JPH11191434A - Device for charging battery for regeneration - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the throwing away of a spent battery which causes serious problems in environment and disposal of waste, and to recycle the battery. SOLUTION: A plurality of used batteries D are housed in a pallet 1 so that the same polarities are faced in the same direction, and the pallet 1 is conveyed from a battery supply part B to a battery taking out part C through a charging part A with a conveyer 2. A plurality of electrode terminals 3, 4, capable of coming in contact with positive and negative terminals of each battery are set in supporting members 5, 6 so as to face each other and interpose the pallet 1 between them, and advance or retreat driving means 7, 8 which advance or retreat the supporting members 5, 6 toward the positive and negative terminals of the battery are arranged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery charging / reproducing apparatus for reusing a battery such as an alkaline battery or a manganese battery.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the case of a film with a lens, for example, recyclable parts other than batteries have been reused in recent years as demands for resource saving have increased.
Batteries are still disposable.

[0003]

If the battery is disposable as in the prior art, serious problems are caused in environmental issues and waste disposal, and there is an urgent need to reuse the battery. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to efficiently reuse a battery with a simple device.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, a plurality of used batteries are stored in a pallet, transported to a charging section by a transport conveyor, and provided in the charging section. The battery is charged at once by a plurality of electrode terminals and regenerated. By such transport / charging, a large number of batteries can be charged / reproduced at once with a simple configuration, and reuse can be performed efficiently, and waste can be eliminated.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A battery charging device according to the present invention comprises a pallet for storing a plurality of used batteries with their + and-terminals aligned, and the pallet is transferred from a battery supply section to a battery take-out section through a charging section. And a transport conveyor for transporting. The above-mentioned charging section is provided so as to face the pallet conveyed to the charging section, and has a plurality of electrode terminals capable of contacting the + and-terminals of each battery stored in the pallet. Forward / backward drive means for forward / backward toward the +/− terminal of the battery. It is preferable that the battery take-out section is provided with a display section for displaying the quality of the recharged battery.

[0006]

An embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a charging section A of the apparatus, a battery supply section B for supplying a used battery to the charging section A, and a battery extraction section C for taking out a battery charged and reproduced in the charging section A. A plurality of batteries D are arranged on a single pallet 1 with the + and-terminals aligned. The pallet 1 is transported on the transport conveyor 2 from the battery supply unit B, charged by the charging unit A, and then transported to the battery unloading unit C.

[0007] In the charging section A, a plurality of electrode terminals 3 and 4 are arranged to face each other with the transport conveyor 2 interposed therebetween. The electrode terminal 3 is opposed to the + terminal of the battery D, and the electrode terminal 4 is-
It is supported by supporting members 5 and 6 so as to face the terminals. The support members 5 and 6 are respectively connected to air cylinders 7 and 8 serving as advance / retreat drive means, and are driven toward / from the +/- terminals of the battery D by the operation of the air cylinders. At the time of charging, the support members 5 and 6 move forward, and the electrode terminals 3 and 4 respectively contact the + and-terminals of the battery D to supply power. The charging section A is covered with a cover 9.

[0008] A display section 10 for displaying whether or not the charged state of the charged battery D is good or bad is provided in the battery take-out section C. The display unit 10 is provided with, for example, a green lamp 10a for displaying a non-defective product and a red lamp 10b for displaying a defective product, for example, corresponding to each battery D on the pallet 1. The battery lit can be easily removed.

