JPS6040404Y2 - Goods division feeding device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] This invention can be used for jam, marmalade, coffee cream,
The present invention relates to an article dividing supply device used in a tray filling machine, etc., which packs articles such as so-called portion packs into trays in which one serving of yogurt or other food is packaged in one pack.

In recent years, food and beverages such as jam, marmalade, coffee cream, yogurt, and the like described above have been packaged in one pack per serving (hereinafter referred to as a portion pack).

) are popular with consumers for their convenience and hygiene.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the portion pack 1, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view thereof, where 2 is the bottom material forming the container, which is often made of thermoplastic resin, and 3 is the food content. And the food and drinks mentioned above.

In addition, 4 is a lid material that forms the lid, which is often made of a laminated film of aluminum foil and heat-welded resin.After the molded bottom material 2 is filled with food, the lid material 4 is placed on the top surface It is coated and sealed by heat welding.

FIG. 3 shows the tray 5, which is made of thermoplastic resin, filled with portion packs 1, for example, 10 m long, and the tray 5 is just before its upper surface is sealed with a heat-fusible film or the like. be.

Next, a conventional example of a series of machines for forming the tray 5, filling the portion pack 1 into the tray, sealing, punching, and discharging the portion pack 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7.

In Fig. 4, 6 is a bottom material roll, 7 is a lid material roll, and 8 is a bottom material roll.
is a heating device that heats the bottom material 5a of the tray, and the bottom material 5a is heated to an appropriate temperature by upper and lower heating plates.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a molding device for the bottom material 5a, which molds the heated bottom material 5a into a suitable shape, for example, a tray 5 as shown in FIG.

10 is an automatic feeding device for the portion pack 1, and when the bottom material 5a molded by the molding device 9 comes to a predetermined position, the portion pack 1 is conveyed on a conveyor 12 connected to a parts feeder, etc. (not shown); Vacuum sucker 11. lla
This is adsorbed and packed into the molded tray bottom material 5a.

Note that 12a indicates an attachment having recesses corresponding to the pitch of the recesses of the tray provided on the conveyor 12.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a sealing device which covers and seals the bottom material 5a filled with a predetermined number of portion packs 1 with a lid material 14 made of a transparent heat-welded resin film so that the portion packs 1 can be visually seen from the outside. The lid material 14 is pressed against the upper surface of the bottom material 5a by a hot plate which is vertically movably held on a main body frame (not shown), and is sealed through melting and pressure bonding and cooling.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a punching device, which consists of a combination of a female blade and a male blade held movably up and down on the main body frame, and is designed to punch out each tray 5 containing a portion pack 106 as shown in FIG. The punched products are discharged to a predetermined location by a discharge device such as a conveyor 16.

A waist winding device 17 winds up the waist 18 after being punched out by the punching device 15.

The bottom material 5a is intermittently conveyed by a conveyor (not shown), and the portion pack 1 intermittently conveyed by the conveyor 12 is transferred to the vacuum suction cup 11° 11a of the automatic supply device 10. As a result, the upper surface of the tray is attracted and packed into the recess of the tray bottom material 5a.

In the conventional example described above, one potion pack is placed in one tray 5.
This example shows a case where the vacuum suction cup ILlla can suck 1 meter of potion pack 1 at a time and pack it into trays, so it shows an example of packing 2 trays in one cycle. In the punching device 15, as shown in FIG. 7, each tray containing W pieces is punched out along the partition lines 5b and 5c of the bottom material 5a.

The conventional device described above has the following problems when filling the tray with the portion pack 1 in the portion pack automatic supply device 10.

(1) Portion packs 1 supplied from a parts feeder or the like are arranged and conveyed row by row by the conveyor 12, and then transferred to the vacuum suction cup 11. When the potion pack 1 is adsorbed by the lla and packed into a tray, the portion pack 1 is in a so-called "pressed state" where the collar of the potion pack 1 rides on the neighboring potion pack 1 on the conveyor 12, as shown in FIG. As a result, the positions of the portion packs become uneven and cannot be reliably sucked by the vacuum suction cup 11.lla.

(2) If the positions of the portion packs 1 are uneven as described above, the vacuum suction cups 11. Even if it can be adsorbed by lla, it cannot be accurately packed into the recesses of a tray whose bottom is shaped at equal pitches.

(3) In order to suck each portion pack supplied from the parts feeder with a vacuum suction cup and reliably pack it into a tray, it is necessary to provide the conveyor 12 with an attachment 12a having recesses corresponding to the pitch of the recesses of the tray. In case, each potion pack is manually attached to attachment 1.
It becomes necessary to supply the material to the concave portion 2a, which poses a big problem in terms of labor saving and productivity improvement.

