JPH10291506A - Sorting equipment of agricultural product - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the rate of operation of a plurality of boxing devices on the average. SOLUTION: A sorting device to be used for a sorting and packaging device of agricultural products is provided with a large number of storage conveyors 202 connected to a sorting conveyor 1 to accumulate the agricultural products P in the same sorting division, a discharging device 201 to discharge a corresponding free tray 4 to the storage conveyor 202 to which the sorting division is designated, and a tray feeding device 204 to feed the accumulated free trays 4 to a boxing device 205. The storage conveyor 202 comprises a plurality of groups smaller in number than the total sorting divisions, one boxing device 205 is connected to one group, a plurality of sorting divisions capable of being accumulated for each group are allotted, the sorting division to be accumulated according to the operational condition of the equipment is designated by selecting either storage conveyor 202, and agricultural products are fed by switching connection to the designated conveyor 202 by the tray feeding device 204.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for sorting agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables, which is used for sorting and boxing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, while producing agricultural products such as fruits and fruits and vegetables one by one on a saucer and transporting them on a conveyor, class elements such as weight, size and shape of fruits are measured, and color,
Sorting and packaging by detecting and judging grade elements such as scratches, sugar content, etc., and using a device that sorts agricultural products based on the information on these grades and grades, collects and packs agricultural products by grade and grade. Devices are known.

[0003] In the process for such sorting / judgment, sorting, and packaging, the agricultural products are put on a conveyor and taken out to a measurement stage in order to take out the information for sorting / judgment for each individual agricultural product. Passing, a step of determining the sorting category of the agricultural products based on the detected information, a sorting step of grouping the agricultural products by each sorting section based on the information of the determination result,
A process of sending the agricultural products grouped according to the sorting category to a dedicated packaging stage, and packing the package by a box packing device or manually.

By the way, in such a system, for example, typical “size” as a class element is 3L, 2L,
L, M, S, 2S, 6 grades, grade elements are classified into 5 grades of special (A), excellent (AP), excellent (B), good (BP), average (C) If sorting is performed, the number of combinations (the number of sorting sections) is 30. Therefore, if the equipment for this purpose is simply mechanized and automated, the number of boxing devices to be installed at each of the sorting stages for each sorting category becomes large, which makes the device for sorting and packing agricultural products economically extremely unreasonable. .

[0005] This is explained as follows. That is, in the above case, the agricultural products are not evenly distributed in each of the 30 sorts, but rather have a bias that is close to a normal distribution. Therefore, the operation rate of the box packing device is high in the sorting section with a large distribution amount, but the operation rate of the box packing apparatus is extremely low in the sorting section with a small distribution amount, so that the average operating efficiency of the entire box packing apparatus cannot be increased. For this reason, the processing efficiency is low, and an expensive facility for one agricultural product is required to be expensive. In general, the processing capacity of a box packing device is about 1/3 to 1/5 of the processing capacity of the sorting / judging and sorting processes. Although it is conceivable to install multiple dedicated storage units and box packing equipment, the distribution of agricultural products by consignment brought into the sorting place differs depending on the producer and is usually not uniform. For this reason, it is necessary to provide dedicated storage units and boxing devices for a plurality of sorting sections in response to such a change in distribution. Further, even if the distribution of agricultural products is uneven, the problem of operating the entire box packing device with high efficiency on average cannot be solved.

As a method of solving such a problem, there has been proposed a method of providing a sorting storage section for all sorting sections and linking the sorting section to the packing apparatus, and sending the sorting sections to which agricultural products are frequently sent to the packing apparatus with priority. Yes (4-7884)
No. 7). However, even if the priority is given to packing the agricultural products in the bins that are sent frequently (that is, the distribution is high) as in this method, a considerable number of stagnations will occur in the reservoirs of the various distribution bins. It is necessary to secure a possible margin, and the area of the storage part becomes large. Moreover, since the distribution of agricultural products varies from cargo port to cargo port, the number of sorting categories for which a considerable number of stagnations must be secured in order to be able to cope with the distribution of cargo ports increases, and more and more storage units Area becomes large.

In addition, as described above, since the processing capacity of the box packing device is relatively low compared to the processing capacity of other processes, the amount of stagnation in the storage section of the fixed sorting section increases. It is conceivable to provide a plurality of sorting and packaging devices including a box packing device. In other words, this is a method of reducing the number of agricultural products to be processed per line. According to this, the processing speed is improved, and the amount of stagnation in the storage section is reduced. However, installation of a plurality of sorting / packaging devices requires a large equipment cost per agricultural product, which is economically burdensome, and is advantageous in terms of installation area because the devices are provided in a plurality of systems. Not.

[0008]

As described above, in the conventional sorting and packaging apparatus, the required installation area of the equipment in the sorting place is reduced as much as possible, and the capabilities of various apparatuses used in each process are fully exhibited. As a result, the operating efficiency has been improved, and ultimately, it has not been easy to realize efficient sorting and packaging of agricultural products with little capital investment.

[0009] The cause is a problem peculiar to a sorting apparatus for handling products from an agricultural process, in which sorting categories determined for each agricultural product are distributed like a normal distribution, and the distribution varies depending on the cargo port and is not uniform. Some are as described above.

In addition to the above-mentioned problem of averaging and activating the operation rates of a plurality of boxing devices, it is difficult to simplify the structure of the sorting and sorting equipment for agricultural products, and to reduce the equipment volume and the investment cost. You have a problem. In other words, in the sorting and packaging processing of agricultural products, especially fruits, a cushioning material called a pack (tray pack) is generally used in order to prevent the fruits from coming into contact with each other due to vibration or the like during transportation from the sorting place to a market, etc. For the purpose of packing as much as possible in a common packaging box as often as possible in a box, if the size of the fruit is different, the packing number is, for example, 6 (6
16), 18, 20, 22, 22, 24, 2
Generally, the number of the tray packs is changed to six, but accordingly, the shape of the tray pack laid in the box also differs. In this case, if one boxing device packs and packs fruits of all grades (six types), a packing box in which six different types of tray packs are inserted in advance is prepared in another place, and the boxing position is set. Or a tray pack of each type must be selected and laid in a box each time at a place of a box packing device, which complicates the structure of a device for performing this automatically.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the various problems in the conventional sorting and packaging apparatus described above, and one of the objects thereof is that the ability to judge the sort of agricultural products and the ability to perform sorting are high. However, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for sorting agricultural products, which can eliminate the uneconomical effect of equipment caused by an imbalance in processing capacity in each step, in which the processing capacity in a box packing process is relatively low.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for sorting agricultural products in which the arrangement of various devices and the linkage of operations are devised so that the installation area of the sorting facility can be reduced as much as possible. It is in.

Furthermore, the present invention can improve the overall operating efficiency of a large number of boxing devices on average, and can reduce the required number of relatively expensive boxing devices so as to sort agricultural products. It is another object to provide a device.

[0014] Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to reduce the number of types of tray packs used in one box packing device to the number of ranks of the agricultural products, thereby making the box packing device as simple as possible in structure. The purpose of this is to provide a sorting device.

[0015]

The above object is achieved by the inventions described in the claims.

The invention of the agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention is directed to a sorting conveyor for transporting a tray on which agricultural products for which sorting has been determined for automatic packing are placed, and a large number of branches branched from and connected to the sorting conveyor. Saucer storage section, sorting section designation control means for designating a saucer storage section for accumulating agricultural products belonging to the same sorting section from the branched saucer storage sections, and a designated tray storage section in which the sorting section is designated A tray discharging means for discharging a tray loaded with agricultural products belonging to a corresponding sorting category from the sorting conveyor, and a tray sending means for sending a group of trays accumulated in each tray storage unit to a packaging stage. And a plurality of the packaging stages are provided in a number smaller than the total number of the sorting sections, and the large number of saucer storage sections are provided in a plurality of groups (groups). One packing stage is linked to each of these groups, and the tray sending means is provided for each group, and the feeding of the trays from a plurality of tray storage units belonging to each group to the packing stages associated therewith is controlled. Tray sorting control means, and the sorting section designation control means cancels the designation of the sorting section of the tray storage section each time a group of trays is sent out from the tray storage section, and sets the sorting section to be sent next to the operation status of the equipment. Is newly designated based on

In the present invention, the "sorting" refers to a division in which agricultural products are divided according to class elements such as size and weight, and grade elements such as color and scratch. For example, agricultural products are sorted and packaged only by class. In such a case, it is sufficient that the products are classified by class. Generally, however, they are used for sorting agricultural products by judging the equality and class.

The sorting conveyor measures a class element and a grade element for sorting on a conveyor at the preceding stage (or an upstream side of the sorting conveyor), and places a tray on which agricultural products whose sorting categories are determined are placed in an automatic box for packing agricultural products. For example, it is possible to carry together with a tray on which the agricultural products to be automatically boxed are placed, together with a tray for sending an extraordinary product or the like to a work area for manual packing.
The tray storage section generally refers to a conveyor that is branched from the sorting conveyor and accumulates a certain number of trays, and is usually, but not limited to, provided as a tray storage conveyor using a conveyor. The tray is a tray for carrying agricultural products, generally called a free tray, which is transported without being restricted by a sorting conveyor or a tray storage conveyor.

