JPH10113623A - Cargo receiving and transferring device for fruit sorting facility - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to put both of the case where fruits are supplied by a container damper 2 to plural systems of sorting conveyors and the case where these fruits are manually placed into practicability. SOLUTION: The transfer beginning end sides of the sorting conveyors 1 are constituted as grade evaluating sections B1 , B2 which sort the articles to be sorted to plural grades by the visual discrimination of grade evaluating persons, transfer the articles to corresponding transferring paths and take over these articles to a succeeding grade sorting section E. The container dampers 3 which automatically supply the cargo receiving containers contg. the articles to be sorted onto prescribed transfer paths while inverting and transferring these containers are connected to the grade evaluating sections B1 , B2 . The device is so constituted that the grade evaluating persons transfer the articles of the different grades among the articles to be sorted on the prescribed transfer paths to these transfer paths. In addition, container standby means for manual placement with which workers sort the articles to be sorted of the cargo receiving conveyors taken over from a line branched from the cargo receiving lines 1 for transferring the cargo receiving containers or the respectively separate cargo receiving lines by each of the respective grades and manually place the articles to be sorted on class sorting sections are installed near the grade evaluating persons. The supply by the container dampers 3 and the supply by the manual placement are made possible with the same sorting conveyors 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a receiving and transferring apparatus in a fruit sorting facility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a sorting facility, fruits to be sorted packed in containers from individual farmers are received and flowed to a sorting conveyor, where they are sorted by grade and class. The sorted fruits stored in the container are transferred to a conveyor by a container damper, or the sorted fruits in the container are directly transferred to the sorting conveyor by hand. In the case of automatic supply using a container damper, fruits whose surface is relatively hard and resistant to impact are selected, while fruits that are directly handed are those whose surface is relatively easily damaged. Conventionally, a container damper and a roller conveyor supply mode are provided in parallel to apply one sorter to a plurality of sortable fruits, but none of them are suitable for fruits whose surface is easily damaged.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks, and sorts selected objects into a plurality of grades by visually judging a grade evaluator at a transfer start end of the sorting conveyor 1. And a class damper 3 for automatically transferring the receiving container containing the objects to be sorted onto a predetermined transfer path while reversing and transferring the container to be sorted into the class evaluator B. The grade evaluator is configured to transfer the sorted objects on the predetermined transfer path to different transfer grades on the predetermined transfer path to the corresponding transfer path, and a load receiving line 1 for transferring the receiving container is provided near the grade evaluator. It is characterized in that a sorting grade evaluation section D is provided, which sorts and sorts the sorting objects of the receiving containers which are branched or inherited from the respective different receiving lines 1 by grade in the grade sorting section. A configuration of the load-receiving device in the fruit sorting facility.

[0004]

Hand placed grade sorting section grading membered to wait D [effects of the Invention are those grades determined when transferring from the container to the sorting conveyor 1 _1, 1 _2, sorted disposed grade line set in advance It is. Thereafter, the fruits placed on the sorting conveyors 1 ₁ and 1 ₂ are taken out to a predetermined discharge port via a grade evaluation section D and a supply / discharge section E, and are manually packed in a cardboard box.

[0005] Therefore, the type of fruit depends on the nature,
You can change the supply state to the sorting conveyor 1 _1, 1 _2, i.e. usually fruits and, since as it can implement the proper use of higher fruit such sorting has been conventionally separately provided conveyor 1 _1, 1 ₂
Can be shared, reducing installation space and equipment costs.

[0006]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A roller conveyor type, having a load receiving section A of the fruit sorting facility as a starting end, and a roller conveyor type receiving line 2 for transferring containers toward the starting end of the sorting conveyor 1;
A container damper 3 is provided at the starting end of the sorting conveyor 1 of the receiving line 2 so that sorted fruits in the container can be supplied at random.

