JPH11157632A - Article supplying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supply a solid article one by one correctly to a predetermined part to be supplied. SOLUTION: A supply regulating mechanism 30 which regulates to supply an article to a predetermined part to be supplied from a feeder comprises a chute member 34 which is supported for the rear part thereof to be rotatable in front of a tip edge of a trough 15, and a driving means 40 which swing a front part of a chute member 34 vertically so as to adjust the chute member 34 to a front lowering position or a front rising position, and the chute member 34 is shaped to enable to contain just one article supplied from a feeder 10 in the front rising position, while a wall part 34c, which projects in front of the tip edge of the trough 15 in the front lowering position so as to regulate to supply the article from the feeder 10, is provided on a back end.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article supply apparatus, and more particularly to an article supply apparatus that supplies articles one by one from a feeder to a predetermined supply destination such as a hopper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, according to Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5-37742, a stopper is provided at a leading end of a trough, which serves as a transfer passage of articles to a hopper, as an article supply device, and the leading end of the trough is opened. A supply device is disclosed that supplies a fixed amount of articles to a hopper by closing.

In this supply apparatus, as shown in FIG. 5, a feeder C composed of a trough A and a vibrating section B transports articles forward and supplies the articles to a hopper D.
A stopper E is provided slightly before the front end of the trough A, and the lower end thereof is swung in the front-rear direction by the operation of the cylinder F, thereby opening and closing the front end of the trough A and periodically operating the cylinder F. In this way, articles are supplied to the hopper 5 by a constant amount.

[0004]

However, when it is desired to supply solid articles such as tomatoes and peppers, the above-described supply device may cause a shift in the timing of opening and closing the stopper, or supply of articles from the trough. Due to a change in the speed, articles may be supplied in more than a predetermined number or may be caught by the above-mentioned stopper, and recovery such as removing unnecessary articles caused by such a supply error may be performed. It was troublesome, and the supply efficiency sometimes worsened.

[0005] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a supply device capable of accurately supplying solid articles, particularly one by one.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is characterized in that it is configured as follows.

First, an invention according to claim 1 of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "first invention") comprises a feeder for supplying an article to a predetermined supply destination, and a feeder disposed in front of the front end of the feeder. An article supply device having a supply regulating mechanism that regulates the supply of articles from the feeder to the supplied section,
The supply restricting mechanism includes a chute member having a rear portion rotatably supported in front of a front end portion of the feeder, and raising and lowering the front portion of the chute member so that the chute member is in a forwardly lowered position or a forwardly raised position. And a driving means for swinging the chute member, and the chute member is formed into a shape capable of accommodating only one article supplied from the feeder in a forward-upward posture, and a rear end portion of the chute member has A wall portion is provided which protrudes forward of the distal end of the chute member in a posture and regulates supply of articles from the feeder.

[0008] According to this, when the chute member is in the forward rising posture, it accommodates only one article supplied from the feeder, and when the chute member is in the forward downward posture, it protrudes forward of the distal end of the chute member and is protruded from the feeder. Since the supply of articles is regulated, the chute member does not pinch the articles, and it is possible to supply the articles one by one.
Measurement of the single weight of an article becomes possible.

The invention according to claim 2 (hereinafter referred to as “second
The invention ") is the first invention, further comprising a sensor for detecting the presence / absence of an article in the chute member which is in a forwardly-upward posture, and when the sensor detects an article in the chute member, the feeder is turned on. At the same time, the driving means is operated so as to bring the chute member into the forward lowered position, and the drive means is operated so as to bring the chute member into the forward raised position after the article is discharged from the inside of the chute member. And a control means for operating the feeder again.

According to this, the operation of the first aspect of the present invention is automatically performed by the control means, so that the supply can be performed more efficiently.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

First, referring to FIG. 1, an overall schematic configuration of a supply device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the following description, the left direction in FIG. 1 is referred to as a front direction, and the right direction is referred to as a rear direction.

The supply device 1 has a main body frame 2 having two columns at the front and rear (one is shown at a time), and is slightly above the center of the two columns 2a at the front of the columns. The branch frame 3 extends forward from the inner surface of.