The sorting section designation control means means for appropriately determining a receiving tray storage section for accumulating agricultural products in a certain sorting section. For example, the sorting section specifying control means may be selected from a number of receiving tray discharging means provided for each receiving tray storing section. Choose one,
A signal for sorting the agricultural products to be discharged is transmitted to the tray discharging means. The tray discharge means is for discharging the tray from the sorting conveyor to the tray storage unit. For example, the tray discharging means detects a sign (for example, a barcode) of the tray being conveyed on the sorting conveyor and outputs the designated sorting section. A saucer on which agricultural products are placed is selected and discharged to a saucer storage designated by this sorting category. As the discharging means, for example, a known type which is disposed along a sorting conveyor and performs the above-described operation can be used. The pan discharge means is controlled such that the pans on which the agricultural products belonging to the same classification are loaded are discharged to the pan storage section where the sorting section is designated until the number of pans to be accumulated reaches a predetermined number. A tray sending means for sending out a predetermined number of stacked trays,
The trays are sent out from the tray storage section to the packaging stage.For example, the feeding of the trays is stopped until a predetermined number has been accumulated, and when the predetermined number has been accumulated, the operation status of the automatic box packing device or the like is synchronized. This can be performed at a packaging standby position where the packaging stage of the packaging stage waits in an aligned state suitable for the packaging operation. In the above invention, the “operating state of the equipment” can be typified by the state of accumulation of the receiving pan storage section and the number of times of operation of the receiving pan sending-out apparatus, but is not limited thereto, and is not limited thereto. Situation such as the number of times the boxing device operates the box in the packaging stage to be used.

In the present invention, in addition to the above configuration,
The tray storage unit used for automatic packing among a large number of tray storage units is divided into a plurality of groups, and each group is linked to a packaging stage and each one, and the number of groups of the packaging stage and the tray storage unit is reduced. There is a feature that the number is smaller than the total number of sorting categories. Here, the “linkage” means that the tray storage units in one group are set so as to be able to send out the trays to one common packaging stage. With such a linkage relationship, one packaging stage and a plurality of tray storage units receive the linkage switching signal issued from the tray delivery control unit and switch the linkage relationship by the tray delivery unit that performs the switching operation, The trays can be selectively sent from one of the plurality of tray storage sections to one packaging stage. This link switching is performed when the tray sending means of each group receives a link switching signal from the tray sending control means. The number of tray storage sections forming a group is determined in consideration of, for example, the processing capacity of a box packing device for packing trays sent from each group into a plurality of trays smaller than the total number of sorting sections.

The sorting section designation control means in the above invention designates the sorting section of the agricultural products to be accumulated in each saucer storage section, and sends out the accumulated group of saucers to the packaging stage, and designates the designation when it becomes empty. It is released and a new sorting section is designated in the receiving pan storage section. The newly specified sorting category may be the same as or different from the previous one. In addition, the above-mentioned "cancellation of designation and new designation" may be performed for all saucer storage parts, but it does not exclude the case where the sorting category of some saucer storage parts is always fixed (designated) to a fixed one. Absent. Selection of a new sorting category to be specified after the cancellation of the specification includes, for example, information on the operation status of a plurality of packaging devices, presence / absence of another tray storage unit that accumulates accumulated information for each sorting category by sorting / determination Computing device (computer) that selects various conditions and performs comprehensive analysis
The specification can be performed by using.

According to the present invention, it is possible to select and specify the sorting category of the agricultural products to be accumulated in the individual pan storage units.
It is possible to adjust the number of times that each tray storage group is sent to the associated packaging stage, thereby making it possible to use empty tray storage efficiently and to adjust the operation rate of the packing device of the packaging stage. Can be.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned invention, for each group of the tray storage section, a sorting section which can be designated by the sorting section designation control means is selected from all sorting sections and assigned to each group. It is characterized by the following.

In the above description, the term "assignment" means that a sorting section in which the tray storage section in each group can be selectively designated is determined in advance. One or more assortment categories can be assigned to each group. For example, a case where one sorting section is assigned to only one group, a case where the same sorting section is repeatedly assigned to a plurality of groups, and the like can be cited. The number of saucer storage units constituting the group and the number of sorting sections assigned to the group may be the same or different.

An example of the assignment will be described by taking as an example a case where the same number of different sorting sections as the number of the receiving tray storage sections are assigned to one tray receiving section group. A sorting device for sorting (5th grade, 6th grade) agricultural products, each group is composed of 5 saucer storage units, and the group includes 8 sets (the total number of saucer storage units is 4).
0), all the sorting sections are almost equally allocated to the 8 groups (4 × 6 sets + 3 × 2 sets = 30), and then the remaining 10 sorting sections are allocated to the remaining tray storage sections. The 10 sorting categories are assigned in order from the one with the highest distribution rate so that the groups do not overlap. This example shows a case where the same number of different sorting sections as the number of the tray storage units are assigned to one tray storage group, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in the five receiving pan storage units in the above example, six or more sorting sections can be assigned to one group so that they can be specified. In this way, for example, a sorting category with a low accumulation speed due to a small distribution of agricultural products is designated to a group having a high packing box operation rate, or a sorting category with a high accumulation speed due to a large distribution. Is specified for a group having a low operation rate of the box packing device, so that the operation rates can be averaged and equalized more easily. Note that the assignment of the sorting category to each group may be changed as necessary.

According to the present invention, each tray storage section can be efficiently used in a state where there is little space, and the operation rate of the box packing device can be improved.

[0027] Further, the sorting categories that may be designated in each group are limited to some groups to which the sorting categories are assigned. For example, according to the type of sorting categories handled by one group, the sorting categories are linked. There is an advantage that the types of tray packs to be prepared in the prepared packaging stage can be limited.

Further, efficient use of the receiving pan storage section can be realized, and adjustment for averaging the operation rate of the box packing device of the packaging stage can be facilitated by selecting a combination of sorting sections assigned to a plurality of groups. .

[0029] The invention of claim 3 of the present application is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 2 or 3, the same sorting division of agricultural products is assigned to a plurality of groups.

According to the present invention, for example, a sorting section having a large distribution ratio can be handled simultaneously by a plurality of groups, and for example, accumulation in a designated pan storage portion which is generally determined by the magnitude of the distribution ratio. By incorporating the difference in speed (high distribution rate and high distribution rate, low distribution rate and low speed) into the designated control, control for averaging the number of times of sending from each group to the packaging stage can be facilitated.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second or third aspect of the invention, each of the groups of the receiving pan storage sections is assigned a plurality of sorting sections smaller than the number of receiving pan storage sections of the group. Features.

According to the present invention, in a situation where the receiving pan storage units in the group accumulate a predetermined number of agricultural products and send them out to the packaging stage, the empty receiving pan storage units in the group are classified into the same sorting section. Can be designated for accepting produce.

[0033] The invention of claim 5 of the present application is characterized in that, in each of the above inventions, the number of sorting sections assigned to each group is smaller than the number of class sections for sorting agricultural products by size.

According to the present invention, the number of types of tray packs to be prepared in the packaging stage associated with one tray storage group can be made smaller than the number of classes, and the configuration of the box packing device and its peripheral devices can be simplified. Can be

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, the sorting classification designation control means monitors the operation rate of each packaging stage and improves each tray so as to improve or average the operation rate of each packaging stage. It is characterized in that the sorting section for discharging the tray to the storage section is designated. As control such as averaging,
For example, there is a method of counting the number of times a group of trays are sent from each group to the packaging stage, and preferentially designating the tray storage units of the group having a small number of times of transmission by the sorting / division designation control means.

According to the present invention, the number of times the trays are sent out from each group is substantially proportional to the operation rate of the box packing device, so that the operation rate of the box packing device can be averaged among the groups.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, the sorting classification designation control means has means for monitoring a pool status (accumulation status) of a large number of tray storage portions, and a pool status of each tray storage portion. The designation of the sorting section to be sent to each tray storage section is performed based on the.

According to the present invention, the operation rate of the box packing device can be averaged among the groups based on the pool state of the receiving pan storage section related to the operation rate of the box packing device.

According to the invention of claim 8, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, each time the tray is sent out, the sorting section designation control means cancels the designation of the receiving tray storage section and the sorting section newly designated in the receiving tray storage section. It is characterized in that the sorting section is designated in the receiving pan storage section so that the sum of the distribution rates of the agricultural products corresponding to the respective sections is substantially equal among the groups.

According to the present invention, the operating rates of the plurality of box packing devices can be increased on average to show a high operating rate as a whole. That is, since the accumulation speed of the trays in which a certain sorting category is accumulated in the designated tray storage section is approximately proportional to the distribution rate of the agricultural products belonging to this sorting category, the sum (sum) of the distribution rates of the designated sorting categories is added. By controlling the designation of each pan storage unit so that is equalized among all groups, an average operation rate can be improved. The control elements (information) for increasing the utilization rate on average include distribution rate information for each sorting category, which is predicted in advance (such as the result of the previous day or the previous year), and one consignment. Various information can be used as needed, such as information on a state after a predetermined time from the start of the process.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the sorting classification designation control means cancels the designation of the tray storage portion each time a tray is sent out from the tray storage portion, and then has two or more tray storage portions to be fed next. Priority is given to the empty pan storage section first, or to the pan storage section with the lower occupancy rate of the packaging stage. Features.

According to the above arrangement, the operation of the receiving pan storage section is averaged by giving priority to the previously empty receiving pan storage section,
It is possible to indirectly average the operation rate of the packaging device, and directly average the operation rate of the packaging device by giving priority to a packaging stage having a low operation rate.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sorting apparatus for sorting agricultural products, which transports a tray on which agricultural products for which automatic sorting is performed are loaded, and an agricultural product belonging to the same sorting category. A large number of saucer reservoirs branched from and connected to the sorting conveyor, and a saucer discharge means for ejecting a saucer on which the agricultural products belonging to the corresponding sorting category are placed for the saucer storing section whose sorting category is specified in advance. A tray sending device that sends a group of trays accumulated in each tray storage unit to a packaging stage, and a tray sorting device, wherein a plurality of the packaging stages are provided in a number smaller than the total number of the sorting sections, A large number of tray storage units are divided into a plurality of groups, and one of these groups is associated with one packaging stage, and the tray sending means is provided for each group. In both cases, there is provided a tray sending control means for controlling the sending of the trays from the plurality of tray storage sections belonging to each group to the packaging stage associated therewith, and each group is provided with a plurality of sorting sections among all sorting sections for automatic box packing. Is assigned.

