JPH11104574A - Bottle sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sort bottles to many kinds, to facilitate the constitution over the entire part of the device and to inexpensively produce the device. SOLUTION: This bottle sorter has a device body 12 which is excited by a vibration machine 11, plural stages of roller groups 13, 14, 15 which comprise plural parallel rollers 51, 53, 56 supported apart prescribed intervals above and below the inner part of the device body 12 and disposed to be capable of transporting the bottles in a longitudinal direction by exciting force and a supplying means which supplies the bottles to be sorted onto the roller group 13 of the uppermost stage. The spacings between the adjacent rollers 51, 53, 56 of the roller groups 13, 14, 15 of the respective stages are set gradually smaller from the roller groups 13, 14, 15 of the upper stages to the lower stages in such a manner that the bottles of the sizes to be sorted are not passed but the bottles of the sizes below the same are passed in the respective stages.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sorting apparatus for sorting, for example, glass bottles by size in the field of packaging container recycling.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, trash that has not been discarded but has been burned has been discarded in landfills. However, since the useful life of garbage landfills in Japan is only a few years, it is necessary to reduce the amount of garbage by actively sorting and collecting resources that can be recycled for recycling. (Three types of glass bottles and PET bottles are subject to the obligation of companies to recycle products under the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law that came into effect in April this year.) Currently, what is collected as recycled resources is ,
Examples include iron, aluminum, glass, plastic (including PET bottles), and paper. Among them, glass bottles are targeted to contain 55% or more recycled materials under the guidance of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. For this reason, glass bottles are being collected at recycling facilities around the country. In order to recycle the glass bottles, it was necessary to collect them in different colors, and manual sorting and collection were the mainstream. However, automatic color sorting equipment began to be introduced from one to two years ago.

[0003] Automatic color selection of glass bottles is performed by image processing. In order to perform automatic color selection with high accuracy, it is necessary to perform image processing with an appropriate visual field suitable for the size of the bottle.

At present, when the bottles to be discarded are classified by size, there are extra-large bottles such as laver and plum wine bottles, large bottles for shochu bottles, middle bottles for beer bottles, and small bottles for drinks.

[0005] Of these bottles, extra large bottles and large bottles account for only a few percent of the number distribution,
Oversized and large bottles are excluded from recycling, and only middle and small bottles are recycled. Therefore, current bottle sorting apparatuses are mainly used for removing extra-large bottles and large bottles from the entire bottle.

As such a sorter, there is known a sorter in which several taper rolls are arranged in parallel at intervals and a bottle is fed from a narrower gap, and the size is sorted by a gap that gradually increases. ing.

[0007]

With the enforcement of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, it has become necessary for local governments to recycle large bottles. However, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, the types of bottles that can be sorted out are small. We cannot respond to requests. Further, in the above-described conventional apparatus, the sorted bottles have to be conveyed in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the tapered roll, so that the configuration of the entire apparatus tends to be difficult to assemble. Further, there is a problem that the processing cost of the taper roll is high.

An object of the present invention is to provide a bottle sorting apparatus capable of sorting bottles into a large number of types, making it easy to assemble the configuration of the entire apparatus, and inexpensively manufacturing the apparatus.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a bottle sorting apparatus comprising: an apparatus main body vibrated by a vibrator; and a longitudinally supported bottle supported by the apparatus main body at predetermined intervals and having a vibrating force. A multi-stage roller group constituted by a plurality of parallel rollers arranged so as to be conveyed to each other, and supply means for supplying a bottle to be sorted onto the uppermost roller group, and The distance between adjacent rollers of the roller group is set so that bottles of the size to be sorted in each stage are not passed, but bottles of a smaller size are gradually reduced from the upper stage to the lower roller group so as to pass. Is what it is.

[0010] According to the above-described apparatus, the number of rollers required for the sorting is sufficient, so that the bottles can be sorted into required types.

The bottles to be sorted are classified into four types: extra large bottles, medium / large bottles, small bottles, and cullet-containing ultra-small bottles. The number of rollers in the roller group is 3, and the first roller group counted from the top is If the oversized bottle is configured to sort medium / large bottles by the second roller group and the small roller is sorted by the third roller group, the bottle sorting apparatus can be adapted to the existing sorting system.

If the outer diameters of all the rollers are formed to be constant over the entire length, the rollers can be manufactured at low cost.

When the rollers of the roller group of each stage are rotated in the same direction for each stage, it is possible to facilitate the smooth passage of the bottle through the gap between the rollers.

In the roller group of each stage, when the roller is rotated clockwise as viewed from one side in the axial direction of the roller, the rotation speed is set so as to gradually increase from the right side to the left side roller. Or, when the roller is rotated counterclockwise, if the rotation speed is set to gradually increase from the left to the right roller,
It is possible to prevent a bottle or a cullet from getting into the gap between the rollers.

The downstream ends of all the rollers in the transport direction are received by bearings, and the bearings have a semi-circular top surface centered on the axis of the roller, and the radius of the top surface is equal to or less than the radius of the roller. In this case, the bottle and the cullet can be discharged from the downstream end of the roller without obstructing the flow.

