JPH10249286A - Receiving tray for agricultural product sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a receiving tray of such a construction that can be shared for classifying different types and categories of agricultural products in terms of size and shape. SOLUTION: In the receiving tray 1 for an agricultural product sorter, with a recessed part which is dented in the center part of the receiving tray as a storage part for the agricultural product, easily curving and long elastic fin-like pieces 403 which extend inwardly toward the center of the recessed part from a part near the upper edge of its slope are provided at six positions spaced at an almost equal interval in the peripheral direction of the recessed part. At the same time, stopped and short elastic fin-like pieces 4041 -4043 are mounted on the lower sides of the long elastic fin-like pieces 403. Further, the inner ends of the long elastic fin-like pieces 403 are set inside the outer profile of the agricultural product P of a smallest diameter which is intended for selection and stored into the recessed part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the structure of a saucer which can be used for sorting roughly spherical agricultural products such as tomatoes, apples, melons and pears.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An agricultural product sorting apparatus for sorting, packaging, and shipping agricultural products (fruits, vegetables and the like) relates to class elements such as weight and size, or presence or absence of scratches, and quality such as color and sugar content for sorting. It is necessary to check the grading element for each agricultural product. For this reason, it is necessary to load the agricultural products one by one on each saucer and pass them through the measuring position.

[0003] The trays on which one of the agricultural products is placed one by one are connected to a conveyor, or are not connected to a conveyor, and can be freely transferred from, for example, a measuring line to a box sorting line, which is generally called a free tray. In either case, stabilize the posture of the produce to improve the accuracy of the measurement of the class and class elements performed on the saucer, or stabilize the placement so that the produce on the saucer is not damaged. Is required.

[0004] From the viewpoint of stabilizing the attitude and placing state of the spherical agricultural products, a conventionally proposed saucer structure for agricultural products includes, for example, Jikken Sho 61-32.
No. 894 is proposed. In short, the slope formed by the circular agricultural product storage portion in which the center of the dish is depressed is formed by a cushion cover that can be appropriately bent downward. However, with this type of saucer, agricultural products are usually not uniform in shape, so the state of hitting the cushion cover of each agricultural product is not constant, and it may not be possible to support with a stable posture. ing.

[0005] To solve this problem, Japanese Utility Model 7
In JP-A-37746, as shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
02, for example, in the receiving portion 50
The elastic fin-shaped pieces 510 _{1 to} 51 ₁ having a small width on the inner side in the horizontal direction are provided at three positions spaced at equal intervals of 120 ° in the circumferential direction of FIG.
0 ₅ along with stepwise reversed conical slope 501 proposes a pan 5 which is extended number at appropriate intervals. According to the receiving tray 5, a part of a large number of step-like elastic fin-shaped pieces 510 _{1 to} 510 ₅ along the slope 501 (510 _{1 to} 51 in FIG. 6).
0 ₃ and Figure 7, 510 _1), bending the lower contact with agricultural products P of the placed spheres bulk, since the state of so-called three-point support surely and stably be achieved, the conventional proposals Compared with this, it is superior in that the swing movement of the agricultural product P can be effectively prevented.

In order to solve the same problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-89908 discloses a technique disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-377.
Instead of the stepped elastic fins at three points at 120 ° intervals provided on a saucer with an inverted conical slope similar to that of JP-A No. 46 as an agricultural product storage section, it was opened in an eight-shape with respect to the center. We have proposed a saucer with a structure in which a tongue-shaped cushion seat is extended along the inclined surface at the same three points. According to this saucer, a tongue-shaped cushion sheet opened in an eight-shape along the slope,
Since it comes into contact with the placed spherical product and bends so as to open the figure of eight, a so-called three-point support state can be achieved reliably and stably, so that the swinging motion of the produce can be effectively prevented as compared with conventional proposals. Excellent in point.

[0007]

By the way, the present inventor further studied the tray in order to reduce the equipment cost by rationalizing the equipment for sorting agricultural products. And JP-A-8-8
The saucer having the structure proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9908 is excellent in that it is effective in suppressing rocking, which is a cause of damaging agricultural products and degrading the measurement accuracy of classes and grades, but has limited versatility. The problem was found.

