JPS6044422A - Conveyor transport control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To average the queue quantity by counting queue quantities on individual multiple conveyors and merging products on a conveyor attaining the maximum queue quantity when products transported by the multiple conveyors are merged in sequence on a tact conveyor for transportation. CONSTITUTION:In a conveyor system provided with a tact conveyor 1 at the termination point of conveyors C1-Cn transporting products P1-Pn and provided with sensors S1-Sn detecting the arrival of products at the termination point of individual conveyors C1-Cn, limit processing counters K1-Kn are provided in an interface control unit 7 provided in a control circuit. When none of product queue quantities on the conveyors C1-Cn counted by these counters K1-Kn attains the maximum queue quantity Nmax, a merging command is outputted in a method, e.g., first-come first-served. On the other hand, when maximum queue quantity Nmax is attained, a signal commanding the mergence from the particular conveyor is outputted.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conveyor conveyance control system for automatically conveying products taken out from an automatic warehouse or the like to a shipping and packaging location, and in particular improves the efficiency of merging onto a tact conveyor. Regarding the control method for conveying workpiece conveyors.

(Background of BL technology) In recent years, with the progress of factory automation, automation systems for various production processes, parts, product warehouses, etc. have been developed and put into practical use, and automatic control systems for conveyor conveyors are also being attempted.

For example, there is a transport device that transports products shipped from a product warehouse using multiple conveyors and then sequentially joins them onto a tact conveyor. is necessary.

(C) Prior Art and Problems The conventional method will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a conveying device to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, conveyors C1-Cn are installed in parallel, and products P1-Cn are taken out from a warehouse (not shown).
Pn is being conveyed on conveyors 01 to Cn in the direction of arrow A in the figure.

The terminal ends of the conveyors 01 to Cn are connected to the tact conveyor I, and each terminal has sensors 81 to Sn (not shown) that detect when the products PI-Pn arrive or when they are stagnant and lined up. It is located.

The tact conveyor 1 transports the products P 1 =P n merged from the conveyors 01 to Cn in the direction of arrow B in the figure in a predetermined takt time, and sends them to a shipping location (not shown).

Further, in FIG. 2, 2 is a main control section, 3 is a sensor amplifier, 4 is a conveyor drive control section, 5 is a tact conveyor drive control section, 6 is an interface control section, and M1 to Mn are counters for thinning processing.

The sensor amplifier 3 amplifies the detection signal when the sensors 5l-3n detect the arrival of the products PI to Pn and sends it to the main control section 2.

The conveyor drive control section 4 controls the driving of the conveyors C1 to Cn based on instructions from the main control section 2.

The tact conveyor drive control section 5 controls the drive of the tact conveyor 1 according to commands from the main control section 2 (7).

The interface control unit 6 controls thinning processing counters M1 to
Mn, and also has a function of issuing a merging command to the main control section 2 according to a predetermined program when the products PI and P2 have arrived based on a tact signal from the main control section 2.

The thinning processing counters M1 to Mn are set with respective thinning rates for the conveyors 01 to Cn.

With such a configuration and capability, when this conveyance device is driven and the products P1 to Pn are conveyed on the conveyors 01 to Cn and arrive at the terminal end at random timing, the sensors 81 to Sn arrive, respectively. Products P1 to Pn are detected and output according to a preset thinning rate, and based on this command, the conveyor drive control unit 4 controls the tact conveyor 1.
The products P1 to Pn are merged upward and transported in the direction of arrow B.

The products P1 to Pn discharged from the warehouse in this manner can be conveyed to the shipping location by joining the tact conveyor 1 via the conveyors 01 to Cn.

However, according to this method, it is possible to alleviate the phenomenon that the amount of kneading on the downstream conveyor line increases due to merging the products P1 to Pn in the order of arrival, but it is difficult to set the thinning rate appropriately, so the conveyor line There is a drawback that the waiting amount of the lines is not averaged, and the amount of waiting on a particular conveyor line may increase, and the merging efficiency is not necessarily good.