According to the present invention, the combinations of the sorting divisions assigned to the plurality of groups of the receiving pan storage units associated with one packaging stage are set so that the operation rates of the boxing devices of each packaging stage are averaged. By making a selection, the overall operation rate can be improved.

The invention of claim 11 of the present application is directed to claim 1
0, wherein the sum of the distribution rates of the agricultural products corresponding to the plurality of sorting categories assigned to each group is set so as to be substantially equal between the groups.

According to the present invention, it is possible to average the operating rates of the respective boxing devices by a simple combination of averaging the sum of the distribution rates.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, the tray receiving control means sets the tray on the packaging stage each time the number of trays in the number of packaging units to be packed in one packaging box is accumulated in the tray storage part. It is characterized by sending out.

The number of trays on which agricultural products of the same sorting category are successively accumulated in the tray storage section is not necessarily limited to the number of packaging units per box. In the method of re-designating the sorting category for each part, it is necessary to set the number of collections to the number of packaging units per box, so that the amount of stagnation in each pan storage unit can be the maximum number of packaging units per box. The area can be reduced. Further, it is preferable because the control operation for redesignating the sorting section is facilitated.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, the delivery of the tray from the tray storage portion to the packaging stage is performed by a box-packing device. Is performed.

In order to send the trays to the box standby position where the trays are aligned, for example, the trays are sent out in a line, or the trays are sent out in a state of being arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of rows in the tray storage section. You can also.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, the tray sending control means designates a tray tray for packing used in the packaging stage in accordance with sending out the tray from the designated tray storage to the packaging stage. A tray pack selection signal to be output.

According to the present invention, in the case where a tray pack supply device for attaching a tray pack to a packaging box, which is attached to a box packing device, is provided, the operation performed by receiving the tray pack selection signal is made more efficient. be able to.

The invention according to claim 15 of the present invention is characterized in that, in each of the above-mentioned inventions, at least the trays on which the agricultural products determined to be sorted for sorting are placed are conveyed on a sorting conveyor, and are connected to the sorting conveyor by branching. A tray discharging means for discharging a tray on which the agricultural product is placed is provided at one manual boxing position.

According to the present invention, when agricultural products do not need to be packed in extraordinary products or the like, or when the worker finishes processing without using an expensive packaging device because the distribution is extremely small. In a case where it is sufficient to perform packaging by work, the sorting and packaging apparatus can be simplified or omitted, and economically advantageous equipment can be provided.

[0055]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a part of a sorting place equipped with a sorting and packaging device for agricultural products provided with a sorting device of the present invention (a path from measurement for sorting and sorting of agricultural products to box packing). This sorting / packaging apparatus is roughly divided into a supply / equivalent grade sorting section for agricultural products, and a branch boxing line (storage section) serving as a receiving / storing storage section for each of the sorted agricultural products. And (3) a sorting / sorting section for discharging to 2 and a box / packing section for packing a group (the number of packing units) of agricultural products sent from the branching / packing line 2 of each of the sorted sorting sections to the packing standby position of the packing stage. And controlling the discharge of the trays (hereinafter referred to as "free trays") to each of the branch boxing lines 2 based on the information of the sorting / sorting of the sorting divisions and other information. Control the delivery to the packaging stage And control means.

In this example, in the agricultural product supply / equivalent class sorting section, the work based on the visual judgment of a relatively inefficient worker is secured, and in the sorting section, the work is mechanical and can be performed at high speed and efficiently. To achieve high-speed processing,
In the box packaging unit, the free trays 4 can be joined or transferred at an appropriate stage in order to satisfy the demands of each processing unit to efficiently operate a large number of box packing devices.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the three work processing units will be described. The above-mentioned agricultural product supply / equivalent class sorting unit, the details of which are shown in FIG. 2, transfers the free tray 4 returned by the return conveyor 51 onto the transport conveyor 52 while transferring the agricultural products on the supply conveyor 57 to the worker. 5
0 is placed on the free tray 4 and the grade (for example, 5 grades such as A, AP, B, BP, and C) is visually discriminated to determine the position of the free tray 4 at the center of the conveyor 52,
The class is moved to predetermined positions at the right middle, right end, left middle, and left end to indicate the grade by tracking. Note that the conveyor 52 of this example is a conveyer provided with crosspieces 521 provided at regular intervals in the conveyance direction, and the crosspiece 521 is provided with a pitching screw 511 having a spiral groove provided at the end of the return conveyor 51. One free tray 4 is provided for each of the divided cells.

Numeral 53 denotes a tracking detection device (camera or the like) for detecting the position of the free tray, which detects the grade of the agricultural product indicated by the tracking by the above. After detecting the tracking, the free tray 4 is moved to the tapered rail 522.
And is passed through the imaging device 54 in a line. The imaging device 54 images the appearance of the agricultural product using a color camera, a sensor camera, or the like, checks the size of each agricultural product by an appropriate calculation method, and ranks (eg, 2L, L1, L2, M,
S, 2S, etc.). Reference numeral 55 denotes a bar code reader that reads different identification marks, for example, bar code numbers, displayed on the free tray 4 one by one. Information for specifying the grade, rank, and free tray 4 of these agricultural products is sent to an arithmetic and control unit 15 (see FIG. 1) constituted by a computer.
It is determined whether the agricultural product placed on the specific free tray 4 belongs to any of the classifications of the same rank, and is recorded in the address memory (recording device) 1513 as classification classification information (barcode No + classification classification) (FIG. 14). This sorting information is used as information for discharging the free tray 4 from the sorting conveyor 1 to the storage conveyor 202.

At the end of the conveyor 52 of the supply / equal class sorting section of this example, the merging mechanism 56 is used to transfer the free trays 4 from the two conveyors 52 to one sorting conveyor 1 for transferring at high speed. They are joined.
That is, the two transport conveyors 52 are arranged side by side at a predetermined interval, and are provided such that both the crosspieces 521 are rotated with a shift of ず れ pitch. For the sorting conveyor 1 which is disposed in the middle of the two conveyors 52 and transfers at approximately twice the speed, the inclined rails 56 are connected via connecting conveyors 561 and 561 each having a beam 5611.
At 2,562, the width is adjusted to merge. The transfer conveyor 561 has a large speed difference between the transport conveyor 52 and the sorting conveyor 1 so that the transfer can be performed smoothly. The connecting conveyor 561 is configured with a crosspiece, and the transfer speed is the same as the transfer conveyor 52 and the sorting conveyor 1. It is set to an intermediate speed of 1.

The free tray 4 on which the agricultural products for which the equal-grade sorting is determined as described above is sent to the sorting section by the sorting conveyor 1.

Next, the sorting section of the sorting and packaging apparatus of the present embodiment will be described.
A grade sorting section is provided in two lines, and a sorting conveyor 1 (2 articles) for transferring the free tray 4 sent from the two-line supply and grade sorting section is separated and stacked in the vertical direction. A large number of branch boxing lines 2 are connected in the horizontal direction corresponding to the sorting conveyor 1 of each upper and lower row,
The branch and box line 2 is constituted by a storage conveyor 202 (see FIG. 3). That is, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the free tray 4 on which the agricultural products for which the sorting division is determined by the supply / equal-class sorting section is transferred by the upper and lower two-stage sorting conveyors 1, 1. 3, as shown in FIG. 4, it is discharged to the storage conveyor 202 which is branched and connected in the lateral direction and forms a receiving pan storage section.

The discharging operation of the free tray 4 by the discharging device (pan receiving means) 201 is performed as follows in this embodiment. That is, the sign (bar code No.) of the free tray 4 is read by the bar code reader 5 (see FIG. 1) arranged on the upstream side along the sorting conveyor 1, and this information is sent to the arithmetic and control unit 15. In the arithmetic and control unit 15, the address memory 1 is stored in a pair with the marker.
Assortment classification information (bar code No.
+ Sorting section) and read this barcode reader 5
The transfer distance (or time) from the arrangement position of the sorting conveyor 1 to the discharge device to the storage conveyor 202 specifying the corresponding sorting section is calculated from the rotation amount of the pulse motor or the like for rotating the sorting conveyor 1, and the information is discharged. It is sent to the emission control device 16 as a first instruction signal (see FIGS. 1 and 14). The discharge control device 16 activates the discharge device 201 when the free tray 4 passes through the position of the discharge device 201. The designation of the sorting category for the storage conveyor, the cancellation of the designation, and the control of the discharge of the free tray by the discharge destination instruction signal will be described later.

In the present embodiment, the storage conveyor 202 described above is used.
Is a box packing standby position 2 of one packaging stage in which a total of eight articles, four upper articles and four lower articles, form a set (group).
03 (see FIG. 4), and in the example shown, eight of these branching and packing lines 2 each comprising a set of eight storage conveyor groups are connected to each of the packing standbys of one packing stage. It is configured to be linked to a position.

Note that the three branch box lines 21 on the right side in FIG. 1 indicate lines for manual packing by the operator. The branching and packing line having the packing standby position for the manual packing operation is, for example, a storage conveyor 202 for the sorting section because only a very small number of agricultural products are distributed.
If it is disadvantageous from the viewpoint of the economy of the equipment even if the box packaging is automated by allocating the above, it is preferably adopted in a case where the waste is discharged to a common line and packed by a worker in a timely manner. Agricultural products that cannot be shipped as extraordinary products do not need to be packaged, so they may be discharged to a non-boxed line and processed collectively. The branch line 22 at the right end in FIG. 1 indicates this line. I have.

