JPH10139140A - Sorting device, carrier device and tray - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide sorting device which is capable of improving throughput of the whole of the device, a carrier device constituting the sorting device and a tray improving holding force of an article to be placed, without increasing carrier speed of a process to be time constraint factors of a series of devices. SOLUTION: These devices are provided with a plurality of subconveyors 8, 8 for placing fruits 7 on trays 60 by labor of workers 5, a main conveyor 1 which is faster than the subconveyors 8, 8 in carrier speed and is arranged at a proper distance from the terminations of the subconveyors 8, 8 and in which a discriminating part 2 and a sorting part 3 are installed, and conveyors 9, 9 for acceleration which are interposed between the subconveyors 8, 8 and the main conveyor 1, accelerates the trays 60 and fruits 7 transferred from the subconveyors 8, 8, imparts them to the main conveyor 1 and are the same number as number of the subconveyors 8, 8. Further, the trays 60 are made to have constitutions that fruits 7 to be placed are adsorbed and held by reducing pressure by a vacuum pump 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a sorting apparatus in a fruit sorting step for sorting fruits into grades or grades, for example, and a transport device and a tray constituting the sorting apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing the structure of a conventional sorting apparatus in a fruit sorting step. Return conveyors 41, 42, and 43 are sequentially provided at the end point of the main conveyor 1 that extends in a straight line and rotates in the arrow direction. The last return conveyor 43 is disposed so that the end point thereof is connected to the starting point of the main conveyor 1, and circulates in the direction of the arrow so as to be continuously conveyed on a series of conveyors.

The empty trays 6, 6,... Are return conveyors.
After being transferred from 43 to the starting point of the main conveyor 1, two workers 5, 5 arranged immediately downstream of the main conveyor 1 place fruits 7, 7,... On the trays 6, 6,. Each will be placed. The fruits 7 placed on the tray 6 are the main conveyor 1
Discrimination unit 2 which is transported on the upper side and is disposed on the downstream side
Pass through. At this time, the fruit 7 is discriminated by the discriminating unit 2 based on its size or weight by means such as image processing or a weighing mechanism, and the discrimination result is given to the sorting unit 3 which is arranged further downstream on the downstream side. Can be

[0004] The sorting unit 3 separates the fruit 7 from the tray 6 based on the given determination result and stores the fruit 7 in a place corresponding to the sorting unit 3.

The empty tray 6 separated from the fruits 7 by the sorting section 3 is conveyed to the end point of the main conveyor 1 and returned to the starting point of the main conveyor 1 via return conveyors 41, 42, 43.

[0006]

In order to improve the processing capacity of the sorting device, it is necessary to increase the transport speed of the entire device. In the example of the configuration of the sorting device shown in FIG.
Since the placing work on the trays 6, 6,... Is manually processed by the workers 5, 5, the fastest transport speed in this step is generally set at 27 m / min. This is worker 5,
5 is the upper limit of the transport speed that can follow this operation;
For this reason, there has been a time constraint on a series of devices.

By increasing the number of workers 5 and 5, the number of places to be placed increases and the number of places per unit time increases.
Accordingly, the number of processes per unit time in the discriminating unit 2 and the sorting unit 3 also increases. However, since the conveyance speed of the main conveyor 1 has the upper limit as described above,
In addition, there is naturally a limit to the number of processes in the sorting unit 3.

On the other hand, when the fruit 7 is placed directly on the conveyor, the fruit 7 is generally rounded, so that the fruit 7 rolls due to the vibration at the time of transportation and is hardly taken into the discriminating section 2. Further, when the placement surface of the contaminated conveyor is set as the background of the image processing of the fruit 7 by the determination unit 2, it is difficult to perform accurate determination. Therefore, conventionally, the above-described problem is suppressed by indirectly placing the fruits 7 on the tray 6 in a tray-shaped tray 6 to place them on the main conveyor 1. Rolling could not be effectively suppressed due to weak holding force.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a plurality of separate works arranged at an appropriate distance from the main conveyer 1 are required to perform a placing operation performed by a worker 5 manually. In parallel on a conveyor. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sorting apparatus capable of reducing the processing time of the entire apparatus without increasing the transport speed of a conveyor on which a loading operation is performed, and a transport apparatus constituting the same. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a tray having a function of holding a fruit by providing the tray with a suction holding function.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sorting apparatus for placing an article on a tray on a conveyor, and discriminating the placed article by a discriminating means based on its attribute.
In the sorting apparatus for sorting the articles by the sorting means based on the discrimination result, a plurality of first conveyors for placing the articles on the tray, and a conveying speed higher than the conveying speed of the first conveyor, Is disposed at an appropriate distance from the end point of the second conveyor, and is interposed between the second conveyor provided with the discriminating means and the sorting means, and the first and second conveyors, and is transferred from the first conveyor. A third conveyor is provided, which is equal in number to the first conveyor and accelerates and supplies the trays and articles to the second conveyor.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sorting apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the tray has a receiving portion for holding an article on an upper surface, a suction port for sucking the article on a bottom portion of the receiving portion, and an exhaust port on a side surface. , A decompression chamber communicating with the suction port and the exhaust port, respectively, and a sealing valve for sealing the exhaust port. The exhaust port is provided on a first conveyor. A connection port to be connected to the connection port, and a vacuum pump connected to the connection port. It is characterized in that a reduced pressure state is maintained.

