by rotating the common shaft 7 by a motor 8. The frame 4 is provided with a guide 9 for guiding the article W on the chain conveyor 2 in the front-rear direction.

The lifting means 10 comprises two left and right masts 11, a pair of front and rear chains 12 and 12 which are vertically driven in the mast 11, and an engaging member 13 which is moved up and down by driving the chains 12. It has a motor 21 for driving the chain 12.

The mast 11 is erected up and down at a predetermined interval, and an opening 14 is formed in the inner wall and the outer wall for the engagement member 13 to pass through. By passing through the opening 14, the engaging member 13 attached to the chain 12 in the mast 11 can project from the mast 11 and move up and down.

A pair of front and rear sprockets 16, 16 which are interlocked by a common shaft 15 are provided at the upper end of the mast 11. A pair of front and rear sprockets 18, 18 which are interlocked by a common shaft 17 are provided at a height in the mast 11 which is located slightly above the conveying surface of the chain conveyor 2. In the mast 11, between the upper and lower front sprockets 16 and 18 and the rear upper and lower sprockets 16,
The chain 12 is stretched between 18 and the pair of front and rear chains 12 are interlocked and driven in the vertical direction by rotating each sprocket.

Two supporting members 19 having a pair of front and rear horizontal projecting pieces 19a, 19a are provided at predetermined positions between the front and rear chains 12. The two support members 19 are provided so as to move up and down as the chain 12 is driven in the vertical direction, and one of them is located near the upper sprocket 16 and the other is located near the lower sprocket 18.

The engaging member 13, which is a right-angled triangular member in a side view, is provided so as to be vertically swingable around a horizontal swing shaft 13a provided between the horizontal projecting pieces 19a at the front and rear of the support member 19. Has been.

When no external force acts on the engaging member 13, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 4, one of the sides sandwiching the right angle is horizontal in a side view (engaged state). When the engaged portion of the article W interferes during the downward movement and an external force from below acts on the long side portion, the article W swings upward as indicated by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 4 (non-engagement state). The engaging member 13 in the engaged state,
When viewed from the side, the vertical side is in contact with the chain 12, and even if an external force from above acts on the horizontal side, the tension of the chain 12 maintains the engaged state.

The opening 14 formed in the outer wall of the mast 11 corresponding to the lifting range of the engaging member 13 allows the engaging member 13 on the outer side of the chain 12 to move up and down.
Covered by 0. The cover 14 is not provided in the opening 14 formed on the inner wall of the mast 11, and the engaging member 1 is in the engaged state on the inner side of the chain 12.
3 can be engaged with the engaged portion of the article W between the left and right masts 11.

On the left and right sides of the chain conveyor 2,
A motor 21 for driving the chain 12 is provided between the front and rear masts 11. The output shaft of the motor 21 is connected to the lower common shaft 17 in the front and rear masts 11, and the motor 21 is driven to drive the front and rear masts 1.
The chain 12 in 1 interlocks and drives up and down.

A stopper 22 is provided at the front end of the chain conveyor 2 so as to be able to project and retract with respect to the conveying surface of the chain conveyor 2 by moving up and down by a cylinder (not shown). In addition, at a required position in the article processing apparatus 1, a photoelectric sensor 23 that detects the front article W of the first stage of the two stacked articles arranged in the front and rear on the chain conveyor 2 and the first stage, A photoelectric sensor 24 that detects the article W on the rear side of the eye and a photoelectric sensor 25 that detects the article W on the front or rear side of the second stage are provided.
Each of the photoelectric sensors 23 to 25 is a reflection type sensor including a light emitter / receiver and a reflection plate.
Of the photoelectric sensor 25 crosses the conveying surface of the chain conveyor 2 horizontally, and the optical axis of the photoelectric sensor 25 horizontally crosses the conveying surface of the chain conveyor 2 diagonally.

