JPH09234733A - Safety device of roll kneader - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safety device capable of preventing the generation of an accident by detecting that the hand of a worker penetrates into the periphery between rolls by image processing and stopping the rotation of the rolls of a roll kneader in emergency. SOLUTION: A color imaging device 1 is arranged above the nip between two rolls 12, 12 and a specific hue is taken out from the image taken by the color imaging device 1 and characteristics are extracted by an image processing circuit 3 and, as the result of the extraction of characteristics, when a judge circuit 4 judges the appearance of specific characteristics, an operation stop control signal is sent to a drive part 11a to stop the operation of a roll kneader.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a safety device for a roll kneading device used for kneading rubber materials for sealing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Rubber materials for seals used for O-rings and the like are
In the preforming step after blending and mixing the raw materials, the kneading work is performed manually by using a roll kneading device. As shown in FIG. 4, in the roll kneading device 11, the circumferential side surfaces of the two rolls 12, 12 arranged side by side are brought close to each other, and
2 and 12 are rotated so that the peripheral side surfaces facing each other face downward. These rolls 12, 12 are arranged above the tray 14 on the pedestal 13, and both end portions of the rotary shaft are rotatably supported by the side plates 15, 15 erected from both edges of the pedestal 13. ing. Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the rotation shafts of these rolls 12, 12 are rotatably driven by being connected to a motor 17 via a transmission device 16, respectively. At this time, these rolls 12, 12
Is configured so that the side closer to the worker A shown in FIG. 4 rotates faster than the other side. Also, these rolls 1
An electrothermal heater (not shown) is provided for heating inside the units 2 and 12. A partition plate moving bar 18 is provided between the rolls 12 and 12. Then, the two partition plates 19, 19 are inserted into the partition plate moving bar 18 so as to be slidable in the axial direction of the rolls 12, 12.
The sliding position can be fixed by the screw of each grip 20.

A worker A of the kneading work inserts a rubber material B mixed with raw materials from above the roll kneading device 11 into a partition plate 1.
Insert between 9 and 19. Then, the rubber material B is sent downward through the gap between the rolls 12 and 12 as the rolls 12 and 12 rotate, and the roll 12 on the front side having a high rotation speed is rotated.
Is discharged to the worker A side along the peripheral surface of. Worker A
The rubber material B is kneaded by repeating the operation of taking out the discharged rubber material B by hand and putting it between the partition plates 19 from above again. At this time, in order to perform uniform and sufficient kneading, the worker A sequentially winds the discharged rubber material B into a cylindrical shape, and then re-injects the cylindrical rubber material B in the vertical direction. The rubber material B to be discharged is re-input while being sequentially cut with a knife. During this kneading operation, if necessary, the screws of the grip 20 are loosened to separate the partition plates 19,1.
Adjust the interval of 9.

By the way, the gap between the rolls 12 and 12 in the roll kneading device 11 is about several mm even when the rubber material B is kneaded, and 1 mm when finally finished into a thin sheet. The degree is extremely narrow. Therefore, when the worker A holds the rubber material B by hand and puts it between the partition plates 19, 19, this hand is
If the gap between the gears 2 and 12 gets too close, there is a possibility that they are caught in these rotations and are caught in a narrow gap.

Therefore, in the conventional roll kneading device 11, as shown in FIG. 4, the touch bar 21 and the microphone 22 are provided above the rolls 12 and 12. The touch bar 21 is connected with a safety device that detects that the touch bar 21 is operated by a limit switch on the base and shuts off the power supply of the motor 17. Therefore, if the operator A has his or her hand caught between the rolls 12 and 12, if the other hand pushes or pulls the touch bar 21,
The rotation of 12 can be stopped urgently. Further, the microphone 22 is connected to a safety device that detects that a loud voice is input to the microphone 22 and shuts off the power source of the motor 17. Therefore, if the operator A rolls the hands 12, 12,
If you scream between them, roll 1
The rotation of 2, 12 can be stopped urgently.