An electromagnetic feeder 10 is installed in the main body frame 2. The electromagnetic feeder 10 includes a machine base 11 and four columns 12...
2, a base member 14 placed on the front of the support base 13, a trough 15 disposed above the base member 14, and the base member 14 and the trough 15. The lower end is interposed between the base member 14,
Front and rear leaf springs 17 and 17 each having an upper end portion fixed to a supporting member 16 of the trough 15, an electromagnet 18 attached to the base member 14, and a to-be-attached member 19 attached to a front portion of the supporting member 16. And a weight member 20 placed on the rear portion of the support table 13 to maintain the balance.

When the electromagnet 18 is energized, the member to be attracted 19 is attracted to the electromagnet 18 side, and the trough 15 is displaced rearward while bending the front and rear leaf springs 17, 17. When energization of the electromagnet 18 is stopped, the trough 15 is displaced forward by the elastic restoring force of the leaf springs 17 and 17, and a controller (not shown) provided in the supply device 1 periodically controls the electromagnet 18. The trough 1
5 vibrates in the front-rear direction, and the supply target is transferred forward on the trough 15.

On the other hand, a supply regulating mechanism 30 is hung from the tip of the branch frame 3 via a concave supply regulating mechanism mounting member 4.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the supply regulating mechanism 30 has a downwardly open U-shaped first attachment member 31 attached to the inner surface of the supply regulation mechanism attachment member 4. From the vicinity of the center of the inner surface of the first mounting member 31, a second mounting member 31 having substantially the same shape as that of the first mounting member 31 is provided.
The attachment member 32 is attached to the connecting portion 33 in a downwardly open state.

The first and second mounting members 31, 3
2 is provided with a long hole in the connecting portion 33 in the vertical direction, so that the position of the second mounting member 32 can be adjusted in the vertical direction with respect to the first mounting member 31 by the connecting portion 33.

A chute member 34 is attached to the tip of the second attachment member 32. A rear portion of the chute member 34 is rotatably supported by a rotating shaft 36 via a bearing 35, and The chute member 34 in front view
A swinging member 37 is attached to a front portion of the outer surface on the left side through a mounting shaft 38 (see FIG. 3).

A lower end of a cylinder rod 40a extending from a cylinder 40 installed on a left upper surface in a front view of a forwardly protruding cylinder mounting plate 39 mounted on an upper lower surface of the second mounting member 32 connects the connecting member 41. The chute member 34 is pivoted about the rotation shaft 36 by the operation of the cylinder 40, so that the chute member 34 moves up and down in a forward-upward position. A posture is formed.

The chute member 34 has a bottom surface 34a, both side surfaces 34b, 34b, and a wall portion 3 having a rear portion curved rearward.
4c, and a space capable of accommodating only one supply target is formed by each of the above-described portions.

Thus, when the chute member 34 is raised forward, the wall portion 34c retracts from the front of the front end of the trough 15 and receives only one supply target from the trough 15, and moves forward. When the posture becomes wall 3
4c protrudes forward of the front end of the trough 15 and
, The supply of the supplied object is regulated, and the supplied object received at the time of the forward rising posture is supplied to a hopper 60 described later.

Further, inside the chute member 34,
A curved plate 34d curved from both side surfaces 34b, 34b toward the bottom surface 34a is attached.
The sensor 4 described later surely detects the object to be supplied by positioning the object to be supplied received at the central position of the chute member 34 when the object 4 is received in the upwardly raised posture.

The curved plate 34 depends on the shape of the material to be supplied.
It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which a V-shaped plate is provided or removed in place of d.

On the other hand, a sensor 50 composed of a photoelectric tube is mounted in front of the supply regulating mechanism 30. The sensor 50 is a sensor vertically mounted at the front end of the supply regulating mechanism mounting member 4 downward. It is fixed below the mounting member 51.

The sensor 50 detects the presence or absence of an object to be supplied in the chute member 34, and transmits a detection signal to the controller. The operation of the supply control mechanism 10 and the supply regulating mechanism 30 is controlled.