[0012] A transport device according to a third aspect of the present invention is a transport device in which a plurality of first conveyors and a transport speed are higher than a transport speed of the first conveyor and are disposed at an appropriate distance from an end point of the first conveyor. 2 conveyors, the same number as the first conveyor,
A third conveyor interposed between the first conveyor and the second conveyor, and assisting acceleration during transfer from the first conveyor to the second conveyor.

In a tray according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the tray for placing articles, a receiving portion for holding the articles is provided on an upper surface, a suction port for sucking the articles on a bottom portion of the receiving section, and an exhaust port on a side face. A decompression chamber communicating with the suction port and the exhaust port is provided therein, and a sealing valve for sealing the exhaust port is provided.

In the sorting apparatus according to the present invention, on the first conveyor, the tray is provided with an article placed on a receiving portion on an upper surface thereof.
By connecting an exhaust port provided on a side surface to the connection port, the pressure in the decompression chamber is reduced by a vacuum pump. The decompression chamber is connected to a suction port provided on the upper surface of the tray,
The suction port is sealed by the article placed on the receiving portion to suck the article. Then, by closing the sealing valve connected to the exhaust port of the tray, the reduced pressure state can be maintained.

The tray holding the articles under reduced pressure has its exhaust port cut off from the connection port, and the first conveyor and the second
After being accelerated to a predetermined speed by the third conveyor interposed between the conveyors, it is sent out onto the second conveyor,
The article is determined by the determination means based on the attribute, and is selected by the selection means based on the determination result.

As described above, since the work of placing articles on the plurality of first conveyors is performed in parallel, a place where more workers can be arranged can be secured, and the articles placed on the tray are Since the discrimination and sorting are performed by the second conveyor that circulates at a higher conveying speed than the first conveyor, the processing capacity is improved. In addition, the articles and trays transferred from the first conveyor are accelerated by the third conveyor, and are transferred to the second conveyor having a higher transport speed than the first conveyor, so that the impact at the time of transfer can be reduced. Further, since the tray is depressurized and holds the article firmly, the rolling of the placed article can be effectively suppressed.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing the configuration of the sorting device according to the present invention.

A return conveyor is provided at the end point of the main conveyor 1 (second conveyor) extending linearly and rotating in the direction of the arrow.
A starting point 41 is provided, and the return conveyor 41 is arranged at right angles to the main conveyor 1. Thereafter, the starting point of the return conveyor 42 is disposed, and the return conveyor 42 is disposed at a right angle to the return conveyor 41 in the same direction. Subsequently, a starting point of the return conveyor 43a is provided, and its end point extends in the direction of the starting point of the main conveyor 1. The starting point of another return conveyor 43b is arranged in the middle of the return conveyor 43a, and its end point is arranged at an appropriate distance from the end point of the return conveyor 43a. The sorting device 12 is installed at a location between the return conveyors 43a and 43b, and has an arm on the upper surface thereof.
The sorting device 12 is configured to sort the tray 60 conveyed on the return conveyor 43a to one of the return conveyors 43a and 43b at an appropriate ratio by rotating the arm portion in the arrow direction. Furthermore, sub-conveyors 8, 8 are provided at the end points of the return conveyors 43a, 43b, respectively.
(First conveyor) are provided in series and provided in parallel with each other. Subsequently, acceleration conveyors 9 and 9 (third conveyor) are respectively provided in series, and their respective end points are turned in a direction in which they can be easily transferred to the main conveyor 1 while being separated from each other by a suitable length. It is located near the upstream end. Each conveyor circulates in the direction of the arrow so as to be continuously conveyed by a series of conveyors having such a configuration, and the main conveyor 1 circulates at a conveyance speed twice as fast as that of the sub-conveyors 8,8.