FIGS. 2A to 2C show the shape of the pallet 1. The bottom surface 1a has a cross-sectional waveform so that the cylindrical battery D can be stably fitted. A U-shaped groove 1c having a width capable of fitting the + terminal is provided on the side surface 1b facing the terminal, and a side surface 1d facing the-terminal is provided with a U-shaped groove 1c.
A groove 1e having a width smaller than the width of the groove 1c is provided. For this reason, when storing the battery D, the + and-terminals cannot be stored in the reverse state, and it can always be checked that the battery is correctly stored. Both ends of the pallet 1 are provided with pin holes 1f for use in checking the orientation of the pallet and fixing the pallet, and the diameter of the pin hole is large on the side surface 1b side. The side 1d has a small diameter. For this reason, when the pallet 1 is positioned on the transport conveyor in the opposite direction, a pin for fixing, which will be described later, cannot be fitted in the pin hole 1f, and it can be checked that the pallet is always positioned in the correct direction. Further, a convex portion 1g is provided on the bottom surface of the pallet 1, and the convex portion 1g can be fitted to the lower pallet when the pallets are overlapped as shown by the two-dot broken line in FIG. The pallets can be stacked on top of each other.

FIG. 3 provides a supply of used individual batteries,
1 shows an example of a charge regeneration line from charging a battery to taking out the charged battery. First, at the beginning of the line, the used batteries D that are separated and used are supplied, and their + and-terminals are aligned and stored in the pallet 1. That is, the battery D is randomly supplied to the popper 11 and given fine vibration by the parts feeder 12, so that the battery D gradually rotates while vibrating, and gradually aligns with the guide path 13 while the + and-terminals are aligned. Is sent. Guideway 13
An inspection unit 14 and a robot 15 are disposed near the tip of the robot. The robot is provided with an arm that can operate in the XYZ directions. And the pallet 1 from the inspection unit 14
The battery D can be moved.

The battery D at the tip of the guide path 13 is
When the robot 15 is placed on the inspection unit 14, the voltage, the internal resistance, the mark of the number of times of charging, and the like of the battery D are inspected or marked. It operates and stores it in the pallet 1 on the conveyor 2. However, batteries that cannot be charged again and should be discarded are put into the battery collection box 16 by the operation of the robot 15.

When the battery D is stored in the pallet 1,
The pallet 1 is transported to the charging section A. In the charging / regenerating line of this example, the conveyor 2 of the battery supply unit B and the pallet table of the charging unit A are not directly connected. This is because the charging time of the battery is long, and in order to increase the charging efficiency, the pallets are arranged in multiple stages so that a plurality of pallets can be charged at once. For this purpose, an air cylinder 17 for feeding the pallet 1 containing the batteries onto the pallet table of the charging section A is provided. That is, the pin protruding from the air cylinder 17 is brought into contact with the pallet 1 and the air cylinder 1
7, the pallet 1 is conveyed rightward in FIG. 3, and is sent onto the pallet table 18a of the elevating plate 18 of the charging section A located at the same level as the conveyor 2. The electrode terminals 3 and 4 driven by the air cylinders 7 and 8 come into contact with the battery in the pallet 1 that has been sent, and charging is started.

After that, when the elevator driving device 19 is operated to raise the elevating plate 18 to a predetermined position, the lower elevating plate (not shown) is located at the same level as the transport conveyor 2 (not shown). Next pallet 1 with batteries
Is driven onto the pallet table of the charging section A by driving the air cylinder 17. Thereafter, charging is started in the same manner as described above.

When the above operation is repeated and the inside of the elevator becomes full, it is time to complete charging of the pallet 1 inserted first. When the charging of the pallet 1 is completed, the elevator driving device 19 operates to lower the elevating plate 18 by one stage so that the charged pallet 1 is at the same height as the conveyor 2, and the air cylinder 17 is placed on the elevating plate 18. To drive the next pallet 1 and simultaneously push the charged pallet onto the conveyor 2 of the battery take-out section C. As described above, whether or not the battery has been correctly charged is detected here, and a display is made on the display unit 10 shown in FIG. Thereafter, similarly, the operation of moving the pallet which has been charged to the battery take-out part C and putting the pallet of the apparent charge in the empty place is repeated.