[0008] That is, these conventional saucers are suitable for placing agricultural products having no extreme difference in shape and size. There is a limit to sharing one type of saucer for a variety of different agricultural products. In addition, it is necessary to collectively handle, for example, tomatoes such as Momotaro and first tomato from a large one having an outer shape of 120 mm to 150 mm (3 L) to a small one having an outer shape of about 40 mm (3S), even for the same product. Nevertheless, there is a limit to the stable support of these large and small tomatoes in the saucer of the above structure.

The limitation of the above-mentioned common use is that, for example, a structure suitable for stable mounting is different between a relatively flat-shaped agricultural product and a vertically-oriented agricultural product having a height higher than a horizontal dimension. Therefore, it is difficult to share the same standard saucer,
Another example is that it is difficult to share a saucer of the same standard even when the sizes of agricultural products (for example, melon and tomato) having different harvest times are considerably different.

[0010] However, even if the sizes are considerably different, the saucer having a structure capable of stably supporting these agricultural products is effective in the above-mentioned tomato sort processing such as Momotaro and first tomato. Can be used to increase the versatility of saucers, and can also be used for sorting agricultural products of different items. This is advantageous in that it is not necessary to replace it in advance, and furthermore, it is possible to mass-produce versatile trays of the same standard, which is extremely advantageous in terms of manufacturing cost. A saucer having a structure that can be used for both flat and vertically long agricultural products is also advantageous for the same reason.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and one of the objects thereof is to be effective for generating scratches and ensuring high measurement accuracy of classes and grades. Another object of the present invention is to provide a saucer having a structure suitable for stably supporting agricultural products by suppressing rocking or the like.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a saucer having a structure suitable for stably supporting large to small agricultural products even when agricultural products handled at the same time in the sorting process include products of considerably different sizes. Is to provide.

Still another object of the present invention is to sort, for example, agricultural products of a plurality of types and a plurality of items having different sizes or shapes because the sorting process is performed at a different time or at a different sorting place and the items to be sorted are different. An object of the present invention is to provide a saucer having a structure that can be shared. Still another object of the present invention is to achieve the object described above, thereby increasing the versatility of the saucer, thereby enabling mass production of saucers of the same standard to reduce the manufacturing cost.

[0014] Another object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for reworking (for example, aligning the slabs upwards) during packing by effectively stabilizing the attitude of the support produce, and the agricultural products that have become extremely popular in recent years. It is an object of the present invention to provide a so-called free tray type saucer effective for automatic box packing.

[0015]

The above objects are achieved by the invention described in each claim of the present application.

The invention of a saucer for an agricultural product sorting device according to claim 1 of the present application is directed to a saucer for an agricultural product sorting device in which the recessed portion at the center of the dish is a receiving portion for the agricultural product, wherein Easily curvable long elastic fin-like pieces extending inward toward, are provided at every three or more positions in the circumferential direction of the concave portion, and the inner ends of the plurality of long elastic fin-like pieces are provided.
It is characterized in that it is set to be located inside the outer contour of the target agricultural product having the minimum diameter to be accommodated in the recess.

In the above configuration, the tray is applied to a so-called bucket type which is conveyed while being connected to a conveyor, or is used as a free tray which is conveyed without being connected to a conveyor. In the case of free trays, when performing automatic boxing, the posture of the agricultural products on the saucer hardly changes from the position where it was originally placed. This has the effect that it becomes unnecessary.
Considering that most of the ball-shaped agricultural products have a plane circular shape, the concave portion in which the center of the dish forming the accommodation portion for agricultural products is depressed can be a flat circular concave portion in consideration of this. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and in a saucer for agricultural products having a difference between the major axis and the minor axis, the concave portion may be formed into a flat oval or elliptical shape. In addition, the concave portion of the receiving tray may be provided in a generally mortar-like shape as a whole including the long elastic fin-shaped piece and the elastic member on the lower side thereof. In this case, it is needless to say that a long elastic fin-shaped piece or an intermittent portion or a projection for assembling an elastic member described later may be formed on a part of the mortar-shaped slope.

