JPS5841248B2 - object feeding device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for transporting a tangible object by a transport device.
The present invention relates to an object supply device for intermittently supplying objects to preset positions.

For example, an object such as an assembly part or a workpiece is transported from a first position such as a parts management floor or a pre-processing position to another preset second position using a transport device such as a conveyor. When an object such as an assembled part or a workpiece is taken out from a conveyance device at the second position and assembled or processed, if the time required to assemble the assembled part or process the workpiece is always constant, then the assembly Taking into account the time required for work and processing operations, even if the conveyance device continues to convey the object at regular intervals, the object will be processed smoothly at the second position, but the assembly of the assembled parts and the Even though the time required to process the workpiece is not constant, if the object is transported by the conveyor at regular intervals, in the second position there will be a waiting time for the following object, or the object will be may remain significantly.

Generally, when assembling or processing work based on acquisition, the time required to assemble the assembled parts or process the workpiece is not always constant, even if the assembly parts or workpieces are the same. , In addition, in order to increase the utilization rate of production equipment,
In some cases, it may be preferable to carry out work by sequentially transporting assembly parts, workpieces, etc. that are different in size and shape from each other using a transport device.

In such cases, the processing time for objects transported by the transport device differs for each object, so if objects are transported by the transport device at regular intervals, if the processing time for the first object is short, the processing time for the subsequent object will be When the processing time for the first object is long, the residence time for the subsequent object becomes long,
If the residence time of a subsequent object becomes significantly longer, a special storage area must be reserved for the subsequent object to be temporarily removed from the transport device and stored.

In view of the above points, the present invention provides a method for intermittently supplying objects transported by a transport device to preset positions, even if the processing time varies for each object.
Waiting time for subsequent objects is extremely low, there is no need to use the work floor to store subsequent objects, and objects on the transport device can be transported smoothly without causing traffic jams. It is an object of the present invention to provide an object feeding device that can perform work efficiently.

Hereinafter, as an embodiment of the present invention, a case will be described in which the present invention is applied to a parts supply device in parts assembly work equipment. First, in FIG. The parts delivered from the parts management warehouse 1 where the supply and distribution management is performed are moved to a preset parts assembly work position B by the roller conveyor 3 that constitutes the conveying device of the present invention.
The parts are transported to a parts supply device 4 located near the parts.

At the parts assembly work position B, the parts supply device 4 feeds the assembled products W on each pallet 6, which are conveyed at regular intervals by the assembly work conveyor 5 arranged in parallel with the roller conveyor 3. Each supplied component is assembled in sequence.

As seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, each component is placed in a component box A in the quantity required for each assembly W and is transported in the direction of arrow a.

Therefore, the parts box A constitutes the object of the present invention, and the parts supply device 4 constitutes the object supply device of the present invention.

The parts supply device 4 has a tower-shaped support frame 7 that straddles the roller conveyor 3 , and a cross beam 8 provided at the lower part of the support frame 7 has a pair of roller conveyor 3 at the front end side of the support frame 7 . The lower end of the telescopic cylinder 9 for vertically extending and contracting the rod 10 is fixed, and the upper end thereof has a stopper 11 that protrudes upward from the gap between the rollers to stop further advancement of the parts box A. .

A reciprocating cylinder 14 is fixed to the center of a cross beam 15 provided above the roller conveyor 3 of the support frame 7, and is endlessly connected to both ends of a piston rod of the reciprocating cylinder 14. The loop wire 16 is connected to a pair of booleans I which are pivotally supported in the vicinity of both left and right ends of the cross beam 15.
J 12 and 13 have been handed over.

The loop wire 16 is loaded with a pair of rollers 18 and 19 rolling along a guide rail formed on the cross beam 15, and the parts box A stopped by the stopper 11 is transferred to the roller conveyor 3. A pressing plate 17 for pressing and moving the support frame 7 from above to the side is fixed at its upper end.