Hereinafter, the structure of a set of branch box lines 2 will be described in detail mainly with reference to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4. The branch box line 2 constituting the sorting section is shown in FIG. As described above, the upper and lower discharge devices 201 and 201 for discharging the free tray 4 from the upper and lower sorting conveyors 1 and the upper and lower storage conveyors 202 and 20 for storing the discharged free tray 4.
2. A tray sending device (dish sending means) 204 for sending the free tray 4 from the upper and lower storage conveyors 202 to the box packing standby position 203.

The above-mentioned discharging device 201 is described in, for example,
It can be configured using the discharging device disclosed in JP-A-278848, and is provided independently for each of the upper and lower sorting conveyors 1, 1. In this example, one discharge device 201 stores two lanes (two lines) of a storage conveyor 202.
(2021, 2022 in FIG. 4), the rotary table 2 having a function of sorting the free trays 4 and having a large number of electromagnetic attraction portions 2012 arranged in a circle.
011 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 to discharge the free tray 4 from the sorting conveyor 1.
At a predetermined position so as to turn the surface by suction.
3 to excite the electromagnetic attraction section 2012 of the rotary table 2011, and as described above, the two-lane storage conveyor 202
Excitation is released by the excitation release means 2014 and 2015 of the electromagnetic attraction unit 2012 which is fixedly provided at two predetermined positions for distributing the free tray 4 to the trays 2022 and discharged.

According to such a configuration, for example, in the above-mentioned example, the classification of the size is L
When the agricultural product having the grade A and the grade 1 is passed through the position of the discharge device 201 corresponding to the storage conveyor 202 whose sorting category (L1, A) is designated, the discharge destination instruction signal from the discharge control device 16 is output. When the exciting means 2013 is excited by the above, the free tray 4 on which the corresponding agricultural product is placed is attracted to the rotating table 2011 having the electromagnetic attracting part 2012, and is horizontally moved from above the sorting conveyor 1 according to the rotation of the rotating table 2011. It turns and is discharged to the storage conveyor 2021, for example. Note that the storage conveyor 202 is configured by a belt conveyor, a roller conveyor, or the like.

The operation of the discharge device 201 is controlled by the discharge control device 16 having a built-in local MPU (microprocessor unit) in which a predetermined operation procedure is programmed in advance.

The discharging device 201 and the storage conveyor 2
02 are provided independently for the upper and lower sorting conveyors 1 and 1 respectively. Therefore, in the configuration of the present example, the storage conveyor 202 in each branching boxing line 2 has four upper and lower conveyors.
Two discharge devices 201 are arranged vertically.

Next, a description will be given of a linkage control between the packaging stage for packing and the storage conveyor 202 and a tray delivery device 204 for tray delivery control.

At the transport end position of each of the storage conveyors 202 of the above-described embodiment, a part of the delivery device 204 is formed.
A stopper mechanism 2046 as a storage conveyor gate for stopping the tray free tray 4, and a storage conveyor 20
A swing-switching-type delivery conveyor 2041 that sends out agricultural products from the container 2 to the box standby position 203 is arranged. The stopper mechanism 2046 is constituted by a retractable air cylinder mechanism, and normally acts so as to stop the transport of the free tray 4. On the other hand, when the accumulation status monitoring sensor 2024 provided near the storage conveyor 202 detects that the number of free trays has been accumulated to a predetermined number of one unit of packaging, the accumulation information is calculated and controlled by the arithmetic and control unit. 1
5, the tray delivery control device 18 (see FIG. 14) is operated to switch to a linked state allowing transport between the storage conveyor 202 in which the accumulation is detected and a packing lane 2031 described later, and a group of free trays. 4 is sent to the packaging standby position 203, and the packaging is performed by the operation of the packaging device 205 by the packaging control device 17 (FIGS. 14 and 1).
6).

The above-mentioned box standby position 203 is a position where the packaging unit sent from one of the lanes of a plurality of (eight in this example) storage conveyors 202 of two upper and lower stages included in one branching boxing line 2 A number of free trays 4 are provided as a packing lane 2031 that is arranged in a line for packing and stands by, and a switchable tray sending device 204 that sends out agricultural products is provided from any of the storage conveyors 202. Four feed conveyors 2041 provided in a vertically oscillating manner for feeding the free tray 4 into the box lane 2031; an air cylinder device 2042 for each lane for oscillating these send conveyors 2041; In order to transfer the free tray 4 delivered from the four-storage conveyor 202 via the delivery conveyor 2041 to the box lane 2031, Lateral relay conveyor 2 which extends in direction
043, and a vertical relay conveyor 204 further connected thereto at a right angle and connected to the start end of the box lane 2031.
4. Each air cylinder device 204
In order to send out a group of free trays 4 from either one of the storage conveyors 202 forming a pair up and down, the arithmetic and control unit 15 is switched before the above-mentioned stopper mechanism 2046 is switched to a state in which conveyance is allowed. The drive device (not shown) of the air cylinder device 2042 is operated by the sending instruction signal from the
Sending conveyor 2 with the shaft 2045 on the 043 side as the swing center
041 is swung up and down so that the corresponding storage conveyor 202 and the box lane 2031 are connected to the relay conveyors 2043 and 2044.
Are switched so as to be in a continuous relationship via.

FIG. 4 shows a state in which when the 24 free trays 4 in the number of boxed packaging units are accumulated on the storage conveyor 2021 at the upper right end of the figure, the delivery conveyor 2041 is sent out in a horizontal posture. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the free conveyor 4 in the number of boxed packaging units is sent out from the lower storage conveyor 202 with the delivery conveyor 2041 of FIG. .

The operation of the above-mentioned sending device 204 is driven and controlled by a tray sending control device 18 with a built-in local MPU in which a predetermined operation procedure is programmed in advance.

Next, a description will be given of a work robot as the box packing device 205 and a packaging stage having peripheral devices related thereto.

The free tray 4 sent from the predetermined storage conveyor 202 by the tray sending device 204 as described above is sent onto the box lane 2031 and serves as an empty tray discharge gate provided at the tip of the box lane 2031. Is stopped by the stopper mechanism 2034 of FIG. The stopper mechanism 2034 can be configured in the same manner as the stopper mechanism 2046. At the end of the picking of the agricultural product (or at the point in time when the conveyance is no longer troublesome after picking up), the empty tray discharge instruction signal from the boxing control device 17 is used. The state is switched to a state in which the conveyance is permitted, and after the empty free tray 4 is sent out to the return conveyor 51, the state is returned to a state in which the subsequent free tray 4 is stopped again. The end of the return conveyor 51 is connected to the transport conveyor 52 shown in FIGS.

The packing device 205 is a work robot having a vertically articulated arm mechanism (hereinafter referred to as “work robot 2”).
05 "), and the box standby position 20
The agricultural products P are picked up from above a predetermined number of free trays 4 arranged in a line in the third packing lane 2031 and packed one by one in a cardboard box 6 into which a tray pack (any of 1401 to 1404) is inserted. Works like that.

Further, the box packing device of this embodiment has a size L1
When packing agricultural products of size M into 5 rows x 4 rows (20 in total), when packing agricultural products of size M, 6 pieces x
Since four rows (a total of 24 rows) are packed, the suction cup is provided so as to be able to retract to a retracted position not involved in the pickup so as to cope with the difference in the number of pickups. It has a configuration. Some of such boxed arrangement patterns are shown in FIG.

The details of the working robot 205 of this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 5, and FIG.
A root link mechanism 2052 for performing a parallelogram link motion extends from the front end, and a distal end link mechanism 2053 for performing a parallelogram link motion is connected to a distal end of the root link mechanism 2052 via a hinge that allows rotation about a horizontal axis. Further, a suction cup holder 2054 is connected to the end of this end link mechanism 2053 via a bracket 2055, and the bracket 2055 is vertically moved while always maintaining a horizontal posture by an arm mechanism constituted by these link mechanisms. , Can be moved back and forth.

The above bracket 2055 is shown in FIGS.
As described in detail, the pair of guides 20552 provided on the bracket bottom plate 20551 are slidably movably in the horizontal direction with the rail 20541 provided on the upper surface of the suction cup holder 2054, so that the suction cup holder 205
5 is movably hung in the YY direction of FIG. 5 and the piston rod 20543 of the air cylinder device 20542 assembled on the upper surface of the suction cup holder 2054 is connected to the bracket bottom plate 20551 so that suction is performed. The above Y of the cup holder 2054 and the bracket 2055
The position in the −Y direction can be determined.

The suction cup holder 2054 is provided at the lower part thereof. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
Cup holder 2056 at one end fixed so as not to move in the direction
Moving cup hanging bodies 2 slidingly fitted to rails 20545 provided on the lower surface of the robot so as to be movable in the YY direction.
057 are provided so as to hang the air cylinder devices 20561 and 20571 having piston rods 20562 and 20572 which are driven up and down. At the lower end of the piston rods 20562, 20572, suction cups 20563, 20573 are provided. In addition, as this suction cup, a known suction cup having a flexible bellows for improving the adhesion to the agricultural product to be picked up can be used.

Further, a pantograph mechanism 20547 driven by a servomotor 20546 is provided as an interval changing means in the above seven cup hanging bodies, and the moving cups which are sequentially adjacent to each other with the fixed cup hanging body 2056 as a reference. The interval between the hanging bodies 2057 can be changed.
The details of this means for changing the distance are shown in FIG. 7, and the horizontal position of the fixed cup hanging body 2056 and the moving cup hanging body 2057 furthest away therefrom are determined by the servo motor 2.
By changing the distance between adjacent pairs of the cup hanging bodies between the pair of cup hanging bodies by the pantograph mechanism 20547 while moving the pair of cup hanging bodies by 0546, the space change and the equalization are achieved.