(4) Furthermore, it is possible to provide multiple rows of conveyors 12, but as the number of rows increases, it will require more manpower, so this is not a fundamental solution. Although it is conceivable to use it, it still poses problems in terms of increased cost and space.

The present invention was proposed in view of the above points, and includes an article conveyor that arranges and conveys articles in each row, and an openable and closable stopper mechanism that temporarily retains the articles conveyed by the article conveyor. In an article dividing and supplying device which divides the article into a predetermined number of articles on the article transport conveyor by the stopper mechanism to form a group of articles, the article is inserted between each group of articles forming the group of articles. a plurality of dividers and a mechanism for advancing and retracting the dividers, and a mechanism for moving the dividers by a preset dimension in a direction opposite to the conveyance direction of the article to divide and set the same article at each predetermined pitch. It is characterized by being equipped with a dividing mechanism consisting of
The purpose is to provide an article division supply device that can automatically and reliably divide and supply articles conveyed by a conveyor at a predetermined pitch on the same conveyor. .

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the articles conveyed by the conveyor in the so-called "pressed state 9'" are retained in a predetermined number by the stopper mechanism, and between the predetermined number of retained articles. By inserting the divider, a predetermined number of articles can be automatically and reliably divided at predetermined pitches.

In addition, when dividing the items into predetermined pitches, the dividers inserted between the items are moved by a preset distance, so that the items can be divided smoothly without any undue force being applied to them. I can do it.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 8 to 11.

FIG. 8 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a portion pack tray filling machine, which is approximately the same as the conventional one shown in FIG.
Explanation will be omitted for those with the same reference numerals.

In this embodiment, the conveyance pitch of the tray bottom material 5a is L (2
Corresponds to columns x 3 trays = 6 trays.

), the molding device 29, portion pack automatic supply device 30, conveyor 22, sealing device 23,
Each punching device 25 is scaled up three times as compared to the one shown in FIG.

For now, only one of the three units of the automatic portion pack supplying device 30 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 9 to 11.

Reference numeral 31 denotes a flange guide for guiding the flange portion of the portion pack 1 conveyed from a parts feeder (not shown) as shown in FIG.
The side guide 31b is divided into a predetermined number of pieces in relation to a stopper, which will be described later.

32.32a is a belt conveyor 22 that conveys the portion pack 1 from a parts feeder etc. to the automatic supply device 30.
The roller 33 is supported by a through frame, and the main body frame 34 is
is fixed.

Air cylinders 35, 36, and 37 each have a first stopper 38, a second stopper 39, and a third stopper 40 fixed to the tip of the rod, and are attached to brackets 41, 42, and 43 fixed to the frame 32a.

Each stopper has a U-shape such that when each air cylinder advances (the state shown in FIGS. 9 and 10), it hits the body of the portion pack and stops the movement of the portion pack.

(See FIGS. 9 and 10.) An air cylinder 44 is attached to a bracket 45 fixed to the main body frame 34.

The tip of the rod 46 of the air cylinder 44 is fixed to the lower plate 48 of the split bracket 47 with a nut or the like.

A mounting bracket 50 for the air cylinder 49 is provided at the end of the split bracket 47 on the first stopper side, and a rod 51 of the air cylinder 49 extends toward the third stopper.

Although the rod 51 is shown as being integral, it is of course possible to have a divided structure as appropriate.

52 and 53 are fixed to the split bracket 47, and the rod 5
A guide bracket 54.55 that slidably guides the rod 51 is fixed to the split bracket 47, and a hole 54a into which a ring 56.57 fixed to the rod 51 with a bolt or the like is loosely fitted;
The guide brackets 55a and 58, 59 are guide rods supported between the guide brackets 52 and 54 and between 53 and 55, into which the dividers 60, 61, 62, and 63 are loosely fitted.

72 is a retaining ring provided on the guide rod 58.59, 64.6
A ring 5 is fixed to guide rods 58 and 59 with bolts or the like.

The rod 51 loosely fits into the dividers 60 to 63 and is fixed to rings 66, 67, 68, 69 by bolts or the like.

Reference numerals 70 and 71 are photoelectric sensors that are provided at the positions of the first stopper 38 and the second stopper and monitor the amount of passage of the portion pack 1.

In addition, among the parts mentioned above, stopper-related parts 35 to 4
3 and divider relationships 44 to 72 are explanations for column A of the potion pack, but it goes without saying that similar parts are required for the potion pack.

(See FIGS. 9 and 10) The operation of each device of the portion pack tray filling machine in the above embodiment is almost the same as that of the conventional device shown in FIG. 4, except for the automatic feeding device 30. I will only explain.

In FIG. 8, the tray bottom material 5a formed by the forming device 29 is conveyed at a pitch L.

