JPS6216920A - Bottle rotating conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make various vessels handleable with a simple structure, by constituting a conveyor so as to lead each bottle into a position straddling two conveyors at the side of a low-speed conveyor of unequal-speed conveyors rectilinearly running in parallel on the same plane surface and to convey it, in case of the above-captioned conveyor for a bottle inselection machine or the like. CONSTITUTION:Each bottle 3 is conveyed toward an arrow (a) along a bottle guide 13 by a low-speed conveyor 2. Since the guide 13 moves as straddling a high-speed conveyor 5 and the low-speed conveyor 2 as in illustration, these bottles 3 is transferred to a position straddling both these conveyors 3 and 5 in consecutive order. Therefore, an interval between these bottles 3 is open wide and they are given peripheral velocity by these conveyors 3 and 5, whereby these bottles 3 are fed to a guide 10 as being rotated. And, after being inspected by light 15, a television camera 16, etc., they are put back to the low-speed conveyor 2 again by a guide member 14, and fed to a turntable 18. Thus, these bottles of various types in form and size are handleable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a container rotary conveyance device used in a bottle inspection machine and the like, and particularly to a container rotary conveyance device suitable for a bottle inspection machine.

[Prior art and its problems]

Generally, in a bottle inspection machine, the transported bottle is rotated along a certain circumference and rotated on its own axis as it passes through an inspection area, and during this time an inspection machine consisting of a light source, camera, etc. is used to detect damage to the bottle and foreign objects. It is designed to check whether it exists.

As an example of this type of container rotation conveyance device in a bottle inspection machine, the one described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 58-53099 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 to 5.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 110 is a rotary table of the bottle inspection machine, and this rotary table 110 is connected to the support shaft 11.
1, and the support shaft 111 is further connected to the motor M via a speed reduction device 112. Attachment holes are bored at appropriate intervals on the same circumference of the rotary table 110, and a support mechanism 114 is rotatably supported in each attachment hole.

The support mechanism 114 has a cylindrical boat 115, and a pulley 116 is installed at the bottom of the support 115.
An endless running belt 119 of a rotating device 118 shown in FIG. 5 is rotatably provided on this pulley 116. Rotation device 1
18 has a driving pulley 120 and a driven pulley 121,
An endless running belt 119 is wound between both pulleys 120°121.

The tension of this running belt 119 is determined by the tension pulley 122.
On the other hand, when the running belt 119 runs on the one-side running path 123, it engages with the pulley 116 and rotates the support 115 about its axis.

Further, the head of the V-boat 115 expands upward in a tapered shape, and this expanded portion is integrally molded as an enlarged head 125. A suction cup for sucking and holding the bottle is installed inside the enlarged head 125, and this suction cup opens the suction hole 1 passing through the support 115 in the axial direction.
26. A rotary seal 128 is attached to the lower part of the suction hole 126, and this rotary seal 128 is connected to the piping 1.
29 to a negative pressure source, and the operation of this negative pressure source elastically deforms the cup circumferential surface of the suction cup, causing the bottle container 1 to
It sticks to the bottom of 27. Thereby, the bottle container 127 is stably held on the mounting surfaces of the supports 1 to 115.

However, the above-mentioned conventional container rotation conveyance device is designed to revolve along the same circumference, and this revolution causes a centrifugal horn to work to cause the bottle to fly outward. In order to prevent the bottle from flying out due to this centrifugal force, various auxiliary equipment such as a suction cup that sucks and holds the bottle, a negative pressure source that applies negative pressure to the suction cup, and a solenoid valve are required.

As a result, the device itself becomes very complex, and requires a large number of component parts, making the device expensive.