In addition, a hopper 60 for temporarily storing an object supplied from the chute member 34 is provided below the chute member 34. The hopper 60 includes a storage 63, a gate 64 and a spring 65 mounted on a support base 61 via a bracket 62, and a cylinder 67 mounted on the support base 61 via a cylinder mounting plate 66. ing.

The storage 63 and the gate 64 are respectively engaged with both ends of the spring 65, and the gate 64 is urged by the spring 65 so as to close the rear exit of the storage 63 with an appropriate force. When the cylinder 67 is actuated, the cylinder rod 67a projects and the gate 64 is pressed by the cylinder rod 67a, so that the gate 64 opens against the urging force of the spring 65.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described.

First, the article to be packaged into the electromagnetic feeder 10 advances to the front end of the trough 15, and one article to be supplied is supplied into the chute member 34 in the upwardly raised posture.

Then, the sensor 50 detects the entry of the supplied material into the chute member 34 and transmits a detection signal to the controller. The controller receives the signal and stops the operation of the electromagnetic feeder 10. As shown in FIG. 2, by operating the cylinder 40 and projecting the cylinder rod 40a downward from the cylinder 40,
The chute member 34 is set to a downward posture.

As a result, the wall portion 34c located at the rear of the chute member 34 protrudes forward of the front end of the trough 15, so that the supply of the material to be supplied from the trough 15 is regulated, and at the same time, the hopper of the material to be supplied is Feed to 60 is performed.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, when the supply of the material to be supplied to the hopper 60 is completed, the sensor 50 detects the discharge of the material to be supplied from the chute member 34 and sends the detection signal to the controller. When the controller receives the signal and operates the cylinder 40, the cylinder rod 40a is retracted upward and the chute member 34 is retracted.
And the electromagnetic feeder 10 is operated again.

Thus, the wall surface 34 of the chute member 34
The c is retracted downward from the front of the front end of the trough 15, and the supply regulation of the supply is released, and the supply of the supply to the chute member 34 is performed again.

In this embodiment, the cylinder 40 is provided.
When the object 4 does not accommodate the object to be supplied, its center of gravity is located at the rear portion, and the chute member 34 is in the forward-upward posture. When the chute member 34 accommodates the object to be supplied, the entire center of gravity thereof is at the front. By determining the mounting position of the rotary shaft 36 that supports the chute member 34 or by configuring the chute member 34 so that the chute member 34 moves and assumes a downwardly lowered posture, it can be accurately provided without the cylinder 40. A supply can be made.

[0036]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the chute member is in the forward rising position, it accommodates only one article supplied from the feeder. Since the wall portion located at the front protrudes forward of the front end of the feeder and regulates the supply of articles from the feeder, the chute member does not pinch the articles, and the articles can be supplied one by one without fail. So you can
Measurement of the single weight of an article becomes possible.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the operation of the first aspect of the invention is automatically performed by the control means, so that the supply can be performed more efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a forward-reduced attitude of a supply regulating mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a supply regulating mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a forward rising posture of a supply regulating mechanism.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a conventional supply device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 article supply device 10 electromagnetic feeder 15 trough 30 supply regulation mechanism 34 chute member 34 c wall 40 driving means 50 sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A feeder for supplying an article to a predetermined portion to be supplied, and a supply regulating mechanism disposed in front of a front end of the feeder and regulating the supply of the article from the feeder to the portion to be supplied. In the article supply device, the supply regulating mechanism includes a chute member having a rear portion rotatably supported in front of a front end portion of the feeder, and a chute member having a forwardly lowered position or a forwardly raised position. Drive means for swinging the front part of the chute member up and down, and the chute member is shaped so as to be able to accommodate only one article supplied from the feeder in a forward-upward posture, and
An article supply device, wherein a rear end of the chute member is provided with a wall protruding forward from the front end of the chute member in a forwardly lowered posture to regulate supply of articles from the feeder. 2. A sensor for detecting the presence or absence of an article in a chute member having a forward-upward posture, and when the sensor detects an article in the chute member, stopping a feeder. Activate the driving means so that the chute member is in the forward lowered position,
In addition, after the article is discharged from the chute member, the drive means is operated so as to bring the chute member into the forwardly raised posture, and the control means is provided for operating the feeder again. The article supply device according to claim 1.