Further, the suction cups 20563, 205
Reference numeral 73 is connected to the blower 7 via a ventilation pipe 2058 in this example. The connection relationship between the suction cup and the blower is shown in the system diagram of FIG.
0563 and 20573 are connected to the blower 7 by way of the ventilation pipe 2058 via the switching valves 8 and 9 on the way. That is, the switching valve 8 is provided in the middle of the ventilation pipe connected to the suction port of the blower 7, and when the circuit is opened, air is sucked into the blower 7 through the ventilation pipe. A negative pressure is generated inside the 20573 to suck and adsorb agricultural products, and in other cases, the agricultural product is closed and the negative pressure in the suction cup is released. The switching valve 9 is provided in the middle of a ventilation pipe connected to the discharge port of the blower 7, and supplies the discharge air (positive pressure) of the blower 7 to the suction cups 20563 and 20573 when the circuit is open.
The adsorbed agricultural product P is released, and in other cases, the agricultural product P is closed and the supply of the positive pressure is stopped. Note that 10
Is a relief valve that acts to adjust the pressure of the positive pressure (discharge air) supplied from the blower 7 to appropriately release the agricultural product P from the suction cup so as not to damage the agricultural product P. 11
Are the air cylinder devices 20561 and 2057 of the cup hanging body
1 is an electromagnetic valve for supplying air through a ventilation pipe 20548.

The operation of the above packaging device is driven and controlled by a packaging control device 17 with a built-in local MPU in which a predetermined operation procedure is programmed in advance.

Next, peripheral devices and the like provided on the packaging stage will be described.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a supply / discharge device for the cardboard box 6. The empty box 6 conveyed by the empty box conveyor 1201 is pushed into the empty box descending device 1203 by the pusher 1202 at a predetermined timing, and the pushed empty box 6 Is lowered, and then the packing position 120 is moved along the arrow shown in FIG. 3 and FIG.
4 is sent. Further, the cardboard box 6 in which the packing of the agricultural products P has been completed is lowered from the boxing position 1204 to the discharge conveyor 1205 by an elevator (not shown), and is conveyed to a predetermined product accumulation place by the product conveying conveyor 1206.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a tray lifting prevention device provided at the box standby position 203, the details of one example of which is shown in FIG. That is, a stopper mechanism 203 is provided in a box lane 2031 constituted by the belt conveyor 20311 and the guide walls 20312 on both sides.
The hook type tray lifting prevention device 13 extends inward from the guide walls 20312 on both sides so that each of the predetermined number of free trays 4 stopped in the package waiting state by 4 can engage with a part of the upper surface thereof. The tray 13 is provided with the agricultural product P by the tray lifting prevention device 13 thus provided.
When the suction trays 20563 and 20573 are sucked and picked up, the free tray 4 can be reliably prevented from lifting up together.

Reference numeral 14 denotes a tray pack supply device. In the processing of the boxed packaging of this example, the thin plastic tray packs 1401 to 140 in which the recesses for placing the agricultural products P one by one are formed in a matrix or in a staggered manner.
4 is used by inserting it into the cardboard box 6, and the work robot 205, which is the means for picking up agricultural products, is also used to insert the tray pack into the cardboard box.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the tray pack supply device 14 includes the above-mentioned box lane 2031, the horizontal relay conveyor 2043, and the vertical relay conveyor 204.
In the space surrounded by 4, there are four types of tray packs 1401
A tray to be picked up, comprising: a rotary receiver 1405 for stacking and mounting the 1404; a support frame 1406 for supporting the mounted stacked tray pack; and a rotator 1407 for rotating the rotary receiver 1405 by 90 °. The rotation of the rotator 1407 between the state shown in FIG. 4 and the state rotated in the arrow direction is performed by a command from the packaging control device 17 so that the stacked body of the pack is positioned on the packaging lane 2031 side. It is made to be performed. In this way, the work robot 205 can select and take out a tray pack that matches a different packing state in the sorting section. Reference numeral 1410 denotes a tray pack refilling work path provided above the box branching line 2 so as to be orthogonal thereto as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 (see FIG. 3). In addition, a predetermined pack (1401 to 1) of the tray pack supply device 14 is used.
In this example, the rotation operation of rotating the tray delivery device 204 to the take-out position includes a signal for operating the stopper mechanism 2046 when the tray delivery device 204 delivers a group of trays from any of the storage conveyors 202. This is performed by outputting a command signal from the packaging control device 17 in synchronization.

As described above, as a group of free trays 4 each having a box of agricultural products loaded thereon are sent to the box packing standby position 203, the articulated work robot 205
Thus, the box packing operation is sequentially performed one line at a time.

An example of this operation is as follows. First, a box packing device (work robot) 205 is loaded on an empty cardboard box 6 sent to the packing position 1204 by the cardboard box supply / discharge device 12. The arm mechanism is operated by driving means (not shown) to the position and posture shown by the solid line in FIG. 3 so that the tray pack 1401 for 24 balls (pieces) is picked up by the suction cup. At this time, the rotator 1407 of the tray pack supply device 14 rotates so that the tray pack 1401 for 24 balls (pieces) is located in a state close to the box lane 2031 (the state in FIG. 4). In addition, as shown in FIG. 10, the tray pack 1401 is picked up by six cup hooks by narrowing the interval between the cup hooks 2056 and 2057 to ensure that the tray pack is picked up. Then, the picked-up tray pack 1401 moves the arm mechanism of the work robot 205 to the position and posture indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 3 and fits it into the cardboard box 6 at the packing position 1204.

Next, the cardboard box 6 in which the tray pack (the tray pack 1401 for the size M in the above state) is inserted at the boxing position 1204 waits, and the box lane 20
In a state where the free tray 4 containing the agricultural product P is stopped at 31, the packaging operation of the agricultural product by the work robot 205 that transfers the agricultural product P from the free tray 4 to the box is started.

At this time, the working robot 205 of this embodiment has a total of 7
Since there are six cup hangers (one fixed cup hanger 2056 and six movable cup hangers 2057), there are six agricultural products P to be picked up and picked up, so only one cup hanger is used. The body is extra. Therefore, fixed cup suspension 2056
The suction cup 20573 of the air cylinder device 20571 of the moving cup suspension 2057 farthest from the
With the intake from 548, it is evacuated and moved upward from the position where it operates for normal agricultural product transfer,
Make sure that it cannot be involved in operations such as transfer. The positions and intervals suitable for picking up and picking up the agricultural products P on the six free trays 4 where the cup hanging bodies 2056 and 2057 are stopped in the box lane 2031 are determined by the air cylinder device 20542. Actuation and pantograph mechanism 20
547. The arm mechanism having the six cup hanging bodies controlled in this way is moved to the position and posture shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG.
A row (six) of agricultural products P is adsorbed and picked up by 3,20573. The floating of the free tray 4 at the time of the picking up is based on the tray lifting prevention device 1 described above.
Blocked by 3.

The work robot 205 for sucking and suspending the picked-up agricultural products P moves the cup hanging bodies 2056 and 2057 to the box packing position by controlling the posture of the arm mechanism, and in the course of this movement, the pantograph mechanism. 2054
By the operation of 7, the adjacent distance between the row of cup hanging bodies 2056 and 2057 is changed to a state suitable for packing. This changed state is shown in FIG. The empty free tray 4 from which the agricultural product P has been picked up is sent out to the return conveyor 51 with the stopper mechanism 2034 retracted. Then, the free tray 4 on which the succeeding agricultural product P is placed is transferred to the box lane 2031 and stopped by the stopper mechanism 2034 that has returned, and waits for the next box packing. Then, the work robot 205 in which the adjacent space of the cup hanging body is widened as shown in FIG.
The packing operation of the agricultural products P in the row is performed.

In the present embodiment, the above operations are performed continuously for four rows as shown in FIG. 12, thereby completing the packing operation for one box.
5 through a product sorting conveyor 1206 to a predetermined product accumulation location. On the other hand, the box packing operation is performed on the next box 6. That is, empty box 6 to boxing position 1204
, A predetermined number of free trays 4 on which the agricultural products P are loaded from the storage conveyor 202 selected to the box lane 2031, and a predetermined tray pack (1401 to
1404), a series of operations such as fitting into the box 6 and picking up and packing the agricultural products line by line are performed. In this case, when packing is performed on agricultural products having a size of L, packing is performed using a tray pack 1043 in an array pattern of 5 × 4 rows. Body2057
It is also necessary to retreat to the same retreat state as the cup hanging body 2057 at the left end, and the packed state of agricultural products is set in a staggered state, and the degree of change in the adjacent distance between the cup hanging bodies is also different. For example, in these change controls, the second cup hanging body 2057 from the left can be retracted only by operating the air cylinder device 20571, and the air cylinder device 20542 is operated line by line for changing the arrangement pattern. To move the suction cup holder 2054 in the YY direction of FIG.
It can be done very simply by adjusting the operation of 0547.

In the present embodiment described above, the arrangement pattern for boxing is 20 balls (pieces) and the case of 24 balls (pieces), but the boxing arrangement pattern is limited to these. Not something. Furthermore, one work robot 205
The number of types of the array pattern of the packaging provided by the package can be one or plural different from the drawing, for example, four types (18
Balls, 20, 24, and 28 balls), four types of tray packs 14
01 to 1404 can be implemented. Further, this arrangement pattern can be various numbers of boxes and arrangement patterns as exemplified in FIG. 13, for example, and any of these arrangement patterns is also shown in FIG. The work robot 205 having the seven cup hanging bodies in a row can be used in common.

An example of the packaging operation of agricultural products by the sorting and packaging apparatus configured as described above is described by assigning a plurality of sorting sections to each branch and packaging line 2 composed of a group of a plurality of storage conveyors 202 (having a large distribution). As for the sorting section, the sorting section is assigned to the plurality of branching and packing lines 2), and the designation of the sorting section for each storage conveyor 202 is canceled each time the accumulated agricultural products are sent to the packing stage, and the sorting conveyor 1 is selected. 14 showing a flow of each signal such as a control signal in a case where a new designation (new designation) is performed when deciding a discharge destination from a plant, a work procedure for determining a sorting category of agricultural products in the same example 15 in a flowchart, and FIG. 16 in a flowchart showing a work procedure from designation of a sorting section to storage bin 202 to packing. The following will be described with.