In addition, when inspecting bottles and containers, we use light sources, cameras, etc. that make up the container.
It is necessary to arrange the camera between the test bottles, and it is necessary to arrange a camera or the like on the rotary table, which does not have enough installation space, so that the rotation of the rotary table is not transmitted. Therefore, it is difficult to install multiple cameras, and a single camera is usually installed for inspection. However, since a single camera has a limited field of view and must avoid the bottle once within that narrow range, the rotation speed of the support mechanism for the bottle must be increased considerably. This hinders a complete inspection of the bottle, and if the bottle is misaligned and is being sucked by the suction cup, the suction state may not be maintained if the rotation speed is too high. there were.

Furthermore, depending on the shape and size of the bottle bottom and bottle container, there are cases where the suction cup cannot hold the bottle by suction.

On the other hand, in addition to the ones described in the above publication, there are some that use auxiliary means such as holding the mouth of the bottle with a centering bell, but in any case, the bottle is indexed and held in a restrained state. The container was rotated. For this reason, various components are required, including a timing screw and a star wheel at the entrance of the machine, and it is also necessary to replace these components to accommodate the shape and size of the bottle.

However, recently, many types of bottles and containers are being inspected in the same inspection, sometimes ranging from dozens to hundreds of types.) This problem cannot be solved with a device that requires replacing parts depending on the shape and size of the container.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was devised in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to solve the problems of the conventional container rotary conveyance device described above, and to rotate bottles and containers while conveying them linearly. It is an object of the present invention to provide a container rotary conveyance device having a simple structure.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention arranges linearly conveying conveyors having different conveying speeds in parallel on the same plane, and installs a guide member for guiding containers on the lower speed conveyor along the container conveying direction. It is characterized by the fact that the container is guided from the low-speed conveyor so as to straddle both conveyors.
Containers such as bottles are guided from the low-speed conveyor so that they straddle both the low-speed and high-speed conveyors, and as a result, multiple containers, which had been conveyed closely spaced on the low-speed conveyor, now straddle both conveyors. Because the containers are suddenly transported at high speed, they are transported with a predetermined gap between them, and because they straddle conveyors with different transport speeds, the containers are moved from the high speed side to the low speed side based on the difference in circumferential speed between the two conveyors. It is given spin in the direction of the conveyor and begins to rotate, and is conveyed while being guided by a guide member disposed on the low-speed conveyor.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the container rotary conveyance device according to the present invention will be described.
This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 3.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of the container rotary conveyance device 1. In FIG.
are transported to the container rotary transport device 1, and after the bottle container 3 is inspected, it is transported to the next process.

A high-speed conveyor 5 is arranged on the same plane adjacent to the low-speed conveyor 2, and this high-speed conveyor 5 is arranged along the low-speed conveyor 2 by a predetermined distance. and,
The speed difference between the low-speed conveyor 2 and the high-speed conveyor 5 is set to a predetermined value, so that the bottle container 3 rotates at least once in a predetermined section (described later).

Moreover, between the low speed conveyor 2 and the high speed conveyor 5,
A crossing board 7 is provided, and the upper surface 7 of this crossing board 7
a is arranged at a position slightly lower than the upper surfaces of both conveyors 2 and 5. The crossing plate 7 serves to smoothly guide the bottle container 3 when it passes over from the low-speed conveyor 2 to the high-speed conveyor 5, and also serves as a guide rail for the high-speed conveyor 5. That is, since the upper surfaces of both conveyors are completely on the same plane and do not overlap, bottles are kept at an appropriate distance from one conveyor to prevent bottles from being placed on one conveyor, thereby preventing the bottles from riding on one side. On the other hand, on the machine frame 9 on the sides of both conveyors 2.5, a guide rail 10 constituting a guide member for the bottle container 3 is attached to the bolt 2.
0 and nuts 21, and this guide rail 10 is arranged slightly above the low-speed conveyor 2. The guide rail 10 is formed in a predetermined manner along the low-speed conveyor 2, and an elastic plate 11 is attached to the negative edge of the guide rail 10. A long groove 10b is formed in the mounting portion 10a of the guide rail 10, and the position can be adjusted by moving the guide rail 10 back and forth, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. In the embodiment, the guide rail 10 is installed so as to be inclined at an angle of inclination α (hereinafter referred to as angle of attack α) so as to approach the side where both conveyors 2.5 are arranged side by side. α is usually 2° to 8°.