In some cases, instead of the touch bar 21, an emergency cord is stretched and a safety device for cutting off the power supply of the motor 17 is detected when the emergency cord is pulled.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional safety device, when the worker A feels a danger because his / her hand is caught, or when the operator actually touches the touch bar 21 or the like, If worker A screams due to his or her hand being caught, the rolls 12 and 12 will be brought to an emergency stop, so immediate measures should be taken immediately before a serious accident occurs or immediately after this accident occurs. However, there is a problem in that the occurrence of an accident cannot be prevented in advance.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an image processing detects that the hand of the worker has entered the peripheral area between the rolls and makes an emergency stop, so that the occurrence of an accident can be prevented. An object of the present invention is to provide a safety device for a roll kneading device that can prevent the above.

[0009]

That is, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the safety device of the roll kneading device of the present invention has a structure in which two side-by-side rolls are made to come close to each other and the peripheral side surfaces of these two rolls face each other. In a roll kneading device for kneading a rubber material by rotating both side surfaces downward, a color image pickup device that picks up a peripheral region between two rolls from above and an image picked up by this color image pickup device A filter means for extracting only a specific color tone, an image processing means for extracting a feature of a graphic of a specific color tone from an image extracted by the filter means, and whether or not a predetermined feature appears based on the feature extraction by the image processing means. And a stopping means for stopping the operation of the roll kneading device when the judging means judges that a predetermined characteristic appears. And wherein the door.

According to the means of (1), the color image pickup device picks up an image of the peripheral area between the two rolls, the filter means extracts only a specific color tone from the image, and the image processing means also draws a graphic of the specific color tone. Feature extraction. here,
A specific color tone, such as yellow or green, is a color tone that is hardly included in the wavelength component of the reflected light from the roll or the rubber material,
It is assumed that the worker wears gloves of this color. Then, the figure of this color tone does not appear in the image picked up by the color image pickup device during the normal kneading work, but if the operator's hand inadvertently invades the peripheral area between the rolls, Since the figure of the color-tone glove appears in the image, a predetermined feature appears by the feature extraction of the image processing means, and the presence of this figure can be detected. Then, the operation stopping means stops the operation of the roll kneading device when the determining means determines that the predetermined characteristic appears. Therefore, if there is a danger that the worker may inadvertently bring his hand too close between the rolls during the kneading operation and get caught in the rotation, the rotation of these rolls will be stopped urgently and the occurrence of an accident will be prevented beforehand. it can.

The specific color tone may be any color tone as long as it can distinguish the reflected light from the roll or the rubber material and the reflected light from the operator's hand. Further, in place of the above gloves, a wrist band worn on the wrist or other wearing items may be used, particularly when a particular color tone is such that the reflected light from the bare hand of the operator can be identified. There is no need to use fittings.

Further, the safety device of the roll kneading apparatus of the present invention makes the peripheral side surfaces of two horizontally arranged rolls close to each other, and rotates these rolls so that the peripheral side surfaces facing each other face downward. In a roll kneading device for kneading, an image pickup device that picks up an image of a peripheral region between two rolls from above via a filter that transmits only a specific color tone, and a graphic having a specific color tone from an image picked up by this image pickup device Image processing means for performing the feature extraction, determining means for determining whether or not a predetermined feature appears based on the feature extraction by the image processing means, and rolls when the determination means determines that the predetermined feature appears. An operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the kneading device is provided.

The means in place of the above filter means,
A filter that optically transmits only a specific color tone is used in an imaging device. In this case, the image pickup device does not need to be a color image pickup device because it only needs to take an image of a specific color tone.

[0014]

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

1 to 3 show one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a safety device of a roll kneading device, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a roll kneading device for showing a dangerous area. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing changes in an image picked up by the color image pickup device and an image passed through the filter circuit. FIG.
5, the constituent members having the same functions as those of the conventional example shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a case where a color image pickup device 1 and a filter circuit 2 are used will be described. Further, the specific color tone is defined as yellow or green, which is a color tone that is hardly included in the wavelength component of the reflected light from the rolls 12 and 12 or the rubber material B. In this way, when the specific color tone is set to yellow or green, the operator A
It is necessary to wear the yellow or green gloves 5 and perform the kneading operation of the rubber material B. Note that, instead of the gloves 5, a wrist band to be worn on the wrist or other wearing article can be used. However, when the specific color tone is determined according to the color tone of the bare hand of the worker A or the color tone of the work clothes, it is not necessary to wear such a special wearing article. However, it is better to set a specific color to a unique color such as yellow or green, and require worker A to wear gloves 5 of the same color as well. This makes it possible to reliably identify B and the like, which facilitates subsequent image processing.