A guide rail 22.22 fixed to the support frame I is provided on the side of the support frame I on which the parts box A is pushed out by the suppression plate 17.
An elevating frame 20 that is raised and lowered by an elevating cylinder 21 is disposed along '.

This elevating frame 20 includes a large number of drive rollers 20' arranged perpendicularly to each roller of the roller conveyor 3, and has a stopper 33 at its outer end.
A limit switch 23 is provided near the stopper 33 and is activated when the parts box A is detected.

At a position above the cross beam 15 of the support frame 7, a temporary standby frame 24 is fixed, which includes a large number of drive rollers 24' arranged perpendicularly to each roller of the roller conveyor 3.

A retractable stopper 26 is provided at the end of the temporary standby frame 24 on the assembly work conveyor 5 side, and a retractable stopper 26 is provided near the end of the temporary standby frame 24 on the elevating frame 20 side. A limit switch 25 is provided which is activated by detecting the lifting frame 20.

A guide rail 29 is fixed on the side surface of the support frame 7 on the assembly work conveyor 5 side for guiding the takeout frame 27 that is raised and lowered by the lifting cylinder 28.

The take-out frame 27 has a large number of freely rotating rollers 27' arranged perpendicularly to each roller of the roller conveyor 3, and the outer end side having the stopper 34 is inclined downward. In addition, a load detection switch 31 that detects the parts box A and operates is provided in the center thereof.

A limit switch 30 is disposed near the stopper 26 of the temporary standby frame 24 and is activated by detecting the extraction frame 27, and the extraction frame 27 is supported at an appropriate height by a support 32. It is designed to move up and down between the position indicated by the solid line in FIG.

With the above configuration, the temporary standby frame 24
When the parts box A is not waiting above and the stopper 11 protrudes above the roller conveyor 3, the parts box A transported from the parts management warehouse 1 by the roller conveyor 3
is stopped by this stopper 11 from moving further.

Immediately when the parts box A presses the stopper 11, the reciprocating cylinder 14 is actuated to move the pressing plate 17 from the position shown by the Q-th solid line to the position shown by the chain line.

At this time, the elevating frame 20 has been lowered onto the same horizontal plane as the roller conveyor 3, and each drive roller 20' is connected to the parts box A.
is rotated in a direction to move it toward the outer end of the elevating frame 20.

The parts box A pushed to the side of the supporting frame 7 by the pressing plate 17 is further moved in the same direction by each drive port 20' to actuate the limit switch 23.

When the limit switch 23 is activated, each drive roller 20
' stops rotating, and the elevating cylinder 21 extends to raise the elevating frame 20 from the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 3 to the position indicated by the chain line on the same horizontal plane as the temporary standby frame 24.

At the same time, the pressing plate 17 returns from the position indicated by the chain line to the position indicated by the solid line, and the stopper 11 is retracted below the roller conveyor 3.

When the elevating frame 20 rises to the position indicated by the chain line, the limit switch 25 is activated, and as a result of the operation of the limit switch 25, each drive roller 20' of the elevating frame 20 and each drive roller 24' of the temporary standby frame 24 is activated. , the parts box A is driven and rotated in a direction such that it moves toward the stopper 26.

When the parts box A presses the stopper 26, the rotation of each driving roller 20', 24' is stopped, and the lifting cylinder 21 contracts to lower the lifting frame 20 from the position shown by the chain line to the position shown by the solid line.

While the parts box A is placed on the extraction frame 27 and the load detection switch 31 is pressed,
It is held at the position indicated by the solid line closest to the conveyor 5 for assembly work.

Then, at the preset parts assembly work position B,
The worker assembles the parts in the parts box A on the take-out frame 27 to the assembly W on the pallet 6 conveyed by the assembly work conveyor 5, and then assembles the parts in the parts box A on the take-out frame 27. When the assembly of parts box A is completed and the parts box A is removed from the top of the take-out frame 27, the load detection switch 31 is activated and the lifting cylinder 28 moves the take-out frame 27 from the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. Raise it to the position indicated by the chain line.