In the middle of the main conveyor 1, a discriminator 2 is provided.
Is disposed further downstream thereof, and the discriminating section 2 gives the discrimination result to the sorting section 3 having the divided storage locations. The discriminating unit 2 is conveyed on the main conveyor 1, images the articles introduced into the discriminating unit 2 with a camera, performs image processing, and discriminates any one of large, medium, and small based on the size of the article. . The configuration is not limited to such a configuration of the determination unit 2, and a configuration may be employed in which determination is performed based on the weight of the article using a weighing unit such as a weighing mechanism. The discrimination result obtained in this way is given to the sorting unit 3, and based on the result, the sorting unit 3 sorts and stores the articles in a corresponding place.

The sub-conveyors 8, 8 are provided with connecting ports 11, 11,... On both sides of the middle thereof.
11 ... are connected to a vacuum pump 10 installed between the sub-conveyors 8,8.

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view of the tray 60 according to the present invention. A bowl-shaped receiving portion made of an elastic body such as rubber or synthetic resin having a hole having the same diameter as the hole on the bottom of a flat cylindrical tray main body 62 having a hole on the upper surface.
61 is fixed to the upper surface of the tray body 62 with the respective holes aligned. One end of the L-shaped pipe 63 is oriented vertically, and is inserted into the hole from the inside of the tray main body 62, and the same end serves as a suction port 66. The other end projects perpendicularly to the side surface of the tray body 62, and the sealing valve 65 and the exhaust nozzle
It has 64.

Now, two persons are arranged on the respective sub-conveyors 8, 8 in the receiving portions 61 of the empty trays 60, 60,... Transferred from the return conveyors 43a, 43b to the sub-conveyors 8, 8,. ... put the fruits 7, 7..., Which are the articles to be sorted, respectively. Then, when the exhaust nozzle 64 of the tray 60 is connected to the connection port 11 by the worker 5, the space inside the pipe 63 is depressurized by the vacuum pump 10, and as a result, the fruit 7 is sucked from the suction port 66 and received. Part 61
Is adsorbed. The depressurized state is maintained even when independent of the vacuum pump 10 by closing the sealing valve 65. still,
The sealing valve 65 used here only needs to have a function of sealing the gas flowing in and out of the exhaust nozzle 64, and may use a valve that closes itself, such as a check valve.

After closing the sealing valve 65, the tray 60 and the fruit 7 are separated from the connection port 11 by the worker 5 and transferred to the acceleration conveyor 9. When the tray 60 and the fruit 7 are transferred, the accelerating conveyor 9 accelerates to an appropriate transport speed,
The tray 60 and the fruits 7 are sent out to the main conveyor 1 which circulates at twice the conveying speed of the sub-conveyor 8. Thereby, the impact at the time of transfer is lessened than when the transfer is directly performed from the sub-conveyor 8 to the main conveyor 1.

The exhaust nozzle 64 of the tray 60 and the connection port 11
Although the connection work with is performed by the worker 5, the connection work may be performed automatically.

The tray 60 transferred to the main conveyor 1
.. And the fruits 7, 7... Pass through the discriminating unit 2 disposed downstream of the main conveyor 1. At this time, the fruit 7 is discriminated by the above-described method, and based on the discrimination result, the sorting unit 3 arranged side by side on the downstream side separates the fruit 7 from the tray 60 and places the fruit 7 in a corresponding place of the sorting unit 3. Store separately. The separation operation is performed by opening the sealing valve 65 and tilting the tray 60.
May be released to deform the receiving portion 61 to create a gap between the inner surface of the receiving portion 61 and the fruit 7. When a check valve is used as the sealing valve 65, the check is performed by deforming the receiving portion 61 as described above, or by applying an external force to the fruit 7 and the tray 60 to separate them.

The separated tray 60 is placed on the main conveyor 1
Is transferred to the return conveyor 43a via the return conveyors 41 and 42 from the end point of the above. Return conveyor 43a, 43b
The sorting device 12 installed in the place between the trays 60 rotates its arm in the direction of the arrow, thereby
To the return conveyor 43b at an appropriate ratio. In this way, the tray 60 can be moved to any of the sub-conveyors 8,
8 and returned to the initial position.