The color image pickup device 1 comprises a roll kneading device 11
It is arranged above the rolls 12, 12. Then, the range including the dangerous area C around the rolls 12 and 12 shown by hatching in FIG. 2 can be imaged. The color image pickup apparatus 1 obtains an image of all color tones by separating incident light into RGB three primary colors (red, green and blue) tones by a dichroic mirror and picking up an image by an image pickup device for each color tone. Is. Therefore,
As shown on the left side of FIG. 3, the image captured by the color image capturing apparatus 1 includes the rolls 12 and 12, the rubber material B, and the partition plate moving bar, including the glove 5 attached to the hand of the worker A. 1
Other things such as 8 are also reflected.

The image signal output from the color image pickup device 1 is sent to the filter circuit 2 as needed. Filter circuit 2
Is a circuit for extracting and outputting only a signal of a specific color tone from this image signal. For example, it may be a circuit for extracting only a signal of any one of the RGB three primary colors, or this RGB signal
It is also possible to take out only signals of other color tones in which the three primary colors are combined in appropriate amounts. Therefore, as shown in the right side of FIG.
Only the gloves 5 of a specific color worn on the hand of the person are reflected. When the color image pickup apparatus 1 uses a filter that optically transmits only a specific color tone, only the light-receiving image of the specific color tone is converted into an image signal, so that the filter circuit 2 shown here is unnecessary. Further, in this case, a monochrome image pickup device can be used instead of the color image pickup device 1.

The image signal output from the filter circuit 2 is sent to the image processing circuit 3. The image processing circuit 3 extracts the features of a graphic having a specific color tone from the image signal. Feature extraction is an image processing technique used in the process of pattern recognition, etc. Here, the figures are classified according to the continuity of pixels of a specific color tone, and the area, shape, position, etc. of each classified figure are calculated. The relatively simple process required is sufficient. When the color image pickup apparatus 1 outputs the image signal of the area exceeding the dangerous area C, only the image signal within the area of the dangerous area C is processed.

The result of the feature extraction performed by the image processing circuit 3 is sent to the determination circuit 4. The determination circuit 4 is for determining whether or not a predetermined feature appears in this feature extraction. When a predetermined feature appears, for example, the area of any of the above classified figures exceeds a predetermined value, the shape of this figure matches the characteristics of the human hand, or the position of this figure is more dangerous. There are cases where you are approaching. When the area of the graphic exceeds a predetermined value, it can be determined that the hand of the worker A has fully entered the dangerous area C, and when the shape of the graphic matches the characteristics of the human hand. Can be judged to be the hand of the worker A who has invaded the dangerous area C, and when the position of this figure is approaching a more dangerous place, it can be judged that the risk is definitely increasing. The determination circuit 4 sends a control signal according to the determination result to the drive unit 11a of the roll kneading device 11. That is,
When it is determined that the predetermined feature appears, the drive unit 1
A control signal instructing to stop the operation of the roll kneading device 11 is sent to 1a, and a control signal instructing to continue the operation is sent when a predetermined characteristic does not appear. The drive unit 11a continues the operation of the roll kneading device 11 as it is when a control signal instructing to continue the operation is sent, but when the control signal instructing to stop the operation is sent, the rolls 12, 12 are fed. The operation is stopped by making an emergency stop of the rotation of.
Here, since the main purpose of stopping the operation is to make an emergency stop of the rotation of the rolls 12, 12, the motor 17
Not only when the power source is cut off, but also when the transmission device 16 cuts off power transmission. In order to stop the rotation of the rolls 12 and 12 in an emergency, a braking force by a brake may be applied.