(d1 Purpose of the Invention The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and to improve the merging efficiency by setting the maximum waiting amount of multiple conveyor lines and merging them preferentially so as not to exceed this. The object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor conveyance control system that can improve the performance of the conveyor.

fe) Structure of the Invention The present invention comprises a counter in which a maximum waiting amount of objects to be conveyed is set corresponding to each of a plurality of conveyors, and the counter allows objects to be conveyed on a plurality of conveyors to be transferred to a tact conveyor. A conveyor conveyance control method is characterized in that the object to be conveyed on the conveyor that has reached the maximum waiting amount is controlled so as to be prioritized and merged with the tact conveyor by counting the waiting amount that cannot be merged with the conveyor, By doing so, the purpose can be achieved.

(F1 Embodiment of the Invention Below, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a control block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 and 5 The figure shows the flowchart of Fig. 3. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the figures.

In Fig. 3, 7 is an interface control unit, K1 to
Kn indicates a limit processing counter.

The interface control unit 7 is provided with limit processing counters Kl-Kn in place of the thinning processing counters M1 to Mn of the interface control unit 6 explained in the conventional example, and the waiting time counted from 1 to Kn is provided in the limit processing counters. When none of the amounts has reached the maximum waiting amount Nmax, a merging command is output using a predetermined program, such as a first-come-first-served basis,
It has a function of outputting a signal instructing merging from the corresponding conveyor line when the maximum waiting amount Ntaax is reached.

1 to Kn on the limit processing counter are conveyors C1 to Cn.
The value of the maximum waiting amount N vaax of the products PI-Pn above is set, and the count when the products P1 to Pn cannot join the tact contact 71, that is, the waiting amount N is counted, and the maximum waiting amount Nmax is calculated. It has the function of outputting when the waiting amount N has been reached and resetting the count of the waiting amount N.

With such a configuration and function, when the conveyance device is driven and the products P1 to Pn are conveyed on the conveyors C1 to Cn and arrive at the terminal end at random timing, the sensors 5l to 3n detect the products that have arrived, respectively. As shown in FIG. 4, waiting products P1 to Pn are detected.
If there is no merging and the corresponding conveyor line can merge, the conveyor is merged with the tact conveyor 1 and conveyed. If the merging is not possible, 1 to Kn (
7) (Count as many as you can.

As shown in Figure 5, this count is the maximum waiting amount Nma
Until χ is reached, all conveyor lines are sequentially merged on a first-come, first-served basis, but the maximum waiting amount Nm
When reaching ax, that conveyor line is preferentially merged into the tact conveyor l. Then, reset any one of 1 to Kn to the corresponding limit processing counter and count again.

In this way, when the count N reaches the maximum waiting amount Nmax, the merging is performed preferentially, so the waiting amounts of the conhairs 01 to Cn are averaged, and the merging can be performed more efficiently.

In the above example, different values may be set for each maximum waiting amount Nmax of 1=Kn in the limit processing counter.

Furthermore, in the above example, the products P1 to Pn are taken out from the warehouse and conveyed to the tact conveyor 1 from the conveyors 01 to Cn to the shipping location, but other generally conveyed objects are merged. It goes without saying that the same effect can be obtained even if the conveyor conveyance device 1 is applied to a conveyor conveyance device between production processes, for example.

As described in detail of the Tg1 invention, according to the present invention, in the merging control from a plurality of conveyors to a tact conveyor, priority is given to the conveyor line whose waiting amount for which merging is not possible has reached the set maximum waiting amount value. Since the conveyors are merged, the amount of waiting on each conveyor is averaged, and the merge efficiency can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a conveying device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a control block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of FIG. 3. In the figure, ■ is a tact conveyor, 2 is a main control unit, 3 is a sensor amplifier, 4 is a conveyor drive control unit, 5 is a tact conveyor, 6.7 is an interface control unit, 01 to Cn
is a conveyor, K1 to Kn are limit processing counters, M1
” Mn indicates a counter for thinning processing, P1 to Pn indicate products, and S1 to Sn indicate sensors.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A conveyor conveyance control method in which objects to be conveyed by a plurality of conveyors are sequentially merged onto a tact conveyor and conveyed, the value of the maximum waiting amount of the objects to be conveyed corresponding to each of the plurality of conveyors. is set, the counter counts the waiting amount by which the objects on the plurality of conveyors cannot join the tact conveyor, and when the object to be transported on the conveyor reaches the value of the maximum waiting amount, A conveyor conveyance control system characterized in that control is performed so that the body is given priority and merged with the tact conveyor.