[0007] The starting end of the sorting conveyor 1 is divided into a plurality of transfer paths (six paths in the illustrated example). Of the fruits that are randomly supplied and move on the left and right outermost transfer paths, different grades are placed on both outer sides. It is visually judged by a waiting grade evaluator and transferred to a predetermined transfer path, and is configured in a grade evaluator B. The sorting conveyors 1 are provided in two lines, and are made into sorting conveyors 1 ₁ and 1 _2, and the fruit supplied from one container damper 3 is a belt conveyor 4 that branches and transfers left and right.
5 and supplied to the grade evaluation units B ₁ and B ₂ of each series. Since the structure of each system is the same, the following description will focus on one of the sorting conveyors 1.

Next to the grade selection section B, a plurality of brush bodies 7 having rotating shafts 6, 6,...
7 and a pre-processing machine C provided with a switching conveyer 8 which can feed belt sections of these brushes on the upper side so as to be able to be switched up and down together with the side frames 9 and 9 as required. It is configured to adopt a brush step of performing brush cleaning and moving to the next line while up-down conversion, or to adopt an omission step of skipping this cleaning and moving to the next line.

In the next process of the pre-processing machine C, a hand grade evaluation unit D is connected and connected. This grade evaluation section D has the same number of paths as the grade evaluation section B, and serves as a passage path for the sorting object from the good grade sorting section B. The sorting fruit of the container on the roller conveyor 10 as a hand-held container waiting means is configured to be placed on a predetermined route.
The roller conveyor 10 for container standby is connected to a second receiving line 11 that branches off the receiving line 2.
The receiving line 11 is configured to pass below the conveyer section between the pre-processing machine C and the hand grade evaluation section D. The roller conveyers 10, 10, 10 are branched from three places, and two lines are provided. Are provided along the left and right sides. It should be noted that the container pushing mechanisms 12, 1 are provided at each branch.
3, 13, 13 are provided.

A class evaluation unit E is provided in the next step after the hand grade evaluation unit D. The class evaluation unit E performs computer processing of the fruit diameter and the like from an image obtained by capturing an object to be sorted moving on each conveyor surface with a camera (not shown), and determines which of the predetermined class ranges falls. It is determined almost instantly. The class evaluation unit E is followed by a classification unit F. That is, at a plurality of predetermined positions for each conveyor strip of the sorting conveyor 1, a classifying discharge section for discharging the sorted objects to the classifying conveyors 14, 14,... I have. As an example of the classifying and discharging unit, when the sorting conveyor 1 is configured by a small-width slat receiving plate, there is a rotary solenoid that switches the narrow-width slat receiving plate from a substantially horizontal state in the transporting posture to a downwardly sloping state in the discharging posture. The operation of the classifying discharge unit depends on the detection output of the class evaluation unit E.

The classifying conveyors 14, 14,... Are provided between the left and right sorting conveyors, and are collectively carried to the turntables 15, 15,. In the vicinity of the turntable 15, there are provided tables 16, 16,... On which empty cardboard boxes are put and placed on standby, so that a sorted product on the surface of the turntable 15 can be packed in a box by an operator.

The operation of the above example will be described. When sorting fruits such as kiwi having relatively hard skin and high impact resistance, the fruits are supplied to the sorting conveyor 1 using the container damper 3.
That is, the containers placed on the receiving line 2 are sequentially transferred. The container pushing mechanism 12 passes through the container pushing mechanism and reaches the container damper 3. Here, the container is inverted and transported, and the belt conveyor 4, which branches and transports left and right,
By 5, it is supplied to the grade sorting sections B ₁ , B ₂ which are the starting ends of the two series of sorting conveyors 1 ₁ , 1 ₂ . On both sides of the grade sorting sections B ₁ and B ₂ , grade evaluators are on standby, and while visually judging the sorted fruits that pass the outermost of the plurality of strips, that is, the side closest to the evaluator, different grades Remove the object and transfer it to the specified grade line.

Next, the cleaning material is passed through a pretreatment machine C for cleaning. The pretreatment cleaning course can be omitted by switching the conveyor 8. After passing through the pre-processing machine C, the hand grade evaluation unit D passes as it is and reaches the class evaluation unit E. Here, the external shape is detected by a built-in camera, and any of the classes stored in the computer in advance is determined,
Sorted into classes such as S, M, L. In response to this sorting result, the next classifier performs classification discharge at the corresponding class position,
It falls on the lower classification conveyor surface and is discharged to the turntable 15 side.