With the above structure, a normal roll kneading apparatus 1
During the kneading operation of No. 1, only the rolls 12, 12 and the rubber material B are reflected in the image picked up by the color image pick-up device 1, so that a graphic having a specific color tone does not appear in the image passing through the filter circuit 2. Therefore, the predetermined feature does not appear in the result of the feature extraction in the image processing circuit 3, and the determination circuit 4 issues a control signal instructing to continue the operation, and the drive unit 11a continues the operation of the roll kneading device 11. To do. However, if the worker A's hand inadvertently enters the area between the rolls 12 and 12,
The color image pickup apparatus 1 also reflects the gloves 5 of a specific color tone worn on the hand of the worker A, and a graphic of a specific color tone appears in the image passing through the filter circuit 2. Then, as a result of the feature extraction in the image processing circuit 3, a predetermined feature appears such that the area of the graphic of the specific color tone exceeds a predetermined value, so that the determination circuit 4 issues a control signal instructing to stop the operation. Drive unit 11
a immediately brings the rolls 12, 12 to an emergency stop. Thus, the operation of the roll kneading device 11 can be reliably stopped before the hand of the worker A is caught in the rotation of the rolls 12 and 12, and the occurrence of an accident can be prevented.

By the way, the worker A, during the kneading work,
There is a case where the screw of the grip 20 is loosened to adjust the distance between the partition plates 19 and 19, and in this case, the hand enters the dangerous area C. However, at this time, the hand of the worker A is the roll 12,
There is no particular danger because it is well above 12 s. Therefore, in this case, for example, while the operation switch provided at the foot of the roll kneading device 11 is being operated, the determination circuit 4
If the drive unit 11a does not stop the operation even if a control signal for instructing the operation stop is sent from the operator, this operation switch is operated only when the worker A performs the adjustment work of the partition plates 19 and 19. Unnecessary operation stop can be avoided by stepping on with a foot. In addition, this partition plate 19, 19
When adjusting, the figure of the hand on the image picked up by the color image pickup apparatus 1 becomes particularly large or the focus is deviated, so the image processing circuit 3 judges these characteristics and the hand is actually touched. It is also possible to distinguish the case where the rolls 12 and 12 come close to each other and a danger occurs.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the safety device of the roll kneading apparatus of the present invention, the danger of the worker's hand getting caught between the rolls is detected in advance and the roll kneading apparatus is used. Since the operation is stopped, a serious accident can be prevented from occurring, and a safe working environment can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a safety device of a roll kneading device, showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention and is a plan view of a roll kneading device for showing a dangerous area.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram illustrating changes in an image captured by a color imaging device and an image that has passed through a filter circuit.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional example and is a vertical cross-sectional side view for explaining the structure of a roll kneading device.

FIG. 5 shows a conventional example and is a plan view of a roll kneading device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Color Imaging Device 2 Filter Circuit 3 Image Processing Circuit 4 Judgment Circuit 11 Roll Kneading Device 12 Roll B Rubber Material

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Katsuya Okamoto 663 Minoshima City, Wakayama Prefecture Mitsubishi Cable Industries Co., Ltd. Minoshima Works

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A roll kneading device for kneading a rubber material by bringing the peripheral side surfaces of two horizontally arranged rolls close to each other and rotating these rolls so that the peripheral side surfaces facing each other face downward. A color image pickup device that picks up a peripheral region between rolls from above, a filter unit that extracts only a specific color tone from an image picked up by this color image pickup device, and a feature of a graphic of a specific color tone from the image picked up by this filter unit Image processing means for performing extraction, determination means for determining whether or not a predetermined feature has appeared based on the feature extraction by this image processing means, and when this determination means determines that the predetermined feature has appeared,
A safety device for a roll kneading device, comprising: an operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the roll kneading device. 2. A roll kneading apparatus for kneading a rubber material by bringing the circumferential side surfaces of two horizontally arranged rolls close to each other and rotating these rolls so that the circumferential side surfaces facing each other face downward. An image pickup device for picking up an image of a peripheral region between rolls from above via a filter that transmits only a specific color tone, and an image processing means for extracting a feature of a graphic of a specific color tone from an image picked up by this image pickup device, Determination means for determining whether or not a predetermined feature appears based on the feature extraction by the image processing means, and when the determination means determines that the predetermined feature has appeared,
A safety device for a roll kneading device, comprising: an operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the roll kneading device.