[0016]

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

In the following description, the front and rear means the front side (left side in FIG. 1) of the bottle to be sorted and which is advanced, and the opposite side is the rear side. The left and right sides are left and right.

Referring to FIG. 1, a bottle sorting apparatus comprises a box-shaped apparatus main body 12 which is vibrated obliquely upward by a vibrator 11 and which is long before and after opening upward and forward, and a predetermined interval vertically inside the apparatus main body 12. Upper and middle and lower roller groups 13,
14 and 15.

The vibrator 11 receives a bottom wall of the apparatus body 12 and is connected to the floating table 21 by a parallel link 22.
It has 23. The parallel link 22 has a damping spring in the middle of its length
Supported on the floor by 24. A stimulating spring 25 is interposed between the upper end of the parallel link 22 and the floating platform 23. On the floating table 23, a motor 26 and an eccentric disk 27 rotated by the motor 26 are provided. The base of a leaf spring 28 is connected to the eccentric disk 27. The distal end of the leaf spring 28 is connected to the vibration table 23 via a rubber cushion 29.

The eccentric disk 27 imparts a rotational movement to the base of the leaf spring 28, whereby the leaf spring 28 flexes freely in a direction perpendicular to its length, but in the longitudinal direction of the leaf spring 28. Since it cannot bend, an exciting force is generated.

Above the rear end of the apparatus main body 12, the transport path end of the bottle supply conveyor 31 is exposed. Below the end of the transport path, a bottle receiving plate that is inclined forward and downward
32 are provided. On the upper surface of the bottle receiving plate, a rubber plate 33 for reducing the impact of dropping the bottle is stuck.

Below the front and rear ends of each of the three-stage roller groups 13, 14, and 15, horizontal roller support bars 34 extending in the left-right direction are fixed to the left and right side walls of the apparatus body 12. Roller bearings 35 for the corresponding roller groups 13, 14, 15 are attached to each roller support bar. At the rear end in the apparatus body 12, the upper and lower motor support bars are located at the same level as the upper and lower roller support bars 34.
36 are provided, and in each motor support bar 36,
Upper, middle and lower motors 37, 38, 39 are provided.

Between the upper roller group 13 and the middle roller group 14, between the middle roller group 14 and the lower roller group 15, and between the bottom walls of the apparatus main body 12, there are inclined front, downward, middle and The lower bottle backflow protection plates 41, 42, and 43 are provided so as to be closer to the respective upstream bearings 35 and to be positioned more forward from top to bottom.

An extra-large bottle discharge chute 44, a medium / large bottle discharge chute 45, and a small bottle discharge chute 46 are provided at the front opening of the apparatus main body 12 in three upper and lower stages.
At the front end of the bottom wall of the twelve, an extremely small bottle discharge chute 47 is provided downward. A waste bottle collection box 48 is provided below the very small bottle discharge chute.

Upper, middle and lower roller groups 13, 14, 15
The horizontal position of the rear end is matched,
The horizontal position of the front end portion is located forward as going from top to bottom.

FIG. 2 shows the upper roller group 13 and the oversize bottle discharge chute 44. The upper roller group 13 is for sorting extra-large bottles, and is composed of four left-right parallel rollers 51 extending in the front-rear direction. The gap between the adjacent rollers 51 is set to a size that does not allow only the oversized bottle to pass. The space between the left and right side walls of the apparatus main body 12 and the rollers 51 at both ends is covered with an upper bottle biting protection plate 52, respectively. The oversized bottle discharge chute 44 is turned rightward, and then turned down outside the apparatus main body 12, with its lower end opening facing the waste bottle collection box 48.

FIG. 3 shows the middle roller group 14 and the middle / large bottle discharge chute 45. The middle roller group 14 is for sorting medium and large bottles.
It is constituted by two right and left parallel rollers 53. The gap between the adjacent rollers 53 is
The size is set so that only large bottles cannot pass. The upper and lower rollers 53 are provided with upper bottle biting protection plates 54. The middle and large bottle discharge chute 45 is narrowed so as to be moved to the right as it goes forward, and its tip is directed forward. Referring to FIG. 1, the middle / large bottle discharge chute 45 is formed in a slightly downwardly inclined shape. Below the tip of the medium / large bottle discharge chute 45,
The transport path start end of the medium / large bottle transport conveyor 55 for transporting the large bottles to the color sorting device faces.

FIG. 4 shows the lower roller group 15 and the small bottle discharging chute 46. The lower roller group 15 is for sorting small bottles, and includes six left-right parallel rollers 56 extending in the front-rear direction. Adjacent rollers
The gap between 56 is set to a size that does not allow the passage of only small bottles after removing oversized bottles and medium and large bottles. The rollers 56 at both ends are provided with lower bottle biting protection plates 57. The small bottle discharging chute 46 is narrowed so as to be moved to the left as it goes forward, and its tip is directed forward. The tip of the small bottle discharge chute 46 is at the same height as the tip of the middle / large bottle discharge chute 45. Below the leading end of the small bottle discharge chute 46, the start end of a transfer path of a small bottle transfer conveyor 58 for transferring the small bottle to the color sorting device faces.