In the agricultural product supply and grade classification section,
As shown in FIG. 15, while the agricultural products are placed on the free tray 4 and transported by the transport conveyor 52, the above-described grading element measurement by tracking detection of the barcode reader 53 (Step 101: Steps are indicated by S in the figure. The same), class element measurement by imaging with the imaging device 54 (step 102), and detection of an identification mark (bar code No.) by the bar code reader 55 (step 10).
The free tray 4 subjected to 3) is merged by the merging mechanism 56 from the two side-by-side conveyors 52 and transferred to the sorting conveyor 1. The measured equality / class elements are sent to the arithmetic unit 151 of the arithmetic and control unit 15, and the measurement data processing arithmetic unit 1511 performs predetermined image processing on colors, scratches, size, appearance, and the like. After that, the sorting division of the agricultural product is determined by the rank determination unit 1512 (step 104). The information on the individual agricultural products as the determination result is linked to the identification information (bar code No.) of the free tray 4 and recorded in the address memory 1513 of the arithmetic unit 151 (step 105).

It should be noted that the reference data used for determining the classification by the class determination unit 1512 can be set in advance as an equal / class set value 1514 by an external input device 153 such as a keyboard. It can be changed according to.

FIG. 14, which shows each processing unit of the above work procedure as a block, is actually an information detecting means such as a sensor and a camera and a microprocessor incorporating a program for processing an electric signal detected by the information detecting means. It is configured to be processed by a computer with a built-in unit (MPU).

Next, the sorting control will be described.

The free tray 4 on which the agricultural products P for which the sorting has been determined by the above-mentioned equal / class sorting is transported by each of the upper and lower two-stage sorting conveyors 1 while the barcode reader is being read in step 201 in FIG. 5, the barcode No. of the free tray 4 is read, and the recording / reading unit 1515 reads from the address memory 1513 the sorting classification information of the agricultural product recorded in link with the free tray corresponding to the barcode No. (step 202). This information is sent to the discharge / box control unit 1521 of the sorting box control unit 152.

The discharge / box control section 1521 checks whether or not the storage conveyor 202 of the sorting section is designated in step 204 based on the read sorting section information.

When the storage conveyor for this sorting section has already been designated, the corresponding designated storage conveyor 202 (for example, the third conveyor of group 2) is transferred to the discharge device 201 corresponding to the storage conveyor 202 via the discharge control device 16. A discharge destination instruction signal is instructed, and when the free tray 4 on which the agricultural products of the sorting category are transferred is discharged, the free tray 4 is discharged and accumulated (step 205). Then, in step 206, it is checked whether or not the accumulated number of free trays 4 has reached a preset number of accumulations. If the number of accumulations has not reached, the agricultural products of the same sorting category are subsequently placed. Each time the free tray 4 is transported, it is discharged to the designated storage conveyor 202. At this time, the position of the storage conveyor 202 corresponding to the predetermined sorting category is determined in this example by the discharge destination matrix of the storage conveyor 202 corresponding to all the sorting categories specified at that time. It is ensured by storing it in the storage unit 1523 (see FIG. 14). This discharge destination storage unit 1
The data 523 is updated each time the sorting category for the storage conveyor is designated or canceled. In addition, since the number of accumulations differs depending on the sorting category, in this example, the external input device 153 is used.
Input the number of accumulations in each sorting section in the unit accumulation number setting section 15
It is set to 25 and read in step 203.

On the other hand, if the storage conveyor 202 for accumulating the agricultural products of the sorting category corresponding to the sorting category information read from the address memory 1513 in step 204 is not specified, the control is performed for the sorting to the storage conveyor. Move to subroutine for specifying section. That is, when the storage conveyor to be accumulated is not specified, the process proceeds to step 301 to search for a group to which the sorting category in which the agricultural products of the sorting category can be accumulated is assigned. Selects one of the groups (step 302).
However, when there is only one allocation group, one of the groups is selected. Therefore, it is often preferable to allocate the at least two groups even for the sorting division having a low distribution rate. It is checked whether or not there is an empty storage conveyor in the selected group (step 303). If there is no empty, the process returns to step 301 to specify another group.

In the above procedure, when the storage conveyor 202 from which the free tray 4 on which the agricultural products P conveyed on the sorting conveyor 1 are placed is to be discharged (step 304), the sorting classification designation map is updated (step 304). 305)
Returning to step 205, discharge is performed. Then, every time the free tray 4 on which agricultural products of the same sorting category are conveyed is subsequently conveyed, the free tray 4 is discharged to the designated storage conveyor 202.

As described above, one storage conveyor 202 that discharges the corresponding sorting section of the free tray 4 in response to the reading thereof is specified. In the above-described sorting classification designation control for designating the sorting classification for the storage conveyor in steps 301 to 304, the external input device 1 is used.
Information from the group-based sorting section assignment setting section 1522 which presets sorting sections of agricultural products that can be assigned to each branch / packing line 2 (accordingly, the robot (packing apparatus) 205 to which the branch / packing line 2 is linked) by the input to 53; Based on information from the accumulation state storage unit 1524 that monitors the accumulation (pool) state of the storage conveyor 202, one of the groups to which the corresponding sorting section is assigned is selected, and any one of the selected groups is selected. Storage conveyors 202
If there is a vacancy, the vacant conveyor is designated as the agricultural product accumulation conveyor in the designated category. However, when selecting the above group, the operation status of each storage conveyor (frequency of use, It is also possible to select a group based on conditions such as the number of times of sending out, and the operation status (such as frequency of use) of the box packing device. For example, the former is the discharge destination storage unit 152 described above.
In step 3, not only the discharge destination matrix at that time is stored, but also the operation status history is stored and stored, and a group of the storage conveyors 202 that are used less frequently can be preferentially selected. A method of accumulating the number of times of packing operation of the box packing device 205 and preferentially selecting a group of storage conveyors associated with the box packing device with a small number of operation times can be mentioned. In addition, when the storage conveyors that can be assigned are in a plurality of groups, the group that has been emptied first can be preferentially selected.

The free tray 4 from which the sorting section is read and the storage conveyor of the discharge destination is specified is stored in the discharge control device 1
6 via designated storage conveyor 202 (eg, group 2
Of the free tray 4 by instructing the discharge device 201 of the third conveyor, etc.) to the storage conveyor every time the free tray 4 on which the agricultural products of the sorting category are transferred is transferred. The sheets are discharged and accumulated (step 205). The stopper mechanism 2046 disposed at the end of each storage conveyor 202 stops the free tray 4.

At step 206, it is checked whether or not the number of free trays on which the agricultural products to be accumulated on the corresponding designated storage conveyor 202 has reached the number of one unit of packaging.
If the number of units has been reached, the command to discharge the free tray 4 to the third conveyor of the group 2 is stopped in step 207, and the process proceeds to step 208. On the other hand, if the accumulation has not reached the number of one unit, the process returns to step 202 to accumulate the free trays 4 on which the agricultural products of the same sorting category to be accumulated are accumulated on the storage conveyor 202. It should be noted that the number of collections differs according to the difference in the number of boxed packages depending on the sorting category, so the number of collections for each designated category is set in advance in the unit collection number setting unit 1525 by the external input device 153 (step 203). This is as described above.

The free tray 4 accumulated on each storage conveyor 202 according to the discharge command is detected by the sensor 2024.

By accumulating according to the above procedure, when the storage conveyor 202 to be accumulated is specified, when the storage conveyor is not specified, or when the storage conveyor 202 is already specified and is still in the packaging stage. In any case where the free tray 4 is not sent out, all the agricultural products can be accumulated.

Next, the packaging control will be described.

In this example, 20 sorting sections to be automatically boxed out of a total of 30 sorting sections of 6 grades and 5 grades are stored in four separate storages for each of two groups of independent sorting conveyors 1 for each of the eight groups. The conveyors are grouped and connected in a branch, and the upper and lower storage conveyors (4
As described above, each of them is configured to be able to cooperate with the box packing device 205 of one packaging stage.
In addition, three groups of branching boxing lines 21 for manual packing and the branching lines 22 for extraordinary goods, which are responsible for the remaining 10 sorting sections which are not automatically boxed among the 30 sorting sections, are placed on the upper and lower sorting conveyors 1 respectively. Branched independently.

In step 206, the sensor 2
The storage conveyor 202 in which the accumulation of one unit of the box is detected by 024, the discharge of the next tray is stopped in step 207, and then the process proceeds to step 208 to link the conveyor 202 with the box standby position 203 of the packaging stage. Done. In other words, a discharge instruction signal for packing is output from the discharge / packing control unit 1521 to the tray receiving control device 18 of the group to which the storage conveyor belongs, and the stopper mechanism 2046 which is a gate at the end of each storage conveyor can be retracted and sent out. State, and the stopper mechanism 2046 of the other storage conveyor in this group keeps the feeding stopped. Needless to say, the feeding of the free tray 4 by this operation is performed at a timing that does not overlap with the operation of the box packing device 205 performed before that. In addition, an instruction signal for moving the necessary pack to a predetermined position is output to the tray pack supply device 14 in synchronization with the transmission instruction (step 209).

Next, at step 210, a box packing operation signal is instructed to the box packing apparatus 205 to which the corresponding storage conveyor is linked via the box packing control device 17, and the box packing operation is performed. When the packaging operation for one unit of packaging is completed, a packaging completion signal is output to the discharge / packaging control unit 1521.

Further, the storage conveyor 202 from which the free tray has been sent out is ready to accept the next free tray, so that in step 211 the designation of the sorting category is made so that a new sorting category can be designated. Release,
In step 212, a list (sorting category designation map) indicating the history of the sorting category designation is updated. This sorting classification designation map uses, for example, the emission matrix described above,
Can be stored in memory.