The easy-to-bend long elastic fins are formed using an elastic material such as rubber or synthetic resin. The “easy curve” of the long elastic fins is a condition that the target agricultural product has a flexible property that can be easily deformed according to its outer contour when placed. But,
When the target agricultural product is placed approximately in the center of the saucer, the shape of the agricultural product is deformed according to the outer contour thereof by the weight of the agricultural product,
It is designed in consideration of the degree of its flexibility so as to have an easy-to-curve degree that can exert a restoring force suitable for suppressing the movement due to the swing of the agricultural product. The force that suppresses the swinging of agricultural products cannot be determined uniformly because it is affected by the material of the elastic material, the shape and dimensions of the elastic fins, and the number of trays. The configuration can be easily found. The reason for providing this long elastic fin-shaped piece at every three or more positions in the circumferential direction of the recess is as follows.
This is because the attitude of agricultural products is not stable with two-point support. In this configuration, three or more long elastic fin-like pieces can be provided at substantially equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the concave portion, or a group of two juxtaposed can be substantially formed in the circumferential direction of the concave portion. They can be arranged at equal intervals.

In the above construction, the inner ends of the long elastic fins (at least three) are set so as to be located inside the outer contour of the target agricultural product having the smallest diameter that may be accommodated in the recess. The reason for this is that the weight of the agricultural product supported in the pan is supported by the bottom of the pan, and the swing (rolling) thereof is suppressed by the long elastic fins.

According to the present invention, the agricultural products (large to small agricultural products) placed at the center of the saucer recess are:
Since it engages with at least three or more long elastic fins provided on the pan, its weight is supported by the bottom of the concave portion of the pan and the roll is caused by the elasticity of the long elastic fin. The state is suppressed by the restoring force, and a state in which the posture is stably supported thereafter can be secured. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of scratches and to ensure the high measurement accuracy of the class / grade.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned saucer, the long elastic fin-shaped piece comes into contact with the lower side of the long elastic fin-shaped piece when it is deformed downward by the placement of agricultural products. The elastic member is provided on a slope formed so as to be inclined from the upper edge of the recess toward the bottom of the center of the recess.

The elastic member to which the lower surface of the long elastic fin-like piece having the above-mentioned structure can contact is, for example, a step-like short elastic fin extended inwardly at appropriate intervals along the slope. The case where it is comprised as a shape piece group can be illustrated.

According to the present invention, the degree of easy bending of the long elastic fin can be reinforced and corrected by the elastic member, so that the material and shape of the long elastic fin can be designed. The degree of freedom expands.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in each of the receiving trays, an intermediate dimension of the fins is provided between the long elastic fins and a step-like short elastic fins group below the long elastic fins. The intermediate-length elastic fin-shaped piece is provided so as to extend inward from the slope of the bowl-shaped concave portion.
In each of the trays described above, the long elastic fins are formed from the slope of the pot-shaped recess toward the inner end, for example, by tapering the tip or by gradually reducing the thickness of the fins, It is characterized in that it is provided so as to be easily bent.

With this configuration, the deformability (curvature) of the long elastic fin can be provided so as to be more easily deformed toward the inner end. The long elastic fins are suitably provided so as to extend substantially horizontally. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the elongated elastic fins may be slightly inclined inward.

[0026]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a saucer for an agricultural product sorting apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The tray in the following description describes a free tray type tray that transports agricultural products by placing them on one piece.

Embodiment 1 In this embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5, one pan is a flat circular pan main body 2 made of a rigid body, and is assembled inside thereof to form a generally mortar-shaped slope. And a fin-shaped piece member 4.

The tray main body 2 is made by injection molding of a synthetic resin or the like, and has an annular box-shaped base 201 and a cylindrical peripheral wall 202 extending vertically upward from the base 201.
And a bottom 203 having a central circular opening 204, and upward pins 205 and 206 provided at predetermined positions for assembling and fixing a fin-shaped piece member 4 described later.
As shown in FIG. 2, two upward pins 205 provided on the base 201 and one upward pin 206 provided on the bottom 203 constitute a set of three fin-shaped piece members 4 in total. It is provided to support. Reference numeral 207 denotes an annular iron plate that closes the bottom of the annular box-shaped base 201. In the present embodiment, the reason why the outer periphery of the bottom portion 203 of the tray 1 is the annular iron plate material 207 is that, when the tray 1 is sorted and sorted (branched), for example, electromagnetic adsorption disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-27884. This is because it is suitable when a discharge device of the type is used, and is not particularly limited to this. In addition, the central circular opening 204 of the bottom 203 forms a light passage used for examining sugar content and the like by light transmitted through agricultural products, for example.