When the take-out frame 27 rises to the position indicated by the chain line, the limit switch 30 is activated, the stopper 26 is retracted downward, and the drive roller 24' of the temporary standby frame 24 is activated.
is driven and rotated in a direction to feed the parts box A onto the frame 27 for taking out.

When the parts box A is moved onto the take-out frame 27, the load detection switch 31 is activated, and the lifting cylinder 28 contracts, moving the take-out frame 27 from the chain line position to the solid line position. As it is lowered, each stopper 11 and 26 respectively protrudes upward.

Therefore, the subsequent parts box A transported on the roller conveyor 3
When it hits the stopper 11, it is transferred to the temporary standby frame 24 through the same path as described above, and is temporarily on standby on the frame 24.

Thus, when the parts box A is removed from the top of the extraction frame 27,
The subsequent parts box A is immediately transferred from the temporary standby frame 24 to the takeout frame 27, and at the same time, the subsequent parts box A conveyed on the roller conveyor 3 is placed on the empty temporary standby frame 24. The parts box A can be quickly transferred and resupplied and can be temporarily put on standby there.

In the above embodiments, the roller conveyor 3 constitutes the conveyance device of the present invention, the component supply device 4 constitutes the object supply device of the present invention, the stopper 11 constitutes the stop device of the present invention, and the suppressing plate 17 and The lifting frame 20 cooperates with each other to constitute the isolation device of the present invention, the temporary standby frame 24 constitutes the temporary standby device of the present invention, and the take-out frame 27 constitutes the take-out device of the present invention. The lifting cylinder 28 and the rotating roller 27' constitute the transfer device of the present invention, and the stopper 26
, the limit switch 30 and the load detection switch 31 operate the stopping device and the isolating device only when the object is not temporarily on standby on the temporary standby device, and the retrieval device does not hold the object. The control device of the present invention is configured to be able to operate each of the transfer devices only in the following state.

As described above, the object supply device of the present invention includes: a stop device that stops the object on the conveyance device when the object conveyed by the conveyance device approaches the preset position; an isolation device that automatically isolates the object from the transport device; a temporary standby device that temporarily waits the object isolated by the isolation device; a retrieval device for holding the object in a position such that it can be taken out; a transfer device for transferring the object waiting on the temporary standby device to the retrieval device; a transfer device for transferring the object to the retrieval device; and a control device capable of operating the stopping device and the isolating device, respectively, only when the object is not held, and a control device that can respectively operate the transfer device only when the object is not held by the retrieval device. When an object held in the holding device is removed, a subsequent object that has been temporarily held in the holding device can be immediately transferred to the picking device, and at the same time as the transfer, the stopping device and the isolating device are activated. Therefore, even if the processing time for each object varies, there is almost no waiting time for subsequent objects, making it extremely efficient. The work can be carried out in a timely manner, and there is no need for a work floor to store subsequent objects, so the work space can be used effectively.

Moreover, the stopping device and the separating device are kept inactive from beginning to end while the object is temporarily parked in the temporary holding device, which prevents smooth conveyance of the object on the conveying device and causes congestion. There is absolutely no risk that this will lead to.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall conceptual plan view of a parts supply device in a parts assembly work facility according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial sectional side view of the component feeding apparatus shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3... Conveying device, 11... Stopping device,
17, 20... Isolation device, 24... Temporary standby device, 21... Retrieval device, 27',
28... Transfer device, 30° 31... Control device, A... Object, B... Preset position.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An object supply device for intermittently supplying a tangible object transported by a transport device to a preset position, when the object transported by the transport device approaches the preset position. , a stopping device that stops the object on the conveying device; an isolating device that automatically isolates the object stopped by the stopping device from the conveying device; a temporary standby device for holding the object at the preset position such that the object can be taken out; a transfer device for changing; the stopping device and the isolating device only when the object is not parked on the temporary holding device; An object supply device comprising at least: a control device capable of respectively actuating a transfer device.