Bottle guides 13 and 14 are provided upstream and downstream of the low-speed conveyor 2, and the bottle guide 13 is connected to the low-speed conveyor 2.
The q guide 14 gradually slopes from the side toward the high-speed conveyor 5 to guide the bottle container 3 so as to straddle both conveyors 2.5, whereas the q guide 14 gradually leads from the high-speed conveyor 5 side to the low-speed conveyor 5. It is inclined toward the second side, and the bottle container 3 is guided to the low-speed conveyor 2 from a position straddling both conveyors 2.5.

In addition, two TV cameras 16 are arranged to face the low-high-speed conveyor 2.5 and the kite rail 10, and while the bottle container 3 passes through this area, the body Inspections are now being carried out.

On the other hand, on the downstream side of the low-speed conveyor 2, immediately to the side thereof,
A rotary table 18 for discharging defective bottles is provided, and a notch 14a is formed in a part of the bottle guide 14 close to the rotary table 18.
It is designed to be able to be discharged. Air jet 19 is placed on the high speed conveyor 5 side at a position corresponding to the notch 14a.
is provided, and defective bottles 3b detected by a television camera 16 and a detection device (not shown) are discharged onto a rotary table 18. A bottle guide 22 is disposed over the periphery of the rotary table 18 and the center thereof, and the bottle 3 discharged onto the rotary table 18 is guided by the bottle guide 22 to the center of the rotary table 18. It is planned to be gathered at

Next, the operation of the container rotary conveyance device 1 according to the present invention configured as described above will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 1, the bottles 3 are fed from the low-speed conveyor 2 as indicated by arrow a, and are guided by the bottle guide 13 to approximately the center so as to straddle the low-speed conveyor 2.5. In this case, the conveyance speed v2 of the high-speed conveyor 5 is
Although not particularly limited, for example, the conveyance speed of a low-speed conveyor■1
It is assumed to be about twice as much. Then, when the bottoms of the bottles 3 come into contact with the high-speed conveyor 5, the bottles 3, which had been conveyed at close intervals on the low-speed conveyor 2, are suddenly conveyed at high speed, and a predetermined gap opens between the bottles. While being transported, since it straddles the conveyors 2 and 5 with different transport speeds, a spin with a circumferential speed corresponding to the speed difference V2-1 between the two conveyors 2.5 is applied to the bottle container 3, causing it to rotate on its own axis. Start. As the bottle container 3 is conveyed to the downstream side of both conveyors 2.5, the conveyance speed of the bottle container 3 becomes faster, the distance between the leading bottle container 3 and the following bottle container 3 becomes larger, and the rotation speed also becomes faster. At the position where the bottle 3 starts to come into contact with the guide rail 10 (the position of the bottle 3a), the distance between the bottles 3 becomes constant and the rotational speed becomes constant. Here, when the bottle container 3 is placed in the center of both conveyors 2 and 5, which have a conveyance speed difference, the bottle container 3 is subjected to face-to-face spin from the high-speed conveyor 5 to the low-speed conveyor 2. However, by giving the guide rail 10 an angle of attack α, the bottle container 3 moves toward the guide rail 1.
The bottle container 3
At the contact portion between the elastic plate 11 and the elastic plate 11, slipping is prevented, intermittent rotation is eliminated, and the bottle container 3 rotates at a constant speed. As shown in Fig. 2, by providing a plate 7 between the low-speed conveyors 2 and 5, a gap is created between the two conveyors, so that the center of the bottle container 3 can be moved left and right with respect to the direction of travel. Even if the bottle container 3 is shifted, it will not be placed on only one conveyor, but will rotate stably due to the speed difference between both conveyors 2.5. In this way, while the bottle 3 is guided along the guide rail 10 and rotated, the body of the bottle 3,
The entire surface of the shoulders, neck, etc. is inspected using two industrial television cameras 16. The length of the guide rail 10 is such that the bottle container with the largest diameter handled by this device can rotate slightly more than once, and the number of television cameras 16 is determined to be the required number depending on the field of view.