The cover member 3 is provided with a mortar-shaped (inverted conical) slope 301 and an upper end grip provided at the upper end of the slope 301 to grip the upper edge of the cylindrical peripheral wall 202 of the tray main body 2. Part 302 and a central opening 204 at the bottom of the pan body 2 provided at the lower end of the slope part 301.
And a lower end hooking portion 303 that is hooked on the inner peripheral edge. In addition, as can be seen from FIG. 2, an opening (notch notch) is formed in the slope portion 301 of the cover member 3 so that the fin-shaped piece member 4 can be assembled with the upward pins 205 and 206 of the tray main body 2. Parts) are provided at equal intervals in six places in the circumferential direction of the tray 1. Reference numeral 304 denotes an annular inner edge piece extending from the lower end of the slope 301 toward the center of the central opening 204 of the tray main body bottom 203, and is used, for example, to prevent small agricultural products from falling off. Such a cover member 3
For example, it is preferable to use a synthetic resin material having a certain degree of elasticity as compared with the saucer body 1.

The fin-like piece member 4 is provided to have the following structure in this embodiment. That is, a slope base 401 having three legs 402 formed at predetermined positions and having downward holes to be inserted into the respective upward pins 205 and 206 of the tray main body 201 from above, and the slope base 40.
A long elastic fin 403 extending inward and horizontally from the upper end of the fin 1 toward the center of the pan, and an inward horizontal from the slope base 401 at a position below the long elastic fin 403. And _three long elastic fins 403 _{1 to} 403 ₃ in a step-like shape extending to
And an intermediate length elastic fins pieces 405 inwardly are horizontally extended from the tapered base portion 401 between the three short resilient fin member 404 _{1-404 3.} In addition, in this example, these fin-shaped pieces 403, 404, and 405 are provided so that the lateral width gradually decreases toward the inner end (extended tip). In this example, the long elastic fins 4
A reinforcing rib 406 is provided below the root portion to reinforce the bending deformability of the root portion of No. 03.

Using the three components of the tray main body 2, the cover member 3, and the fin-shaped piece member 4 having the above-described configuration, first, six notches (not shown) in the circumferential direction of the cover member 3 are cut into the tray main body 2. And is assembled to the pan main body 2 in accordance with the positions of the upward pins 205 and 206. Next, the leg portion 402 of the fin-shaped piece member 4
Is fixed by being inserted into the upward pins 205 and 206 of the tray main body 2 from above.

Thus, the tray 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is completed.

Next, a state in which agricultural products, for example, apples P having different sizes are placed on the saucer 1 having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 shows a case where the apple P placed on the tray 1 of the present embodiment as a sorting target has the largest diameter, and in this case, the long elastic fins 40 are placed by placing the apple P thereon.
3 is relatively flexural deformed downwardly from portions close to the base, the intermediate-length elastic fin piece 405 of the lower along with variations thereof, further deforms deflection short resilient fin member 404 _3. These, while more of the flexural deformation resistance is reinforced in engagement with the elongate elastic fin piece 403 These lower elastic fin pieces 405 and 404 _3, 3 is deformed to follow the outer contour of the apple P The apple P is supported in the state of. The engagement between the long elastic fins 403 and the apple P is performed at six equally-placed positions along the circumferential direction, and a wide contact surface (long Apple P by contact length)
Is stably supported.

In this state, if, for example, vibration or the like acts on the tray 1, the apple P enters the lower part while further deforming the long elastic fins 403 by its own weight, and the apples P come into contact with the long elastic fins 403. The contact surface (length) becomes larger, and the posture becomes more stable.

FIG. 4 shows a case where the apples P to be sorted have an intermediate diameter. In this case,
The flexible elastic fins 403 will be deformed around the middle of the extension length, and the short elastic fins 404 will hardly deform.
Is almost similar to the case where the is placed.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the apples P to be sorted have the smallest diameter. In this case, only the tip (inner end) portion of the long elastic fin-shaped piece 403 is bent and deformed, and the apple P becomes the annular inner edge piece 3 of the cover member 3.
04 and is supported by the end of the long elastic fin-shaped piece 403.