In the sorting apparatus of the present embodiment described above, when a plurality of sorting sections are assigned to storage conveyors divided into groups, when the number of sorting sections assigned to one group is the same as the number of storage conveyor strips, Agricultural products of the same sorting category are doubled in one group with less than the number of storage conveyors (for example, one unit of packaging is accumulated on another storage conveyor before it is sent to the packaging stage). To be able to)
In the case where the number of storage conveyors is larger than the number of storage conveyors and the number is repeatedly assigned to a large number of groups, any of them can be adopted, and different effects can be obtained respectively. For example, when assigning a larger number of sorting sections than the number of storage conveyors described above, it is convenient to average the operation rate of the box packing device.

Embodiment 2 This example shows a case where the sorting category of agricultural products discharged from the sorting conveyor 1 is fixedly designated for the storage conveyor 202. For simplicity of explanation, the sorting and packaging apparatus of this example is an apparatus consisting only of the upper sorting conveyor shown in FIG. 1, and therefore, the sending conveyor 2041 is always kept horizontal and does not swing up and down. I do.

In the apparatus of this example, eight groups are each composed of four storage conveyors 202,
One packing device can be selectively linked to these four storage conveyors 202, and the total number of storage conveyors for automatic packing is 32.

Assuming that the classification of the agricultural products to be sorted and sorted for automatic packaging in such an apparatus is 5 for the class and 5 for the class, the number of classifications is 5 × 5 = 25. . In addition to the above, there are a sorting section for manual packing and a sorting section for extraordinary products, but the description thereof will be omitted.

In this example, for example, for 25 sorting sections, one storage conveyor 202 is fixedly designated for one sorting section, and the remaining 7 storage conveyors 202 are assigned to 7 sorting sections in this example, which is expected to have a large distribution. One sort is fixedly designated for each sorting category. By doing in this way, for the sorting section where the distribution rate is high and the agricultural products P conveyed on the sorting conveyor 1 are frequent, the sorting is accumulated by one storage conveyor 202, but is still on the packaging stage after the accumulation of one unit of packaging. Even if the next packaging unit for the sorting section is being conveyed on the sorting conveyor 1 before being sent out, another storage conveyor can be received, so there is little risk of stagnation in the stacking unit. Regardless of the size of the distribution, the next free tray 4 must be
In order to solve the problem in the case where is transported to the sorting conveyor 1, for example, a return conveyor for returning the free tray from an appropriate position to an upstream position of the barcode reader 5 may be provided.

According to the configuration of this example, since the number of storage conveyors forming one group is four, which is less than the number of classes 5 of the fixedly designated sorting section, the number of storage conveyors related to each boxing device is The number of types of tray packs supplied by the installed tray pack supply device is 4 at the maximum, and the configuration of the tray pack supply device prepared for each box packing device can be simplified as compared with the case of targeting five classes.

The combination of the sorting categories of agricultural products fixedly designated to the four storage conveyors 202 of each group can be determined arbitrarily except for satisfying the above-mentioned conditions, and therefore, the distribution ratio (approximately proportional to the accumulation speed) By adopting a combination in which the expected distribution rate is as equal as possible in each group, the operation rate of the box packing device can be averaged.

In this example, a total of 32 storage conveyors 20 were used.
While the sorting category of item 2 is fixedly designated,
The configuration of the first embodiment is applied to all the storage conveyors 202.
Is a system in which the designation is renewed (designation and designation cancellation) every time a group of free trays 4 is sent out. However, the designation is fixed for a part of the storage conveyor 202, and the rest is designated in the first embodiment. And a designation cancellation method.

[0126]

【Example】

Example 1 Using the device of Embodiment 1 described above, 6 classes (2L, L
1, L2, M, S, 2S), 5th grade (A, AP, B, B)
P, C) (the number of sorting bins to be automatically packaged in the test is a total of 20 of L1, L2, M, and S × 5 grades), and produce (apples) having the distribution rate shown in Table 1 below are placed in boxes. Top and bottom 4 of 8 groups of filling devices 205 (No1 to No8)
As shown in Table 2 below, the sorting sections are assigned to the storage conveyors 202 (shown as lines or pool lines in the table), and the number of full sections for each sorting section (class) is set. A test for sorting by time was conducted. The number of agricultural products transferred was 1632.

[0127]

[Table 1]

[0128]

[Table 2]

The number of agricultural products discharged to each storage conveyor 202 by this test and the operation rate of the box packing device 205 associated with each group were examined. The results are shown in Table 3 below.

[0130]

[Table 3]

As can be seen from the results, the operation rate of each boxing device could be maintained on average high (74 to 88%).

The assignment of the sorting category to each boxing device is not limited to Table 2, but may be, for example, as shown in Table 4 below.

[0133]

[Table 4]

In the example of Table 4, for example, the robot 1
2L, L1, L of L, L1, L2, M, S, 2S
For example, the robot 1 is adapted to accept agricultural products of 4 classes of 2L, L1, L2, and M (grades correspond to all), with the five classes of 2, M, and S being set as sorting boxes for automatic boxing. On the other hand, the robot 6 has 2L, L2,
It is designed to correspond to M and S four-grade agricultural products,
Although the contents (classes) of the sorting categories assigned to each robot are not the same, the classes accepted by all robots are the four classes. By doing so, it is possible to prepare and pack four-level tray packs without having to prepare all tray packs of the class (five classes) to be automatically packed at each packaging stage. Can be averaged.

[0135]

According to the invention described in each claim of the present application, it is possible to eliminate the imbalance that occurs because the processing capacity is different depending on the process, such as the sorting processing of the agricultural products, the sorting processing, and the packing processing ability. It is possible to provide an apparatus for sorting agricultural products, the equipment of which can be constructed economically. In addition, since a highly efficient facility can be configured, the installation area of the fruit sorting facility can be reduced, and an agricultural product sorting apparatus suitable for devising a coordination of arrangement of various devices and a coordination of work can be provided. Furthermore, since the overall operation efficiency of a large number of box packing devices can be improved on average, an excellent effect such as the required number of expensive box packing devices can be reduced. In addition, the following various effects can be obtained.

(1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to select and specify the sorting section of the agricultural products to be accumulated in each of the receiving pan storage sections, so that the group of each receiving pan storage section is transferred to the packaging stage associated therewith. The number of times of feeding can be adjusted, and therefore, the empty pan storage section can be efficiently used, and the operation rate of the boxing device of the packaging stage can be adjusted. (2) According to the second aspect of the present invention, each tray storage section can be efficiently used in a state where there is little space, and the operation rate of the box packing device can be improved. Also, the sorting categories that may be specified in each group are limited to some groups to which they are assigned. For example, according to the type of sorting category handled in one group, the packaging stage linked to this The advantage is that the types of tray packs to be prepared can be limited. Further, efficient use of the pan storage section can be realized, and adjustment for averaging the operation rate of the boxing device of the packaging stage can be facilitated by selecting a combination of sorting categories assigned to a plurality of groups.

(3) According to the third aspect of the present invention, a plurality of groups can simultaneously handle a sorting section having a large distribution rate, and for example, a designated receiving tray which is generally determined by the magnitude of the distribution rate. By incorporating the difference in the accumulation speed in the storage section (high distribution rate, high distribution rate, low distribution rate, low speed) into the designated control, control for averaging the number of times of sending from each group to the packaging stage can be facilitated.

(4) According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in a situation where the receiving pan storage section in the group accumulates a predetermined number of agricultural products and sends it to the packaging stage, empty receiving pan storage in the group is performed. Parts can be designated for accepting produce of the same sort category.

(5) According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the number of types of tray packs to be prepared in the packaging stage associated with one tray storage group can be made smaller than the number of classes, and the box packing device and its The configuration of the peripheral device can be simplified.

(6) According to the invention of claim 6, the operation rate of the box packing device can be averaged among the groups based on the pool condition of the receiving pan storage section related to the operation rate of the box packing device.

(7) According to the invention of claim 7, the operation rate of the box packing device can be averaged among the respective groups based on the pool state of the receiving pan storage section related to the operation rate of the box packing device.

(8) According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the operating rates of the plurality of box packing devices can be increased on average to show a high operating rate as a whole. That is, since the accumulation speed of the saucers that accumulate in the designated pan storage section for a certain sorting section is approximately proportional to the distribution rate of the agricultural products belonging to this sorting section, the sum (sum) of the distribution rates of the designated sorting sections is added. By controlling the designation of each pan storage unit so that is equalized among all groups, an average operation rate can be improved. The control elements (information) for increasing the utilization rate on average are estimated in advance (such as the results of the previous day or the previous year).
Various information can be used as needed, such as information on the distribution rate for each sorting category, information on the state after a certain period of time from starting the processing of one consignment.

(9) According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the operation of the receiving pan storage section is averaged by giving priority to the previously empty receiving pan storage section, and the operation rate of the box packing device is indirectly averaged. It is also possible to directly average the operation rate of the box packing device by giving priority to the operation rate of the packaging stage having a low operation rate.

(10) According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the combination of the sorting divisions assigned to the plurality of groups of the receiving pan storage units associated with one packaging stage is determined by the operation rate of the boxing device of each packaging stage. By selecting so as to average, the overall operation rate can be improved.

(11) According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, the operation rates of the respective box packing devices can be averaged by a simple combination of averaging the sum of the distribution rates.

(12) According to the twelfth aspect of the invention, in the method of newly specifying the sorting section for the receiving pan storage section each time the tray becomes empty, the number of accumulations is set to the number of packing units per box. Since the amount of accumulation in each pan storage section can be set to the maximum number of packaging units per box, the required area can be reduced.

(13) According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in order to send the trays to the box standby position where the trays are aligned, for example, the trays are sent out in a line,
It can be sent out in a state of being collected in a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows in the pan storage section.