The upper, middle and lower roller groups 13, 14, 15 and the upper, middle and lower bottle biting protection plates 52,
54 and 57 are collectively shown in FIG. The rollers 51, 53, 56 of the upper, middle and lower roller groups 13, 14, 15 have different lengths but the same diameter. FIG. 7 shows a part of FIG. 3, that is, the rear end of the middle roller group 14 and the middle roller group drive motor 38. The output shaft of the motor 38 is directly connected to the rotation shaft of the roller 53 at the right end. The rotating shafts of the six rollers 53 have a pair of large sprockets 61 from right to left.
And the small sprockets 62 are fixed so as to be adjacent to each other in pairs. A timing belt 63 is wound around four pairs of the large sprocket 61 and the small sprocket 62.

As shown in FIG. 8, the right end roller 53 is rotated counterclockwise by a motor 38 when viewed from behind. Then, all six rollers 53 are rotated counterclockwise. Since the roller 53 on which the small sprocket 62 is fixed is rotated faster than the roller 53 on which the large sprocket 61 is fixed, the rotation speed of the six rollers 53 increases in order from right to left.

As shown in FIG. 9, when the cullet is put on the left and right rollers 53, the left and right rollers 53
From a while, the roller 53 on the left tries to discharge the cullet,
Although the right roller 53 attempts to enter the cullet, the rotation speed of the left roller 53 is high, so that the cullet is prevented from being forced into the gap between the left and right rollers 53.

Although the driving of the upper roller group 13 and the lower roller group 15 will not be described in detail, they are driven in the same manner as the middle roller group 14. For example, the motors 37 and 39 are arranged so as to drive the second roller 51 from the right in the upper roller group 13 and the left roller 56 in the lower roller group 15 (see FIGS. 2 and 4). . In other words, the motors at each stage may be installed so as not to interfere with each other. When the roller is driven clockwise as viewed from the rear, the rotation speed of the roller is set to increase from left to right.

FIG. 10 shows the details of the bearing 35 supporting the front end of the roller 51 of the upper roller group 13. Bearing 35
Is a ball bearing 71 fitted on the roller rotating shaft.
And its housing 72. The housing 72 enters with a top surface 73 having a semicircular diameter about the axis of the roller.
When the radius of the top surface 73 is R1 and the radius of the roller 51 is R2, R1 ≦ R2. When the bearing 35 is formed in such a shape, when the sorted bottles fall from the front end of the roller 51, they pass over the bearing 35 smoothly without being caught by the housing 72. All bearings 35 have the same structure.

[0034]

According to the present invention, there is provided a bottle sorting apparatus capable of sorting bottles into a large number of types, making it easy to assemble the configuration of the entire apparatus, and inexpensively manufacturing the apparatus.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of a bottle sorting apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same device.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal vertical sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal vertical section taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a horizontal vertical section taken along line VV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged vertical transverse sectional view taken along the line VI-VI of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view showing a part of FIG. 3;

8 is a sectional view taken along the line VIII-VIII in FIG.

9 is a sectional view taken along line IX-IX of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 2;

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along line XI-XI in FIG. 10;

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Vibrator 12 Main unit 13 Upper roller group 14 Middle roller group 15 Lower roller group 51 Upper roller 53 Middle roller 54 Lower roller

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus main body vibrated by a vibrator,
A multi-stage roller group composed of a plurality of parallel rollers which are vertically supported by the apparatus main body at predetermined intervals and arranged so as to be able to convey the bottle in the longitudinal direction by vibrating force, Supply means for supplying the bottles to be sorted on the roller group of the roller group, the distance between the adjacent rollers of the roller group of each stage is such that the bottle of the size to be sorted in each stage is not passed, but A bottle sorting device that is set so that the size of the bottles is gradually reduced from the upper roller group to the lower roller group so as to pass through. 2. The bottles to be sorted are classified into four types: extra large bottles, medium / large bottles, small bottles, and cullet-containing ultra-small bottles. The number of rollers in the roller group is 3, and the first roller counted from the top. 2. The bottle sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the group sorts oversized bottles, the second roller group sorts medium and large bottles, and the third roller group sorts small bottles. 3. The roller according to claim 1, wherein the outer diameter of each roller is constant over its entire length.
Bottle sorting device as described. 4. The bottle sorting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the rollers of the roller group of each stage are rotated in the same direction for each stage. 5. When the roller is rotated clockwise as viewed from one axial side of the roller group in each stage, the rotational speed is set so as to gradually increase from the right to the left roller. Or when the roller is rotated counterclockwise, the rotation speed is set so as to gradually increase from the left to the right roller, and the bottle sorter according to any one of claims 1 to 4. apparatus. 6. The downstream end of all rollers in the transport direction is received by a bearing, and the bearing has a semi-circular top surface centered on the axis of the roller, and the radius of the top surface is equal to the radius of the roller. The bottle sorter according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the bottle sorter is equal to or less than a radius.