In this embodiment, the tray for sucking and holding the fruit 7 is constituted by the space inside the pipe 63 as a decompression chamber. It is also possible to make a room. Also,
The receiving portion 61 only needs to have a shape capable of stably adsorbing the fruit 7, and may be, for example, an annular receiving portion instead of the bowl shape.

In this embodiment, the case where the object to be sorted is the fruit 7 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the fruit 7 and is applicable to other articles such as vegetables or eggs. Needless to say.

[0029]

As described above in detail, in the sorting apparatus according to the present invention and the transporting apparatus constituting the same, the fruits 7, 7,... On the trays 6, 6,. Since the mounting work is performed in parallel on the plurality of sub-conveyors 8, 8, the conveying speeds of the sub-conveyors 8, 8 and the main conveyor 1 can be independently set to the optimum conveying speeds. . For example, in the above embodiment, when the transport speed of the sub-conveyors 8 and 8 is set to 27 m / min according to the transport speed that can be followed by the worker, the transport speed of the main conveyor 1 is set to two sub-conveyors 8 and 8. It is also possible to set 54 m / min which is the sum of eight. As a result, it is possible to achieve twice the processing capacity of the conventional apparatus without increasing the conveying speed of the conveyor related to the placing operation described above, and to share a part of the conventional apparatus, thereby realizing space saving. . Further, by increasing the number of sub-conveyors 8 and the transport speed of the main conveyor 1 to three times and four times, the same effect is tripled and four times.

As described above, even if the difference between the transport speed of the main conveyor 1 and the transport speed of the sub-conveyor 8 is increased, the accelerating conveyor 9 is moved to the tray 60 to be transferred from the sub-conveyor 8.
Further, since the fruit 7 is accelerated to an appropriate speed and then sent out to the main conveyor 1, the impact at the time of transfer can be reduced. In addition, since the tray 60 firmly adsorbs and holds the fruit 7, the present invention has excellent effects such as being resistant to the above-described impact and effectively suppressing the rolling of the fruit 7.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a configuration of a sorting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view of a tray according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing a configuration of a conventional sorting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main conveyor 2 Discrimination part 3 Sorting part 4 Return conveyor 5 Worker 6 Conventional tray 7 Fruit 8 Sub-conveyor 9 Acceleration conveyor 10 Vacuum pump 11 Connection port 12 Sorting device 60 Tray 61 Receiving part 62 Tray body 63 Pipe of the present invention (Decompression chamber) 64 Exhaust nozzle 65 Sealing valve 66 Suction port

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shoji Tanaka 64 Ishizukita-cho, Sakai-shi, Osaka Inside Kubota Sakai Works

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sorting apparatus for placing an article on a tray on a conveyor, discriminating the placed article by a discriminating means based on its attribute, and sorting the article by a sorting means based on the discrimination result. , A plurality of first conveyors for placing articles on a tray, and a conveying speed higher than the conveying speed of the first conveyor, and disposed at an appropriate distance from an end point of the first conveyor, A second conveyor provided with a sorting means, and a first conveyor interposed between the first conveyor and the second conveyor, for accelerating trays and articles transferred from the first conveyor and feeding them to the second conveyor And a third conveyor having the same number as the third conveyor. 2. The tray communicates with a receiving portion for holding an article on an upper surface, a suction port for sucking the article on a bottom portion of the receiving portion, an exhaust port on a side surface, and the suction port and the exhaust port inside. A decompression chamber, and a sealing valve for sealing the exhaust port. Further, a connection port provided on the first conveyor and connected to the exhaust port, A vacuum pump connected to the vacuum pump, the vacuum pump depressurizes the decompression chamber to adsorb the articles on the upper surface of the tray, and closes the sealing valve to maintain the decompressed state. The sorting device according to claim 1, characterized in that: 3. A plurality of first conveyors and a transfer speed of the first conveyor
A second conveyor, which is faster than the conveying speed of the conveyor and is disposed at an appropriate distance from the end point of the first conveyor,
The same number as the first conveyor, a third conveyor interposed between the first conveyor and the second conveyor and assisting acceleration when transferring from the first conveyor to the second conveyor is provided. Transfer device. 4. A tray on which an article is placed, a receiving portion for holding the article on an upper surface, a suction port for adsorbing the article on the bottom of the receiving section, an exhaust port on a side surface, and the suction port inside. A tray comprising: a decompression chamber communicating with an exhaust port; and a sealing valve for sealing the exhaust port.