According to the tray 1 of the present embodiment having the above-described configuration, the state of FIG. 4 in which the apples P of an intermediate size are placed is such that the apples P of the same size are placed in the conventional tray 5. The stability of the support state is significantly improved as compared with the case of FIG.
Further, in the state of FIG. 5 in which the apple P of the smallest size is placed, the stability of the supporting state is significantly improved as compared with the case of FIG. 7 in which the apple P of the same size is placed in the conventional saucer 5. You can see that.

[0039] The embodiments of the present invention is not limited to the embodiment 1, for example, additionally provided sponge plate short resilient fin member 404 _{1-404 3} along the slanted base 401 Can be exemplified.

[0040]

As described above, according to the saucer of the present invention, it is possible to effectively suppress the swinging and the like of the agricultural product placed and supported on the saucer, so that the occurrence of scratches is effectively prevented. In addition to the above, it is possible to ensure the high measurement accuracy of the class and the class, and the following effects are obtained.

Even when agricultural products handled simultaneously in the sorting process include those having considerably different sizes, the agricultural products can be stably supported from large to small agricultural products, and the above-mentioned effects can be effectively secured for such agricultural products. .

[0042] The items to be sorted are different due to different times of the sorting process or different sorting places,
Therefore, since it can be shared also when sorting and processing a plurality of kinds and a plurality of agricultural products having different sizes or shapes, the versatility of the saucer is remarkably improved.

Since the versatility of the pan is high, a pan of the same standard can be mass-produced for versatile use, which is extremely useful for reducing the manufacturing cost of the pan.

In addition to these, it can be preferably used as a so-called free tray type saucer suitable for automatic packaging of agricultural products, which has become extremely popular in recent years. This has the effect of eliminating the need for reworking (for example, aligning the feeds upward).

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of a configuration outline of a tray according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the tray.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a case where an apple P having the largest diameter is placed on the saucer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a case where an apple P having an intermediate diameter is placed on the tray.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a case where an apple P having the smallest diameter is placed on the saucer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration outline of a conventional saucer when an apple P having an intermediate diameter is placed thereon.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a case where an apple P having the smallest diameter is placed on the conventional saucer.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Receiving tray 2 ... Receiving tray main body 201 ... Annular box-shaped base part 202 ... Cylindrical peripheral wall 203 ... Bottom part 204 ... Central circular opening 205 ... Upward pin 206 ... Upward pin 3 ... Cover member 301 ... Slope section 302 ... Upper grip section 303 ... Lower end hooking section 304 ... Circular inner edge piece 4 ... Finished piece member 401 ... Slope shape base 402 ... leg portion 403 ... long elastic fin member 404 (404 ₁ to 404 ₃₎ ... short elastic fin piece 405 ... intermediate length elastic fin piece 406 ... reinforcing rib 5 ... Receiving tray 501... Slope 502... Accommodating portion 510 (510 _{1 to} 510 ₅ )... Elastic fins P...

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A saucer for an agricultural product sorting apparatus in which a recessed part at the center of the dish is formed as a storage part for agricultural products, wherein a long, easy-to-curve elongate extends inward from the vicinity of the upper edge of the recess toward the center. Elastic fin-shaped pieces are provided at three or more positions in the circumferential direction of the concave portion, and the inner ends of the plurality of long elastic fin-shaped pieces are smaller than the outer contour of the target agricultural product having the minimum diameter accommodated in the concave portion. A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, wherein the saucer is set to be located inside. 2. The elastic member according to claim 1, wherein an elastic member which is in contact with the elongated elastic fin when it is bent downward due to the placement of agricultural products is provided below the elongated elastic fin. A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, wherein the saucer is provided on a slope formed so as to incline from an upper edge to a bottom of the center of the concave portion. 3. The staircase according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of elastic members provided on the slope so as to be able to contact the lower surface of the long elastic fins extend inward at appropriate intervals along the slope. A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, comprising a group of short elastic fin-like pieces in a shape of a circle. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the long elastic fins and a step-like short elastic fin below the long elastic fins.
A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, wherein intermediate-length elastic fins of intermediate dimensions of these fins extend inward from said slope. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein
A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, characterized in that the long elastic fins are provided so as to be more easily curved from the root to the inner end. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein
A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, wherein the recess of the saucer has a mortar shape, and the recess has a planar circular shape. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein
A saucer for an agricultural product sorting device, wherein the saucer is a free tray that is not connected to a conveyor that conveys the saucer.