The bottle container 3 that has been inspected by the television camera 16 is
According to the inspection results, the defective used bottles 33b are discharged onto the rotary table 18 by the air jet 19, while the normal bottles 3 are conveyed to the next process by the low-speed conveyor 2.

Note that the guide rail 10 is arranged so as not to obstruct the field of view 16a of the television camera 16, as shown in FIG. is set to .

On the other hand, when handling a bottle container of a different size, such as J of the bottle container 3A indicated by the imaginary line in FIG. The types of bottles and containers handled can be changed. In addition, if you mainly handle small bottles, it is possible to handle this by changing the gap between both conveyors.
In addition to round bottles, we can also handle bottles with appropriate circular arcs at the corners.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, an industrial television is used as an example of the bottle/container inspection apparatus, but inspection apparatuses such as a laser that meet the gist of the present invention can also be used. Furthermore, this device can be applied to inspecting the external shape and appearance of not only glass bottles but also containers and articles made of glass materials.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the description of the embodiments described above, in the present invention, conveyors that convey linearly and have different conveyance speeds are arranged side by side on the same plane, and a guide member that guides the containers is placed on the low-speed conveyor to convey the containers. Since the containers are arranged along the direction and guided from the low-speed conveyor so as to straddle both conveyors, the containers are conveyed with a predetermined distance between them, while the containers can be rotated, unlike conventional conveyors. Since there is no need to revolve the bottle as in the case of the container rotation conveyance device, there is no centrifugal force generated due to the revolution, and there is no need to fix the bottle with a fixing device such as a suction cup. Therefore, it is not necessary to equip the container rotation conveyance device with a suction cup, a negative pressure source, a bottle container timing indexing device, etc. as in the past, so the structure of the container rotation device itself can be simplified, and the parts Cost reduction can be achieved by reducing the number of points. Furthermore, in the present invention, the bottle container is simply placed on the container stand and no holding device is required to hold the bottle container, so the shape and size of the bottle container may be arbitrary. The container rotation conveyance device can be used to inspect bottles of different types, from large diameters to small diameter ones. Furthermore, since the bottle is transported in a straight line and only needs to be rotated once during this linear transport, the bottle can be rotated slowly, making it possible to thoroughly inspect the entire surface of the bottle. . There is also space to install multiple inspection devices such as cameras, allowing for complete bottle inspection.

Furthermore, in the present invention, since there is nothing above the conveyor that obstructs the view of the camera, the entire surface of the bottle can be effectively inspected.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the container rotary conveyance device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a main view of FIG. Enlarged plan view, No. 4
The figure is a cross-sectional view of a conventional container rotary conveyance device, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the v-v line in FIG. 4. 1... Container rotation conveyance device, 2... Low speed conveyor, 3
... bottle container, 5 ... high-speed conveyor, 7 ... crossing board, 10 ... guide rail, 13.14 ... ring guide, 15 ... light, 16 ... television camera, 18
...Rotary table, 19...Air jet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Conveyors that convey linearly and have different conveyance speeds are arranged side by side on the same plane with a predetermined gap between them, and a guide member for guiding containers is placed on the lower speed conveyor along the container conveyance direction. A container rotating conveyance device, which is disposed on the top and guides containers from a low-speed conveyor so as to straddle both conveyors. 2. The container rotary conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein the guide surface of the guide member is arranged so as to maintain an angle of attack so as to approach an intermediate portion of both conveyors where they are arranged side by side. 3. The container rotary conveyance device according to claim 1, wherein a plate is provided in the gap between the conveyors at a position slightly lower than the plane of the conveyors.