The operation of the apparatus according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with respect to the step-out processing for stacked articles in upper and lower two steps. First, in the state where the stopper 22 is projected from the transport surface of the chain conveyor 2, two stacked upper and lower stacked articles are continuously loaded from the carry-in conveyor 30, and the front stacked article whose front surface abuts the stopper 22. The stacked article on the rear side is in contact with the rear surface of the rear side. At this time, the optical axes of the photoelectric sensors 23 to 25 are all shielded.

When it is detected that the optical axes of the photoelectric sensors 23 to 25 are all shielded, the chain 12 is driven in the vertical direction so that the engaging member 13 inside the chain 12 has a predetermined height (upper article W). (Slightly below the engaged part of). During this descent, when the engaging member 13 interferes with the engaged portion of the article W, the engaging member 13 swings upward and becomes a non-engaging state,
When it descends to a predetermined height, it becomes in the engaged state again.

When the engaging member 13 reaches the predetermined height and becomes in the engaged state, the chain 12 is driven in the reverse vertical direction to move the engaging member 13 inside the chain 12 to the upper article W. The upper article W is lifted by engaging with the engaged portion of.

While the upper article W is lifted by the engaging member 13, the chain conveyor 2 is driven to drive the lower article W.
After being carried out to the carry-out conveyor 31, the engaging member 13 is lowered until the upper article W is placed on the chain conveyor 2.

When the upper article W is placed on the chain conveyor 2, the article W is driven by driving the chain conveyor 2.
Are carried out to the carry-out conveyor 31. The chain 12 continues to be driven even after the upper article W is placed on the chain conveyor 2, and the two engaging members 13 in the pair of front and rear chains 12 are located at the top and bottom of the moving path. And wait.

After that, the next two stacked articles are carried in from the carry-in conveyor 30 and the same unstacking process is performed. In the above example, the destacking process for the two stacked products in the upper and lower two stages has been described, but the destacking process for three or more stacked products in the front and back, the destacking process for three or more upper and lower stages, or the single stack It goes without saying that the stacking process of carrying in the articles and carrying out the stacked articles of a plurality of stages can also be performed.

[0028]

The present invention is configured as described above.
The following effects are obtained. According to the invention described in claim 1, the engaging member is vertically swingable so as to be engaged or disengaged with respect to the engaged portion of the article, and only when an external force is applied from below. Since it swings upwards to the disengaged state, it can be engaged with the engaged part of the article without using a separate drive source by lowering it toward the engaged part of the article. (Engaged state). Further, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience of being inefficient because it takes time to open and close the engaging claws and move up and down the lifter as in the prior art. According to the invention described in claim 2, since the plurality of engaging members are provided at intervals in the carrying direction of the carrying means, the stacking process or the stacking process for the plurality of articles arranged on the carrying means is performed. It can be done simultaneously and is efficient. According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the plurality of engaging members move up and down in conjunction with each other, the number of drive sources for moving up and down the engaging members may be small. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the engaging member moves up and down by the endless belt driven in the vertical direction, and the plurality of engaging members are provided for one endless belt. Thus, a plurality of engaging members can be made to act on the articles, and the disassembling process or the stacking process can be efficiently performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a simplified plan view showing an article processing apparatus according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a simplified front view showing the article processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a simplified side view showing the article processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an engaging member portion as viewed from the front.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an engagement member portion viewed from above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 W article 1 article processing device 2 chain conveyor 10 lifting means 11 mast 12 chain 13 engagement member 13a swing shaft 16 sprocket (upper side) 18 sprocket (lower side) 19 support member 19a horizontal projecting piece 21 motor 22 stopper 30 carry-in conveyor 31 Carry-out conveyor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Conveying means for conveying an article to a predetermined position,
And an engaging member that can move up and down and can swing up and down so as to be in an engaged state or a disengaged state with respect to an engaged portion of an article at a predetermined position, and the engaging member is a lower portion. An article processing apparatus that swings upward and is in a disengaged state only when an external force from the device is applied. 2. The article processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the engaging members are provided at intervals in the carrying direction of the carrying means, and the plurality of engaging members move up and down in conjunction with each other. 3. The article processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the engaging member is moved up and down by an endless belt driven in a vertical direction, and a plurality of engaging members are provided for one endless belt.