In the vicinity of the position where the charged pallet 1 is transported, another robot 20 for taking out a battery is arranged. The structure of the robot 20 is substantially the same as that of the robot 15 and includes an arm operable in the XYZ directions. The arm grabs the battery D in the pallet 1 and enters the battery collection magazine 21 or the display unit 10. The battery D indicating the failure is placed in the battery recovery box 22 of a defective product. Next, it is detected whether or not the batteries in the pallet 1 after the next charging, which have been pushed out to the battery take-out section C, have been correctly charged, a display is made on the display section 10, and the robot is conveyed by the conveyor 2 20 causes the battery D to be similarly placed in the battery collection magazine 21 or in the defective battery collection box 22.

The empty pallet 1 is returned to the battery supply section B for reuse. As a configuration for this purpose, a return conveyor 23 that transports the pallet 1 in the opposite direction parallel to the transport conveyor 2 is provided. At both ends of the transport conveyor 2 and the return conveyor 23, the pallets are moved at right angles to the transport conveyor. The transfer units 24 and 25 are provided for transferring and placing the transfer conveyor 2 from the return conveyor 23 or from the return conveyor 23 to the conveyor 2.

The transfer units 24 and 25 have a pallet 1
And a rail 24b, 24c or 2 for guiding the pallet table in a right angle direction.
5b, 25c, air cylinders 26, 27 for moving the pallet table, and air cylinders 2 for sending the pallet 1 to the return conveyor 23 or the transport conveyor 2.
8, 29 are provided.

At the right end of the conveyor 2, an air cylinder 30 is provided for pushing the empty pallet 1 which has reached here onto the transfer unit 24. Air cylinder 1
7, the pin protruding from the air cylinder 30 is passed through the pin hole 1f of the pallet 1, and the air cylinder 30
To transfer the pallet 1 to the right and transfer unit 2
4 onto the pallet table 24a.

At the left end of the return conveyor 23, a pallet collecting section E is provided. At the left end of the return conveyor 23, an air cylinder 31 for pushing the empty pallet 1 arriving here to the pallet collecting section E is provided.
The configuration of the air cylinder 31 is the same as that of the air cylinder 17.
It is a stage system. When the pallets are not reused, the air cylinder 31 pushes the pallets one step and moves the pallets 1 to the pallet collecting section E, where the pallets are collected. When reusing the pallet, the air cylinder 31
Pushes the pallet for two stages, passes through the pallet collecting section, and moves to the transfer unit 25.

The pallet placed on the pallet table 25a of the transfer unit 25 is moved upward by being guided by rails 25b and 25c by an air cylinder 27 and sent out onto the left end of the conveyor 2 by an air cylinder 29. To the battery supply section B. In FIG.
The battery collection magazine 21 is configured to store the recharged batteries D in a small case having the same shape as a pallet in an aligned state. However, the present invention is not limited to this. They may be arranged and stored.

[0021]

According to the present invention, serious problems such as environmental problems and waste disposal that have conventionally occurred due to disposable batteries can be solved, and a large number of batteries can be charged at once with a simple device. The battery can be efficiently regenerated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a pallet, (a) is an enlarged plan view,
(B) is a front view of (a), (c) is a longitudinal sectional view of (a).

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a charge / reproduction line of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Charging section B Battery supply section C Battery take-out section D Battery 1 Pallet 2 Transport conveyor 3, 4 Electrode terminal 7, 8 Advance / retreat drive means 10 Display section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pallet for accommodating a plurality of used batteries with their + and-terminals aligned, and a transport conveyor for transporting the pallet from a battery supply unit through a charging unit to a battery extraction unit, The charging section is provided opposite to the pallet conveyed to the charging section, and has a plurality of electrode terminals capable of contacting the + and-terminals of each battery stored in the pallet. A battery recharge / reproduction device, comprising: a reciprocating drive means for reciprocating toward a +-terminal of the battery. 2. The battery charging / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the battery take-out section is provided with a display section for displaying the quality of the charged and regenerated battery.