The portion pack 1 is loaded into the vacuum suction cup 11 by the first automatic feeding device 30. lla: 2 rows x W pieces/1 row = 20m
is supplied to the bottom of the tray bottom material 5a at one time.

Then, the tray bottom material 5 is fed by the second automatic feeding device 30a.
It is supplied to the teeth of the tray bottom material 5a by the third automatic feeding device 30b to the teeth of the tray bottom material 5a, and in the end, in one cycle, 3 units x 2 caps = 6 pieces are supplied to the bottom of the tray bottom material 5a.
,■,■ will be supplied.

Here, the operation of the automatic feeding device 30 will be explained in detail.

(1) A portion pack fed from a parts feeder (not shown) is transported on the conveyor belt 22 in a "pressed state" without being guided by the collar guide 31, and the tray bottom material Immediately before the transfer 6 to 5a, it is stopped by the first stopper 38.

(2) When an appropriate amount of portion pack 1 remains upstream of the first stopper 38, automatic operation begins.

+3) A photoelectric sensor 7 is located at the position of the first stopper 38.
0 monitors the passage of portion packs 1, and when m portion packs 1 have passed, the air cylinder 35 is operated to close the first stopper 38.

(4) Second stopper 39 located downstream of first stopper 38
At the position, a photoelectric sensor 71 monitors the passage of the portion pack 1, and when the fifth portion counting from the beginning among the m portion packs 1 mentioned in Section 3 has passed, the air cylinder 36 is activated to close the second stopper 39. is activated.

(5) The third stopper 40 located appropriately downstream of the second stopper 39 is configured so that the air cylinder 37 is closed immediately before the first portion pack 1 among the five portions described in Section 4 reaches the position of the third stopper 40. Operate.

(6) Potion pack 1 becomes 5 by the operation in paragraphs 4 and 5.
Hitting the second stopper 39 and the third stopper 40 one by one,
°°It is in a state of being pushed and pushed.

Here, in order to match the filling pitch 1 of the portion packs on the tray bottom material 5a, it is necessary to widen the interval between the portion packs from the "pressed and pressed state" in item 6.

(7) The dividers 60 to 63, which are set at positions corresponding to the pitch between the portion packs in the "push and push state" described in Section 6, are operated by the air cylinder 44, and are shown in FIG. It advances to the position shown by the solid line in Figure 10 and enters the gap between the body parts of each potion pack.

(8) Subsequently, the air cylinder 49 is activated to widen the gap between the portion packs from the state shown in FIG.
When the rod 51 is moved by a predetermined stroke in three directions, the portion pack 1a moves by 1°, and the portion packs 1btlc and ld move to (1011) and (10), respectively.
12)+(lo-13), and the pitch between each portion pack becomes the same as the filling pitch 1 of the portion packs on the tray bottom material 5a.

(9) Next, the vacuum suction cup 11 is
, lla descend from above and adsorb onto the upper surface of each portion pack, and move on the arrow lines shown in FIGS. 8 and 10 to fill the tray bottom material 5a with the portion pack.

Scream: The potion pack on the conveyor belt 22 has a vacuum suction cup 11. When lifted upward by the lla, the first
, the second and third stoppers are opened, the portion pack for the next cycle is passed through, and the operations from step 3 are repeated.

Therefore, even if the portion pack is fed from the parts feeder in a "pressed state", it can be divided by the automatic feeding device, matched to the filling pitch of the tray, and then packed into the tray with a vacuum suction cup, which is faster than the conventional method. In addition to eliminating the drawbacks, there is no need to provide extra attachments to the conveyor belt, and there is no need for human labor at all.
It can greatly contribute to labor saving and productivity improvement.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a portion pack. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of a tray for filling a portion pack. Fig. 4 is a conventional portion pack. A schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a pack tray filling machine, FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the conveyance state of portion packs, and FIG.
The figures are a sectional view taken along line B-B in Fig. 4, Fig. 7 is a view taken along arrow M in Fig. 6, Fig. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of a portion pack tray filling machine showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. is the N arrow view in Figure 8,
10 is a sectional view taken along the line CC in FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line DD in FIG. 9. 22: Belt conveyor, 38: First stopper, 39: Second stopper, 40: Third stopper, 0°61°62°63: Divider.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] an article conveyor that arranges and conveys articles in each row;
An article having an openable and closable stopper mechanism for temporarily retaining the articles conveyed by the article conveyor, and which divides the articles into a predetermined fixed number of units on the article conveyor by the stopper mechanism to form a group of articles. In this dividing supply device, a plurality of dividers inserted between the groups of articles constituting the group of articles and an advancing/retracting mechanism for the dividers are provided, and the dividers are moved in advance in a direction opposite to the conveying direction of the articles. 1. An article dividing and supplying device comprising a dividing mechanism that moves the article by a set dimension and divides and sets the same article at predetermined pitches.