In the vicinity of the turntable 15, a boxing worker waits and packs the empty cardboard boxes on the table 16 sequentially. As described above, all the fruits that can be discharged to the sorting conveyor surface by the container damper 3 are handled by the container damper 3, but the skin is relatively soft or the product value is reduced due to scratches caused by collision rolling. For the fruits that are easily damaged, the containers branched and transferred from the receiving line 2 to the second receiving line 11 are operated by the pushing mechanisms 13, 13, and 13.
It is assumed that the container is transferred to the roller conveyors 10, 10, 10 and the container is transferred to the vicinity of the hand grade sorting section D.

[0015] - Rating membered to wait the hand placed grade sorting section D, and grade determined when transferring from the container to the sorting conveyor 1 _1, 1 _2, is intended to screen disposed grade line set in advance . Thereafter, the fruits placed on the sorting conveyors 1 ₁ and 1 ₂ are taken out to a predetermined discharge port via a grade evaluation section D and a supply / discharge section E, and are manually packed in a cardboard box.

Therefore, the type of fruit depends on the nature,
You can change the supply state to the sorting conveyor 1 _1, 1 _2, i.e. usually fruits and, since as it can implement the proper use of higher fruit such sorting has been conventionally separately provided conveyor 1 _1, 1 ₂
Can be shared, reducing installation space and equipment costs. In the above embodiment, the sorting conveyor is configured in two lines, and the supply fruit is distributed to the left and right from the single container damper 3. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the container dampers 20 ₁ and 20 ₂ are separately provided. Provided and each sorting conveyor 1
_1, 1 ₂ to be made to correspond. In this example, two lines of receiving lines 22 ₁ and 22 ₂ are provided from the receiving unit 21.
It connects the infeed conveyor 23 _1, 23 ₂ orthogonal thereto container damper 20 _1, 20 _2. That is,
Load receiving portion infeed conveyor 23 ₂ for supplying the far side of the sorting conveyors 1 ₂ from a structure that leads to the container damper 20 ₂ diving spots below the front of the sorting conveyor 1 _1. Therefore, usually in order to bypass the rear of the container damper 20 _1, load receiving line 22 _2, infeed conveyor 23 ₂
Where should be provided, along with is positioned slightly behind the container damper 20 _1, infeed from the conveyor 23 _2, the above-described configuration, shortening the sorting line entire length Hakare may no less expensive and thus cost. 24 is a conveyor for empty container discharge and transfer, 25 is a product conveyor, and 26 is a sealing machine provided in the middle of the product conveyor 25.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall plan view.

FIG. 2 is an overall side view.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

A: Receiving part, B: Class evaluation part, C: Pretreatment machine, D: Hand evaluation part, E: Class evaluation part, F: Classification part, 1: Sorting conveyor, 2: Receiving line, 3: Container damper,
4, 5 ... belt conveyor, 6 ... rotating shaft, 7 ... brush body,
8 switching conveyor, 9 side frame, 10 roller conveyor, 11 second receiving line, 12, 13 container ejecting mechanism, 14, 14 classifying conveyor, 15, 15 ...
Turntable, 16, 16 table, 20 container damper, 21 load receiving part, 22 load receiving line ₁ ,
23: Infeed conveyor, 24: Conveyor for empty container discharge and transfer, 25: Product conveyor, 26: Sealing machine.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A grade evaluation section B which transfers the starting end side of the sorting conveyor 1 to a plurality of grades by visual discrimination by a grade evaluator, transfers the sorted objects to a corresponding transfer path, and takes over to a subsequent grade sorting section E. In addition, this grade evaluation section B
Connect a container damper 3 that automatically supplies a predetermined receiving path while reversely transporting the receiving container containing the sorted objects,
Among the sorted objects on the predetermined transfer path, the grade evaluator is configured to transfer the objects of different grades to the corresponding transfer path, and, near the grade evaluator, branches off the receiving line 1 for transferring the receiving container. Alternatively, a loading container standby means for sorting containers of the receiving containers inherited from each of the receiving lines 1 in a grade sorting section for each grade and loading the sorted containers on the grade sorting section is provided. .