(14) According to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, when a tray pack supply device for attaching a tray pack to a packaging box is provided, which is attached to the box packing device, the tray pack selection signal is received to execute the operation. Work can be made more efficient.

(15) According to the fifteenth aspect, when the agricultural products do not need to be packed in extraordinary products or the like, or because the distribution is extremely small, the operator can use the expensive packaging device without using an expensive boxing device. When it is sufficient to perform manual packaging after the processing, etc., the sorting and packaging apparatus can be simplified or omitted, and economically advantageous equipment can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an agricultural product sorting and packaging apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing details of an agricultural product supply / equivalent class sorting section of the sorting and packaging apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view showing one of the branch and packing lines of the sorting section of the sorting and packaging apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a front view showing a state where a row of spherical agricultural products is sucked and suspended by a pickup unit having suction pads in a row;

FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a system diagram showing a system for supplying negative pressure and positive pressure to the suction cup and a system for supplying compressed air to the air cylinder device in the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an apparatus for preventing a free tray from rising when picking up agricultural products.

FIG. 10 is a front view showing a state where one tray pack is picked up from a stacked tray pack group by a pick-up means.

11 is a front view showing a state in which a row of ball-shaped fruits and vegetables are sucked and suspended and transferred to a box container by the pick-up means of FIG. 5;

FIG. 12 is a view for explaining a procedure of transferring a ball-shaped agricultural product in a box container repeatedly by a row in a four-row array pattern by a pick-up means.

FIG. 13 is a view exemplifying several states having different arrangement patterns.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining the signal transmission / reception relationship of the first embodiment in which trays transferred by the sorting conveyor are discharged to a storage conveyor to which a predetermined sorting section is assigned and designated, and a predetermined number of the trays are collected and packed in a box. .

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for determining a sorting category of agricultural products based on equality / class determination.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart for explaining an example of specifying a sorting category for a storage conveyor for equalizing the operation rate of a box packing device associated with each group including a plurality of storage conveyors.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sorting conveyor, 2 ... Branch box line (storage part), 4 ... Free tray, 5 ... Barcode reader, 6 ... Box (cardboard box), 7 ... Blower ,
8, 9 ... switching valve, 10 ... relief valve, 11 ...
· Solenoid valve, 13 · · · tray lifting prevention device, 16
... Ejection control device, 17 ... Packing control device, 18.
..Tray delivery control devices, 21 (for manual filling work)
Branch box packing line, 22 ... branch line (for extraordinary goods), 12 ... supply / discharge device (for cardboard box), 12
01 ... empty box transport conveyor, 1202 ... pusher, 1203 ... empty box lowering device, 1204 ... box packing position, 1205 ... discharge conveyor, 1206 ... product transport conveyor. 14 ... Tray pack supply device, 1
401 to 1404: tray pack, 1405 ...
Rotation receiving table, 1406 support frame, 1407 rotator, 15 arithmetic / control device, 151 arithmetic device, 1511 measurement data arithmetic processing unit, 1512
..Equivalent class determination section, 1513 ... address memory,
1514... Etc., class set value, 1515... Record readout unit, 152.
・ Ejection / packing control unit, 1522 ・ ・ ・ Assortment division allocation setting unit by group, 1523 ・ ・ ・ Ejection destination storage unit, 1524
... Accumulation status storage unit, 1525 ... Unit accumulation number setting unit, 153 ... External input device 50 ... Worker, 51 ... Return conveyor, 51
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Pitching screw, 52 ... Conveyer, 521 ... Bar, 522 ... Taper rail, 5
3 ... Tracking detection device, 54 ... Imaging device,
55: barcode reader, 56: merging mechanism,
561: connecting conveyor, 562: inclined rail, 57: supply conveyor, 201: discharge device,
2011 ... rotary table, 2012 ... electromagnetic adsorption part, 2013 ... excitation means, 2014, 2015 ...
.Excitation releasing means, 202 (2021, 2022)
Storage conveyor, 2024: sensor (for monitoring the accumulation status), 203: box standby position, 2031: box lane, 20311: belt conveyor, 20312
... Guide wall, 2034 ... Stopper mechanism, 204
... Tray sending device, 2041 ... Sending conveyor,
2042 ... air cylinder device, 2043 ... horizontal relay conveyor, 2044 ... vertical relay conveyor,
2045: shaft, 2046: stopper mechanism, 20
Reference numeral 5: box packing device (work robot), 2051 ... body, 2052 ... root link mechanism, 2053 ... tip link mechanism, 2054 ... suction cup holder, 20
541 ... rail, 20542 ... air cylinder device, 20543 ... piston rod, 20545 ...
・ Rail, 20546 ・ ・ ・ Servo motor, 20547
... Pantograph mechanism, 20548 ... Vent pipe, 2
055: bracket, 20551: bracket bottom plate, 20552: guide, 2056: fixed cup suspension, 20561: air cylinder device, 20
562 ··· piston rod, 20563 ··· suction cup, 2057 ··· moving cup suspension, 20571 ···
・ Air cylinder device, 20572 ・ ・ ・ Piston rod, 20573 ・ ・ ・ Suction cup, 2058 ・ ・ ・ Ventilation pipe,

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Sadayasu Sato 630 Shinagase-cho, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka Pref.

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A sorting conveyor for transporting a tray on which agricultural products for which sorting has been determined for automatic box packing are placed, a large number of tray storage sections branched from and connected to the sorting conveyor, and the large number of branched trays. Assortment section designation control means for designating a saucer storage section for accumulating agricultural products belonging to the same assortment section from among the saucer storage sections; An apparatus for sorting agricultural products, comprising: a tray discharge means for discharging a placed tray from the sorting conveyor; and a tray sending means for sending a group of trays accumulated in each tray storage unit to a packaging stage. Are provided in a number smaller than the total number of the sorting sections, and the large number of saucer storage sections are divided into a plurality of groups, and one packing stage is provided for each of these groups. The tray sending means is provided for each group, and the tray sending control means for controlling the sending of the trays from the plurality of dish storage sections belonging to each group to the packaging stage associated therewith is provided, and the sorting classification designation is performed. The agricultural product, wherein each time a group of saucers is sent out from the saucer storage section, the designation of the sorting section of the saucer storage section is canceled and the next sorting section to be sent next is newly designated based on the operation status of the facility. Sorting equipment. 2. A sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a sorting section which can be designated by the sorting section designation control means is selected and assigned from all sorting sections for automatic box packing for each group of the receiving pan storage section. Agricultural product sorting equipment. 3. The agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the same sorting category of agricultural products is assigned to a plurality of groups. 4. The agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each group is assigned a plurality of sorting sections smaller than the number of receiving pan storage sections of the group. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein
An apparatus for sorting agricultural products, wherein the number of sorting sections assigned to each group is smaller than the number of class sections for sorting agricultural products by size. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The sorting category designation control means monitors the operating rate of each packaging stage, and designates the sorting category to be sent to each saucer storage so as to improve or average the operating rate of each packaging stage. Sorting device. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The sorting classification designation control means has means for monitoring the pool status of a large number of tray storage units, and specifies the sorting category to be sent to each tray storage unit based on the pool status of each tray storage unit. Produce sorting equipment. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein
Assortment classification designation control means, every time a tray is sent out, the sum of the distribution ratios of the agricultural products corresponding to the classification classification in which the designation of the pan storage unit is released, and the newly designated classification classification,
An apparatus for sorting agricultural products, wherein a sorting division is designated in a saucer storage section so as to be substantially equal between groups. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The sorting classification designation control means cancels the designation of the saucer storage portion each time the saucer is sent out from the saucer storage portion, and then, when there are two or more saucer storage portions to be sent next, the first empty saucer storage portion. A sorting apparatus for agricultural products, wherein a new sorting section is designated by giving priority to the receiving pan storage section having the lower operating rate of the packaging stage. 10. A sorting conveyor for transporting a saucer on which agricultural products determined to be sorted for automatic box packing are placed,
A large number of saucer storage units branched and connected from the sorting conveyor to accumulate agricultural products belonging to the same sorting category, and a tray storage unit for which the sorting category is specified in advance, the agricultural products belonging to the corresponding sorting category. A tray discharging means for discharging a tray on which is placed, and a tray sending means for sending a group of trays accumulated in each of the tray storage units to a packaging stage, comprising: In addition to providing a plurality of trays smaller than the total number of the trays, dividing the large number of tray storage portions into a plurality of groups, linking one packaging stage to each of these groups, and providing the tray sending means for each group, A tray delivery control means for controlling delivery of the trays from the plurality of tray storage units belonging to the group to the packaging stage associated therewith; A sorting apparatus for agricultural products, wherein a plurality of sorting sections are assigned to all the sorting sections for automatic box packing. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the sum of the distribution rates of the agricultural products corresponding to the plurality of sorting categories assigned to each group is set so as to be substantially equal among the groups. Produce sorting equipment. 12. The tray receiving control means according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the tray is sent out to the packaging stage every time the number of trays of one unit packed in a packaging box is accumulated in the tray storage section. Characteristic agricultural product sorting equipment. 13. The tray according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the tray is sent from the tray storage section to the packaging stage at a box standby position where the trays are aligned for the box packing operation by the box packing device. A sorting device for agricultural products. 14. A tray pack selection signal for instructing a tray pack for packing to be used in a packaging stage when sending a tray from a designated pan storage section to a packaging stage according to any one of claims 1 to 13. Output device for producing agricultural products. 15. The tray according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein a tray on which agricultural products determined to be sorted for manual packing is placed is mixed and transported to the sorting conveyor.
An apparatus for sorting agricultural products, comprising a tray discharging means for discharging a tray on which a corresponding agricultural product is placed at at least one manual boxing position branched and connected to the sorting conveyor.